I apologize for missing uploads, I got sick and when I get sick, I'm about as useful as a snail XD That being said, I've been working on this under the radar for a while and now It's done Xd
It may be a little choppy because it was written by two people not writing in tandem but I hope you guys like it! Xd
Series Title: Wildly Famous
Chapter Title: Secrets and the Aftermath (Chapters 1 - 8)
Series Summary: Being a YouTuber isn't easy, even when you have a studio and a personal manager. However, being a wild with a yearning for a mate that causes some problems, a secret weighing on her shoulders that may break her relationship with her sister, and a mess involving her mate; life can't get more chaotic than that. Or can it?
Word Count: 36.7k
Main Characters: Cynthia, Leon, Orion, Ran
Couples: CYNTHIA X LEON, Orion x Ran
Status: Complete (As far as I know)
The annoying buzzing of his alarm woke Leon up with a groan, and the half asleep Vivid Wild lifted his hand and reached over to slap his phone and make the alarm stop. Why do I need to get up anyway? Is there somewhere I'm supposed to be at… Leon picked up his phone and squinted sleepily at the screen. Seven? Where am I supposed to going at seven? He set his phone down and moved to get up, only to have Lion remind him something
School remember? And be careful, Cynthia's still asleep and so is Orion.
Leon had already started moving, kicking the blankets off with the intention to get up, before Lion's words registered and he paused, thinking. I totally forgot we were here in Vandala. With Cynthia and my best friend, for a new school. The simple reminder that Cynthia was there with him was the weight of one of her arms wrapped loosely around his chest and the warmth of her body heat.
It's nice having her around again, Lion admitted quietly in an almost embarrassed voice, it's been a while.
Leon nodded, fell back on his side and twisted to look over his shoulder. He hadn't seen Cynthia come into the hotel room; his father had probably let her in late last night since she had told Leon about having an extremely busy schedule yesterday. Either way, now he didn't want to get up, preferring to stay where his was and prod Cynthia across their link. He smirked slightly, waking her up was always fun. His mate had two morning modes, one where she was practically as dead as a zombie and half asleep, and another where she was generally moody without a speech filter. Either one was hilarious to see, and usually made him laugh in the morning.
Let her sleep, Lion blocked Leon from bothering the sleeping female, she needs it.
I agree, but dad's going to kill us all if we don't get up. He's got a flight back later today remember? Leon pointed out, even though he didn't move, he won't be happy if he misses it, even if Cynthia buys him another ticket.
Do you really want to wake her up Leon? I mean come on, our mate is with us, we're going to her school, and we convinced Brad to let Orion come too. Take a second to relax, will you?
Leon inwardly sighed and rested his head back down on the pillow, You're right, again. Even so, when should I wake her up then? It's not like I can sit here all day.
Technically you can-
Like dad would let us, Leon cut him off, he'd kill us if I stayed here with Cynthia all day.
Someone knocked lightly on the hotel room door before it was pulled open to reveal a very awake and alert Brad.
Speak of the devil, Leon looked at his father and the two of them looked at each other for a few moments before Brad rolled his eyes and gestured as he spoke.
"Come on Leon, up and at it. We've got an hour before we need to be at the school and before you ask, no I do not know if Cynthia needs to be at the school or if she has something else going on." Brad told his second son with a fatherly grin of amusement, "she got here around eleven last night. Didn't bother to eat or anything, just went straight to you and was asleep by the time I turned around."
Leon looked at Cynthia out of the corner of his eye, even though he couldn't really see her, and his amber eyes softened. "Sounds like something she'd do." He lifted Cynthia's hand and lightly brushed his lips over her knuckles, his attention diverted to the girl sleeping behind him.
Brad smiled at his son before he went over to Orion's bed and lightly shook him, "it's time to get up Orion, you three have school today, or at least I think Cynthia does." He looked over at Leon and rolled his eyes, "while you mother would be rambling about how cute you two are, you need to get up and at least change and brush your teeth Leon, come on."
Leon rolled his eyes, "yeah, yeah, I know dad." As he spoke, he reached behind him toward Cynthia, "kind of hard to get up when Cynthia's dead to the world and her arm is like steel, although by now you'd think I'd have this mastered." He stated in an amused and half sarcastic tone even as he stuck two fingers into Cynthia's armpit and the female wild retracted her arm from around him to instead rest her wrist and forearm on his side with a sleep ridden whine of complaint. "Siaxun siasui jiania jiaua." [Good morning to you too,] She mumbled in a barely audible tone with heavy slurring of the syllables in Wivano to her mate and shifted a little, scooting up half an inch and nestling her head more comfortably on the pillow.
Leon then lifted Cynthia's arm from him completely and sat up before he carefully put her arm down. Where he positioned it so that her arm was slightly bent at the elbow and extended across the sheets and twisted to look at her.
The vibrant blue of Cynthia's eyes was barely visible from her eyes barely cracked open to look at her mate in a mostly asleep fashion, but other than that she barely moved from her position lying on her side with the sheets and blankets tangled around her legs. Clearly, she was barely, if any at all, awake.
Leon smiled affectionately at her before he brushed a lock of her messy black hair from her face, "Yuowus cuo riouo soxu, mujios soxu jiokiuson." [I'll be right back, go back to sleep.] He then leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple and straightened up but didn't move away from her. Instead he gently grasped Cynthia's hand and sat there, rubbing soothing circles over her skin and watching as her fingers curled around his hand in a slightly uneasy manner.
Cynthia's blue eyes were still mostly closed but were also focused on him, intently, like he would disappear if she went back to sleep.
Leon's heart wrenched a little at the uneasy fear from Cynthia's side of the bond and swallowed hard to hide it from her. The problem with them being in separate cities all the time was that Cynthia had grown used to him leaving in the morning to catch a flight to Vyliea and sometimes not having enough time to wake her up completely with how much of a heavy sleeper and drowsy person she usually was in the morning. So, when they were together Leon occasionally was woken up by Cynthia startling awake in the middle of the night. Half asleep and struggling to break free from the drowsiness while also trying to wrap her head around the fact that he was there, with her.
So, he patiently sat there for a minute, tuning out Brad shaking Orion again, and smiling gently at Cynthia while her blue eyes completely shut, her breathing deepened, and her grip around his hand slackened.
If there was one thing that Orion was professional at, it was sleep. His father having to shake him a decent amount before he began waking up. "I'm awake now…" he said, opening his eyes as he began stretching on the bed, trying to get the blood flowing.
He sat up and gave a nice yawn before looking around with his eyes opened fully. Orion's long, shoulder length, hair was a mess, going every which way and had to push it away from his face so he could see the world.
"Good morning everyone." Orion mumbled before getting out of bed, revealing he was shirtless and with a pair of grey sweatpants. Orion wasn't as big as Leon was, but they were both fit and had well defined muscles. While Leon looked more like a quarterback Orion had more of the lean build of a swimmer.
He then looked over at Cynthia and Leon, seeing Leon sitting there with his mate sleeping next to him. He felt the edges of his mouth go up in a small smile, happy that his best friend had not only found his mate, but he was going to be able to spend more time with her. Though it did give him the reminder that he still didn't even have a partner, nor did he really know any girls that he could check to see if they were his future mate. He let out a sigh, one filled not only with worry about finding a partner but also the feeling of content for his best friend and mate.
He looked down and could feel his cheeks warm up a bit when he remembered that he was shirtless, so before any chance of Cynthia waking up and seeing him, he quickly went and grabbed his clothes and bolted into the restroom in order to change.
Leon's head jerked up, he carefully put Cynthia's hand down onto the bed, brushed her bangs from her face, and sprinted after Orion. Scooping up his prepared clothes off the bedside table, something Cynthia had likely done for him, in the process and shooting past his best friend. "I'm first!" He cackled playfully and shut the bathroom door. After sticking his tongue out immaturely of course. He may be nineteen years old by now, but the blonde still acted like a teenager on many occasions.
Brad chuckled and lightly slapped Orion on the back, "get your stuff together, I'm sure he'll be out here in a minute. Everything's a competition with him, except anything regarding his mate," he amended his statement before he turned and left the three young adults to themselves. Well, more like Orion to himself since Cynthia was asleep and Leon was in the bathroom changing.
Leon came back a few minutes later dressed in blue jeans, a burnt orange colored active shirt with the words "Wild Champion" on the back, black and grey high tops, and had his signature shark tooth on a leather cord around his neck. He was holding his usual hooded leather jacket and Cynthia's windbreaker held by two fingers over his shoulder, had Cynthia's running shoes in his other hand, a bundle of clothes tucked under his arm, his backpack slung over one shoulder and Cynthia's satchel slung over the other.
During the time he was gone, Cynthia hadn't moved more than maybe an inch. The female wild was still asleep in a dark grey shirt, shorts, and white ankle socks, and currently had the sheets and blankets tangled up around her legs. Her long black hair was messy and spread out in various directions, including a small lock of hair resting on the side of her nose. Clearly she had come last night without preparing, since her jeans had had paint smeared on them in different spots, likely from working on an art piece before a deadline; her satchel only had her art supplies and basic things like her phone, wallet, and keys; and her shoes were simple worn running shoes. Usually if she did arrange something like this, she brought stuff she'd need in the morning and before she went to wherever called her attention.
However, this was why Leon had packed extra clothes in his suitcase, particularly the shorts and shirt Cynthia was wearing right now. Cynthia was about as planned as a female wild who was famous and overwhelmed could be, but she faltered a lot regarding her own personal health. Which was what Leon took care of for the most part, he reminded her to do all the various things she usually forgot about including getting a good night's sleep. He had heard she had a habit of staying up to the point of her energy crashing halfway through a class where a teacher would take sympathy on the YouTuber and let her sleep through the rest of the class and wake up on her own.
"Your turn," Leon grinned at his best friend and placed the clothes, jackets, and bags down on the floor next to his bed. "It looks like Cynthia put everything together last night, so your backpack and stuff is probably sitting in there." He sat down on the edge of the bed, casually tying his shoes. Alright Lion, it's time to get them up, Cynthia's going to be cranky if she gets in trouble for over sleeping.
True, you start.
I was going to, Leon stated smugly.
Orion looked relieved at the idea of getting dressed, quickly going inside to get dressed. Having still looked a little awkward with being out in the open shirtless with Cynthia in view, even if she was asleep. He closed the door and the faint sound of the shower turning on could be heard through the door of the bathroom.
Leon watched Orion leave before he cleared his throat, stood up, and walked around to the other side of the bed before moving on his hands and knees to his sleeping mate. Leon then stretched out next to her and slid one arm beneath her at the dip of her waist to gently pull her toward him. "The sun is up, the sky is blue…" the blonde athlete sang mentally and outload in the Wilds Language, prodding Cynthia's consciousness with the melody and wrapping his arms around her waist. "Come with me, and let me teach you…"
"What it means to be with you…" Leon and Lion sang together, Leon speaking out loud and mentally while Lion couldn't be audibly heard.
"First take my hand…" Leon sang, the melody slow and gentle, as he softly brushed Cynthia's black hair away from her blue mark, amber eyes twinkling with love. Even though Cynthia barely twitched, stirring a little at his and Lion's words.
I'll lead the way… Lion rumbled softly beneath Leon's singing, taking a backseat and leaving Leon with the lead.
"We'll start slow…" Leon sang softly and nuzzled Cynthia's mark, causing the dark blue mark to grow lighter, lightening to a deep sapphire hue that matched her eyes.
I'll teach you how
"Just follow my lead…" Leon rumbled and pressed a sweet kiss to his mate's neck and mark.
Cynthia was awake now, more like barely conscious, but she was listening, and her blue eyes were half open.
I'll show you the path...
"And you'll see something I've wanted you to see…"
"You'll see just how much…"
Cynthia shifted in Leon's hold, lifting her hands and entwining her fingers with his with a sleepy smile.
You'll see just how much…
"I ...love... you..."
"How much your smile makes my heart race," Leon purred and held Cynthia closer, feeling her sleepy mind and currently free emotions, with two being the most prevalent. Drowsy contentment, and a love saved just for her mate.
"How often I get lost in your blue eyes"
"And how much I wish this morning...
I wish this morning...
"Would never end!"
"So just this once take my hand…" Leon felt Cynthia moving and loosened his hold on her, only to feel the other wild snuggling closer to him and stretching her arms in front of her, a purr rumbling deep her throat.
Put your trust in your heart…
"Let me take you to a place…" At the purring noise Leon smiled and he kissed her mark again before speaking mentally for a second, morning Sunshine.
Under the summer sky…
"Where I can hold you close," Cynthia moved again and Leon let her go, only to have her roll over and face him, her nose bumping against his for the last few sentences of the song.
In the tall green grass
"And make sure this moment…" Cynthia slipped her arms around his neck, playing with the short and fuzzy hair at the base of his head.
This moment…
"Never ends…" Leon ended the last note, and a moment later, with a smile Leon fell in love with all over again, Cynthia kissed him. "Good morning sweetheart," he said softly after Cynthia pulled back, "how're you feeling?"
Cynthia's blue eyes were bright and lively, and she giggled before she promptly stole a short kiss and rested her forehead against his with her eyes half closed for a few moments. "I don't know how to describe it," she laughed, blue eyes twinkling. "It's like…" she paused, unable to decide her words, before settling on an easy response, with a dimpled smile. "Happy," she breathed, eyes searching his. "I'm really happy."
Leon smiled and moved his head back before he lightly kissed her nose, "I'm glad, I'm happy when you're happy."
They broke apart, the pair of mates sitting up facing each other, Cynthia running her fingers through her messy and slightly tangled black hair, and Leon watching her.
Cynthia breathed a happy sigh, "I wish moments like these would last forever, you know what I mean?"
Leon nodded, "yeah," he suddenly looked very excited, "you know what we need? A vacation, especially me," he grinned cheekily, "a week where I get my very beautiful mate all to myself. Your YouTube fans can't have you forever, you're mine!"
Cynthia giggled at his immaturity and she playfully slapped his chest, "you're so greedy, I'm my own person, dork."
Leon caught her hand and with a grin, pulled her forward so once again their faces were an inch from each other's. His amber eyes and expression glinted with sincerity as he spoke, "yes, but you are also my own and only." With that he lightly pecked her on the lips and let her go.
Cynthia felt like she was melting, and she leaned back, sitting up straight, blue eyes a little dazed and spaced out. However, she quickly focused again when Leon spoke again.
"That being said," He smiled a little sheepishly, "we do have school today, or at least Orion and I do anyway."
It was Cynthia's turn to look sheepish and she moved back a little, her cheeks tinted a faint pink and she adopted a matching sheepish grin. "I forgot, sorry. I should probably get changed and everything."
Leon swiftly pulled her back to him, her nose bumping his, "no way, I get to say when we're going."
Cynthia's blue eyes twinkled, "okay," she gave in, letting the other Alpha have control and smiling brightly at him.
The sound of Orion's shower finished not too long after the song. Orion coming out with his PJ's in hand and his hair still decently wet. He looked over at Leon and Cynthia with a smile, his cheeks had a slight tint to them.
He threw his PJ's on the bed and picked up his shoes. He usually stayed quiet when Leon and Cynthia were having their moments usually feeling a little awkward being in the room with them, never daring to say anything unless Leon or Cynthia said something to him first.
He got his shoes on quick and went to go look for where he put his bag, being as quiet as he could in order not to disturb them.
Leon heard Orion's footsteps and then looked over at his best friend, releasing Cynthia and turning his head toward his best friend, "Orion are you deaf?" He chuckled, "dude, I already told you your backpack is sitting on the bathroom floor with your jacket."
Cynthia rolled her eyes at Leon's behavior, kissed him on the cheek and scooted to the edge of the bed, "you can talk to us when we're together you know," she lightly teased, "we're not that zoned out all the time."
"Unless you're in heat, then you-" Leon started teasing only for Cynthia to slap a hand over his mouth.
"And unless you don't happen to value having me around, I suggest you shut up," Cynthia warned.
Leon blinked and then laughed, "okay, okay I get it! I get it! Now go change, my dad's going to kill us if we're late."
Cynthia rolled her eyes again but got to her feet and scooped up the bundle of clothes Leon had been holding earlier before she disappeared into the bathroom, Leon watching her leave.
Once she left Leon grinned, "you'd think after three years you'd be used to her being around by now Orion, you're so awkward it's ridiculous."
Orion shrugged his shoulders, "well I don't want to disturb you two when you're doing your "mate stuff"." he said with air quotations. He said with a bit of an awkward smile, "In the case of being awkward around you two. I don't know, I guess I just need a bit more time to get used to seeing you two doing that stuff." He said, not sure what else would be the reason. He went over at sat on his bed, looking over at Leon.
He sat there in a lightweight black t-shirt and blue jeans and light grey tennis shoes, looking pretty casual at the moment.
"So, what do you think it will be like with Cynthia going to the same school as you now?" He asked before smiling and asking, "And what do you think would happen if she got in heat during school?" He asked, knowing heat drove some female Wilds crazy for their mate and assuming that Cynthia was not much different.
Leon's eyes widened, "oh crap, I didn't even think about that!" He groaned, "I'm going to hope and pray the medication works even with me around, or I'm so screwed!" Personally, Leon thought that Cynthia when she was in heat was even more beautiful than ever in a wilder way than normal human way, but with classes and hundreds of other students around and not to mention Cynthia's popularity, it was a death sentence in a way. Plus, he valued that time as private, it was nobody else's business how Cynthia acted when she was in heat, that was information known to only a few select people.
Orion gave another shrug "Well, I guess we shall see what ends up happening when she does go into heat." He said looking at his best friend, "I doubt things will go too badly if they go south. If you guys do need any help then you can just let me know, I'll do what I can to help you two out." He said with a smile, though had no ideas as to how he would be able to help in a situation like that.
He began stretching, extending his arms out with a yawn, afterwards having a slightly tired look on his face, his eyebrows slightly knit together as he was thinking. "I bet if any issues start, you'll figure it out." He said, "You've got each other, and you two are a good team." He added.
"True," Leon agreed, his amber gaze wandering toward the bathroom door, "it's been a long work in process though."
Orion looked at Leon and smiled, "Well, you've made it this far, and now you actually get to see her every day." Orion pointed out.
Leon shrugged, "True, but it's both a curse and a blessing." His gaze strayed over toward the bathroom door; his eyes rather solemn. "It's something even I don't fully understand, however I do know it hurts Cynthia, at a lower level than being gone for weeks yes, but still, having to pretend I'm just a casual acquaintance is hard on her. Only Cynthia really understands it completely, being a female Vivid wild and everything." He ran a hand through his messy blonde hair, "I hope you get a Dormant mate Orion, or you may not be able to handle her, there's just some things Vivid Wilds understand that Dormant Wilds don't and Visa Versa."
"Being a Vivid isn't as fun as everyone makes it out to be," Cynthia said as she stepped out of the bathroom, changed and looking a little tired. However, she was still happy, happy like she had been that morning when Leon woke her up.
Orion nodded "Well, I guess I have to find my mate first." he said with a smile "Then I guess we shall see how things go from there." he said standing up. "though might I ask, what kind of stuff wouldn't you too understand about being a dormant?" he asked curious on the matter. Meanwhile he went and grabbed his bag and jacket, his backpack a brown and tan military style backpack and his jacket a dark blue hoodie.
"Well for one thing, I may be mates with Cynthia," Leon said with a grin that was half amused, "and even mated to her, (A not so well know process of sorts that makes a female a Vivid male's only mate for a certain amount of time which can be renewed. It puts restrictions on a male wild via narrowing the focus of his instincts toward just his mate. It also drastically lowers the chances of a male taking another mate :P) but that doesn't mean I understand everything that goes through her mind or even half of it."
Cynthia approached her mate, an amused smile on her face at her mate's explanation. Although her eyes twinkled at the comment about him being mated to her, something that had happened at the end of last year. They hadn't gotten to use it much with all of Cynthia's traveling and their father's request for Leon to help him at home lately, but it was a reassurance Cynthia enjoyed.
"I can read her thoughts and feel her emotions," Leon continued even as Cynthia sat down sideways on his lap. "I can even tell you what she's going to do before she does it, but I can't tell you how her mind works save my life."
"Dormants," Cynthia explained, "literally know how the other's mind works. Take my friends Jay and Bree for example, if you ask one of them how their other half would react to something, they could tell you their exact reaction, why, and what thought processes made them react like that."
Cynthia was wearing a no sleeved shirt with slanted black and white stripes and a v-neckline and dark blue skinny jeans. Over the shirt she wore a fur hooded dark grey velvet vest that had drawstrings at the waist which she had cinched mostly close to her body. A silver chain necklace with a sapphire buried in the teardrop shaped locket was hanging around her neck, with her and Leon's initials spelled with diamonds in the center. On her feet were her typical converse, a pair of grey ones she had left at Leon's the last time she was there. Her mate had cleaned the mud from the rainstorm there from the soles and tucked earrings into the vest pocket, which she was wearing now. The sapphires in the stud earrings and in her locket complimented her deep sapphire blue eyes.
