"Can I come in?" He asked. She shrugged and pulled her covers up around her, mumbling under her breath. "Sure, I mean, who am I to stop you, considering what a monster I am…" Percival walked into the room and shut the door behind him before settling down into the armchair across from the bed, which he propped his feet up on. "Oh, come on. You know they didn't mean it like that. There's nothing wrong with liking to cuddle."
"That doesn't change how much it embarrassed me. And you didn't exactly help the situation." She remarked, settling herself to lay down at the foot of the bed so that she was facing him. She noticed that his cheeks tinged pink, ever so slightly. "Uh, sorry about that. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."
"I know you didn't mean to. I feel like most situations in which someone's feelings get hurt, the guilty party never means to, which I think is really sad. But that doesn't change the fact that you did." She flicked her fingers at his toes, causing him to pull his feet back and laugh. "But, because you really helped me out last night, I'm willing to give you another shot."
He smiled. "Well thank goodness. I'm glad to know that you're such a forgiving person." She looked up at him. "No. I'm really not. Honestly." Her face screwed up in what looked like pain. Percy just looked at her inquiringly. "What do you mean?"
She took a deep breath. "I'd really rather not talk about all the people who've hurt me, Percy. You should just know that I don't trust people very easily after some things that have happened to me." Katey raised her gaze and slowly raked over his face. Honest, open, trustworthy from what she gathered. "But there's something about you."
Percy got up from the armchair to kneel in front of her bed on the floor. "Hey," He said, "Listen, okay? You can trust me. I promise. I'm a good guy."
She snorted. "That's what fucking Harry Barnes said. Arthur broke his arm and leg. And Jimmy Brooker. And Theo Lane. And all the fucking others whom I trusted so easily and they went and fucking…just, ugh! This is why I don't date, Percy. Men aren't trustworthy. Except for Wart, Leon, my dad and Uncle Uther, I just don't trust men."
Percival studied her face for a few moments before he got up and sat beside her on the bed. "Well, how about I show you how trustworthy I am? Tell me something that no one else knows about you, not even Nikki, Leon, or Arthur, and I'll tell you something about myself. I promise you that I'll take that secret with me to my grave."
She looked up at him. "Well…" He was running his fingers through her hair, and it was as if an instant calm washed over her body. "I've never told anyone what the night terrors were about. Not even my psychiatrists, which I stopped going to once we realized there was no known trigger for my panics. But, um…" She inhaled deeply and sat up so that she faced Percival. "When I was little, I used to have night terrors. In the nightmares, I was always, uh, well…shit, fuck…" Suddenly she was having trouble breathing and panic was clutching at her chest. She rubbed at her chest, willing the sensations to stop, when Percival pulled her into his lap and circled his arms around her, rubbing circles into her back much like he had the night before.
"Shh. It's okay. You don't have to tell me. I'm sorry I asked. I'm so sorry. Don't worry about it. We won't talk about it again, okay? Wow, that was a dick move. I'm sorry." She shook her head into his chest. "No, no. It's okay. I brought it onto myself. I've blocked a lot of it, but um," She took another heaving breath, "What I remember about having the night terrors were that I was always chained to the ground, being whipped and beaten and fuck, I just…" She shook her head again. She was done talking.
She snuggled her way further onto Percival's lap, adjusting herself so that her legs straddled his hips and laid her head on his chest. "Thank you for telling me that, Katey. I won't ever bring any of this up again, fuck I'm sorry." He continued rubbing circles into her back until her breathing had settled.
"Well, I guess it's my turn. None of the lads know this, but, um…I'm a virgin, actually." Katey looked up at him, confused. There was no way that Percival, who was easily one of the most attractive men Katey had ever met, because who didn't like super tall guys with bulging biceps and a sweet face, was a virgin. She remembered seeing him talking to many women last night, all in various states of inebriation. And more so, Percival was a good guy, and Katey found it very hard to believe that Percy had never managed to find someone who wanted to have sex with him.
If she was honest with herself, she'd wanted to have her way with him when she had first seen him. But she hadn't gone after him last night at the club because, first and foremost, he was one of Arthur's friends and she didn't want to be that girl.
