DISCLAIMER: I do not own Kaichou wa Maid-Sama! I only own my own original characters and the writing in this story.
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Chapter 17; Night Terrors
He walks back towards her bed, "..Sure." He crouches beside her bed and lays his head on the edge of the bed. She turns a deeper shade of pink and closes her eyes. He watches her, a small smile lighting up his face. Her breathing slowly evens out and before long she is asleep. He slowly stands up, his muscles cramped from crouching for so long. He kisses her forehead lightly before leaving her bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind him. He washes the few dishes he used, puts the remaining soup in the fridge, and fills a glass of water as an afterthought. He takes the glass back into her bedroom and leaves it on the nightstand for when she wakes up. He then leaves the complex and returns to his own home.
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She lets out a cry of panic and fear, trying to run as far away from the shadowy men as she can. Tears stream down her face and she is terrified to realize she is only in a torn tank-top and her underwear. She's running through a dark forest with five men chasing after her. She doesn't remember anything before this moment and she is scared. The sounds of running feet are getting closer and closer to her and she decides she needs to find a place to hide. Glancing around as she runs, she spots a cave and darts into it without a second thought. The sound of running still grows closer as she shuffles as quickly and quietly as she can to the very back of the cave, hoping the darkness will conceal her from sight if they look in here. She sits in a cold corner, wrapping her arms tightly around her with her legs tucked into her. She makes soft mewling noises, numb in her fear. She realizes it has grown awfully quiet and looks up. She screams in terror as she meets the black eyes of one of her pursuers. She desperately tries to scramble away but four more men appear seemingly out of nowhere and block off her routes of escape. The black-eyed man grabs her arm and rips her upwards, holding her above the ground. She can only watch in petrified terror as she in restrained in the air. With her unable to move, the three men not holding her start to peel away what remains of her tattered clothing. Tossing the clothes aside, she is allowed to drop back down to the ground. She tries to curl into herself again but they hold her firmly, not allowing her even that small mercy. They stare at her, hungrily taking in her appearance. Once satisfied, the black-eyes man gives a dark laugh and advances towards her, grabbing her legs firmly and spreading them while two other men secure her arms more firmly so she can't struggle. His pants are already off and he is advancing towards her slowly, prolonging the look of terror on her face. He grows steadily closer and closer to her and her cries of fear and panic growing more and more feverish. He is mere centimeters away from violating her when she wakes up screaming, drenched in sweat.
Pelevea is there in an instant, switching between licking her face and sniffing her all over for injuries. She is crying profusely and can't think straight. The dream had felt so real. She could still feel the touch of those nightmare men, their stone heat. She is shivering, as much from her nightmare as from her drenched night clothes. Still in a feverish haze, she reaches a shaking hand to her bedside table and picks up her phone. Without thinking, she dials the only number in her head and puts it on speaker. The phone answers after the fifth ring and the phone on the other end sounds sleepy and irritated.
"This better be important to call me at 3 o'clock in the fucking morning."
Her breathing was still ragged and feverish, but she managed to keep it relatively quiet. The memory of her nightmare just wouldn't get out of her head and she was growing worse and worse. Keeping her voice relatively calm, words jumble out of her without her really noticing them, "I..Um. Sorry. I...I don't know why I called you. I'll let you go now.." her voice was very quiet, covering up the trembles in the tone and shakiness of the fluency.
There's a moment of silence on the other end and she thinks he already fell back asleep. Then he speaks again, his voice taking on a strange quality that she couldn't place at the moment. "Kailey, what's wrong? Are you alright?"
Still not sure what she is saying, she spouts the usual mantra that she learned to say from a young age-well, more or less, "Huh? Oh. Yea. I'm fine. Go back to sleep. I'm fine. Sorry for disturbing your rest. I'll uh..I'll...go.." her thoughts are frazzled. She looks up and comes face to face with those same black-eyes from her nightmare. She lets out a strangled cry before realizing there is nothing there.
