Decisions Ch. 12

"Well, I think actions speak louder than words in this case," She said, bringing a cold hand to caress my cheek. She brought her head down to mine, her tresses of raven hair tickling my face. The taste of strawberries than exploded in my mouth as she took my lips in a searing, soft kiss that woke me right up.

It was strange, the feelings of her kisses. We were so experienced with each other, knowing every inch of each other's bodies. Yet, there was still a bit of tentativeness to our passion. A part of us that was giddy knowing that this was real. We were in love with each other. It was all so real. It made me feel as if I was floating and by the look of her face when she pulled away, it made her feel that way too. We were panting and pink in the face.

"Whoa," I whispered. "Did your read my mind because that was exactly what I wanted to say."

"Great minds think alike." Stasi giggled, throwing her arms around me and hugging me tightly. "I missed you."

"You saw me just yesterday," I teased.

"Oh?" She pulled away, narrowing her eyes at me and baring her large fangs. "Are you saying that you didn't miss me either? Because I swear that's what I heard on the phone."

"You heard right, Stasi." I chuckled, pecking her on the lips. "I promise you did."

"Good." She replied, placing her head on my chest. "Your heart, lyubov. It's beating so fast."

"What do you expect?" I whispered. "I have a goddess on my chest."

"Oh, stop it, Mr. Smooth!" She laughed, burying her face in my neck. "You're so warm, Chris."

"Thanks," I said softly. "You're so... cold."

She immediately stiffened. "But it's not a bad thing!" I said quickly. "It's a great thing, trust me Stasi. I love it. I love you."

She always thought that part of her vampire physiology were always flaws. That slowed heartbeat, her cold body, her large fangs, and her thirst for blood.

I wasn't sure why she always thought those were bad things. Should I be self-conscious about how perpetually warm I was? I loved the cold and I loved her cold body. The feeling of her heatless skin on mine was indescribable and felt invigorating on my skin. I was so accustomed to it that whenever I shake hands or touch someone that has a 'normal' body temperature, it feels as if I was electrically shocked.

"If you say so, zaichik." She said, giving me a neck a swift kiss and scraping her fangs on my jugular, her fangs pressing hard enough that it felt pleasurable, but soft enough that it didn't hurt. "Now, I believe that someone didn't eat their dinner."

"Guilty," I replied. "But let's do some work at the same time. Can you pass me my laptop? Please?"

Stasi gave me a disapproving glance but withered, sighing and handing over my laptop. I took it thankfully, setting it up next to me. As I powered it on, I looked at Stasi, only to see her looking at me as she absentmindedly stirred the still-hot clam chowder. "What's up?"

"Nothing," She answered, averting her eyes.

I reached for her, cupping her chin and softly turning her face back to mine. Her eyes were misty, with clear tears, not blood ones. Her bottom lip quivered. I smiled at her softly, a smile that I hoped was real and not one of those horrible fake smiles the hero gives the love interest before he sacrifices himself to save the worl-...

Wait a second...

No, there was going to be no more of this. It wasn't fair to her. It wasn't fair to my friends. It wasn't fair to my family. Stasi would follow me to the ends of the Earth, just like how I'll follow her. Wherever I go, she goes. Wherever she goes, I go. It was us against the world, our hands together in an unbreakable grip. It wasn't fair to drag her into every single situation that I impulsively rushed into.

"Stasi, I'm going to say something and I want you to listen," I said. "This is going to be it. We're just going to do the Board Meeting, then the Governor's Office, and then I'm going to drop everything that's even remotely political related. After this, we're going to go to college, live our lives, and enjoy our peace. I prom-.."

"Stop!" Stasi interjected. Her smile had faded and been replaced by a thin, hard line. "If you're done lying to me, then you should stop lying to yourself. Chris. I love you so much but... nyet. Don't promise me anything."

"Nyet?"

"Nyet," She confirmed in her accent, stroking my cheek softly. I reached up, placing my hand over hers. "I don't want you to promise to stop because you've never broken a promise to me and this is a promise you will break. The thing is... we're not going to stop. You're not going to stop. I don't want you to. You're going to keep on doing what you do because this is what you love. I see it, papa sees it, mama sees it, your parents see it. I've seen your search history too. Political Science as a major? Really?"

