Becoming the Luna

Chapter 27

I wake up in a daze, something is wrong.

It feels like I'm...moving?

I wink one eye open only to come face to face with Dale's face, he's carrying me bridal style.

"Dale?" I mumble, still disoriented. "W-What are yo-you d-doing?"

"Taking you to your room." He explains shortly, not slowing down.

I'm still at a loss for words, it's Saturday which means there wasn't school so there was absolutely no need for me to go to my room so early.

"Um, w-why?" I ask again, reflexively wrapping my arms around his neck when he starts up the stairs and I lurch a bit.

"We have a date today." He says in that succinct way again.

I blink. I remember that we did have a date but it's still early in the morning. "It's not happening right now, is it?" I ask in mild horror.

"Nope but we're spending the entire day together."

"If we are, why are you carrying me to my room?" I ask still confused.

"Because I can, that and the fact that Virgil was being greedy." He concluded.

I blink again, so he picked me up while I was still asleep, just to get Virgil to stop holding me.

Because if I was still asleep at the end of the journey, he'd have most likely placed me on the bed and allowed me to sleep.

I groan internally, it's still so early, I don't have the brain strength to handle their rivalry so early in the morning.

"But I'm still sleepy." I complain, eyeing him out of the corner of my eyes.

I'm actually not, waking up to someone as hot as Dale effortlessly carrying you across a room and up a flight of stairs will do that to you but the thought of having to do actual work like start to prepare for a date wasn't on my bucket list at the moment.

"That's fine, you can sleep for as long as you want." He agrees, pushing open the door to my room and stepping in.

I'm happy he doesn't insist that I get ready, I doubt anywhere was even open yet, I mean it's barely light and I wasn't interested in any sort of hiking whatsoever, apparently there were a lot of things that could go wrong on a simple hike.

He gets to my bed but he just stands there, not making a move to put me down, it's sometimes funny and scary how alike he could be with Virgil.

"Um, H-How's y-your ha-hand?" I ask after a while of the suffocating silence, I had almost forgotten about the fist he had slammed into the wall the night before.

Now he moves, gently placing me at the edge of the bed.

"It's fine, it was just a little scratch."

"It sure hadn't sounded like a little scratch." I complain, too invested in this to stutter. "L-Let me s-see y-your ha-hand?" I request, raising my hands up.

He pins me with an intense stare but slowly raises the hand and places it in my outstretched hands.

I pull his much bigger hand closer with my small hands - side perks of being the size of a midget was that, your hands stopped growing when you're five years old.

I bring his hand closer to my face to inspect it, my wild hair gets in my eyes when I lean forward so I quickly push it out of the way.

I blink, peer at his knuckles and blink again.

"T-There's no-nothing th-there." I peek up at him from the curtain fall of my gold-brown hair.

He makes a small choking sound. "Um, yeah, I heal fast, I told you it was just tiny scratches."

I make a face, still unconvinced. "Do the joints hurt then?"  I insist, still prodding at his hand.

Actually it looks just fine, like the punch against the wall last night never happened but I can't help but be worried.

He uses the hand still in my hold to push me back till I'm lying flat against the bed, I'm half off the bed, my eyes are blown wide and I'm the color of a traffic stop sign.

"W-What?..." I splutter.

"Calm down Hayden, you worry too much." He takes his hand away from my chest but he still overs over me, his curtain of silky black hair falling forward. 

I pout at this. "M-My bad f-for showing a li-little concern then." I cross my arms, raising my legs to place them on the bed with the rest of my body.

He laughs at this. "Just like Jade." He mutters under his breath.

I glance up at him. "Who's that?"

"My younger sister." He shrugs and my eyes widens.

"Oh."

A comfortable silence envelops us and I start to worry about him standing for so long.

"D-Don't y-you" I pause here to clear my throat, my nerves are a tight ball smackdab in the center of my throat. "D-Don't y-you wa-want to um, sit or something?" I ask shakily, twisting my hands.

