Chapter 32: PB&J sandwiches

+ Nick +

"Good, but it needs work, Lucy. Your aim was off and your hand wobbled too much. You're using strength but if that strength is not paired with a good grip and aim, you could inflict severe damage on your wrist. It could be the thing that kills you in a fight." Logan reprimanded Lucy as she leaned over the practice dummy that she had knocked over. The stake was still stuck firmly inside the dummy, and while she struggled to remove it, the string of profanities coming out of her mouth was making even Logan wince.

I smiled softly, knowing fully well that Lucy will be Lucy. I continued pulverising the punching bag mindlessly keeping a close eye on her from time to time.

She noticed me staring this one time as she tried to focus on the hit. "What are you looking at, you pompous asshole? And would it kill you to wear a shirt?" I learned to believe that Lucy shows her love through insults, so that made me grin more than a little.

"Why, is my naked torso distracting?"

I heard Logan groan loudly before dramatically falling to his knees. He looked upwards as he yelled, "Here we go again with the flirting, for the fucking seventh time. Yes, I've been counting. I already warned you once Nick, she has the attention span of a goldfish and your presence is making it even worse. So, wear a fucking shirt or get the fuck out of the gym."

Now I could officially say that I had managed to really rustle up my brother. But it was amusing and I wondered for how longer I could stretch this before he kicked me out himself.

"But it's hot in here! It's not fair that I have to wear a shirt because of her unbridled lust for me." I retorted.

"Oh fuck you!" That one was from Lucy. On her defence she could have called me worst things.

"Look at this," Logan said as he pointed towards his aggravated face. I looked at him questioningly. "Does this look like the face of someone who cares about your petty complains? Put the shirt on or get out, I'm warning you." His nose flared comically to the point that I was afraid he'd literally start fuming. I burst out laughing at him. My only regret was not having a video camera to record this, because it was solid gold.

"That is it, I've had it with you two. I need to get out of here, before I have an aneurism. And I don't even know if vampires can have those!" he mumbled more to himself than to us. He stormed out of the gym, giving us a look of pure annoyance on the way out.

"Now look what you've done, Nicky." Lucy said flatly. "How the hell am I going to get better if I don't practice, huh?"

"Don't worry, Lucky. You will practice." I said, as an idea came to my mind.

"Oh yeah? With whom?" She gave ma sceptic look as she wiped the sweat on her brow with the back of her hand.

"With moi, of course." I told her. Her eyebrows met her hairline at that.

"You? Don't we know how this ends?" she told me, with a hint of humour in her voice.

"Hey, you're the one who can't keep her hands to herself here." I retorted, earning a hard punch on the shoulder. She might look like a fragile little thing, but she packed a mean punch that even some guys would be envious of.

She snorted before muttering, "Idiot." She went to get her bottle for a drink. I could see clearly that she was giving it her all. Her hair stuck to her forehead and her skin gleamed with sweat. And she didn't exactly smell like a bed of roses but I wouldn't dare tell her that. However, she had never seemed more beautiful and fierce. The look of determination was etched into her expression nowadays. She wasn't kidding when she said she wanted to conquer her demons.

I walked over to where my shirt was on the ground and put it on. I hated how it stuck to my skin, but it was something I could live with.

"Come on, whenever you're ready, princess," I told her as I walked towards the centre of the gym where the practice dummies were. She put her water bottle down and looked up at me, a grin finding its way to her lips. She walked towards me, stopping only when we were five steps away from each other with the dummy between us.

I threw the stake at her so that the pointed edge faced away from her. She grabbed it in mid-air, grasping the handle tightly. In a motion which I deemed quite extraordinarily agile for a human, she raised the stake gracefully, secured it in both hands and with a small battle cry that she had probably ripped off some kung fu movie, she plunged the stake right through where the heart would have been. She had executed the kill perfectly, almost too perfectly.

"Were you holding back on Logan or something? That was a perfect shot." I told her. She grinned at me.

"It was, wasn't it?" She said smugly, admiring her handiwork.

I smiled a little evilly, as I decided I wanted to mess with her a little. "It's amazing to which lengths your own subconscious would push you to impress me. Your inner need to make me proud of you is almost cute."

It took a moment for her to get what I was implying, but when she did, her grin fell and was replaced by a mischievous glare.

"Oh I'll impress you, alright. Say that again I'll knee you so hard in the crotch that not even the blood bond would give you back the ability to have children." she told me. At her words, I felt heat rise to my cheeks. Not because she had threatened to knee me in the balls, no, she did that on a daily basis, sometimes even more than once a day. It was the baby making part that had rustled me up a little, not that I would allow it to show.

I had learnt by now that I was more in control of the bond than she was. Her emotions were ever-present at the back of my mind. All I needed to do to access them was think about her. I tried not to let it affect me too much, as I knew that she would have a fit if she knew. However I was almost certain that my emotions weren't as easy for her to decipher as hers were for me. I didn't know if it was a vampire thing or perhaps if it was just me being my usual introvert self, but I thanked my luck for once. It would have been definitely embarrassing to have her realise that her talking so casually about babies and me in the same sentence made me uncomfortable.

"Nicky... aren't you going to say anything after that?" she asked me, a touch of humour colouring her voice.

I made an effort for her sake and let a carefree smile slip on my lips. "You wouldn't dare. You love me too much for that." I told her as I pulled her in an embrace. We were both in desperate need of a shower, but both of us couldn't care any less for that moment.

"Okay, you've practiced for over two hours now. Take a break with me." I told her once she stepped away. She shook her head vehemently.

