"Kiera, we need to talk." Emma says, just as I approach the house.
Everyone had decided to go sight-seeing, Kiera had some work to finish up and she promised to meet us there if she could. I'd intentionally forgotten my wallet so that I could come back here, hoping for a few moments alone to talk. Especially, after what happened in the car yesterday.
I could kick myself for being so dumb, confessing to her in such an open-ended way was bad enough but then right as she was going to respond Emma had woken up. Figures Emma's timing is always huts a little questionable.
I wonder how much of our conversation she heard and whether she's about to confront Kiera about it.
I would hope not but then again maybe it's for the best. Maybe if we just put this thing, whatever it is, out there and stop hiding we night actually stand a chance of making it work. Although, that would mean Kiera also wants this to work and from her panicked deer-in-headlights look when I spoken I don't think that's the case.
Tucking myself into the wall outside the kitchen door, I still have a perfect view of Kiera at the computer and Emma now by her side.
"What's up, Em?" Kiera asks, engrossed in whatever she's working on. She's biting her lip in concentration and barely paying Emma any attention.
"What's going on with you?" Emma's asks, bluntly. My eyebrows raise, I've never known Emma to be straightforward. It's not her style, she's more for the sneaky, underhanded stuff.
"Nothing" Kiera responds, still distracted. She hasn't yet picked up on the weird vibe that even I can feel coming off Emma right now.
"You know, if somethings going on you can tell me." This finally catches Kiera's attention, she looks at Emma at her side, her brows furrowing.
"Nothing's going on," she tells her. Emma doesn't look convinced
"I just, I worry about you, you know that." Emma says, her voice taking on a strange lilting quality. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It has an effect on Kiera too, expect instead of trepidation she looks as if she's feeling something more like guilt or sympathy. I can't tell which.
"And you've been acting odd lately, and you're keeping something a secret I can tell and I don't know if Haider or Dastan have said something to you or if it's someone else but you know you can come to me." She continues, reaching out and covering Kiera's hand with her own on the table.
Wait what?
What do I have to do with this, suddenly I'm even more curious to see how this conversation goes.
"Nobody's said anything, I swear-"
"Good, because you know it wouldn't be true anyway. You're not a burden even if they sometimes get upset and say it." She tells Kiera and her voice is loaded with insinuation.
My shoulders stiffen. Who's said that Kiera's a burden. I mean I know I've done that before when we weren't on the best of terms but nobody else would dream of it and from the way Emma's it sound, it seems like people have been saying it wrote a bit.
Kiera's eyes fall, I watch her expression crumble and my heart aches. I have to physically stop myself from going to her and holding her and making sure she never looks like that again.
"Did someone say that to you?" she asks Emma, her voice small and fragile.
"I-" Emnna begins, then looks up at Kiera slightly shocked. It's fake, I can tell from all the way over here it's not real she knows what she's doing. "Sometimes Haider and Zahra vent, you know?" she fives Kiera a shrug that's meant to uncertain but all I see is a puppet Master at work.
"Yeah," Kiera says, nodding to herself, casting her eyes away and I can see them shining with unshed tears.
The blood boils in my veins, what the hell is Emma doing?
She squeezes Kiera's have that she's still holding abd then promptly leaves through the front door. I watch, stunned as Kiera walk into the bathroom and shuts the door behind her, presumably to cry.
Walking into the house, I'm determined to wait until she's done and then reassure her she isn't a burden and none of us see her that way. I only make it seven minutes before I'm going into the bathroom too.
The rooms is misted over with steam, hanging so thick in the air I can barely see two feet in front of my face. I make my way over to where the shower is running, I can hear little sniffles. She's so upset she doesn't hear as I strip off all my clothes, and then open the glass door and step in behind her.
She's standing under the spray, blonde hair wet and sticking to her back, her skin glistening with water and flushed from the heat. I reach out wrapping my arms around her middle and pressing my chest into her back.
Freezing for just a moment, her body goes rigid and I'm about to tell her it's me and she's okay when she leans further back into my embrace clearly having already figured that out on her own.
Running my hands over her skin, I plant little kisses over her shoulder and the back of her neck. She rolls her head back against my chest to give me better access, sighing anf whimpering as my lips and tongue work over her skin.
When she can't take anymore of my reading, she turns her head to the side and captures my lips in a kiss. It isn't long before I'm pinning her hands to the wall above her head as she presses her forehead into the tiles and sighs my name as I enter her.
Losing myself in her body, and using my own to reassure her. We spend what feels like hours but it's really only a few stolen moments like this. My name on her lips and my hands on her body, forgetting that there's a world out there we both want no part of.
When it's over I carry her from the shower back to her room, knowing it'll be a while before th withers get back. I'm determined to let her rest and make sure she knows that every thing Emma said was a load of crap.
I never get the chance because we both fall asleep and wake to a world of chaos and questions that neither one of us had been prepared for.