Then her phone, which she had tucked into an inside pocket of her vest, started buzzing Cynthia grimaced before answering the phone, swiping across the screen to accept the call. "Hey, Ran," She asked in a slightly moody fashion, like the phone call reminded her that this moment couldn't last forever. "I'm about to head bad to the school any minute, something wrong?" Her eyes narrowed, "and did you get any sleep? At all?"
Leon wrapped his arms around Cynthia's waist before he leaned over and listened in onto the conversation she was having, a semi-grumpy expression on his face.
Orion thought about what they said and nodded "huh… That's something that I did not know." he said with a smile, that should be interesting to experience." he said, looking at Cynthia and Leon.
Cynthia rolled her eyes at her sister, "right, because I can totally tell through by the grogginess in your voice that you didn't sleep much if any at all. Plus, if you had you would've called me an hour ago being all worried about my safety." Cynthia put her phone to her other ear and grasped the strap of her satchel sitting on the bedside table, "I was visiting someone who had a layover in Vandala," she looked over at Leon and covered her mike, muffling her next words and actions, "Yuiwia kia nia lixan Lioji," she leaned forward and lightly kissed him, speaking in Wivano through the contact. "sixian xias jinusia nia sicas." [I'll see you later Lioji, good luck with your flight.] She then stood up, moved away from Leon, swung her satchel over her shoulder, and uncovered her mike. "I'm on my way right now, did you get that email from Firen about how me and you have to show a pair of new kids around school today? Supposedly we have to meet them before breakfast and show them the cafeteria first just after eight. Do you want to gather the group together and meet me at the front of the school? Firen sent me their yearbook photos from their previous school." With that, and a small wave at Orion and Leon, Cynthia disappeared behind the hotel room door which closed with a soft click.
Leon rolled his eyes at his mate's actions and watched her leave before responding to his best friend and standing up, "you'll enjoy having a mate Orion, it's something I wouldn't trade for the world." He grinned and lightly smacked him on the back, "come on, for all we know you could meet your mate there at the school."
Orion smiled and followed Leon out, looking ready but a little weary. "Well I look forward to the idea." he said with a nod, "I sure do hope she's at the school, I'm running out of places to look for her." he said with a small laugh and a shrug.
Leon left the hotel room, holding open the door for his best friend, "come on dude, we're going to be late!" He grinned, "and I have to convince Lila to take pictures of Cynthia before she leaves for the studio to prepare!"
Cynthia blanched, WHAT?! You sly animal! You are so not getting any pictures from Lila! I don't model to help someone for you to see how embarrassing it is!
Leon burst out laughing, you with makeup, hair curled, and looking gorgeous? I have to see them Cynthia! It's not like it's every day you wear a dress or dress up for anyone.
Shut it, I wear a dress often enough outside of Vandala, you see me wearing all kinds of dresses and formal clothes when I'm touring and stuff. Amongst ridiculous clothes designers design for wilds in particular. Cynthia's cheeks darkened pink at the memory, so shut up and don't you dare ask Lila for pictures!
Cynthia then quickly calmed down, even though she sent Leon a sharp sting of indignation across their link when he started mentally laughing. I hate you; you're mean to me. She turned her attention to starting her car and replying to her sister, "it's not as bad as it sounds, I actually model more pants and shorts paired with a shirt of some kind than skirts and dresses." She started to back out of her parking spot as she spoke, "apparently according to Lila if my feline ears are showing and my eyes are darker, I look better in more relaxed clothes that formal stuff or a dress. Either way, after being a celebrity outside of YouTube you get used to formal clothes. I'm still not a fan of dresses either, but I usually only wear a dress if I'm at a formal event, or one of my concerts. I prefer a skirt and blazer, (suit coat) if I have to dress formally." Cynthia then poked fun at Leon, "my mate doesn't get to see me in a dress all that often either actually, usually I'm too lazy or tired to dress up even for him."
Orion smiled as he heard the idea of getting pictures of Cynthia, "is that all part of being mates?" he asked in an amused voice "trying to find ways to embarrass or poke fun at your mate?" he said as they left the hotel building.
Rude, Leon responded to his with a roll of his eyes, but whatever so long as you're comfortable Sunshine. He then responded to his best friend's words with a cheeky grin, "if they aren't with you totally, but it varies between wilds. Contrary to popular belief Cynthia's really playful, so you better believe that if she's not next to me and I'm nearby I'm going to tease her all the time. You've already seen how goofy she is when I'm around and isn't too tired."
Ran nodded "huh, well at least it's high quality stuff and no dresses, I'd still be against the skirts but eh, you aren't me." She said with a smile, taking a sip from her soda. "I might wear a dress for my mate, if he really wanted me in a skirt or dress for maybe one night, but not every day." She said, waving at some people she was passing in the hallway.
"How is your mate doing?" Ran then asked, hoping that she could get some information about the important guy in Cynthia's life that she had no clue about.
Cynthia rolled her eyes at her sister's attitude, "Ran you would usually do whatever your mate asked you to do, it's part of what mates do. Even for a Dormant like you with mild Vivid tendencies. I'm not saying you have to agree every single time, but more than once is a good idea. I get along with my mate because we make compromises about a lot of things. Your way isn't always right no matter who you are and who you think you are." She pulled out of the parking lot and started toward the school. "He's… special," she decided on and said slowly, carefully thinking about her words, "I mean he's fine Healthwise and everything, but… he's frustrated he can't help with the attacks I've been having for the past year and half, and a helpless Alpha Vivid wild isn't a pretty sight." A small sigh escaped her lips, "I'm still working it out myself, but he's pretty impulsive and doesn't think things through so I'm sure he's done something already. Who knows," she chuckled lightly, "maybe he'll show up at the school at some point or something." Cynthia's expression drooped and she groaned, "Ahiz," she cursed in Wivano before switching back to English, "I need a break. Some kind of vacation where I'm not being hounded by the press and juggling this insane schedule I have." An idea was slowly forming in her mind, Spring Break was around the corner, with a month and a half to struggle through before the break.
She did still have that house in Vyliea (I'm changing around locations :P) and Orion and Leon's house was nearby, so what if she took Ran, Leon, and Orion to Vyliea? Ran would be thrilled to finally go with her, Orion would go wherever his best friend went, Leon would be excited for some alone time with her, and Cynthia had a sneaking suspicion that Orion's mate was her adopted sister. Plus, didn't she have a concert sometime in April in Vyliea anyway? Not to mention how wound up she knew ahead of time she was going to be by the time it came around. Better arrange it now than later. Cynthia reflected before she contacted Leon, I'm thinking about scheduling a trip to my house in Vyliea in April with you, Orion, and my sister, what do you think?
It didn't take long for him to reply, you're totally asking just for Orion's benefit, right? You know I'd go with you anywhere any time.
Cynthia smiled cheekily, I'll have to test that comment later, ask your best friend, will you? It'll be for Spring Break. She then spoke out loud to her sister, "sorry, had to take care of something really quick. What do you think about going with me, my mate, and his friend to Vyliea for Spring Break? I have a concert, my mate has a tournament, and I forgot to ask you last time."
"well I'm going to try to agree with him as much as I can," Ran said "I just hope he doesn't want to see me in dresses and skirts." she explained before she listened to Cynthia talk about her mate for a bit then smiled while hoping her mate would come to the school so she could finally meet him.
Though her expression dropped as she listened to Cynthia stressing about everything going on. Ran didn't like how stressed her sister seemed to be, between the busy schedule and her mate not being around it not only brought Cynthia down but Ran as well since there wasn't much she could do to cheer up her sister.
Her eyes widening as Cynthia offered the vacation "That sounds like an awesome idea" she said with a smile "you get to relax with your mate, and we all get to have some fun." she said
Cynthia snorted, "every guy, human or wild, likes to see a girl in a dress Ran, it'll happen to you, don't count on almost never wearing a dress. Especially when you get a professional career," she pointed out before grinning, "and exactly! And who knows, maybe the friend my mate is bringing will be yours," she stated cheekily.
Orion's up for it, however, I think we should bring Lila and Jake, they can keep an eye on our siblings while we're busy and Lila is your manager. Leon told her, and Cynthia smiled broadly.
Now I'm excited.
T-Minus One Month till Spring Break
In Heat
Holly emerged from her dorm room and lightly tapped Ran on the shoulder, worry in her green eyes, "I think Cynthia's in heat, I tried to wake her up, but she's got a fever and doesn't look too good. I have to go to an early class, but I wanted to make sure you knew before I left." With that the green-eyed girl vanished and the other waited, worried about the wild.
As they waited Leon emerged from his room, sleepy eyed and looking like he hadn't been sleeping well lately. For the past few nights he had been kept awake by homework and a restless energy from Cynthia from the female wild waking up multiple times a night usually with a yell or howl of fear. So, neither of them had been sleeping well and it showed on Leon while Cynthia seemed perfectly normal every morning, as sluggish and sleepy as usual every morning. Minutes passed by, till it was only Orion, Leon, Ran, and Bree in the dorm, all four of them waiting for Cynthia to make herself known.
Cynthia eventually emerged from her dorm room much later then she usually did looking particularly dead to the world and miserable. She would've been making them borderline late were it not obvious that she wasn't going to classes and likely felt horrible. Her blue eyes were bright with a fever, her cheeks were flushed from the fever, and she was sweating a little. Her feline ears were visible slumped forward in an exhausted manner, and she was a little hunched over, slouching horrifically and rubbing at her eyes with one hand. She was wearing a loose t-shirt and shorts with no socks and had a malleable ice pack draped around her neck as a weak attempt to cool her body.
Leon looked up from his bowl of cereal and froze for half a second, amber eyes fixed on his mate. Concern, fear, and a sense of apprehension flashed across his eyes before he masked it and opened his mouth to casually greet her.
Only to have Cynthia lift a hand and give a moody grunt, "save it, I don't want to talk to anybody." Even you.
Leon recoiled a little, stung at her harsh refusal to hear him speak, and his eyebrows knitted together. What did I do now? I haven't done anything!
Leon, I'm not in the mood to argue with you like this. I already have a headache, I'm on fire, and after I take this medication I'm going back to sleep. Cynthia replied as she trudged over to the sink, grabbed a medication from inside one of the cabinets and filled up a cup before taking the small pill with a sense of dread that it wasn't going to help her much this time.
Leon watched her discreetly, do you want me to massage your neck? Your muscles always over tighten when you're in heat.
And how would you do that huh? We're in a dorm with nine other people, eight of which have no idea you're my mate. I'm fine, I've lived through this before.
But never in my presence where I can't help you, Leon quietly pointed out as Cynthia started back toward her room, brushing everyone off, you know your heat is heightened when I'm around.
Leon?
Yeah?
Leave me alone.
Leon frowned but did as she asked and harshly shoved a spoonful of cereal into his mouth, as you wish. He withdrew from her and felt her raise her mental barriers, blocking him from her inner thoughts and diluting her emotions. Leon reached out toward his best friend, Orion, don't visibly react, but Cynthia's in heat. He wanted to help his mate, help her feel better and end her suffering, but it was impossible here. There were too many people who didn't know, and the time between classes was too short. It would take him more than a week to help her end it, and so it was faster just to wait it out. Even though he knew it was going to get ugly, and fast. Cynthia wasn't an Alpha for no reason, and it was never more obvious that she was an Alpha than when she was in heat for a prolonged period of time.
Ran had been out of bed since Holly had gotten her up, not sure what to do though. She looked up when Cynthia walked into the main room, looking at her sister with worry, seeing Cynthia's heat had left her in a bad state. Though Ran kept her mouth shut due to Cynthia's demand.
Alex, is it just me, or does she look even worse than normal? Ran asked her wild, having watched Cynthia as she got her medication and went back to her room.
I can't tell right now at least; we will have to see what happens. Alexandra said, sounding unsure and worried for their sister.
After Cynthia closed the door behind her she sighed "I will be honest I've run out of ideas to help her." she said, thinking back to the different methods she tried to keep Cynthia's temperature down or just relieve some of the issues of her heat.
Orion glanced over at Leon for a moment before going back to eating his oatmeal, almost as if nothing happened. Anything I can do to help you? He asked Leon, usually being more than happy to help his best friend and Cynthia out. He knew it had been hard for them the past year and a half and now it would be even worse, so if he could help ease his best friend's worry and pain, he was willing to do whatever it takes.
Not really, even I can't do anything, she won't let me. Even if she did I couldn't, I can't help her without revealing the secret, Leon pointed out in a frustrated tone, and she'll get pretty mad if I did that. He pushed his bowl away and swung his backpack up onto his shoulder, there's not much I can do other than refuse to help her. Which is going to upset her later. Either way she's going to be upset with me and hurt, I can't really touch her while she's in heat like this and there's people who don't know. If I do touch her, she'll jump me cause she's in pain, is miserable, and I'm pretty much the only thing and person on her mind. He waited for his best friend to finish eating, we'll see how it goes, but I'm this is going to end with my mate in tears and someone finding out.
Hmm… What if we got you and Cynthia out of the way of everyone else? Orion suggested, thinking out loud to Leon as he finished and got his backpack on. Find a place where you two can be alone, I can take care of cover for you two. He said, still thinking as he walked out the door with Leon. And if someone is going to find out, why don't you two decide who that is? Maybe they could help out too so hiding it from everyone else would be easier? Just what I was thinking. Orion said, walking down the hall.
I appreciate your optimism, but it wouldn't work, Cynthia can't leave the dorm until her fever breaks and she doesn't look so sick and ill. Not to mention that everyone lives here. Leon pointed out, not to sound like the bringer of bad news or anything, but it's going to be impossible. Everyone would get suspicious if we both disappear at the same time, particularly Holly and Cynthia's sister. Everyone knows Cynthia has a mate but not who he is. Who would Cynthia trust to not tell? Leon followed his best friend's lead, walking with him. It'll be fine, it should only last four days if I'm around, and while she's going to hate me, and herself for that matter, for a little while it'll work out. Somehow. I'll talk to her tonight after she's cooled off and ask her what she wants me to do. Until then I have to avoid her and not touch her. Leon ran a hand through his hair, "let's go to class and worry about all of this later. I hope she has enough self-control to keep it all hushed," he mumbled the latter sentence, hoping his mate could keep herself together while she was in heat, he was around, and knew he couldn't help her. If not, then everything was going to fall apart, again. I cannot wait for April to come around, Leon sighed and Lion full heartedly agreed with him.
Cynthia was more normal when everyone got back from their morning classes, she was lying on the couch in loose shorts and a t-shirt under a fluffy blanket when they got back. Asleep on her side with her head positioned in a funky way that would no doubt give her a kink in her neck when she woke up. The female wild had a book squished between her body and the couch, pens were scattered around on the floor, a sketchbook was beside the book, rumpled and wrinkled with the latest page wrinkled so badly the sketch wasn't readable and pencil lead was smudged on her face, fingers, and nose. Her glasses were sitting crookedly on her nose, her cheek was pressed against the leather armrest of the couch and her legs were tangled in the dark orange blanket everyone knew she had gotten from her mate a while ago. The in-heat wild was still sweating, her forehead was beaded with it, and her face was even more fevered that before. However, she was drooling a little like Ran and Leon knew she did on occasion when she was completely dead to the world and her expression was moderately peaceful.
Leon had the urge to go over to his sleeping mate, pull her into his arms, snuggle her close to him, and tease and wake her up. Usually when Cynthia was in heat and Leon was around, the blonde spent as much time with her as he possibly could, keeping close to her and soothing the pain in her body by being around her.
He always did his best to make her feel better, and it was frustrating only able to watch when he could fix it and make her feel better. Not to mention that her heat affected him too, and while he could ignore it without too much of a problem, it still bothered him. He needed to go run around or punch something, the extra energy in his system and wilder like drive was nagging at him, and while he could try to ignore it, it was like a pesky fly that never went away.
Orion nodded to his best friend, knowing he was under a lot of stress and frustration right now. He followed him into the room, wanting to get started on his homework.
Cynthia stayed asleep for a little while, barely stirring when everyone went to their afternoon classes. Although she did give a weak and sleepy purr when after everyone else had left except his best friend Leon leaned over and lightly kissed her temple. The female wild stretched out comfortably when her mate kissed her temple and settled onto her back, sleepily reaching for him with one hand with a mumbling whimper. "I love you," she whined and managed to slip her around arms Leon's neck as he was moving away from her. The sleep ridden and in heat wild tugged his head closer to her, and for a few moments Leon didn't resist, letting her tuck his head against the front of her neck near her collarbone, vibrating his vocal cords and soothing her, even for just a few seconds.
Leon's nose was now pressed against the front of Cynthia's neck, and he was carefully holding his breath, being careful to avoid breathing in his mate's heat scent and having it affect him. I know you're mostly asleep sweetheart, but just know that even if I'm mostly unable to help and comfort you, I still love you.
Cynthia nuzzled her nose against Leon's neck, her blue eyes still closed and mostly asleep. Her ears tickled Leon's neck around the collar of his shirt, and she purred rather lazily.
Leon lightly kissed the front of her throat; I have classes Sunshine… you gotta let me go.
Cynthia did as he asked, the mostly asleep female wild released him and rolled back onto her side, now facing the back of the couch with one of her arms flung over the back-couch cushions.
Leon tugged her blanket up to her shoulders and twisted his head from side to side, taking a deep breath before he moved to leave, glancing at his best friend, "don't tell anyone you saw anything or I'll tell your mate every embarrassing story I can think of when we find out who she is."
T-Minus Under One Month till Spring Break
Later that Evening
Orion sat on his bed across from where Leon was, his eyebrows were scrunched together as he did his best to remember the specifics of the dream. He closed his eyes, trying to focus.
"B-but I want to come," Orion stumbled slightly over his words, looking at Cynthia. They were standing in a school hallway, one of the hallways in the current school they were going to.
The YouTuber looked to be about fourteen, and she looked a lot different. Not appearance wise, she was the same blue-eyed YouTuber with long black hair tied up into a ponytail, but her expression was flat and her blue eyes, now expressive and usually glittering with a creative spark she never seemed to lose, were different. The Vivid Alpha wild's blue eyes were simmering with anger, not directed at Orion or whoever he was seeing the memory through, but rather her life in general. "I can't take you with me," Cynthia told him, her voice was flat, borderline bored, and it hurt Orion's feelings, being brushed off by Cynthia like that. "I'd get in trouble if I did."
"Why? I don't understand, you know I won't get into trouble!"
Cynthia tucked her hands into her jeans pockets, her blue gaze wandering away from him to look past him even though she was talking to him. "That's debatable with your wild. Not that it matters anyway because Lila would refuse a million times over. I'm only going to be gone for one day anyway, I'm flying there, having the concert, and flying back. What's the big deal anyway? I never bring anybody with me, haven't for seven years."
Orion fell silent and said nothing, choosing to instead look down at the floor.
"Look," Cynthia's voice softened, and Orion felt a hand on his shoulder, "I'll take you one day, but that won't be today alright?"
"Okay," Orion mumbled quietly.
Orion Looked at Leon before saying "though after that, there was sort of another dream afterwards." he said.
Orion was sitting crisscross on the floor a mass of Legos surrounding him, he could see off to the side that there were Lego buildings built, creating what looked to be a little city. In front of him was a half-built building. One he was working on very quickly as he plucked the pieces from around him and placing it on his tower.
The scene shifted to where he was taking the buildings and placing them out in the room in a grid. "definitely going to win the talent show this year." he said quietly to himself as he did so.
The scene shifted again to being in the school's gym, a bunch of tables set up throughout the room as people were setting up displays and projects.
Orion at the moment was taking the parts of his Lego buildings and setting them up on his tables.
"you really went all out didn't you?" he heard Cynthia say, turning around to see Cynthia dropping off a couple more boxes.
Orion smiled at her "Well, I gotta do my best." he said setting one of the buildings out on the table. He had a lot of boxes spread around his tables, having wanted to make a centerpiece level exhibit for this year's talent show. He had built an entire Lego city, it had everything from office buildings, to little stores, a parking garage, and even part of a freeway.
Cynthia patted his shoulder before saying "Well, I hope things go well for you." She said before going off to somewhere Orion didn't know.
Orion nodded before opening another box and began pacing together that building.
The dream shifted one last time to when Orion stood in front of a small crowd that had come around to see the completed city during the talent show display. Many other people had brought their musical instruments, others their drawing, some people had been singing and others telling stories. Orion was happy with his city though, he had spent hours getting everything built, and happy that now he got to show it to the school.
He finished explaining the dream, looking at his best friend for either confirmation that they were dreams from his future mate, or to tell him they were just normal dreams.
