3: Celaena Detonated a Bomb! Wait, What the-

Celaena let out a soft purr as Jason’s thumb pressed down on a particularly sore spot. Her toes curled in his lap. Loki’s fingers massaged her scalp, brushing through her silken hair as her head rested in his lap.

Every girl, she thought, should be lucky enough to have guy friends like Jason and Loki.

She was sprawled on the couch on her stomach. Her feet were in Jason’s lap, and her head in Loki’s, as they both massaged her legs, head, neck and shoulders.

‘You overexerted yourself,’ Jason chided, ‘again.’

‘Oh shut up- ahhh...’ she sighed contentedly. Loki’s fingers pressed and kneaded a tight knot in her right shoulder.

‘How did you disarm the bomb though?’ He asked.

‘I didn’t,’ they waited for her to continue. ‘There was no way to disarm it. I simply detonated it.’

‘You what!?” Jason’s voice burst. Loki’s fingers stilled on her skin.

‘Relax,’ she slapped her copper haired partner’s wrist. He continued his work on her shoulder.

‘What about the children?’ He said quietly.

‘I detonated it far away. No one got hurt.’

Jason breathed a sigh of relief, ‘Oh, thank the heavens.’

‘Except for a few VILE agents....’ she trailed off.

‘That’s fine by us,’ Loki said.

‘You totally kicked their butts, didn’t you?’ Jay-bird said simultaneously.

She smirked, ‘You know I did.’

VILE was an agency counter to their one. Just as the name suggested, they were all evil. They had powers too, which just made it a tad bit hard at times to fight them.

For example, their best agents were Horacio Zonda, Audrey Geneva, Lucas Chandler and Alecto. And they were strong like hell. It sometimes wasn’t even fair.

Sure, if they sent La Rue, or Milestone and Nerite, or maybe Okumura, they’d have a good chance at fighting them.

Anyways, a few days ago, they had kidnapped some children from the POWER society, and put a bomb on them. POWER Agency’s boss, Rowan Hal, had given the trio the task to retrieve the children safely. Celaena had assured those two that she could do the job on her own. They still worried.

And she did, so ha!

‘You have a pretty nasty bruise here,’ Jason tapped a spot on her ankle.

‘Yeah...’ She said sheepishly, ‘I kinda fell on it.’

‘Sit tight, I’ll go get an ice pack.’ She felt him gently place her feet on the couch as he stood up. Then his quick footsteps as he went out of the room.

He came back and sat back down, pulling her feet into his lap.

She hissed under her breath as the cold ice pack made contact with her skin.

‘Easy,’ her blonde friend whispered.

Soon the ice didn’t feel like much.

‘What did Agent Hal say?’ Loki asked. He picked up a hairbrush from the armrest and started brushing through her red mane.

‘He just nodded and said: “Good, your reward will be in your account. Now go home and rest, Agent Fowl.”’

Jason snickered at her mocking impression of their boss. Loki rolled his eyes as he braided her hair. When he finished, leaving off two inches at the end, he tied it up with a hair tie.

She let her mind go blank, feeling the drowsiness take over. She snuggled her head in his lap and soon fell asleep, snoring.

‘She really exhausted herself,’ Jason winced, and his friend nodded with a grimace.

Loki stood, scooping her up in his arms.

‘Let’s put her to bed.’ He followed the path to her room. The door was already open and he just walked in. He laid her down on the king size bed, cushioning her head on a pillow.

He looked around her room, hands on his hips. There wasn’t much to tidy up. Except for her little unmentionable that was lying by the foot of the bed.

He sighed and picked it up. He opened her wardrobe and placed it above all the other clothes before closing it.

At the same time, Jason entered the room.

‘I cleaned up what little was left in the kitchen,’ he said, glancing at her sleeping form.

He nodded. They were all used to cleaning up after each other. It was basically a routine by now.

‘Should one of us stay with her? Or should we just both crash here?’ He asked, and Loki shrugged. They couldn’t leave Celaena here alone. If she woke up in the middle of the night and see that it was just her, she’d freak out.

‘Both of us can crash here, unless you want to sleep in your room,’

‘Nope.’ And Jason threw himself down on the bed, on her right. He flipped the light off, and laid down beside her, pulling the blanket over them.

It had been an hour and he was still awake. His mind kept thinking things like:

Why are Laena and Jay-bird such blanket hogs?

Do fish feel wet all the time?

I’m hungry....

Should I go to the kitchen and get something to eat?

Can’t these two give me some of the blanket?

And you get the idea. He kept tapping his fingers on his chest, and stretching his legs every now and then.

The quiet was broken by someone’s phone ringing, the screen illuminating the room.

He picked up the phone and sat up, squinting at the harsh light. His eyes finally adjusted and he looked at caller.

Agent Hal.

He swiped at the green accept button and moved the phone closer to his ear.

‘Hello?’ Agent Hal’s voice said, ‘Agent Fowl?’

‘Agent Hal, it’s me, Agent Stoll,’ he said, realising that the phone was Celaena’s. Only Celaena in her right mind would set ‘Baby Shark’ as Agent Hal’s ring tone.

‘Oh, Agent Stoll,’ he paused on the other side, ‘Well, I’m terribly sorry to bother you at this time.’

‘Who is it?’ He looked an saw that Celaena and Jason were sitting up. The question was from the former, who was rubbing her eyes.

‘Who calls at this ungodly time?’ she groaned.

‘Is that Agent Fowl?’

‘Well,’ Loki chuckled nervously, ‘You know how Laena is when someone interrupts her beauty sleep.’

‘It’s Agent Hal,’ Jason whispered to Celaena.

‘Tell him to call back tomorrow,’ she muttered and plopped back down on the pillows, immediately falling asleep.

Agent Hal was silent for a minute before he said, ‘Then I’ll call you back tomorrow. Again, I’m terribly sorry.’

‘Oh no, it’s okay, sir,’

‘I’m sure Agent Fowl begs to differ.’

Loki nearly snorted at that.

‘Yes, she does. Good night, sir.’

‘Good night, Agent Stoll.’