Chapter 23

Bedroom Banter

It was a dreary morning outside of Hermione's window. The pitter-patter of rainfall whispered through her panes, so quietly they haunted her dreams. She lay in her bed, thoughts of the previous hours spiraling in her head like a broken centrifuge. She knew that she had to be strong for Him, but she didn't know how to be strong anymore. Too much had happened in the events after His death. She lay in her bed, staring up at the ceiling, as if the answer would materialize out of the plaster. She shook away the stupid thought, running her fingers through her ginger hair. Her head lolled to the right, eyes affixed on her digital clock by her bedside. It was four in the morning; she had only been sleeping for about three and a half hours. In just two hours, she and all of her friends would risk their lives to save one man, her true love. Was it really worth it? All of those lives for just one love? She had thought so at that time, very little sleep will do that to someone. As she tried to toss back into a fitful sleep, a crack of lightning made sure she had a restless night. Every time slumber tried to pull her under, mother natures' sounds and screeches pulled her right back out. She just wanted it to end; she just wanted life to be normal, or at least next to it. She didn't want to have to go to horrific lengths and dangerous ploys every waking moment of her life. She wanted Kellach back, she wanted to sleep.

"Hermione?" It was a small little voice on the other side of her sapphire-crested door, but exhaustion was weighing her ears down, "can I come in?" Hermione was so tired, so sick of this agonizing insomnia, her lips formed the wrong answer in her mind, and the door opened. Her eyes glazed over his long brown hair, the vanilla-white eyes, and the green swastika on his forehead.

"Neji, what are you doing in here?" Hermione muttered a little slightly, partly out of fatigue, and partly out of pure disgust for him. He shrugged off the unhappy welcome.

"I'm here to apologize-,"

"Save it for someone who's awake," interrupted Hermione, pulling the covers over her head. He was the last person that she wanted to see. But he did not falter from his mission. Instead he took a seat on the foot of her bed, and just watched her quietly. She was still hiding away from the shame under the covers, not daring to look at him. Words soon bubbled over.

"Look, just make your peace and get the hell out of here." It was a sharp-tongued retort. Neji could taste the venom in her voice; so much he swallowed a little uncomfortably, choosing his words.

"We've known each other for nearly a year and a half now." Silence, he wasn't getting to her yet, "and over those two years we've fought. We've had some laughs. We've shared secrets, we've shared, more than just secrets," at this, Hermione gave Neji an icy stare. He shook it off and continued.

"In only a couple of hours, we're going to be walking right into the Organization's clutches. Now I know a lot of things to realize this is a trap-,"

"Look, is this an apology or some plea to stop me from finding Kellach, because if it is, you can go back to your room and let me get some sleep-,"

"I'm getting to it!" Neji snapped back to Hermione. He was really getting sick of her interrupting him, "like I said this whole ploy is probably a trap. I mean, who in their right mind would go through all this hell to just save one guy?"

"A girl who is madly in love with that man, along with her friends who would do anything to see the same guy." Hermione replied, nearly cutting Neji off, "I guess I'm not in my right mind."

"Oh shut up Hermione," Neji shot back, starting to lose patience in her.

"That's it, you get out of my-,"

"I said shut up you damn witch!" Hermione just stared at Neji, open-mouthed. He now had her full attention. Neji looked livid, unable to put up with her for another moment. His eyes burned holes into the sheets covering her bed. She had to kick herself for thinking this savage side of her friend was quite a turn-on.

A few floors below them, quite another arousing game was being played between two friends. Hands groped for something smooth to touch, fingers danced on pillows, lips were begging to be touched. Arya crawled from under her boy toy and locked lips with him, feeling her delicate hands over Knuckles' tough, burly arms. Knuckles took one of his fingers and began to tickle Arya. Her sounds of pleasure echoed off of the mauve walls of her bedroom. He then crashed into her; both melding into each other like weaved glass. Her cries of passion echoed off of the paper thin walls. The acts of lust ceased with the sound of pounding coming from above.

