Alpha Academy BL

Chapter 69: Chapter 69

They all returned to the agreed-upon spot after about five minutes of stick picking, Henri struggling to keep a hold of his bundle even as he proudly strode forward.

Errol was genuinely surprised by the amount of wood that Henri had managed to find but he made no comments on it, subtly kicking Nael who was about to offer to help the struggling Omega.

"Want to count to see who found the most sticks?" Audie stepped up to him, mischief dancing in his eyes as he held a bigger bundle.

"No, no, there’s no time for that." Errol was quick to interrupt, passing his gaze over Seton who had just quietly shown up with his own bundle. "We should return to the campsite."

By the time they returned, Cedric and Jann were nowhere to be found, Valentin informing them that both Alphas wanted to try finding fresh fruit.

After dropping off the sticks they found into a big pile, Henri straightened up and stared at his dirtied hands, noticing a smear of blood, it was then his scratch started to sting.

Louis immediately zeroed in on it, "Did you get hurt?"

"It’s just a scratch," Henri said dryly but no one was having it.

"Henri got hurt?" Errol chimed in, walking over as well.

"I’ve got a first-aid kit!" Valentin called from his tent, emerging with the little box. freeweɓnovel.cѳm

Henri closed his wounded hand into a fist. "It’s just a small scratch there’s no need for..."

"Doing that could make it get infected." Nael contributed.

"I’ll just rinse it off." Henri insisted, shooting them the evil eye.

Dio provided a bottle of water right away and Henri took it, sighing longsufferingly. It was still better than pulling out a first aid kit to treat a scratch on his palm.

It wasn’t even bleeding anymore and most of the water went to cleaning the dirt off his hands.

After he was done, he went over to the fireplace that was being set up and made another request. "Can I light the fire?"

Louis froze where he was crouched around the fireplace, his anxiety levels spiking. "Um... You want to?" He asked weakly.

Henri’s curious grey eyes were fixed on the growing pile of sticks, wondering how fires were started. He had never done it before but he wanted to give it a try now. Gathering sticks hadn’t been as terrible as he imagined, it was a little fun even.

"Yes." He simply said, expectantly staring up at Louis.

Everyone became suspiciously busy, Audie and Nael busy making a grill to roast the fish while the two brothers stared intently at what they were doing. freёwebnovel.com

Seton was all by himself on a trunk and was the only one paying attention to the interaction happening between Henri and Louis but everyone treated him like a ghost.

Louis looked to Dio for help but the taller Alpha just stared at him with mismatched eyes filled with faux blankness like he didn’t understand what was going on.

Unable to turn Henri down, he handed him the box of matches. "Sure." He mumbled, already looking around for the nearest source of water.

Henri looked the box of matches over, prodding it till he got it open, and saw the pile of matchsticks arranged properly in the little box.

Louis watched him with growing despair as he picked out one matchstick and proceeded to look it over as well. It was evident that he had no idea what to do but didn’t want to ask and Louis was wary of telling him what to do because he didn’t want Henri hurting himself further.

Dio poked and prodded at the dead fish, blissfully ignoring the tense scene happening beside him.

"You... You strike it on the side, an-and that lights up the matchsticks." Louis was the one to give in after watching Henri open and close the matchbox for the fifth time, sweat starting to bead on his temples.

Henri on the other hand was unruffled, fascinated by the matchbox. He struck it a few times and only got a few sparks before breaking the stick.

"It’s fine, that happens sometimes." Louis quickly reassured him at the frown that appeared. He would soon come to regret his words very soon because Henri proceeded to snap the next ten matchsticks in half.

By that point Louis was right at the edge of his patience, snickering coming from the group handling the grill. He shot them a cold stare which quickly shut them up before taking a deep breath.

"Don’t strike too hard, the matchsticks aren’t that strong and you’ll want to strike it across the entire surface, not just a specific spot." He gave Henri more tips, praying that he wouldn’t regret that move.

Henri picked up fast, lighting up the next match, the smile that lit up his face was almost worth the trouble that Louis had gone through until he realized that Henri was still holding on to the lit matchstick.

"Henri! You’re supposed to throw it at the pile of sticks, not hold on to it." He panicked, flicking the almost burnt-out stick from Henri’s fingers.

For someone as smart as he was, he was awfully childlike when he tried things for the first time.

This time he got it perfectly, it was all kindling so it easily caught on fire, the slowly growing flames illuminating Henri’s excitement.

He got to his feet however and schooled his expression. "So can I..." He started to make another request.

"Maybe you should take a breather," Louis said in a barely controlled voice, his heart rate finally slowing down. He didn’t even want to know what Henri wanted to do next but he was certain that it couldn’t possibly bode well for him.

Henri huffed but quietly sat down on a nearby trunk without protest, his palm starting to throb. He glanced at it, maybe he needed first aid after all, what if his palm had gotten infected? Would he lose his entire hand?

Valentin immediately showed up with his first aid box again, obviously eager to use it on someone. "Did someone summon me?"

This time, Henri let his hand be cleaned properly without argument, wincing when Valentin wiped his scratch with cleaning spirits. "You’d make a terrible doctor, Vale."

Valentin clutched his heart. "Show more kindness to a poor doctor-in-training." He said right before placing the band-aid on the wrong spot and having to do it over.

Henri’s palm still throbbed but it wasn’t as bad as before. When was the last time he had even gotten hurt? He genuinely couldn’t remember.

He still wasn’t a big fan of the field trip but it wasn’t all terrible, and it would be even better if he could convince Louis to let him light the fire again in the evening.

Louis felt a cold shiver run down his spine as he busied himself with sharpening the tips of sticks to shove them through the fish for grilling as the makeshift grill had been a failure.