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Annalise stared at the neon green numbers counting down on the microwave oven on the countertop of Gabriel’s kitchenette in Paris.
Not even twenty-four hours ago they were in the middle of a forest, surrounded by fading magical mist and fighting off Soul, her very own father, prey of his own madness.
She tapped her fingernails on the marble top at the same rhythm with each passing second. Flame and lightning bolts kept flashing behind her eyes. Her power, her gift vibrated under her skin barely kept under control.
The bag in the oven started popping and startled her out of the trance-like state the memories from the previous days had brought her to. Her gift slowly went back, dormant in the deep layer of her muscles, no more ready to burst out of her skin to force what was in front of her into a million pieces.
All that remained in front of her mind-eye were blood and dismembered remains of her father.
The doorbell rang, further pushing away the awful memories.
“I’ve got it!” Nathan exclaimed, rushing toward the door. Gabriel walked out of the bathroom wearing only a towel around his hips and intercepted him by the hood of his sweater and pulled him back.
“Yeah, you do? Since when do you speak French and carry Euros?” he said exasperated.
Nathan blushed furiously making his olive skin turn even darker and spluttered some half reply. Annalise smiled at their antics from her corner on the other side of the main room.
Nathan still followed Gabriel to the door leaning against the wall, while the white-haired guy talked in quick French with the boy on the other side of the threshold.
“Was he flirting with you?” Nathan asked once the door was closed behind the delivery boy and Gabriel had the bag with their takeaway Indian food in hand.
“What?” Gabriel asked, confused.
“Was. He. Flirting. With you?” Nathan asked again.
“No? What made you think he was flirting with me?”
“I don’t know, his French?”
“His French? He said the bill was 23€ and cents and was sorry for the delay. How is that flirting?”
“He was checking you out!” Nathen exclaimed defensively which made Annalise snicker while she pulled out the bag of pop-corns from the oven.
She decided that was the perfect moment to put a stop to their sweet but constant bickering.
“I think that what Nathan doesn’t want to say is that he’s jealous and doesn’t like when you open the door in just a towel for a stranger.”
“I’m not jealous!”
“Sure you’re not. And in any case, I agree with the feeling. Do you really need to show yourself off to strangers like that, Gabe?”
Gabriel’s gaze bounced between them as if he was following a tennis match. "I'm not showing off, I was in the shower!"
She rummaged in his cabinets until she found a bowl big enough to transfer the pop-corns, "Put the food on the table, I'll grab some utensils and in the meantime go get dressed, I refuse to have dinner with all that skin on display, unless you want to be dinner." She ordered with a cheeky smile to put an end to the discussion.
Gabriel laughed out loud dropping the bag on the table as ordered and heading to the bedroom he planted a soft kiss on her cheek.
She went about doing what she said she would, looking for plates, forks and knives in the various cupboards and drawers of the small kitchenette.
Nathan walked up behind her and rested his hands on her waist, right where her hips started jutting out. "Are you okay?" He asked, kissing her shoulder sweetly.
She thought about it before answering, and then she nodded. "As long as I don't get too lost in my own mind…"
"Okay. You'd tell me if there was anything I could do to help, wouldn't you?"
"Yeah," she murmured, caressing his cheek.
Together they brought the plates to the coffee table in front of the TV and started unpacking the containers with food to divide it for each one of them.
They were almost done when Gabriel walked back in, "Good you're done, I'm starving!" He exclaimed, plopping himself in between them on the couch.
"You took that long and you're still half dressed?” Annalise asked him, observing his naked chest. The man shrugged and switched on the TV.
"What are we watching on the telly?" Gabriel mocked their British slang.
Nathan playfully hit him on the shoulder and Gabriel shoved him in retaliation, almost pushing the younger boy off the couch. A playful battle between the two started until Gabriel almost elbowed Annalise in the cheek.
“Enough!” she exclaimed a bit pissed but still amused, “the food is getting cold.”
