Chapter 231: Three Days’ Worth of Plans

Sophia jumped, the firewood tumbling from her hands and scattering across the floor with a dull thud that echoed through the quiet house. Her heart leapt into her throat as she spun around, her cloak swishing at her ankles.

Orion stood in the doorway, his arms crossed, a faint smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. The soft glow of the hearthlight flickered against his features, throwing sharp shadows across his jaw and highlighting the amused glint in his eyes.

"W...what the hell? What are you doing here?" she asked him in shock.

Orion laughed. "It’s my house, shorty. I should be asking you that question. And why are you jumping like a frog?"

"That’s because you scared me."

Orion’s chuckle rumbled low in his chest. "If you were paying attention," he said, stepping forward, "I wouldn’t have scared you in the first place. You’re supposed to know when I’m close."

Sophia scowled at him. "I know that, but... I wasn’t paying attention. You could have at least said something before walking in."

Orion gave her an amused look. "It’s my house, shorty."

"I know that."

"And besides, you of all people should know when I’m near," he told her.

"I know that too," she said with a huff. "But we’ve already established the fact that I wasn’t paying attention."

She released a defeated sigh and muttered disappointedly, "There goes my plan."

One brow rose. "Your plan?" he echoed. "What plan, exactly?"

Sophia sighed, looking down at the wood scattered around her feet. "It doesn’t matter now," she mumbled. "It’s not going to work anyway."

"I still don’t understand—what plan are you talking about?" Orion asked her.

She sighed. "I wanted to surprise you. I wanted to do something... cute or sexy..." She shook her head. "It doesn’t matter anyway."

Orion bent slightly, picking up one of the logs she’d dropped. "I only heard something cute or sexy, and I’m intrigued. What did you have in mind?"

"I..." she said in a small voice. "I was going to do something sexy, like I see them do in novels, and you seem to like things like that."

"Exactly what did you plan on doing?" he asked her. "I’m going to need details."

"I’m not telling you. It’s been ruined after all," she told him.

Orion closed the distance between them in two steps, reaching out to take her hand. His touch was warm—steady and familiar—and before she could protest, he drew her gently into his embrace.

Sophia blinked up at him, her breath catching. The air between them thickened, quiet except for the faint crackle of fire.

"You look better," he murmured, brushing a stray hair from her face. "The bags under your eyes have reduced too, and you don’t look like you’re two seconds away from collapsing and giving me a heart attack."

"I wasn’t going to give you a heart attack," she told him.

"That’s what you think. You looked like you belonged with the Skylurs with the way your eyes looked dead. I swear I was scared you were going to collapse at any moment. I’m glad you’re okay now—better," he told her.

Her lips curved into a small smile. "You made sure of that," she said quietly. "And I’m beginning to suspect that task you made us do today was all because of me."

"You wouldn’t be too far off the mark about that."

"Orion!"

"What?" he asked her. "You needed to rest, and nothing I said could convince you, so I thought about showing you instead—making you feel it for yourself so you can stop being so stubborn."

Sophia glared at him, but there was no heat in it.

Orion laughed.

"Tell me you didn’t notice how tired you were and that you needed the rest after all," she told him.

She sighed. "I just... I didn’t want what happened in the dream to come to pass. I just couldn’t shake the fact that there was something... that there is something more to it."

"Sophia, just because you stabbed me—or because you were apparently called weak—in a dream doesn’t translate to you being weak in real life," he told her. "And like I told you, if you push yourself to the point of breaking, then that’s you being weak."

She gave him a nod.

"One day, you’re going to tell me more about this dream you had that made you so restless. But for now, you’re going to tell me why you wanted to surprise me. It can’t be because of my good looks alone, right?" he asked her with a smile.

She rolled her eyes at him. "It’s definitely not because of your good looks."

Truth.

"Ouch," Orion said with an exaggerated wince. "The truth is bitter, shorty. Go easy on me, after all."

She laughed. "The surprise had nothing to do with your good looks."

"Okay..."

Sophia bit her lip, her cheeks warming again. "I was trying to do something nice for you," she admitted. "You’ve done so much for me—you arranged my home, made sure I was well-rested, you made sure I wasn’t cold, and even left me food to eat, even if those letters were annoying. I just... I just wanted to repay you with something, even if it was small." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Orion took her chin between his fingers. "Shorty, you don’t need to pay me back for anything. Everything I did was the bare minimum, and frankly speaking, it wasn’t a lot. I didn’t have much trouble with it—except the part where you woke up and called me an ogre."

She chuckled.

"You don’t need to pay me for something that’s supposed to be natural," he told her. "I wanted to do it because I like you. And because it’s you."

She nodded. "Okay."

She didn’t fully understand how everything he did was the bare minimum. There was just something nagging in her brain that screamed at him not getting repayment for what he had done. Surely if one took care of someone, they had to pay them, right? She was sure of that, but she couldn’t place why.