Leon's eyes widened at the explanation from Orion and he gave a sharp inhale at the Lego story. Cynthia had told him that story, about when she and Ran were kids, she bought her sister tubs of Legos, and helped her when she could, for Ran's talent show. They had been kids, Cynthia barely thirteen and just barely becoming busy all the time and Ran was ten at the time. He remembered seeing a picture of the city, a mental impression from his mate, and it had been incredibly built, borderline professionally even though it was built by a ten-year-old. "Sounds like you're getting dreams of your mate's past, kind of interesting that Cynthia's involved though. When she's out of heat you should ask her about them, she has vivid and dormant blood, so she probably knows more than I do-" Leon looked up and over at his door as it creaked open and Cynthia slipped partway into the room. Her blue eyes still overly bright with the fever, but she looked worse, more tired and frustrated with her forehead and nose slightly wrinkled in a stressed fashion. "Leon," she mumbled, "I want time with you…"
Leon looked surprised at seeing his mate awake and conscious, while she did look more anxious and restless, she also looked more aware of what was around her. Which was better than what she was like earlier. However, she also looked more eager and wild orientated than she was earlier when she was awake. "What're you doing?" he hissed and lowered his voice, "everyone's here at the dorm!"
Cynthia softly shut the door behind her and moved deeper into the room, her blue eyes flicking briefly over to Orion before she looked back at Leon and spoke, switching to the wilds language, "I know, but Leon…
Leon quickly recovered from his surprise and looked patiently over at her, keeping calm, "I'm talking to my best friend right now," his voice was patient, like he had somehow known this was going to happen. "I'll come over to your studio in a little bit."
Cynthia gave a heavy sigh of a whine, "I know, but…" the female wild avoided his eyes and fidgeted, mumbling under her breath in the wilds language. "I don't want to wait."
Leon continued to look patient and calm, despite how his jaw was a little clenched, like he wanted to help her, but wouldn't for their sanities. "I gave you my word, I need you to trust me." He was carefully choosing his words, avoiding nicknames, speaking in the wilds language, and not allowing her to touch him. "I'll try and help you sleep in a little bit, you need to rest C-" he stopped short, preventing himself from actually her name. "Go lay down," he coaxed, even though Cynthia got closer, standing in front of him, "you need to sleep so this will go away."
Cynthia groaned in frustration, "it's not going to go away anyway so what's the point?"
"The point is that it'll help you re-center your focus and allow you to work on your art for a little while and prevent your boredom from making you chase me around and eventually get us into trouble."
Cynthia gave a small whimper and reached forward to grasp one of his hands in his lap, blue eyes a little vulnerable, "I'm being careful, I won't get us into trouble."
Leon dodged her attempt to grasp his hand, amber eyes calm, even as hurt flashed over Cynthia's face and the female recoiled with a slightly round eyed and confused look on her face. "I can't let you touch me right now; you know that. If I do you know what'll happen."
Cynthia's lower lip trembled a little and she whimpered, "but I want comfort, it hurts..."
"You're a strong Alpha," Leon told his mate, being careful to keep his voice from cracking or wavering, "you can make it, I know you can."
Cynthia crossed her arms over her chest as if trying to protect herself, and she took a hesitant step toward him, blue eyes uneasy and scared. "Leon…" she whined, "don't make me… don't make me do it by myself…"
Leon's expression didn't change and he stood up and moved away from her, standing on the other side of the bed he had been sitting on the edge of. "You can do it; I know you can."
Cynthia's now teary and scared blue gaze flickered over to Orion for a second and Leon spoke again, but this time a little harshly, "Orion's not to blame Cynthia," Cynthia shivered a little at her name being mentioned and hunched her shoulders at the harsh tone, "now go on, you're okay." His voice softened, to the patient and calm tone from earlier, "I'll come check on you in a little bit."
Cynthia obediently nodded, despite how she was ducking her head to prevent either of them from seeing her tears, and quietly left the room, the door closing with a barely audible click.
Leon wilted the moment she left, he exhaled slowly through his mouth, ran a stressed hand through his blonde hair and slumped forward, looking pained and tired. He could feel the sharp sting of agony Cynthia was currently feeling from his rejection of her touch and the mostly silent anguish she was going through. I'm sorry Cynthia, he apologized, even though their barriers prevented mental communication, as he felt Cynthia's emotions strengthen with hurt and an underlying hint of miserable anger.
I want everyone to go away. Cynthia replied bitterly, even as she went past her sister and disappeared into her studio, sniffling with tears in her blue eyes. Which room she had come from was hard to tell, hiding why she was crying and who made her cry in the first place.
Orion sat a little awkwardly on his bed, not sure what else to say now after Cynthia had come into the room. He looked up at his best friend who now looked miserable as well. "I'm sorry you have to go through this Leon," He said, with a sigh. He had his elbows resting on his thighs with his arms hanging down in a very tired and defeated position. "Maybe you should go help her sleep now?" He asked, thinking that might help both of them. "We can talk a different time." He said, watching his best friend.
Leon shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, "her sister's probably right on her heels. I couldn't go over there unless I want to reveal everything." He shut his eyes for a moment, composing himself properly before clearing his throat, "don't worry about us, we'll be fine." I hope. He focused on Orion's conundrum, "write down the dreams your having, it could very well lead you to your mate Orion, and you deserve to be happy with a girl, especially after all the years you've watched me with Cynthia without a mate of your own." His heart twisted as his hearing picked up on Cynthia's emotions spike out of control for a few moments before she and Cinder wrestled control of them and felt horrible. Xuan, he cursed, I never wanted this to happen, I was hoping she would skip a heat cycle, skip till April where I can help her.
I know, Lion finally said something, the lion animal familiar's voice was tired and defeated, as defeated as Leon felt. I wish I could help her too.
I can't touch her unless she's asleep or she'll flip out and the heat will get worse too, meaning I'm going to have to watch her from a distance till it ends. Leon sighed and Lion quietly comforted the wild, his own emotions a mess as well. I wish I could make her feel better and keep the secret at the same time...
Ran looked at Cynthia with wide eyes as she saw her miserably walk past her "Cynthia? What happened?" She said turning around and watching her sister as she went into her studio. She looked around at the other rooms to see them all closed. She turned and walked over to her studio, going in to check on her older sister "Cynthia?" She asked in a gentle voice.
There was a loud crash from Cynthia's studio when Ran looked around the dorm accompanied by a distraught female howl, and by the time Ran moved to check on her, Cynthia was kneeling on the floor hunched over with her hands clenched into fists on the floor and her body trembling.
Pieces of paper slowly fell to the floor in disarray, and the room looked like she had trashed her art pieces and everything on her desk. The source of the crash was her broken camera and curved monitor, the camera's tripod was damaged, bent and almost snapped under Cynthia's rare fit of enhanced strength. The high-tech camera's lens was shattered into a hundred pieces on her desk, the camera itself was digging into the shattered screen of her monitor, which was flickering weakly, struggling to show whatever she had been working on earlier when her mood had been more stable. There was a leather-bound notebook lying upside down on the ground with torn pages surrounding it, and Cynthia's treasured necklace was sitting on the floor, the chain snapped so that the pendant itself was lying upside down a little ways away.
Cynthia made a groaning noise in the wilds language that didn't have any kind of meaning and the female Vivid fell backward onto her back, blue eyes squeezed shut, her fingers burying themselves in a stressed manner into her black hair and her legs pulled toward her body. She shook her head violently more than once and kicked out a few times, howling and half blubbering. "Leave me alone! I want it to end!" Her face screwed up into a pitifully miserable expression and she gave a roar of pain and misery, "I want it to go away!" She pulled her legs back into a fetal position with her hands still buried in her now extremely messy black hair and shook violently for a few moments before her blue eyes slowly opened at Cinder recognizing Ran's presence first. Fresh tears glimmered in her eyes, but her blue gaze lifted to look at the upper edge of her peripherals where she could see her sister standing there. Cynthia then forced her body to obey and she slowly sat up, her back to Ran with her shoulders hunched, but she did twist and look at her sister, saying nothing at first. Her skin was pale, cheeks and ears overly red with fever, her blue eyes were glassy with tears, and misery swirled in the blue depths like a stormy sea. The most alarming thing was the trail of vividly crimson blood trickling from the left side of her nose and the smear of it across her cheek like she had smudged it. The blood trickled down her face, pooled at the corner of her lower lip curved to the center of her chin and went down to drip slowly onto the floor or go down the front of her neck. The right side of her lower lip was split as well, adding to the blood trail and converging with the blood from her nose. There wasn't a visible injury and reason for her nose to be bleeding, she had likely bit her lip hard enough it split, but there was no reason for her nose to be bleeding. No reason that Ran knew of anyway.
Cynthia looked away from her sister and spoke in raspy English, her voice thick and highly strained. "I'm sorry," she rasped quietly, "I never wanted anyone to see me like this." She wiped the blood on her face, only to smear it and for the blood from her nose to flow a little faster at her speaking in English and agitating it. "You especially," she rasped hoarsely, "you shouldn't see something like this, it'll only scare you." She gripped the fabric of her shorts in clenched fists, "It's wrong of me to let you see this." Her feline ears flattened miserably against her skull, "you're not a Vivid wild, all of this probably scares you. Especially when I don't lose control around you," she rasped quietly, "I keep control of my emotions and Vivid problems under wraps so that you don't have to see it… I'm sorry you saw this." She murmured the end and moved like she was going to get up, only to stay in place and hunching her shoulders further.
Ran looked at her sister with concern, moving over to, her. She picked up the necklace on the way over to her quietly saying "Why do hide it from me?" she asked as she sat down close to Cynthia "Did you think I would get scared of you? Because I'm not." she said, shifting the pendant in her hand with a small smile which faded quickly. She looked at Cynthia and wrapped an arm around her. "I may not be your mate, but that doesn't mean I don't want to comfort you when you need it." she said hugging Cynthia. "If you need someone to lean on until we get you to your mate, then you can lean on me." she added. She was worried for Cynthia; it was noticeable in her voice. She didn't want Cynthia to hurt herself, but she didn't know how to make her feel better.
Cynthia lightly pushed her off, blue eyes sad and miserable, "I don't like anybody touching me," she explained quietly, her voice still raspy and tired, "my senses are starting to grow more sensitive particularly things touching my skin, so I don't like anybody touching me right now." She switched languages and pinched her nose to stop the bleeding, still looking at her sister. "I don't tell you because I've hurt you enough over the years, you don't need my problems with my mate making you feel worse. Your mate's here, in this building and you should be focusing on that, not something you can't change. Nobody can help me through this Ran." Her blue eyes misted with tears, "my mate's unable to help me with how many people are here in the school, but he's nearby which makes my heat worse. It should be over in a few days, until then, focus on finding your mate and... let me get through this on my own, please."
Ran nodded, standing back up and placing the pendant on her table before walking to the door "Let me know if you need anything." she said, seeming to be a little confused and worried about Cynthia but also didn't want to annoy her sister.
She thought as she left the studio, our mate is in the building? Ran said to Alexandra.
Apparently, I'd assume Cynthia understands this stuff better than we do so I'll take her word for it.
The question is though, who? There aren't too many wild males that stay in this building, and most already have mates, so that narrows it down a lot at least. She thought, making a mental checklist in her mind.
Two Days Later
Ran had found the sketch book she had lost, luckily her English teacher had recognized it and had not gotten rid of it. So, she was already in the dorm building, heading up to the dorm flat in order to start working on her homework from that day.
She also wanted to check up on Cynthia again, knowing that her sister was having a hard time and wanted to make sure she was there in the case of Cynthia needing something.
Ran raked a hand through her hair as she looked at one of the pages in her book, having made a list of the guys she knew were wilds and didn't have mates that were in the building, the list was quite small, though she did remember that she had no clue if Orion or Leon had mates, maybe she could ask them when she had time.
The dorm was quiet, too quiet for having two people still there in the dorm itself. Leon and Cynthia were there, Leon had a free period and Cynthia was still in heat with an increasing fever. The female wild had become more and more reclusive over the past two days, hiding in her studio and locking herself away from everyone else.
The silence was broken by Cynthia pushing open her studio door and sluggishly and slowly made her way toward Leon's dorm room. Her face was completely flushed red from the fever, she was leaning rather heavily against the nearby wall, having only gotten a few feet, and was looking rather dizzy and like she was about to pass out. Ran quietly opened the door to the dorm flat as to avoid possibly waking Cynthia up, only to see her sister leaning against a wall. She moved forward, her sister's name on her lips, only to freeze and have the syllables die on her tongue at her sister's dizzy and slurred English words.
"Leon," Cynthia croaked in English, "please…"
The name made no sense, why would Cynthia be calling one of the new students' name? Her question was answered when Cynthia spoke next.
Cynthia's blue eyes were glassy and fever ridden, she was wearing loose soccer-shorts like shorts and a pale blue t-shirt made from a special fabric that wouldn't aggravate her heightened senses, no socks or jewelry, and the ice pack draped around her neck seemed to be doing nothing to help her. "Leon," she croaked her mate's name in a louder voice before breaking off into a harsh wheeze and switching languages with a whimpering cry, "Lioji…" Her syllables in Wivano were drawn out, long and partially mispronounced from her wheezing breaths. "Hakisi yui… Yuiniaka da xijua xiai…" [Leon… My Brave Lion... Help me… I can't do this alone…]
The Wivano was a dead giveaway.
Leon is Cynthia's mate? Ran e slowly to herself in her head just to make sure, having a hard time wrapping the idea of one of the new kids at school being her sister's mate time around her head.
Apparently so… definitely not awkward to be just standing here watching our sister cuddle with her mate. Alexandra said back, touching on the idea of leaving them be.
As Alexandra spoke, the door to Leon's dorm room opened with a creak of the hinges and the male Vivid half hesitantly left his dorm room. He glanced around, as if looking for everyone else as he started to walk over to Cynthia, only to break into a run and catch her under the arms when her knees buckled, and she gave a weak groan.
Cynthia caught tight fistfuls of the sleeves of his shirt and the female wild whimpered, resting her cheek against the fabric of his shirt. "I can't…" she wheezed in English, struggling to even just breathe properly. She gave a cough as well and blood gleamed on her lips, staining them crimson red in the process. She clutched his shirt tighter, trembling. Her nose was red from the agitation of having it bleed on an off for the past three days, and she looked particularly ill. "I can't do this… It… it hurts…" She let go of his shirt with one hand to groan and press her arm against her sternum, losing color in her face at the sudden bout of pain.
Leon then carefully lowered both of them to the floor with a small sigh, "I know, I know it hurts, but I can't help you here without revealing anything sweetheart… your fever's getting really high," his voice was tinted with heavy concern and worry, "I don't think it's gotten this bad before."
"I checked it earlier," Cynthia rasped, her blue eyes were dazed and miserable, "it's at one-hundred and six."
Leon's eyes widened and he looked highly concerned and conflicted as he repeated the temperature without vocalizing anything. A fever that high wasn't going to kill her, but if it got much higher, she would suffer from heat exhaustion and the occasional seizure. However, after a moment he gently pushed her, propping her up against the wall next to her instead of on him before he looked over at her. "Only this once and only because everyone's in their classes okay?"
Cynthia looked at him in a dizzy fashion and the female wheezed her agreement before she hunched her shoulders and coughed a small amount of blood up. She pulled a miserable expression and swallowed with a small whimper, body shaking a little with weak tremors.
Leon tugged his shirt over his head, his feline ears became visible and he drew Cynthia to him, holding her close while his amber eyes were worried and protective.
Cynthia instantly relaxed, the female nestled her face into his chest and slumped, her overly strained muscles relaxing as well and giving her a temporary relief from her pain, the coughing, and emotional turmoil she was under. Her shaking relaxed as well, allowing her to go mostly still and relax for the first time in the three days since her heat started.
For a few moments they were both silent, Leon gently rubbing her back and Cynthia sitting on his lap huddled in his arms occasionally sniffling back tears. It was Cynthia who broke the silence. With a small keening plead in the Wilds language and a small stressed out sob. "Stay with me. Please, just for a little while… I don't want to do this on my own."
Leon seemed to think about it for a few moments before he nodded and held her closer, "okay, I'll stay with you for a bit," he rumbled in a reassuring manner, "till classes end anyway."
Cynthia didn't respond other than to sniffle and wheeze. Too weak and, sick, and in pain when she was unable to have her mate longer than a few minutes at most, and unable to do anything but wait it out.
Ran closed the door as quickly and as quietly as she could, not wanting either of them to realize she had seen the whole thing. This is not how I wanted to meet her mate. She said to herself, walking down the hallway in order to put some distance between herself and the mates. She looked so miserable for the past couple days, it sure doesn't seem like Leon had been helping her until now. Annoyed that Leon had not helped her sister earlier.
Well they were hiding their relationship Alexandra said, they didn't want anyone to know so he couldn't comfort her.
Did it matter that much that someone knew? Because instead Cynthia went through a lot of pain to keep all that hidden!? She said as she briskly walked down the hall, her foot falls loud. She could feel her hand clenched into a fist before she gave a quick punch to a wall, not enough to break it but enough to leave a small divot where one of her knuckles hit the wall. Why would she hurt herself for a secret she was going to tell people anyway!?
Ran, I don't have all the answers, I'm ticked off too believe me. Though yelling at Cynthia and Leon won't make things better. Alexandra said as much as I want to give them a piece of my mind…
I know… We will talk to them at some point though, after she's out of her heat She said with a light growl, annoyed of what was going on.
Breaking Point
"I'M YOUR MATE!" Cynthia's voice was hysterical and loud as she shouted at Leon and stomped toward him in his dorm room, tears glimmering angrily in her blue eyes. She didn't care both of their siblings were in the dorm, she just wanted it to be over while she couldn't have her mate. "Please for all that's in the world just show me you love me! I don't want to be plain friends with you, I want more than that! I am more than that to you! And yet you won't give it to me here!" Blood welled at the corner of her mouth, and she suddenly coughed slightly, wheezing hard and leaning forward on her knees with her nose still bleeding and leaving a trail down her face. Her nose was bleeding, and she was still wheezing like she was close to having an asthma attack even though she didn't have asthma, but her fever had broken last night. Today was her last day in heat, but it looked like she didn't want to fight it anymore, and who could blame her? Cynthia had been wheezing for the past two days like she was incapable of breathing properly, her fever had peaked at one-hundred and seven where the vivid gave Holly a heart attack in the middle of the night last night just before it broke with some convulsions while she fought the heat, her sternum was still throbbing and it was spreading to her ribs and back, and her head was a muddled migraine filled mess.
Leon watched, his amber eyes shone with concern and pain, even as he said nothing and just listened.
Cynthia's shoulder's trembled and she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she straightened up, looking haunted and broken. "I can't tell what's worse," she said in a hoarse voice, "having you here with me and unable to do anything with me other than be my friend or being half across the country missing you and suffering from anxiety attacks." Her nose wrinkled and tears escaped her blue eyes before she pulled her arm back and roughly slugged Leon in the chest, the first contact she had had with him when she was fully conscious not dizzy and impaired from her high fever. Her skin tingled at the contact and she immediately hated it. She hated how she reacted to him, just touching him made her skin tingle and how it made her pulse accelerate and how she felt loved, just by touching him. She hated it, hated it when he had rejected helping her through this even though she had eventually made it on her own. "I hate you," the female wild suddenly snarled, anger mixing with her hurt and betrayal to form what was going on. "I hate you for doing this to me!" She was starting to cry, crying through her words and repeating the same three worded phrase multiple times as she stepped closer and hit her fists against his chest, unable to pull away from him and keep away from him any longer.
"I know," Leon said quietly as he looped his arms around her waist and let her hit him, "I know you do right now. But it's over now, I…" his voice cracked, "I'm sorry I couldn't help you, I'm so sorry." He carefully hugged her, pinning her body to his taller frame and holding her close to him.
Cynthia's lower lip trembled and the female wild screwed up her face with her eyes tightly closed before she broke down and bawled. Throwing her arms around her mate's neck and burying her face into his shoulder, positively howling.
Leon gently rubbed her back in soothing circles, resting his head on top of hers as he did so. "I'm sorry," he whispered quietly as he lowered them both to the floor, "I'm so sorry sweetheart, I never wanted you to go through this."
