#magic ones

Xander really didn’t get out much these days. In fact, he spent most of his time either sleeping, closed up in his room, or curled up on the couch under a blanket while staring at the tv, though not really watching it. He felt like he’d lost a part of himself that night. A piece he just couldn’t get back, but a piece he desperately needed. He was still having nightmares, still waking up in a cold sweat after the memory of watching the life fade from her eyes crept into his mind to haunt him. Asher had been doing what he could for him. The poor guy even had to remind Xander to feed. But he knew Asher was growing tired of having to take care of a grown man. He had to have been. It was likely one of the reasons why the taller boy constantly encouraged Xander to get out of the apartment, even if it was just for a small walk around the block. Something about how the fresh air would be good for him.

He more often than not refused. The odd time he’d find himself out on the streets, but it was never for very long. That sensation of suddenly being boxed in while simultaneously having the air sucked from your lungs as panic set in always had him right back inside the apartment, locked up in his room where he felt some amount of security. He was getting a little stir crazy, however. He needed to get out. And when Asher finally lost it on him a little bit for moping around, it was the last push he needed to actually go somewhere instead of just wandering around in front of the building.

Ten months...That comment kept playing over and over in his mind as he wandered down street after street. Asher said it had been ten months since she died, and that Xander needed to start healing, that he needed to start getting over it. He said it didn’t matter how sad Xander was anymore, that she wasn’t coming back and he needed to accept it. They didn’t talk about her much. He knew it was difficult for Asher too. She meant something to the both of them. Whether she liked it or not, she brought them all together, made them stronger, made them a family...

Jesus...He needed to stop thinking about it. It was too much. If he kept thinking about her, he’d surely turn tail and run right back home. 

      They had been enemies ever since they were young. Pushing each other down on the playground eventually led to fights in the hallway at year twelve. No one never really knew why they despised each other so much, though-- maybe they didn’t despise each other much at all. Lydia had started to gain feelings for him around year nine in school, their daily arguments were fun to do and she never got tired of them. Though, she had always had this feeling that he would never like her, no one liked her because of her aggressiveness towards people. She was nice to be around once you get to know her but she always put these walls up to hide who she really was, so therefore, she came off as very aggressive towards people.

They had both grown up and had gone their separate ways, Lydia had gone to business school to become the CEO of her father’s international trading empire and she didn’t know what had become of Keskde, and she honestly didn’t care. Her father had spoken to her about meeting with a rival company’s CEO so she immediately said she would handle it and now here she was, face to face with Keskde once more. 

A huff escapes her as she walks into the room, sitting down at the large meeting table. It’s just the two of them, and she is just staring across at him, an odd feeling in her stomach. Did she still have feelings for him? She crosses her arms over her chest, “So, why did you want to meet with my company?”