~Achilles~
It was amazing to wake up next to Xander, especially a nude Xander. It had gone from puzzling to seriously hot the way he didn't seem to care if I saw him naked or not, even if we weren't engaged in certain bedroom activities.
The first thing I noticed besides his nakedness was that Xander was speaking quietly on the phone. He gave me a little smile when he saw I was awake, sitting on the bed with his legs crossed and facing me.
"Wow, so everything came back clear?" Xander asked, rubbing a finger across his collar and fingering his silver necklace. The blinds in the room were wide open, bathing Xander in a cool, golden light, highlighting his dark coily hair and making his freckles more prominent. My mate looked as breathtaking as he always did.
I moved across the bed, tossing a pillow into Xander's lap and laying down on it. Immediately, Xander started filing his fingers through my hair. That was the moment I realized that even without the bracelet my feelings for Xander hadn't waned a bit. He was still my mate and of course, the love of my life.
I closed my eyes, liking how close we were and listening to the soothing cadence of Xander's voice.
"I just...Yes, Dr.Espinoza, I understand. Only one human meal a day, no more blood from Achilles and a checkup next week." Xander sighed. "Uh-huh. Okay. Got it. And, when can we get the music box back?" There was a long silence and Achilles stopped fingering my hair. I looked up at him curiously, wondering why his face had changed from relaxed to tense. "I can probably pick it up today. Thank you, and you have a great day, too."
Xander put his phone down on the bedside table before looking down at me and bopping me on the nose. "Good morning, sleepyhead."
"Good morning," I replied.
"That was just the doctor. It turns out I'm mostly healthy. They're still not really sure what happened with my blood. At first, it was an intense case of blood rejection which lead to regeneration, but, now the blood is mixing together just fine." Xander moved a hand down to my neck, caressing my vein with a wistful expression. "I am going to miss feeding from you, though. For vampires, it's somewhere between making out and—maybe foreplay, although there isn't really an equivalent."
I sat up quickly, Xander's hand falling away. I couldn't help my worry filled tone. "But, it's better if you don't, right?"
Xander frowned, his lower lip jutting out. "Yeah, I guess." It was beginning to concern me he didn't take this seriously enough.
He moved off of the bed, going to his walk-in closet. I followed him in, knowing that he could spend hours rearranging things if he had nothing else to do.
The walk-in closet was the size of a large bedroom filled with suits, shoes, casual clothes and even a few African clothes decorating each of the walls. The various shelves, and hooks also had accessories, shoes, headscarves and hair materials. Xander had made a tiny area for me considering I was almost living at Xander's apartment but I had maybe a handful of outfits.
~imagine if this were more colourful and then it would be Xander's. He's not afraid to shake up his outfit choices. Xander would have bathroom robes, towels, backup hair gels, hair creams, hair moisturizers, curlers, flexi rods, scrunchies, hair bands, all kinds of combs, blow driers. Xander probably has a lot of vintage clothes that he repurposes over the years. ~
Xander was wearing a robe —but it wasn't even tied at the front so it wasn't doing much— as he stood, fingering through different outfit choices. He started compiling a summer outfit of jeans and a colourful tank top with massive arm holes. Xander set his outfit aside before picking up a bonnet.
He started heading towards his en-suite before he passed by a mirror. Xander stopped, examining his neck where there were a litany of bruises. All from last night and totally hot.
Moving behind him, I wrapped my arms around his waist and kissed the join between his neck and shoulder.
"Sore?" I teased, squeezing his waist.
Xander scoffed, pulling out of my grasp. "Are you sore?"
"Well," I admitted, noticing that my hips felt a little strained. "It's been a while. But, we've got lots of time to get back to where we used to be."
Xander twirled around to face me, bopping me on the nose. "Yes, but there's other things we need to do, right? I need to see about my job, check with my banks how everything is going, pay Elle a home visit, meet with Dr. Andoh, and pass by the hospital today."
I frowned. "Wow, someone has a busy day lined up." For some reason I felt annoyed, I'd been waiting every day for over a month for Xander to wake up and now at the earliest possibility he was just going off to do his own thing. Somehow, I felt tossed aside.
"Aww." Xander caressed my cheek. "Don't pout, Achilles. We can do something tonight? The doctors said I can drink. Maybe we can take a bath together, with some wine like that one time."
I gave a false smile. "Yeah, okay."
Xander's face fell. "What's wrong?" His voice was dripping with concern but I didn't know how to explain to him that I felt clingy, that I wanted to follow him on his errands, and that I was worried if I took my eyes off of him that he would fall back into that terrible, dead sleep.
Overcome by emotion, I felt my eyes burn and my throat clog. "I'll make breakfast." I said in a rush, turning around and digging in one of my designated drawers for a pair of briefs. I shucked them on and hurried to the kitchen, turning on the kettle.