"Seriously guys, I can hear you fooling around down there. Keep it down, I'm trying to sleep! If I don't get my beauty sleep, I get wrinkles! And if I get wrinkles, I don't look pretty! And If I don't look pretty, people suffer!" It was Amy, and she sounded very cranky. Knuckles and Arya giggled at their grouchy friend's outburst.

"Maybe we should just get some sleep, you know, we do have a dangerous day tomorrow," Knuckles said, brushing the side of his hand against Arya's soft face. She wasn't having any of it though. Instead she flipped herself sideways and on top of him. Her wine colored hair draped on his bare chest. She caressed her own corseted bosoms and smiled deviously at her guy.

"Screw him, screw everybody. We could be dead by tomorrow for all we know. Dead as dust, my beautiful tanned skin pale as the moon. Blood rushing uncontrollably, pulse beating erratically," At this, Arya rubbed Knuckle's thighs, biting her lip, "doesn't it seem hopeless? True our friend could be in the clutches of Hell for all we know. True, the bastard could even be dead," Arya moved her hands a little higher, Knuckles gave a little gasp, his eyes never leaving hers, "so just this once, love, I only wanna care about my own needs. What I want. And what I want…" Arya lowered herself over Knuckles, draping over him like a blanket. Her head rested to his side. Her hands pinned his arms to the satin bed sheets, her legs were a tangle in his. She leaned into Knuckles' left ear, whispering sweetly, "what I want is for you to ravage me."

"I swear to god, sometimes I feel like I'm living with a bunch of Neanderthals." Amy shook her head to remove the pounding in her head. Whether the sound was her headache in full swing or her friends going at it downstairs was anybody's guess. She rubbed her sleepless eyes, suppressing a loud yawn. She looked at her reflection in a large pink framed mirror, seeing the sad, deeply stressed image of herself. It nearly made her cringe. She ran her dainty fingers through her bob haircut, this time actually yawning.

"You can stop now, I can barely keep my eyes open," Amy muttered, ripping off her covers and swinging her legs over the edge of her bed. Shadow sat up next to her, smiling as if he had a dirty little secret to tell. He leaned over and kissed the side of her head. She playfully shoved him aside as he fell back onto the soft mattress. Amy checked her fingers intently, examining each fingernail and the grape scented nail polish applied to her cuticles. Sasuke watcher her obsessive ritual, making a face that made Amy have to smirk a little.

"So are we Facebook official yet?" Shadow asked jokingly, checking his own figure out in the mirror.

"Don't even think about it boy, we aren't even official-official yet," Amy whispered coyly, biting the nail of her index finger. Shadow made a gagging noise.

"That's a horrible habit to take up," he grumbled, hoping she would take the hint.

"Yeah, and so is swearing like a sailor," Amy replied quickly, biting down yet another nail bed. Unfortunately she bit a little too deep, and a sharp annoying twinge of pain began to radiate from her index finger, "damn it to fucking hell!" Amy cursed loudly and quickly stuck her slightly bleeding finger in her mouth and began to suck it like an infant.

"Now that's two bad habits right there Amy," Shadow laughed, enjoying the irony of the moment. Amy gave her friend a devilish look, her eyes burning into his.

"I don't give a damn, just get me a band-aid!" Amy yelled out loud, stamping her foot on the ground. Shadow raised his hands up in defense and stood up, wobbling a bit as he found his balance on the carpeted floor. He reached the door quickly and opened it gingerly, hoping not to make any creaking sounds, waking up even more people.

"If you think that's painful, just wait when Larxene tears you a new ass," Shadow joked lightly. Amy glowered at him with those same unholy eyes, apparently not in a joking mood. He ducked from a quite heavy pillow as he scampered out of her room. He was instantly knocked backwards by Neji, who was just randomly strolling the hallways. The two were then on the floor, a little disoriented. Neji was the first to break the ice.

"You can't sleep either?" he muttered, gently massaging his now sore head. Shadow helped his friend up onto his feet and he dusted himself off.

