Atonement

By Seniya

Invincible

Sticks and stones won't break my soul
Get out of the way, I'm invincible
Throw them down
'Cause the one you hurt's not around

Sticks And Stones By Aly and AJ

"It's a bad storm," Will mumbled darkly into her pillow, and outside, seemingly in agreement to her whispered words, the midnight sky was torn asunder by the dizzying display of lights, and the earth herself begged for mercy whilst the heavens unleashed their unbridled rage through the sounds of dull, roaring cries.

She suppressed a whimper by biting her lip, then attempting to force herself even further into her coverings, beside her, he finally stirred, a silent, not to mention useless reply to her first comment, and stirring was essentially all that he did—he could sleep through anything. She unfortunately wasn't so lucky.

The next shout of thunder seemed to have originated from in one of the many palace rooms above them—and her heart leapt to her throat when she heard it. Deciding then that being still was far more detrimental than walking around; she crawled from beneath the covers, and hesitantly, staggered over to the window.

Forcing her shaky hands to be steady, she peeled one of the heavy drapes back, watching with mute fascination as the dark clouds hid the more romantic aspects of the night—gone were the moon, veiled were the stars.

"What are you looking at?" She jumped backwards instinctively, the hairs on her neck and arms stood tall, erect, her heart thrashed as the fear attempted to smother it.

"Caleb!" She hissed, "you…what are you doing sneaking up on me…" she stilled beneath his humored gaze. "This isn't funny." The fabric fell from her hands.

"I never said that it was."

"Well…then…" Will could feel her face growing hotter, she pursed her lips, thinking of an intelligent remark to make, but could find none; so she did the next best thing and folded her arms atop of her chest and stared at her feet.

"Are you scared?" He asked, why, she wasn't sure, because he already knew the answer, and she made that clear to him in her next statement, "you know that…"

"I know," he whispered, his was voice low and comforting in the shadows, especially since they were accompanied by his arms, which covered hers as he went behind her to hold her body against his.

"I don't know why you always look outside though," his breath tickled her neck, and she could feel the rumble of his words as they passed through his chest—it felt nice. "I mean, if you're so scared…"

"Habit…" she mumbled sleepily, resting fully into his strong embrace.

"Are you going to come to bed now?"

"Yes…"

He led her back to bed then, slipping beneath the covers along with her, before tucking her small frame closer to his, wrapping his arms about her middle and trapping one of her legs between the both of his.

The winds outside blew cold blew loud, blew hard, the heavens sang, illuminating the world and the applause that followed was nearly deafening.

"C-Caleb…" she stammered, even through the panic she felt foolish and childish…she was fine she knew; she was safe…

"It's all right Will…"

She didn't believe him; her heart was making quite a fuss in her chest, struggling as the dread tried to strangle it…

"There is nothing to be afraid of." He reasoned, though the tiredness in his mind warned him to give it up as a bad case, the feel of her trembling arms beneath the covers made him wish that he could do more to alleviate her fears.

"Yes there is," she whimpered, "I-I want to go back home…sorry Caleb," she wrenched free of his grasp, "I'll make it up to you…I promise."

"You can't leave."

"Of course I can…" she was shaking, he could hear it in her voice. "…You can come with me."

"You could stay."

"It's…not an option. Home is good right now…I watched the news before I came here…fair to partly cloudy."

"What about face your fears?" he sat up to watch her search for her shoes, he'd never seen her this frightened before…perplexing, really, she could face twelve foot snakes at thirteen but she was afraid of a little thunder?

He wasn't worried that she'd leave; the only way that she could leave was if she found Elyon, which would require her leaving his chambers to look for hers…an entirely unlikely feat since he knew that she didn't want anyone to know that she was spending the night with him.

"I-I…" she stilled, the rain had started outside, and she seemed relieved, "the rain makes the thunder stop." Will breathed.

That was the worst logic that he'd ever heard, but he didn't question it, she at least seemed very satisfied and climbed back into bed. He wasn't one to complain.

"Storms are worse here." She explained to him through a yawn.

He pulled her closer against him, allowing the quiet hum of her voice and the rain to lull him to sleep.

"Aren't you afraid of anything?"

"No…"

"Oh, please Caleb."

He searched his mind, dredging up one very dusty, very repressed memory. "All right, when I was younger…I hated…spiders."

"You were afraid of spiders?"

"No, Will, women are afraid of spiders, men hate them."

"Oh…I see. It's nice to now that you were a man even at ten."

"Exactly."

"How did you get to be afraid of something like a spider?"

"I was not afraid. You shouldn't be laughing you know, you're no better."

"We're both cowards." She laughed; he felt her shoulders quake, "seriously, how?"

"I don't want to talk about…"

"What, did you find one in your hair?"

"Those things grow up to nine feet in the Bridsyla Caverns," he defended, "think about seeing that at five."

"I bet that it scared the man right out of you…"

"Maybe you should go home."

"What, you laugh at me all the time."

"I'm going to sleep now."

"Are you sulking?" She turned to face him, "aww, you are."

"Sleeping."

She pinched his nose, he grabbed her hand. She stuck out her tongue and he pulled her down to him for a kiss.

When they pulled apart she was breathless and shuddering for an entirely different reason. She stared into his eyes, mesmerized, thrilled, curious…and, something else, something that burned acidly at the back of her throat…something that she'd tried to silence for a very long time… "All right," her heart caught suddenly but she suppressed the thought, "I'll go to sleep."

She curled into place beside him and closed her eyes. His arms drifted over her waist, and they both remained silent…neither one could fall asleep now however.

Author: What the hell did I just write? Ah, who cares? It's pretty smexy me thinks, sleepovers, heh. You think what you want. I find scaredy Will adorable, I too am afraid of thunder, and I know, blah blah blah, that lightning is her element and what's not, but this was too good to pass up.

I got accepted into college y'all. Got the letter yesterday, high school can now officially kiss my spotty yellow arse!

Review please.