Anchored

They had been in this place for less than a week and Elodie already loved it. She wasn’t locked up anymore, free to roam everywhere she pleased, free to do whatever she wanted. Nevertheless, she spent many hours of her free time in the Captain’s room. Not that she had to. He was still recovering and although he wasn’t eating much, he didn’t seem to feel too bad. The thing was that she had found in reading a nice hobby. Time flew whenever she decided to get lost in the pages of a new book and the villa’s owner had quite a collection.

The Captain’s room was the most silent. He wouldn’t speak nor move from his bed all day long and although she knew he was more of a loner, especially when this weak, she also was aware of the fact that he could’ve used some company, even if just unconsciously. So there she was, sitting on a comfortable armchair in one corner of the room. Her legs were close to her body and the book was lying on her knees. After a couple of hours now, she had found her pattern. She would hug her legs whenever she was reading and then only move one arm to turn the pages in a thoughtless motion. It felt good to feel nothing for once.

Both her days and nights were extremely quiet, but while she spent the former with the captain, the latter were the time that she dedicated only to herself. She had her own room and everyone was taking good care of her so she didn’t really see a reason to go away. Honestly though, she had thought of leaving this mansion and finally be completely free. However, every single time, she ended up reminding herself what happened the last time she decided to go on a journey by herself. She was finally safe there and she didn’t feel threatened anymore. It was a comfortable solution, although she knew it was temporary.

A man’s voice snapped her back to reality. She had a little bit of troubles with linking the voice to a face, but when she realised that the person who spoke was the same man who didn’t utter one word in the past week, she couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, surprised. When the meaning of his words finally made sense in her head, Elodie widened her eyes a little, even more taken aback. ’You mean the book?’ She asked pointing at it. She couldn’t believe that the first thing he was asking her after days of not speaking was to read him a book. In the back of her head, she thought he was cute, though she kicked out that small thought right after she realised it was there.

The way he looked at her when he asked her to read what she was reading out loud for him to hear, was pretty serious. Lost in her thoughts as she was and shocked by his request, she didn’t realise that he really meant what he said and simply didn’t even try to hold back her disbelief. Her reaction was probably too exaggerated, given the fact that he suddenly turned around, almost looking embarrassed and his voice sounded extremely unsure. ”But never mind, it was a stupid request”, she heard him saying before lying down on the bed once again. ’No, no- I mean, of course I can read it’, the redhead stuttered a little. ’I guess it’s hard for you to focus on a book already’, she added, her tone pretty lighthearted, as if she was stating something obvious.

The fact that she didn’t think about him still being in pain made her feel extremely stupid and heartless. She was the one who healed him and knew exactly how long it took her to do that, how many energies she had to spend on it. So why was she now so shocked about the fact that he wasn’t yet used to the pain that he probably felt constantly in his eye? Perhaps even looking at things hurt, she couldn’t even imagine how focusing on those small words would’ve felt. ’Do you want me to come closer?’ This time she asked. After the last time she decided she had to keep herself from doing things without thinking about them first, but it didn’t seem to be working that well now. Maybe she would’ve gained some points back by asking him what he felt comfortable with.

Since that night, the two almost didn’t speak to each other. He clearly wasn’t feeling as talkative, understandably. Whereas she… She simply didn’t have much to talk about. Not with him anyway. In a way, those days felt extremely simple. Maybe from the outside, they would’ve looked like two normal people that were keeping each other company. She was basically in his room all the time and no one really knew that they never spoke to each other. On the other hand though, it felt lonely. She felt lonely again, as she always had been. That’s why she could’ve never turned his request down, no matter how weird it sounded.

In fact, when she thought about it twice, it wasn’t weird at all. He couldn’t do much, he was hurting and had to rest, and using his eyes to read was completely out of the question. Another thing that was out of the question though, was her reading raising her voice tone. She wasn’t up for that and maybe it would’ve been better for the both of them, if she just simply got closer to him. ”If you think you can get comfortable”, he said making her notice that there were no chairs close to the bed, so it was either that or the floor. Elodie also noticed how difficult it seemed for him to simply say ‘yes’ to things. It was as if he didn’t even know the word. A soft grin formed on her lips at that thought, while she closed the book, keeping the page with one finger and made the few steps that kept them apart. She decided to sit down on the floor so that their heads where at the same level and crossed her legs, while leaning her elbows on the edge of the bed. ’Do I start from where I stopped?’ She asked with an unexpected naturalness, as if nothing had happened, as if they were two happy and carefree kids.

Acting like she was with him after all they went through should’ve felt at least a little bit weird, but it didn’t. Not at all. Elodie wasn’t forcing her behaviour, it all came naturally and she wondered if it was because of their short but intense history. She had felt so many things with him in such few days than what she felt with anyone else during the rest of her life. From fear and anger, she ended up worrying for him, feeling sad for and with him and then she felt like she needed to help him. Now he was becoming more and more part of her everyday life and it wasn’t, for once, something that someone else was forcing on her.

Getting up from that armchair and sitting on the floor next to him lying on the bed, was also one of the things that she did without thinking much about it. Once again, naturally. Her elbows were resting on the edge of the bed and the book was right in front of her face when she asked him where did he want her to start reading from. His answer wasn’t what she expected, and furrowing her eyebrows the girl put down the book on the bed. ’Don’t you know how reading is like?’ She questioned him raising an eyebrow and with a slight grin that lifted up only one corner of her mouth. ’I mean, not that you seem much like a reader.’ She then added, resting her chin on her hand which was right over the mattress.

Sitting so close to him, gave her the chance to observe him. Not his movements or his reactions, for once. She didn’t need to know what he was thinking or what he was up to, because she didn’t have to defend herself from him. Instead, Elodie was simply looking at his traits. His sharp bone structure, his amber eye, his tattoos. After all, she had been completely overwhelmed by so many things since she had met him, that she never stopped to just look at him for a while. Not having much contact with human beings throughout her whole life made her curious about how different people looked, so she stared at him, who wasn’t looking back, waiting for his answer.

When that one came, Elodie’s lips formed a small ‘o’ and then she nodded, her head still resting on her hand. There weren’t many emotions behind that reaction and she herself was surprised by it. Her expression was neutral. He simply gave us an information and she noted it down in her head as if it wasn’t a big deal. ’My mother taught me.’ He had just exposed a little bit of himself to her, so she felt that it was fair for her to share a little bit of her story as well. ’I didn’t really need it either though.’ She shrugged a little before finally lifting up her head and picking up the book. ’From where I stopped then?’ She asked pointing at the book that she was now holding in her hands with her chin, slightly smiling at him.

Which part of their relationship was ‘fair’, Elodie still had to know. After everything they’ve been through, the girl should’ve felt at least slightly used, slightly at disadvantage. Yet, she disclosed some things of herself that basically no one knew. She gave him an advantage, but she didn’t think of it like that. She didn’t feel like they were at war, that they needed to be one step ahead of the other all the time. In fact, to her they could’ve finally had a relationship where the both of them were equal to each other.

If he, unlike her,  took it as an advantage, she didn’t know, but she hoped that it wasn’t the case. His reply to her question, came right when her mind was about to shift in a darker place. His smile brightened up his face and, even if just for a moment, Elodie felt her own smile fading a bit. She had never seen him smiling. They didn’t know each other that well, that was true, but that smile on him looked as weird as it looked perfect on his lips. Slightly shaking those thoughts from her head, the girl hid her face in the pages of the book and with a soft voice, started reading for him.