What a Novel Idea

((Eli: Well, I guess you weren’t the thread closer anyway, since so much happened after your post for me, so no worries, I guess. I think I will try to close the thread with this post, if no one minds.))

After a few more minutes of crying into Elijah’s chest, Amelia’s breath was beginning to return to normal, though her body still shook intermittently. She could feel his hand on her back, making steady circles and applying just enough pressure that she would know that he was still there. His hands were warm, much warmer even than her back, which may have started contributing to the chills after the shaking of her emotional outburst subsided.

When Elijah lifted her arm, Amelia pulled away from him slightly to see what he would see. The cuts on her forearm were not too deep, more like shallow burns from the ropes that had bound her. The cuts on her leg, visible because her jeans had torn, were of a similar nature, though those seemed to hurt slightly more when Amelia really thought about them.

Amelia’s eyes darted up to Elijah’s, overcoming her own emotions enough to wonder those Elijah was feeling. He looked distant, like he had coiled himself up inside himself, but she could also see shame as his fingers moved to wipe away a trickle of blood that was carving a path over her pale skin. Amelia could tell that Elijah was blaming himself for the spell gone wrong, and though she wanted to tell him not to, that it was just a random chance in a complicated situation, she couldn’t force her mouth to form the words. She was still too ashamed of the admittance of defeat that had escaped her the last time she tried to speak, and thus her mind was boycotting future attempts at words until she had pulled herself together.

A moment later, Amelia’s lips still pressed together, Elijah stood up and slipped his arms beneath the crook of her knees and behind her back, swiftly lifting her from the chair as if she weighed no more than air. The action was unexpected, and caused Amelia’s dominant emotion to switch from shame to surprise. She turned her wide, gray eyes in his direction, now lined with tiny triangles from her eyelashes sticking together with tears, wondering what his plan was. The furry thing she had felt earlier soon returned, and this time she looked down to see what the softness she felt was. It was a kitten, by glance one of the former death eaters, and it did not hesitate to make itself comfortable on Amelia’s lap, a purr resonating from its tiny body.

Soon, though, Amelia was returned to a sitting position and the cat vacated her lap. Elijah, usually much taller than she was, crouched down so that she was looking down at him, his hands resting lightly on her knees. When he looked up at her, the shame that had been written across his features earlier was gone, and instead his gaze had become serious.

The direct order which he gave her might have been offensive to others, but it turned out to be exactly what Amelia needed. It was the order that her mind had been giving for the past ten minutes, but it had taken an outside opinion to make the words effective. As soon as she received the command, spoken in a way that reminded her of her father, Amelia took a deep, slow breath and felt what was left of her tears pull back, choosing not to leave the confines of her eyes. Her cheeks were still damp and the quaking of her body had not completely subsided, but it was definitely the beginning of the end.

A few seconds later, Elijah spoke again, but this time his tone was not commanding or stern; instead, his voice had become soft, almost endearing. His words, spoken in earnest, took Amelia aback, the steady breath that had so recently returned to her catching in her throat. Even though she didn’t respond, Elijah’s eyes stayed trained on hers for the better part of two minutes, before he kissed her on the forehead and returned to a standing position, moving away to give her time to digest what had just passed between the two of them.

I’m here for you and I always will be… The words echoed in Amelia’s mind, but the echoes never grew softer and died away, as they did in reality. Instead, they seemed to build on one another, making the words louder and louder. It was a promise, made not in haste but from a conscious, thought out decision.

So why did it scare her so much?

Perhaps because Amelia had never received such a guarantee from anyone else. Even her parents did not promise to be there always, and Raoul had already proven that he was capable of leaving her on her own . Without any real friends to rely on, there was no one else who would make such a statement. But Elijah had. She had been cold to him, trying to push him away like all the others, but she hadn’t succeeded. Somehow, he had pushed through her defenses, seen her at her worst, and still he promised.

And it was perhaps that which scared Amelia the most. He had made a promise to her, and she found that this promise held much more for her than any other she had heard. People promised things all the time: I promise to be there on time, I promise to work hard on this group project, I promise not to let you fall. But so often, people fell through on their promises. What scared her now is that she found herself actually caring about Elijah, though she didn’t want to admit it aloud or even to herself. This made his promise that much more important, though he might not have been aware of it. He had, perhaps without intention, put Amelia in a place where it would be possible for her to fall. Fall from the high that she had been experiencing ever since they first met in the owerly, the height which had been growing with every situation they found themselves in together.

Already having over-analyzed those few words, Amelia shook her head to clear it, knowing that this would take far more reflection to finally make sense, if it ever would. Amelia could see Elijah standing near another table, and Khaat was still at her repairing duties. The shop was beginning to clear out now, the bulk of the easier repairs finished. Amelia slipped off the table, checking for a moment that her legs would support her before putting her full weight on them. She collected her coat and things and then walked toward Elijah, stopping just in front of him and tentatively raising her eyes to him, still not knowing what she would say.

“I’m sorry,” Amelia said quietly, training her eyes on a spot just above Elijah’s, unable to meet his just yet for fear that her emotions would rise to the surface again, “For the way I behaved. And thank you,” she added, “for the way you did.”

And with those words, Amelia swung her hand forward just a bit to catch Elijah’s, squeezing it gently twice and then dropping it to her side once more before turning toward the door of the tea shop. She walked slowly to the door and resisted the urge to turn back and see him once more, just to check if he was still there. Instead, she closed her hand around the handle and pulled, allowing the cold from the outside to surround her, matching the chill that came from within.

((I think this thread is done now. Elijah, if you want to start the hospital thread then we can get a lot of things out of the way. We can discuss the Yule Ball there, what happened here, and Amelia can give Elijah his Christmas gift. Let me know if that will work for you.))