Anton didn’t understand. He had killed the man to protect Mirella Jove, why was he being punished for it? The doctors had found out somehow. They were going to take him away to another facility, one with better security so he would be unable to kill anyone else. He’d tried to explain to them that it had been a demon and he had been perfectly justified by killing the guy, but the doctors hadn’t understood.
Anton had gone to his room and sat on the bed, sighing and feeling completely depressed. He looked up at the alien seated on his desk, watching him through dark eyes.
“I thought this was my mission,” he said dismally. “I thought this was where I was supposed to be.”
The alien shook its head slowly and the pointed toward the window. Anton understood. They were going to take him. He didn’t want to leave. He felt needed to be there for Mirella Jove. He couldn’t leave her there without anybody to love on her. Because he realized that he did love her. He needed to tell her somehow …
He stood and walked over to his desk, getting out a piece of paper and writing down:
Mirella Jove. I’m sorry this is coming so late, and especially right now. I have horrible timing, I know. But I have to go. The doctors found out about me killing that demon. I don’t know how, but they did. And they’re going to take me away to another place. But the aliens are going to take me instead. So I’ll be safe with them. They’re going to give me a new mission, but I will never forget you.
I feel like I failed you, because I couldn’t make you better. I wanted so badly to make you better. Because I … I love you, Mirella Jove. I know I should’ve said something before, but I didn’t know how to tell you. I wasn’t sure of it until now. It sucks. I know, but there’s no way around it now.
Please don’t give up just because I’m leaving. I’ll write to you, okay? I don’t know how alien postal service works, but I’ll write. I promise. I want you to get better. Get better for Flynn, okay? And for yourself. You’re so beautiful, you deserve to be happy and healthy.
I love you.
Your knight,
Anton
He folded up the paper and put Mirella’s name on it, slipping it into his pocket. He turned to the alien then and nodded, blinking back the burning sensation in his eyes that felt like tears almost. They were tears, but he couldn’t break down just yet. He had to be worthy of the mission so the aliens would take him.
“I’m ready,” he said to the alien.
The alien nodded once.
And Anton closed his eyes.
.
Someone come cuddle with me.
Can I come cuddle?
Mirella smiled and nuzzled against his chest, taking a deep breath. “Maybe I’ll actually sleep tonight, instead of smoking like the last couple nights that I’ve been sleepless.” She laughed quietly, her thin frame close against his. “You’re so warm.” She whispered softly, as her fingers drew random patterns on his chest.
“Yeah, you really need to quit it with the hard drugs,” Anton said with a quiet laugh of his own. “It’s not like you have much tolerance being so tiny right now.” He shook his head, really hoping she never got as messed up as she had the other night when Owen had taken her back here and ended up beating her. His blood still boiled with anger when he thought about it, and he had to stroke her hair gently to get himself to calm down again.
Mirella nodded and took a deep breath. “I’m cold..” She whispered softly, as she kissed his cheek. “can you just…like hold me?” She bit her lip. “Like..cuddle with me? I really miss the cuddling. I mean, the sex was amazing…is amazing, but right now, I just want to be close to you. We will get to sex later, if you want of course, and now I’m rambling aren’t I?” She blushed slightly, a soft laugh coming from her lips. “Will you be my teddy bear tonight?”
“Yeah, baby, of course,” Anton said with a nod, moving to lay down against the pillows, bringing her down with him as he kept his arms around her. He sighed softly and rested his chin on her hair, not really feeling like sex anyway. Her thinness kind of turned him off, and he was afraid he’d hurt her if he did anything anyway.
“No, no not that just like…” She took a deep breath. “Like not fighting, or not talking, or not seeing each other…just ‘regular’ relationship…you know?” She bit her lip. “I’m not that breakable Anton…I mean…sure I bruise really really easily….but that’s nothing. I’m not going to snap in half or anything like that. I promise I won’t. Hell this isn’t even the smallest I’ve been…” She cleared her throat quietly. “You care more about me now? Really?” She tilted her head slightly and pulled his arms around her more, to keep her warm.
“Well, yeah. I mean, before I cared about you because you were all vulnerable and needed someone,” Anton said softly. “But now I care about you because I like you, you know? It’s a little different. I don’t know how to explain it exactly, but there you go.” He shrugged slightly, not entirely sure what his feelings for her were exactly. But he didn’t want to try and pinpoint anything in that moment.
Mirella smiled and nodded. “I’ll forgive you…if you forgive me? Sound good?” She bit her bottom lip softly, “I mean, I was pushing you away. I was pushing everyone away. I chose to turn to drugs because I was too much of a baby to put everything down and just deal with it. I just…let’s backtrack a few days and forget everything bad. I want the puppy love we were in when we got together in the beginning. Sound good?”
Anton sighed softly, knowing he couldn’t lie to her. “I don’t know, Mirella Jove. I mean, things aren’t the way they were in the beginning. I’m just … I’m afraid to break you or something. I want things to go back to how they were too, but I don’t know if they can. It doesn’t mean I don’t care about you the same way anymore, because it’s not that. If anything I care about you more than I did before. It’s just … it’s going to be different.” He swallowed, watching her and hoping she didn’t get upset.
Mirella smiled slightly and looked into his eyes, wanting to say how much she had fallen in love with him, but from the last experience she knew that was a bad decision so she settled for leaning against his shoulder. “I missed you so much.” She whispered softly, running her fingers through his hair idly as she spoke. “I’m sorry I was being an idiot..”
“It’s okay, Mirella Jove,” Anton said with a small smile. “I was pretty much being an idiot too. I mean, I was hiding from the problem, instead of coming to you. And I’m sorry. I should’ve been here for you, and I wasn’t. Please forgive me?” He bit his lip gently and looked at her pleadingly, just wanting to start over and forget he’d never abandoned her.
“I-Okay.” She nodded and kissed him back as her fingers relaxed on his chest. Her lips moved slowly against his, the tears still falling from her eyes. She was scared. Scared of gaining weight, scared of being fat, but nothing- not even dying came close to the fear that she had of losing Anton. She pulled away from him slightly, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “Thank you.” She whispered softly.
“Anything for you, Mirella Jove. Anything, you know that,” Anton said softly, biting his lip gently as he watched her face, wishing there was some sort of magic spell that would make her well again. He thought about unicorns, and how they were supposed to have some sort of healing power. But he had no idea where he was supposed to find a f—king unicorn in Michigan of all places. Besides, everyone knew that unicorns lived in Ireland and Scotland and those places.
