Stings

After a couple of days, I excitedly drove towards the location that my 'step-sister', Rachelle, sent me.

"Can't we stop by a Rest Stop?" Xes rolled the window down and played with the wind with her fingers. "I want to buy something."

"Sure," I asked Xes to accompany me in her human form because I didn't want to travel for two and a half hours on my own. It's always better to have someone to talk to when driving, something that I had to emphasize to Zee many times before because she kept on sleeping whenever I was driving.

"You're thinking about her again," Xes mumbled, which made me turn to her briefly.

"Huh? What did you say?" The tone of her voice was lower compared to most girls which made it harder to listen to it without admiring it. I've always had a weak spot for girls with deep voices.

She closed the window and shifted on her seat to turn to me. "Zee. You keep on thinking about her. There's not a single day that you haven't thought about her ever since you came here."

"Really? I didn't notice--" I swiftly stepped on the brake pedal when a car cut across in front of us and my arm automatically reached out in front of her to cautiously brace her against the chair. "Sorry. Are you okay?"

She raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "Don't treat me as if I'm fragile. I won't die."

Before driving off again, I glanced at her seatbelt. She obediently put it on earlier only after I told her that we would have a traffic violation if she didn't wear it. "But you can still get hurt in your human form, right?"

She grinned and moved my hand away. "No worries. I heal at the speed of light."

"That's beside the point. Healing fast doesn't mean that you won't feel pain when you get hurt." I gave her a side glance and noticed the smile slowly disappear from her face. "And take it from me, getting smashed against the car hurts a lot."

"Speaking from experience?" She let out a snort. "And just for your information, I know exactly how much it hurts. I was in the same car accident with Arthur, remember?"

Her words puzzled me and made me frown. "You felt his pain back then?"

"I'm his Shadow. Of course, I feel his pain." She returned my frown. "And it's not just his pain. Every sensation and every emotion that he experienced were being channeled to me as well."

"Every sensation?" I didn't know why but that thought made me feel embarrassed. "Please don't tell me that the same thing will happen to us. Is hearing my thoughts not enough? Is there really no privacy with you guys?"

She gave me that look that made me feel dirty and low. It had me thinking that it was a good thing that our involuntary telepathy only works one way. Otherwise, I feel like I would get hurt a lot by her inner thoughts.

Just as she requested, we stopped by a rest area and I went to the washroom while she bought what she needed. We agreed to meet in the car after we're done. But I waited for 20 whole minutes after I came back from the washroom and there was still no sign of her.

I was about to recline my seat when she opened the door and got inside with a bunch of paper bags in her hands. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

"What's all these?" I took the bags from her so that she could put on her belt which she quickly did before retrieving the bags from me.

"Food." She opened one bag and placed the rest on the console between us.

The bags were in my way and I've recently learned the importance of the handbrake so I moved the rest of her food to the backseat. "Why did you buy so much?"

She took a large bite from her corndog. "You're going to a barbeque party. You don't expect me to just watch while you stuff yourself with good food, do you? It would be pure torture. My cravings will drive me crazy."

My eyebrow lifted. "You have cravings? That's a very human-like trait."

"I've had them since we got home from the hospital." She gave me a side glance and took another bite before rolling down the window. "I've never tried the food before on my own. I've only tasted food through Arthur's senses. Is it that weird to want to try them myself now that I'm free to use my human form?"

Her words tugged at my chest and I instinctively patted her head. "Eat. Eat whatever you want. Eat as much as you want. Food is life. How could I let you deprive yourself of that? Should I buy you some apples?"

She glared at me and removed my hand from her head. "You've watched too many anime series. And just for the record, I'm not a grim reaper."

My lips parted in awe because I didn't expect her to know that I was referencing a certain anime when I said that. It wasn't until then that I realized that I was having fun while talking to her.

That realization made me laugh inwardly. "One can never have too much anime. And besides, you're far cooler than any grim reaper."

"Trying to flatter me?" She raised an eyebrow at me.

And I quickly shook my head. "I'm telling the truth. You can read my mind, have gorgeous visuals, change appearances at will, heal at lightning speed, and cross parallel worlds. How can anyone get more impressive than that?"

She suppressed her smile which made her look a lot cuter in comparison to her default serious or derisive facial expression. But the words that came from her lips were still as sharp as I expected. "Geez. You're a really nice person, Art. Is that why you're still a virgin after all these years?"

"Shut up." I clamped my lips into a thin line and drove off without a word.

Did she really have to dump salt in my wound?!