Cynthia's yell startled Ran and she paused the conversation she was having with Orion, trying to get to know him better and find out if he was her mate. Her concern for her sister rose at the hysterical tone in her voice, and Ran was instantly on her feet and moving toward the source of the shout. Cynthia was rarely hysterical, in fact Ran could count on one hand the times her collected but frazzled older sister sounded hysterical and like her world was falling apart around her. She noticed Orion on her heels in the back of her mind but paid it no mind, focusing on her sister instead. The fact that Cynthia had been hiding Leon being her mate had bothered Ran, who was relatively close to her and they usually told each other almost everything, so the fact that she would keep the most important person in her life away from her had hurt her feelings. However, she could get angry later, when her sister wasn't coughing and in heat. She reached the partially opened door and leaned casually in the doorway, blue eyes moving from her sister's hunched form to the male Vivid standing in front of her. I don't understand why he isn't helping her, she reflected to Alexandra, anger bubbling in her mental voice, Cynthia's practically dying over there and he's just standing there.
For all we know Leon could be helping her by staying away from her like this-
Now that's a lie, Ran snapped back, her eyebrows furrowing together, I have never seen her heat this bad and neither have you. You can't tell me that having him around and staying away from her is helping! Especially not when Holly told me she thought Cynthia was having a seizure last night from the now broken fever! Her anger toward Leon was bubbling, angry that he didn't help her sister, that he left her to take care of it herself when clearly Cynthia couldn't do it. Her body language stayed casual though, even as Cynthia spoke in a raspy voice and her heart wrenched at the pain in her sister's voice.
Her eyes widened when Cynthia lashed out and slugged Leon in the chest, having not seen her sister actively use violence since they were kids and she beat up a kid bullying Ran, but she stayed where she was, not getting involved.
After a moment she left the ghost of something brushing against her consciousness but brushed it off when she heard a voice next to her.
"Are you okay?" It was Orion, and he sounded surprised and slightly concerned. "I mean she didn't tell you right?"
Ran gave a heavy sigh and shrugged her shoulders, intelligent blue eyes focused on her sister as she completely cracked and broke under the pressure on her shoulders. "She didn't tell me yeah, but she's still my sister. Sure, I'm pretty mad about it, but now's not the time to lash out at her, not when she's in heat and everything. Whenever she's in heat she's emotional, and I know that. If I say anything about it now, she'll take it to heart and as a personal insult she won't tell me is bothering her."
Orion looked at her, surprise in his voice, "wow, that's definitely not what I thought you were going to say."
Ran looked tired, and she looked slowly over at Orion, studying him for a few moments before turning back to her sibling, who seemed to be calming down. "I have my moments. Cynthia says it the Vivid blood that makes me so temperamental and hot headed all the time. Sometimes though…" She watched her sister tighten her embrace around Leon, her breathing evening out so that the wheeze that had been plaguing her finally disappeared. "...Sometimes I can stay calm, on the outside anyway. I'm guessing you already knew about them?"
Orion hesitantly nodded and sighed, "yeah, I was there when Cynthia and my Leon met. It was kind of hard to miss the love struck look on his face."
Ran snorted half bitterly, "I wish I could've seen it. Cynthia doesn't take me out of Vandala."
Orion tilted his head, "what about the trip in April? We're going to Vyliea, Leon and I's home city and your coming with us, aren't you?" Orion half awkwardly patted her on the back, "I think she was going to tell you closer to April, but this all screwed up her plans." He turned to leave, only to hesitate for a moment and to speak again. "Cynthia talked about bringing her sister on more than one of the trips, she and Leon spent days trying to figure out how to bring you with her without getting upset with Cynthia at Leon being her mate and everything… so uh… think about it okay? She didn't mean to hurt you." With that the black-haired boy walked off to the small living room of the main area.
Ran stayed in her place for a few moments, watching her sister's stress fade and be with her mate. A sharp knife stabbed at her heart, I want my mate too, someone who will hug me like that if I need it, and someone who will stay with me despite my unruly temper.
We will find him soon, Alexandra soothed, he's here somewhere, in this building.
I know, Ran replied as she finally turned away and headed toward her room, but I've never been very patient.
Cynthia looked up from the drawing she was lazily working on, the YouTuber had earbuds in, the pen to the drawing tablet in one hand, and leather-bound notebook in front of her, and was leaning her head on her arm, now happily free of her heat. She was doodling something on her digital screen, next to what looked like a half-finished portrait of a savannah scene. The doodle was a goofy looking lion trotting after a smaller cheetah with hearts around his head, big round eyes, and a dorky looking mane sticking up in all directions. The cheetah was casually padding along on what looked like short grass but did have its head twisted to look behind it at the goofy looking Lion. It was one of the things Cynthia did all the time, everyone had known her mate had a lion animal familiar due to all the doodles and silly drawings she sketched in her free time or to clear her mind. Cynthia snorted with amusement at the dorky doodle she was making as she selected a bright pink and dusted the Lion's cheeks a soft pink, making him look highly embarrassed to be caught following the cheetah. Cynthia looked normal, her blue eyes were sparkling with amusement at the current moment, she had regained the color in her skin since yesterday, hadn't had a fever or anything, and wasn't grouchy or tunnel focused. Plus, she was eating properly again, which was a relief to everyone. She was currently clothed in a pale blue tank-top and black shorts, no socks, and had her hair down and was relatively messy like she had just gotten up and hadn't bothered to change when she was spending the whole day recording videos and finishing her piling up art projects and requests. Most of all she looked relaxed, leaning back in her office chair with one leg bent at the knee and held loosely close to her body while her other leg dangled and she occasionally kicked it, moving her legs and showing without thinking that her energy levels were back to their normal heightened state.
Ran had just come back from her classes, feeling like school had dragged on forever that day. She walked through the dorm flat, noting that Cynthia's studio door was open. Deciding it might not be bad to go check up on her sister since she had only come out of her heat the day before.
Ran quickly threw her bag in the room she shared with Bree before going and peeking into Cynthia's studio. "Hey Cynthia" she said. Seeing her sister at her desk, working on something. Ran walked in and gave Cynthia a smile "How're you feeling?" she asked her sister.
If she wants to talk about Leon then ok, just please don't bring it up. Alexandra asked Ran, knowing that it could lead to contention.
I wasn't planning on it, if anything I was going to ask her for some help finding our mate. Ran said, mentally rolling her eyes at Alexandra not everything I do has to be fiery and angry.
Yeah, well most of it is. Alexandra teased.
Cynthia jumped startled at Ran's arrival and looked guilty like she thought she was Lila before she breathed a sigh and grinned, "geez Ran, do you want to give me a heart attack or something?" She complained with a teasing smile and pulled out her earbuds, "and much better thank you." Her blue eyes flickered with indecision before she looked awkward and unsure. Cynthia had never been good at apologizing and talking about her mistakes and emotions, and she always seemed to revert to the awkward child Ran had known as her older sister who got flustered over everything and panicked all the time. "Um, I didn't mean to hurt you not telling you about Leon, I had a lot on my plate. I was planning on telling you in April," she rambled, "but then this happened, and I couldn't do it anymore so now you know and I bet your upset and everything… I'm rambling again, sorry," she apologized sheepishly before hastily changing topics with a clear of her throat. "Anyway, what's up? I thought you would be looking for your Dormant Prince since classes are over."
Ran didn't look to happy about Cynthia bringing up Leon, her lips slightly pursed together, and took in a breath. Between the change in topics Ran simply said "Let's… let's just not talk about that right now…" she was hurt and angry with Cynthia, but she could see how awkward Cynthia was about it and she felt like right after her going through her heat was a bad time to talk about that.
She gave Cynthia a snort, happy for the change in topic. "Well in the case of prince Dormant I've been trying to figure out who he is." she said, pulling out a piece of paper and unfolding it. The paper had a list of the male wilds in the building, some crossed out due to them having mates or she figured they wouldn't be mates. Though there was still a decent number that were not marked. "but I realized, I'm not good at it." She said a little sheepish. "I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for." she said with a bit of an unsure lopsided smile.
Having just came back from classes Ran was still in her school clothes, having a nice, very dark red shirt under a grey windbreaker. She had some loose blue jeans on and still had her tennis shoes on for the day.
Hurt flashed through Cynthia's eyes at the sharp dismissal of her apology and the blue eyed Vivid's lips thinned into a thin line, her expression turned guarded for half a second before she forced control of her emotions and she regained her smile with nothing more than a slightly weak hint to it, ouch, way to hurt my feelings Ran, she mentally mumbled to herself and Cinder. "Well you should feel him near you, it's a mental ability thing. Here I'll show you." She spun her chair toward her sister and stood up. After a moment Cynthia's blue eyes flickered darker and Ran got the odd sensation of something, or someone, prodding her mind through her barriers. Feel that? Cynthia's mental voice had the Vandalan accent she had vocally lost over the years. You'll be able to feel his mind brushing yours. With Cynthia's mind brushing hers, Ran could vaguely also feel the strong bond between Cynthia and someone else, presumably her mate. But unlike before, Ran could place a name to the presence, and it was much stronger with him being much closer and in the same city as Cynthia. That's something only wilds with dormant blood or a pair of mates can do without thinking about it. Your consciousness brushes against mine all the time because I'm your sister and I have a sibling-bond with you, but with your mate you can feel him, like he's standing next to you. You have to trust your head and your heart to find him, no matter how much planning you put into looking for him you won't find him unless you trust your heart, mind, and animal familiar.
Cinder piped up, it's something only you will know and only your mate will respond to.
Ran noticed Cynthia's hurt, regretting having said the earlier statement. Getting annoyed with herself for being careless with her words. Why do I screw that up so much? She asked Alexandra, who gave a mental shrug.
She felt Cynthia's presence next to her mind, having not expected Cynthia to begin prodding her mind so she quickly hid her emotions not wanting to cause any more damage. She nodded understanding what Cynthia was telling her. Hoping she would be able to pay more attention to her mental surroundings Alright, that makes sense. She said, thinking if she had felt that before.
She looked up at Cynthia, feeling like it was her turn to feel a little awkward Cynthia, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, I… Feel hurt and as much as I appreciate you apologizing about that it's still something that I'm heated up about. I've always sucked at speaking and having a filter so I'm sorry if I hurt you too. She said, looking down at the ground for the majority of the time she was speaking. She didn't like admitting she was wrong or if she did something wrong, but at the same time she didn't want to do anything bad or hurtful in the first place. I don't think enough before I say stuff.
It's fine, Cynthia replied quietly, it's my fault anyway. I kept it from you and it's the punishment I have to take. Either way I'm sorry, and I'll keep it casual between me and Leon, just friends. She hid her reluctance at the idea and Cinder agreed, knowing Ran needed the space to figure out heads and tails of the situation at hand. And I'll help you find your mate; I'll also contact Bree and ask her to help too since her full dormant and her mental abilities with other wilds are stronger than my own. She silently addressed Cinder, keeping the conversation from Ran and Alexandra, it's just another month, right? We can do this.
Cinder hesitated, we can yes, but Cynthia…
I know, believe me. I'm itching to be with him too, but we wait all the time, one more month won't be anything different.
I know, but it's been almost six months already since we've actually been with him excluding the fluke of the night when he got here to Vandala.
I know, I know, but it's for Ran. I'll be fine, I think.
I can't help but worry about you, you're already under enough pressure to break a person.
You know me Cinder, it takes the pressure that would send multiple people breaking to faze me.
I know… but I'm nervous, what if you go into heat during the trip? Then what?
Cynthia pulled a face; I'm trying to not think about that. It'll be easier to slip away from everyone including Lila during the trip and Leon and I always share a room anyway, so theoretically I should be fine if I get your help restraining a lot of the things that I get the urge to do.
You're unbelievable, Cinder sighed, but okay, I'll help you with this madness.
Cynthia then blinked and looked back at Ran, unblocking her from mental communication while also carefully hiding her thoughts like always. You ready to find your mate? I can tell he's in the dorms right now.
Ran looked unsure at Cynthia in the case of her and Leon acting like friends whatever you think would be the best for you and Leon. She said with a smile, I'd prefer seeing you happy.
She waited patiently to sew what Cynthia said next, wondering what she was doing. Ran, Cynthia wants to help us find our mate! Alexandra said obviously that was the part of the conversation she had been paying attention to. We will find him in no time!
Ran couldn't help but find Alexandra's reaction amusing, though she wholeheartedly agreed. I sure hope so, things should be interesting with that. She said, feeling quite excited about the idea of finding her mate. Cynthia had finished her conversation and said that they would go out to find her mate. Ran lightly bounced on her heels, feeling nervous and excited and intrigued all at the same time.
Ran looked at her surprised he's in the dorms right now? She said to make sure, how are you able to tell who my mate is? She asked out of curiosity.
Cynthia's face suddenly turned bright red, she gave a light cough to hide her embarrassment and hastily drew her mind from Ran, who only caught the sensation that someone else was contacting the vivid wild, none of the details. She then spoke aloud for a moment before abruptly falling silent, "yeah, I think he's on the lower floors right now-" She abruptly shut her mouth, her cheeks and ears being dyed a brilliant shade of rose red. The Vivid Wild was so red that steam could've come out of her ears, which actually switched to feline, the short fur fluffing up along the back of the ears. She had never looked to embarrassed around her sister at that moment. Leon! I'm going to… to… I don't know but I'll do something to you!
Leon laughed and cackled cheekily, like what? They were completely back to normal just a day after the whole heat fiasco, chase me around?
Cynthia covered her face with one hand and held up one finger to Ran, silently asking her to wait for a second. S-Shut up, that was one time!
You mean how you chased me around an entire block in Yukota only to knock us both into one of the metallic lakes? Or the time where I climbed over a fence and you managed to clear a five-and-a-half-foot fence with one jump and tackle me to the ground purring like a cat?
Cynthia's face went even redder and she used both hands to cover her face before sitting back in her chair, s-shut up, I was excited okay? She then spun her chair around to avoid having her sister stare at her red face.
Excited? You LEAPED over a fence that was almost as tall as me at the time, I was five-ten, the fence was five-six! You were more than just excited Honey.
Cynthia blushed harder, and squirmed a little at the nickname, c-can you please stop embarrassing me? She asked with a faint stutter than Leon likely found adorable, my sister's with me in the room, she stated weakly, we were going to find her mate, Orion.
Mkay, I'll save the teasing for the trip, anything else I need to know?
We're just friends around everyone, I don't mind sneaking off occasionally, but for my sister's sanity, we're keeping it casual, just friends around anyone.
… Leon was silent for a moment, and Cynthia was worried he was angry with her, but he merely asked her a soft question. Are you sure you'll be alright? This'll be the seventh month now.
Cynthia hesitated and lowered her hands from her face, her face returning to a more normal color. I'll… I'll make it, I have to.
Last time you got sick, Leon pointed out, you were nearly comatose Cynthia.
I… I know, and I think I have a small plan to help, but I'll tell you about it later, I'm helping Ran first.
Take care of yourself Cynthia, I've got practice today so I won't be back till five ish.
Let me know when you're finished, I'll take you somewhere. Cynthia told him before she stood up and grabbed a nearby hoodie before she slipped on her shoes and faced Ran again, carefully blocking any access to her thoughts and emotions in the process. "I can tell who your mate is because I'm a Vivid, being a Vivid Alpha I can see in a way how people connect with each other, I can essentially sense the pull between a wild and their mate, or human and their crush. It's one of the Vivid related things I never really needed to use till now. That's why Hannah teases me about being a matchmaker, I can sense the attraction between people and so if needed I can throw them together and know it'll work out as least for a little while." She shrugged on the hoodie and shrugged her shoulders, "Leon can see it too, but I dominate that sense while Leon dominates the understanding of showing feelings through actions. It's part of being mates, we share abilities but usually one of us is better at it than the other." She grinned in a cheeky manner, "I have verbal prowess and influence, especially over him and he hates it." She moved toward the entrance of her studio, pulling her black hair up into a simple ponytail, "come on," she spoke around the hair band between her teeth, "let's go find your mate."
Ran watched as Cynthia turn a brilliant shade of red and could help but smile and wonder what was going on. Wow, I want to know what's going on right now. She said, she covered her mouth as Cynthia had her wait, trying hard not to laugh.
Careful, we might end up in the same boat one day. Alexandra pointed out, though she was also entertained by the scene.
After Cynthia was done getting embarrassed Ran did her best to regain her composure "I sort of want to know what that was about." she said with a grin, but then listened to Cynthia as she explained her abilities. "so, you can make him do stuff by telling him to?" Ran asked to make sure, raising her eyebrow in an interested manner. As she went out of the studio with Cynthia, ready to find her mate finally.
Cynthia mis stepped at the first sentence from Ran and almost fell before she caught herself and waved her hands in front of her and simply blushed but continued to explain her abilities. She entered the main area of the dorm room and shrugged before she responded to Ran's question, "sort of, I can heavily influence him to, and usually he does with without thinking. I don't usually think about it either when I do it, it's triggered instinctively if I'm close to him or…" her face turned pink, "erm just if I'm close to him." She then gave an exasperated sigh, "however on the opposite spectrum, Leon has physical influence, so if he's being more affectionate on the mate side of our relationship, then it's harder to say no to whatever he's up to or wants from me. There's only so much you can do with words, while body language and physical actions you can do a lot more with." She pulled open the dorm door, "but enough about what, you'll probably see stuff like that on the trip in April if Leon thinks I'm too stressed out, let's find your mate."
Ran couldn't help but smile and raise her eyebrow at her sister, wondering what she was up to with Leon. Cynthia didn't usually blush or was embarrassed easily so this was pretty darn entertaining.
Ran nodded "time to finally figure out who he is finally." she said, following Cynthia closely as they began their search to find her mate.
Cynthia blushed under her scrutinizing gaze and stammered a little, "w-what I do with my mate is my business!" She stammered in a higher pitched tone before she hastily closed her mouth and led the way toward the elevators, keycard in hand. I'm mad at you, she mumbled to Leon, Ran probably thinks there's something wrong with me with how red my face continues to be! Cynthia's blush darkened and she blanched, visibly stumbling half a step. Gah! Stop it Leon!
Leon mentally giggled like a cheeky schoolgirl at her but did as she asked and fell silent. Leaving the poor highly embarrassed and flustered Vivid alone.
"I'm going to kill him," Cynthia muttered aloud as she stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the second floor she blue gaze fixed upwards, "one of these days I'm going to get him back I swear," she mumbled under her breath.
Ran couldn't help but laugh this time. "relax Cynthia, I'm teasing you." she said after she finished laughing "I'm just having some fun, it was a time I could tease you so I took that opportunity." she said with a big grin as they waited in the elevator.
Ah, fun times. Ran thought but was soon greeted with Alexandra saying.
Just hope she doesn't know anything embarrassing about you. Alexandra brought up otherwise she will be able to tell your mate since we are finding him right now.
Cynthia seemed to know exactly what Alexandra had said and she grinned mischievously, "I know all kinds of embarrassing things about my baby sister, don't I, Ran?"
And Lila knows all kinds of stuff about you, Leon inputted, like that paint store incident-
I don't want to think about it! Cynthia yelped and smothered her mate's mental voice, making him stop.
The elevator dinged and she stepped off, weaving her way around people and down a hallway like she had a homing beacon for the person she was looking for.
Ran raised an eyebrow at Cynthia "I hope not." she said, a little weary of what Cynthia remembered.
Alexandra could help but snicker a little bit, finding Ran's reaction a bit funny. She could talk about how we are on marshmallows, or hot chocolate, either one is funny.
Oh, please no, I don't need that getting out she said, having found those memories to not be her favorites.
Ran followed behind her, trying her best to keep up with Cynthia through the crowd of people. Not really sure where she was going. "is there anything that I should do?" she asked Cynthia who was a decent way ahead of her.
"Just trust me," Cynthia shrugged, "and your heart for once." She then whispered something to a nearby fellow college student pointing at someone Ran couldn't see, and the student nodded.
She got to her feet, gave Cynthia a grinning thumbs up and disappeared into the crowd.
Cynthia stood there, watching with sharp and twinkling blue eyes as the crowd thinned and the volume dropped significantly. Once almost everyone was gone, and Cynthia gave the college student from earlier a thankful smile and a fist bump did she turn to Ran. Cynthia placed a hand on her younger sister's back and steered her toward a familiar guy with black hair who was in the process of getting up to go somewhere else to study. Cynthia leaned close to her and spoke in her ear with a smile and a gentle push. "Go on, you know him already anyway, and I've been talking to him too, he's ready too."
Ran looked at Orion and then Cynthia a little unsure but decided to trust her sister. She began walking over to Orion, making sure to be aware of her mental surrounding as she felt someone's presence. Like how Cynthia had demonstrated to her.
Orion stopped for a moment as he had begun to pack up his stuff, staying still for a moment as he paid attention to what he was feeling too. Having gotten advice from Cynthia and Bree. He stood up straight and turned to look at who was there.
Ran continued to walk towards him slowly, as if not to scare him away. She looked a bit nervous but had a smile on her face. No clue what she was supposed to do but decided to go along with what Cynthia had suggested and follow her heart. She saw Orion turn and smile at her. Putting his hands in his pockets as he cocked his head to the side, having not expected what he now realized.
