Before his first encounter with ivy's mother, who held a gun to his face? Xerxes had walked in the opposite direction from where ivy had gone, which was the living room. It was total chaos, something told him not to let ivy off on her own, but the only way they could cover more ground was to split up.
Walking round the room, he cautiously moved towards the direction in which the shadow had disappeared. Xerxes activated his powers, preparing against anything that might jump out at him. But to his utter dismay, it was empty.
"hm…I must have been mistaken.."
But just as he was about deactivate and go find ivy, something moved behind the rows of plants that were besides him. Reactivating his shadow tendrils, he pushed the plants aside and a giant fur ball with a salt and pepper coat jumped out at him. Xerxes was startled, but let out a sigh of relief after realizing it was just a tabby.
"Damn cat…" he frowned as he looked down on the animal who stared at him with pure curiosity in its blue eyes. Unable to resist the way it looked at him, he bent down and picked it up in his arms "you must belong to ivy…you're kinda cute…" his body relaxed a bit as a soft smile plastered itself on his face.
Xerxes had been so engrossed with petting the animal that the sudden change in ivy's voice which came from the kitchen sent him dashing out of the room, calling her name.
"IVY! IVY!...
When he had run into the kitchen, the last thing he had expected was to be staring down the barrel of a gun. His heart skipped a few beats because of this. Unconsciously, xerxes activated his powers and crouched down slow. What was even more shocking was the fact that the trigger had been pulled just a few seconds after he had ducked. Everything happened so fast that he wondered if he was still alive.
Ivy was even more startled than he was. But off course, she couldn't blame her mother for what she did. She hadn't informed Lilith that they would be coming together. If anything, xerxes would be the first person from school to actually come to her house, even if right now it was not looking like the ideal home.
While the two conversed, xerxes took the moment to really look at ivy's mother. Lilith scarrow, he'd see her on a few occasions when she visited ivy at school, but seeing her up close he was shocked to see how young she looked for someone her age, she had a similar frame to ivy, but unlike ivy, Lilith was much more matured and endowed in her looks, although Lilith was a bit taller than ivy. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of blue, in contrast to ivy's black ones.
"…your boyfriend?" Lilith asked them out of the blue and he was slightly taken aback by this. It wasn't asif he didn't want her to be his girlfriend, he just never found the right opportunity to ask her out. Looked like now would be the right time to do that, even if it wasn't exactly the most ideal situation.
"..yes…" xerxes said as he clutched unto the feline in his arms. Ivy had a subtle blush on her face, did xerxes just indirectly ask her out in front of her mom? He did, he totally did.
The smile on Lilith's face turned hard and serious as she stared at her daughter.
"ivy…was it really the right choice of action to bring him here?" she spoke in a hushed tone, taking her daughter to the side of the room and away from xerxes
"i…trust him…" said ivy, her black eyes staring back at her mother who still held a grave expression her face.
"trust? What do you mean by trust…" her gaze narrowed down into almost slits. Ivy bit her bottom lip hard, she knew her mother would be upset.
Exhaling the breathe she had been holding, she said;
"He knows…"
"What?" Lilith had an incredulous look of disbelief, not believing what her only child had just said to her. "You mean to tell me that you revealed our true identity to this boy?"
There it was, that underlying anger that was threatening to spill over any second. Ivy had sworn to keep who they were as a secret and never disclose any information to anybody outside the two of them.
"I know you're mad, but just hear me out…" she started. Lilith crossed her arms as she glared heavily at ivy, waiting for an explanation. She might have been upset right now, but she knew her daughter well, she would never do something this stupid without a good reason.
"…well then, go on…" she urged her.
"the day when you informed me about the possible attack, I was already out with xerxes…" she picked her words carefully so as not to say something that might upset her mother even more than she already was. Lilith was holding back with every ounce of patience she had right now as she waited for ivy to finish.
"…on our way back, we got attacked…"
"WHAT?! Why am I just knowing of this… I told you-"
"I swear I was going to tell you, I really was gonna tell you…" ivy interrupted her mother who looked like she would burst into flames any moment from now.
"then what happened…I told you to always keep me updated.."
"I know…but after me and xerxes took care of the attackers, i…"
"…you passed out…" Lilith's raging anger simmered down a little bit remembering one of the draw backs her daughter had. Sometimes she didn't even know whether having three powers was a blessing or a curse to her. One or two was fine, but having to contain three powers in one vessel was just…too much power.
"….yes, but xerxes was the one who made sure I got back to school safely and unharmed, he fought by my side and even stayed with me the whole while I was in the clinic…the least I could do was to tell him the truth…after all he was there…" ivy explained everything that had gone down in the past three or four days. Lilith sighed as she released her arms that she had been clenching till now.
"ivy…" she lightly shakes her head as she called her name. ivy in response moved to hug her mother and she was hugged back.
"I promise…he won't do anything…" ivy whispered into her mother's chest, reassuring her that everything would be fine. But would they though? Would everything be really fine?
Letting go of one another, Lilith turned to look at xerxes who had been standing quietly at the door way, holding the cat.
"…what's your name?"
"Hatsumi xerxes…" he introduced himself and she hummed with a curt nod.
"I don't' know how much ivy has told you. But as you can see with the state in which my home is, we're in trouble and in turn, you could be in grave danger…now I'm not talking about the type of danger where your teachers could easily come save you…I'm talking irrecoverable damage…death even…" Lilith wanted to be sure he knew the risk of hording such a secret as grave as theirs. She had expected him to turn around at the mention of death, but he surprised her when he took a step forward and said with a dead serious expression.
"I don't care…"
"what?... didn't you hear what I just said? You could really suffer a great deal of loss…you realize we both have bounties hanging off our names.." she tried to scare him more. But xerxes remained unfazed.
"mom-"
"it's fine leah, I can speak for myself…I love your daughter, in fact, I have loved her for a long time now…if I can't protect her and stand firmly on her side, then I can't exactly call myself a hero, can i? I do not care about what she did in her past, I care of who she is and who she has worked hard to become…" at xerxes words, ivy felt her heart clench itself as tears threatened to spill down her eye sockets. Lilith heard what he had to say, but something still needed to be set straight.
"hmm…I see. But the question is…are you willing to risk your own life for hers?" she questioned him again. For a moment he was silent, but he said.
"I am and I promise you, nothing evil will befall her as long as I am by her side…" xerxes gave her his solemn word.
.
.
.
.
.
UwU...you guys are still here
thank you for the support don't forget to vote with your powerstones 🥺❤️
here's Neko, sharing good vibes to you the readers
૮₍ ˃ ⤙ ˂ ₎ა
./づᡕᠵ᠊ᡃ່࡚ࠢ࠘ ⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊ࠢ࠘~~~~~~❤️
are you allergic to this?
have a great day.. you're awesome 💯