"What's up doll?" Solomon asks, walking into my kitchen. I was just leaning up against the stove, arms crossed over my chest and staring at the table in front of me. "Whatcha thinkin' so hard about?" He questions, leaning himself over my kitchen counter.
"Hey Sol..." I murmur and glance up at him. "Nothing really, just gone on a mini vacay somewhere." I answer casually. Which was a lie. I hadn't stopped thinking about Finn and my family and all that junk for like a week now.
"You're a bad liar. You sure you don't wanna talk about it?" He asks me. He had his eyebrows raised at me, looking at me expectantly.
"No I really don't." I sigh, pushing myself off the stove. "What are you doin' here?" I ask him.
"You know I was perfectly content to sit in my cave and be a dirt bag ass hole with no friends up until you walked into that stupid dungeon." He mutters with a shake of his head. "Now it's like I kinda want... Friends." He almost cringes at that word.
"Baron is your friend." I furrow my brows at him.
"He's a guy that I've known for 1000 years." He shrugs simply. "We know that if shit hits the fan, we can count on each other to have the other's back. We don't hang out, or talk really, we're not really friends." He tries to explain.
"Oh." Was all I came up with.
"I don't know, lately I've just wanted to see another face every now and then. Particularly yours." He winks. "Where is Finn?" He asks curiously.
"Actually I have no idea." I shrug. "He left early this morning and he might have told me where he was going but I was still half asleep when he left. You know you should stick around sometime, I'll take you to lunch." I tell him.
"I'd rather ya cooked for me," He winks, "But I could do that sometime." He agrees. I wasn't about to cook for him, that was a little too 'romantic' for me, and Finn would absolutely hate it. "See you later? Or you could come back with me." he suggests.
"I can't, I'm in the middle of some work paper word. I'll see you later." I agree with him. He nods, and backs out the sliding door before shutting it behind him.
***...***...***
"You were gone for a long time today." I say softly. Finn had gotten home about an hour ago while I was cooking dinner. I was making spaghetti tonight, I didn't usually make this just because I wasn't a huge fan but I got a weird craving earlier.
"I told you when I left that I'd be with Galloway all day." He answers. His fingers glide along my lower back and he rests his chin on my shoulder. "Smells good." He murmurs, pressing his lips to the shell of my ear.
"Thank you." I reply. "I must not have heard you, I was still half asleep when you left." I shrug it off. He had told me where he was off to, I just wasn't really listening when he'd said it.
"You're so warm, are you sick?" He questions, palming my face.
"No..." I furrow my brows. "But I am standing in front of a hot stove." I tease him and he chuckles.
"I thought you hated spaghetti." He states. He steps a few feet to the side and leans against the counter.
"I was craving it earlier." I tell him, adding more garlic to the sauce. He makes a little bit of a face but shrugs and walks over to the kitchen table to sit down. I put the lid onto the pot and walk over to where he sat, straddling his lap and wrapping my arms around his neck. His own hands came up to sit on my hips while he studied my face.
"You're different." He comments.
"I'm not." i shake my head.
"You are... You've been different since the day you freaked out about the whole time and age thing." He tells me seriously. "Would you like to talk about it?" He offers. He was right, I'd been I don't want to say depressed, but noticeably more sad and down than usual. It'd just been eating at me.
"I really don't." I sigh.
"I'd really like you to not think about it for now..." He murmurs. His thumb was lightly going over the skin on my hip just under my shirt.
"It's not that easy Finn, I can't just pretend that it's not bothering me." I tell him a little annoyed.
"Please don't be difficult about this." He grumbles. He immediate heard his own mistake, but it was too late by that point.
"You're a fucking asshole. Way to be sensitive to your woman's feelings." I growl at him, pushing myself up off his lap and going back into the kitchen. "Maybe you should go fucking home, I'm sure Ellena made something you can eat." I mutter mostly under my breath but I knew he'd heard me.
"I'm sorry, my love." He whispers, walking up behind me. His hands slide over my hips and he spins me around to face him. "That wasn't the right way to go about it. The fact of the matter is you can do nothing about the decision right now. So why worry yourself over something that isn't a worry for many years down the road?" He questions. He pushes some of my hair behind me ear and kisses my forehead.
"You're right." I finally cave. A couple hours later we're sitting on the couch at my house, Kelly was out with some new friends she'd made and we were watching Hemlock Grove on netflix.
"Ugh..." He'd groan every once in a while. Usually during some dramatic scene where the guy would turn into a werewolf. "You guys really enjoy this crap?" He asks me.
"Shut up." I chuckle. "Would you rather watch something else?" I ask him, offering the remote.
"I have no interest in TV. I only watch it because you enjoy it." He declines, pushing the remote back towards me.
"I love you." I sigh, snuggling into his side.
"I love you." He murmurs back.
***...***...***
"What have you done with the two?" I ask Finn a few days later. My feet were kicked up on one of the long dining room tables while he spoke with Charille. I was referring to Baramire and Jordynian.