Before Xander's collapse he had been needling me to learn how to use his French press coffee maker properly. I thought the process took too long. But, I'd had a month to learn how it worked, so I did.
I heard Xander taking his shower as I began to measure out the premium roast coffee beans and then put them in the grinding contraption. I set the coffee press on preheat while grinding away for several seconds. Of course Xander needed his space, I rationalized to myself. Not like I could spend every waking second with him. That wouldn't make either of us happy, even if it made me less anxious.
I found myself still grinding once everything was already ground and then started measuring out the granules into the coffee press. Next, I added the water from the kettle and closed the lid, pushing the coffee press down slowly. Once it reached the bottom I waited several seconds before opening the lid and pouring the coffee into a mug for Xander and then one for me.
Once I was done I sat on one of the barstools that were alongside the kitchen island. Not much later Xander wandered back into the kitchen, wearing a bonnet, and a robe tied loosely around his waist. "Mmm," he hummed appreciatively. "Is this the French press coffee I'm always asking you to make?"
"I don't know, maybe." I said, coyly.
Xander walked over to me, running his fingers through my hair. With me sitting down, Xander was half a head taller than me. His voice was soft, "Achilles, you're worrying me. What's wrong?" The touch was as captivating as his sympathetic voice.
I sighed, letting him in. "I'm a mess. Every time you're out of my sight, I get anxious. I feel worried. Watching you sleep, I still feel like I don't know if you'll wake up."
Xander kissed my forehead, hands still gently threading through my hair. "I'm okay, now."
"Things feel different. I feel different. I don't want to develop separation anxiety when my boyfriend leaves the room." I slid my hand down Xander's chest, smoothing my fingers across his stomach. "You ground me in a way no one does. Not my closest friends, not my family. And, I was lonely without you, but it made me realize..." I hesitated, "I don't exactly have a lot of friends, most of my friends are people from work or my old pack and yeah you're my everything but I don't want to live my life around you. I want to live it with you."
Xander was nodding and combing his fingers through my hair. I closed my eyes. "I'm being stupid, I'm sorry. This isn't about me."
Xander's lips brushed against my forehead again. "No, you're not stupid, Achilles. Don't put yourself down. I understand why you're worried about me..." he began to nervously twist his necklace. "Because, you thought you might never really talk to me again. And—that I could die. Of course, that will take a toll on you. But, I'm okay and you can see that I am since I'm right here in front of you. And, we will do things together."
"Yeah," I said, sounding unconvincing to my own ears. "I see that and I know that, but still..."
"I'm sorry." Xander said, still running his fingers through my hair. "It's my fault you feel this way. If I hadn't gone into regeneration—"
I held Xander's wrists, stopping his hands. "Maybe I should be saying it's my fault."
"If you keep talking like that you're coming to therapy with me, Achilles. I mean it."
I hesitated. "Maybe I should if I keep feeling this way."
Xander gave me an abrupt hug. "We'll have an us day tomorrow, okay? And we can talk about this more."
I nodded, still feeling unsettled but the fact I could hold Xander in my arms and have him pressed against me made things a bit better.
#
While Xander got ready to go out, I took a shower and also got ready to start my day. I'd asked for a few days off of work because I thought Xander would need help adjusting but here he was up, and away, and off doing things.
The first thing I did was go for a run, running myself ragged on a random path through Xander's neighbourhood so I didn't have to think. It was an unseasonably warm day and the t-shirt I'd thrown on was damp with sweat. Although Xander and I lived in adjacent neighbourhoods, his was a lot more high end than mine. It was a typical feature on his street to have doormen by the doors, and there was a public park that was managed by a few of the condos in the area. It was this park that I ran through before I was interrupted by a phone call. I stopped running, slowing to a brisk walk and making my way back to Xander's place. "Hello?"
"Oh, good, you picked up." Klara's voice was clear and bright across the line. "Why are you breathing so heavily? Gross, did I interrupt something?"
"I was going for a run, Klara." I said between pants and rolling my eyes.
"So, you're alone?"
"Just me, the birds, and the bees." I quipped, stepping out of the way as other joggers passed by me on the track and a dog shrank away from me. Typical dumb dog
"Okay good. We're planning a surprise party for Xander. It'll be small—" Well, of course they were planning a surprise party for Xander.
"And, you need help preparing?" I finished.
"No, we're okay, I think." Klara said. But, she always did things like that, making it seem like she could handle everything on her own so I wasn't sure how seriously to take her.
"I've got nothing to do, and too much free time. C'mon, Klara. I could buy some food—"
"We're having it catered."
"Blow up some balloons—"
"That's being done at the party shop."
"Help prep the party space?"
