20 A Little Surprise

Like always, her name and physical appearance were the same. She had looked at herself in the mirror and saw that she was indeed wearing a nightgown that reached her mid-thigh. Her hair was still long and as she was checking her back, she saw a little tattoo of a bird on her shoulder.

She frowned, not able to remember if it had always been there or not.

She left the bedroom when she didn't find anything interesting there, noting that the sound of water was still coming from the bathroom. She knew that someone was there but wasn't ready to see who.

Diana walked to the living room to inspect it and saw the TV screen was on. She stopped to stare at it, how long had it been since she watched the news?

She saw a man reporting an announcement while standing outside a building. The sound was off, so she couldn't hear anything, but from the look of horror on his face, she knew that it wasn't anything good.

From the screen, she could see police sirens going off and the force rushing people toward somewhere. The banner that appeared in front of the news person said 'Unsafe ground and-'

The screen suddenly was switched off and two damp hands circled around her. She stood frozen as she felt a weight on her shoulder and drops of water falling on her skin. The arms that held her were colored with different tattoos and a familiar warmth emitted from the person behind her. She couldn't help but feel uncomfortable as both of their skin made contact.

"You should be sleeping by now," his voice was close to her ears and he playfully rubbed his face in the crook of her neck. She tried pushing his hands away, but he probably misunderstood her act for playing, because he held her closer and chuckled. "You can't run away," He flipped her around to meet him.

In front of her stood Elliot in all of his glory. His dripping hair was stuck on his face and despite his narrowed eyes, looking deep, one can see a very warm and content look on his face and the lifted corners of his mouth only brought out a playful look into the mix.

The Elliot standing in front of her was completely different from any Elliot she had met until now.

He looked very happy and lazy here that she almost forgot he was the same person.

When he saw her dazed look, he only sighed playfully and flicked her forehead. "There you go again, traveling somewhere in your head without taking me with you." His fingers held her cheeks. "What is my queen thinking now?"

She was thinking of how she could escape his honey trap.

-----

Diana tried soothing the nerves that took over her stomach and was spreading all over her body, but when she couldn't see her friends anywhere around her, she felt that it was only getting worse.

She felt extremely lonely in the crowds of people around her as some were hugging and greeting people that they hadn't met since the holidays, and as other looked like they knew where to go and already had a purpose.

When her friends had finally arrived on campus, she couldn't help but throw herself on them. "Why are you late?!" She whined.

She heard them laugh as she playfully rubbed her face in theirs. "Calm down, kitty!" they pushed her away and grimaced jokingly. "We came as fast as we could. There is still an hour for our classes to begin anyway." Both of them laughed as she puffed her cheeks playfully.

"So? We need to walk around and discover where everything is before the classes start!"

One of her friends held her shoulders close and started walking toward one of the buildings in front of her. "Relax, you are only making yourself look new," Her friend was right, she saw how a few were glancing at them now and she felt a blush creeping in. "And why are you nervous anyway? Didn't you choose this university because of someone?" She slapped her friend away when she saw her teasing look.

"Who are you even talking about?" She tried acting oblivious.

"Oh, stop bluffing. I bet you were stalking him on his social media last night." Both of her friends seemed to team up on her right now. "You even entered the same major, hoping he would be your senior and help you-" Diana put her hands on her ears and blocked their words as she walked away, her eyes were closed.

"I can't hear you."

"Diana-"

"No, I can't hear you!"

"Dia-" someone put their hands on hers, startling her. She snapped her eyes open.

"Can you hear now?"

----

The feeling of the brush running through her hair was calming. She felt its gentle bristles untangling her long hair into its original silky form. She would like to relax here if it wasn't for the presence of Elliot fingers supporting her hair as he brushed it.

She was sitting on a chair, and he stood behind her, smiling gently and taking his task sincerely. She almost didn't take him seriously when he said he wanted to brush her hair but she had a faint memory of him doing this every day as a habit.

He met her eyes in the mirror, and his smile grew wider before hugging her fondly from behind. She almost shuddered. "Is my queen ready to sleep?" he asked.

Her eyes quickly glanced at the bed and her body froze.

There was no way she was going to sleep with him.

He helped her up, but she stopped him from moving anywhere. "Actually, I don't feel like sleeping." He frowned.

"No, no," he continued to drag her body to the bed. "You need to replenish your energy. It is unhealthy. You heard the doctor, he said you needed enough sleep." She narrowed her eyes.

The doctor?

She felt the memory was coming closer to her but didn't reach quite yet. He seemed absolutely determined on getting her on the bed and tucking her in while saying something about how it was getting colder these days.

During all of that, she was stiff as a stick but he ignored all of that and laid near her, almost making her jump in surprise.

He looked at her shocked face. "Babe?" When she saw his surprised eyes, she reminded herself to act whatever part she was acting. For some reason, she couldn't get her memories back fast enough.

As they both laid there, he hugged her from behind closely, spooning her. She chanted to herself to keep calm.

"Come on now, let's sleep," he whispered in her ears as if he was tempting her. She felt one of his hands touch her stomach lovingly, "Our baby needs rest, too."

Diana could feel her face going pale.