"They are in the dungeon." He replies but doesn't look at me. He was more focused on whatever it was they were talking about.
"What are you going to do with them?" I ask curiously. I knew that I was totally intuiting whatever they were talking about, but I didn't really care at the moment. He lets out a sigh, and turns to face me, placing both hands on the table in front of him.
"What do you think we should do with them?" He asks me back.
"I think you should hang them in the middle of the town and leave their bodies on display for a week for everyone to fucking see." I shoot back without any hesitation.
"You don't have the guts." He challenges me with raised eyebrows. "If that's what your wish it, I'll make it so." He adds.
"Then do it." I basically growled back. "And do it this afternoon." I add, shoving the chair backwards and standing up. I make a move to walk away but he takes a hold of my elbow and spins me around, his face a little concerned.
"Are you alright, my love?" He asks softly.
"I'm fucking fine." I mutter, putting a hand on my hip. "The guys try to USE me to KILL you, to TAKE OVER." I clarify. "Fucking kill them Finn."
"What's wrong with you?" He furrows his brows. I let out an annoyed huff and pull my arm from his grip. "Annabelle." He says softer.
"Nothing is wrong." I insist. "I'm fine." I tell him, starting for the door again.
"Your mood swings of late are rather appalling." I hear him call to me before I'd made my way out the door. I went out to the field where Gannicus was laying nicely, his head perked up when he saw me and I instantly felt like I was in a better mood.
"Hi baby." I murmur, pressing a kiss to the very tip of his nose. About an hour later I was dozing off against his leg when Finn came walking up to me in the field. I felt like an asshole, but I was a little too proud to apologize for it.
"Hi." He greets me, standing at my feet.
"Hey." I mumble back. My fingers were picking apart a piece of grass that I'd pulled out of the ground a few seconds prior. "So, did you take care of it?" I ask him, biting the inside of my cheek.
"I did not." He shakes his head.
"Why?" I question, glancing up at him. I felt a little relieved that he didn't actually go through with what I'd told him to do.
"Because I know that once you'd calmed down it would destroy you to know you'd made a decision like that." He says, sitting down cross legged in front of me.
"You're right." I nod my head slowly. "I shouldn't have said any of that." I add.
"Please tell me what's wrong? Are you still thinking about all that family stuff?" He questions. His fingers were dancing along my calf muscle, kneading into the skin as he looked at me.
"I don't know." I shrug. "I haven't thought about that in a few days, I promise. I was just, I don't know, in a bad mood I guess." I try to explain. Truth was I had no idea who that was earlier. It was me obviously, but I'd never acted that way ever.
"It was awful." He comments. "I much prefer the sweet, kind bubbly you over that cruel version I saw earlier."
"Really?" I ask curiously. "I thought you might get off on that or something. Like I didn't do it with those intentions, I just thought... I don't even know. Never mind." I shrug.
"I don't." He shakes his head.
"I'm sorry I acted that way." I sigh, "And I'm glad you didn't hang anyone." I add with a smirk.
"Hanging isn't my style anyway, I'm more for the blood and guts." He shrugs, returning my smirk. His fingers grip around my ankle and he easily pulls me away from Gannicus, who whips his head around and snorts at Finn, before he pulled me into his lap and wrapped both arms around me.
"Be nice." I chuckle to Gannicus.
"He's the only dragon that doesn't like me." Finn states, looking at the dragon who was still glaring daggers through him.
"Huh." I shrug, resting my forehead against his cheek. "I'm tired, i think I'm going to go lay down for a while." I tell him.
"May I nap with you?" He asks me.
"Yes." I smile. We were in the bedroom a second later, laying in bed and he was pulling the covers up over us.
***...***...***
"Something is wrong with me Kel." I mutter, tossing my purse up onto the kitchen counter. We went out shopping in Dublin for most of the day and we just getting back in time for dinner. "Like, I'm just not me sometimes. It's really weird."
"You told him to hang people and leave that junk out there a week. Hell no that isn't you." She scoffed. "Maybe all the stress over the aging thing is really eating at you." She suggests.
"I truly, truly haven't thought about that in like a week." I tell her.
"Yeah but what's it called, like subconscious?" She flicked some of her blonde hair behind her shoulder as she leaned herself up against the counter.
"I don't know... I mean, maybe." I shrug. "I just don't understand why that would make me mean like that. It really only happened once, I probably shouldn't even look that far into it." I sigh.
"Any other weird behaviors?" She asks curiously.
"All the time the past week. Like I'll be perfectly fine, then he'll say something or do something or sometimes it's not even him and I'm instantly annoyed or irritated." I admit. "I realize it, then go out to the stables or to Gannicus and I instantly feel relaxed again."
"That's so weird." She murmurs.
"I know. It's probably just a phase, it'll pass shortly I hope." I blow it off.
"Hopefully..." She agrees softly.