Her - S01 E24

Story 5 months ago

Her - S01 E24

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 24

. . .

Olivia Woods

As promised, we were in the air one hour later and all I could do was worry.

"Why was he fighting three men alone?"

"I don't know."

I ran a hand through my hair, tugging at the roots. Zavier was the most reckless one out of the three, but he was no idiot.

"He'll be okay," Ashton said soothingly as he pulled me onto his lap, rubbing my thigh with his large palm, his rings cold against my skin. "He will be okay, Little one. He has been through worse."

Worse. Sometimes I forgot just how much these three had been through. Igor had taken their boyhood from them, he had taken their blood and their happiness.

I looked at him, rubbing my thumb on the small scar on his neck. "I'm sorry everything has always been horrible for you."

He smiled gently. "It wasn't all horrible. When we got out, we took up odd jobs and tried to make as much money as we could to feed ourselves but there were good moments, too. Moments when we laughed."

I blinked the tears away. "Tell me more, please."

He tucked me into my chest. "I worked at a restaurant."

"No!" I gasped. "You did not!"

He chuckled, rubbing his knuckles on my cheekbone. "I did. I'd wash the dishes and clean the kitchen every day. Whatever dish soap they used fucked with my hands." I took his hand in mine. "They fired me when I forgot to remove blood from one of the plates."

I frowned. As much as I tried, I couldn't picture him as an eighteen-year-old.

"Zavier applied for the same job after I was fired and found peace in cooking." His voice was soothing. I closed my eyes.

"And you, what did you do then?"

"I got another job. Then another job. Then another job. We'd sneak into this local gym every night because we were too skinny. We were going to rip the mafia from our father's hands."

"Then?"

"Then," he said. "The gym owner caught us. He and some other men there beat the shit out of us. It was barely painful after what we had gone through. The gym owner noticed and decided to train us in the ring..."

"Then?"

"The gym owner was Michael's dad. He trained us and fed us for a while. We were unbeatable. We made money from our fights and soon enough, we were strong enough to kill our father. We killed him when Zavier and I were twenty-two."

I looked up at him. "That must have been a relief."

"It was," he said. "It felt good."

I cupped his face, running my thumb on his cheekbone. Before I could say a word, he pressed his lips to mine.

"Sleep."

"But-"

"I'll tell you whatever you want to know when you wake up."

"When we wake up." I got off his lap and tugged him out of the seat. "We're both sleeping."

"As you wish, baby."

. . .

Xerxes was at the airport. The sun rose behind him. He smiled as he saw me descend the staircase, followed by Ashton. "Hey, baby."