Chapter 7

"Boys! Are you ready? We're going to be late!" Mom yells from the bottom of the stairs.

I grab my jacket, thinking if its not too cold I'll leave it in the jeep and left my bedroom, joining Victor and Xav as they walked down the stairs.

"I don't know why you're so bothered about being late, Mom," Vic said, tugging at the tie he unwillingly put around his neck, "there's no set time for this thing."

"I don't want our family to appear rude to the new Bright family! We need to leave a good impression. Now, where's Trace? Yves, Will and Uriel are already in the kitchen with your father waiting to go, I do hope he hurries up."

"I'm here, I'm here." Trace mutters slinging a jacket over his shoulder and jogs down the stairs to join us at the bottom. "Are we all ready then? The Arts Centre better have a buffet on, I'm starved."

I was itching to get to the Arts Centre - itching to see Sky. It felt like forever since the last time I spoke to her, I had been keeping my distance from her during school, letting the information I told her settle in but I couldn't carry on with staying away from her. She's my soulfinder; we belong together, not apart. I'm willing to wait for her to unlock her gift but I don't want to do that alone, I don't want her to be alone when she does it either. I want to be there when she does it, I want to see her reaction - to see her feel the powerful soulfinder connection, to see the newfound love in her eyes when she looks at me. I want to witness it all.

.


.

As soon as we arrived at the Arts Centre my eyes automatically scanned the room for Sky, my eyes fixing on her as she talked to Zoe. My breath caught in my throat, she looked beautiful. She was wearing a pale blue strapless dress that stopped short at the top of her knee, showing off her toned legs, and her blonde hair curling elegantly down her back only to be held up delicately at the front by jewelled combs. She lit up the whole room with her presence even as she tried to hide amongst the crowd. I couldn't take my eyes off her, I watched as Zoe noticed my family and said something to Sky, making her turn around and pierce me with her memorising dark blue eyes.

Dad turned to address us all, so I reluctantly took my eyes off Sky to listen to what Dad had to say.

"Remember, keep an eye out for the Bright girl, remember what she looks like and make sure she's not alone. We cannot allow anything to happen to her, especially given the warning that Zed's premonition gave us."

"Dad, nothing will happen to her here," Trace insisted, "not in such a public setting."

they looked like a team of superheroes, though the jury was still out on whether they were on the side of good or evil. Smart girl, if only you knew, I thought as Sky's thoughts merged in with mine. Zed looks really great in that black shirt and matching trousers.

Pants. I corrected her, unable to keep the smile out of my voice or off my face.

"Still, we can't be too careful. You've seen the people we've dealt with in the past. We'll take no chances."

I don't want to know about those. Sky thought back to me. I couldn't believe it, she's embracing part of her Savant life!

I flicked my gaze towards her, raising an eyebrow teasingly, Don't you?

I watched her blush from across the room, which made my smile widen. I still couldn't get over how cute she was it was amusing to watch how the littlest things embarrassed her.

"Don't worry, Dad." Said Will, "We'll keep an eye out."

Get out of my head.

I can't cut it out now that I've started. Has anyone told you that you could stop traffic in that dress?

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Sky asked hesitantly, still not believing that she was talking to a disembodied voice.

Oh, it's good. Very, very good.

"Where is the little Bright girl anyway?" asked Xav with mischief in his eyes. "I want to meet her."

"Oh no you don't" I exclaimed, speaking for the first time. "We talked about this, Xav. It's bad enough that she knows Yves, it'll be catastrophic if she knew you too."

"You're just saying that because you feel I'll be an embarrassment to you." Xav pouted, pretending to be outraged.

"Yes, that's exactly why I'm saying this. I don't even have to use my gift to know that as soon as you meet her you'll find some way to add embarrassing childhood stories of me into the conversation."

"Well of course I would! Isn't that what big brothers are for?"

"Oh boys do be quiet." Mom said, looking at us both in amusement while the rest of the family looked a bit confused as to where this conversation had turned to, "Now, why don't you all go and enjoy the reception, but remember what your father said, keep an eye on dear Sky." We all nodded, "Go! Enjoy yourselves!"

