Elijah's POV

I awoke relatively early and leisurely reached for my phone, expecting a text from Nico updating me on the situation with Leon….none. Strange, But I digressed. He's probably on his way to my window.

I shrugged, turning over to nod back off, but instead found him peering over at me from that side of the bed. "JESUS!"

He glanced around, sarcastically, at the expression. "Nooope, just me."

"What are you still doing here?"

"Teaching Leon a lesson, remember?"

"That was THE OTHER night though."

"I don't remember specifying that." He tried to defend. "I do remember telling you that we'd see how the other night went and that maybe I'd go home yesterday."
"You said no such thing, but alright." I yawned.

"I'm pretty sure I did…"

"I'm confident you didn't." I objected, still.

"Really?" He stopped to consider for a moment. "...Maybe that was Liz I said that to…."

"Must've been.." I sighed. "Anyway, I guess it doesn't matter. It's not like I'm disappointed to see you."

He gasped and dramatically put his hand to his chest. "Be still, my beating heart."

"...You haven't had a beating heart since March." I chuckled. Or are there holes in your origin story?"

He blushed...or, whatever the vampire equivalent to it is. "You make me sound like I'm some kind of superhero."

"Maybe you are."

"I doubt it, but I'll accept the compliment." He chuckled.

"I nodded. "So, do you intend to spend the night tonight too?"

He smirked a little. "If that's okay with you."

"Always okay with me." I corrected, leaning in close enough to kiss him.

Though, just as I did, Sam was knocking at my door.

"Every time." I muttered under my breath, shaking my head. "Yeah, come in."

He opened the door just as Nico bolted under the bed.

"Everything alright?" He asked. "Em said she heard screaming from up here."

I shrugged. "...Couldn't have been too concerned if no one came up til just now to check on me…..anyway, it was just a spider."

Sam glanced down to the ground. "A spider named Nico, by any chance?" He smirked.

"Hi, Sam!" Nico laughed in response.

"Hey, Nico." Sam chuckled. "Wanna tell me why you're under my brother's bed?"

"Would you believe that hiding from awkward conversations is my specialty?"

"Given the one being had right now, can't say I do." I sighed.

"Take my word for it then, I usually am!" He insisted.

I shook my head, pointing a finger to Sam which Nico clearly didn't catch. "You, out. I'll be down in a few."

"But I just got here!" Nico lied

"Alright, see you in a bit then." Sam agreed, shutting the door behind him when he finally left.

I turned my attention back to Nico, who was already back up on the bed, behind me.

I shook my head again. "...That was very convincing."

"I try"

"Wasn't a compliment." I chuckled. "Now, where were we?"

He grinned, waiting for me to lean back in, closer to him. "You tell me…...or better yet, show me."

I pulled him closer, my lips right up against his, answering just above a whisper. "Gladly."

Come just after dinner, I returned to my bedroom to find Nico still in his spot on my bed, little more than halfway through his Joe Hill novel. His phone sat on my end table, buzzing for what appeared to be the fifth time as he continued to ignore it.

"You gonna get that?" I chuckled.

"I only put down a book to answer a call from one of two people, Elijah. You, or the King himself." He answered, not looking up from his book. "Certainly not for petty little feuds like Leon's."

"Why don't you just shut the phone off then?"

He turned a page, briefly glancing up from it with a smirk. "Cause then it would go straight to voicemail. This way he gets to hear it ring….and stew…"

"You know, your skin ain't the only thing that's ice cold, Babe." I snickered.

"Thank you, I try." He smirked, marking his spot in his book to set it back down on the end table, as I sat down next to him.

"You know, you could come downstairs once in a while if you wanted to." I pointed out. "Don't have to hide up here like some dirty little secret or something.

He grinned at the insinuation. "...Well, maybe I like bein your dirty little secret.."

"You're so bad, you know that?." I teased as he scooted closer to me, leaning his head on my shoulder.

"Bad as you want, Baby."

"Don't I know it." I moved to kiss him, right as his phone went off for a sixth time. I shook my head. "Man, if it's not Sam, it's another thing.

He snickered, promptly clicking the call away this time. "Suppose it won't kill me to send some of them straight to voicemail.

I snickered along with him. "Suppose it won't."

He pulled me closer again as I kissed him.

He slid one leg over my other side, so that he was straddling me while we kissed.

I was into it, until he looked at me a little more suggestively. He raised his eyebrows.

"Don't give me that look." I chuckled. "You really wanna risk Sam walkin in on us?"

"What I want is for you to get a lock for that door."

"I have a lock on it, it's just broken." I corrected.

"Whatever." He said with a, albeit cute, mocking tone. "Rephrasing then, what I want is for you to get the lock you have fixed...or get a new one. Happy?"

"Not really." I admitted. "That means our options are sort of limited.

"Oh, sort of limited?"

I rolled my eyes. "Alright, a lot. Now are you happy?"

"Well, not really. We've just established you have a broken lock on your door, did we not?"

I just sighed. "Unfortunately, we did." I shook my head again as if to shake it off. "Tell you what though…"

"What?"

I went back to kissing him again. "How bout we establish something else?"

"I think I could live with that." He whispered.