"Really?" was all that she'd said. He simply nodded. "They seem to think, you know, big hulking man like me ought to have shagged loads of girls, but well, no. I'm, um…I'm demisexual, actually. That's my real secret, I suppose."
"Oh, Percival. You shouldn't worry about them. They're a bunch of horny jackasses. And I don't know if this is something you might think, but there's nothing wrong with you." She wrapped her arms around him, or what she could of him, and cursed herself for thinking what she had about Percival. "So that's why you hadn't gone home with anyone last night."
He nodded. "Uh, yeah. I actually usually offer to be the DD, if we drive, so that I have a better excuse to not go home with anyone, you know?"
"Well I don't trust anyone, remember? I don't go home with anyone. Just kind of paranoid more than anything. So yeah, I know. I'm perfectly okay with going back to the men's room and doing the do there, but I will not go home with someone." She sat up and picked her book up from the nightstand where she'd lain it yesterday afternoon.
"What are you reading?" Percival asked, plucking the book from her hands. "1984, huh? You read it before?"
"Several times actually. I think that the metaphors in this book are beautiful. To be able to imagine what would happen if society succumbed to such measures, it's crazy. Personally, I think the language thing upsets me the most. I love learning languages. How about you? Have you read it?"
Percival nodded. "We read it for class a few years ago. I liked it well enough. I thought it was creepy, though. Old bloke like that falling for such a young bird – gross, yeah?"
"You missed like, the entire point, but whatever, Percy."
He smiled at her. "That's alright. So languages, huh? What can you speak other than English?"
"Spanish, including Catalan and Basque, French, Gaelic, Russian, and German. I'm studying others, so I'm also conversational in Danish, Finnish, Bulgarian, Italian, Czech, Slovak, Swedish, you name a European language, and I can carry a conversation. I'll be working on languages from Asia next. I'm excited."
"Well shit. Bit of a genius, you are." He was startled. He hadn't expected her to be so intelligent. Not that he'd been expecting her to be unintelligent, of course, but to be fluent and conversational in so many languages was nothing short of intimidating. "You're very impressive, you know."
She knew. She'd been told multiple times. Having a high IQ and a near-perfect memory, she was seen as a business prodigy. She'd excelled in school, and after having bypassed every AP class offered at the school, she'd attended classes at Wake Forest University, which had been right up the road from her boarding school. Even there she passed with flying colors, much to the chagrin of her older classmates. She'd attended and dominated at many academic competitions, for any and all subjects, ranging from Spanish to economics to psychology.
When time had come for her to look at colleges, her father's office had been flooded with e-mails and phone calls, all begging for the famed business prodigy to attend their school, saying that her application would be only a formality. But Katey's heart had always been set on one school, and one school alone. And so her father gently let down each and every school, telling them that if she were to change her mind, he'd be sure to call them.
She frowned. "I guess you could say that."
He looked at her and cocked his head. "What? What's wrong?" She shook her head. "No, it's nothing, really." He sighed, "Clearly it isn't nothing, but if you aren't going to tell me I'm not going to press the issue."
She nodded. "Thanks." She pulled herself from his lap and plucked the book from his hands and set it back onto her dresser. She smiled to herself. "So, if you wouldn't mind, I'm gonna go ahead and get myself ready for the movie."
Percival looked over at the clock. "The movie doesn't start for another few hours." She nodded. "Yes and I am a girl and therefore I take much too long to get ready. Now, if you please." She moved to open the door and gestured for him to leave, please.
He took the hint and got off of her bed and moved out the door, which she shut behind him.
Truthfully, she didn't take long to get ready. Not at all. All she wanted was to lie beneath her covers and think about things that were momentarily unimportant. Like when she'd go for her next haircut – which should really be soon if she was honest, her split ends were getting bad – or when Arthur would finally come out of his big gay panic. What her classes would be like, or what Merlin was doing in the fall.
Sighing, Katey pulled her covers over her head and set an alarm on her phone so she could take a nap but still have sufficient time to get ready.
She could hear faint murmurs of the other's voices, as well as a few words every now and then from whatever they were watching on television. Katey felt her breathing slow, and her eyes fluttered shut.