"You look at my search history?" I asked, a sinking feeling in my stomach. Ever since we got together, my usage of pornography hit all time lows, and I really mean that when I say it. But even then, even though I trusted Stasi with my life, I still didn't want anybody sifting through my search history.

Wouldn't you?

"It was more of an accident. I'm sorry, lyubov." She admitted, patting me on the cheek. "But we're getting off topic. As I was saying, this, all of this, is becoming your passion. You've gone from the cute boy who defended and protected me on the playground to the man I love defending those that have no voice. What we have here is beautiful. I'm not going to stop you from doing what I know you want to do. What I want to do too. What we want to do. I'm going to always be by your side to make sure you never get yourself hurt doing something stupid. If you do get hurt, I'm still going to be there to heal your wounds, just like how you heal mines every day."

I made to argue but she shushed me, placing her finger on my lips. "Ne sporit' so mnoy pozhaluysta, lyubov." She whispered.

I didn't. Her words sent butterflies ringing around my stomach. My best friend, she knew me like the back of my hand. She knew me better than I knew myself. If this is what she thought of me, I knew that it was true.

This is what I wanted to do. I wanted to help people for the rest of my life.

"I love you." I croaked.

"I love you too, zaichik. Always have..."

"Always will."

I placed my hand over hers, giving her palm a soft kiss. Then, I gently clasped her wrist, pulling her down on top of me, wrapping my arms around her. She settled on top of me, pressing her supple breasts against my chest as our lips connected in a sensual and passionate kiss. My right hand roamed up and down her back, sliding over the fabric of her t-shirt while the other reached in between us, cupping her ample breast. Her nipple was stiff and akin to a pebble against my hand.

"No bra?" I murmured.

"Well, it's cold too, but I didn't think I need-... oooh."

She gasped into our kiss as I pinched her nipple. She snaked a cold hand down my body and rubbing at my quickly stiffening cock. But, just as soon as she began, she pulled back away from me, her chest rising and falling in labored pants. Her fangs were elongated and her pupils were dilated, bright crystal blue giving way to an inky black. She gently pushed my hand off of her breast, looking at me lovingly.

"Later. Obeshchayu," She said, sending a longing glance at my groin. The outline of my erection was extremely visible through my comfortable sweatpants. "I need you so much... but I swore to your mom that I was going to make you eat your dinner. So that's first, then I'll suck your brains out."

"Alright," I moaned. I regretted leaving dinner so early. I was hungry... for food and for my best friend. I sat up in bed, placing the bowl of clam chowder in my lap. We shared it with the two spoons that my mom provided us. There was plenty and even though Stasi already ate dinner back at her house, we managed to clean off the plate, lightly conversing over the sounds of chewing, scraped cutlery, and the soft music playing from my laptop as we worked.

"Hey, you know what I just realized?" I asked, spooning the last droplets of soup into my mouth and looking up from my computer.

"Hm?" Stasi responded, biting into the loaf of sourdough with her fangs. A loud crunch resounded and I winced as dustings of crumbs rained down on her lap, my floor, my bed... pretty much everywhere. Stasi's eyes immediately widened in embarrassment. "Thorry." She apologized with her mouth full of food. Her eyes bugged and she clamped her hand over mouth, swallowing. "Sorry, ya pochishchu yego."

"Ne bespokoysya," I said, waving off her apologies. "I was going to vacuum and change my sheets anyways. Can you smell how bad my room is? Whew..."

Stasi giggled, hitting me softly on the arm. "Alright then, zaichik, if you insist. What were you going to ask?"

"I was thinking about Yosemite."

"Oh yeah? What about it?" Stasi asked, biting again into the sourdough and placing her hand underneath it as a makeshift plate to catch the crumbs.

"Well, you remember when you fell into the river and got hypothermia?" She nodded her head. "You stopped shivering but you never fell asleep that night. I'm not complaining but why didn't you?"

She immediately balked. "What?"

"You didn't fall asleep even though you said you were really tired. We stayed up the whole night, remember? I was wondering why you never just fell asleep."

"It's embarrassing." She said awkwardly, brushing a stray strand of raven hair to the side.

"Nothing about you is embarrassing anymore," I laughed, caressing her cheek and sifting her silky, dark hair to the side. "Come on! Tell me."

"Nyet!" Stasi shook her head vigorously, her hair flying from side to side. She looked really cute.

"We're best friends, we tell each other everything, remember?" I pushed.

