06 >< Family Bonding Time

LEVI

Fourteen days. That's how much longer I woke up in the middle of the night to Simone drowning. Each night getting worse and worse. She thought I was oblivious to it all, but I was really worried for her. Seemed like heavy PTSD symptoms. I wondered how she survived at all.

Simone would wake up before the sun rose, prepare her sisters for school, go to work, come back at six in the evening, leave at seven for more work then get home at three in the morning. She would sleep soundly until four then have nightmares until 5 and wake up to do it all over again.

And no offence, she looked horrible. Her eyes were red, like, really red. She was constantly zoned out, almost brain dead, her skin paled due to lack of proper eating and sleeping, her hair thinned out ......... and I liked her hair a lot. She lost weight visibly. I'd known her for a month and she aged ten years within that month.

However, she somehow managed to stay happy around her siblings. Joyful in fact. She was never busy for them, always played games with them, tended to them when they were hurt.

You could see she was suffering ......... but she was doing it for her sisters. And she loved every minute of it. That was true love, literally, and I would be exaggerating greatly if I said it didn't touch me or that it didn't extend to me.

I was recovering perfectly and I could move as I wanted without getting fatigued easily.

"Hi Simone." I said to her as I helped her prepare dinner for her siblings.

"Hey Levi," she looked up at me before pausing, "........ you've lost weight." she said "are you ok?"

I could see the gears turning in her head, mentally blaming herself for not having the money to buy enough food to feed me and her sisters. Panic and fear and ........ terror crossed her features.

"I'm fine." I said, bumping her to the side with my hip as I took over cutting the vegetables from her "no offence, but you look worse. Like you crawled out of a dumpster fire." at that, she burst out laughing and went to stir the pasta.

A small smile lingered on her lips as she looked down and continued what she was doing. Simone was a great cook, and so were her siblings. She was an amazing person.

"You're staring." she said looking up and and catching my eyes, a little twinkle shone in hers.

"Really?" I said handing over the veggies as she lowered the heat on the pasta.

"Today is the day I teach you how to do this." she said, referring to me cooking vegetables.

"I'm sick." I said, trying to stall.

"Sure you are." she jabbed back sarcastically.

We spent the next 15 minutes standing side by side as she showed me how to make a perfect accompaniment to pasta. I couldn't help but stare at her. I mean, really stare at her. I realised, no matter how she looked, she was still pretty.

"You're staring again." she noted, hip-bumping me.

"I have eyes." I said, looking down at her more intently. "And they will stare." She turned a little red then rolled her eyes.

We sat down to eat dinner. Simone's sisters at the table, she and I at the kitchen island, sharing a heaped plate of pasta together.

"You know," I started, "you can tell me what's wrong right?"

"Its nothing." she lied, looking down to avoid my eyes. I didn't say anything, I just continued looking at her. "fine." she relented, "I just think a lot, you know. I work too hard and I know it, but I can't stop ........ not like I even have a choice right." She paused. "I don't like being poor. If I were all by myself I wouldn't care, but this is not the kind of life I want for my sisters, they deserve better. Then there's you, the mysterious man I saved the other day. I don't even know where any of this is going." she sighed, "I just feel like ......... it might get to a point where I can't handle it. And when that happens......." she paused and put her head in her hands. "and this morning, Raven asked me if she would go college or not. I mean, I really want her to so I said yes. Then she said that I had dropped out of college because I didn't have the money........ which is true. She's going to try to get a scholarship but if she doesn't, I'm afraid I can't sponsor her to school." she groaned, "and I want her to go so bad. She's a genius Levi, she has to go. Its her frickin dream."

"Hey," I said. "you do know I'm going to pay you back for everything right? And that should just about cover Ravens fees."

"You don't need to." she said. I opened my mouth to protest but she shoved a forkful of pasta in my mouth then got up. "I gotta go. Thanks for talking, see you around. Also, you're in charge tonight." and with that, she dashed out of the house.

Raven groaned at her loss of power but was blushing hard. I could tell she overheard our conversation.