I had wanted to invite him to join me on the bed but the actuality of what I was about to say hit me hard and I quickly changed my sentence.

"You're worrying again." He teases me and I let out an audible huff.

"Can't believe I fell for that again." I roll over on my stomach and look away from him.

His goofy laugh fills the empty room and briefly I remember a flash scene from last night, the stark difference between this kind and open laughter and the dangerous one of the night before couldn't be more glaring.

"It was never a trap." He says and the bed dips beside me indicating that he got on. "You just overthink things."

"I don't."  I refuse, turning my head to look at him.

I'm expecting him to be sitting at the edge of the bed so my soul leaves my body when I turn around to come face to face with him.

I let out a short high scream. "What the hell!" I gasp, placing a hand on my chest because my heart is beating so fast that I'm scared it's going to jump out of my mouth.

He just looks down at me with a blank expression. "What?"

Without thinking I smack his chest. "D-Don't go 'what?' on me like that!" I exclaim, sitting up slightly to glare at him.

"How am I saying it?" He asks again, eyes wide with a convincing innocent facade.

Another smack - Shana's bad habits are starting to rub off on me. "L-Like that!" I repeat, unable to back up my accusations. This just gets me more flustered and I don't hesitate to smack him when he bursts out laughing.

He grabs my hand before I can make contact though and hangs on to it. "Whoa, your hands are so tiny." He blinks, looking down at our joined hands.

He reaches out to take hold of my other hand too and proceeds to fawn over them.

"Make a fist." He requests excitedly, we're both sitting on the bed now, I'm on my knees while he stretches comfortably with his legs slightly bent at the ankles.

I give him a look but I acquiesce, making a fist.

"Aww." He leans closer like my hands are too small to be seen from where he is - he's sitting directly opposite me, so close that our legs are brushing - but no! He has to squint to see the fist I made.

"They're so cute!" He fawns

I try to pull my hands back but he holds fast to them. "Hands can't be cute" I start to protest but he's already stopped listening.

"My hand easily covers both." He rambles on, petting and rubbing my poor hands.

His weird fascination with my small hands only intensifies as he places them on his face and uses his hands to control mine and squish his cheeks.

This time I snap my hands out of his. "Stop mocking my hands." I complain, hiding them behind me.

The next thing I know, my back is flat on the bed and Dale traps me under his body, my hands are held above my head and my heart rate spikes.

"W-What a-ar-are y-you d-doing??" I stutter hard but he's already cooing over my hands again, squishing and petting them like they're adorable animals.

It was going to be a long morning.

Dale is fully lying on me now and my breath hitches every other time, my thighs are spread and his resting in the middle, head on my chest, squeezing my hands.

I'm dying.

I'm pretty sure I'm dying.

Why did I wake up while he carried me??

I mentally wail, worried about my health now.

It can't be safe feeling like this everytime, I'm feeling too many too much at the same time that I can't even give a name to it.

"Okay enough petting my hands." I try to say firmly but it comes out in pants and stutters, my voice shaky.

"Fine."  He agrees grudgingly, letting go of my hands in favor of placing them at my sides. "You should get some sleep anyway."

I sigh at this, at least the physical attack was going to end, I relax waiting for him to get off me.

After a considerable while of waiting, he still doesn't move an inch, instead he starts to inch upwards, aiming for the crook of my neck.

"Um, a-aren't y-you ge-getting up?" I stutter in a choked voice.

"Why would I want to do that?" He mumbles into my collarbone and I have to slap a hand over my mouth to hide the embarrassing sound that nearly escapes me.

I have no answer to this question so I simply keep quiet and try to stay as still as possible as he inches upwards until his face is successfully situated in the crook of my neck.

He stiffens as soon as this happens.

"W-Wha" I start to ask.

"Nothing." He cuts me off, one of his hands reaching up to bury a hand in my hair. "Go to sleep Hayden." He ordered, going still again.

I gulp. Of course! I should go to sleep, easy peezy.

There's no way out though so I listen to Dale and try to fall asleep.

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