In Love With My Guardian Demon

Chapter Five: Ren

It was getting worse and worse as the days progressed. I could almost feel the ice slithering over my veins at this point. trying to find purchase wherever they went.

I woke up with a flinch, realizing that Luka had fallen asleep at the foot of his bed. I looked around me to realize that I was sleeping upright on his bed, turned onto my side. My head had been laid gently against a white pillow and I turned to find myself staring at Luka's desk. My fingers tingled and I held them in front of my face to find them sparkling with frost, the tips of them blue. I hugged my hands close to my chest, closing my eyes and curling up into a ball. Go away, go away, go away... I whispered to myself, squeezing my hands into fists.

When I finally lifted my fingers to my face again, the ice had faded away, but the blue tinge still remained on my fingers. I sighed and then closed my eyes with a soft sigh. The curse was slowly eating away at my life. I didn't even know how long I had left.

But the worst part was...

I didn't even know how to get rid of this curse.

I've tried everything, from simply not using my powers, to just sitting in the power room, hoping that my original powers and the curse would go away all together... but I guess it won't go away. My mother was smarter than she looked, I'll give her that.

Luka's been the only one that's able to delay the curse. Having twice the ice you're supposed to in one's body, it makes you freeze from the inside out. I don't know why it's showing up just now, but it could be because of my age. I was 14 years old this year, even though I've been told I've acted way older than 14.

I sighed, brushed my hair aside, sat up, and then crawled over to where Luka laid, with his arm splayed over his eyes. I lifted up a finger and then started manipulating the temperature, making the cabin impossibly chilly. I saw Luka's shoulders shudder and then he groaned out, "Sniper. Stop it."

"Wake up." I teased him, keeping the temperature cold.

"Leave me alone." Luka yawned, arm still over his face.

"At least get your hands off your face." I bit my lip so as to not laugh. "Let me see your eyes, Blackbane."

Luka let out one last incoherent mutter before he lifted his arm and turned his crimson gaze towards mine. His eyes glittered when they met mine and I leaned back on my palms, sitting criss cross applesauce. He rubbed his eyes and then smiled at me. "Happy now?"

I only responded with a mere smile as I rubbed my own eyes. "Sorry I fell asleep again."

"No worries." Luka said, "Have you been getting enough sleep lately?"

"Yes?" I shrugged, "I've lost track of what "enough sleep" means, to be honest with you."

"Fair." Luka nodded with a laugh, "To be honest, so have I."

I smirked and then brushed my hair back, "Have you been getting enough sleep lately? You fell asleep too."

"No... I mean, not really." Luka shrugged one shoulder as he got up, brushing his long bangs back with a sigh, "I think it's just normal worry and stuff like that. I'll be fine. I'm more worried about you, you know, with the whole..." Luka trailed off.

"The internal freezing?" I asked, loosely clenching my fists.

"Yeah, that." Luka nods, "You have no idea how much it kills me, Sniper, that you're slowly... dying over there and I can't do anything to get rid of the curse. It hurts so damn bad that my best friend is going through this and I..."

"You talk about me like I'm dead already." I said lightly, putting a hand on Luka's shoulder, "Listen to me, Blackbane. I'm still here. And I don't want you to mope about my internal freezing, okay? I just want you to stay the way you are. Energetic, happy, simply Luka, you know?"

A corner of Luka's mouth lifted up in a smirk, "What, you gonna use your princess powers to command me to do that?"

"Don't make me." I glared teasingly.

"But if anything goes wrong," Luka took my hands in his and looked me straight in the eye, making my body stiffen at how... warm he was, "you'd tell me immediately, right? As your best friend?"

I squeezed Luka's hands gently before letting go, "I promise you."

"I'm worried you're gonna fall." Luka said worriedly as his feet were locked in onto the hoverboard. The metal half spheres were there to keep Luka from falling off the hoverboard, and I stood right behind him, clinging onto him by his waist.

"I'm not gonna fall. Besides, if I do, you'll catch me." I said confidently. Well, mostly on the first part of the sentence.

"Hm. See if I can stay on the hoverboard first." Luka muttered, adjusting the foot holders on the hoverboard and then looking back at me, "You got enough space?"

"I'm good." I said, flashing him a grin and a thumbs up.

"Alright. Welp... here goes nothing." Luka slid on the headset that connected to our thoughts onto his head. We had made that so we could control the hoverboard, and Luka's eyes were now focused ahead in concentration.

"You sure you got this?-" I asked skeptically but was cut off with a yelp when we were whisked away into the sky, zooming above the forests and all the creatures living in it.

"Hold on tight, Sniper. Don't fall!" Luka yelled above the rushing wind as we soared higher into the sky. I wrapped my arms around his middle tightly and then locked my hands together, my nails slightly digging into my wrists.

"I'm trying!" I yelled back, "Can't you slow down?"

"That I'm trying!" Luka responded and I felt the hovereboard shudder to a halt. My stomach plummeted and a scream threatened to rip from my throat as the hoverboard started falling quickly towards the ground, taking Luka and I with it.

"Blackbane!!" I roared above the wind, "Get us back in the air!"

"I'm trying!" Luka's eyes were closed again but when he opened them, pure panic filled them. "I can't get the hoverboard to activate again!"

"Give me the headset." I commanded, trying to stay calm as I saw the ground nearing.

Luka fumbled with the headset, but managed to get it over to me. I slid it onto my head and closed my eyes in concentration. "Okay. I'm gonna need you... to rise." I murmured softly and then felt the hoverboard let out a slight hum. Then, the hoverboard rose, several inches off the ground. I opened my eyes, "Did it work?"

"Sniper, you're amazing!" Luka yelped, taking the metal half spheres off his feet and nodding at me, "You did it! You saved our lives."

"We should probably customize the hoverboard more before we let anyone try it out though." I rubbed the back of my neck and Luka winced with a sheepish chuckle.

"Yeahhhh, we should, shouldn't we?" He grinned, "But that was fun, wasn't it?"

"The flying part or the nearly plummeting to our deaths part?" I asked.

"Both." Luka's grin widened, "The adrenaline rush was great."

"And this is the lunacy that I'm part of." I sighed, rolling my eyes affectionately. "I feel very safe around you, and I'm sure everyone else does too." I joked.

"Well, you never know," Luka shrugged his shoulder as I picked up the hoverboard and we went inside, "maybe I'm capable of things you can never imagine me doing."