"No, I guess all this stress is wrecking havoc on my sleeping patterns," Shadow sighed as he began to walk away from Neji. He just wanted to be in his bed at that exact moment. He wanted to be gone before Neji asked the golden question.

"So why were you in Amy's room?" Neji tilted his head to the side, his eyes expectantly wandering around his furry friend. The first thing in his head exploded through his mouth.

"Band-Aids," he muttered, not meeting Neji's gaze. Neji cocked his head to the side, examining his friend up and down. Shadow stood perfectly still, feeling as if he were being frisked. Finally, Neji closed his eyes without muttering a word. Shadow stared at his friend, a little taken aback from the sudden ignorance.

"Can I go now?" Shadow asked Neji, wondering if Amy noticed the length of time he had been away. Neji still said nothing; however, veins pulsed and bulged around his eyes. Shadow tried again to snap his friend out of his spell.

"I said, can I please go-,"

"Shut up." Neji replied coolly, his nostrils flaring slightly to calm himself down. His eyelids were still drooped down, covering his clear irises.

"That's it; I'm out of here-,"

"Stop moving, now!" Neji whispered fiercely, and Shadow halted, stock-still. Neji tilted his head up slightly, sniffing the air. His nose crinkled in detest, as he slowly opened his eyes.

"It smells like . . . smoke," Neji said, looking directly at Shadow. He gave his friend a curious look.

"Where the hell do you smell smoke from?" Shadow questioned, but Neji had already put two and two together.

"Fire!" Neji gasped as he looked up to the ceiling.

"What?" Shadow spluttered, but his voice was drowned out by a blaring alarm, ringing strong in his ears and through each and every hallway, every floor, and every room in the tower.

"Fire!" Neji repeated, his eyes moving franticly around his surroundings. Shadow could tell he was searching for the source of the blaze and smoke. Sure enough, his eyes locked on a corner of the floor to the left of Shadow's foot. His eyes widened in horror, as he witnessed the blaze eating away at the stairs and burning the marbled floors of the first floor. The inferno was gaining power as it moved slowly up the stairs. Shadow ran to his fried, helping him up as his knees went wobbly.

"What the hell did you see Neji?" Shadow urgently asked him as he vigorously shook him to break his concentration.

"Our home, all of it. It's gonna be engulfed in flames," Neji stated, his voice shaking slightly. Shadow wasn't sure he heard him correctly, the fire alarm was roaring all around him, suffocating him. Amy's bleeding fingernail was the least of his troubles now.

"No, no that's impossible," Shadow said quickly, trying to stay calm himself. He knew if he panicked, the situation would get worse, "We were the only ones out of bed, the entire tower was placed under lock-down with the highest protections. Hermione's enchantments, Arya's booby traps, your alarm system, how did this happen?" He looked to Neji for an answer, but alas, he was ignoring him. Soon, the entire tower would be awake and alert to the fire. They had to think fast.

"We need water!" Shadow said suddenly, but Neji shook his head, starting to briskly walk to the end of the hallway and up a flight of stairs.

"No good, this fire's gonna get huge, and we need a hell of a lot more than sprinklers to calm it down. No, we need magic," Neji mused more to himself than to his friend. He needed to get to Hermione's room, and fast. To alert her. To alert everyone.

"Just our luck too, I'll bet the Organization is up to this," Shadow panted as the two hustled up the stairs.

"Why would they strike us again, they already have what they need-," But his sentence was cut off. If one of them would have blinked, they would have missed it. Something, slick, shiny and purple dive bombed from above Neji and Shadow, moving lithely down. With a quick swipe, Neji was sliced across the chest by a long, jagged spear. He crumpled backwards down the stairs, falling like a ragdoll. Shadow's mouth opened in pure and utter shock, as his friend's body lay limp at the foot of the stairs, blood seeping into a pool and staining the wooden floor. Neji did not speak. He did not move. It didn't look like he would be getting up for a very, very long time.