Safe For Now

[Sterling]

Sterling liked Raffe. He was nice. She sorta glared at her cousin. He was annoying. But she put the plant on the counter where indicated and climbed up on the bar and smiled. "It's quiet in here. I don't think it always is, huh?"

A woman rushed into the room wearing leggings and a tank top that nearly fell off her shoulders to reveal her bra and Sterling couldn't help but stare. But she was angry and that made her look down, until she almost swore which made her eyes snap to the women manhandling her cousin - bout time someone did, Sterling thought to herself with a smile plastered on her face.

"Yeah, what did you do?" Sterling asked, "It's not like losing an arm happens easily."

The woman looked at her sitting on the bar stool and glowered at her and Sterling lost the smile she had. "And who is the girl?" She said just as sharply.

[Nox]

Sterling put the lotus on the counter and Nox watched Raffe. He just wanted to go be alone - with Raffe, he hoped. But the pain was making his head spin.

Julianna grabbed him and yelled and the spinning made everything swirl. The hunger inside grew to a crescendo and Nox growled. the ow and gutteral sound made him step back too fast and he slammed into the bar rail and his back jammed into the bar itself and he collapse to the ground without the hand to catch him. "Fuck!" came out before he could stop himself.

Juls rushed to him and Nox shook her off. "I'm fine. Important things first, my arm later. This is Sterling, she can weild the power of the gods - channel is what you all call it right? She's like you. You need to teach her. She used the power earlier unknowingly and I don't know how many times she has done it before." His voice sounded pleading. Which was better than pain filled or hungry with things he couldn't control. Nox sat there in a heap on the floor leaning against the bar and let Juliana process the information and Sterling too.

[Raffe]

He laughed a little, though it came out of his throat all scratchy. “Ah, no,” he agreed. “Not usually this quiet.”

Juliana swept in like a hurricane. Raffe winced at how abruptly she grabbed Nox, and half slipped down from his perch with some fool-brained notion to intercede -- by which point Nox was already heaped on the floor, and Juls attempting to scoop him up. He touched her shoulder gently, though for a moment longer his attention remained on Nox and the tightness in his voice. Pain. Natural and obvious and normal. Let it just be pain.

“Long story,” he said to her. Concern flickered his brow. He didn’t try to hide that. “We just came from the hospital.”

His gaze turned to the kid at the bar. “This is Juliana, Sterling. She can help you work out if you’re what Nox says you are. No harm in trying, right?” At least he supposed she could do that. Oriena welcomed channelers like they were collector’s items, but he knew little of how it was all supposed to work.

[Sterling]

The woman who stormed in to the room looked as confused as Sterling felt. Her words echoed her own her head.

"Wait, how do you know she can channel?"

Sterling thought about it how did he know? "Fire popped up. I did that?" Things started to replay in her head. Nox said she could die. "I could die? Sterling's heart started to race and panic set in. "I don't want to die."

[Nox]

Nox leaned his head against the bar at all the questions being asked. He sighed as he looked up at them, Sterling was starting to panic. "Sterling, you need to calm down. If Juls helps you everything will be fine. But you need to listen to me." Nox was calm in his voice. He knew how this felt. How the end of life could trigger a melt down. "Aurora used to tell me that the power was soft and bright and that if you succumbed to it's power you would be happy and content and the joy of life all around you."

Nox sighed. "It's not like that for me. It's a torrent of power, surrender would tear me to shreds. It's about control and iron will. But you can do this Sterling." Nox tried to get up. He wasn't situated right to use more of his body than his arms to get started. His body was sore and the pain was deep even more so after the fall. Nox wanted to get up but he was frustrated and growled. "Juls please just help her learn, I can explain everything else later. When Sterling's parents get here they are going to take her and we lose this chance. Please." Nox begged.

Juliana sighed, "I don't know what to do."

Nox sighed. "Tell her how you do it. What it feels like. Just talk to her." Nox tried again to get up and failed miserably. He growled in fustration.

[Raffe]

Sterling began to panic, and the fear in her voice coiled tight in Raffe’s chest. Nox offered explanation but not much comfort, and Juls seemed overwhelmed. Raffe ruffled a hand over his hair and tried to pull the situation together. He really wished Nox would stop trying to push himself back up; frustration was clearly doing little for his patience, but like he said himself: priorities.

“You won’t die,” he said simply to Sterling. “Because we aren’t going to let you. Not any of us, okay? Kallisti is family. You’re part of that now.” He shifted some of the bar stools as he spoke, making room and eyeing Juls with his best please humour me eyes. Then he plopped himself down next to Nox, briefly squeezing the other man’s knee. His other hand pat the space on the floor beside him. “I guess we’re doing this down here. Come on.” He offered a grin. Pain stabbed his throat, and the hoarse whisper of his voice was scraping thin. Hopefully Juls would follow suit, even if he imagined her rolling her eyes before she did so. “I’ve seen what the girls can do,” he continued to Sterling. “It’s pretty cool. Try and clear your mind a little, that always helps me when I’m learning something new. I’ll even do it with you.”

[Sterling]

Everyone was talking too much. "I need to go home." she whispered but before she could bolt she saw a glow around Juls which made her stop. "What are you doing?"

Nox whispered even as he was laying his head against Raffe. "She's using the power."

Juls sat down in front of Raffe and took Sterlin's hand and tugged gently. "I think Nox is having a bad day, why don't we all sit like Raffe suggests. I don't think I'll be a very good teacher, but I'll try."

