Double update, because you guys are awesome :) aaand this sort of serves as a part two to the previous chapter. ❤️
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"Good lord," is all Hudson could say as he collapses into our bedroom after keeping a two-hour conversation with Connor about his abilities. It went throughout dinner and beyond, and I used the 'I need to take a shower' excuse to get him out of it. "Thanks for getting me out of that one."
"No problem," I happily say to him softly. He watches me as I come sit next to him on the bed, except I sat up as he laid flat on his stomach. Using the knuckles of my hands, I began to massage his upper back as he shivers in pleasure.
"Would it be bad if—" he winces again as I hit a sensitive spot. "Would it be bad if I married you only for your back rubs?"
The question makes us both burst out laughing simultaneously, as I begin moving my hands lower down his back.
"No Hudson," I say smiling. "One day I'm going to marry a man I love, not to just give him back rubs."
I loved him. I truly did. But I kept that thought in the back of my head so that he wouldn't be able to read it with his powers. I seriously didn't know where I would be without him. Hudson has given me a whole new perspective on what it's like to be a mutant. And I could never thank him enough for that.
My hands went lower, massaging the knots until he suddenly jerks away from me in... pain? His face is scrunched as he seems to avoid laying on one of his sides.
"Hudson..." my voice trails off. "Did Ryan hurt you?"
He nods softly, and my heart drops. Then it hits me. Ryan had struck Hudson on his left side earlier when he was distracted from his injured wrist. I begin peeling off his gray shirt from training, and he raises an eyebrow.
"Eager, are we?" A smirk was evident on his face.
I roll my eyes and slap him on the leg lightly. "Sit up, doofus. I'm going to heal you."
He gives me a ridiculed look as he refuses to get up from his position on the bed. "No Mara, the wound will heal sooner or later and I do not want you to waste your energy on me."
I cross my arms. "Fine, if I can't heal you, I'm going to sleep on the couch across from Lucy for the next week."
That got him to immediately sit up and peel off his shirt slowly, letting me examine the injury on his waist. And holy moly, as I inspected it Ryan had done some serious damage to him. I didn't realize it before, but a small gasp had escaped my lips. An angry purple and red bruise covered almost his entire left side, making me wonder how Hudson didn't break a few ribs in the process.
"Are there any other spots I should be worried about?" I say softly, hating to see him injured like this.
Hudson moves so that he is sitting criss-cross applesauce across from me as our kneecaps just barely touched. His head nods, as he puts his hand in mine.
"My wrist may or may not be broken," he smiles sheepishly, trying to lighten the mood a bit. I look down to it, and it sure as hell was. "Punching a literal boulder isn't the easiest thing ever. But he's going to be an absolute beast in the big battle with the Plague."
I shake my head and smile at him softly, before beginning to summon my abilities. My fingertips begin to glow the familiar shade of gold, as two of my fingers place themselves on Hudson's bruise. The other hand holds onto his wrist, healing the fractured bones inside it.
I didn't realize it before, but Hudson's bright green eyes were staring directly into my face the entire time with so many emotions flying throughout him. For some reason, I felt his heart rate increase as I was just halfway done with the process.
As the gold from my fingertips filled his injured area, the red and purple was starting to diminish. Bone healing was probably the most uncomfortable version of healing—literal bones were shifting in your body, and I could tell Hudson was in discomfort due to his clenched arm muscles.
I tried to keep myself from passing out as I removed my hands from his sides. I felt weak, but strong enough to go about normal functions like walking.
Either way, my mind wanted to move, but my body said no as my head collapsed into Hudson's chest. A soft 'woah' comes from his lips as he catches my sagging head in his arms, and pulls me between his legs cradling me like a baby.
"I told you this wasn't a good idea," he worries with a concerned look in his eyes. Suddenly I feel him picking me up bridal style, carrying me to the bathroom for some unknown reason. I was seeing double for a few seconds until Hudson places me onto the counter. A cool washcloth is placed on my forehead as Hudson was now eye level with me. "Even just three minutes of healing can—"
I raise my pointer finger up to his lips silencing him. Hudson looks at me and raises an eyebrow, clearly annoyed with this action by now.
