Mass release: 7/9
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Nikko Cornelius Hetherington's pov
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"I don't think she'll fight as much as you think, Nik," Cali purred.
"Then you are delusional," I scowled. "She will, I know it."
"It would be weirder if she didn't," Kai pointed. "She may be an asshole but she ain't incoherent to her words or to herself, she'll fight against it for sure, but you shouldn't just give up because of that, follow her around, get on her toes, force her to remember that you are right there, don't let her run from you. Fight for it, mate. Sure, you were archenemies from the cradle, but you gotta fight for it now, you are not enemies anymore, from now on, you're mates, and acting as if it isn't the case will only hurt you more, Nik. Both of you."
"Easier said than done," I laid down again, staring at the ceiling.
"I can't believe she's your mate," Cali gasped.
"It is unbelievable for a reason," I scoffed. "I can't believe it either."
"Should we start to roam her like crows then?" Trist asked.
It's always Nero Tristan bloody Hashimoto that makes those kind of questions, always, if I didn't see or hear it, and someone told me that somebody asked this at this moment, I would instantly know it was this dumbass. "Why the hell would you do that for?" I hissed.
"Because she's gonna be one of us?" He scoffed as if it's obvious. "She's gotta get used to us, you know? We are like siblings, so, we should start making her know how things are gonna be, and that we are not like those motherfuckers she once called friends, who walk with Nicoletti and Attenborough. We gotta lessen up that trauma of hers, because you ain't gonna stay away from us just because your mate is traumatized with having friends."
"For once I think Tristan's got a point," Kai sighed.
"I don't want to overwhelm her," I sat down again. "She's unused to people around us, ever since she closed herself off. And I don't want to force the bond on her, at all, because if I'm freaking out, I know she is too, she's going through way more than just this, what we saw back there proved that. Overwhelming her is not good, I don't want to be like that, and I don't want to make it obvious to anyone else but us, it's a private matter, I'll only tell people after I've dealt with it with her, if I manage to do that at all. Is she awake?" I pushed the blanket away and stood on my feet. "How is she?"
"Oh boy," Cali chuckled.
"She's in the med wing, the headmaster's twins were watching over her," Kai told me. "For as long as we know she was still unconscious."
"Seth phoenix boy is watching over my mate?" I hissed. They side-eyed each other and then me, and before Trist could open his trap, I was on my feet, "Shut up, don't waste your breath bullshitting me."
"You're shirtless," my sister gasped when I walked towards the door.
I put on my slippers, looking in the mirror and finding myself solely in grey sweatpants, then I passed a hand over my hair, adjusting it, "What hour is it now?"
"It's 8 pm, but,"
I stopped Kai, "Then there's no need for full looks or uniforms, it's free time, not like everyone hasn't seen me shirtless around here."
"Didn't you said you wasn't going to speak with her alone?" Trist mocked.
"Go fuck yourself, Hashimoto!"
"Why myself when I can fuck," Lucy quickly closed his mouth with her hands, gasping shyly, and Trist smiled under her hands, surrounding her with his arms.
"Ugh," I cringed, unlocked the door and stepped outside.
After a second I faded out of the dormitory and to the med wing, starting to feel what binds us getting stronger as I approached her. But before I could enter the med wing, I stopped by the open door, finding the twin phoenixes sitting down together on a bed in front of hers, while she was sitting down awake in hers, surrounded by her parents, her brother and his wife. And the second her eyes met mind through them, she squeaked and looked away, which was enough to make them all turn around and find me here.
"What are you doing here?" Pietro Bianchini hissed.
"Why are you here?" Her brother growled.
I kept my eyes on her, "She knows why I'm here."
They frowned and her mother turned to her, "Why is he here, Ari?"
"I... I... I have no idea," she lied, avoiding my eyes.
"They kissed," Sophia the phoenix girl stated.
"They WHAT?" They all screamed and glared from her to me, murderously.
"Why did you say that?" She yelled at Sophia, exasperated.
"You kissed HIM?" They yelled at her.
She turned cherry red, "No," she lied, "I didn't."
"Sorry, I didn't know it was secret," Sophia gasped.
"You kissed a HETHERINGTON!" They pressed.
"I... I didn't, I swear," she cried.
"Arianna!"
"I didn't, he kissed me, I didn't kiss him!"
"Ah, that's bullshit," I gasped, and she glared at me. In a second her father and her brother were on me, pressed me on the wall. "Man, come on," I gasped, blushing. "Explain the damn situation, don't let it misunderstood, Arianna," I growled.
"You kissed me, I didn't kiss you," she yelled.
"You son of a," Pietro and Riccardo choked me.
"I was stopping her from thinking, she was about to kill all of us with a panic attack, she was out of control, damn it. Only I could get to her to protect the others, I didn't kiss her for the sake of kissing her," I snapped frustrated. "But then,"
"Stop," she yelled and I clenched my jaw. "Stop it," she got up barefoot and came to us, grabbing them and pushing them away from me, "just stop, I can deal with him, you deal with his family, he's mine."
Oh, I definitely am. "Yeah, I'm hers," I snapped and she gasped. "What?" I giggled, "You said it, not me. Don't glare at me like that. It's true though."
"Hetherington, stop," she hissed at me.
"Was he telling the truth?" He mom asked worried.
"Did you have a panic attack?" Her brother asked.
"Is that why you're here?" Her dad joined in.
"Are you okay?" Her sister in law cried.
"Ugh," she groaned. "I'm okay, it was nothing."
"It was something," I countered. "She cried some kind of,"
"Shut up, Hetherington," she hissed.
"Did you cry the black tears?" Her brother asked, haunted.
"It was nothing," she insisted.
"Did you overuse your time magic?" Her father held her by the shoulders and made her look up to him and when she gulped and tried to look away, he knew the answer. "Arianna, darling, you know you cannot overuse it, that type of magic isn't the normal kind, it's insanely overpowered and with a horrible price. I've told you to rest yourself, not to use it too much, why are you so stubborn?"
"Look who's talking," her mother scoffed.
And that was enough to make Pietro Bianchini freaking blush, "Honey, don't do me like that. You are stubborn too," he pouted and turned to his daughter. "You can't play with this, and you can't overuse it for stupid things, Arianna. You have the power to control time at your will, and it's good, but you gotta remember the cost of it, which you know even better than any of us, mia principessa."
"I'm fine," she lied annoyed. "Don't worry about me, papa, you should worry about yourselves, about the war that is going to come. I refuse to lose any of you, we can't afford to lose anyone, definitely not each other, yeah? I'll control my magic, enough to use it on the training classes like that," she side eyed the twins, then back to them, "crone wants me, because she is right, even though I'll never tell her that, it'll be essential in the war. And as long as I'm able to protect you and nonni, I'll be glad to help with what I can," no matter the cost.
She didn't say the last part, but she left it in the air, and I felt sick.
"What's your uniqueness, Hetherington boy?" Her father asked me, turning around, taking me off guard, and her too by how her eyes widened. "Now that we are all opening up about this madness, we should know yours, especially if that old phoenix and Théo the maniac wants you two to fight together. How useful can you be? How can we make sure you won't be a burden on our principessa's back, for as long as we have to put this... bad thing between us aside?"
"Papa," she gasped sounding embarrassed.
"Undoing," I told him, and proceeded to explain it as I did to her, but more crudely and without sarcasm. I don't think it's a good idea to be sarcastic with him, he isn't known for his temper for nothing.