Sterling sat down with Juls next to Raffe. He seemed to be the most sane of the bunch. Nox seeming to think so too. "Okay."

"So I feel this warmth, a glow sort of in the back of my head. I used to have to dance to be able to touch the source, but now I just have to think about dancing and then I can touch the source."

Nox interrupted. "If you learn on your own everyone has a block, if you know, you know you don't have to do that little trick. Aurora and I had to hold hands to do it, but when we forgot who we were we didn't exactly forget what we could do, but we forgot we had to hold hands. So you don't need to think about dancing Sterling."

Juls glared at him and he clamped his mouth shut like a child and leaned his head back against Raffe. Juls looked back at Sterling with a smirk, "He's such a know it all."

Nox whispered. "Yes. Yes I am." He was smiling and that was more than he had been doing before.

"It's like the sun, you absorb the light, and it takes you with it."

"How?"

"It's a light just out of sight."

"What? How can it be just out of sight."

"Nox, who's teaching here." Juls glared at Nox again. "Go away. Let me talk to Sterling alone."

Sterling couldn't help but snicker.

[Nox]

Juls told him to go away. He would like to go away but the prospect of getting up was an audious task and Nox looked helplessly at Raffe who without a word offered him a hand and Nox took it gratefully. "Fine, we'll wait for your parents by the front door."

Sterling looked a little miffed that Raffe was leaving, but Nox hadn't let go of the other man's hand as he started walking away. His food and the plant sat on the bar and they'd have to come back for it later even if they weren't done, but Sterling was curious now, he wanted to make sure she learned and even if he thought he was helping he knew he wasn't. It was night and day the two sides of the power.

Nox lead them through to the front door, there was plenty of privacy for them, and for the girls in the lounge. Nox let out a soft sigh of relief. They were finally alone. The day had been hard. Too hard, almost more so than the hunt itself. There was still so much to do. He had messages to check, he needed to send some too, get in touch with, so much to keep in mind, but first Raffe - Sterling was down so he could focus on the next important person.

They were alone in the dimly lit room and Nox stopped in the middle and put his hand on the back of Raffe's neck. "I know you have a lot of questions and I will answer every single one of them. But I have something I want to say first." Nox stepped closer to Raffe with a smile. "That was a very dumb thing to do, stepping in front of me trying to defuse the situation." Nox bit his bottom lip and dropped his gaze, his voice was softer when he said the next thing, his eyes flicking back up to meet Raffe's, "But thank you for trying, it was stupid, but no one has done that for me." Nox leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Raffe's lips in thanks, in comfort, in so many things. There were lingering thoughts of the hunger beneath but Nox kept those firmly in place - unwanted, he wanted to show Raffe what he meant. And if he said to fuck off he would, but there had not been any such impressions the entire day - not even when bullets were flying at Raffe's head.

[Raffe]

Raffe puffed out a whole chest full of air once they were out of earshot, and followed quietly to the tug of Nox’s hand. He didn’t much relish meeting Sterling’s parents. It was not likely to go well.

Nox stopped him midstride. He blinked a little as his thoughts pulled back into his body, and gave what he was quite aware was a foolish grin for the baldness of his own stupidity. Though he at least looked a little contrite too. It was all a bit of a blur now, much as his memories of interceding with Kasun; fantastic ideas at the time, but quickly unravelling to less impressive in hindsight. He’d trusted Nox’s power to protect him, truth told, but it seemed a poor thing to say just now, and he rather didn’t want to break the spell of the fingers caressing the back of his neck. The admonishment was somewhat expected; the sincerity of the thanks less so. Surprise fluttered across his expression as Nox drew closer. His kiss was sweet. 

“You’re only going to convince me to do it more often with a reward like that you know.” The words were quiet, even moreso than usual; his scar really did hurt. He was mostly joking, but he was thinking vaguely about that warning too, though not enough to pull away. Kallisti would be dangerous with or without Nox here, the way Oriena was going. He cupped Nox’s jaw with his palm and pressed his forehead close. Glad the man lost his arm rather than his life. Trying not to think about poison. He captured the kiss again.

[Sterling]

Juls coached her. Her voice was soft and quiet but Sterling didn't see any light. She growled softly as she tried.

"Don't try so hard. It's there, if Nox says you can do this, you can. He's can feel us channeling. So he knows, even if you don't. Beleive in yourself Sterling."

"That's easier said then done, he whips about this so-called power like it was another appendage."

Juls chuckled and shook her head. "That's an image I really don't want kiddo. But quiet your mind. Seek the sun. It's there. It will find you. Close your eyes maybe it'll be easier. And less distracting." She leaned in and whispered to Sterling. "Raffe's a little too old for you and I'm pretty sure he's smitten with Nox."

Sterling laughed, "No accounting for taste there." She rolled her eyes. "My cousin is a bit too bossy for my taste." And her was her cousin after all. But she did as Juls suggested and quieted her mind and closed her eyes. She thought about going to the beach that one summer. How the sun was warm and the smell of the ocean made her happy. They'd never been back - Mom's trip was a one time deal. And they lived in Moscow the most land lock place in the world surrounded by. And it was cold.

Sterling felt the light on her face and she opened her eyes. Nothing but Juls waiting face greeted her. It was confusing. She growled again and closed her eyes. This was going to take a long time at this rate, how did Nox and Juls do it so easily.