Page 41 of Fight
Rome chuckles, smiling up at me, “Alright, let’s go and get you fed.”
“This is why I love you,” I reply, hopping up and walking, naked, over to my bag so that I can get some clean clothes out while Rome does the same. I am incredibly glad that I decided to pack extra clothes, but we are getting to the point now that I’m going to have to do some washing soon. Thanks to the nature of what we do, the chances of me being able to wear something more than once is not likely; everything has blood or grime on it.
“That’s the only reason that you love me? Because I feed you?” Rome asks, sounding amused.
Pulling on some pants, I reply, “No, of course not; I love you for many reasons, but feeding me is in the top five for sure.”
Rome bursts out laughing; the sound makes me smile because it's so carefree and nothing like how he used to laugh when I first met him, back then there was always an edge to his laughter that I was desperate to know about but couldn’t ask about because I was pretending to be completely unobservant and innocent, which means even if I had gotten away with asking him without raising suspicions, he wouldn’t have told me the true meaning behind it because he’d want to protect me from the darkness in his past, not knowing that I could handle it and even understand it.
“I love the way that your mind works,” Rome says, pulling me from my thoughts as I finish getting dressed.
“That’s only because you’re not in here with me. If you were, you’d be horrified, most likely.” I reply and then add before I forget, “Oh, I was supposed to talk to you last night, but I kind of fell asleep.”
“You were snoring by the time that I came in,” Rome interrupts with a smirk.
I glare at him jokingly and then add, “You are welcome. Anyway, I was thinking that we should stay at home today and just chill out instead of going up to Rip’s place. From what I can tell about the way that he was speaking, he’s worried about what we might find up there, and I’d feel a lot better if we were all properly rested.”
Rome looks thoughtful for a second and then nods, “Yeah, I think you’re right. To be honest, it’s nearly dinner time now anyway, and just like when we came up here, we don’t particularly want to go exploring up there in the dark. From what I can remember, they liked their traps, and I highly doubt that’s changed. The only difference now will be that Rip doesn’t know where they are.”
“Oh fuck, really? In that case, we should definitely head up tomorrow morning instead. We need to give Rip’s grandparents a call though, and let them know the change of plans, I’m sure they won’t mind, but I don’t want them waiting around for us when they don’t need to be.”
Rome nods and pulls out his phone, dialing his place and clearly having picked up the trick from Ace, put’s it on speaker phone so that I can hear as well; he knows I’ll be asking lots of questions if he doesn’t, so it really does save us time in the long run.
“Hello?” Someone answers, and I don’t know them all well enough yet to be able to tell who it is.
“It’s Rome. I was wondering if we could talk to Hugo and Francis?”
“Of course. Is everything okay?” is the concerned reply.
“Everything is fine; we’ve just had a change of plans and want to make sure that it's okay with them,” I reply.
“I’m sure it will be. Give me a moment, and I’ll go and find them both,” she replies, and I’m still ashamed to say that I have no idea who she is still. I'm going to have to get better at that.
We wait in silence until we hear the phone being picked up again, and Hugo’s voice asks, “Rome, is everything okay?”
“Yes, we were wondering if it would be okay with you and Francis if we checked out your estate to ensure that it's safe tomorrow instead? We all slept in, and we’d like to make sure that we’re at our best just in case there is a threat there. We will go first thing in the morning,” Rome explains.
“Of course, that’s more than fine with us both. I can assure you that we’re all glad that you’re getting some rest; you’ve all been nonstop since you got here; it’s about time you had a day to yourself,” Hugo replies.
We can hear the sounds of Francis’s agreement in the background before her voice comes over the phone, sounding clearer, “We were planning to go with the others to see what state their houses are in; we’re all very curious.”
“I’ll have to warn you; you guys are all going to have your work cut out for you as far as I am aware to restore them back to their former glory, apart from maybe Ace’s place; I think that was pretty much left alone,” I tell her, hoping that they’re all up for a challenge because they definitely have one ahead of them.
“We figured as much.” She replies, “We’re also planning to have a meeting this afternoon about how to fix the town. I think we’re all going to go back into our previous roles since that’s a no-brainer, but we need to earn their trust back as well. Hopefully, some of the older generation remember us and how it used to be, and they can reassure the younger ones that we want to help this town and protect it like we always have.”
“I’m sure that they’ll soon realise that you mean well and actually have their best interests at heart,” Rome replies.
“That’s our hope,” Hugo’s voice comes back on, “plus, we all have friends in the town that will hopefully still remember us. We’re going to work out the best way to approach them and how to reassure the town. We’re leaning toward word of mouth and then a town meeting like we used to do. Of course, none of that can happen until the smugglers have been dealt with, but nothing can be done about them until the next shipment comes in seven days.”
“We’ll have that handled as quickly as we can,” Rome reassures them, “and it sounds like you guys have the future of the town planned out; they’ll be in safe hands,” Rome replies.
“Thank you. Let us know when it’s safe to head back to ours and enjoy your well-earned day off,” Hugo says, with a smile in his voice as he then says his goodbyes.
“Looks like we’ve got a whole day to ourselves,” I exclaim excitedly when he hangs up, looking at Rome.
“Well, a few hours, it’s dinner time, and I’m starving. I also have no idea if any of the others are awake, but I imagine that they were as tired as we were,” Rome points out as we leave the room.
“Hey, Blue,” Ace calls out happily when we’re halfway down the hallway, with more exuberance in his tone than there was a few hours ago.