"Well, sure, I guess. We're heading over to the Airbnb in an hour. You can meet us there."
"Airbnb?"
"Yeah, we rented a place. I'll text you the address. It's a little small, but it should be okay."
"How many people are you inviting?" I expected to hear maybe thirty people.
"Ah, about one hundred...close friends."
"Close friends?!" I spluttered before composing myself. "Can I invite my family?"
"Oh, they've already been invited. We're sending a driver to pick up your mom, your younger brother, and that Sunny kid. Okay, I'll see you in an hour." Klara promptly hung up and I sped my walk into a run back to Xander's apartment. I finally had something to do today.
#
What the actual hell?! Klara had said this place was small, but it was massive! I was in shock as I got out of my car.
The place Xander's family had rented was actually making me anxious. It was, simply put, a mansion. The building was three or four storeys high with a quirky match of pale yellow brick and bright pink eaves that gave it a kind of aristocratic vibe.
It was closer to May and I felt like my board shorts, sneakers and my plain t-shirt weren't to par with the look of this place. I probably looked like the help.
There was a brightly manicured garden sprawling around the entrance that looked photoshopped because of how nice it was. They definitely used some form of pesticides to keep it so green. I couldn't name much of what plants were there but, damn, did it look expensive.
Even parking my Honda Civic beside Jaguars, Lamborghinis and Mercedes made me feel like some kind of boo boo the fool. I knew Xander had money, but, what the actual fuck. Maybe I'd gotten way too used to Xander's lavish apartment.
I walked up a nicely cobbled pathway to the door, knocking furtively, and then wishing I'd pressed the doorbell instead.
The door swept open and someone who looked kind of like Xander's dad but clean shaven, gave me a dismissive look. He had thick blond brows and equally blond hair in a gelled style that was parted to the side. We were actually wearing similar outfits except his was designer and mine was from the back of my closet originating from Bargain Bundle.
"Are you with the movers?" He said in a voice that was kind of snotty. "You people were supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago?"
"You people?!"
He closed the door slightly, yelling over his shoulder. "Klara—" and then a stream of German. God, did being with Xander mean I had to learn German? I was tired of being excluded.
Feet hurried to the entryway and Klara popped her head out. "Oh! Achilles, come in, come in. Honestly, Hans, this is Xander's boyfriend. Please, be nice."
Klara was dressed in a baggy pair of overalls with a yellow shirt and the fact it seemed exactly like something Xander would wear made me smile.
Hans wrinkled his nose. "...Oh. Well I'm sorry Klara, he looks so plebeian. I didn't realize that was Xander's type."
Klara whacked him on the shoulder. "Be. Nice." She turned to me giving me one of her small, slight smiles. "Okay, Achilles, this is my father's cousin, Günter, and he's too used to being around vampires and forgets to be cordial. We need to head out to pick up all the party materials. My parents and Günter are just waiting for the stagers to come set up the venue. Did you want a tour before we head out?"
Günter sighed dramatically leaving the doorway but I just ignored him, nodding to Klara. "Yeah, sure."
I walked into the entryway, taking off my shoes in the mud room and putting on a pair of slippers that were there. "Holy shit, Klara. Is this how your family does parties? How in the world is this small?"
There were floor to ceiling windows, a vaulted ceiling with a skylight pouring through. The walls were white with blue and silver accents throughout.
Klara escorted me to a large room with one wall of all windows that looked out onto what looked like a small park with benches, a pathway and another sprawling garden. The room itself had waxed wooden floors and it reminded me of the ballroom in Beauty and the Beast, with a track surrounding the room on its second level.
~Y'all know beauty and the beast right? So, like, that walkway up there, I'm not sure what it's called? But imagine that on the upper level. ~
—The room probably but it overlooks a garden. —
"This room is so big!" I exclaimed.
Klara stretched her arms out. " Yeah, this is where we'll be setting up the tables, dance floor, stage, and there's a bar. By the time you and I come back, everything should be set up already. We've got an event team on the way, although they are running late."
"How much money do you guys have...?" I said in a voice of wonder as I followed Klara to another room where she picked up a small black chic backpack and took out her car keys.
"Didn't Xander explain that our parents come from big vampire families?" She said as we walked out of the house.
"I mean, yeah—" I started.
"Well," she said unlocking the doors of a sleek fire red Mercedes. "Think bigger."
#
Shopping with Klara was...Like everything else with Klara. Professional. Efficient. Brusque.
We spent a few hours going from store to store as we decided on following the event planner's colour scheme getting blue and gold streamers, and so many balloons. Not only ones filled with helium but small inflatable ones.
Once we made it back to the house it was a sea of movement as men moved in and out of the house bringing in furniture that was wrapped and covered.