Ran stopped a short distance from Orion, not really sure what to do other than to look at him. She felt him prod her mind she opened her mind and asked hello?
Hey Ran. She could hear him vividly in her mind, as if he was speaking to her out loud. She saw his smile widen and hers did as well.
Hey Orion. She said, taking another step towards him. I will not deny, I wasn't expecting this… She said before she took another step, just out of arm's reach from him. But it seems right.
Orion nodded; she could feel his approval through their link both of them sharing the happiness they felt as they paid attention to one another's thoughts.
Cynthia smiled at them for a few moments before the Vivid's smile wilted and she felt her heart ache. She wanted to be free to be with Leon like her sister and new partner, she wanted to be mated with him and confident that he was only hers, that the past three years of struggling to balance everything she had to do, was still worth it. However… she couldn't. She couldn't be with her mate for another month, another long month of stolen moments and hidden secrets. When all she wanted to do was feel her mate's arms around her and feel his lips against hers in a long-missed kiss. Without noticing it, tears started to well in her eyes, making her blue eyes glassy, pairing well with the small frown tugging at her lips and how she was anxiously lightly biting her lower lip.
So, without alerting either of them, she slipped away, disappearing into the mingling students and pulling her hood up and over her head. Once her hood was up, the Vivid wild stuffed her hands into her pockets and wandered aimlessly, keeping her head down and fighting to keep control of her emotions. She was happy for Ran she really was, but she wanted a lot of things, including her mate, and she couldn't have any of it till April where she would be unable to help herself after such a long separation and the agony of not being able to touch him lest everyone found out. She kept her mind blocked and emotions safe from affecting anyone except Leon, leaving their bond open, like she almost always did. The reassuring touch of her mate's mind brushing against hers and the lingering of his emotions mixing with hers usually calmed her, but at the moment it just made it harder to focus and control herself.
Cynthia… Cinder murmured softly, but she was aching too, and Cynthia could feel it. It's okay…
Cynthia fought her emotions harder and her breath hitched in her fight to control everything. It hurt, everything hurt, and she wanted it to go away, even just for a little while.
Someone's arm shot out and clasped around her upper arm, pulling her into a nearby classroom and shutting the door. "Hey!" Cynthia struggled against the person holding her till she felt her back hit a wall and blinked the welling tears from her eyes to focus on the person's face.
Amber eyes blinked back at her, concerned and glowing slightly in the darker room. "Sunshine…"
Cynthia couldn't help herself, she wanted it all to go away, and she only knew how in one way. She tangled her fingers into her mate's blonde hair and lunged, kissing him hard and whimpering, wanting the pain to go away. "I want it to go away! I want the pain to go away Leo… It hurts!"
T- Minus One Week till Spring Break
Sneaking Shenanigans
"Sazi!" Leon cursed in Wivano against Cynthia's kiss as he knocked something over and barely managed to swat it away before it landed on Cynthia whose arms were curled around his neck. The object, bumped from the shelf above him, nearby dropped to the ground with a thump. "Xijuos mujios jia muxino io sumis." [That's going to make a noise.] He grunted and moved from leaning on his elbows to straighten his arms.
Cynthia gave a laughing purr and pulled back half an inch for a second, her blue eyes were wild, dazed, and eager, excited to have had this moment with him. She put a teasing finger to his lips, "Skalia Lio!" [Ssh Lio!]
Leon shifted his position straddling her and grunted moodily, "xo xrusi suhoi Svioni, Yiu jiouo xis..." [it's cramped in here, I'm too tall…]
Cynthia's eyebrows furrowed and she gave a sharp growl in Wivano, her blue eyes darkening slightly as the ability activated, "Yax unas zija cila yui Lioji." [shut up and kiss me Lioji.]
Leon seemed to think about it for a moment, debating his options. Before he did as she asked, but in a different manner. He leaned over and brushed his lips over her mark, which flashed a sky blue before fading back to its normal color with a faint glow about it.
Cynthia made a weak noise, her breath seeming to catch in her throat and turn into a rumbling purr as she released her snug loop around his neck to grasp his shirt instead, pulling on the fabric while a small whimper managed to get unstuck from her throat and be vocalized properly.
Leon should've been expecting the harsh feeling of something yanking him by the collar of his shirt a few minutes later yet wasn't and choked. His vision briefly blurred as he was yanked to his feet before he gave a disoriented hiss and reeled on whatever grabbed him with a disoriented and hostile lion like snarl. He then twisted out of his shirt, lifting his arms and bending his knees before body slamming whatever had attacked him to the ground the moment, he was free of the fabric, growling with a fist wound back for a bone breaking punch. "Nobody interrupts my time with my Luna!" The male Vivid Alpha snarled. He was currently in full wild Alpha mode, his pack, his friends and family, and his Luna, or other half, Cynthia. And as far as he was concerned in that moment, there was nobody in the world worthy enough to harshly pull him from his mate and partner.
"Leon stop!" Cynthia's English was heavily accented and slurred as she switched from speaking to him for the past twenty minutes in various words and sounds in Wivano, and her uniquely musical and on pitch accent helped break the male Alpha from his temporary rage. "Get off him!"
The only exception was his mate herself. Leon's eyebrows furrowed and his nose wrinkled, still angry, furious about being interrupted and harshly pulled away from her. "Why?" He switched languages as well, adopting a rough and husky accent in the process, "I'm sick and tired of being interrupted all the Dunx time!"
"He's a teacher!" Leon felt Cynthia's mind quickly pressing against his, his mate quickly flooding his emotions with her own, a heightened sense of being cooped up too long mixed with calm and shock. "You're going to get us both in massive amounts of trouble if you hit him!"
"You're already in trouble Mrs. Lawson!" The teacher snapped and Leon pulled his fist back, the fading snarl returning full force.
"You don't talk to her," Leon snarled in heavily accented English, "you talk to me, and me only."
"Leon…" Cynthia's tone made the male alpha look back at her, where the female wild was sitting on the floor, one leg bent at the knee, the other stretched out in front of her, and she was leaning sideways on her left arm. Her blue eyes were pleading and nervous, having not had to deal with Leon's overbearing Alpha tendencies since before he had been mated to her. A full year now. "Let him go, please."
Leon looked between the two, looking down at the dark-haired teacher and back at his mate.
"Get him off of me this instant!" The teacher suddenly shrieked, and Leon snarled, Cynthia's warning forgotten.
"Leon-!" Cynthia panicked and started to move, moving to get up and go toward him.
However, Leon's fist impacted the floor near the teacher, slightly cracking the wooden tiles, but not harming the teacher in the slightest.
The male wild then gave a heavy grunt, nostrils flaring as he did so, before he stood up and wandered lazily back to Cynthia. Where he plopped down on the ground next to her with a lion like grunt. "I hate your school."
Cynthia's blue eyes softened, and she laughed softly, reaching over and grasping both sides of her mate's face and pulling his head toward her, focusing his sunset colored eyes on her sapphire blue ones. "That's okay, sometimes I do too."
Leon's gaze flickered toward the teacher hastily standing up and fixing his tie and he gave an angry grunt before he looked back at Cynthia, eyes firm and protective over his mate. "I'm Alpha."
Cynthia smiled softly and tugged his head closer before she rested her forehead against his, "yes, you're Alpha Leon," her fingers softly stroked his skin, calming the still startled and slightly disoriented male, "but I'm safe here, there's no need for you to be all Alpha mode anymore." She hugged his head, blocking him from keeping a careful eye on the teacher who was now outside talking to a different teacher, "we'll have time another day," she hummed, doing her best to keep the disappointment and frustrated hopelessness from her voice while her mate was in such a state. "There's an infinite number of days out there, and the trip's in a week anyway."
Leon grunted but the tension in his muscles loosened and he visibly relaxed, inhaling Cynthia's natural citrus and cream like scent with his nose resting against her skin above the neckline of her shirt. "You're losing hope," he commented quietly and nuzzled her skin slightly with his nose, his eyes returning to their normal Amber color. "You want me too, time to be with me and let me help you relax."
Cynthia's breath hitched but she swallowed hard and rumbled a response. "Yes, but I can hold out, I always do."
"I'm not letting you get sick this time," Leon stated stubbornly even as a different but familiar teacher stepped into the room, "even if I have to use my abilities to make you submit."
Cynthia grunted at the idea, not a major fan of being influenced to the point where she'd do whatever he asked her to. "It won't get that far." She looked up at the teacher and spoke in English, her voice still heavily accented, if anything it was more accented than earlier. "Mr. Colson, Connor." She called the teacher by his first name, with him being Holly and Jay's uncle.
Mr. Colson smiled sadly at her, "you've gotten yourself into some major trouble this time missy."
"I know," Cynthia replied simply and hugged Leon's head tighter, "it's my fault, all of it."
Mr. Colson winked at her, "All I saw was a pair of frustrated wilds trying to relieve stress and a very inconsiderate human teacher making the situation worse. However, granted that Leon's now shirtless and you Mrs. Lawson are missing a hoodie and a few buttons on your shirt aren't done properly, this isn't proper behavior now is it? I do have to write you up for that part okay?"
Cynthia blew a heavy sigh through her parted lips and nodded; blue eyes rather dull. Even as Leon lightly nuzzled her with his nose, trying to make her feel better while he worked on putting his head back on straight.
"We were just kissing," Cynthia mumbled in English, making it clear they weren't doing anything else.
Mr. Connor nodded, "I believe you; I know you've been aware of the boundaries from the beginning. Now let's go, a certain blonde manager wants to have you brought up to your dorm."
Cynthia's head drooped and she rested her chin on Leon's head, looking tired and like she was going stir crazy with cabin fever. "I understand…"
"Hello? This is Lila Ligara," Lila, who was sitting on the couch of the main area of the dorm room, picked up her phone and immediately sat up, green eyes widening in surprise and shock. "SHE DID WHAT?!" Lila's yell could be heard through any of the other rooms in the dorm as well, her shock evident in the loud yell.
She quickly cleared her throat and spoke more calmly, "my apologies, I hadn't expected her to do anything of the sort and wasn't prepared for the news. If you could have the teacher who found her and the boy escort them back up to the dorm I'd appreciate it, I'll talk to her about it later…" Lila hesitated for a few moments before she breathed out a heavy sigh, "we're scheduled to go next week to Vyliea for her concert and her mate's karate tournament. She's just antsy to be with him," she pinched the bridge of her nose. "I agree, it's behavior that nobody should tolerate and I'll make sure she understands that… yes, thank you headmaster, I'll see to talking to reprimanding them, however… Cynthia needs an outlet, she's not used to being cooped up here with him nearby. It's practically asking a dog to not eat the treat your balancing on their nose, it's a tightly guarded secret around here so her dorm off limits, she's banned from escaping the grounds unless she's with Jake or I, and I know what she wants but can't have." Lila listened for a moment and lightly coughed, her face dusted with a hint of pink embarrassment and was visibly uncomfortable. "No, definitely not to that limit, but there has to be a way to fix this till it's properly unveiled without my charge losing her mind… I understand, thank you for your time." She then hung up and rubbed her temples, muttering under her breath. "Cynthia… what am I going to do with your antsy pain in the butt."
The main door of the dorm swung open close to ten minutes later to reveal a pair of Vivid wild mates with tired and or miserable expressions on their faces.
Cynthia's face was pinched, her eyebrows wrinkled to accompany a miserable frown with a look of restlessness in her blue eyes. Her hoodie was wrinkled, and it was actually one of Leon's, retailored to roughly fit her. Her collared shirt collar was popped, unfolded which was weird for her, her backpack was slung messily over one shoulder, and she was discreetly grasping Leon's pinkie with her index and middle fingers and thumb. Her blue eyes were fixed on the opposing wall, avoiding looking at everyone who tried to catch her eye.
Leon's blonde hair was everywhere, sticking up in every direction and wearing his basketball gear with his gym bag slung over his shoulder. He had wild Alpha induced scowl on his face and looked mightily ticked off. However, his stance was lazy and bored, showing that he was adrenalized and felt like he could take on the whole world by himself in that moment.
Lila sighed as she stood up from her seat on the couch and walked over to the pair of teenagers, "honestly Cynthia, I get that you're antsy to go on your trip in a week, but getting in trouble with a teacher won't help you be allowed to go."
Cynthia murmured a sheepish apology to Lila but said nothing else.
"Mrs. Lawson," the teacher behind Cynthia and Leon spoke up, "this is your first warning, I've given you a set of boundaries so please abide by them. And Mrs. Ligara," Mr. Colson addressed Lila, "please keep a better eye on your charge. Boundaries aren't made for be broken. I've outlined a unique set of boundaries for our young star; however, I'd appreciate if you make sure she follows them."
Lila sighed, "my apologies Mr. Colson," she gave Cynthia a stern look, "and I'm sure it's purely Cynthia's fault, since she knows better than dragging a poor boy into a classroom and getting his hopes up only to dash them."
Cynthia hummed a grumpy response, "I want to be with my mate," the young adult YouTuber murmured, "I'm tired of waiting."
Lila rolled her eyes, "I'm aware honey," she affectionately called the young adult who was practically her daughter before her voice turned stern. "But we're leaving in a week for Vyliea, to your house, and your mate will meet us there. So, for heaven's sake keep it together, now come on," she gestured toward Cynthia's studio, "we have work to do young lady."
Cynthia hung her head, silently taking Lila's reprimanding without letting anyone see the frustrated tears in her eyes. Her blush was quickly fading, as seen by the fading red on her ears and nose and she muttered a quiet apology before letting go of Leon's hand and quietly walking toward her studio, keeping her head down the entire time.
Leon watched her go before he quietly apologized to Mr. Colson and headed toward his dorm room, running a hand through his extremely messy hair and staring at his mate's door. He looked restless and frustrated like he was worried about her safety outside of her his line of sight but couldn't do anything in the current company. So, he trudged lazily toward his room, his Alpha powerful consciousness brushing against both Ran and Orion's. His consciousness was hulking and massive, protected by special Alpha style tricks while also seeming very calm and casual. Orion I'm going to the gym, you're coming with me. Ran, talk to your sister, her cabin fever is getting out of control. Move it, let's go. The angry alpha left no room for arguing as he threw his bag in his room and headed toward the dorm's front door.
Ran and Orion were sitting together on the couch when the teacher had brought Cynthia and Leon back, Ran's eyes widened as she saw the two Vivids getting escorted into the dorm room. Oh shoot…
Orion glanced over as well before turning back towards the show they had been watching. Letting out a long breath Oh boy, Leon is not happy at all, that teacher should be glad he's still alive.
Ran nodded, Orion having let her know more about Cynthia and Leon's relationship. Ran had already gotten up when Cynthia had gone to her room before Leon even told her to see her. I'll see what I can do Leon, have fun at basketball you two. She said before going to the fridge and grabbing two sodas before going to Cynthia's studio.
Orion got up and went over into him and Leon's dorm, seeing his best friend grabbing his basketball gear, slamming a drawer shut in the process. Orion changed into his red and black workout gear quickly, slipping on his basketball shoes and picking up the ball they kept in their room. "Ready?" He asked Leon in a calm voice, standing next to the door.
Ran went inside and closed the door behind her, walking quietly inside. Doing a quick sweep of the room, looking for her tired restless sister.
Leon's amber gaze focused on Orion, temporarily paralyzing the Dormant wild in place with his Alpha abilities, I'm going to beat the crap out of punching bag, you are going to make sure I don't break anything else or hurt anyone but myself. I already got someone to clear out the gym. You can play a game, but I'm not. Everything Leon was saying was very direct and closer to a demand than a request, something Alphas reverted to when their metaphorical switch was flipped. He gave Orion a secondary option, and used only the smallest contractions, making his words bold and fierce even just mentally. He briefly contacted Cynthia, I'm going to the gym, stay here till I come back and check on you.
Cynthia responded with a faint feeling of agreement.
I'm serious, don't go anywhere, I don't want you hurt.
I know, I'm with Lila and Ran.
Leon blinked and then trudged toward the dorm's main door, his stride was lazy and slow, but he still crossed a lot of space with just a few strides. Let's go. Don't fall behind.
"Are you alright?" Lila quietly asked Cynthia as the female wild dropped her backpack onto the ground with a loud noise and sat down on her bed with a thump.
"I'm fine," Cynthia replied, her English was still heavily accented with the musical on pitch accent she always had after speaking in Wivano or the Wilds language for a long period of time. "I just want to leave already."
"I know, but we've got another week left Cynthia-" Lila barely blinked at Cynthia's increased speed ability activating in full and she was shoved into the wall behind her. Cynthia's hands pressing hard against Lila's shoulders and pinning her there.
Cynthia's blue eyes were wild and darkened, and she pushed Lila harder, shoving her and taking a step back with an angry snarl. "You don't get it do you?! Of course, you wouldn't, you're human and I'm the wild! I've been pushed and pushed, to where I'm going to break time and time again!"
"I know." This was the first time anybody except Leon and Cynthia had heard Lila speak in Cynthia's birth language, the language Cynthia understood the best. "I know how much it hurts little one. I know you're teetering over the edge of your limits; I know you're anxious with the loss of not being mated to him anymore, and I know you've been waiting over half a year now to be with him again, properly." Lila enfolded the trembling and shaking vivid wild into her arms, hugging her and gently stroking her hair like a mother would to their daughter, "I know. I see it in you every day the way your stressed out and feel like a caged animal… but it's okay…" she soothed the young adult softly, helping her get herself under control again, "it's okay…"
Cynthia whimpered and squeezed her eyes shut, trembling as she hugged her back, hiding her face into her shoulder and whimpering out one word, a word Ran hadn't heard her say to anyone since they were really little, maybe four or five. "Miuna..." [Means Mama or Mother in Wivano and Wilx, the normal articulated version of the Wilds language] The wild whimpered and Lila's embrace tightened protectively. Having heard the endearment from Cynthia every once in a while, whenever she was vulnerable and lost and feeling like she was completely alone under all the stress she suffered under.
So far, it's not the best but could be worse. Ran said, watching Lila and Cynthia as Cynthia broke down. She watched with a sad expression on her face, hating to see her sister in such a state.
She watched, wanting to say something but not knowing anything to say. She felt very out of place, feeling like she was intruding into a world where she was not meant to be in the first place.
"It's okay little one… I've got you, it's just a little longer, hold on just a little longer I promise." Lila's green eyes, usually stoic and calm glittered faintly with tears of her own.
"I can't… I've tried, I'm losing my mind here…" Cynthia whimpered pathetically, "my grasp on my self-control is slipping further every day!"
"I know, but you're strong, and you can do it for your mate, just another week and you'll be in Vyliea at your home with him. Focus on that Ciabuna." [Articulated nickname in Wilx, means "My baby cub." Is a nickname Lila gave Cynthia as a young child.]
Cynthia lightly shook her head, "I can't… I can't do it Miuna, I can't!"
"You have to try!" Lila insisted with a firm rumble, "it's just one more week, you have to make it Cynthia."
Cynthia released Lila and vigorously shook her head, "I can't! I can't do it! I can't go any longer! I've tried, I've tried so Miuna, but I can't do it!" She looked at Lila through tear glazed blue eyes, "I miss him, and he's right there, trying to help me but also making it harder to refuse and keep my distance!" The female wild buried her hands into her loose dark colored hair in a stressed manner, pulling it away from her face and looking like she wanted to break down and bawl, "I need to be with him or I'm going to completely lose my mind!"
Lila gently grasped her hands, pulling her hands from her long hair and instead holding them together between hers, her green eyes calm and caring, motherly in a way. "You will make it, you are strong enough, you've done it before."
Cynthia was beginning to hyperventilate, "I can't… I can't do it… I can't! I can't! I can't!"
"CYNTHIA!" Lila gave a roar, preventing the female wild from hyperventilating to the point where she would pass out. She firmly placed her hands on Cynthia's shoulders, green eyes flashing. "Focus! You WILL make it, but only if you focus on the goal Cixa!" [Another nickname, but Leon and Lila use it, it means "My shining star"]
Cynthia stared at her, wide eyed and temporarily free of her cabin fever and the muddled state of her and Cinder's consciousness.
"Now breathe," Lila took a deep breath, "and let it out. Focus! You can do it."
Cynthia looked at her for another moment before she followed Lila's example, taking a deep breath in through her nose and letting it out through her mouth.
"Good," Lila said, "now do it a few more times."
Cynthia obediently did as she asked, taking the deep breaths and looking at her manager and mother figure, the restless glaze in her blue eyes fading more with each breath.
Lila smiled when Cynthia's eyes were finally clear and calmly switched back to English, her half Vandalan accent reappearing. "Good, now until the day of the trip I'll come in here a few times a day and we'll do those breathing exercises. It'll help keep your mind clear and calm till you can," she smiled cheekily, "let it all out."
