And her name is…

Wulfric waits for me to say more about my mother but I don’t and after a few minutes my stomach rumbles. We get up and shower without really discussing it. I guess when both our bodies are old news and the shower feels like a focal point of our relations that it’s hardly worth discussing. I watched him get dressed and then he slipped one of his shirts over my head since neither of us could find where my night dress had ended up. My key, however, had been easy to spot on the floor and he followed me to my room for clothes.

My hand hesitate on the knob, but when he moved to do it for me I got the nerve and pushed the door open only to immediately step on broken glass and jump back out.

“Owe!” I gasped, nearly tumbling onto my ass if Wulfric hadn’t caught me.

He picked me up sideways in his arms. “Did you put that there?”

I nod, trying to reach for my foot. “I stack cups behind my door when I sleep so if someone comes in I’ll hear them crash. I forgot to move them last night when I got up.”

He carries me into the room and over to a chair, glancing at the broken glasses along the way. I try to swat away his hands as he kneels down to check my foot but he catches them both and holds them aside while he tips me over. I‘m instantly aware that I’m not wearing any pants as a cool breeze comes over me, but that brings a new sense of horror as I look to the window. He follows my gaze when I stop fighting him and curses under his breath. He doesn’t need to ask, he knows I didn’t leave the window open last night.

“The cuts are small, you won’t need much energy to speed the healing right?” I nod to his question and he smirks. “Do you want my blood or my energy?”

I roll my eyes and take a fibre of his energy, weaving it easily into mine and focusing the healing on the foot. Before I can get up he puts his hands on me like he’s forcing me to stay seated and asks me to wait. Then he roams around the room in a quick check before ending at my wardrobe. I flinch as he opens it, expecting something or someone to jump out, but it’s just my clothes and he grab a sweater,a pair of pants, and the slippers with a hard bottom.

“I can dress myself,” I argue as he holds my pants up to fit my legs inside.

“Enough arguing, I don’t like you in this room,” he mutters, slipping my slippers on and standing me up to wiggle the pants up my thighs and over my ass.

Then he twists and tucks the shirt of his I borrowed to shorten it and pulls the sweater over top. “What are you doing?” I demand.

He smirks and smells my hair as he pulls me in close to him. “Giving us a secret to smile about whenever I look at you today.”

I can’t stop the blush before it creeps over my face and I try to hide it with my hair. He tucks the hair behind my ears and chuckles, which only makes it worse. I rush away from him to grab one of my books. It’s just a distraction, but I pretend to start reading it halfway down the hall despite my fingers aching in protest.

Tiago looks up at us as we enter, glancing between us but pulling my chair out for me. Wulfric touches the small of my back and nudges me toward my place as he goes to take his own. Food hasn’t been brought out yet so I continue with my book, propping my elbows on table to hold my book up. The first few paragraphs I find myself getting distracted by Wulfric sitting just behind my book, but after I finish the page I start to get sucked into it.

I support the book on one hand to turn the page and promptly regret it. “Fuckers,” I mutter as the book tips back against the weak digits and I’m forced to put it down.

“Still giving you problems?” Nyx questions, coming up behind me as I mutter more expletives.

“Likely will until the day I die,” I return casually.

I set the book open, facedown on the table and start to warm my hands in each other. When I bring them to my face to blow hot air into them I catch Wulfric looking at me with a straight line to his smile. He looks like he wants to say something but he refrains and starts to talk to his brother. Nyx snatches my hand closest to her and one look at her tells me she was speaking and I missed it.

“I’m sorry,” I apologize, turning to give her the attention she deserves.

She waves a hand. “I know you dissociate sometimes, it’s not a big deal…. But don’t you dare pick up that book.”

She catches me reaching for it as she switches hands and I retract the appendage with a pout. Food still hasn’t arrived and I had wanted to finish the ones I gathered yesterday before this afternoon. Wulfric reaches across her table, in the middle of replying to Noryth, and picks my book up to hold towards me. I’m so baffled for a minute that I just stare at him, but he flaps the book at me and I take it that he wants me to read it.

“You don….” He waves the book at me again and I accept the gesture.

I start to read, wondering in the back of my mind how I’m going to turn the page as the food is brought out and put in my way. As I reach the bottom of the page I’m prepared to thank him and conclude the offer, but he reaches over with his other hand before I can and turns the page for me. I find myself melting a little as he continues his conversation but still has attention for to spare for me. I continue to read through breakfast and then Tiago takes me farther from the house than I’ve ever been to feed my demand for energy.

When I finally make it to the gym to train with Wulfric I don’t bother to go to my room to change. The pants might be warm, but under the sweater I’m still wearing his T-shirt, and maybe a part of me wants him to remind him. Unfortunately, Noryth is with him and all the playful and witty banter I had imagined could be possible died on my tongue. The two are sparing in the centre of the room and I move around the edge to find a stationary bike to get my blood moving. They move with perfect form, dodging and returning blows like it’s a practised routine. Wulfric gets a few good hits on North, who returns a weak punch with his non-dominant so I decide a pep talk is needed.

