We Mend Each Other
Eight Years After Allegiant
Light
crept its way into the room through the cracks in the blinds, slanting across
the bed in stripes. Tobias Eaton opened
his eyes and took a deep breath, rolling onto his back. Next to him, Naomi stirred, roused by his
movement. He smiled and moved closer to
her.
“Good
morning.”
“Morning,”
she mumbled sleepily, lifting her head to kiss him. Then she pulled away and snuggled against
him, resting her head on his bare chest and closing her eyes again.
They
lay there for a few minutes, Four gazing up at the ceiling and absentmindedly
stroking her dark hair, listening to the city waking up outside. Then Naomi shifted, arching her back in a
stretch and turned to look at him.
“It’s
the second Saturday isn’t it. Your mom’s
coming for lunch today?”
“Yes,”
Four groaned and let his head fall back against the pillow. He’d forgotten about that. “It’s not too late though, she doesn’t have
to. Could you fake a headache?”
She
smiled and shook her head. “No.”
“Could
I be sick?” he asked, half joking, looking back up at her.
“No,”
she said, chuckling. “Come on, you said
it’s not as bad as it used to be.”
“I say
that after,” he pointed out. “I just
can’t convince myself before.”
She
gave him a look of mock pity and leaned in to kiss him again. “Be brave,” she whispered.
“Fine.” He propped himself up on his elbow (and took
her wrist, kissing the flame tattooed just under the bend of her arm).
Noami
opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by a pounding coming down
the hall. The door to their room flew
open and then Gideon landed on the bed at their feet. “I win!” he crowed.
Little
Emma whined and tried to climb up on the bed too. Since she had started walking about a month
ago, Gideon wanted to race her almost everywhere. She wanted very badly to keep up, but she
couldn’t quite yet. Naomi pulled Emma up
on the bed next to them as Gideon crawled up to Tobias.
“You
said we could go swimming, can we go now?” he asked in a breathless rush.
“I said
we’d go this afternoon,” Tobias corrected, “we can’t go now, the water will be
too cold.”
“I
don’t care,” Gideon insisted.
“Well I
do. Daddy’s too old to swim in cold
water.”
“No
you’re not. You’re not old,” Gideon
said, bouncing a little.
“How
old are you?” Four asked. “Show me.”
Gideon
grinned and held up four fingers.
“Now
how old am I?”
“I don’t
know,” he said, shrugging his shoulders us to his ears and holding his hands
out to his sides.
“All
right here.” Tobias held up his hands, fingers spread. “How many is that?”
“Ten.”
“Right,
now hold up your hands like that.”
Gideon
giggled and did, holding his hands right in front of his father’s. “How many’s that? More than ‘leven.”
“Yep,
that’s ten twice and you know what? That still not enough fingers. We can’t count it on both our hands.” He grabbed both his son’s hands in his own,
making him squeal. “You know what that
means? It means I’m too old to swim in
the morning.” Emma laughed and reached
out for them, wanting to play too.
“Momma
will take us then,” Gideon said, turning to Naomi.
“Momma
will not.” She shook her head, smiling to herself at Gideon being the only one feeling
dauntless this morning. “We’ll all go
this afternoon.”
Gideon
frowned, but nodded. “Okay.”
“But I
will make you pancakes,” Naomi said, brushing at Emma’s wildly mussed hair with
her fingers. “How does that sound?”
“Yeah!” Gideon hopped of the bed and sprinted off for
the kitchen, calling over his shoulder about getting to stir.
Naomi
pulled back the covers and smiled at Four.
“So much for a quiet Saturday morning.”
