Arrow Inferno
Chapter 49: Stanley ‘STAN’ Norris vs. Ian ‘WILL’ Williams ~ Missing him!

***

When Stan started walking towards where Kwame stood at the entrance, Gaia fell into step beside him with a look of panic on her face. "Stan please," she pleaded. "Please don't do anything silly." She had to virtually run to keep up with Stan's long strides. "This is not the place, Stanley." Her face looked even paler than her usual creamy white complexion. She was scared because a werewolf who had a bone to pick couldn't be trusted not to cause mayhem. "Come on Norris, I'm talking to you." But Stan completely ignored her.

Gaia kept pleading beside Stan as he strode purposefully towards Kwame. She was cursing Kwame in her head the entire time. What was it with stubborn men and following simple directives? She could feel her supposedly dead heart pounding inside her chest. Shit! Just before they got to Kwame, Gaia briefly shut her eyes, wishing she had the power to teleport either of the men away from there. When her eyes opened, it was to find Stan giving the vampire whose compulsion had been the proximate cause of his and his mate's problems, a one-armed-bro hug. The shocked relief that slammed into Gaia caused her to double over with a strangled gasp.

"Sup, man?" Stan chuckled as he stepped back.

"All good, Charlie." Kwame grinned. "We've missed having you at the club."

"As I told you when we spoke, I just don't have it in me, bruh." Stan sighed.

"I understand. You should be by his side."

"I'm working on that."

Unbeknownst to Gaia, Kwame had called Stan to apologize for the part he'd played in that fiasco of a first fuck. And as typical guys were known to do, they'd talked it out and were okay. Stan had decided that no matter what Kwame had done, it had been up to him to make the right decision or have better control. Besides, he remembered how Ryan had taken a beating and failed to even attempt to defend himself due to compulsion. He hadn't seen that nasty effect on his mate. Gaia had been right, Will had simply had the confidence to go after what he wanted. And knowing that his mate wanted him that much gave him a sweet rush. He'd accepted Kwame's apology and let it go. Neither he nor Kwame had bothered to informed Gaia though. And since Gaia was not aware, she'd assumed that Stan was staying away from Kwame's parties because he was still angry at the vampire.

"Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on here?" At Gaia's growl, both men turned to look at her.

"Nothing is going on," Stan responded with a straight face. "Kwame stopped by to see me because he hasn't seen me in a while."

"That wasn't funny," Gaia whispered, realizing what the two men had done. "For a moment I thought..." She looked so overcome with relief her eyes looked suspiciously bright to the shock of both men. "Hey Angel," Kwame said softly as he reached out to wrap his arms around Gaia's waist.

"Dude, she's no angel." Stan chuckled. Then he went closer to Gaia and pressed a quick kiss to her temple. "Don't worry, we're good," he murmured to the noticeably annoyed but relieved lady vampire. "Sorry, darling. I thought you'd be happy." Kwame mumbled, trying very hard to suppress his smile.

"Do you have any idea what you two idiots just put me through with that stupid prank?"

"Why is it that evildoers hate getting pranked?" Stan drawled as he turned to go. He felt like going for a run after that good workout. "Off for a run. Later, Kwame."

"Have a good one, buddy," Kwame responded, then gently kissed Gaia. "Sorry."

"Sorry doesn't cut it." Gaia steered them towards her suite.

"What can I do to make it better?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something..."

***

It was three a. m. and most people were asleep but not Ian Williams. He paced. He couldn't sleep. It had been four days since his mother was buried and it seemed more and more difficult to be able to sleep. Anytime he started to drift off to sleep, he would see his mum. And in all those dreams, she was always trying to tell him something which he couldn't hear. But immediately he tried to move closer to hear her, she would disappear and then he would come awake. He was usually unable to sleep after those dreams. The longest he'd been able to sleep at night since the funeral was thirty minutes. And no matter how much he tried to sleep during the day, he was unable to.

Not only could Will not sleep, but he also couldn't eat. All he could manage was tea. He was also constantly restless and felt as though there was something he was missing. He'd lost weight and had bags under his eyes. But no one saw him anyway so he wasn't getting any complaints or nagging. Sharon's pregnancy was in its ninth month so she was too tired to be coming over to check up on him...for which he was grateful. His sister would just nag and cry if she saw him in his current state. He'd had to plead with his pals to give him some space. They had agreed only on one condition and that was for him not to ignore their calls. Failure to return a missed call after ten minutes would result in a visit from them. To have his peace, Will complied.

Surprisingly, there was one person Will wished he could see and that was Stan. He'd called him the day after the funeral to say thanks for his generosity. It had been a brief call since neither of them seemed to have much to say. Stan had asked him whether he was eating well to which he'd simply responded that he was fine. When the call had ended, he'd been shocked at the feeling of loneliness that had flashed through him. It had been so intense he'd almost called Stan back. They hadn't spoken again since then. But he thought about Stan almost as much as he thought about his mother which was annoying. He'd missed him so much the night before that he'd tried to call him but Stan's phone had been off. Will had found that strange as Stan never turned off his phone. He'd just wanted to hear the guy's voice. He still wasn't too happy with Stan but he wasn't angry anymore. Maybe that was because his bite marks were healed. Three had strangely disappeared, leaving one which was just a tiny scar. Even more strangely, it seemed to tingle anytime he thought too hard about Stan...as it was happening that very moment. It looked like even his body was reminding him of what the idiot had done to him.

"Fucking hell," Will muttered as he grabbed his phone and dialed Stan's number again. It was still off. "Just as well." He threw the phone onto the bed and went to the closet. "Some jogging will do." He muttered as he took out his jogger pants. It was four-thirty a. m. Maybe what he needed was a really long jog or run. Hopefully, if he got very tired, he would be able to get some sleep, he thought as he got ready.