Well, I didn't need to be told twice. I left my brothers and walked straight towards Sky. Zoe noticed me first and nudged Sky, mumbling something to her with a small grin causing her to turn around and look in my direction. I took this opportunity to grin at them both.

"Hi Zoe, Sky." I greeted politely.

"Zed." Zoe greeted, waving at somebody behind me – probably Yves, I heard that she had a crush on him, something I used to tease my brother about a lot. "Everyone home?"

"Yes, we had a bit of family business. You both look great." My eyes drifted back to Sky who was hidden slightly behind Zoe, looking shy.

Zoe swung her long hair over her shoulder, causing me to look back at her. "Thanks, Zed." She replied, even though the compliment wasn't necessarily for her but I wasn't going to tell her that – especially when I was trying to impress Sky. I had a feeling that insulting her friend wouldn't do well to stay in Sky's good books, "You don't look so bad yourself. I'm going to go and catch up with Yves. See you." She grinned a small knowing grin at Sky before slipping away and leaving us alone.

I moved slightly closer to Sky, obscuring her view of the rest of the room so she only saw me.

"Hi, there." I said lowly.

"I thought we'd said hello already." Wow, this boy was sending out heat.

"I said hi to both you and Zoe before. That one was just for you." I felt stupid as soon as I said that. It was weird, but being around Sky made me say the stupidest things.

"Oh." She bit her lip, hiding her laughter even though her eyes shone with it. "Hi."

"I wasn't joking when I said you look amazing." I couldn't help it, I reached over and brushed a loose curl back behind her ear. "Where did all this come from?"

"I keep it tied back at school. It can be a nuisance."

"I like it like this."

She snorted, "Well, you don't have to brush the tangles out of it each night."

"I'm more than happy to volunteer." I said, enjoying the shocked look that crossed her face.

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh." I said laughing, sliding my arm along her shoulders and hugging her to me, revelling in the touch, "Shall we go mingle?"

Sky groaned and leant her head back on my arm. "Do we have to have to?" She whined.

"Yep. I want you to meet my mom and dad."

Sky tensed under my arm. "Have you told them?" she whispered.

"No, I want you to be happy with the idea when we let them know. They'll be unbearable when I break the news." I was already cringing at the thought of Mom when she finds out that I have a soulfinder.

"What about your brothers? Can I meet them?"

I groan internally. "You can meet Yves as you know him already and the damage is done, but I want you to keep well away from the others." The thought of listening to Xav and Uri tell her embarrassing stories of when I was younger was physically painful and not something I wish to go through just yet.

"Why? Wouldn't they like me?"

I chuckled, thinking that was some punch line. "How can anyone not like you?" I stroked her arm reassuringly, "It's not that. It's just that they'll tell you all the most embarrassing stories about me and you'll never speak to me again."

Sky laughed. "I don't think that's very likely."

"No," I said looking down at her, smiling tenderly – a smile that I had never shown anyone before, not even my mother. "I don't think so either."

We paused by Mr Keneally, joining in the applause as he finished his set on the piano. Mr Keneally acknowledged his audience then frowned when he saw that I was with Sky. Thinking of ways to separate us.

"Would you like to play, Sky?" he asked hopefully, my arm tightened around Sky's shoulders as I bit back a retort for our music teacher. Be polite, Zed, I thought to myself.

"No thanks, sir. Not tonight."

"Would you like me to get you a drink, sir?" I ask politely, biting back a grin when Keneally did a double take.

"That's very kind of you." He looked at us again. "Glad to see she's a good influence on you."

"Early days yet." Murmured Sky, I squeezed her shoulder gently, chuckling.

"I'll have a soda – a coke." The music teacher requested.

"Coming right up." I dropped my hand from Sky's shoulder, "Be right back." I said before searching for a waiter with the drinks. I could sense the amusement radiating off Sky – she thought my effort to be polite was amusing especially when she knew I was doing it to impress her.

