Nico's POV
Something was eating away at Elijah for the past few days, something he was hiding from me.
Whether it was something he was purposely hiding from me, or something he just wasn't sure how to come to me about, whatever it was, I had sworn to myself that I wasn't going to prod him or pry too much into it, if at all.
But, damnit, it was starting to eat away at me too.
God, I wish I'd gotten the telepathy that Liz has.
One of the few things I truly envied her for..
But whether I would choose to bring it up or not or whether he would or not, or whatever was happening with it, I certainly wasn't intending on bringing it up so early in the morning.
It's also worth noting that, had Elijah known what was eating at me or at all how I feel about this coming up so early, he'd laugh, almost immediately, at the idea of me caring about the timing when I'm not even the one who needs sleep.
When he finally did awake, I was staring off at nothing in particular, as I was still lost in thought, rather than at him like I normally did.
Visibly confused, and somewhat concerned now, he looked at me as soon as he came to.
"Everything okay?" He asked, smirking. "..or did something just catch your eye this morning that happens yo be a hell of a lot more interesting than me?
This provoked a little bit of a smirk to creep its way onto my own face.
"No, Baby. Of course not." I leaned over and kissed him, which only caused his smirk to grow into a more wider grin.
"Mmm….well, Good morning to you too, Babe." He chuckled softly, taking in the moment. "...if I'd have known that was waiting for me when I woke up, I'd have woken up a lot sooner."
"Flattery will get you…" I sighed. "...absolutely everywhere with me, Elijah Uley. Especially coming from you."
"Oh, especially coming from me?"
"Yes, of course, especially." I chuckled.
He chuckled more softly, and to himself. "You gonna tell me what's eating you now?"
I sighed.
"What?" He asked. "You can tell me."
"Yeah, I could…."
He shot me a very then, go on… type of look.
...To which, I just sighed and said, "You first."
He appeared to be taken aback by that.
"You want me to gu- " He started to say.
"I wanna know what you've been keeping from me." I blurted out. "There, I said it."
I sighed again. "Sorry, that came out a little more backhanded than I meant it to. It's not that I think you're lying to me or sneaking around on me, you know?"
"Yeah, I do." He crept his hand towards where mine was on the bed, and slipped it on top of mine, sighing as he glanced toward the bedroom door, as if he were afraid someone might walk in or overhear.
He opened his mouth to speak again, but Sam started shouting up the stairs for him before he could get a word out."
"ELIJAH!" The tone of his voice let on that he was trying to sound a little more impatient than he actually sounded and was failing, in his obvious amusement about what his little brother might be doing up here for so long with his little bloodsucker lover. "You coming down, or what?!"
Some other laughs and snide comments, which I recognized to be coming from Quil and Embry and a couple other guys that must've been just stopping by, joined Sam's, causing Elijah to roll his eyes and stand up from the bed.
"What do you say we go for a walk, find a little more privacy for this?" He suggested.
Even in my, still, heavy concern, I couldn't help but chuckle at what I could hear going on downstairs. "Sure, that sounds great. Wanna skip the circus downstairs?"
I nodded toward the window, which was still open from when I'd come back in from reading earlier.
"More than ever." He chuckled, hopping on Nico's back and wrapping his arms around his lover's neck.
"Fasten your seatbelts then." I teased with a smirk, just before climbing up to the open window and leaping down to the ground in one, very smooth, bound.
—
—
"Woah." He marveled from the rush, as he let himself off my back.
"Still not used to letting someone else give you a ride, are we?" I teased. "It's alright, I'm still not even used to being able to jump like that, and I've been able to sinc before I even met you."
"I believe it." He chuckled.
We walked from there until we reached our regular walking path, along the beach's shore.
It was as peaceful and just about as secluded as we'd been hoping for, with only a few others who were still a good distance from us, which seemed just about perfect for wherever this conversation might be headed.
"Alright, well, your little wolfy laws allow me the privilege of knowing for certain that you have no intention of breaking up with me or anything like that, so I guess that's some kind of process of elimination." I teased. "Now, what is up?"
He sighed again, a sigh so heavy that it was pretty obviously carrying every bit of the weight of what he was about to let on.
"Alright, well for the record, I want you to know that you were right when you said that what's been weighing on me isn't something I've been trying lie to you or be sneaking around about, I would never do that to you."
"I know that." I reassured him. "You know I trust you. More than anyone, in fact."
"I know, I know, in fact…" He looked away, towards the water, very briefly.
"Matter of fact, it's just that that makes me wish that imprinting could've somehow brought you in on the whole wolf telepathy thing, then at least it really wouldn't be my fault."
I chuckled at the first thought. "Hey, you and me both, here. Do you realize at all what I would give just to have a day inside that head of yours, completely uncensored?"
"Uncensored." He chuckled. "Of course."
"Oh, get your mind out of the damn gutter!" I laughed, playfully smacking him, enough that it shoved him back a little. "You know what I meant."
"Yeah, yeah."
I chuckled a little more at that, til it died down at my next thought.
"But, wait, what did you mean when you said that, at least it wouldn't be your fault?"