The voice on the other end sounds awake now, "Kailey? What's wrong? Oh, never mind. Stay where you are. I'm coming over." his words fall on deaf ears though, because she had curled into a ball on her bed with her hands clenching her head tightly, in a protective position. A frustrated sound is heard from the phone again and Pelevea pricks her ears at the sound of her name, "Vea, protect. I will be there soon." The wolf gives a small yip of possible acceptance and the line goes dead. Pelevea positions herself in front of Kailey, who is still curled up in a ball on her bed with her back to the wall. Pelevea watches the room diligently, eyes always moving and not focusing on one place too long. She has a paw near Kailey, seemingly trying to offer her master some form of comfort.
They stay like that for a long time, until there is a rattling at the front door. Pelevea lets out a deep throaty growl, baring her glistening fangs at the darkened doorway of the bedroom as the front door opens. She growls again, louder this time.
"Hush, wolf. It's just me." the disjointed voice comes from the living room as he closes and re-locks the door. She stops growling and lets out a slight whimper. Kailey still hadn't moved from her position, her eyes squeezed tightly shut and her mind trying to block out all senses because no matter what she did, the scene from her nightmare kept replaying itself and she still felt like it was happening to her every single time.
The blond-haired boy enters the room and sees her curled up on the bed. His face turns down into a worried frown as he quickly goes over to her. Pelevea growls at him when he gets closer to the bed, worried for her owner and not sure what was happening. "Hush, wolf. I'm not here to do any harm. I'm here to help. Hush." he extends his hand to the wolfs' muzzle and looks downwards, not making direct eye-contact with her. She sniffs him and finally deems him safe. He straightens up again and gets closer to the bed before eventually sitting on it beside Kailey. Pelevea watched him for a bit before going back on guard duty.
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He looks at the blonde girl curled up before him. He took in her sweat drenched clothes. At the way her hair clung to her face and listened to her feverish breathing patterns. "Kailey?" he asks tentatively, reaching his arm gently towards her. He places it on her back, trying to get her attention. She lets out a cry at his touch and curls even farther into her ball. From even that brief contact, he felt heat radiating from her. Alarmed, her put the back of his hand to her forehead and grew increasingly worried when he felt how hot she was. He gets up from the bed and goes into the bathroom, searching through the cupboards to find a thermometer. She lay motionless on the bed, still whimpering quietly. He returns to her side and forces the thermometer into her armpit after resetting it. She tries to fight him but he restrains her as gently as he can, ever aware of her still healing injuries. She finally collapses in defeat, just giving up. He maneuvers her to be leaning against him as he waits for the allotted time to end. When it does, he takes the thermometer out and reads it.
"Shit." he curses, re-reading the thermometer. Her temperature was 105° F. He needed to cool her down fast. Mulling over his options, he picks her up in his arms and carries her into the bathroom. She had gone still against him and wasn't whimpering anymore. Glancing down at her, he noticed her eyes were still drawn tightly together and more sweat was beading along her forehead. Then she started to shiver. His alarm grew and he hastily lays her down on the bathroom floor and turns on the water, pouring the coldest water he can into the tub and filling it.
Before it is completely done filling, he picks her up again and places her in the ice-cold water. Immediately her eyes snap open and she looks around, startled, "Tora? Wh-what are you doing here? Why am I in ice-cold wa-" she suddenly goes limp and falls back against the tub, her eyelids fluttering before regaining their vitality.
He watches her with a concerned face, "Just be quiet. You called me and were acting weird so I came over. You have a fever."
"But it's cold." she whines, shivering and wrapping her arms around her legs. She glares at him and he notices the drawn look deep in her eyes.
Something is bothering her. Did she have a dream? I guess that would make sense... he thinks to himself, "You had a bad dream, didn't you? That's why you called me."
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She glares at him, trying to cover her shock at him realizing it. Truth be told, certain parts of the nightmare were still playing in her head. The black-eyes ever present in her conscious. "No." she shivers, freezing in the water.
He turns the water off before it overflows and stares at her, "That's a lie."
She looks away, trying to conceal her scared expression as her mask wavered.
