Chapter Twenty-Five

I lower myself to the ground a little, positioning my hands on either side of my face to protect myself as I prepare for my fight with York.

York grins, and glances at Aster with pure excitement in his creepy white eyes. 

"Ready?" Aster asks me. I nod, focusing on my current enemy, trying to guess his first move. I bet he'll go right in, trying to punch or kick me.

Sure enough, as soon as Aster says "Go!" York charges toward me with an evil grin on his face and his fist cocked back. 

He barrels towards me, but at the last second, drops his fist and pushes himself off the ground instead. I bring my right hand up and stop the leg he was trying to send flying into the side of my head. I push with all the force I can, and York falls backwards, where he quickly flips up and returns to his feet. 

There's no hesitation between attacks, York is already charging at me again. I duck down to avoid his right hook, pushing myself forward as I do. I wrap my arms around his middle, and bring us both down onto the floor, me on top. 

"Whoa." York breathes when I push him against the floor with my hands on his shoulders, and my knees on his hips. He struggles a little, but I'm pretty sure I'm stronger than him. Sure enough, he can't get up. 

"Whoa, indeed." I hear Aster mutter from beside us. 

"Mercy!" York calls dramatically, and I roll my eyes, but move off him. I grab his hand as I stand, pulling him up with me. "You are a sneaky one." York narrows his eyes at me and jabs a finger in my chest. "Me thinks you lied about just taking boxing." 

I laugh a little. "I just said I had taken boxing. You didn't ask about anything else." I shrug, and smile at Aster when he chuckles. 

"I'm going to want a rematch." York warns. 

"I would expect nothing less." I turn to Aster then. "What's next?" 

"Next-"

"Wait, Aster?" York interrupts. I watch as he approaches Aster, a hopeful look I've never seen before on his face. "Do you remember what I asked you earlier? That thing I wanted to do with Zero?" I raise a brow, looking between the two. "It's just… it's about that time. If you were thinking of letting us do it, we'd need to start getting ready now." 

"Yeah…" Aster sighs, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose with two fingers. "Trust me I remember. I was hoping you hadn't."

"I was the one who brought it up. You think me so fickle?" York climbs up on Aster and hangs off his neck, making a pouty face the entire time. 

"What's going on?" I ask. Aster avoids looking at me, just gently removes York's hands from around his neck and sets him on the ground. 

"I'm just not sure this is a good idea."

"Come oooon! None of us have ever woken up in time to do this before! We may never get another chance!"

"Can someone please tell me what we're talking about?" I step forward a little, trying to make myself heard. Aster finally looks at me, grabbing York by the back of his shirt when he tries to run towards me. 

"You're being mean." York huffs, trying to get free. "What could go wrong?"

"He could go wrong!" Aster says quite firmly. I'm a little surprised at how irritated he sounds. York seems to sense it too, because his face gets a twisted little smile on it. He locks eyes with me then. 

"I want to take you to your funeral, but Aster thinks it's a bad idea." 

"My… funeral?" I step forward a little, my attention caught. Aster sighs and turns away. "I can go to that?" 

"I don't understand why you would bring that up." I'm once again taken aback by the sharp tone Aster takes with York. 

"I just figured it would give him some closure." York looks at me then with mock innocence. I can tell he's trying to manipulate me, but I don't care. 

I would very much like to go. 

"Can I go?" I ask the back of Aster. He grumbles, shaking his head. "Please, Aster?" I step a little closer. All thoughts of training or learning about my new body were out the window. 

"You could lose control and have a reaction." Aster throws over his shoulder, still refusing to look at me. "You have yet to even interact with a human yet, let alone one you used to know. Even seeing them could trigger an emotional reaction within you." 

"I'm not a very emotional person." I mutter, scratching the back of my head. 

"Then you shouldn't even want to go." I press my lips together a little. I knew exactly what he was trying to do, and that was just to protect me. What if no one was there? What if everyone was there, and I felt the need to talk to them, to tell them what happened, and that I was still "alive." Those were legitimate things that could happen. 

"Can I tell you something?" I step even closer to Aster, close enough I could touch him if I wanted to. He grunts a little, crossing his arms like it would help him in standing firm on his decision. "I've never heard the words, "I love you," from anyone except my sister. I've never gotten a hug from anyone but her, I've never been asked if I was okay, or how my day was. I've never been offered help or a shoulder to cry on." I can already see his shoulders slumping with remorse. "I want to see my sister. Please. I swear I won't talk to her; I just want to make sure she's okay."

"She won't be okay; I can promise you that." Aster turns around then, narrowing his black and red eyes in on me. "Are you ready for that? Are you ready to see her have to bury her one and only brother? Are you ready to see her break down?" I shrug. 

"I don't know Aster. I know that I won't do anything stupid, and I know that if you don't let me go, I'll never forgive you." I didn't know how much power my words held until I saw Aster's face fall, and his boney shoulders sag. 

"I don't want you to be angry with me." I crack a grin then, because seeing his creepy, sad doll face made me feel insanely guilty, and I have no idea why. Why did I like him so much? It was more than he was just a really nice fucking guy. I really felt like he gave a shit about me. Even now, he was only hesitating to let me go because he didn't want something bad to happen to me. 

He was kinder than any human I had ever met. 

"Then let us go." I roll my eyes when I feel York jumping on my back. He crawls up so he can sit on my shoulders and grab a handful of hair with each fist. I grumble a little, but don't shake him off. 

"You promise you won't engage?" Aster asks after a moment, looking sternly at me. 

"I promise."

"And I promise to drag him away kicking and screaming if he tries." I can hear the shit eating grin on York's face.

Aster sighs one last time and hangs his head. 

"Fine. Go." 

"Yay!" York starts rocking back forth on my shoulders, and suddenly yanks his left fist, which is still full of my hair, towards the right. 

"What the hell." I grumble when I instinctively jerk my body in the direction he pulls. 

"Onward! To get changed!" He yells, pointing towards the exit before grabbing my hair again and pulling it forward like he was guiding a horse. 

"Please be careful." I hear Aster muttering from behind us as I allow York to ride me like a horse to get out of my gym clothes. 

"I promise we will." I say one last time. 

Time to go to my own funeral.