HEY GUYS!
This is the final chapter, and I wanna end this with a bang. And I'm terribly sorry, but finals and college didn't allow me to update sooner, so here it is! The final chapter of this story! I must admit, I was supposed to end this story around chapter 27, I didn't want to make this a long one, but I did, and what's good about it? I loved every part of it, I hope you did too, and this is it guys! It was great meeting you and I hope to see you in other fics!
REVIEW ANSWER TIME!
- boop, thank you!
- Dommie, sorry for the waiting, here it is!
- Kali, thank you for your words! And yes, the 'good cake' part has a backstory of its own, you're right.
To Mac: thanks s2
ON THE FIC!
Chapter 49: The End
Zander opened his eyes. He was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, on his back, taking deep breaths to relax after the dream he had just had. It involved Malia – of course it involved Malia, he couldn't remember the last dream he had that didn't involve his bronze-haired lover. Closing his eyes, he did was he enjoyed doing after a dream of this kind: reminiscing in their memories together…
He walked inside his room, ripping his shirt off his body. Sky had to drop the glass of sauce on him! He threw the shirt to the floor; he really hoped he could salvage it. He loved that shirt, it had been Malia the one giving it to him. Grabbing a clean towel, he dabbed his chest carefully, mindful of his opened wounds.
Hearing his door open, he figured that it was Sky wanting to apologize to him and spoke "You better have not ruined the shirt, Sky. Malia gave me that one, and I love that goddamn shirt!"
Hearing a soft gasp, he turned. He spotted Malia at his door, holding a small towel. Her icy blue eyes were large, widened, and her lips parted, matching perfectly the rapidly growing blush. He found himself blushing as well, staring into her eyes. He fully turned to her, exposing his chest. Her eyes started to wander, taking him all in, and he gulped. She was checking him out!
"Malia..." he tried. She shot back to his eyes and bit her lower lip, placing the towel on the bedside table and leaving the room in a hurry.
The innocent yet passionate look in her eyes surprised him; he didn't know she could still feel that way, especially towards him. He rolled onto his left side and punched his pillow, making it more comfortable. He bit his lip and sighed. That woman, that daring heart and wild soul… she was going to be the death of him. Her eyes, her hair, her skin, her hair… there was too much perfection in one being alone. She was perfection, his perfection, and all he wanted, all he dreamed of was to have her back.
Easy come, easy go
That's just how you live
Oh take, take, take it all but you never give
Should've known you was trouble from the first kiss
Had your eyes wide open
Why were they open
He sang to himself, cooking the pasta as Sky and Tillie set the table for the eight people. Malia was helping with the children, entertaining them while the lunch wasn't ready. Diego and Airdan were in the living room, talking and sipping on a cold beverage that the wife of the latter had served them. Caio, Dawn and Malia sat in a circle, and the two toddlers were playing with their toys, while the woman supervised.
Gave you all I had, and you tossed it in the trash
You tossed it in the trash, you did
To give me all your love is all I ever ask
'Cause what you don't understand is
He sang softly while seasoning the food and getting everything ready. It was his ritual. He sang while cleaning, cooking and doing chores because it got the bore out of it. A tune in his lips, a smile on his face, and his mind cleared of everything. Reaching out for the herbs, he called out for Tillie to help him carry the salads to the table and start feeling the children while he finished. The last note left his lips, and he smiled.
I'd catch a grenade for ya
Throw my head on a blade for ya
I'd jump in front of a train for ya
You know I'd do anything for ya
Oh whoa oh
Another voice echoed in the air, following up his song. A sweet, calm-dripping voice with an edge of sensual touch. Smooth as velvet, but not as smexy as his. His had a baritone edge, almost sinfully dark, and hers was just pure and raw erotic, borderline obscene when the right words were spoken. He was surprised when he heard said voice and looked out to the living room to watch her.
I would go through all this pain
Take a bullet straight through my brain
Yes, I would die for you baby
But you won't do the same
Her small smile was everything to him. Sky seemed to have noticed the connection between the two songs, and grinned, watching the couple. Zander stood at the kitchen's door, watching her, and Malia played with the children, the two amazed by the woman's voice. The older males, Diego and Airdan, watched them with a satisfied smirk. Even though small and almost insignificant, that was another step towards each other.
"What?" she asked, noticing everyone was staring at her.
"Nothing." Tillie waved "Lunch is ready, come to the table!"
Oh, how he missed that voice! The edge of sin, the silky touch and the comfy tone! He loved hearing her sing. She wasn't the most skilled singer, he knew that, she knew that, but there was something about her voice when she sang – mostly to herself, but he had great hearing and always caught her – that he loved. Maybe it was the feeling behind it, or the way she only sang songs that spoke to her heart. Whatever it was, he loved it.
"Daddy, daddy!" Dawn called while the two walked with Malia and Tillie in the markets.