I eventually found the waiter with the drinks and grabbed a coke off him with a quick thanks before rushing back to where I left Sky.

I handed the glass to the teacher. "One coke, sir. Ready to move on, Sky?"

She nodded. "Yes. Bye, sir."

The teacher shot Sky a worried smile before turning to look at me. "Thanks for the drink, Zed."

He sat back down as Sky and I started to walk away. Mahler's Funeral March's melody started to fill the air and I snorted, amused at the music teachers sense of humour.

I leant in towards Sky, "Message for me?"

"Or me. People can't work out why we're together."

"Can't work out why I've got the prettiest girl in the room with me? Then they've no imagination." I laughed as she blushed a pretty pink and brushed a thumb gently over her flushed cheeks. "You are the definition of sweet, you know that?"

"I hope that's a compliment."

"Meant to be. I knew it even when I gave you that warning – you know, about going out after dark? You listened, didn't you?" She nodded, looking uncomfortable.

I smiled gently, tickling her neck slightly with a strand of her blonde locks. "I was so full of resentment that I had to do it because of my dream – I'm still worried about that – but even then, it did filter through that you were kinda cute."

Sky scoffed. "You never showed it."

My lips curled at the irony. "I do have an image to maintain, you know. I think I might've fallen for you that day in the parking lot. There's nothing sexier than an angry woman." I teased.

"Cute and sexy?" Her voice was filled with disbelief, "I'm not like that."

"Sure you are." I said cheerfully, "If I'm a tuning fork, you're the perfect A, making me hum."

"Zed, ssh!" Sky hissed, her face turning even pinker – she was getting flustered.

"What, you don't like compliments?"

"Of course I do – I just don't know what to do with them!"

I grin, unable to pass the opportunity up. "It's easy! You just say:" I put on the fake English accent I knew she hated, "Why thank you, Zed – that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me."

"Will you stop putting on that fake English accent – it so doesn't work!" She hissed at me.

I through my head back with laughter, drawing many eyes to us but I was beyond caring as I swooped down to grab her hand and kissed her palm. "You are just great. You know, I can't understand why I was so slow to realise what was going on with you."

I not ready to talk about feelings yet. "These dreams of yours – do they always come true?"

I frowned, her thoughts and the subject change sobering up my humour. "One way or another. Don't worry; I won't let anything happen to you. I'm going to take very good care of you, Sky." I promise.

"Y..you know, Tina doesn't think you're my type." Sky changed the subject again, gesturing across the room to where Tina was chatting happily to her mom.

"Oh?" I said amusedly, wondering where this conversation would take us. "And your type would be?"

"Tina's opinion or mine?"

"Yours." Hers was the most important after all; I couldn't care less what Tina thought Sky's type would be. I watched as she smiled down at her shoes, almost shyly and I felt a wave of nervousness shoot through me before looked up and glanced at me.

"Right now, my type seems to be tall, arrogant, angry and secretly really kind." My heart swelled with joy, I looked down at her and grinned.

"Nope, nobody I know."

"Sky, isn't it?" I almost groaned at the sound of my dad's voice. Trust him to pick now of all moments to interrupt us. "How are you?" he asked taking Sky's hand in his large palm and holding it gently for a moment. Mom was stood next to him, looking at me excitedly as if she shared a secret of mine, which unsettled me to no end.

Something going on between you and dear Sky that we don't know about honey? Mom asked in my head. Something more than first premonition warnings?

Mom was teasing me; I saw it in her eyes. I knew she saw something more in my friendship with Sky, I just hope she doesn't put two and two together and realise we're soulfinders otherwise Sky would do what she does best and run for the hills.

I chose to purposely ignore my moms voice in my head, which caused her smile to stretch as she introduced herself to Sky.

"Sky." Mom murmured softly, patting my soulfinders wrist and giving her a warm smile.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs Benedict." Sky answered politely.

"Our boy apologized to you yet for how he spoke to you at the river?"

Sky glanced at me, giving me a small smile. "In his own way."

