-Kira-

I eventually decided to listen to what he said... In terms of listening for myself to the phone during the night.

For just a night so I could solidify things.

It wasn't that I didn't believe what Lucien had said. I did. It was instead that it didn't mix well with the fact that I didn't want to believe it, and I knew that I'd obsess over it and just embarrass myself further until I saw it for myself.

So for just tonight, I set myself up on the couch in his room. So I could face this crushing disappointment point blank and have absolutely no reason to think anything different.

I needed my brain to stop obsessing and move on so I could focus on my next plan of action. So I could figure something else out as to what to do.

If there was anything left...

So, grabbing the pillow I'd become accustomed to, and the weighted blanket from the bed I slept in, I set myself up nicely on the couch with nothing but a few odd looks from him.

I still didn't think I had it in me to talk about it, and luckily he didn't question me, just retired behind those curtains and killed the light, leaving me to my own devices with only the light of the fire to guide my sight.

Thankfully the couch was rather long. Long enough in both length and width for me to lounge comfortably and still have a decent amount of room to stretch.

It wasn't nearly as comfortable as the bed, but I saw that coming. It helped me stay awake in fleeting hope that something would happen.

I knew it wouldn't, and yet still there I lay facing the ceiling, letting that fact sink deeper in deeper until it became undeniable.

The blanket ended up getting bunched at my feet. The weight on top of the heat of the nearby fire made it too much.

Too much heat, too much disappointment, too much to handle all at once, and yet somehow sleep managed to still creep its way over me in my weakness after a few hours.

When I woke up, it wasn't to sunlight or god forbid the phone, but to movement.

To arms easing their way under me. One scooping my back and the other my knees before the couch fell away.

It took a moment, and a few quiet steps to process, but when it did, the feeling sparked up a familiar panic and lead my body to move before I could even get my eyes to open.

It was a visceral, instinctive reaction. One built from years of childhood memories of my father taking me from my sleep just like this, and down into the basement to deal in his trades that involved fangs in my skin. All while shushing me and whispering to me that it was all going to be okay.

"Stop," The word passed my lips in no more than a quiet, curt exhale.

I felt the hands tighten the moment I began to shift and thrash, blinking into my senses.

My hands found and pressed against the other body with all the strength I could manage, pressing and writhing in ways that only had these hands tightening their hold on me.

Finally, my eyes could make out silhouettes in the darkness, and with my full consciousness followed my full strength.

Which gave me my goal of pushing hard enough to escape these arms.

I landed on my ass with a thud, my elbows managing to save my head from the same fate.

I groaned through the dull pain, shooting my eyes upward toward the foe as quickly as I could.

The golden glow above me was the yank back to reality that I needed.

Instead of the arms of my father, it was the arms of a royal vampire.

Arguably worse but not by much.

"Let it be known that you did that to yourself," Lucien spoke blandly, not even giving me time to send him a look before he turned and moved back towards the couch.

Confusion staggered my brain watching him move, the fire thankfully giving me the ability to see things.

What the-?

"What the hell are you doing?" I exclaimed, picking myself up off the floor and dusting myself off.

He continued on his path, targeting the switch that controlled the fire and turning it into more of a roaring flame.

"Moving you. You were in my spot."

"In your spot? You told me to sleep there!" I rebutted.

I know we both heard that.

"Mhm," He agreed, "And some nights I need the fire. Tonight ended up being one of them, so I was moving you."

I looked around where I'd fallen, seeing that it was halfway between the couch and the bathroom door.

He was just aiming to take me back to the room?

There was something else in his voice tonight, a tremor I could only barely hear.

He was shaking... shivering?

I just stood there for a moment to process, watching him move to pull the couch a few inches closer to the fireplace and sigh in what sounded like relief once it reached his desired proximity.

He fell onto the couch soon after, hunching forward in a way that he nearly hid from my view behind the backrest.

"Come and get your things. If you're still all worried about the phone, you can take my bed for the night," he added.

That weakness and exhaustion that usually always trailed his voice in some way or another were now in full power tonight.

At four in the morning... yeah that made sense, I guess.

But still, I found myself stuck in a sense, brows furrowed through the weirdness of it all.

Just in the almost normal way he was speaking to me on top of a few other obvious things.

Was this another one of his... oddities from his weird ailment?

I already knew that he was much colder than any other vampire I'd come in contact with, but I never stopped to think if that hindered them from getting and staying warm.

It was clear by this point that his days varied, and it was clear from the phone call with Erik at least that this wasn't a great one.

I loosened the muscles that were taught just in case and stepped my way over.

He reached for and bundled my blanket while I grabbed my pillow, handing it over to me without straying his eyes from the fire.

the sight of it reflected...strangely in those gold eyes. Almost adding to and complimenting the color that was already there.

The couch was now just bare. No condition I'd expect a prince to sleep in.

The one decorative pillow he had I'd moved to the chair, and he didn't bring another one of his own.

I already knew there were extra blankets in the small chest behind the couch, but he didn't grab one of those either.

"You sure you don't want a pillow or something?" I asked, just to make sure I was seeing this all correctly.

It felt like a strange setting for someone like him to be comfortable with.

His eyes shifted to me with the same cold stare he was giving the fire that warmed the silent seconds before he answered.

"The problem is bigger than just a pillow. Go back to bed." was all he said.

Oh...kay?

I accepted that and took my leave, only making it a few steps before stopping and staring at the curtains.

He'd offered his bed, but something about that just didn't sit right. The thought of the rolls getting reversed wasn't something I found myself agreeing with given that a place for me to sleep was so close.

Sleep was a vulnerable position, and putting myself in the spot where he slept just rubbed me a different way then taking his couch did.

I think I'd been here long enough for the acceptance to wriggle its way in and settle those stirring thoughts in my head. To hush the part of me wanting to create assumptions in order to find reason that just obviously didn't want to be found.

And I was tired.

I'd heard, or not heard more than enough, and left back into the room that had a private bed waiting for me.

I just barely heard him shift down into a laying position on the couch before shutting the door, and leaving myself alone with my thoughts yet again.