“Put your back into it! You punch like you’re trying to push an invalid off a wall!” I yell at Noryth, and I catch the side eye and smirk as he looks at me.

Wulfric is trying, and failing, to repress the laugh pushing at his lips. I bet he’s trying to decide if laughing is insensitive of some shit; like I would be mad at him. I’m so close to tying all the knots in the web that has been my life this last decade-ish that I’m over what almost killed me six years ago. Besides that, I still have a pretty big ace in the hole with my own secrets. I feel a warmth of fiendish proportions and I can’t let Noryth be the only one to feel my wrath.

Wulfric get’s Noyrth’s fist in the teeth and I wince. “Ooof, that looked pretty deep. Apparently, you eat glove like you eat…”

I drift off, waiting for his eyes to meet mine before I look down at myself. He chokes on his breath and that’s when Noryth takes advantage of his distraction and hits him with a quick 1,2. Wulfric tried to recover with low blows of his own, but Noryth has him blocking more often then not. He get’s him caught up in a pattern and then switches it to catch him too high and take out his legs. Noryth ends it with a foot on Wulfric’s chest and the elder brother reluctantly taps out. Noryth helps him up and then starts laughing, looking at me like I’ll give clarification to what changed the tides in his favour. I just shrug, continuing to ride the bike like I had been.

“In all my years, I’ve never gotten the drop on him like that. You can hang around traininganytime,: Noryth chides his brother by talking to me.

“I’m not sure if I’ll be invited back to training after that drop. Went down like a sack of potatoes, he did,” I chide in return, giving Wulfric my biggest grin.

“Didn’t you not want to be here anyway?” Wulfric returns, taking off his gloves beside his brother.

I get off the bike. “You know, you’re right.” I shrug my shoulder and walk toward the door, all while still grinning. “I don’t need to be here. I’m just going to hang out in my room until lunch.”

Noryth hits the door before me, and I go to catch it as it swings closed but Wulfric catches my wrists and tugs me back before I can grab the edge. “You’re not going back to that room alone for any reason.”

“But it could be interesting. I know I’m curious. Don’t you want to know who was in my room while I was in yours?” I question, hoping he doesn’t see the uncertainty in my eye.

I forgot all about the issue with my room with my empty threat. The thought of going there tonight to sleep gave me a feeling of dread, but with a day to mentally prepare I would be ready for them. I start planning where I’ll hide and wait for them when Wulfric grabs my shoulder, shakes me, and I realize he was speaking.

“Earth to little mouse,” he mutters, looking at me like I could have been asleep standing up.

I grumble, “it’s Theo, unless you’d like to go back to beingGeneral, Wulf?” I raise an eyebrow at him and I watch a shiver run through his body before I smirk. “I didn’t think so. So what’s the plan for today?”

He seems to shake him out of his own daydream and smiles. “I couldn’t help but notice you could stand to be more… flexible,” he winks but pulls me over to the mat. “But honestly, after yesterdays training it was obvious your range of motion has been restricted. Stretching is a part of strengthening, so if you want to get stronger we should work on that.”

I scoff. “It’s probably a little late in the game for me to be worrying about that, but I’ll humour you for the sake of filling time.”

He thinks I’m kidding. Part of me is disappointed, but a bigger part is glad they all take my honesty as a joke. I’ve done nothing but be honest and if they don’t understand that it is t my fault. I’ve done my part and I’m ready to be done with what’s left.

We do stretch and balance as Wulfric urges me to execute yoga poses. I honestly expected him to make it more sexual than he does, and it feels oddly professional. He did grin fairly widely when I took off my sweater and still had his shirt on, and because we didn’t sweat we went right to lunch when it was time.

I’m not sure if conversation was lacking around me or I just wasn’t paying attention, but my thoughts take over anyway. I move on autopilot as I eat and then head to my room to grab the books II longer want. Wulfric follows me the whole way, taking the books from me to carry, and opening the doors as I go. It’s something I could get used to, not worrying about the little things while my mind thinks of everything else. He could make some lady very lucky one day, and that thought brings a bitter taste to my mouth.

We go to the library and I collect another small stack from the next shelf in my search but this time I don’t plan to read them. I will gloss the lot of them before dinner for the key words that would interest me and then go from there. Wulfric takes the same seat he had before and when I find a significant stack I take the same chair near him as well. The distant tik of the clock silences my thoughts with its predictable patter and soon I find myself relaxing in the chair like I would have back in the one I had at home. The smell isn’t quite right around me, a little too old to be like home, but the feeling is the same and that can be enough after that dream I had.