Chapter 36:

We made our way back to his room, as he packed a quick bag, along with hooking both of his swords to his bag, before sheathing every single one of his daggers into the sewn-in sheaths along the ribs of the armored vest he pulled on over his short-sleeved undershirt. 

"You do realize that we're just going to a little border village, right? Not to war?" I questioned as I watched him finish by strapping two more sheathes onto his thighs. 

He just shrugged, throwing me a rogue smile as I raised an eyebrow at him. "You obviously haven't learned enough about me yet, princess. Just because we're going to a little village doesn't mean a damn thing. Personally, I would rather go back out onto the front line rather than find myself anywhere near another little village ever again, and I'd be dead before I ever walked into one of them with you unarmed. Even if it is purely for the intimidation factor alone." 

"I honestly don't think it's actually possible to truly unarm you, Xavier." I couldn't help but to grin at him as he handed me my swords. "You're just as much of a weapon with or without those knives, but I will warn you, they don't particularly like soldiers around there too much." 

"That's all the more reason to be armed. Like it or not, we are soldiers. Plus, I really don't think being armed is going to matter much when I walk in with Bane on my shoulders anyway." His shoulder... Sure, it was scabbed over, but it still hadn't looked too good this morning. Should he even really be going anywhere? Let alone flying with me, where I was going to be thrown back against him. Devon had told him before that if it ripped open, it could cause irreversible damage at this point. 

Quickly sheathing all of my own weapons and buckling my swords over my shoulders for the moment, I went over to him. "How's your shoulder?" I asked as I gently leaned in against his chest, gently trailing my fingertips over the muscular bicep of his injured arm. 

"I'm fine, Ari. It's practically healed. Today was supposed to be my last session on it, but it will be fine to wait. Stop worrying about me, princess. There are far better things to put your mind to." He whispered to me as his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me more firmly against his chest as he leaned down to press a soft kiss to my forehead, but before he could pull back, I reached up, cupping his face as I stood up on my tiptoes to press my lips to his. 

As I pulled back from him, I poked him in the chest as I grinned at him. "You don't get to tell me what I can and can't worry about, Xavier," I told him before turning away and heading for the door, effectively cutting off any argument that he was surely about to make. 

Nova landed up onto my shoulders, and I smiled as her comforting weight settled across them just as I pulled his door open and walked out of the room. Xavier was right behind me, following me out the door, but I still couldn't help but to smile at my little victory. I knew it wouldn't last long, but I would take what I could get. 

He followed as we made our way across the building over to my room, but after everything, coming back over here felt odd. The only thing that kept my feet moving towards the door was the fact that I wanted a change of clothes just in case we had to stay overnight somewhere, and I knew Lexi would be happy to see me. 

"Would you be offended if I asked you to wait out here?" I asked him just as we reached my door, turning to watch his expression as he raised an eyebrow at me. 

He leaned into me as a slow, mischievous grin spread across those lips. "What's wrong, Ari? Are you a little embarrassed about the amount of time that you've spent in my personal room? Or is it more of the fact that your friend already knew about it, considering she was the one who brought your mail to my office?" He whispered to me, and I instantly felt the heat that flushed my cheeks, even as I shook my head at him. 

"No, actually, that's the last thing I'm worried about with them. It's more of the fact that, unlike me, my friends aren't immune to you. You have a tendency to give off some serious fuck everything energy, and this," I looked pointedly at every single knife that lined that sinful body before dragging my gaze back up to the hilts of both his swords showing over his shoulders, and finally to Bane, who was casually draped over his wide shoulders. "Is intimidating to say the least." 

He just gave me that fucking sexy grin that had my whole body heating further before he chuckled at me. "Sure, we'll go with that logic, princess." He tacked on a wink, and I had to look away before my face decided to combust from the heat I felt in my whole face now, but fuck him, he was right, and he knew it. There hasn't been a spare moment for me to actually explain any of the shifts in our relationship with Lexi or Genie, so just barging back into my room after a whole week of being in his room, with the mountain of a man on my heels, would get me far too many questions than I was ready to answer at the moment. 

Once I felt a bit of the heat in my cheek subside, I looked back at him, raising an eyebrow as I eyed him before pointedly looking to the wall behind him. He just gave me another grin, but complied, leaning back against the wall beside my door. 

"I won't be long, I promise," I told him before opening the door and quickly shutting it behind me. 

Lexi and Genie both flew off the bed and all but tackled me in a hug the second I was in the room. "Ari, how are you doing? Are you better now?" Genie asked as it felt like Lexi was attempting to squeeze the life out of me. 

"I was scared, Ari. You were gone for so long." Lexi whispered to me before loosening her grip just enough that I could pull in a long breath. 

"I'm fine now," I told them quickly before Lexi attempted to strangle me again in her excitement. 

"You smell different," Genie whispered, more to herself than to me as she slowly looked me up and down, but that caused Lexi to lean in and take a long sniff of my hair before leaning back as she raised one dark eyebrow at me. 

"She's right, you normally use strawberry soap, this one is definitely not strawberry." I just sighed; there really wasn't any way for me to get out of this now.

"Okay, could you not sniff me? That's kind of weird." I told her before gently pushing Lexi back, and heading over beside my bed to grab my bag. "And yes, I probably do smell a little different, considering I've spent pretty much the whole last week in a certain assistant's room, and may have used his soap this morning, so I didn't smell like a latrine. It's a long story, and I honestly don't have time to tell you right now, but I promise I will tell you everything once I get back. I'll only be gone for the weekend at most, and I'll be back in class with you on Monday, but, considering that Xavier is currently waiting rather nicely outside that door for me, I kinda need to hurry. I didn't think you would want him in here at the moment, so I asked very nicely for him to wait out there for me." Even though he would be finding this rather entertaining at the moment. I kept that thought to myself, but couldn't stop the grin that tipped my lips at it. "That letter that was sent for me. It was a formal summons to my home village of Galia for this weekend, and he's my ride there." 

"Oh, I bet he's your ride," Lexi called with a giggle as she wiggled her eyebrows at me. I just shook my head at her, but that only spurred Nova into giggling at me, too. 

'You want him to be.' Nova chimed in, and I just huffed at her, because honestly, at this point, she was entirely right. 'Oh, I know, don't worry. Don't think that I didn't feel it when you were very close to going all the way last night.' That made my entire face flush red once more as she just laughed harder, and I all but buried myself in packing my bag as I tried to hide the fact that I was blushing that badly from Lexi and Genie. 

I made quick work of packing an extra uniform and a sleep gown, just in case we did end up staying over somewhere before all but running out of the room. Xavier just raised an eyebrow at me as I slammed the door behind me to their raucous laughter. 

"Don't say it," I warned as I saw the slow tip of his lips. 

"I don't know what you're talking about, princess." He gave me an amused grin, and I just huffed at him. I wasn't exactly sure how good his hearing was, considering he was a dragon after all, and if Nova was any idication then I knew for a fact that he had just heard every word of my conversations in that room.

I all but ran past him, making my way back down the hall, but it's not like it was hard for him to catch up, and as that amused expression continued to play across his normally stony features, I couldn't help but to shake my head. "Fucking smart ass men," I mumbled under my breath. 

A low chuckle behind me told me that he definitely heard my mumbling, and I grinned. "What's the matter, Ari. Would you rather have me tell you that you could take a ride on me anytime you'd like?"   

I'm almost positive that my heart stopped for a second, and I stopped in my tracks as my whole face flushed red once more. He just grinned a little wider as he took my hand and pulled me the rest of the way out of the building. This man was going to be the death of me.