"Levi : One. Raven : zero." I called across the room.

The rest of us finished up with supper then Mica and I did the dishes.

"Hey, Levi." She started, "what do you do for a living?"

"Me?" I said, handing her a plate to rinse. "I kill people."

She looked at me incredulously.

"I'm serious." she said, "I mean, really. What do you do for a living?"

"Let me rephrase that then." I said.

I turned to face her, stooped to her level, gave her an iron grip on her shoulder ........ not to hurt her, just so she couldn't escape me. I then gave her a look that dripped malice and murder, the look I gave all my victims before I ended their lives, seeing their lives flash before their eyes as they realised that I was going to be the last thing they saw. I then proceeded to drop my voice a few notes to hell.

"I kill people." I said.

Mica went pale, her eyes wide and her breath came in gasps. Trembling, she dropped the plate she was holding but I plucked it out of the air and set it down.

"Sorry." I said, turning off my murderous self and pulling her toward me when her knees buckled, "I didn't mean to overdo it."

"You wont kill us right?" She asked, her voice shaking.

"Seriously?" I pulled her back to look into her eyes again, zero malice and murder, just pure honesty, "I'd never even hurt you guys. I would kill FOR you. As in, literally." I brushed her hair out of her face, she managed a small smile then blushed.

"Oh ok." She said as we went back to washing dishes.

"If it wasn't for your sister, I'd be dead. So it would be pretty rude if I let you all die."

"Pretty much." she said.

Later on, Raven and I were on bedtime duty. She and I messed around as we prepared Coco and Lila for bed. Mica was holed up in her room reading a book.

"You have any siblings?" Raven asked as we cleaned up the bathroom.

"Nope," I said, "I'm an only child."

"You'd be a cool brother," she said. "But don't let that get to your head. I'm only saying that because Lila adores you. She gives me a huge fuss every night but with you, she's waltzing into bedtime like a pro."

I burst out laughing at that.

"If you looked as handsome as me, Lila would be a walkover." Raven rolled her eyes and hip-bumped me.

"You do that a lot in this house." I said as we headed to their room, "ok people." I said, tucking Coco in. "its time for bed."

"Levi?" Lila said as she let me tuck her in too.

"Yes?"

"Mica said you kill people, why?" She asked innocently.

"Because other people ask me to." I replied honestly, "but don't worry, I only kill the bad guys. Not anyone that looks as cute as you do." she giggled.

"You should tell us a bedtime story," Coco said, "and a real one from your life too. Simone only tells us stories when she's around, but, she's not here a lot and since you're in charge, you tell one."

"Oh yeah. It's protocol for the one in charge to tell the bedtime story." Raven said, getting under the covers with Lila. "and it has to be a story from your life, a real one."

"I don't have any nice stories." I said, sitting on the edge of the bed, "do you honestly think a man who kills people has a flowery life?"

"Its not about that." Mica said, closing her book.

"Yeah." Raven chimed.

"It doesn't have to be a nice one either." Coco said, sitting up, "tell us one where you killed someone."

I squinted at her then looked up at Raven, Raven shrugged.

"I mean," she said. "why not?"

"You approve of this?" I said to her. I wasn't very keen on giving them all the bloody and gory details of the danger and evil that came with my line of work.

"We all want to hear one." Lila said for once, leaping out of her bed and into the air.

She did that a lot around me. She would just jump and let me catch her mid-air before she slammed into the ground. Like a constant trust fall, and she loved risking her life every single time.

"Its pretty scary you guys," I said, leaning back and cradling Lila. "I don't want Simone to come yell at me for giving you nightmares."

"She wont, just start already." Mica whined.

"Ok then" I said, choosing my most boring version. I chose to water it down even more just to be sure. "want to hear about how I took down some huge crime gang? Their leader was some fat guy who couldn't get up from his wheelchair."

"Really?" Coco said.

"Yes really." I said.

"Well hell yeah." Mica said.