"I see you understand him. I'm so pleased. It's difficult for him." Mom touched her cheek lightly, her eyes growing misty. Shit."But you – you've seen these things too – lived them, which is much worse. I'm so sorry."

Sky's breathing hitched. "Mom,"I warned. "Stop it." You're scaring her, please stop it. I added into mom's head.

Mom turned to look at me. "I can't help but see."

"Yes you can." I managed to grind out through gritted teeth, what was I thinking, letting Sky come anywhere near my mom?

"So much sadness so young."

Dad, get her out of here. Please, she's scaring Sky. I pleaded to my father, not liking the expression on Sky's face right now. Run! Her expression said, mixing in with her thoughts, Run away and don't look back! They're learning to much, letting people in hurts. Run! It scared me.

Dad nodded slightly to me and started to herd Mom away from us. "Karla, Sky is here to enjoy herself. Come visit us anytime, Sky. You'll always be welcome" Yeah, like that was going to happen now, not if Sky had anything to do with it.

"I-uh, Sorry about that." I tugged at my collar awkwardly. "Shall we get some fresh air?" I was desperate to get Sky out of the public eyes before she broke down.

"She's like you." Her voice was trembling, like she was fighting back tears. "She as reading me – getting too much like you do."

"Hush now." I said soothingly, stepping closer to her to shield her from the rest of the guests. "Don't think about it."

"What am I? An open book or something?"

"It's not like that. It's not just you."

"I think I'd like to go home now."

"I'll drive you back."

"No, it's OK. I'll get Tina to take me." Right now I don't want to be near any of the Benedicts.

That thought stung but I wasn't going to let it get to me, she was hurting. "It's not OK. If you want to go, I'm the one who's going to take you. You're my responsibility now. I've got to keep you safe."

Sky started to back away. "Just leave me alone. Please." Then all of a sudden saint Tina came to save the day, I thought angrily.

"What's the matter, Sky?" I wish just once that Tina would keep her nose out of everyone's – especially mine and Sky's – business but telling Tina that right now would not help my chances in taking Sky home so I bit my tongue (quite hard) and looked at Sky.

"I… I'm not feeling well."

I stepped between Sky and Tina. "I was just about to drive her home."

"I can take her," Tina said swiftly. Like that was going to happen, Tina.

"No need. She's with me. I'll look after her." I ground out. I was angry. Angry at myself, angry at Tina, angry at my parents and angry at Sky for trying to run away from me. I'm trying my hardest but no matter how hard I try I still manage to mess this soulfinder stuff up.

"Sky?" asked Tina.

Sky hugged her arms to her waist, something she did when she felt insecure and upset. I could tell she was uncomfortable. "Zed'll take me. I'll just go tell my parents."

Sky and I walked over to her mom and dad who looked at her with concern, realising something was wrong with her daughter and agreeing she shouldn't be here when she wasn't feeling up to it. Her dad sized me up coldly, his thoughts silent warnings of what would happen if I so much laid a finger on her daughter, which would've been intimidating if I didn't just want to get Sky home quickly.

I quickly grabbed the keys for the jeep off Dad; ignoring the apologetic looks I got off him and my Mom, and walked Sky to the jeep.

"Your dad does that well." I noted, starting the ignition.

"What?" She mumbled tiredly, letting her head flop against the side window.

"Do the ball breaker thing. He was letting me know that if I put a finger on his little girl, I'm already dead." Sky gave a hiccupping laugh and I felt the tension leave my body with relief as I heard that sound.

"Yeah, he does get a bit protective." A lot like Zed. I smiled at the thought, but let it go – she doesn't need to talk about us right now. Not yet.

"Why do you call them by their first names?" I wondered out loud, it was something I've wanted to ask for a while but never knew how to bring it up.

"I've only been with them since I was ten. We all agreed we were more comfortable with first names. They felt they were too old to start as Mummy and Daddy."

"You agreed or they suggested?" I could tell I hit the mark spot on.

"I was fine with it."