I couldn't tell if the concern on my face really was that obvious, or if he was just sensing it now, which he often had quite the remarkable talent in doing.
"Look, why don't I just show you." He sighed, reaching deep into one of his front pockets for something.
I watched him, particularly curiously, as he eventually pulled out what appeared to be a folded up envelope, that had additional creases and wrinkles that had likely resulted from being in said pocket for however long it had been.
He held it out for me to take, having moved his arm to do so in a way that carried a lot more regret than he'd clearly intended to show.
I took it carefully from him, looking over it, until I happened upon the name on the return address…...a name that was causing all of the pieces to come together now.
"It's…..from my sister…" I finally uttered, as if he couldn't have already known.
I looked back up into his, now, increasingly apologetic eyes, as I geared up to ask him my next question. "H-how long...how- " I cleared my throat. "...when did she give you this?"
A better question would've probably been how, given that she had no reason to have known who I was even staying with, let alone where Elijah lived.
I guess my mind didn't have room for that.
Just then, interrupting most of my previous thoughts, a suspiciously familiar scent wafted off of it, at least as far as I'd been able to notice.
"...and why does it have Leon's scent on it?"
"Because, she didn't give it to me…." he sighed. "Apparently, she gave it to Liz, who set it down for later, and somewhere along the line, Leon found it and told her you'd probably be better off not knowing about it. I didn't agree with that, so, despite Collette getting the info from her and having her own ideas about how or if to even tell you, I took one of your jackets while you were off reading, to mask my scent a little and snuck into your- well, I guess Leon's house, on a day that everyone was gone and took it."
I took another full minute or two to process everything he'd just said.
Normally, the fact that Elijah snuck into Leon's house. Leon, of all people, who could smell a wolf's stench from miles away, would worry me in and of itself, but at least maybe the combined smell of my jacket, that would carry mostly my own scent, mixed with his, could give the illusion that I was the one to have been in the house and that he was only getting Elijah's scent from him being around me.
….Not that my mind had much room for that either.
"...Are you saying that Liz and Collete told you to keep this from me?" I finally asked, hoping not to sound too confrontational about it, given how clearly anxious he was about even bringing it up to me.
"They certainly implied it." He sighed. "To be completely honest with you, that's not wholly what's been weighing on me, exactly."
"Well then….what has?"
"I mean, it's a factor…." He looked down to his hands that were now in his pockets, one of his classic little nervous habits, and then back at me with another sigh.
"Nico, what do you think's been weighing on me more? I mean…I mean, I barely even remembered you had a biological sister, and the one time you even mentioned her, you said that you didn't like to talk about it…..and now, saying it out loud like that, I guess I'm not really different from anyone else in this little conundrum."
He scoffed. "...just...afraid of how you're gonna take it."
I nodded, waving the envelope slightly so that it tapped against my other hand just before pointing it towards him. "Elijah, if you were anything like them, you would've hidden it too." I chuckled slightly. "...aaand you wouldn't have broken into the one vampire's house, who hates your kind more than probably anyone, if you were…"
He couldn't help but chuckle at the thought, as it was told back to him, either.
"Seriously, man, I appreciate it."
"I know." He said gently. He then looked back down at the envelope before looking back up at me. "...sooo, what are you thinking you wanna do with it?"
I sighed. "Well, if I'm being completely honest, I've kinda been mulling it over for a while…..yeah, she got ahold of my voicemail about a week ago, saying that she wanted to catch up, mentioned she had something to tell me…." I took the invitation out of the envelope, which had somehow already been opened….probably by Leon. "Which, this would explain that."
He nodded."I see."
I slipped it back into the envelope and began fidgeting with said envelope in my hands again, as i thought to myself about it.
"I'll probably email her or something tonight, just to get her off my back a little, but I don't know what I'm gonna do about it." I chuckled half humorlessly. "On the one hand, I'd love to see the look on her face when she has to adjust to, not only having a brother, but that her little brother has a boyfriend…..but, on the other hand, I just know she's gonna make a whole thing out of how someone even catching wind that I'm trans might take away from her day, as if I'm gonna make some big ass scene or launch someone into the sun for asking what happened to Ainsley's sister."
He laughed at the idea of that. "What a shame. I might actually want to go to a wedding like that."
"Well, in that case, maybe I'll go into wedding planning." I laughed.
"Hey, you think I'm joking. I say this is peak business potential!" He chuckled. "Book a wedding, get a free cannon for launching bigoted relatives."
"The possibilities really are endless." I chuckled.
We both had another good laugh about that for a while.
"Ahh, in all seriousness though, I'll...let you know what I decide about this…" I finally said with another sigh. "...if I do, god forbid, go to this thing, I'll be wanting a plus one." I shot him a little smirk after that.
"One question first though…."
I looked back at him curiously. "..Shoot."
"Can I launch someone into the sun, if they make any remarks about you?" He teased.
I gave him a playful punch to the shoulder for that, unable to keep myself from chuckling at that. "We'll see."
"I'll take it." He chuckled.
