Song for the chapter: Power by Isak Danielson493Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa3VLkr4nmK
Vincere Cum Passione: overcome with emotion
The light from the living room windows is no longer, succumbing to the early winter sunset. Aurora closes her eyes, inhaling deeply. A wave of comfort washes over her; a sense of home-ness, belonging. Aurora looks into the distance, smiling softly.
“Hey, would you mind running an errand for me?” Sophronia calls out from the kitchen.
“Sure, what do you need?” Aurora responds, curiously.
“Hadrian has some things at his place for dinner and he might need a hand bringing it all around,” Sophronia continues. Aurora detects a hint of mystery in Sophronia’s request.
“Is that all?” Aurora asks, raising an eyebrow.
“That is all,” Sophronia quips.
“Okay then,” Aurora accepts, softly nodding.
Aurora approaches the door the passageway, opening it before slowly descending into the hallway. Despite not having the clearest recollection go the route to Hadrian’s home, she follows her gut instincts and finds herself outside a door from which enticing smells are emanating.
I hope I have come to the right place, she thinks, pausing briefly before approaching and knocking quietly. Audible footsteps approach with swiftness, causing Aurora’s breath to hitch in the back of her throat. The door swings open, revealing a mildly dishevelled Hadrian wearing a black apron bespeckled with flour. Aurora is momentarily caught off guard by his appearance.
“Sophronia said you needed a hand bringing things around to her place for dinner,” Aurora starts, flushed, attempting eye contact.
“She did?” He replies, visibly puzzled.
“Was this a set up? Is there even a dinner?” Aurora asks, flustered.
“No, there definitely is a dinner, but I’ve got the food transport handled,” Hadrian responds with a knowing smile, walking towards his kitchen.
“Oh,” Aurora replies, a tiny bit disappointed.
“You can still come in and give me a hand,” Hadrian quips back with a wry smile.
Aurora enters his home with trepidation, enjoying the smells that had thoroughly infiltrated every corner of his home.
“This, is why I don’t really need help with the food transport,” Hadrian starts, gesturing to a metal trolley with shelves.
“Seems useful,” Aurora comments, feeling uncomfortable and unsure of why she had still been invited in.
“Don’t worry, your presence is always appreciated.” Hadrian responds coyly.
Sophronia did set me up, Aurora thinks. She wants to be snarky and annoyed, but being around Hadrian seems to prevent her from lashing out, as though she is being wrapped in a warm and comforting blanket where such feelings cannot even be felt let alone expressed.
“I did intend on seeing you earlier but you weren’t around,” Aurora says, coquettishly, brushing escaped fiery tendrils of hair away from her face. She looks out of the front windows of Hadrian’s home, staring off into the distant darkness, loosing focus of her surroundings.
“Did you, now?” Hadrian replies, causing Aurora to snap out of her trance and become suddenly aware of Hadrian’s now close proximity to her. She feels the slightest amount of his breath on the back of her neck, sending an electric yet soothing feeling washing down her spine and then the rest of her body. The sensation catches her off-guard, causing her to suppress and moan and a sigh simultaneously.
Aurora turns around to face Hadrian. Looking up into his gorgeously entrancing eyes, she grabs his hands.
“May I ask you something?” Aurora asks softly, looking up at Hadrian’s stunning features.
“Anything,” Hadrian replies, assuredly.
“How is it that you always make it feel as though everything will be okay, even if in truth there should be no such founding for that assumption?” She asks, earnestly, a twinge of sadness expressing itself in her tone.
“I don’t know, but maybe we can find out together,” Hadrian answers affectionately, gently squeezing Aurora’s hands.
Aurora lets go of him, reaching up to brush away a fallen lock of hazy golden hair from his forehead and closing the distance between their bodies.
Suddenly, Hadrian’s phone sounds with a call causing Hadrian and Aurora to move back apart. He closes his eyes, purses his lips and sighs, then answers the call.
“Sophronia!” Hadrian answers emphatically
“Is Aurora with you? She left my place a while back, isn’t answering her phone and you haven’t come around with her so I just wanted to make sure that she isn’t lost somewhere in the passageway,” Sophronia enquires.
“She’s here with me. We will be around in a few.” Hadrian responds efficiently.
Hadrian abruptly hangs up the phone and tucks it back in his pocket, switching the ringer to silent.
“I think we better bring the food around.” Hadrian says, mildly miffed, returning to the kitchen to load up the trolley.
Aurora stands for a moment, slightly stunned.
It wasn’t long before they had the trolley packed up full to the brim with food and had left Hadrian’s home. The short walk through the passage was silent, yet both Aurora and Hadrian smiled and basked in contentment. Words were not necessary for this sort of conversational exchange.
On reaching the door to Sophronia’s home, Hadrian nods at Aurora who swiftly knocks, not even getting to her third sharp tap on the door before it swings open dramatically, revealing an overly exuberant Sophronia behind it.
“Here you are! Finally!” Sophronia states, gesticulating and exaggerating with great melodrama.
“Here we are indeed,”Hadrian responds nonchalantly, walking around the front of the trolley to hoist it up into the home. Aurora silently follows, supporting the back of the trolley.
“Apologies for sending you on that errand, Rory. I had completely forgotten that Hadrian has this wonderful contraption.” Sophronia starts, bustling around the table setting. Aurora gets the distinct impression that Sophronia knew exactly what she was doing sending her around to Hadrian’s home. Aurora quietly helps Hadrian unload the dinner into the kitchen.
“Definitely a set-up.” She whispers to Hadrian as she casually brushes by him at the stovetop.
“You think I didn’t realise when you showed up at my door alone?” Hadrian whispers back with a discreet chuckle.
“What are you two whispering about?” Sophronia asks curiously.
“Just your scheming, that is all,” Hadrian answers off-handedly. Aurora chortles to herself as she watches Sophronia get sprung.
“Okay, you got me,” Sophronia admits incredulously, laughing to herself.
“Did you seriously think that I was going to let him get away from having a conversation with me before I leave the collective today?” Aurora questions with a chuckle.
“Probably not the sort of conversation I was thinking of, but I think you could both use a good dose of spontaneity.” Sophronia comments.
“If she wanted that sort of conversation to happen she shouldn’t have called or set it up for before a dinner.” Aurora mutters to herself. Hadrian hears her and slyly winks back in response.
“And why precisely would you think that?” Hadrian asks Sophronia smugly, raising an eyebrow.
“Because neither of you have a spontaneous bone in your bodies combined. Oh… I hope that’s not the reason you were longer than I expected,” Sophronia quips emphatically in response.
Aurora snorts, almost blushing, remembering the rollercoaster of emotions she had felt only a short while earlier. Hadrian, on the other hand, simply rolls his eyes stifling a chuckle, not allowing his younger adoptive sister to get a real rise of him tonight.
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