Page 28 of A Dragon's Miracle (Fires of Fate)
Ryan
Finn fell asleep soonafter we were done. I hadn't gotten much shut-eye over the past few days either, but I wasn't sleepy, and so I got up after a while and opened the blinds in my apartment. It wasn't terribly light outside, so I wasn't afraid that I might wake Finn by doing this. As expected, he slept on peacefully while I got myself dressed again.
When I was done, I stepped to the bed and looked at my friend. I hadn't noticed it earlier, in the dark, but he looked like he hadn't slept well the night before.
Was that my fault?
I ran my fingers lightly through the locks of his hair. Silly Finn. Why’d he have to go and crush on someone like me? Some day soon, he would figure it all out. What I'd done and why, and then he would hate me.
I swallowed and pushed the thought aside, because I couldn’t contemplate things like that and keep breathing at the same time. I'd seen what rage looked like on Finn's face earlier, and I didn't ever want that expression to be directed at me.
Better get used to the thought. You know it's going to happen.
But not just now. Not yet. I didn't have to come clean immediately. I'd taken a whole vial of medicine from Jin before I'd left. It wasn’t going to last me forever, but a little while.
For now, I wanted to take care of Finn the way he always took care of me, so I looked through my kitchenette, found steaks in the freezer and threw them into a pan. My friend was going to be hungry when he woke up.
In the end, I believe it was the smell of cooking meat that roused him. “Whassat?” he asked sleepily when I was almost done preparing our dinner. “Smells good.”
“Steak and potatoes,” I announced, making my voice sound as cheerful as I could.
“You dressed,” he observed.
“Yes.” I shot him a look over my shoulder while poking one of the potatoes with a fork. They were perfect, or as perfect as I was going to get them, anyway. “And you should get dressed too. Dinner's almost ready.”
“Aw, you mean I won’t get food if I don’t cover up?”
I turned to take in the sight of him, lying naked on my bed. “You know… if I hadn’t lost my sketchbook, I’d want to draw you like that.”
As expected, he grinned, lifted his arm over his head and struck a silly pose. I’d known he was going to react like that, but I still had to laugh. “You lost your sketchbook?” he asked, lowering his arm again. “That’s too bad.”
“Yeah, but don’t worry about it. I can get a new one.”
“But what about the drawings you already did?”
“Not like they were that good anyway.” I waved Finn off, because I didn’t want to think about the sketchbook too much. What was the point? I’d left it at Jin’s in my hurry to get away, and I wasn’t getting it back. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t the most important thing I’d lost to Jin. “Now dress. I won’t be able to focus on the food with you naked.”
That made Finn chuckle. “Okay then. Message received.” Reaching for his pants, he paused. “I like your drawings, you know? All of them. I’m sorry you lost your book.”
“Thank you.” What else could I say when he was being so sweet? My drawings were decent, but they weren’t great. And anyway, Finn had only caught glances of a few of them. I cringed every time someone caught me sketching. I drew because I found it relaxing, not because I thought I was good at it. But it was nice of Finn to compliment me.
While he got dressed, I divided our meal onto two plates and put them on my small table. “I’m sorry it’s not much,” I said, thinking of the huge portions his mother served. I didn’t have that much food in my apartment.
“It’s fine,” Finn said, dropping into one of the chairs.
I fetched knives and forks for us and took the seat across from him.
“I didn’t know you could cook,” he said.
“Well, I don’t always have your mom to cook for me. Or you.”
“I guess. I could cook for you more often. I mean, I’m not good at it, but I could learn.”
“You don’t have to.” I had to smile, because it was just like Finn to get it into his head that he had to become a master cook. He had a ton of crazy ideas, but most of them didn’t last very long. The only thing he was really passionate about was his music. Speaking of… “Shouldn’t you be at band practice around this time?”
He made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “Zed knows I’m here and I’m sure he’s told Lowen by now. We haven’t really been able to practice lately anyway. They’ll be happy I’m with you. Especially considering we have a show coming up next week.”
“Why would they be happy you’re with me?”
