"What's your name?"

"C41." 

C59 smiles and nods. He is proud, and that makes me proud. He shoves me toward the kneeling bird in front of me. 

"It's time to cut loose the unnecessary distractions," he says and hands me the knife.

I nod. The bird looks up at me. 

"Nathan, please!" 

"Goodbye, Che," I mutter and slam the knife in his chest.

I jerked awake, so violently I sat up. Che was fast to encircle me in his arms and wait for my breathing to slow down before he said anything. He stroked me over my freshly shaved head and kissed my neck. 

"Okay?" he whispered. 

I shook my head and rested my forehead on his shoulder. 

"The same dream again?"

I had already told him about this dream. I had it so often, I barely got any sleep during the night. I took small naps during the day instead. I was so tired all the time.

"I wish I could go back to remembering," I muttered after a while of silence. 

"Maybe you are, subconsciously. Did Cal ever ask you to kill a friend?" 

"I don't know... I can't remember." I sighed. "All things considered, it doesn't seem unlikely."

He stroked my head again. 

"Maybe you're just stressed. You're starting classes soon," Che said and started massaging my shoulders. I exhaled loudly and felt my tense muscles relax. "Loads of new people and all that." 

"Nat being there makes it easier." 

"Yeah, I bet. Not so scary going into something new if you have somebody with you." He put his palms to my cheeks and tipped my head up so he could look at me. "And I'll be there. And Aidan. And the others from the programme." 

We were a small group of seven people in the programme. Carlos and Cassie were all Americans. Charles and Bruce were English, and Rasmus was Danish. Everyone had been picked out of prison.

Nat and I were the only cats, the rest were dogs. 

"Right? It'll be all right." He smiled and gently pressed his lips on top of mine. 

"It'll be all right," I agreed and kissed him back.

"You're so strong," he murmured against my lips.

His hands ran down my arms and then over my chest. He opened his eyes and looked down.

August was really kicking my arse, especially during the night, so I didn't sleep with a shirt on. It was simply too hot. And since we were outside, we couldn't enjoy the perks of air-conditioning. Che was enjoying it though.

"You've gained weight." 

"You saying I'm fat?" I snickered.

He snorted and kept caressing me. I rose to my knees and took his face in my hands. 

"No, you dimwit. I am telling you, you're not so skinny anymore." He looked up at me and smiled widely, as his hands travelled over my ribs. "It suits you."

He bit down on my lip, and the purring started. I sighed a bit, knowing there was not a single thing I could do about it.

"Aww, the little animal is happy you've gained weight too," he said in a teasing way. 

"Or maybe it likes to be touched," I murmured, pretty determined to not let him ruin the mood. I pulled his shirt off him and kissed him.

"Or maybe you like to be touched," he breathed and dug his fingers into the skin on my hips. I sat down in his lap, one knee on either side of him. He put his palm against my lower back and pushed me down on the couch-bed, kissing me again and again.

"No, that's not right," Nat sighed and rolled her eyes. I sent her a bland look and went back to spelling the word out. 

"S-c-h-o-o-l. Shkul," I muttered. 

"No, it says school."

"What is the 'H' doing there then? You said 'SH' made an 'shh' sound." 

"Can you not see the 'C' right there? Are you blind?" she growled and slammed her finger down on the page.

"I see it, but I don't understand how this word can spell out school!" 

"Okay! I think that's enough reading for one day," Birdie said and closed the book, as he passed us at the dining table.

We were once again desperately trying to get through this stupid book about some kid named Peter going to school. And I couldn't get it right. And Nat was getting frustrated with me because nothing would stick.

I grabbed my pencil and wrote N-A-T and showed it to her. She snorted. 

"You trying to charm me with that?" she asked and arched her brows. I grabbed the paper and wrote C-H-A-Y. "You don't spell his name that way," she said and erased it. She wrote down C-H-E instead. 

"I don't understand," I said and tipped my head to the side. 

"Sometimes the way a word is spelt isn't the way it's pronounced," Birdie said from behind his massive pile of paper. 

"That... Makes no sense at all." 

"Nope. Like my name" Birdie wrote it down and passed me the paper. "You would think it ended with an 'E' but, no. It ends with an 'A'." 

"How come nobody calls you Ai-DAN then?" Nat asked. "Because that is a genuine name."
"Don't know. Everybody always called me 'Aiden.'" Birdie shrugged. Nat just smiled and shrugged too. "Well, except for your brother of course."

"Oh yeah, where does the 'Birdie' thing come from?" She wasn't asking me. Birdie explained, and she laughed.

I narrowed my eyes at her. She was twirling her hair around her finger and biting down on her lip whenever he was around.

I rolled my eyes and went out in the kitchen. Che's mum, Jake, was peeling potatoes and I decided to help her out. She just smiled at me and handed me a peeler.
"You excited to start classes?" she asked and plopped a potato into the bowl next to the sink.

"I think I am ready for it, yes," I replied after thinking it through. 

"What about Nathalia?" 

"She's... Well, Nat." 

Jake laughed and plopped another potato into the bowl. "She is definitely original. But it's good to get some life back into the house. She's a firecracker." 

"I thought that was Che's role," I said and snorted. 

"Well, Chester is an original too," she chuckled.

The front door slammed, and a very sweaty Che stepped into the kitchen. 

"Hey favourite people," he said and kissed both of us on the cheek. 

"Chester take a shower. You're filthy," Jake groaned and shoved her son out of the kitchen again.

He had taken up running lately. Said he had too much energy. He ran every other day and tried to get me to join him, but honestly cardio was not a thing I really enjoyed working on. He could keep his running to himself, while I tried to learn how to read.