Elijah's POV

It was mid to bordering late afternoon, the next day, when I finally awoke to find that Nico hadn't yet returned from his usual early morning reading/him time.

….which, in turn, explained why I had slept in later than usual.

Most mornings were started with him trying to, less than subtlely, sneak back in through the window, resulting in my waking up, albeit briefly, to his entrance before nodding back off for about another hour or so.

Not this one though. Today, the last I'd seen him was when I got up to go to the bathroom and caught him just after he'd leapt from the window to head for his tree.

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and, slowly but surely, sat up in my bed and took a better glance around the room, as if I wouldn't hear or smell him if he were here.

—
I decided he'd probably just finished The Shining…..again, and gotten involved in another book or something, shrugged it off and proceeded to grab a shirt to throw on and head downstairs.

When I finally reached the kitchen, Sam had some of the guys over and only looked up, and with a smirk, when he heard me come in.

"It's aliiiive!" Quil declared, in one of the worst impressions I'd ever heard, beating Sam to the observation.

"Get enough sleep, Kiddo?" Sam teased.

"Hilarious, both of you." I scoffed, walking over to put on a pot of coffee for myself.

"Anyone wanna tell me if they've seen Nico?"

"Oohh, so you're not still trying to hide him from us then." Embry chimed in, catching a glare I shot him.

Sam looked over, noticing my reaction, and motioned his hand for the others to cut it out.

"Not since last night." He answered a little more seriously.

"You check with Collette?" Quil offered. "Maybe she or Liz has seen him.

"That'll be next on my to do list." I sighed. "For now, I'm just gonna go look for him."

Sam nodded. "Good luck."

"He's probably just got his head in one of his books for the billionth time." Embry teased. "How many times has he read The Shining, now? Like fifty?"

"I think it's more like sixty-three." I chuckled. "Anyway, I'll see you guys."

As I started my trek through the woods, my brain awakening even more with each sip of my coffee, I started to believe less and less that this might've been just one of his, not as uncommon as he likes to think it is, oops! I started a new book and let the day get away from me blunders and worry just a little bit more that something had happened between his phone call with his sister yesterday and this morning, whether it was something directly to do with his sister or some new bs with Leon about the whole, "Let's keep this from Nico." thing.

I sighed to myself.

"Of COURSE it's the former, how could it NOT be?"

I shook my head to myself, trying to keep myself calm, as I didn't wanna overreact to anything just yet….especially before I had the full story and from Nico, himself.

—

—
I continued on until I reached the tree where he normally parked himself in the mornings and stopped to look up, once I caught the whiff of his scent.

I smiled as I looked up the tree to see him, trying to make out the title cross the book in his hands.

"...Alright, well I know you haven't been out here for this long cause you were reading The Tommyknockers." I called up to him, when I recognized it. "Wanna tell me what's really going on? I'm starting to worry about you."

He just looked down at me and sighed, not bothering to mark his place in the book before he tucked it under his arm to jump down with it.

He looked at me sympathetically, though without saying anything, as he just scoffed and tossed his book down.

"...It took my sister...my own sister…" He finally said. "...a little more than a week to make all this wedding, about me coming to the wedding..all about her."

"I take it we're not exactly talking about the the vampire thing being let out of the bag."

This got a bit of a smile from him. "I think the expression you're looking for is cat."

He chuckled. "...but yeah, actually I think I would've preferred that."

"That bad?" I asked, knowing the obvious.

He just shook his head to himself, clearly still in disbelief, before looking back up at me and scoffed again. "You know, i-it's not even like I talk about it that much, even with you, I mean hell, I don't think I'd even say much about it if I got misgendered at the damn thing, you know? But what's she think is gonna happen? Half our family, who haven't even seen me in God only knows how long are just gonna find out she has a brother they never knew about and not say anything?"

"I'm sorry…"

He nodded, still half smiling. "Thanks, but sorry's probably not gonna knock any sense into my sister, now is it? And nor are you the one that needs to be sorry for anything, you've been a goddamned saint about this whole thing.""

I smiled, taking his hands into mine. "No, I guess it's not…..and I think you know what I meant."

"Yeah, I do, and I appreciate it."

"Good." I let slip a chuckle. "...would me phasing into my wolf form in the middle of the ceremony, and getting people talking about that transition help anything?"

This got a genuine laugh out of him and even lightened his mood a little.

"Is it bad that I'm actually considering taking you up on that?"

"Well, I haven't even met your sister yet, buuut from the sounds of it, I'd say she's earned it."

"Maybe." He chuckled. "...but, she also doesn't exactly deserve anything that cool to happen at her wedding, now does she?" He le slip a little smirk.

"Oh, God no."

He placed his hand just under my chin, which I met with my own, as I pulled him closer with my other hand to kiss him.

—
When we parted, he still had the biggest grin on his face.

"Wanna take this back to your place?" He asked with a snicker. "I could hear your stomach growling a mile away."

"Hey, I told you I was worried, didn't I?"

"Well, that, I'm sorry about, but your worries are over now. Get some food in you, already."

"Yes, Sir." He chuckled. "...and to think I was just about to take you on my back."

"No, no, I'll behave!" He laughed. "I'm done, come on."

"Hop on." I chuckled, phasing into my wolf form to run him back.