The man smiled and picked her up from the floor, bringing her against his chest "What is it, cutie?"
"Daddy, I haf' a qestion!" she pouted.
"Tell me…" he pushed a lock of bronze hair away from her face "What is worrying that pretty head of yours?"
"Daddy… why awen't you and mommy like Sky and Die'o?" she cocked her head to the side.
He sighed. Figured that, of all the things the child had to ask, this had to be it. "You see, Dawn… you know mommy is sick, right? And she's still trying to fit in with us, right?"
"Yeah, but she betta'!"
"She is, but she's not fully healed yet." Zander nodded and looked over to Malia, who chatted calmly with Tillie "And daddy needs to give mommy her space to heal, otherwise daddy is going to scare her away. And we don't want that, do we?"
"Nho… maybe I can talk to mommy and she be happy again!" the child grinned in such a Malia fashion.
"Maybe…" the moon elf gulped and looked away to the banks.
"Daddy…" the child whispered.
"What is it Dawn?"
"Why a' you cwying?"
"Because daddy really misses mommy, Dawn…"
It was true. Eanna knows just how much he had to hold himself back whenever she was around. How much he wanted to hold her, kiss her, wipe the constant tears well hidden behind her eyes. He knew her better than anyone – Diego is not called to this equation – and he knew her moods. He knew every quirk, every smile and look. And he missed all of them. He wanted all of them back, and Eanna help him deal with the torture that was to be with her every day, and not claim her.
It was a Saturday afternoon, and he was alone in the house. Well, alone per say, since Malia and Dawn were upstairs, in the bedroom, and the woman was putting their child to bed, for her to take a nap. He sat on the couch, with a blanket over his legs and a book in his hands. A novel about a forbidden love between two teens. Two rival families, and their descendants ended up falling in love. Capulet and Montague, two sides of a coin, Juliet and Romeo, bonded by soul but separated by fate.
He was so into the story that he didn't see the sun fall, nor heard the noise of someone climbing down the steps. Minutes passed from the soft noises, and he felt his hand being taken and placed on top of a steaming mug. That snapped him out of his stupor. He removed his hand and looked at what was under it, and gasped. A cup of freshly made hot chocolate was there, waiting for him. He looked across the room and saw no other than the person in the back of his mind sitting on the armchair, legs swung over the arm rest and with a cup of hot chocolate in her hands.
She stared into the window, a soft smile resting on her lips, and he felt the urge to kiss her right there and now. Not because she remembered him when she made herself hot chocolate and decided to make one for him too. Not because she, instead of snapping his attention away from the book, brought it to him. Not because she made sure to make no noise in order not to disturb him. Not because she warned him with gestures, placing his hand on the cup, to let him know it was there.
Simply because she remembered just exactly how he loved his hot chocolate in a warm mug in the afternoons when he settled down to read a book.
Smiling, he took a sip, relinquishing in the perfect flavor, and kept on reading the book.
Sigh. Why did she have to be so perfect? Why did she have to do these trivial things that got his heart aching for her? He rolled over to his back and looked up to the ceiling. By showing him the small gestures, she proved him she was remembering, and at least recognizing the companionship that the two had. These actions, these efforts to return to normal were what proved him that she was trying, at very least, to go back to what she was before…
His question was… would she want to go back to the way they were?
It was in the middle of the night. He was reading a book by the candlelight. Maybe it was late, and he knew he had to get up early in the next day to take Dawn and Caio to Calida, but it was a good book! Why wouldn't he love Catherine for choosing to renounce the wealth and the good figure of what Linton was for the core of her own being that Heathcliff was? He was avidly reading the words, taking them to heart and allowing himself to fall for them. Sighing, he turned the page. Someone knocked on his door and slipped inside quietly.
He looked from the corner of his eye to the newcomer but didn't say anything. He continued to read until he felt his bed dunk under the weight of another body. He looked up to see no other than Malia sitting in front of him, legs pushed up to her chest and looking away from him. Zander gulped. It was in the middle of the night, he was wearing a shirt and boxers (that part was hidden by the sheets), and she was close to his own state. Tank top, knee-high socks and cotton shorts.
"Malia…?" he tried, his voice quiet.
"You'll refuse." She spoke almost to herself.
"Try me."
"Can I touch you?" she bit her lip, closing her eyes.
"Okay." He smiled warmly at her, nodding when she looked up to him with surprise.
Zander placed his book on the bedside table and sat upright in his bed, watching her carefully. Malia reached out and, with the tip of her fingers, tentatively caressed his knee through the sheet. His smile grew slightly, and she moved closer to him. Her fingers raised in his leg, stroking up his thigh and up to his hip, where she maneuvered herself to be straddling his hips, but not sitting on his lap. He sucked in a breath, the proximity was sudden, but very much welcome, yet scary. He looked up to her, but she seemed more interested with running the tip of her fingers up his arm slowly.
