Page 30 of Whispered Warnings: Part One

I nod and grin, “Yeah, but I wasn’t when they met me, and they know that they can trust me. In time, that should extend to you guys.”

I want to add if you stick around but I feel like that would be fishing at this point and I am not that person, so I keep that inside.

“We’ll come,” Evander says. “It’s not like we weren’t going to follow you anyway. If Sully says no, then we will just hang out and wait.”

I raise my eyebrow, “You were going to follow me anyway?”

“Of course we were,” River replies like it was obvious.

Reed clears his throat, gaining my attention, “You died. We watched it happen; you are going to have to cope with us being a bit overbearing for a while.”

A knot of emotion rises in my throat, and I have to swallow it down before saying, “Okay. I can handle that.”

“You say that,” Ransom starts, his voice serious although there is a smile playing on his lips, “but having seven possessive men following you around like lost puppies, is not for everyone.”

I chuckle, although my heart beats harder; I know that it’s because I nearly died, and they are worried about the aftereffects, but I still like it. I think I will find it far too easy to have them around me all the time, and I worry that when they decide that I am all good and they back off, that I’m going to miss it more than I should.

That’s enough of that.

“Anyway, what I was saying was that when I go to the poker game, I can ask Sully and see if he knows anything about it,” I say, changing the subject and yawning again.

“Good idea,” Evander says and then smiles softly, “go to bed before you fall asleep standing up again.”

“Again?” Raiden questions, already sounding amused even though he doesn’t know the story.

“That was one time!” I retort. “Before he starts telling it, I’m off to bed, night guys.”

A chorus of goodnights follows me out of the room, and my cheeks begin to hurt from smiling so widely.

Whispering to Betty, I say, “Makes a difference from just saying it to you, Betty. No offense, but you left much to be desired when it came to conversation.”

Of course, she doesn’t reply, but she never has, and actually, if she started to talk to me now, it would scare the shit out ofme and make me question everything. I gingerly push through my bedroom door, trying really hard not to get anything that’s on me on the door because, gross. As I go to lay Betty and my sword, which I am going to have to name, on the bed, I notice with surprise that the sword is clean.

It shouldn’t be, it was very definitely covered in all sorts of disgusting stuff, and I didn’t see Reed clean it, he didn’t have the time to anyway. It is very definitely squeaky clean; I even lift it closer to my face to inspect it.

“Huh,” I mutter aloud, a self-cleaning sword. That’s pretty fucking neat. Since I am already talking to weapons like a crazy person, I continue speaking out loud and decide to introduce them, “Betty, this my new sword, I haven’t named her yet, but don’t worry I will. Sword, this is Betty. She has saved my life countless times. While I am showering and cleaning up, introduce yourselves.”

Although it is slightly insane to be talking to your weapons, the sword is an enchanted object which means that it kind of might understand me, I’m not really to sure, the lore on enchanted objects is a bit fuzzy, at least it is for humans so who the fuck knows. That is something that I can ask Raiden when we have our research date.

My stomach flutters with butterflies, and I shoot that shit down immediately, I am having to do that a lot at the moment, and I am already over it. Maybe exposure will dull my reaction to them? Like the longer that I spend with them, the less affected I will be by them.

I have a feeling that isn’t going to be the case, but whatever.

“It’s not a date,” I mutter out loud, speaking to the reflection of myself in the huge mirror above the bathroom sink.

Grimacing, I realize exactly how bad I look. I can’t believe that River held me for so long, not that I’m complaining, not even a little bit. There I go again, feeling things I shouldn’t.

Fuck it, I am a grown ass woman, kinda, I’m going to let myself feel what I’m feeling but I won’t act on it unless they do, I am too old to be fucking around with trying to suppress feelings and shit, what the fuck ever. If I am being completely honest with myself, then I have to admit that my attraction and interest in them probably won't last for very long anyway. I get bored very easily, it’s not a reflection on the person that I was interested in, it's me, I get distracted incredibly easily.

With these guys, that means that these feelings of wanting to fuck them until the sun comes up, all of them, individually or as a group, I’m not picky; those feelings will disappear and settle into what they should be, and that’s friendship and teammates.

I have just got to feel what I need to feel and then wait it out.

Easy.

The voices stir, and I choose not to look too much into the reason why they have decided to change the pitch of their murmurings. I just want to get clean and sleep. I start tugging at my clothes and I do mean tugging, most of them are stuck to me in one place or another and I find myself really having to pull in order to get them to come off.

“Ow, shit,” I curse, as I pull off a part on my stomach that is particularly stuck and leave my skin red raw underneath.

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