The Winter Tyrant

Chapter 115: In My Head

Dean didn’t leave Katherine be after the conversation that occurred between the two of them. He waited a bit, and then followed her up the stairs, knocking gently on her door.

She didn’t answer at first, and so he waited a bit before knocking again. And when he knocked the second time, there was still no answer.

It was only halfway through the third knock that the door opened. Revealing the woman with loose, wet hair, her skin still touched by the steam of the shower.

A black t-shirt, with the white script "Ephemeral Nightmare" written right over the center of the chest loosely concealed her natural curves.

Katherine stared Dean angrily in the eyes, flushed in the face from the amount of alcohol she had consumed earlier in the night.

Before Dean could properly apologize, she cut him off.

"What do you want? I’m getting ready for bed."

Dean was caught off guard. He had never seen the woman with her hair loose, or dressed so relaxed before.

And the fact that she was wearing the shirt of his old band, and little else, made him feel a bit awkward.

Katherine, however, did not seem amused by his sudden and unusual silence after he had so much to say earlier in the night.

"Well? Get out with it, or I’m locking you out. I really don’t have time for this shit, Dean."

Finally, Dean spoke, realizing he was losing his window of opportunity.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you up this late. It’s just, you stormed out on me, and I was checking to see if you were all good."

Katherine did not bite her tongue like she normally did, instead she rolled her eyes and huffed in an unusual display of intense emotion.

"What do you care? Don’t you have two women waiting for you in your bedroom? Good night, Dean!"

She tried to shut the door on him, but Dean blocked her attempt with her hand. Which only served to frustrate the woman more. All the while he pleaded his case.

"Come on, don’t be like that, Kate. How was I supposed to know you felt that way? I’m struggling as is to comprehend the situation I’m currently in, and on top of that I have so much shit to do. Do we really have the luxury to play these games with the way the world is?"

Play these games? The very insinuation only managed to infuriate the woman, who was usually the very definition of serenity, or perhaps more accurately, detachment. She finally swung the door open and grabbed hold of Dean by the scruff of the neck.

"You incredibly dense bastard! I gave you time and space because of what happened between you and that treacherous bitch. And Yuki made it clear to me she had first claim on you. I had made my peace with that, after all, it’s easier to survive in this world when you don’t get attached. But then that little bitch came in and somehow got both of you to accept her, and yet, nobody ever asked me for my opinion!"

Dean suddenly realized the extent of the situation, where it all began, and how long Katherine had been suppressing her feelings for him.

And tonight had been the perfect storm to unlock all that repressed resentment and bitterness. He decided to take a gamble and made a risky wager. Instead of allowing the woman to continue to vent and spiral, he leaned in and kissed her.

This of course caught Katherine off guard, her eyes opened wide in shock and she reached forward to shove Dean away instinctively, but he didn’t let her, he in fact pushed her past the door and down on the bed, causing her mind to go blank.

It wasn’t until he finally let go, taking the mounted position as he tore off his shirt that Dean leaned in and whispered something that made Katherine blush in silence.

"If you had just said this all from the start, I would have taken responsibility...."

Katherine stared up at him silently, all the anger in her heart had completely dissipated. Nor was she exhausted. She was simply exhausted.

As if she had spent so long trying to bury those feelings that finally saying them aloud had drained whatever strength she had left to resist them.

Her fingers slowly tightened around his hand.

"...You really are an idiot sometimes, Dean."

Katherine didn’t say another word, she simply allowed Dean to take the lead.

---

Yuki awoke the next morning, reaching over across the bed searching for Dean’s body, only to find something soft in place of his usually firm and athletic physique.

She winced, as if her half asleep brain was struggling to comprehend why Dean’s body felt different from usual. Only when she opened her eyes and saw Brooke blushing and struggling to meet her eyes, did she realize that there was no man between the two of them?

Something Brooke made apparently clear with a meek tone in her voice.

"It would appear Dean did not come to bed last night...."

Yuki suddenly realized what she had done and removed her hand, the two of them quickly sitting up and in opposite directions from one another while staring at the floor awkwardly.

That is until finally Yuki realized something.

"Wait... if Dean isn’t here then where is he?"

Brooke looked up at the ceiling, cracking a joke she didn’t realize was a serious potential reality in that moment.

"Who knows, maybe he spent the night with Katherine?"

Yuki quickly shifted over to the door, her eyes glancing at it, and then back at the missing space between the two of them.

She then crawled back under the covers and closed her eyes.

"If that’s the case, then I’m going to catch an extra few hours of shuteye, she can keep him company this morning. Although you’re probably going to need to make breakfast, because that old spinster is not going to be in any condition to stand in the kitchen all morning."

Brooke laughed at first, thinking that Yuki was perhaps joking ,but when Yuki pulled the covers over further and faced the other way, genuinely trying to fall asleep, she stood up and slammed her hands on the bed, practically shouting as she did so.

"You can’t be serious? Dean and Katherine! That could never happen! He probably just woke up early is all?"

Yuki glanced over her shoulder with a pitiful gaze, which only caused Brooke to become even more indignant. Yuki’s tone was soft, and half asleep as it followed a yawn.

"Are you autistic? Because that would honestly explain a lot...."

That was all she said before rolling back onto her other side and drifting back to sleep. Leaving Brooke alone in her fury.