Four

2177 Words
Several hours later, we sat across from each other on the floor and compared our notes. At some point, Troy began taking some down in his own notebook. All of the information we could find on kitsune, was more or less the same. There was some debate about when kitsune gained their various powers, but there were many powers to be gained. “Well,” I said to him, “I still have no idea how I am supposed to do any of this, but I do have more questions for my mom.” Chuckling, he replied, “I can imagine. Like, how many tails does she have?” I rolled my eyes at him. “I just don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing here. I mean, that dream earlier made me feel like I had to be the one to find Jess, but now…,” I put my head in my hands and I tried to put what I was feeling into words. “I just don’t know. I don’t see how there’s anything I can really do. I just feel so useless.” “Hey, why don’t we take a break,” he offered. “We can go for a walk or something.” “Yea, okay.” I agreed, climbing to my feet. Maybe some fresh air would help clear my thoughts. Fifteen minutes later, we were rounding the corner of Main Street, on our way to the local smoothie shop. Suddenly, a loud horn blared and I was knocked to the ground with such force that the breath left my lungs in one big rush. It felt like I had been caught in an avalanche and buried under a thousand pounds of rock. I struggled to breath and banish the stars that had erupted behind my eyelids. “Briseis, are you okay, sweetheart?” I heard Troy murmur from somewhere far away, but I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs to respond. “Briseis! Come on, baby girl, tell me you’re okay.” He sounded closer this time, but almost frantic. I pried my eyes open to find him so close to me that I could feel his breath whispering across my cheek. For a moment, I was lost his eyes. They were like a tide pulling me in, and I was perfectly willing to drown in them. “Troy?” I managed to squeak out in a confused whisper. “Briseis,” he sighed with relief. “Troy, I can’t breathe.” I forced out realizing the crushing weight I was struggling with was him. He was lying on top of me. He shifted his weight to the side without removing himself from his position above me and smiled endearingly. “Are you okay?” He asked, while tenderly swiping his fingers across my cheek bones and causing my eye lids to flutter while I leaned into his touch. “I think so, but what the hell happened?” I replied, once I wrestled control of my motor functions from my attention starved hormones. “I’m not sure,” he told me. “The car jumped the curb and it was coming straight at you, so I pushed you out of the way and here we are.” “What car?” I asked. Troy sighed and got himself to his feet before reaching out his hand to help me up. I placed my hand in his, enjoying the warmth of his skin, and stood up to survey the damage. The car, a silver sedan, had crash right into the corner of the building. Troy was right, I would have been right in the path of the out of control automobile. I squeezed his hand in gratitude and smiled to myself when he reciprocated the gesture. We walked closer to the wreckage, and the small crowd of onlookers to check on the driver. He was dazed and would clearly have bruises to mark the impact of his seatbelt and airbag, but otherwise seemed to be okay. It could have been much worse. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened," he stammered. "There was something in the street, maybe a coyote or something, and I swerved. I should have been able to realign the car, but I must have hit a patch of water or something. Maybe, I overcorrected. Then, I saw you and I couldn’t get control of the car and I thought I was going to kill you. Oh my God, I could have killed you. I am sorry.” He was nearly hyperventilating at this point; it was clear that the incident had really shaken him up. “It’s okay,” I told him. “We’re all okay. That’s all that matters.” “Yes. Thanks to your boyfriend, here,” he said, nodding and shifting his gaze to Troy, who was still holding my hand. “Thank you, young man. You saved both of our lives, I think. I don’t think I could have lived with myself if I had hurt this young lady, here.” “Like she said, nobody was seriously injured. All’s well that ends well.” Troy assured him. A few moments later, loud sirens and flashing lights signaled the arrival of an ambulance and a couple of police cruisers. They only spared a cursory glance at Troy and I, seeing us more as witnesses than participants in the actual event. They spent several minutes questioning the driver, however, and subjected the poor man to a sobriety test while they ran his license. It was clear they didn’t believe the man’s story. I could hear the officers telling him there were no coyotes in Dahlia Lake. I kind of felt bad for him. It seemed to me the poor guy had been through enough. I would have been content to turn around and head back to my apartment, but Troy insisted that I needed the sweet treat now, more than ever. He claimed he was concerned that I may go into shock and a sugary protein smoothie would be good for me. I figured if it would make him feel better, I could