Cynthia's cheeks pinked and she huffed indignantly, "whatever," she muttered, but she was smiling, and she looked a lot better.
Though as Lila managed to get Cynthia's emotions under control and they began talking about different things that happened. Even though Ran herself was smiling now she couldn't help but feel like she still was very out of place. Looking down at the ground as the conversation went on. Feeling like she had missed a giant portion of her sister's life as well as getting to see Cynthia at her happiest.
"Now then," she reverted back to her calm and rather emotionally distant manager style self. "I'm giving you tonight to finish that savannah drawing and tomorrow morning and afternoon will be free because I know you're going to have a migraine and your sternum going to ache all morning long.
Cynthia looked sheepish and avoided Lila's eyes, however she also looked cheeky and very unapologetic.
"Lights out in two hours for everyone, I'll send your fur ball in here once the lights are all out and if I hear anything more than his ridiculous snoring, I'll put him in one of the spare bedrooms. Got it?"
Cynthia nodded; blue eyes surprised at Lila's decision.
Lila looked at her for a few moments before she gave a tiny smile, "have to keep you motivated somehow right?" The smile vanished. "Plus, the pain in your sternum fades faster if you're with him, even just sleeping next to him for a few hours. Which means you can catch up on the work you've been missing while I've been away dealing with your mother."
Cynthia pulled a face, the only reason her cabin fever had gotten so bad was because Lila had been gone for the past week and a half. Making the wild YouTuber lazy and bored, not wanting to listen to her replacement when she really only listened to Lila, and Jake on occasion.
"If I hear you silly stringed my replacement again, I will work you to the ground, that clear?" Lila added and Cynthia only grinned cheekily.
"I don't like other managers."
Lila rolled her eyes, "well sometimes I have to go make sure your mother isn't going to bankrupt you and siphon your money Cynthia, so be nice to my replacements. Before you ask," Lila deadpanned, "no Jake may not be my replacement. He is your bodyguard outside of the school and when you're with Leon, and also your chauffer, not your manager. He doesn't want my job, you're a thorn in my side young lady."
Cynthia giggled, laughing finally after the whole situation. The nineteen-year-old stepped forward and hugged her manager, "thank you Lila, and I promise to be nicer to your replacements sometimes."
Lila patted her back, "that's good enough. Now talk to your sister while I make phone calls to clean up your mess. The floor is coming out of your account, not mine."
Cynthia grinned and let her go, "good luck with that, I think there's a broken shelf too if my hazy memory doesn't deceive me. I think Leon broke it with his head," she shrugged, "but I don't remember."
Lila sighed, "because you had all your senses tuned up, meaning your memory of what happened visually around you is pretty much useless."
Cynthia giggled, grinning cheekily, "pretty much."
Lila rolled her eyes, "and you wonder why I throw you two in the basement and lock you down there when we're in Vyliea at the house. You and Leon break everything we own at least once every visit."
Cynthia grinned, "not the couch, or the gaming consoles, or the curved tv in the media room, or anything in my studios, or the kitchen. We don't break everything."
"No, you just break things like the glass coffee table, dining table chairs, and even somehow the backsplash in the kitchen tiles." Lila deadpanned, "anything down lower than your waist is in danger of being broken. Including your own head, how did you shatter the table last time and not end up concussed?"
Cynthia blinked and she tried to remember, only to burst into giggles, "I forgot that happened, oops. I have to be more careful this time though," she glanced over at her sister, "we're bringing company this time."
"So hopefully no more Leon sliding down the stairs in a box and knocking you into said box with him?" Lila said with a straight face.
Cynthia blushed, "that was your fault," she pointed accusingly at her, "you gave him a peach cream pastry. Do you know what it's like to be full body tackled by your much bigger mate when you walk in the door? Cause he did that to me and promptly wouldn't stop kissing me, which was flat out annoying! I couldn't get an English word in for four hours!"
Lila smirked, "didn't seem to bother you at the time."
Cynthia grunted, her face going a little redder, "no, but when I realized I was delayed on seven projects? Then it became annoying."
"You're a vivid wild Cynthia, you live to have your mate showing you his affection, it's practically the air you breathe."
"Shut up," Cynthia huffed, her accent thickening slightly, "okay so I like being kissed, is that a problem?"
"Like?" Lila snorted, "I couldn't get your attention for an hour once your two first kissed, you were too distracted by kissing him almost the whole time."
Cynthia blushed harder, "I was fifteen and brand new to having a mate who loved me, and new to romance, good grief. Cut me some slack. I'm not that bad now."
"Here no, but at the house?" Lila said in a teasing fashion and Cynthia turned pink, "honestly, you two are forever stuck in that honeymoon phase."
Cynthia poked her tongue out at her, "am not, I can control myself…
"Our broken coffee table begs to differ."
"most of the time," Cynthia amended with a sheepish grin, "more so when there's other people around than the four of us."
"That I can agree with. Now I'm off to repair the damage you and Leon did to the classroom and apologize a thousand times to a teacher who's now going to be deathly terrified of Leon and male wilds." Lila deadpanned before she headed off toward the main area, "she's okay now Ran, you're welcome to talk to her though. Maybe she'll tell you what actually happened and how Leon almost killed a teacher." She rolled her eyes as she left.
Cynthia sat down on her bed with a sigh and rubbed her temples, feeling much better but also terrible. Her sternum was starting to ache again, and overall, she was feeling overheated and confused. She still didn't understand how she had managed to divert Leon's attention from the teacher when normally she'd have to touch him and use her speech ability to get him to back off. She guessed it had something to do with how frustrated they both were, he was more in tune with her than usual since their emotions were mirroring almost identically. "Ran? I need you to do something for me, can you keep an eye on Orion's position and warn me when he come back to the dorm? Because Leon's going to act weird when he comes back so we're going to need to clear everyone out of the main area by then." She knew her mate, and she knew his Alpha mode, she also knew he wasn't going to relax till he came back, pushed her against a wall and assessed her mental and physical health to make sure she was okay and safe. It didn't hurt her, if anything it hurt the wall more than her, but she was hesitant to lower her mental barriers around her inner thoughts with her cabin fever affecting her mind and heightening her emotions. Not to mention it was always startling having someone lift you by the waist and pin you against a wall, staring at you. She knew when he stared at her he was assessing her overall health through more than their bond, staring at her with her at eye level like that was the easiest way to access her and Cinder's consciousness as a whole, where he could sort through her current emotions, anything crossing her mind, and judge her health and safety. She could do it to him too and had once before, after his plane had a mishap on the runway and miraculously came out unscathed. The only difference was that Cynthia knocked him to the ground while he lifted her against a wall. Either way it was to reach the same goal, assess each other's condition and decide if they needed to be in Alpha mode or could relax and be normal.
Ran leaned against Cynthia's table having set the drinks down on the table, trying to be as inconspicuous and the least awkward she could be. Her gaze bolted up to Lila as she heard her name, she nodded and smiled as Lila left the room.
She turned back to her sister as she asked for the favor, she gave her sister a smile. "Of course, I'm up for anything you need." she said before casually offering a soda to her. "I know I suck at helping people, especially with my words. If there is anything you want me to do, don't hesitate to ask me." She said, keeping track of Orion's whereabouts as she said so.
Ran paused mid speech and her blue eyes sharpened, a faint glow appearing in her eyes as her partner came in reach of the specialized parts of their bond. "They're here Cynthia," she told her sister, who immediately lost her smile and sighed.
"Alright," she tipped the soda can up and drained the rest of it as she stood up from her desk and headed toward the door. "I'd suggest you keep a wide berth around me so that Leon doesn't accidentally hit you," she said with a small sneeze from the carbonation tickling her nose before tossing the can behind her in a perfect arc and making it land snuggly in the trash in her studio.
Ran nodded and put down her own soda before she followed after her sister, doing as Cynthia suggested and keeping a few feet away from her, just in case. From what Orion had told her, Leon could be extremely violent in his Alpha mode, as evidence by the long explanation Cynthia had given her of the earlier situation. Can you believe Leon nearly beat the crap out of a teacher? She asked Alexandra shock in her mental voice, I never would've expected anything violent coming from him.
Well he is an Alpha, Alexandra pointed out in return, and Alphas are deadly protective over their mate. Not to mention he did scare them, and Cynthia mentioned she may have yelped. So, for all we know he attacked blindly to protect Cynthia. The teacher's very lucky Cynthia was able to focus and tell Leon to stop or Leon might've cracked his skull and shattered his nose.
True… Ran agreed, still, he seems like one of those gentle giants you know, a big tall guy who's more passive aggressive.
Maybe so, but he is a Vivid Alpha with a mate who's clearly restless and essentially losing her sanity being here around him all the time and unable to do anything about it…
Why are you always right? Ran huffed slightly and moved to stand near one wall while she watched Cynthia run one hand through her long and loose black hair.
Because I'm amazing, Alexandra retorted in a cheeky manner, take that.
Cynthia approached the dorm's main door and pulled it open just as Orion was sliding his keycard through, blue eyes focused gently and in a tired fashion, on her mate, the blonde standing next to him.
Leon still had an Alpha scowl on his face and his nose was wrinkled in general annoyance, but his eyes had softened more and were just alert inside of hostile and alert. However, the moment his mate came into view, Leon's eyes narrowed, eyebrows furrowing in concern the process, before he moved into the dorm. He then let Cynthia get out of the way of the door before he pinned her semi-harshly to the wall, holding her up at eye level with him. He said nothing, and neither did Cynthia, who showed no reaction to being pushed hard into the creamy colored wall. Instead she whimpered, blue eyes anxious and not wanting to drop all of her barriers and reveal what she had been feeling for the past two weeks.
Leon looked at her, his gaze piercing but gentle focused on her blue eyes as he prodded her mind again silently asking her to let him check if she's okay and feeling well.
Cynthia valued the privacy of her inner thoughts and feelings, the one thing Vivids could mentally hide from their partner and mate that Dormants couldn't. Cringing with discomfort that showed briefly on her face the female wild lowered her last few mental barriers and let him assess her mind in full, keeping her anxious blue eyes on his calm amber ones. She didn't do this often, particularly because she had an active imagination and had a tendency to daydream a lot more than she'd like and had to deal with hiding them from him and everyone else or risk being embarrassed and teased forever. Another reason is that it was special and rather intimate for her when their minds melded together completely, leaving no secrets, not that she could hide much of anything from him anyway. Just the strength of certain emotions and sensations and her embarrassingly active imagination and creative mind.
The pair of Vivid wilds didn't move for more a minute, standing almost deathly still, various emotions flickering in their eyes back and forth. Before after a few moments Cynthia lifted her legs and linked her ankles, making herself more comfortable and blinking a few times, rubbing uncomfortably at her eyes while Leon just blinked and let Cynthia situate herself.
Cynthia then tiredly leaned her head back against the wall and half shut her eyes while Leon adjusted their position, holding her up a little higher and more gently than before, satisfied that she was okay, safe and sound.
Leon then broke the silence with a concerned rumbling growl, "Are you okay?" He asked in relation to her resting her head back against the wall and promising to protect her. "Did anyone hurt you? I'll hurt them if they so much as looked at you funny!"
Cynthia gave a soft whimper, blue eyes round and drooping in a weary and miserable manner. "I'm tired," she whimpered softly, "and I miss you." Her lifted her head back up and her blue eyes wandered slightly over her mate's concerned face and the vivid female wild reached up and smoothed down the wrinkling of his nose, making his nose return to normal. "It makes you look scary, wrinkling your nose like that."
Leon's eyebrows knitted together with concern, "what happened to you? I'll find them if they hurt you," he promised, hoping to make his Luna feel a little better.
Cynthia looked at him with a bitter smile, "nothing Leon, nobody did anything to me. I'm just tired," her blue eyes drifted mostly closed, his breath tickling her skin. Her skin was humming with energy where Leon touched her, but it didn't do much more than make her feel more tired. "Tired of hiding, pretending, and being caged up like an animal."
Leon rumbled a comforting rumble and softly sent her a few waves of soothing energy before he rested his face against the front of her throat, vibrating his vocal cords in a comforting purr and tickling her skin with his feline ears.
Spring Break Begins!
Cynthia and Leon didn't seem to have problems on the plane. Cynthia had been twitchy lately so she and Lila had argued and eventually settled on first class tickets where it would be quieter and where less people would be. They didn't want anything to bother Cynthia's already heightened senses or stress her out anymore. However, during the flight Cynthia didn't seem stressed at all, rather she had headphones on, her laptop on her lap, and had his arms loosely resting around her waist. There was a lot less staring in first class too, people wouldn't gawk and stare at Cynthia the whole flight, making her a little more comfortable.
Leon pretty much crashed and slept like a rock the entire seven-hour flight, his head tucked into the crook of Cynthia's neck while his mate was sitting on his lap during the flight where passengers were allowed to move around. Cynthia ended up falling asleep for the last hour of the flight, and Lila woke them both up before landing procedures started.
After the flight though they were both wide awake and alert, Cynthia was bubbling with excitement and fidgeting the closer they got to the studio, accidentally elbowing Leon in the ribs a few times.
"It's been so long since I've been here," Cynthia smiled, her blue gaze wandering happily over the rather large studio, at the small company she and Lila had built and created when she was thirteen. "I was here the last time I saw Leon, so over seven months ago, and I feel kind of bad," she laughed, "I'm a terrible business owner."
"No," Lila disagreed, "it's called you're a busy person with not enough time to do everything you want to. I've been back here multiple times and they've expanded a little as well even though you keep them busy enough."
Cynthia laughed, "with managing all the things I'm told to do in a day I'm not surprised, not to mention that the concert's in two days and Mike's probably freaking out about it. I bet Mia's locked herself in her office just to edit all the extra videos I've recorded over the past five days for this trip, I think I have what, twenty-one videos?"
Lila's composure slipped for a moment, "you sent twenty-one recordings to Mia? Cynthia is she even supposed to eat or sleep?"
Cynthia blinked, "you do realize that that's only about seven days of work, right?" She pointed out, "she only has to edit one for each channel a day and she Xika helping her. I brought the AI Bree made me for editing any Vlogs I do here, so…" she lightly shrugged, "I wanted to relax on my vacation around the concert and karate tournament so I prerecorded as many videos as I could. I gave Mia instructions to only do her normal workload a day and sent the other fifteen to Xika and told her the same thing. Plus, we have fifteen editors on the team in the studio, and I made it clear to distribute the workload. If I'm taking a vacation, then my editor deserves at least a lighter load, right?"
Lila lightly shook her head, "how do you find any time to do anything? Each of your recordings is about two hours, and you sent them thirty-six videos total. That's fifty-one hours on recording alone."
Cynthia blinked, did the math in her head to check Lila's statement and looked sheepishly at her, "huh, I didn't even notice to be honest. I'm so used to spam recording before a trip that it doesn't really occur to me how much time I'm spending on the recording…"
"Just keep in mind that not everyone can do the work of fifteen people like you can," Lila warned, "and Mia's plenty busy even without you spamming her with videos to edit."
Cynthia looked sheepish, "I'll make sure to talk to Mia and tell her to assign the videos to various editors. At least the art ones are easy, I already about ten minutes of talking about each the art piece in their editing files."
"And how many of those do you have?"
"Seven," Cynthia explained, "that's what took me so long with the recordings, I spend about four hours on each piece, so that's over twenty-four hours down the drain."
"How you find time to even sleep before these trips and not pass out when we get here is beyond me." Lila said with a roll of her eyes.
"It's because she's running on pure adrenaline and sometimes caffeine," Leon snorted from the back seat with Ran and Orion, "believe me, once she's gotten all the excitement out of her system she crashes like a rock, completely dead to the world."
"I do not," Cynthia countered, "I stay completely awake till I'm not needed anymore, then I go to sleep, not crash."
Leon playfully rolled his eyes, "right because you didn't practically pass out on the couch when I playfully threw you on it to tickle you last time we were here."
Cynthia blushed and spoke indignantly, "excuse me for being tired after everything that went on that day between missing a flight, my civic being totaled and having to be replaced, and having a fight with your father."
"Still, you couldn't have told me you were tired, so I didn't have to freak out when you passed out on the spot?" Leon huffed, "you almost gave Lila a heart attack."
Cynthia rolled her eyes, "fine, fine, I'll try to tell you I'm going to pass out before I actually pass out."
Their conversation helped keep any of the other sleepy passengers awake, the playful squabbling between mates as Lila pulled properly into the parking lot, near a set of modern and unique vans usually seen at Cynthia's concerts. Next to them was a fancy and unique style bus, white with massive windows and what looked like tables in front of most of the chairs in the front.
Standing in front of the main doors and behind the floor to ceiling windows, were a group of people. The four heads of the studio were standing outside while everyone else was inside.
"I love this place!" Cynthia squealed, getting all excited at being in the studio and quickly unbuckling and opening the door. However, she was quickly knocked to the ground by a blur of blonde as one of the people inside came outside, sprinting at them with an excited and at the same time furious expression.
"Cynthia!"
"Oh dear," Cynthia laughed and quickly shut her door before she was tackled. "Hi Xika-" Cynthia then yelped before she laughed as the smaller blonde pinned her down, grasped handfuls of her denim jacket near the collar, and shook her repeatedly. "Oomph!"
"How dare you send me and Mia thirty-six videos in a day! And then not tell us we're supposed to spread them all out for a week! Do you know how stressful that is?! Do you?! We were freaking out till you decided to tell us an hour later to spread them out!"
Cynthia laughed and let her shake her, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, a certain unnamed someone distracted me from sending the email properly, I meant to send it all together, but he pressed send before I was finished!"
Xika perked up, and her head cocked to one side, "he?"
Leon emerged from the other side of the car with a lopsided and cheeky grin, "that was my fault."
Xika's soft blue eyes lit up and she looked back down at Cynthia, "you could've just said Leon was with you!" She quickly got up and to her feet before running over and throwing her arms around him in a bubbly bear hug, "It's been forever since I've seen you!" She bubbled happily and squeezed him as hard as she could, "Cynthia keeps you hostage whenever you're around!"
"Yeah because he's mine," Cynthia rolled her eyes and sat up, "and will always be mine despite how we're neighbors and I invite my team over a lot."
"Well yeah," Xika grinned from Leon's cheeky hug, "your house is gigantic!"
Cynthia rolled her eyes again as she stood up, "I'm aware it is, I created the specs for it." Her blue gaze flickered between Xika and Leon, clearly to her sister, Orion, and Lila, slightly hostile despite how she actively knew her well. However, she managed a tense smile and approached them, "now please release my mate." Unreasonable jealousy was bubbling at her stomach. She didn't really want other people touching her mate right now, not till after she got to be with him just the two of them at their home.
Leon reached over and grasped Cynthia's hand, amber eyes calm as the bubbly woman blinked in surprise at the slightly strange and angered way Cynthia had spoken.
Cynthia took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of her nose, "sorry, I've been cooped up at the school too long near him with a lot of restrictions."
Xika released Leon and hugged Cynthia, "nah don't worry about it, I should've known you came here first," she released her and stepped back with a grin, "it's always duty before everything else with you."
Cynthia smiled and grasped Leon's hand and nodded as Xika, "pretty much." She twisted and looked over her shoulder at the others, "come on Ran, Orion, let's go! We'll show you around everything and you can see where the magic happens Ran."
Ran seemed to be doing better now that she was standing, looking a lot less like she was going to pass out. She saw Xika's reaction to Cynthia and watched in surprise, not sure what to think about what was going on. She was leaning slightly towards Orion, just in case she did fall over Orion would be there to catch her.
Orion seemed to be doing pretty darn well even though he wasn't as used to flying and much as Leon and Cynthia were. Smiling as he watched Xika and the others. He took Ran's hand in his own as Cynthia lead the way into the studio.
have you meet them before? Ran asked Orion, having heard the name Xika before but could place anything else.
Orion thought for a moment before saying Yeah, maybe once or twice, I think? I don't know, not in the mood to think right now.
Ran rolled her eyes before nudging him slightly Lazy.
Orion smiled maybe, but you're going to have to deal with that, and it's not like you aren't feeling lazy right now too, you were trying so hard to fall asleep in the car. I thought you were going to pass out on the plane due to your stress and anxiety levels.
This time Ran gave him a visible elbow to the gut, a very faint pink coming to her cheeks.
Ran looked at the building that was her sister's studio, having not expected it to be so big. She looked at all the different people that had come to greet Cynthia, Leon, and Lila as they went into the building. Not sure what to say to them or anything as she followed her sister into the studio.
Cynthia smiled at the two Dormants (I almost wrote Kikoi XD) and led the way toward the people at the doors. "The four standing out here are four of the five heads of the studio." She smiled at the four members and gestured to them one at a time, starting with the one on the far left. "That's Mike, he's the Audio Head, meaning his team takes care of mics, organizing songs, adding sound effects, choosing which songs are going to be played at a concert and during meets he's usually the one giving me an earpiece with him and Lila on the other end."
