Page 41 of A Lab Rat's Guide to Fated Love
“Nori?” he asked. No answer.
He waited for a few heartbeats, then rose and walked out.
“Nori?”
The lights were on in the kitchen, but Nori wasn’t there. She wasn’t in the study either or anywhere else inside the house, even though he could feel her in the vicinity.
What bothered him was the weight of a certaindarknessabout her. The same sticky darkness he’d sometimes gotten a hint of underneath all her other layers of emotions. It was… dominant now, somehow. And terrifying.
Grabbing both their jackets from where they lay draped over the back of the couch, he headed for the front door when a flash of bright orange caught his eye. He reached for the small plastic container sitting in the middle of the dining table—a full prescription bottle of antidepressants with Nori’s name on it. As he placed it back, his hand brushed against the full cup of tea also on the table. It was still warm, untouched.
He hurried out the door to find Nori perched on one of the white wrought iron chairs in the garden, arms wrapped around her knees and face tilted upwards towards a partial moon that hung in the clearest night sky he’d witnessed in months.
“Nori?” he spoke softly as he reached her, watching his breath form foggy spirals in front of his face.
He took her jacket and draped it over her shoulders like a shawl. And as he did, Nori slowly turned her head to the side. Her expressionless eyes stared blankly at him for a long moment.
“Vir.” She blinked. “Right.”
There wasn’t anything particularly out of place about her. Yet, everything feltwrong. He fought the impulse to grab her by her shoulders and shake her out of it. Whatever it was—the heavy, all engulfing feeling that seemed to want to trap him in quicksand, immobilized and apathetic. And that was only whathefelt from her second-hand. He couldn’t imagine what it was doing to her. But why? What had changed so drastically in the last few hours?
Vir pulled a chair beside hers and took a seat, swearing under his breath at how cold the metal was. Like sticking his rear on a slab of ice. He suppressed the shivers running up his spine and folded his legs under him to sit with her in silence.
At some point, his gaze followed hers, and he began staring at the moon, too. He didn’t know exactly how long they were there—minutes, maybe hours—but it’d gotten lighter by the time Nori finally moved. It was the relentless chirping of the sparrow perched on her knee that made her take notice of her surroundings again.
When she turned to meet Vir’s concerned gaze, the brown in hers softened.
“You have the same eyes,” she said, and a corner of her mouth lifted. “You used to stare at me exactly like that back then. Like a kitten. How could I not notice before?”
A wave of relief washed over him, and he flashed her a grin. It grew wider when she smiled back at him. Her joints popped noisily as she stretched out her limbs.
“You looked better with the runny nose, though.” She shook her head in mock disappointment as they made their way back inside.
Sorry… about earlier,” Nori said, bitinga corner of her toast.
“Did something happen? Did you have a nightmare?”
“Nothing happened. I... couldn’t sleep.”
“Do you want to rest for a bit now?”
“I’d rather not. Iwillget nightmares if I do.” She pursed her lips. “You look so concerned. It’s fine. Really. It’ll pass.”
“Do the nightmares have something to do with…” Vir paused, his eyes drifting briefly over her wrist. The angry jagged lines there were still seared into his brain.
“Yes.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
She looked at him for a long moment, as if deliberating.
“Not today.”
Vir nodded, and they ate the rest of their meal in silence.
Nori’s mood improved slightly after theirlong, late afternoon walk. While the sticky darkness still hovered over her emotions—opaque, ominous, and dominant—and she was visibly exhausted, not having slept at all last night, there was a slight shift. Even if a little, it was progress.
“Wait. Your shoe.” Vir pulled her to a stop as they walked in through the purple wrought iron gates. Crouching in front of her, he reached for the laces on one of her sneakers that had come undone and quickly secured them with a knot.
