Jacob

But even with all that grumbling, he had a smile on his face as he placed a calming arm over Helen and himself fell asleep after a few minutes.

Outside the door . . . .

Jacob slowly got up from his position sitting with his back to the door, where he had been for the past two hours.

Without making a sound, because he suspected that Joseph was still awake, Jacob slowly climbed down the stairs and went into his own room. He made sure that both the door and the window were firmly closed, blew out the candle and got into bed.

It was only then, under the covers, that Jacob finally allowed all those tears that had been stinging the back of his eyes since this morning to break through. And boy did they break through. Jacob actually thought that they would never stop as he lay there gasping for breath. But slowly but surely his breathing became even, the tears stopped, and Jacob fell asleep with dried tears on his face.

The next morning . . . . .

Jacob woke up with a start. He rubbed his eyes and looked out the window. There was barely any light outside. "It must be really early." he muttered as he got up and stretched, feeling all the dried tears on his face.

"I need my friends." Jacob said with a shake of his head. He had realized that last night, when he felt like he would explode, and he hadn't had anyone to talk to. Not knowing what else to do or who else to talk to, Jacob took a bath, dressed, and headed towards the recovery ward.

In the recovery ward . . . .

Aria blinked a few times as she woke up. Though she would have liked to shake her head or stretch, blinking was the only thing she could manage right now to erase sleep from her eyes.

She cast her eyes towards the window and groaned. Now that she was off sleeping potions, Aria's sleeping pattern had gone back to normal, which meant that she had woken up just about an hour after dawn, still a goof two or three hours before breakfast.

Normally Aria would have utilized this time for training, but after what Miss Anhao had told her yesterday, Aria decided not to exert her body. "I suppose I could pass the time with a book." Aria muttered to herself, and then once again groaned the next second. Now she was faced with the choice of either bending to get a book, or reaching out with her hands. Both of which Miss Anhao had forbidden her to do.

Utilizing her troublemaker side, Aria glanced at the topmost book on the pile Helen had left yesterday, and it neatly flew from the table to Aria's bed.

"And how do you plan to keep it afloat? You know Miss Anhao will kill you if she saw you using bending." Aria dropped the book in horror upon hearing a voice. She winced when the heavy book landed on her shoulder, happy that it had not landed on the arm she had broken.

Aria waited for the pain to subside before she spoke. "What are you doing here!?" she asked, playfully narrowing her eyes at Jacob, who had taken a seat beside her bed.