Mike grinned, he was about Cynthia and Ran's height, with tanned skin, milky blue eyes, a rather thick build, and wore a casual t-shirt and jeans with headphones around his neck.
"The next one's Joslynn, she's the Motion Head. Her and her team handle choreography, clothes, hair, makeup, and all that for concerts, while in videos they also design the movements to go in a lyric video around a script."
Joslynn smiled kindly, she was dark skinned with rather straight black hair, dark green eyes, a curvy build and wore a classy style outfit.
"The twig standing next to her is Suxtan, he's the Effects head, he and his team handle the flashing lights, bright sounds, and other crazy effects in videos and concerts."
Suxtan crossed his arms indignantly at the introduction, dark grey eyes glaring defiantly at Cynthia. He was tall but scrawny, had a laptop back over one shoulder, a pair of glasses over his eyes, and had fair skin.
"And the fourth head is Mia, the Editors Head. She and her team have to deal with the daily influx of recordings I and many other YouTubers send in with detailed instructions of what to edit. However, for the most part only Mia and Xika, the editor assigned to me, deal with my videos. My stuff requires tons of extremely high-quality edits, so usually they handle the five or six videos a day I send in."
Mia rolled her eyes, "honestly Cynthia, I thought I was going to have a heart attack when you sent out the influx of over twenty videos." Mia was a girl about Cynthia's age with dark blue eyes, long curly golden blonde hair similar to Lila's, lightly freckled fair skin, and stood about four inches shorter than Cynthia. She was wearing a loose blouse over a t-shirt all paired with dark blue jeans and had the pen to a digital tablet tucked behind her left ear. Her hair was pulled back and up into a ponytail and had a white headband holding back any stray hairs. "Since you're the only one I haven't seen before," she said, addressing Ran, "I'm guessing your Cynthia's sister Ran. I'm Cynthia's neighbor and video editor, Mia Greeves, it's nice to meet you Ran."
Finally, Home
"Oh, come on!" Leon groaned again for the fifth time as his character died, leaving the rest of the team to be overwhelmed by the swarm of mini forest dragons without their DPS Tank. The 'YOUR DEAD' message appeared in the three sections of the massive curved screen in Cynthia's media room and he groaned, flopping back against the couch, speaking to Fin in English who was at his house. "We're never going to beat this boss Fin, all four of are DPS, while I'm still a tank, I'm not Cynthia's shield maiden character with those chains that double as a long rang whip class weapon. There's only so much damage I can take with that swarm on top of me."
"I know," Fin groaned through the headsets, "Cynthia's character would whip those ridiculous dragons into submission while we handled the blades on that boss. What's her AGI and STR at by now anyway?" He asked as Leon switched in and out some of his other gear for his character.
"AGI's maxed and she has enough STR to hang onto a dolphin in game," Leon shrugged, "but she won't play, she already said no." He glanced over at his mate who was leaning against his shoulder, Surface Pro on her lap with the pen in her left dominant hand and her other fingers curled around the surface dial. "She's pretty zoned out."
"Ah come on, you and I both know you can get her to play without much more than a minor hitch in the plan."
Leon sighed, "you want to beat this boss that bad?" He asked his friend while putting down his controller beside him, "and you call me a video game nerd."
"Come on Leon, it's access to the jeweled city, the latest DLC! I waited months for it to come out and now I can't beat this last boss fight!" Fin practically begged his friend, "come on, you want to see it, too don't you? And Cynthia's already released videos on the jeweled city's interior! I'm dying here man!"
Leon rolled his eyes, "you're going to get me in so much trouble with her," he told him with a sigh, but he did flip up his mic. Disabling it as he twisted his head toward his shoulder and brushed Cynthia's black hair away from her skin.
Cynthia moved to look back at him, but she froze halfway through the motion and she slouched, leaning most of her weight on Leon's shoulder and arm like all the tension in her body vanished. She made a small noise, something Ran, and Orion couldn't understand while the tips of Leon's ears went red.
However, Leon brushed his lips over Cynthia's mark again and this time he rumbled a question, "will you play with us? We need your help."
Cynthia slumped a little more and almost nodded before the wild suddenly whined, sluggishly sat up, and pushed at his face with a weak snort, "no, you're not…influencing me..." her insistence at pushing him away wavered as he reached over and twisted around before briefly massaging the muscles at the base of her neck.
"Please," Leon rumbled to her, his breath tickling her ear.
Cynthia whimpered, "not fair… I don't want to play the game…" She leaned against him though, her blue eyes partially closing in a relaxed manner.
Leon wrapped his arms around Cynthia from behind, resting his nose against her neck and rumbling a few words to her. "I'll spend time with you after," he bargained while Cynthia leaned back further, unable to help the purr rumbling through her throat. "Under the stars with you."
Cynthia looked like she wanted to say no, just to fight back against her mate's influential embrace and the light kisses he was pressing to her mark, but so far, she didn't. Her half-closed eyes lazily strayed toward the massive tv and back at Leon, clearly debating her options. She shifted positions, turning sideways to talk to him.
Leon kissed her and Cynthia melted, leaning forever into the kiss while after a few moments Leon pulled back, "please? Leon said with a smile at her. However, he leaned back when Cynthia turned to face him completely and leaned forward to hiss him, an almost lovesick and at the same dizzy look in her blue eyes. "Cia…"
Cynthia gave a rumbling purr, leaning further and even moved onto her hands and knees. "I don't want to," she whined and tugged on his shirt, bringing him closer, "I want to be with you instead."
Leon lightly shook his head, "later, up in the water courtyard."
Cynthia looked blankly at him and the female wild groaned as she moved and pushed her head into Leon's shirt, black bangs hiding her eyes. She mumbled something virtually nobody understood, but the grin on Leon's face was enough of a giveaway of what it was.
Leon grinned and leaned over to grab Cynthia's controller while Cynthia situated herself on her mate's lap with her back to his chest and her blue eyes slightly foggy but clearing. Leon passed her the controller and wrapped his arms around her, holding his controller in front of her so that he arms were wrapped around Cynthia's body. He flipped down his mike, "Got her, her character should appear in a sec."
Cynthia said nothing, setting up her character and changing some of the settings.
Ran and Orion watched the turn of events as their characters loaded back into the game. Orion looking over and a hint of a smile appeared, knowing that Leon was going to have to hold to his promise of time together afterwards. Ran on the other hand looked at her sister as if she had grown horns and a tail. She had not expected that kind of reaction from Cynthia, but at the same time she still wasn't used to seeing what they could do. Though it was obvious she was still a little embarrassed by it too thanks to the slight tint in her cheeks now.
Orion's light smile turned into a grin as he noticed Ran's blush and how she felt. He turned to Leon after Cynthia had gotten up onto his lap and asked Leon "Is that something I'm able to do to Ran?" He asked, teasing his partner but also curious.
Ran's blush got much brighter as she looked at him, both surprised, annoyed, and embarrassed. She gave him a nice elbow to his ribs. It wasn't very hard, Orion laughing a little bit since he knew that his teasing worked. Though they now both looked at Leon, wondering if he would have an answer to the question.
"Do what?" Leon responded innocently, casually pretending he hadn't done anything to Cynthia.
Cynthia responded for him, the odd dizzy look in her eyes having faded a little. "No, it's a Vivid thing, Dormants can nudge each other's thoughts in one direction, but you each have your own mental privacy and you make your own decisions without the other's influence. Unlike us," She elbowed her mate in the stomach speaking dryly, "where Leon does it to get his way."
Leon grinned, "come on, I don't do it that often."
Cynthia rolled her eyes, "of course not, just when I'm working or when I'm recording, or when you go all Alpha on me."
"Like you're any better," Leon teased, "half the time you chase me around, knock me down, or use yours on me."
Cynthia blushed and said nothing, her cloaked character appearing on the screen with a party warning that mobs around them would be harder if they allowed the character into the party.
Leon accepted the danger alert and Cynthia's character appeared standing next to his character. Her character wore a long blue hood and cloak, hiding her face and clothes beyond her lower forearms, which had thin silver chains wrapped repeatedly around each wrist and hand, the chains ending in slim curved weapons called 'Brightsteel Chakums' that functioned as a long and short range weapon when attached to the chains in her hands.
Leon grinned at his best friend, usually Cynthia was a lot more hyperactive and mischievous the first day they were together in whatever city the three of them were in, she wasn't chasing Leon around, she wasn't doing anything really with her mate for that matter, Lila hadn't hunted the female wild down and scolded her for whatever she had been doing that annoyed Lila, her feline ears weren't visible and she had been relatively calm, without twitching pretty much all day. It was strange, incredibly so for Cynthia to not have tackled Leon and the two of them running and chasing each other back and forth like playful wild animals. Are you hiding everything for your sister? Leon asked his mate's currently muddled mind while beginning the boss raid again
Yeah, she's not used to all the stuff we do, and she certainly isn't used to me acting like a goofy, impulsive wild child who either turns to mush or springs like an animal whenever their mate touches them. Cynthia responded, her mental voice sulking and moody, I don't want to make her uncomfortable.
Then what're you going to do? It's not like you can do that forever, she needs to be exposed to what a mate's status for Vivids is like, you can't hide it from her forever.
Just for a little while, I want to ease her into it because next week is going to be a pain to keep everything under control.
What're you… your supposed to go into heat again next week, aren't you?
Yeah, so I can't decide between telling her bluntly or easing her into the whole what I'm like around my mate with that hanging over my head.
Your choice, at least we've got the water courtyard… Leon felt something from her, an incredibly strong flash of emotion and some physical pain in Cynthia's sternum before she blocked both from him, I'm sorry, he suddenly apologized, I shouldn't have influenced you, I didn't know it was that bad. His arms tightened around Cynthia's body, I'm sorry.
Cynthia's fingers drummed against her controller in a fidgety manner, it's okay, I've been hiding it from you and everyone else.
You don't have to play; I'll go upstairs with you and maybe some sleep will help. Leon told her quietly, frustrated in himself for not sensing how she was in pain again.
I've tried, it kind of just lingers there and spikes periodically to remind me it's there. Cynthia explained, don't worry about it Leon, I can live with it, I do it all the time.
But I'm able to help you here!
Do you really want to explain it to our siblings right now? That's an awkward conversation I'd rather avoid. It's not like I'm going anywhere anyway, I can wait till later when Lila gives me the okay to leave the house and to take you with me. Cynthia's weapons each damaged three of the dragons with one throw before she yanked back the chain, damaging two more in the process. Even if we just sneak back down here, it's better than having a conversation I really don't want to have with my sister.
"Am I a bad person for being happy my sister's asleep?" Cynthia hissed softly to Leon and Orion from where she was next to Leon on one side of the ping pong table and Orion was on the other side. She hadn't really been playing, leaning sideways against it while she watched Leon and Orion go back and forth. The game was taking so long that Ran had gone upstairs almost ten minutes ago to fight off her jet lag, and it left the three of them down in the basement. Making Cynthia twitchy and drum her fingers over her other arm where she had her arms crossed over her chest.
Leon's amber eyes didn't move from following the ball zipping back and forth across the court, "no honey," he rumbled back, calling her by a pet name to ease some of her twitchiness. "You're happy she's asleep because you can relax," he glanced at her, "not that you're actually relaxing though, to me you still look like you're standing stiffer than a board."
Cynthia didn't look impressed, "how am I supposed to relax? You're obsessed with winning this stupid game." She grunted rather harshly and quickly mumbled a half-hearted apology, turning her back to him.
Orion's eyes flickered over to her for half a second, but he didn't say anything, unsure what exactly to say to her when Leon was standing next to her.
Leon glanced at Cynthia as well before he read her body language, lightly tapped her with the paddle in a playful manner which made her jump a little and snatched the ball of out of midair. "I can't always understand what you want from me without you telling me," he rumbled, softly, "if you want something, then tell me. Ran's asleep, quit fighting yourself and just let go Cynthia." With that he served the ball again, looking at his mate through his peripherals.
Cynthia breathed a heavy breath, her shoulders loosening up as the female wild finally relaxed. Granted she did turn around snatch the ping pong ball out of the air again, effectively ending the game, but she was smiling a little, with the half cheeky half sincere smile that seemed to normally adorn her face when she was here in Vyliea at their house with him on her face.
Leon smiled gently and offered her a hug, "see? It's better when you relax."
Cynthia's lips pulled up into a mischievous smirk and she didn't give Leon any warning before she ran behind him and knocked him to the ground. Sitting on his back as she grabbed one of his ankles and tickled the bottom of his foot with her fingers. Making Leon burst into laughter and struggle even though with the enhanced strength ability on her playful grip was like iron.
"You've got something on your mind," Leon said to Orion about ten minutes later from where he was sprawled across the full length of one of the couches. Currently playing with a small lock of Cynthia's black hair. "What is it?"
Cynthia's lazy purr could be heard from where her head was on Leon's chest, her cheek pushed against the Leon's chest. The female wild was lazily snuggled on top of him, her arms wrapped around him under the arms, stretched out comfortably between Leon's legs.
Leon had one leg stretched out, bent slightly with Cynthia's knee wedged under his leg and his other leg was bent at the knee leaning against the back of the couch. He had a pillow behind his back to prop himself up comfortably so he could see his best friend, a blanket was spread out over Cynthia, tucked around her. He had traded out his shirt, better helping Cynthia relax.
His efforts in making Cynthia relax was apparent by the way Cynthia's blue eyes were barely cracked open and her breathing a deep and slow, sleepy and threatening to doze off. She moved at the sound of his voice in English, giving a lazy disgruntled noise and turning her head away from the tv that was on in the background. "Who're you talking to?"
Leon moved a hand but and down her back, lazily rubbing her back while also curling a lock of her hair around his finger. "Just talking to Orion," he purred, "Ran's still asleep."
Orion looked at Leon before saying "Cynthia's trying to act like how she was around Ran instead of being herself." Orion said bluntly, leaning back in the chair. Cynthia needs to show Ran what she actually is like." he stated simply.
Orion was keeping track of Ran's position and thoughts while he was saying this, getting the sense of what she was dreaming, keeping her relaxed and asleep. He was tempted to sleep himself, but he thought it was more important to talk to Leon and Cynthia about what he was thinking. "You two need to tell her on your time, and soon or else things will go until she finds out what you two are really like together." he said, looking surprisingly calm as he focused on making Ran happy in dreamland while having the conversation. "If it's blunt and shocking to her that's fine, she will get over it faster than if she finds out on her own."
Orion said before sighing "she feels hurt and out of place since Cynthia hid this part of her life for years. If she finds out there are still some things you two are hiding that others knew about then she will feel even worse." he said, looking a little sad as he recalled some conversations he had with Ran about Cynthia and Leon which some had taken a sad turn with Ran's thoughts and speculation. "She doesn't understand a lot of what happened nor what is going on, so the best people to tell her is you two." he said, having been thinking over what he was going to say to them for some time. He watched his best friend calmly, waiting for a response, not sure how Leon or Cynthia would take what he had learned and said.
"Well how should we break it to her Orion? Even you don't see half of what goes on." Leon then spoke in an overly exaggerated tone, "hey Ran, so your sister acts like a lovesick dog whenever I'm around, sorry about that… oh yeah, she also extremely touchy feely, mischievous, and shameless when she's around me, sorry about that too." He let his voice return to normal, "she'd stare at Cynthia and ask to go home and that's just scratching the surface."
Cynthia said nothing, but her feline ears were twitching uneasily and her arms around Leon's back tightened nervously, showing how uncomfortable she was in the conversation.
Leon took a deep breath to calm himself and ran his free hand through his hair, "Cynthia's calm and collected around Ran Orion, her school was shocked the core when her and I got into trouble for just kissing in a classroom when a lot of other students do the same thing and get nothing more than a slap on the wrist. To the normal world Cynthia's, the collected modest celebrity who plans everything without fail, but as you know, around me all of her planning falls apart, letting her be as impulsive and childish as she wants. She can toe boundaries, make her own decisions on the spot, follow whatever impulse she chooses to, and let that perfect mask go for a little while." He craned his neck and kissed the top of Cynthia's head, still softly rubbing her back, "we don't want to make Ran uncomfortable with how affectionate we are and how touchy-feely Cynthia is. Cynthia needs my affectionate virtually all the time, and that urge to be touching me is disorienting for others who haven't known her."
Orion shrugged "Well it's not like I was super comfortable when you two started doing stuff in front of me either." He said trying to think of what to say. "it may shock her at first, but she will get used to it. I doubt she will want to go home. From what I have gotten to know about Ran she will want to stay, even if at time it may be a bit strange or uncomfortable."
He thought back to one of the first dreams that he had of her, standing in front of Cynthia, begging to go with her on one of her trips. She had been looking forward to this trip so much since she had wanted to see what was "behind the scenes" in Cynthia's life for so long now. Ran was going to get the chance to see it, even if it wasn't what she was expecting she still wanted to be a part of Cynthia's life. "She has heard little bits about how you and Cynthia act, both from me and from when you, Leon, are teasing Cynthia out loud. Though she has found it strange, including when she saw you two getting in trouble back at school or when Ran first found out about you two. She has seen Cynthia relaxed and happy around you. Which is something that Ran likes to see, she likes seeing Cynthia happy, even if it may weird her out sometimes if she sees Cynthia happy then Ran's own reaction towards it may be better."
Orion said, focusing on Ran's mind for a moment, giving her a happy moment in the dream that she was having. The dream included herself, Orion, Cynthia and Leon though Cynthia had a cheetahs tail and Leon had a lion's mane. Everyone was sitting in a very nicely designed house, Cynthia sitting on Leon's lap as they chatted and laughed as Ran was curled up next to Orion who was trying to tickle her in the dream at the moment.
"And even if I don't see half of what goes on between you it's not like I'm going to freak out because I know you two spend a lot of time together and you do whatever you want in that time." He said with a shrug.
"If you are really worried about what to say then I can tell her for you two." He stated simply "I'm used to talking to her, including about you two."
Leon's face went pink at the last sentence. "What stuff about us? What did you tell her?" He asked in a huffy manner, narrowing his amber eyes suspiciously. "Anything weird I should know about?"
Cynthia's ears tilted to the sides in relaxation and she took a deep breath before she released it in the form of a sleepy sigh. I'll tell her later, Cynthia told Orion mentally, her mental presences sleepy and content, when I'm ready to.
Firaxum
Cynthia stared at Lila, her sensitive nose picking up on the smell from the thing she opened with their back to them. Immediately her blue eyes widened and at the same time turned a darker shade, and instinctive reaction to the drink hitting her nose. "Lila you can't be serious!" Cynthia spoke in a flustered manner and jumped to her feet, "you're not giving Ran and Orion Firaxum! Not in big doses like this!"
Leon grasped his mate's hand and gently tugged her down into sitting next to him, then we'll lose on purpose, Leon told her mentally, that way they don't get as much in their system. But you need to kick back and relax properly Cynthia and you're too tightly wound up about everything. So, stay here and lose the game with me or so help me I will make you drink it.
Cynthia glared at her mate with a grunt and flopped back onto the couch, knowing he would do what he promised. Fine, Mr. Pushy-pants.
Leon grinned at her and slung an arm around her shoulders before giving her a small squeeze, I'll make sure they don't drink too much of it, and I'm sure Lila will too.
Lila returned to the board game spread out in the living room on the coffee table. Where Jake was setting up a small row of small shot glasses on the corner table. "I'm sure both you and Orion vaguely know what this is," she placed the clear bottle on the corner table, "it's called Firaxum, a special drink for wilds that doesn't affect humans. This card game has a catch, if the other team beats you in slapping the card deck or yelling "Virvana, then you have to drink a shot of Firaxum. It's non-alcoholic and you two won't have a hangover in the morning. Those two," she pointed at Leon and Cynthia, "will because they're mates."
"Don't remind me," Cynthia muttered with a sigh, "it's going to suck tomorrow morning."
Leon just grinned in response and squeezed his mate for a few seconds.
Lila smirked, "to make it more interesting and because Ran and Orion are new do the Firaxum, Ran and Orion only have to drink a quarter of a shot for a missed slap and half for a missed yell. Cynthia and Leon have to drink full one per missed slap and two per missed yell. We've got two bottles of the non-alcoholic drink, game ends when it's gone."
Cynthia's jaw dropped and she stared at her before she fell back against the cushions and groaned. "Xiun… I'm going have the worst hangover tomorrow morning."
Leon laughed, already succumbing to his fate the non-alcoholic drink would have on him tonight. "This is going to be fun!"
"Says the one who's only going to have a minor hangover in the morning," Cynthia grunted, her blue eyes following Lila's movements as she poured the faintly blue tinted liquid into the shot glasses, two completely full and two only a quarter of the way full. "I'm going to hate the world tomorrow."