"You're right. We are," She conceded, wringing her hands nervously. "Alright, I'll tell you. Vy gotovy?"

"Da. I'm so ready."

"Okay, the reason I never fell asleep was because..." She paused, rubbing her arm sheepishly. "It was because then and there, I was so confused about what I was feeling towards you. I knew that you were more than a friend to me. I really liked you as more than a friend. In fact, I liked you so much then that I was paranoid and scared that I'd say something stupid in my sleep if I closed my eyes for one second and give everything away." She confessed, blushing madly. "You know how indecisive I can get. I was indecisive about falling asleep."

I burst out laughing. "Oh, that's great! That is so great!"

She narrowed her crystal blue eyes, baring her fangs. "Oi, stop laughing!" She poked me in the neck, deliberately avoiding my ribs or chest that were still healing. "You're not absolved of any guilt either, zaichik. If I remember correctly, you got a bit handsy that night."

"Handsy? Handsy?! I was sharing body heat! I didn't even touch you that much!" I exclaimed defensively. At least, I didn't think I touched her that much... with my hands at least. The sleeping bag, if I can remember, was pretty small and it was a tight fit for our skinny frames. Having her cold, shivering body pressed up next to mine that night was... it was something else.

Her developing body. Her heart melting lisp caused by her large fangs. That velvet-like accent. Her adorable thick glasses. It was all something else. They were things that I couldn't do without.

"You were trying to cop a feel." She teased, sliding closer to me on my bed.

"No, I was not! I was trying to save your life," I laughed. "But, if I was being honest..."

"Yeah?" Stasi breathed, leaning in closer.

"I think that night was when I realized something."

"And what was that?" She asked, her face inches from mine.

"It was about you. That night was when I realized that..."

"Uh-huh." She whispered, our lips millimeters apart.

"I think I started liking you too, then." I mumbled. Stasi smiled brightly before pecking me on the lips. "Oh, the time we wasted."

"We're making up for it now," She observed. "We've more than made up for it. I wouldn't have changed anything for the world."

I wouldn't change a single thing, either. The DTOSA is what started all of this. In a sick, twisted way, it's what started Stasi and I's relationship. If it had never gone into law, we may never well have gotten together. I ran my hands up and down her cold arms.

"Cold?" I asked, seeing her shiver slightly.

"A bit," She admitted. "Cold and turned on. Really turned on, actually. I'm horny."

"Hi horny. I'm Chris."

She smacked me on the arm. "Dork!" She laughed, sticking her tongue out at me.

"Do you want to wear one of my hoodies?" I asked, even though I was sure she had a few jackets stashed away in my closet. Her crystal blue eyes immediately brightened.

"Da, please." She said happily, before clambering off of me to head over to my closet. She slid it open, inspecting the contents with an expert eye. She sifted through my various hoodies before picking the one she liked: the Belcourt High School Football hoodie, with my name and number embroidered in silver on the back. She wiggled into it, rolling up the sleeves. Even if it looked a tad bit big, it looked good on her. It even looked, dare I say it, very sexy.

"You like?" She asked, striking a pose.

"Very much. Comfortable?"

"Very much," She mimicked, inhaling the interior of the hoodie. Her face immediately flushed as she moaned, making my cock twitch in my pants. "It smells like you."

Shit. I wear that when I work out. Did I forget to wash it?

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Oh, it's a very good thing." She sighed, sitting back down on the bed. "A very good thing, zaichik. Why do you think I keep on stealing your hoodies and giving them back after a few days? They help me when I miss you."

My heart absolutely melted. It felt like my throat was closing up and my heart was being squeezed in a tube. I ended up simply reaching for and clasping her hand.

Stasi opened her mouth to say something more but her ears perked up and she turned to face the door. My doorknob turned and opened, my parents poking their heads into my room. "I thought someone was tired," My dad said.

"Not tired anymore," I shrugged before looking at Stasi happily. Okay, maybe I was a bit tired...

Okay, I was actually exhausted. I just didn't want to sleep with Stasi here.

"Thank you for giving me back my baby boy, Annie." My mom sighed in contentment.

"My pleasure, Susan." Stasi replied, hugging my face and then letting go. "But he was never gone. He was just tired and cranky."

"He's always tired and cranky without you, it seems. You're the piece that makes him whole." My mom came into my room, collecting the dirty plate and cutlery. "Are you two working on the case?" She asked, eyeing the strewn about laptop, papers, and notebooks. We both nodded. "Is Chris making you do all the work this time, Annie?"