Before I left Klara reminded me that it was my responsibility to get Xander to the venue without him figuring out the surprise. It was a surprise to me when Klara hugged me before I left; it was the first time she had ever hugged me.
#
Keeping a secret from Xander was harder than I thought it would be. I had an unconscious desire to discuss my day with him even though that would count as spilling the beans.
I headed into the kitchen, noticing that the radio was playing a song Xander was humming along to. His hips swayed to the music as he chopped something to the rhythm. He was singing along loudly to the music, adding counter melodies and harmonizing like it was the easiest thing in the world.
Tears filled my eyes as I watched him be his strangely adorable self. I walked up to him, giving him a a hug from behind.
Xander laughed lightly, turning his head slightly. "Well, hello to you, too." He put down what he was chopping up and he cupped my face giving me a nice, long, kiss. Xander pulled back, talking in his comfortably low, raspy voice, "Had a good day?"
"Yeah," I said softly, slipping my hands under Xander's shirt and caressing his stomach. He shivered slightly, lips parting as he took in a small but quick breath. Damn, he was hot.
"Achilles," he whispered, and I know he wanted me to stop teasing him but his skin was just so soft.
I kissed Xander's neck, continuing to rub circles across his chest. "Yeah?" I said, moving my slow seduction towards the back of his neck, licking at the mating mark I'd given Xander.
"Uh—" Xander didn't sound anything like his usual composed self when he groaned like that. "I wanted to—fuck—ask you something."
I moved my lips off my Xander's neck, moving us over to the island in the kitchen. I sat down but Xander stayed standing in front of me. "What did you want to ask?"
Seeing Xander flustered was always worthwhile. He was watching my mouth more than my eyes and his one hand was on my thigh, squeezing nicely. "Are we—ah—" Xander shook his head, blinking. "Are we doing anything tomorrow, like you said?"
"Oh, yeah!" I said, "It'll be a surprise, is that okay?"All that was true, so, I wasn't exactly lying. "We'll take a day trip out of the city."
Xander smiled. "Okay, nice. Is there a dress code, what are we wearing?"
I laughed. "Uh, summer clothes?"
He gave me a quick kiss on the nose making me laugh even more. "You're so silly, Achilles. But, I wanted to talk about my session with Dr. Andoh, actually."
Now, Xander was nervous, fidgeting with his hair, stretching the kinks before they went back into place. "You know I love you, right?" Xander said abruptly. "And, I think for a long time when you say I'm you're mate, I had trouble believing it. Because, I think deep down I still have...difficulties...seeing how you could love me."
I touched Xander's waist, squeezing lightly. "Xander, don't say that."
He sniffled, his eyes looking more green as they filled with tears. "I know, I know. But, I'm really starting to realize that you really do love me, and I really am your mate. The world won't end if I'm happy. And, I'm happy that you took the leap and decided to be with me. You snore, but it's kind of cute, and, even if you shave in the morning you've still got a five o clock shadow by noon, you give the best hugs, and you're so much more sentimental than you let on. And I'm so thankful that I'm okay and we have so many more days to look forward to. Because you make me so happy, Achilles. More than—" Xander started crying, big tears rolling down his face. "More than anyone." He let out a ragged breath, wiping away his tears. "I'm such a dork, I'm always crying."
"You're gonna make me cry." I said in a thick voice, rubbing away at Xander's tears.
He let out a wet laugh. "I'll be so embarrassed if I cry at the surprise party."
I froze. "What surprise party?"
Xander rolled his eyes. "I wasn't born yesterday, Achilles . If there isn't some outlandish party I would be surprised."
"I'm not saying anything." I said slowly. "But, if there was a surprise party, you have to act surprised!" Fucking hell, Klara had given me one job.
Xander laughed and I did, too. He did something funny then, raising his finger to follow the dimple lines on my face. His voice sounded rougher than it usually did. "I love your laugh, Achilles. Have I said that?"
I nodded, suddenly feeling shy. "Probably."
"Well, maybe I haven't said it enough." Xander said. He smelled like vanilla, he was warm and how I wanted to get lost in him, forever, if that was possible.
"You don't have to say anything." I whispered. "But, you can kiss me."
Xander gave me a small, intimate smile, his face close enough to mine that he could kiss me. "Yeah?" He teased me.
And then, finally, he did kiss me. Softly, and sweetly, and the way it always was between us, perfect.
~THE END~
Brief writer's note— Thank you all for reading, and following Xander and Achilles from their short story to here! I am so thankful (and amazed) that all of you want to and find the time to read my work.
Overall thoughts?
This chapter was already super long but I'm releasing a longer writer's note in the next chapter where I'll talk a bit about the characters, plot, and my writing process. And, I'll talk about the sequel, obviously. I mentioned I was doing one, right?
—RM ❤️