He gently grabs her chin and forces her to face him, "Hey, it's alright. I'm here now. You're safe."
Her eyes suddenly look glassy and tears start running down her cheeks. Without thinking, she wraps her arms tightly around him and hugs him as she starts crying, finally letting all the terror she had felt trapped in her own dream. After a few moments of awkward surprise, Tora wraps his arms around her as well and holds her. "It's ok now, princess. I'm here, you're going to be alright."
They sit like that for awhile, Tora ignoring the cold wetness seeping into his clothes and skin. As she sits in the water, her mystery fever ebbs and eventually goes back down to a healthy level. Even after that, they stay like that for a little longer. When she starts shivering, Tora stands up slowly and pulls her up along with him. "Come on, let's get you changed into something warmer and clean."
Her legs falter after being numb for so long and she lurches forward. Sighing, Tora picks her up and carries her into her room-ignoring her complaints. He heads towards the dresser and stands before it patiently with her in his arms, "Well, get clothes." He gently sets her down onto her own feet but keeps his hand on her shoulder to keep her steady.
She quickly pulls out new sleepwear to change into. That's when it dawns on her that he must be cold and wet too. "Wait here." she tells him and goes to a different closet at the darkest part of the room. She pulls some clothing out of it and goes back to him. "Here, you can wear this." he gives her a questioning look as she hands him mens' sleepwear. She shrugs, "My father made me keep some of his stuff in case he stays down here or sends one of his mutts. Anyway, you change in here. I'll go in the bathroom. Knock on the door when you are done." She goes into the bathroom and shuts the door behind her.
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Hearing his soft knock on the door, she opens it and comes out and back into her room. "Do they fit alright?"
He nods, "Yea. Thanks." he is giving her a strange look.
"That's good. Well...I'm sorry for waking you. You can go home now and sleep. You look exhausted."
He shrugs, "No. You shouldn't be alone. You suffered a traumatic experience and are still recovering from it as well as your injuries. I shouldn't have left you alone to begin with."
She glares at him and starts to say something before noticing just how tired he looked. She chokes down her argument and instead walks towards her bed, calling to him over her shoulder, "Well if you insist on staying here you are at least going to get some sleep. Come here."
Startled, he doesn't move at first. But with her watching him expectantly, he came towards her. He raises an eyebrow, "What?"
"You can share my bed with me. It's big enough for two. But if you try anything, I will kill you. Understood?"
He blinks in surprise as she crawls into bed under the covers, "N-no, that's alright. I'm fine. Not tired at all."
She glares at him, "Get in. Now. No arguing."
They make direct eye contact and he finally submits, "Fine.." he grumbles, crawling in beside her.
She lays on her side and soon falls asleep. Tora lays there longer, staring up at the ceiling. When he breathing evens out to that of a sleeping persons', he shifts onto his side and stares at the back of her head, a great multitude of thoughts running through his head. Suddenly, she whimpers in her sleep and rolls over onto her other side, coincidentally rolling into him. She starts to curl up into a ball, apparently having that same bad dream again. Making a snap decision, he wraps his arms around her and pulls her into him. After a moment, she instinctively nuzzles closer to him and relaxes. Her head is nestled securely in the hollow of his shoulder. His face is a brilliant shade of red at having her cuddling into him. Soon, however, his own exhaustion wins and he falls into a deeply relaxed state. For some reason, having her in his arms and close to him made sleep come that much easier. And more peaceful as well. Before long, they were both asleep, cuddled together and interlocked in each others' limbs.
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A/N Welp. I hope you guys like it. Super fluff moment at the end with the two of them. I imagine next chapter will be interesting, ey? Butttttt, now I am going to go pass out. I wasn't originally going to write this chapter yet since I have been so busy but since I got five annon messages in the last 12 hours pestering me to upload, I decided I would out of the good of my heart. Even though it is 3 30 in the morning. And I haven't been able to sleep. And I am utterly and completely dead-beat tired. Ahem. So yea, night. I am going to go crash for the next 1 and a half before I have to wake up. You guys are just lucky I love you... .