I let it go, it wasn't worth arguing over. "My mom – she does that to people. What can I say? Sorry?" I didn't know what I could say to make this better. I was terribly sorry that my Mom had spooked her and upset her in the way she did but I couldn't promise that it wouldn't happen again, my Mom was like me - she can't control her gift which brought me back to the dilemma on how I could fix this with Sky.

"Not your fault."

"I took you over to them. I should've headed her off. Don't let what she said worry you."

"Its just not… not nice thinking someone can sense stuff about you."

"You don't have to tell me – I live in the same house as her."

Sky brightened up at that. "She can see stuff about you too?"

"Oh yeah. Being a Benedict is no bed of roses."

I parked outside of her house. Her porch lamp was on but apart from that everything was dark. I'm not too keen on going in along but I don't want Zed to think I was making him a different kind of invitation.

I smirk slightly, "So we'll keep it in the car then. Just one small step," I told her before I bit the bullet and leant in towards her to lightly graze my lips against hers. My whole body felt alive at the sensation. I deepened the kiss slightly, sinking into feeling of our lips touching – it felt as if we were melding together, the barriers she put up around me slowly crumbling to the ground until they were no more to reveal something magical. Far too soon, I forced myself to pull away from her and sit back in my seat. "Where's your dad? Am I dead yet?"

"That wasn't a finger. You said my dad only thought about a finger." She answered breathlessly.

I chuckled, my body still humming from the kiss. I trailed my fingers down her shoulders drinking in her appearance once more, "Sorry, I just had to do that. The dress should be outlawed."

"Hmm." She breathed, Zed Benedict was kissing me – how could this possibly be real?

"Yeah, I really, really like you, Sky. But if I don't stop now, your dad will kill me and that will be the end of a beautiful friendship." I couldn't help it, I leant in for one last kiss before I pushed away and jumped out the car, walking over to unlock Sky's and helping her out. "I'll just go turn some lights on then head back to the party." Not that I was looking forward to going back, I knew for a fact that as soon as I stepped foot back into the Arts Centre I would have Tina bombarding me with questions and that was something I'd prefer to avoid for tonight.

"Thanks. I don't like going into an empty house." She admitted sheepishly.

"I know." I slid the Sky out of her hand and opened the door, flicking on the lights in her house and checking that everywhere was safe before coming to stand next to her near the porch, jingling my keys and unwilling to leave.

"I don't like leaving you alone. Promise not to go out?"

"I promise."

"Are you sure you'll be alright?"

"Yes, I'll be fine."

"And sorry again about Mom. If it's any comfort, her sister, Aunt Loretta, is worse."

Sky shuddered. "Really?"

"Yeah. Hard to imagine, isn't it? Keep clear of our house at Thanksgiving – they're an unstoppable combination." I drew Sky close me and kissed the tip of her nose. "Goodnight, Sky." I caressed her cheek gently.

"Goodnight." She breathed, hand still lingering on her cheek, I stepped back.

"Make sure you lock the door behind me."

I watched as she locked the door behind me before I walked back to the jeep, thoughts of going back to the party were long gone as I settled back into the jeeps drivers seat and concentrated on my dad.

I'm keeping an eye on Sky until her parents get back. I told my dad.

OK son, your mother and I are sorry about what happened. We'll make our way back home. See you soon.


AN: Yes, yes. I know. I suck. I'm sorry this is late, but its a long chapter right? Does that mean I'm forgiven? I do have a good reason for not putting the chapter up and it pretty much revolves around sleep so I'm just going to say I'm sorry and ignore the irony of the reason why I was late putting the chapter up when its 2am in the morning. (ugh, I should really have a bedtime.)

I'll admit, writing this while watching LOTR is probably one of the hardest things ever. So distracting. I kept wanting to change the story into LOTR themed. Zed taking the ring to Mordor and finding Sky along the way - realising their love for one another as they fight for their lives and overcome the obstacles in their path. Alas, this is the chapter, no orcs or magical rings and their bearers I'm afraid.

Thanks for reading!

Tell me what you thought of it and whatnot, updates every Wednesday's (unless the lazy me overpowers)