"Hudson. You're healed, and I'm okay," I say putting emphasis in my words. "This fatigue will clear up in just a bit, I promise." I smile to him, weakly swiping my thumb across his cheek.
Then as I analyze his face, I noticed that the once-evil commander was blushing. He probably didn't even know it as he was too lost in our eye contact.
Great, now I was dizzy again. But this time from his love spell.
My legs were wrapped around his torso as his arms were secured around my waist, making the room seem a hundred times hotter than before as I realized what position we were in. He began to move closer to me, eliminating the gap between us.
"I would kiss you," he says breathlessly. "But—"
The sound of someone knocking on the door fills our room, making me jump.
"...There's someone at the door." He finishes his sentence and sighs. Quickly we get off the counter, but Hudson wouldn't let me go without assisting me in walking.
But his thoughts of 'assisting me' were completely different from mine. Hudson pulls me off the sink counter and keeps his hands firmly on my waist while picking me up and walking. He places me on the bed, giving me a threatening look that made me stay in my position.
He then opens the door, and immediately Lucy greets us with her gorgeous smile.
"Hey Lucy, what's up?" I say motioning for her to come in.
The smile on her lips immediately falls, as she closed the door behind her. I could see the conflict in her eyes, whether she wanted to talk about this or not.
"Uh," she starts off by twiddling her thumbs. "I just came here to apologize for Ryan's actions earlier, especially towards you, Mara. No man should ever act that way towards a girl, and I've already had a talk with him about it already."
"It's okay Lucy, it—"
"No!" Hudson and Lucy both say at the same time interrupting me, and I furrow my eyebrows at them.
"Mara, it wasn't okay what he did, and even Hudson agrees with me. I'm really glad you whooped his ass earlier too Hudson," Lucy says congratulating him.
"Ryan hasn't done anything to hurt you or Connor, right?" I question with concern.
"Of course he hasn't. We've lived with him for eight years now and he wouldn't hurt a fly. He just gets very angry sometimes. You know, that dude hasn't had life easy. Back at home in the North, he goes every other day to visit his family at the local graveyard."
His family was dead. Just like ours. Hudson and I give each other a quick glance, seeing the sympathy in each other's eyes as we both knew Ryan's pain.
"They were some of the brightest people I had ever met. One night Ryan's mom and dad went out for supplies using Connor's equipment to conceal their identities. We waited for hours for them to come back, but they never came. Ryan's older brother had went out to find them alone, which was our biggest regret. Plague guards had captured all three of them, and shot them all dead in the streets. They were outnumbered seven to one. The pain consumed Ryan so much that any trace of happiness in him vanished. And only God knows how guilty Connor felt that his technology failed to work. The kid wouldn't sleep until he found a new device to cover our genes, one that wouldn't fail in the future. And so far he hasn't let us down."
"Our parents are gone too." I say softly. "I guess you can't judge a book by its cover."
Lucy nods. "You should talk with Ryan in the morning, Hudson. Just get to know him a bit better, and that should definitely lift the tension between you two. Once you break through the rock on the outside, he's a completely different person on the inside. I promise."
Hudson pouts like a little kid, and crosses his arms. "Fine."
Hudson was like a rollercoaster. Sometimes he was the scariest man on Earth, with an intimidating build and glowing red eyes that could scare away even the toughest of men. And other times, he was like a lost puppy. He was a man that came in layers, and that was what I loved about him.
"I'll leave you two lovers be, sorry for distracting." Lucy winks to me before slipping out the door, leaving us with nothing but silence. Hudson begins to take tiny steps to where I was sitting on the bed and plops down next to me.
"You need to shower, Mr. Stinky," I say wrapping my arms around him, referring to his training sweat from earlier today. Yet he didn't even smell bad, I just wanted to tease him.
"Uh huh." He rests his head on my own. "And you need someone to help you shower, Miss Tired," he claims suggestively, immediately making butterflies fly in my stomach.
I huff, as he picks me up once more despite my protests. "Fine."
And and as the night was still young, he treated me like I were royalty doing almost everything for me.