"No, mo-.." I sputtered.

"He's not. Honestly." Stasi said quickly, rushing to my defense. "If anything, he did a lot of the work. He's actually done all the research. We split the work fifty-fifty and he really did the hard part. He's been nothing but the perfect partner, best friend, and boyfriend this entire time."

"Coming to his defense?! Oh, I cannot wait for the wedding! Your mom and I have already planned the whole thing." My mom squealed.

"Mom!" I gasped, heat rising in my cheek.

"Susan!" Stasi groaned, burying her face in a pillow.

My parents burst out laughing.

"She's kidding, you two. Don't leave us too fast. They only planned the ceremony, not the reception." My dad chuckled. "We came up to check to see if Annie did her job and since it looks like she passed with flying colors, we came up with a bit of a reward. Want some hot chocolate?"

"Yes, please! With extra whipped cream!" We both chorused at the same time.

My parents grinned. "You two never change."

Chapter 2:

Hot chocolate, if you didn't know, was a staple in our house. The Williams Hot Chocolate (or, as the Sokolov Family liked to call it, goryachiy shokolad of Chris's Family) was not normal hot chocolate. For example, normal hot chocolate has such a small window of drinkability. For the first few minutes, you have chocolate-flavored lava in a mug that feels like the surface of the Sun. Then, for two minutes, you have a nice hot drink, then after that, you have disgusting cold liquid chocolate that you have to force yourself to drink.

My mom, though... she made the best hot chocolate; the perfect combination of cocoa, sugar, salt, frothy hot milk, and airy whipped cream. We could spend the entire night taking tiny sips of it with each taste being better than the last. We could feel the blissful heat bubble in our bellies until we drained the mug without even realizing it.

Ironically though, Stasi only recently got into really loving hot chocolate only this year. Back when she had to force herself to consume synthetic blood packs, she'd mix them into soups and drinks to try and get her supplements without feeling like she wanted to be sick.

"So, this is what we're going to bring up at the board meeting?" She asked, elegantly taking a sip from her steaming white mug. She had done her hair up in a messy bun, sticking two of my pens in it for safekeepingsafe-keeping.

"Mhm.." I nodded, squinting at the laptop to read the font. I used to love reading. I could spend days poring over books. But then came the injury, the brick, the assault, the what-have-you. The constant headaches, the way my vision blurred, the way I couldn't seamlessly absorb information from texts like I used to.

God, the guy who did it. Why did he do this to me? Why did he give so much pain to me, my family, the love of my life? I wanted to squeeze the life out of him. I wanted to smash the back of his head with a thick brick until he begged for mercy. I wanted to kill-...

No, I'm wrong. God, I take it all back.

I wanted to kill the hate. Wash the hate away. If anything, he only made my dedication to getting rid of the DTOSA even stronger. He made my love for my friends, family, and Stasi even stronger. Life is uncertain. Love is even more uncertain. You don't know if you're going to fall in love with your best friend since kindergarten. You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Nobody does. You don't know if you're going to get hit by a brick, or injured, or killed, so you should hold the ones we love close to us now.

Find the light in the darkness and connect with someone you love, especially in a time of great uncertainty like the present.

"Chris? Are you okay?" Stasi asked, peering at me through those thick glasses that I just loved. They made her eyes look so mesmerizing.

"I'm fine," I said, pecking her on the temple. It was easy to do that. She was leaned up against me and we were sharing a laptop in between us. It was quiet in my room, the only ambiance being the sounds of the radio announcers calling the Golden State Warriors game from the phone on my nightstand.

She placed a cold hand on my jaw. "Please don't lie to me." She whispered soothingly. "Headaches?"

I nodded mutely. There was no point trying to bluff my way through it. Stasi nodded, placing a hand on the back of my laptop and closing it. She picked it up and gently set it on the floor, sliding it under my bed.

"That's enough work for today," She said softly, taking off her glasses and placing them on the nightstand.

"But Stasi-.."

"Ya skazal," She repeated with a little more force. "Etogo dostatochno na segodyna."

"Da, lyubova." I conceded sullenly. I wanted to do more work. We were pretty much done with the case, but it still needed to get tightened up. It was like a boat. We wanted to make sure it was waterproof before we actually put it in the water.