force down my favorite fruity treat. Besides, who was I to turn down a hot guy that wanted to take care of me. When we did make it back to my place, Troy shifted uneasily in the entry way. I watched him for a moment trying to work out what he was thinking about before he finally spoke up. “It’s getting pretty late. I should probably head out and let you get some sleep.” He said. “Oh. Yeah, I guess you’re probably right.” I agreed, though that was the last thing I wanted. “Goodnight, Briseis.” He turned and stepped out onto the walkway, letting the door close behind him. I caught the door, just before the latch clicked into place, and stepped out after him. “Actually, I don’t really want to be alone. If you wouldn’t mind. I mean, I don’t expect you to- you don’t have to- I mean, if you have other things to do..,” I stammered. Troy gently place his knuckle under my chin and lifted my face to his, “Briseis, I would love to stay.” He assured me. Nodding, I led the way back inside and flopped, quite elegantly I assure you, onto the couch. “So, what now?” I asked. With a chuckle, Troy sat down beside me. Since, I had flopped into the middle of the sofa, he had no choice but to sit relatively close to me. I gallantly suppressed the urge the snuggle into his side and soak up his warmth. As my mind swirled with all of the reasons he wouldn’t want me, I groaned at the most embarrassing of the bunch. Then took a second to remind myself I had just met this guy. He immediately leaned in close, his eyebrows drawn and concern evident in his eyes. “Are you okay?” He asked. “Yes. I just realized that I’ve known you less than one full day and you’ve already seen me cry, seen me faint, witnessed my family drama, had to save me from certain death, and have now been roped into to staying the night so I don’t have to be alone.” I sighed. “I must seem like a real independent woman.” He laughed softly before replying. “You’re roommate is missing, you found out you might not even be completely human, and three tons of metal was speeding right at you.” He shook his head. “You may have had an exceptionally bad day, but I don’t think it defines who you are. Unless,” he paused for effect, “every day isn't like this for you, is it?” “Not every day.” I assured him. “Well, they weren’t up until now, anyway. But, if it turns out that I'm actually a mythical fox, I’m supposed to learn magical powers and I have to rescue an ever-growing group of missing women, then from now on my days might be very different.” “Well,” he said, shifting so close I could feel his breath on my face, “I still can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.” I turned my head, slightly, to look at the man beside me. He was closer than I had realized. So close, there was mere millimeters between our lips. I swallowed and met his eyes. He must have realized the same thing I did, because his gaze lowered to my lips for just a second before he closed the distance between us and pressed his lips to mine. The kiss started tentatively, as if he was giving me the chance to pull away, but I didn’t. Instead, I leaned into him and placed my hand on his chest to steady myself. I felt Troy’s tongue brush against my lips, as if he was asking me to open up to him, and I did. As I parted my lips to deepen the kiss, Troy raised a hand to rest against my jaw. I slid my own hand up into his hair, it was softer than I had imagined, and my fingers curled, as I relinquished control of my body to the butterflies fluttering within me. I shifted closer, wanting more, and he groaned softly against my lips. Goosebumps broke out across my skin as my heart raced and heat crept across the back of my neck. I could have spent a million years in this moment if only I didn’t need to catch my breath. I broke the kiss, to suck in a gulp of air, and Troy's lips lowered to press against my jaw as his arms slid around my waste before he pulled me against him. I tugged his hair to bring his attention back to my mouth and shifted my position to bring me even closer to him. I was almost in his lap, by the time he pulled away from me. “Wait,” he rasped. “What?” I asked, immediately sinking back into the whirlpool of my faults that spun around in my mind earlier. “I shouldn't have done that. Not after the day you’ve had,” He said, so quietly I would have missed it if we weren’t so close to each other. “Oh.” I whispered and leaned back. “I’m sorry. If you don’t want-“ “Oh, I want,” he interrupted. “I really, really want. Just, not tonight. I want to be sure this is really something you want.” I brought my eyes to his, hoping I would see something there to show me he wasn’t just trying to let me down easy, and nodded. “Hey,” he said pulling me back to him. He pressed his lips to mine again. Gently, as he did before, but he didn’t deepen the kiss this time. He just pressed his lips to mine for several seconds before he pulled back, tucking my hair behind my ear as he did. Then, he tucked me into his side, just as I’d wanted to do earlier, and held me against him. “Why don’t we just watch a movie or something,” he suggested as he picked the TV remote up from the side table.
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