I began to tell the story of how I trained for the job, how I snuck into his empire at 16 and waited for six months to get close to him. I left out most of the gory details on the jobs I did for him though. Then I told them about how I killed him by stabbing him with a pencil in the throat first.

"....... like John Wick?" Mica interrupted. "I like John Wick, but Simone never lets us watch."

"Yes, like John Wick." I said, "and Simone is right to keep you away from such movies before you're twelve, but actually, human necks are pretty hard to pencil stab so I ended up with lots of blood and yellow fat on me."

"Gross." Lila squirmed.

"Not really," Coco said, leaning against Raven. "I've done more disgusting things."

I smirked as I let Coco have her moment. She had no idea how much that shook me when t happened, my dreams were plagued for weeks.

"Well how did you get away with it then?" Raven said, being the practical one. "I mean, it's not like his guys would just let you off the hook right?"

"Patience children," I said. "well, I did get stabbed a little."

"Really?" Coco said.

"Can I see?" Lila added, looking like she was going to die with curiosity.

"No you cannot see," I said. "its not pretty."

"Oh come on Levi." Mica whined.

I rolled my eyes and pulled up my shirt sleeve to show them a thin white scar that ran in a circular pattern. From the top of my shoulder going inside under my armpit then coming back out and going right across my bicep.

"Wow." Coco said.

"Did it hurt?" Lila asked, tracing it with her finger all the way around.

"Of course it did." Raven said, rolling her eyes at her little sister.

I laughed then continued to tell them how I finally escaped and went to a different area. By the time I was done, Lila was snoring loud in my arms, sitting in my lap with her hand in mine and her head on my chest.

Raven was leaning against the wall with Coco in her lap, both of them asleep and Mica had lay down and curled up with her glasses on, she needed contacts. I could see why Simone loved them, they were an adorable team, each of them having each others backs.

I put them all to sleep properly then headed to my room. I pulled my shirt and pants off, opting into a pair of shorts then got under the covers. The bed smelled nice, like lemon ...... like Simone. I fell asleep then woke up again when I heard her come through the door a few hours later.

She put her stuff away and I heard the soft padding of her feet as she went to check on her sisters. She then came into her room and changed out of her slacks and tuxedo shirt, letting her hair down for some air.

She came back out in a pair of pyjama shorts and a tank top. I sat up and watched her ......... which I probably shouldn't have done seeing as my eyes began to trail all over her body. I stopped myself, keeping in mind that I couldn't use Simone like that. It wasn't going to happen.

"Hey," she said yawning and rubbing her eyes as she pulled the covers aside and got into bed. Her skin was cold. "sorry I woke you."

"You didn't wake me," I said, pulling the blanket under her chin.

"You stayed up?" She asked.

"No." I said as she curled up, facing me. "don't ask questions, just sleep. You're tired."

"How were my sisters?" She asked, prying her red eyes open, "sorry I dumped them on you for babysitting."

I managed a soft smile.

"They were great. We had a bedtime story together."

"Really?" She said, placing an arm on top of the blanket.

"Yeah. I had no idea Coco liked John Wick until today." I said, earning a smile from Simone as her eyes drooped.

"Thank you for looking after them." she said, "night."

"Night." I respond, watching her fall asleep before going to sleep myself.

In the early hours of the morning ....... again, Simone started to have her nightmares. This time, I flung an arm around her waist and pulled her towards me, loosely spooning her so we could share body heat. Her skin was still cold. However, she didn't realise it was me touching her so she continued shaking, breaking out into a cold sweat.

"Simone," I whispered in her ear, pulling her closer so she was almost up against me "its ok. I got you. It's me, Levi. You're safe."

She registered this and relaxed a little but not completely so in had to continue saying stuff to her, coaxing her to peace until she finally stopped shaking and got back to soundly sleeping.

At that point, I probably should have let her go but she felt so small and vulnerable, like she needed me, so I couldn't bring myself to do it. Also she moulded my body perfectly, matching my position and planes bend for bend. Literally like a key and lock. I pulled her closer, inhaling her sweet lemon scent before getting pulled under myself.