"After breakfast and some quiet time with Leon you'll be fine Cynthia, your hangover is still nothing compared to a human alcohol hangover, and you know it." Lila said before she placed one of the shot glasses in front of the grumpy wild, gave the other full one to Leon, and slid the two quarter full glasses to Ran and Orion. "Alright, once all four of the shots are gone the game starts." Jake was shuffling the cards, the seemingly silent hulking man of Cynthia's bodyguard and second father shuffling the cards in a professional style.
Cynthia stared at her glass for a few moments, glaring at the blue tinted liquid while Leon didn't hesitate and threw the shot back before placing the glass down with a cheeky grin.
Leon's feline ears emerged, and his eyes faded to a sunset color, but overall so far, he looked unfazed with the drink in his system. Come on Cynthia, your turn. Relax a little for tonight and enjoy yourself.
Cynthia sighed and picked up her small glass before she glared at Lila and threw it back, the tangy berry taste sliding over her taste buds and giving the female wild a calming effect. Cynthia placed the glass down on the table and made a grumpy rumbling noise, "I hate both of you," she murmured in the Wilds language to her mate and Lila, crossing her arms over her chest as her eyes darkened and her ears became visible and twitched unhappily. However, she leaned against Leon's arm and shoulder, her skin brushing his and making the Vivid's dark blue eyes sparkle. Clearly, she was more sensitive to Firaxum than Leon was.
an and Orion both looked surprised at their siblings, not sure how this was going to go. Orion was the first one to pick up his glass and drink the contents. He had a smile on his face and his ears twitched upward slowly.
Ran looked at her partner for a moment with a raised eyebrow, sighing and taking her shot quickly. Her ears went up just as quickly as she drank the liquid blinking a couple times before she looked at the bottles "I forgot how that feels" she said. She said, feeling very off and not sure how this was going to go. "But at least it tastes good." She said with a shrug.
Orion sat up right, looking like he was ready to start the game and win. While Ran on the other hand smiled and leaned forward, Orion, I bet I'll last longer then you. She said.
Orion nodded, smiling you're on. "Let's get started."
The game started off pretty simple, with Cynthia and Leon losing more than Ran and Orion, making them drink more shot glasses of Firaxum, which thereby made their playing of the game worse.
Cynthia started to get all bubbly, the female Vivid's usually iron grip on her self-control and what she said on a daily basis loosened and she loosened up, acting more like she normally did than how she acted around Ran. She acted bolder, more confidently, and a lot more focused on her mate. The female wild had one of her arms wrapped around Leon's upper arm and after around half an hour didn't even bother to play, hiding her face in Leon's shoulder and giggling whenever she found something interesting, particularly when Leon accidentally broke one of the shot glasses and started giggling a little with her.
Leon on the other hand seemed mostly normal other than how affectionate he was with Cynthia and how he had decided to go shirtless for Cynthia who had asked him mentally to take off the shirt while he played the game.
Who started teasing him, making it harder to focus on the game. The Vivid female would brush her lips over his shoulder, tickle his side a little, and grasp at his fingers to block him from playing the game before teasingly occasionally kissing the corner of his mouth with a few giggles.
Though Ran and Orion were trying their hardest to win but having lost a couple of times. Ran, having had a total of five full shots was not doing her best to keep herself together. Her filter had died a while ago, so she was using all her favorite words in the unique language she had learned "Alam!" (Shoot!) She said as she took another half shot, though she had a huge smile on her face. At this point, she had assumed that Leon wasn't really playing half the time, so her rivalry was against Orion who had only taken three full shots so far.
Orion had been smiling like he was crazy the entire time, having been poking fun at Ran, trying to get her to mess up here and there. He was enjoying himself though, seeing that Cynthia and Leon were having a good time and so was Ran while he got the opportunity to have fun and see everyone else happy.
Though with the last shot Ran had taken she looked over at him and gave him a nice big grin. She patted his head and said "You know what? I like you." She said before she looked over at Cynthia and Leon, her head cocking over to the side. She looked at them interested, not sure what to think. She looked happily at them though, in a bit of an awkward position with her hand still on Orion's head while twisting to look at Cynthia and Leon. She had started blushing when Leon took his shirt off but now, she didn't seem to care.
Cynthia had been sitting next to Leon, sitting sideways on her knees, eyes glazed as she and Leon communicated mentally, the part of them that wasn't really messed up. Until she snatched the remaining half bottle of the Firaxum, mumbled something about how she and Leon didn't want Ran and Orion to get ahold of it, gave it to Leon, and shot off to the kitchen. Her enhanced speed ability activating, which happened once in a blue moon, and turning her into a blur. Hardly a few seconds later she was back, with a pair of larger glasses which she set on the table.
Lila laughed when Cynthia glanced at her for permission and she leaned back in her chair, "it's yours Cynthia, what you do with it isn't any of my business."
Cynthia gave her a smile and Leon gave a lopsided smirk before the pair divided the rest of the liquid, glanced at each other with mischievous expressions, and promptly downed it, Cynthia finishing half a second before Leon. They both slammed their glasses down onto the table at the same time, and the glasses both cracked and promptly broke under their Alpha level strength as their Alpha abilities leaked in. Both Vivids dissolved into a fit of giggles while Jake rolled his eyes and swept the glass up and into his empty glass that had had water with a little lemon juice.
Cynthia then giggled and flung her arms around her mate's neck, giggling into his chest while Leon snorted in laughter and tried to restrain his laughter, his hands spanning the small of Cynthia's back.
Leon then leaned over and tickled Cynthia's mark with his nose, still snorting with laughter.
Cynthia giggled at the feather light touch tickling her skin and moved away from his head, avoiding being tickled.
They had had a lot of the non-alcoholic drink, easily four or five times as much as Ran had, and for the amount they had drank they were doing okay.
After an hour they had calmed down for a while, going as far to say that it looked like Cynthia had fallen asleep. Cynthia was sitting in Leon's lap slumped against him, her arms around his body under the arms and her ankles linked around his waist. Her head was tucked into the crook of his neck and her breaths were slow and deliberate, like she was borderline sleeping.
Leon was sitting leaning back against the couch cushions with his eyes half closed, arms resting loosely around his mate's back and drawing slow circles in the fabric of Cynthia's tank top. The female wild's face was flushed and had been for the past hour as her body heat increased, so she had removed her t-shirt, leaving her in her usual Vyliea at home clothes that was a tank-top and blue-jeans. "Hey Ran?" Leon asked suddenly in a lazy manner and swung his head to look at her through lazy eyes, "I want to tell you something. Cia's too out of it to tell you."
Ran was leaning against Orion, both having a bit of difficulty thinking straight and not wanting to leave the other, so they just sat there and chatted until Orion had passed out. Ran was now looking over at Leon, the effects of the drink less prominent now than before. Though when Cynthia and Leon had taken the last of the drink Ran had gotten annoyed because she wanted to drink more and last in the game longer then Orion.
Ran shifted a little bit, so it was more comfortable to look at Leon while still having her head on Orion's chest. "Yeah? What is it?" She asked after a second or two. She smiled kindly at him, the Firaxum still in her system enough to make her feel like as a feather but able to do anything she wanted at the moment.
"Cynthia's different here," he told the dormant wild, "she's not restrained, doesn't plan things really, and is very affectionate." He rested his head back against the couch cushions, "she's a lot bolder and playful, and really enjoys herself here. So, she acts a lot different. She doesn't fight the wild needs she has and prefers certain things that make her more comfortable and relaxed while around her own home."
Ran nodded, looking at Leon. "Yeah, Orion told me a little about it." She said "If it makes her happy then it should make me happy too. If not, I'll deal with it sooner or later." She said with a smile. She was quite calm about it "What kind of stuff does she prefer? is there something that I should do in order to make her more comfortable?" Ran asked.
"Not looking at her like she's lost her mind is a good start," Leon murmured. "You adopt this weird expression and you give Cynthia this look like she's from a different planet whenever she leans over and kisses me or holds my hand, and it's unnerving. Treat her like a normal human being and you'll both be fine. She's different, but still the same person.
Ran brought both of her hands up, giving two thumbs up "Sounds good to me." She said with a light smile "it just feels weird since I haven't seen her like that, but I won't give her that look anymore... even if she is a little crazy." She said having a smirk "I mean, having to deal with me on top of YouTube stuff would drive anyone insane." She said, scrunching her nose but kept the smile.
Leon gave her a lopsided grin, "good, you'll like it here."
Now the pair of Vivids were hyper and practically bursting with energy.
Cynthia tackled her mate from where he was talking to Jake about something or other that was making Jake struggle to hide a laugh, hard to the floor with a crash.
Leon gave a grunt of discomfort as he was forced to the ground before he was shut up by Cynthia leaning forward and kissing him. Leaning down with her arms bent from her position sitting over him, purring like a crazy cat. A few moments later she was gone, racing up the stairs, her bell like laughter able to be heard as she took the stairs three at a time.
Leon hastened to get off the floor and scrambled up before he chased after his mate, "you're mine!" The Alpha male insisted and chased after her, "just mine!"
Cynthia giggled and stayed just out of reach, teasing him even as they both disappeared, and a following thump signaled Leon playfully tackling his mate to the floor at the top of the stairs.
Lila rolled her eyes, gave a light chuckle, continued reading, but she did keep an eye on Ran and Orion. Making sure the two Dormants were behaving while their siblings were out of commission.
Jake moved toward the kitchen, "I'll make something for Ran and Orion to eat so the Firaxum' s effects wear off."
"Good idea," Lila hummed, "at least Cynthia's happy for a little while."
Jake nodded, "she's been pretty stressed lately."
At the moment Ran and Orion were curled up against one another, Ran's head on Orion's chest, slightly tilted upward, she was halfway on top of him, her legs on top of his, as if trying to keep him from leaving. Orion had one arm supporting himself against the couch while the other wrapped around Ran as he played with her waste length hair.
Though soon enough Orion had a bit of a mischievous glint in his eyes, Orion had decided in his Firaxum state to give Ran a kiss on the forehead, so he tilted his head and gave her a brief peck on the forehead.
Ran clenched her hand into a fist, taking some of his shirt in her hand she smiled fondly at him before opening her eyes and looking at him, nodding in approval, "I like that." She said.
Orion couldn't help but grin and then kissed her cheek. Ran relaxed, feeling even better and more comfortable around him. Though she then said with a smile "you missed," though she looked a little too comfortable and lazy to do anything about it at the moment.
Lila gently prodded Ran and Orion, holding a finger to her lips and telling them to be quiet as they walked upstairs from the basement. "Come on, you don't want to miss this, I promise."
Ran at first didn't want to move, looking a bit lethargic as she sat with Orion, but her curiosity got the better of her. She stood up and followed Lila, Orion close on her tail.
"What's going on?" Ran asked in a quiet voice, not sure why Lila asked them to be quiet.
Lila held a finger to her lips and gestured quietly to the small closet as she carefully pulled the door of it open, a smile on her lips.
Cynthia and Leon were curled up in the small mostly empty closet, Cynthia curled into a small ball, about as small of ball someone her height could be, while Leon was on his back, his legs casually propped up against the wall with his legs held straight.
Leon had one arm tucked comfortably under his head and the other arm was curled around Cynthia, keeping his mate close. He had changed into soccer shorts without a shirt or socks, his blonde hair was a mess and his feline ears were twitching slightly in his sleep.
Cynthia's head was propped up on Leon's side and her arms were curled around one of Leon's, hugging his arm to her body while her nose was pushed into a dark colored blanket. Her feline ears were still, tilting sideways in a relaxed fashion as the Vivid slept like a boulder like always. In fact, it took a few moments to actually be able to see her. The female wild was almost completely hidden by the dark blanket and what wasn't was mostly hidden by the shadows of the closet. It looked like Leon had been doing his absolute best to completely hide his mate from the world in a protective manner.
Leon opened one of his eyes, looked lazily at them, and gave a disgruntled grunt at being disturbed. Cynthia on the other hand didn't stir more than shifting a little and giving a small groan at Leon's movements. Clearly, they were used to Lila popping in on them whenever they disappeared.
Orion just simply smiled, used to the sight of his best friend with Cynthia. He stood in a relaxed stance, his hands in his pockets as he watched them for a moment.
Ran on the other hand looked quite surprised for a moment, still not used to her sister acting the way she did. Though a soft, kind, smile fell onto her features. Though it was strange and foreign to her, she knew that it made Cynthia happy, and as of right now, that's what mattered. She leaned towards Lila and in a soft whisper, trying to keep from Leon and Cynthia hearing her she asked "Is this the usual? Or is there more usually?"
Cynthia made a sleepy mewling noise before she gave a hard sneeze. At which Leon rumbled softly in laughter and shut his eyes and ignored the other people there.
Cynthia snuggled a little closer to her mate, the blanket around her body hiding more of her head than before. However, she didn't seem to wake up from her big sneeze. Clearly this was just how deep of a sleeper she was. Lila had joked to Ran before that Cynthia could have a jet fly just over her house and she still wouldn't wake up and be alert.
Lila snapped a picture before she gently shut the door, leaving the pair of mates to themselves and letting them relax and sleep. She smiled at Ran, "Is it normal after the Firaxum? Yes. They usually disappear and then Jake and I have to open every closet, room, and box to find them or we have no clue where they are. Not that it really matters if we find them or not. Leon will eventually haul Cynthia upstairs while she's still asleep, if we hang around with a few minutes we might see him do it, and they always end up stumbling down the stairs the next morning with various hangovers. On a daily basis though this isn't normal."
Lila shrugged, "They're both very touchy feely but they don't usually hide somewhere. Cynthia once told me when I first came here after Cynthia and Leon had settled in for the first time, that if I couldn't handle how she acted around her mate I was welcome to find a different place to stay," she chuckled lightly. "Your sister's still herself, she's just a little overwhelmed and scatter brained right now." She led the way toward the living room, moving away from the closet and emphasizing her footsteps to make sure Leon could hear her walking away. "Did you know that when Leon and Orion arrived at the school Cynthia hadn't seen Leon for close to six months? Even then, she couldn't be with her mate properly for seven…" Lila's face went a little grim, "Did Cynthia ever tell you what happened when she completely vanished for two weeks last year Ran? When she didn't answer calls, upload videos, draw anything, and never responded to a text?"
Ran looked over at Lila when she mentioned the time before Orion and Leon came, having not known that she hadn't seen Leon for so long. "No, half the time if she didn't answer her phone when she was gone, I wouldn't get told what happened." she said with a shrug, knowing the time that Lila was talking about. She had gotten furious when Cynthia had brushed off Ran's questioning about that night.
Orion nodded, while Ran only knew that Cynthia had disappeared Orion had been there for the other side of the story, having gotten to see parts of what happened. Orion didn't look happy about the memory either, but he kept his mouth and his memory shut, thinking it would be best for Ran to hear about it first from Lila.
Ran visibly got a little annoyed with how Lila and Orion both knew what happened while she still felt like she was in the dark. Why am I only now getting to know everything? I've learned more about Cynthia's "other life" in the past two weeks then I could have fathomed happening.
Cynthia had her reasons; we could ask her at a different time, but I don't know if we should budge on that topic. Alexandra said, though she felt annoyed as well but more understanding.
Ran mentally sighed, paying attention to Lila in order to take care of her curiosity of why Cynthia was gone for all that time.
"Last year in March Cynthia was in Yukota, at a goofy live interview about her ability to mimic various voices. About a quarter of the way through the interview her nose started bleeding and it kept getting worse. So, the news team cut to a commercial break while we scrambled to make the bleeding stop. I managed to give Cynthia a medication to make the bleeding stop and the interview went on once the bleeding stopped. I watched as she tried to continue, but I knew something was wrong. I've never seen Cynthia act so dizzy and nauseous before, and she was starting to shake. So, I asked the producer to stop the interview and he said no." She sighed, "I was halfway through saying I would sue the production company when I looked over and found Cynthia touching her nose to reveal that her nose was starting to bleed again.
Lila's green eyes were sad as she spoke, "the nosebleed wasn't too bad, Cynthia's nose bleeds all the time when she's separated from Leon, but she started coughing. She was coughing up blood into one of her hands."
"She broke into a wheezing coughing fit and I snapped at the crew to shut it off before running toward Cynthia as she stopped coughing for a few moments, wheezing while her palms were red and bloodied. She looked like she got hit over the head with a hammer for a few seconds before she lurched forward over onto the news table and instantly passed out. She was taken to a specialized wilds hospital in an ambulance because nothing was making the nosebleed stop and she kept coughing up blood despite being unconscious."
Lila clasped her hands together in her lap, "Jake and I were told it had something to do with a physical reaction to her separation to Leon. Usually she can handle it by herself, but after seven and a half months it was getting so bad I had to haul her out of bed every morning because once she was asleep she didn't wake up unless you dumped her in a tub turned on cold water, and shouted her name a few times. She struggled to do anything, acting sluggish, tired, and miserable all the time. So, I called Leon who was supposed to arrive in Yukota the next day and booked him, Orion, and Brad a personal jet to make sure they got there before that night. I watched her get worse and lose more blood, growing paler and weaker till Leon arrived.
"Leon was refused entrance and went into full Alpha mode, barely avoiding killing any of the normal humans and was knocked down in front of Cynthia's hospital room where I thought he had completely lost his mind. He roared and struggled like some animal breaking the tile beneath him and everything but was still not allowed to come into the room where me, Orion, and Cynthia was. They hadn't told him they just needed a blood transfusion from him, but once he calmed down, he agreed, but was handcuffed. So, we all sat there, Orion, Brad, and I taking turns watching over Cynthia and making sure Leon didn't keel over from not eating or sleeping while Cynthia didn't regain consciousness and Leon had his hands handcuffed behind his back. It took a week, Leon's constant mental and physical presence, and multiple transfusions to make the bleeding stop and for her to actually regain consciousness. It took another week for Cynthia to regain enough strength to be released." She looked at Ran, "Cynthia doesn't respond because she's usually rushing around planning a concert, managing her channel, and balancing her relationship with Leon. She gets sick like that when she's been away from him too long."
Ran nodded solemnly, not really sure what to say about that. She knew Cynthia was always busy but with how difficult it was for her to keep that secret from her. She processed what she had been told, being unnaturally quiet for her. Orion had given her his memories of the encounter as Lila told the story, wanting to help Ran understand what had happened.
He watched Ran very carefully, paying attention to her jumble of emotions as well as her physical expression. You doing ok?
Yeah, I understand a bit more now, I don't blame her, I just wish I had known earlier.
Well we can't change the past, but we can work towards what we want the future to be. If you want to be a part of this then that's what you try to make happen.
Ran look over at Orion with a strange look That sounded surprisingly deep.
Orion shrugged; I have my moments.
Though then they both realized they had the conversation without Lila knowing a thing they said. "Oh, sorry Lila." Ran said a little sheepish. She looked to do better than just before, "Orion was just telling me some things to help me out." she said with a sigh that seemed to relieve some of the tenseness she had.
Lila laughed, "I'm used to mental conversations I can't hear you two. I manage Cynthia's career for a living and I'm always around her."
A small noise brought a smile to Lila's face and she turned her head toward the stairs, where Leon could be seen walking lazily toward the stairs with Cynthia in his arms.
The female wild was hugging him like a koala bear. Snuggled against her mate with her head resting on his shoulder her nose tucked into the crook of his neck. Her blue eyes were drowsily cracked open, most of her vision obscured by her mate's neck. One of her arms were looped loosely around his neck. Her hand was curled into a loose fist against Leon's shoulder blade while her other arm was hanging down at her side.
Leon had the dark blanket from earlier tucked around his sleepy mate and had one arm underneath her to support her. While he was brushing his finger along her spine in a soothing fashion with his free hand. His ears swiveled toward them, but he ignored them when Cynthia gave a soft chuff (strong puff of air through the nose for big cats) and redirected his attention. Cynthia's ears were relaxed and twitching slightly in her mostly asleep state. Go to sleep Ran, Orion, Leon's mind brushed against all three of theirs as he started up the stairs, Lila has work to do and you two need sleep.
Reviews: I'm sad, there are little reviews to respond to :(
~Ivystormrandomness~
Response to chapter 129 review: That made my day XD
Warriors can be a hard series to get into, if it would make her feel any better this isn't really a fanfiction anymore, it's kind of a series and story of its own XD
Jay: *smacks hand away from his face with a flat expression* I may be blind but I'm not deaf.
Ooh, I love British accents! I wish my natural accent was cool, it just makes people confused when I say certain letters and words XD
Negative signs are the bane of my mathematical existence! Xd
You don't ship Hollyleaves O-o? Who do you pair Hollyleaf with then? ^_^
~Ivystormstalker~
Skylar is awesome, puddles can be deeper than they appear, and Chinese is a fascinating language ^_