An Unpleasant? Night

"...."

Ryder, who was now left alone after Hestia left, kept staring at the place Hestia was standing a few moments ago.

From Hestia's behaviour earlier Ryder was able to deduce quite a lot about her which gave him a better idea of who she was as a person. First thing he noticed was the jealousy that Hestia was trying hard to hide but unfortunately it was easily visible in her expressions which coupled with her words made it clear that she was not happy with Bell becoming close with Ryder.

The next thing that he noticed was the stark difference of her attitude when compared to what it was before Bell went off to sleep; earlier when Bell was with them Hestia did not overtly show this jealous side of her.

This meant that Hestia was afraid of Bell finding out her dislike for Ryder.

'Well it seems like Hestia is quite obsessed with Bell;'

'...Now that I think about it, earlier whenever Bell happily interacted with me I felt a weird gaze from Hestia;'

Ryder thought then recalled the cold look that Hestia gave him right before she left and immediately felt chills running down his spine.

'...It'll be better that I don't get too intimate with Bell…right?'

Ryder concluded while wiping the sweat forming on his forehead.

It was something that Ryder was already keen on doing even before his talk with Hestia, at that time his reason behind this decision was to not to give false hope to Bell after he became aware of her love for him.

Now one more reason was added for him to keep an appropriate distance from Bell.

After a little while he stopped his thinking and laid down on the couch that was near him to go to sleep, since Bell and Hestia were sleeping together on the only bed they had in there and that couch was the only other place comfortable enough to sleep.

Earlier while they were eating the dinner Bell had offered Ryder to sleep on the bed because it was more comfortable but Ryder rejected her because then Bell and Hestia would have had to sleep together on this couch which could accommodate only one person.

And it was not like Ryder could sleep with Bell and Hestia on the same bed since it would be inappropriate for him as a man.

********

'....um? 'Wha… what's that?'

It should be around 2:00 am, Ryder woke up from his sleep for a moment, it was one of Ryder's sleeping habits that he was not sure when he picked up.

You can call it his paranoia or just a part of his personality that whenever he slept in an unfamiliar surroundings he would immediately come out of his slumber if he felt slightest of movement.

This time too, he felt some movements a distance away from him and when he woke up he saw something unexpected.

'...A ghost?' '...No.. it's… what is that?' He saw a shadow moving around in the room and slowly coming close to him without making the slightest of sound. Ryder was not sure what to do.

He would have immediately attacked that shadow if he felt any sense of danger from it but since he did not sense any such things it was likely that the shadow did not have any ill-will towards Ryder. In the end Ryder decided to pretend to sleep and quietly observe what the shadow was intending to do.

"...."

A moment passed as the shadow came near to Ryder and laid down next to him on the couch; since the couch was not that big, more than half of the shadow's body was on top of Ryder and this helped him recognise the shadow's identity.

'This familiar bouncy and soft sensation on my chest and arm… it's Hestia?'

Ryder turned his head a little towards the side to get a better view at the shadow, who he guessed was Hestia, although it was dark but whatever light that was present inside the room was enough for him to see that it was indeed Hestia.

She had her eyes closed shut and from her slow and even breathing it appeared that she was fast asleep.

'...Just what is th-'

Ryder was just in the middle of his thoughts about what to do when he once again felt some movements a distance away from him.

He turned his gaze towards the door of the room in which Hestia and Bell were sleeping.

Silently the door opened and Bell came out the room with a lighted candle in her hand. Ryder saw her slowly walk towards where he was sleeping.

'Shit;'

Ryder closed his eyes so that Bell wouldn't find that he was awake. After a moment he heard Bell's footsteps stop near him but to his surprise Bell remained quiet and because he had his eyes closed he could not even see what exactly she was doing.

A whole while later, when the questions inside his mind were growing bigger and bigger, he heard a soft sound of someone blowing air out of their mouth.

He partially opened one of his eyes to look around but he saw nothing because it was dark again but he could clearly see a shadow where Bell was standing before.

It did not take long for him to realise that the sound of blowing of air from earlier was of Bell extinguishing the flame of the candle.

Ryder did not know why but Bell standing there in the dark gave him a sense of deja-vu.

'N...not again;'

Ryder felt like crying as he saw the shadow that was Bell approach him and climb on top of the couch and just like Hestia she too laid down on it.

Earlier when Hestia laid down on the couch there was somewhat of a space for her to fit half of her body but now for Bell there was no such space. And so her whole body was snuggled on top of Ryder who felt his heart beating faster with each passing second.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

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