Train Ride

When I got upstairs Dorian was waiting for me by the door. The glass bowl I used was missing and I wondered who cleaned it up. “Did I scare them a lot?” I asked Dorian as we walked out of the front door into the late summer air.

“You scared me a lot. I’m sure that you scared those you love more.”

“You aren’t going to comment on the number of people I love?” I asked with a wry smile. I didn’t really expect an answer. Dorian was very much about image and I did not fit his image.

He smirked. “Nox, you have never been a normal boy. Why should your love life be simple? There is a lot of things that your heart needs to make up for. I never thought I’d see the day where you committed to anything other than your children.”

The train station around the corner was busy, there were people waiting which meant the train was late. Tempers would fly but for once I was hardly in a rush. Dorian was still smirking at me. “I see the change in you.”

I smiled. “What change?”

“A burden lifted. The patterns around you they are flowing without faultering. I know you can’t see yourself and I don’t half your talent for drawing as you do, but the change is so fundamental to your general being that I’m surprised no ever saw it before.” He shook his head.

“No one sees things like I do.” I said. “I know you say you can see parts of it. Dev showed me what my shield looks like now. I feel better.”

The train rattled to a stop and we waited until everyone piled off so we could enter a full car. We held on to the rail above our heads as it clacked down the track making stops. We didn’t talk, but Dorian’s eyes never really strayed from me.

We got off the train at our stop and when we reached the surface I asked Dorian, “Is it that different?”

He nodded. “Yes, Nox. I’m trying to find the differences so I can explain it to you, but it’s like I know it’s different but I can’t really see what was wrong before. But something was wrong.”

The AU building was in sight, the towering buildings all around us. It was a beautiful sight amist the square buildings. It’s form unique. It was why the Eriksen’s built it that way – to stand out – to hide in plain sight.

Once inside the AU building I looked up and followed the glass elevator up and frowned. Some fears weren’t so easily conquered. But we climbed into the next available car up and I took a breath and hummed a tune that Dev had sang to me the night before. When we hit HQ Dorian took my elbow and walked me out. He was chuckling to himself. “I have never seen you so calm on an elevator before. Is this new?”

I smiled. “Yeah. Dev was with me last time. He sang to me. He does that when I get anxious. I think it’s starting to stick.”

“First Sage, now Devin. I hope she’s as good for you as both of them.”

I smiled. “I’m sure she will be. I’m going to take the stairs to find Garrett.”

Dorian shook his head and pointed towards Dae’lin’s office. “I told Dae’lin to give him a ring and you can talk to him there.”

“Thanks.” I pressed a kiss to Dorian’s cheek. “For everything, Dorian. I don’t thank you enough.”

“You are my boy. Always will be Nox. Even Kai can’t take that away from us.”

I smiled at him and waved as he walked away. He wasn’t blood, but he was truly the only father I ever needed.

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