He gulped when she got to his shoulder and tugged on his shirt slightly. He whispered her name, and that brought some kind of reality to her, because she snapped her eyes at him and blushed, pulling away slightly, but never releasing his shirt. He sighed and grabbed the hem of it, pulling it over his head in a slow moment. He felt self-conscious suddenly. If she was doing this from memory, there were a lot of scars in his chest and arms that weren't there before she went missing. She thumbed the one in his shoulder, that crossed down to his clavicle, and he nodded.
"Three years ago," he told "in a fight against Jace and Airdan."
She hummed and carried on. He ended up telling her the stories about his marks, even the ones she was already familiar with for good reminiscing. But he couldn't control himself. Her hands were sin against his skin, soft and warm. His fire kept him heated, but her hands ignited a different kind of flame in him. Hence why his were fisted in the sheets. Her fingers trailed a soft path down to his abs, one that he vaguely remembered her braving it with her lips, and stayed there, designing the scar that crossed his abdomen.
"Bar fight…" his breath came out short "I was following a lead to try and find you… but he had his buddies waiting for me."
He almost missed her whispered apology. She reached the band of his boxers and went back up. By now, she was sitting on his lap, and the pads of his fingers drew small gentle circles on her ankles. Her hand, now fully against his skin, trailing a line of fire up his skin, felt wrong, but so right at same time. Her attentive eyes, watching every of his reactions, trying to see what made him tick, what made him gasp and what made him squirm. She had gotten the last reaction when she sat on his lap, and she wanted to reproduce it.
Her hand drew the path of his collarbone, to the base of his neck, up the elegant column, and to the defined line of his jaw. There, her eyes fell on her damnation. His plump lips, wet by his tongue rolling in between them and firm. She took a deep breath and placed her other hand on his shoulder. She bit her own lip while staring at his, and sighed, leaning down slightly. The next thing she knew, her thumb was running through his lower lip, and his tongue touched it slowly.
He let out a shaky minty breath and she gulped. He leans in slowly and she does the same. Suddenly, she pulled back abruptly and jumped away from the bed, leaving the room in a fast pace, without looking back.
That was a stupid question. Of course she was. What other reason could possibly exist for her actions? He groaned, running his fingers through his hair. She was both his haven and personal Hell. How can she dance around him like that, and expect him to do nothing about it? He wanted her, in ways that a friend did, but also as a lover. He needed her and, although she was by his side as a sort-of-friend, he felt so much more that it no longer was enough. And, if her actions were of any revelation, she wanted him too, in the same fashion.
The door of his bedroom opened, and a small shadow entered. He didn't move, it could be Dawn wanting to crawl into her father's bed. The shadow hesitated a bit, but walked to the bed, and moved the covers so that they could enter. Zander's left arm was under his head, which provided the perfect leaning point to the person to lay their head on the male's chest, tentatively reaching up to fist his shirt. He bit his lip and closed his eyes. It wasn't Dawn.
Malia gulped and closed her eyes, trying to calm her fast beating heart. She was lying in bed with the father of her child, wearing her rattiest pajama, and dreaming of something that could not happen. She felt him kiss her hair and a smile broke out in her face. His right hand was carefully placed over hers on his chest, rubbing circles on the back of it, and his left massaged her scalp softly, giving her the space to move away if she wanted.
But she didn't. She wanted more.
She raised her head to look at him. He realized that and looked down at her. He smiled, his eyes glowing in the dark, demonstrating nothing but love and affection. Hers showed him curiosity, desire and nervousness. He leaned in once more and kissed her forehead, pulling back to look into her eyes for any sign of regret and fear in her gaze. But there was none. And she moved. The hand that was covered by his moved to cup his jaw and bring him down to her, as she raised up and planted a soft kiss onto his surprised lips.
It didn't last long. A peck, a small touch. But that simple touch was the answer to his universe. That touch was his completion, his ultimate achievement. That touch would grant an enormous grin to break out in their daughter's face the next day. That touch made her relax, made her remember, made her breath once more. That touch was perfection, union of the two souls broken apart by humanity.
She pulled away from him with a bright smile of her own to match his. She pulled away and laid back on his chest, letting his hand cover hers once more. Their eyes never left each other, and they were held there. Held in that completion, held in their own world, where all that mattered was their daughter and each other. She bit her lip and grinned at him, showing him the daring smirk he had fallen in love with.
He whispered her name, and she eyed him carefully, before parting her lips to speak the words that should have been said many years ago.
"I do."
.-THE END-.
A/N: This has been a long journey. Thank you for all of your support, and have a good life! I hope you like it, and if you did, hit that fav and follow button, and leave a review to let me know your thoughts on the matter!
The song is Grenade, by Bruno Mars, but I based myself in the rock cover by Memphis May Fire.
Lots of love from this weirdo,
LoneeWolf :)