The boys quieted down and all three of them started digging into their food while fighting for the remote to pick a program.
Soon the plates were empty and the telly was a pleasant background companion.
Nathan was sprawled with one foot on the coffee table and the other propped against the armrest and his head on Gabriel’s chest. Gabriel had softly hugged him and kissed his head when he had first laid down. Annalise observed them from the opposite corner of the sofa, hugging her knees to her chest.
Their journey to the blood of the Byrne family had brought the two boys together in a way that sometimes made her feel lonely, despite being surrounded by their jokes and laughter. They had a special bond that she was not a part of.
Nevertheless, she loved them. Both of them.
She knew Nathan felt the same, he’d said so. Gabriel, on the other hand, was a bit of a mystery. He cared about her on some level, she had no doubt about that, but she wasn’t sure she could go as far as saying he loved her too.
But he loved Nathan. He was in his little book and she was not.
There was no female name except his Mum’s.
She had seen it that morning, on the dresser at the bottom of the bed on top of his coat. She had been alone in the room and she couldn’t stop herself: she had a look inside, to the inscribed page full of names. Nathan’s name was the last one, in neat but a bit wobbly block letters. And then Nathan walked in and she shut the book closed.
“Pass me the cigarettes?” Gabriel asked her with his hand pointing to the pack on the table.
Annalise reached out, grabbed the box and tossed it to him, who barely caught it. He raised an eyebrow at her and she just smirked.
He pulled one out of the pack and put it between his lips then he shook the box until the purple lighter she had bought him at the beginning of their journey popped out.
“Do… Do you still use that? Don’t you have a better one here somewhere?”, she asked. He had despised it so much when she had bought it for him. He had used it for days, but she could clearly see how much he hated it each time he pulled it out of his pocket.
Gabriel glanced at her but quickly moved his eyes back to the telly puffing a cloud of smoke over his head. “I hadn’t thought of it…” he replied evasively.
“Come on, tell me where the good lighter is, I’ll put it with your cigs for the next time,” she offered while getting up and grabbing the purple plastic lighter out of the pack and walking towards the garbage bin.
“No! Wait!” he jumped up after her, jolting Nathan to fall on his back and barely centring the ashtray with the lit cigarette. He grabbed her arm to force her to turn back around.
“It’s a stupid lighter,” she mumbled looking down at her hands surprised by his abrupt gesture.
“It’s not,” Gabriel said convincingly, holding her hands gently in his. “You gave it to me.”
Annalise looked up into his eyes. He looked scared, almost as scared as when he thought he had lost his book.
She couldn't help it when she smiled softly at him. "It's a stupid lighter." She remarked once more. And his only reply was a silent dissatisfied shake of his head.
"I'll get you a better one then," she offered hesitantly.
"Until then," he plucked the purple monstrosity out of her hand, smiling widely, and went back to the couch where Nathan was sitting, with a knowing smirk on his lips. He secured the lighter back in the cigarettes' pack.
Once Gabriel sat back down, Nathan made himself comfortable against him once more and extended one of his hands towards Annalise.
She joined them on the sofa again and once everyone was comfortable, after some shoves and a lot of giggling, they were a big pile of limbs with Gabriel on the bottom and Annalise and Nathan on top of him.
Gabriel squeezed them to his chest.
They had survived. Against all odds. Gabriel had gotten Nathan his family’s blood, even though the vial had broken, saving his life from the inside pocket of his coat. They had found Annalise, whole even if a bit panicked. And together, all three of them had gotten out of that mad house that was Wolfhagen, survived Soul O’Brien and his fear-driven madness and still got Nathan to meet his father to share his blood.
Annalise linked her fingers with Nathan’s right on top of Gabriel’s heart.
She slowly leaned in and softly kissed Nathan’s lips. Soft and chaste. They smiled at each other, and then she turned to place an equally soft and chaste kiss on Gabriel’s chest.
The telly was still on, keeping them company in their quiet night in.