"Nope, for all I know, that was just a lucky shot. If all hell breaks loose in three days, I need to be ready. So that means no breaks. In fact, I'd better go find Logan and apologise to him."

I pouted at her, trying to sway her in her decision. As if on cue, her stomach rumbled loudly.

I smirked, knowing that I had just found the thing that would make her take a break after all. She groaned. "Traitorous stomach. If I didn't love food so much I would starve myself just to teach you a lesson. But alas, food is more important than any petty revenge, so I guess you're right, I'm taking a break." She said as she handed me the stake. I put it back on the wall were it belonged with the others.

She wiped her forehead with a small towel and slung it over her shoulder. "I'm going to have a shower though first, so see you in about fifteen minutes." she said as she walked off.

"And you should take one too, you reek dude." she told me, fanning the air in front of her nose with her hand.

"Look who's talking? Make sure to not lift up your arms any time soon. You might kill someone." I sneered at me before leaving.

As an idea came to my mind, I smirked, knowing that if I managed to carry it out, she would be very surprised.

As I spread the peanut butter on the last slice of bread, Lucy walked in the kitchen, a towel in hand as she dried her hair. She noticed what I was doing and a confused look crossed her face.

"Um, Nicky, what are you doing?" Lucy asked with a befuddled tone. She knew that I didn't eat food, so watching me making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches must have surprised her, which was what I was aiming for.

"Making you something to eat. It was either this or cereal and since you can't eat cereal and walk at the same time, I opted with these." I told her as I handed her a sandwich. She took it in her hands gingerly, eying it cautiously before opening it and checking the contents.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at her. "I didn't poison it you idiot." I told her as I waited for her to take a bite.

She snorted. "Obviously, if you poisoned it you would die with me and that's no good. But putting a bug in it or hot sauce, now that is something you would do." She told me before giving one last wary glance to the sandwich. She gave a little shrug before taking a tentative bite. I looked at her, expecting some sort of reaction as she chewed lazily.

When she didn't say anything, I said, "So?"

"So what?"

I sighed, getting a bit impatient. "How is it?"

"It tastes like a PB&J sandwich." she said flatly. I sighed and finished the one I was making before wrapping the two uneaten sandwich in a napkin.

She wrapped her arms around me and leaned on my back. The feel of her soft skin, freshly washed and fragrant against mine was like being caressed by pure silk.

"I was kidding you know. I'm very touched that you'd do this for me." I searched for her hand and took it in my own.

"Come with me." I whispered softly to her.

"Where?"

"Anywhere. This house is making me feel claustrophobic. You can feel the tension radiate off people." She dropped her hand from mine.

She contemplated for a moment, biting her lip in the most adorable way possible. She threw a glance at the clock and looked up at me, a smile crossing her lips as her eyes met mine.

She put a finger on my lips. "One hour. Not a minute more, not a minute less." She told me. She put her hand to her side and took my hand instead. I grabbed her wrapped sandwiches off the counter.

We didn't go very far, just a ten-minute walk from the house. The sandwiches were long gone. The full moon shone down at us and illuminated everything in its beautiful silvery glow. We ended up just lying down facing the endless black sky. The stars were beautiful to look at as only my family lived around here so there wasn't a lot of noise pollution. We had fallen silent, but there wasn't anything to say. Useless banter would have ruined the moment. Instead I let her cuddle next to me. She rested her head against my arm and I slowly ran up my fingers against hers in the softest of caresses.

I looked at her face. The moon was giving her an unearthly glow. Her soft red lips looked like velvet and I wanted nothing more than to cover them with my own.

I let my hand run further up her arm, over her collarbone until I was caressing her cheek.

I wanted to look directly in her eyes. My face was directly in front of hers as I propped my elbows up.

She's so fucking beautiful. Everything happened silently between us. There was no need of verbal communication. I knew that she wanted to kiss me as much as I wanted to kiss her. Our bodies moved together in a simple symphony. I put my knees to her sides and gently helped her lift herself so that her lips met mine in an exploding ecstasy of pleasure. Her body yielded easily to mine, arching forward to remove the space between us. I ran my hands down her soft body, down her slender arms, over her fit stomach and her thighs. She moaned as our bodies moulded more into one. Our hands probed gently and explored each other's bodies freely. I hadn't felt this free in a very long time. I didn't know how badly I needed it until Lucy's lips were secured on mine.

A small nagging voice at the back of my mind warned me that I should take it easy or stop, as my need for Lucy was toxic. I felt ready to make love to her right here and then, and she was giving me the same indications, but it would be extremely bad timing.

However, I had no will to stop.

And I guess I should consider what happened as a very lucky break, but it honestly wasn't. Not in my book, at least.

"Nick! Lucy! Get the hell up, we need to go, now!" Logan's voice said. I felt a pair of arms trying to break us apart, and I instinctively pushed Lucy away and growled at the intruder.

Logan was quick though and responded with a jaw breaking slap. "What the fuck?" I asked him as I regained some of my self-control.

"It's Solange. The change is starting early. And her body's rejecting it." Those three short sentences where enough to send the small lick of stability I had in my life crumbling.

Yes I finally updated! I apologise for the wait, however I'm not making any boring excuses. I can assure you that there are going to be about 5-8 chapters more, depending on what comes to mind. Hopefully I shall resume my weekly upload rate : D

Thank you for the beautiful words in the reviews, they are all very touching. And for all you romantics out there, yes, you will get you big, romantic, sweet, fluffy chapter as an epilogue though! Brace yourself cause it's going to be so sweet you'll get diabetes *crickets in the background*

Stay lovely!