A Peculiar Time in 1944 - A Millard Fanfic (Miss Peregrine's Home) #wattys2020

Chapter 15

oOo oOo oOo Ten Years Later oOo oOo oOo

Aurora was in the kitchen with Olive making tea, it had been ten wonderful years she'd been in Miss Peregrine's loop and miraculously she and Millard had successfully kept their relationship a secret. Olive had her hand on the stove to heat the burner then placed the teapot on the red hot metal.

"I'm going to check on Enoch to see if he wants any." She said as the teapot began to heat up and she left the room. Millard entered shortly after she departed.

"Anything I can do to help?" he offered.

"You could get the cream and sugar." Aurora said as she laid out cups and saucers on a tray. When the kettle began to whistle Aurora moved the teapot off the stove and started pouring, Millard would rotate the cups so she didn't have to strain herself, It was a rather large teapot, he'd said in the past.

"Thank you for your help."

"Oh, it's my pleasure." He replied leaning back against the stove. "Ahh!" he cried as his hand grazed the still hot burner Olive had heated.

"Oh here, run it under cold water. I'll get the burn cream." Aurora said turning on the faucet and having Millard put his hand under the spray. Luckily Miss Peregrine kept a small first aid kit under the basin counter. She retrieved the cream and began rubbing it on Millard's burnt palm. She'd had many discussions with Miss Peregrine about the limits of her peculiarity, the headmistress had told her that since her first time was a subconscious act that healing at will would take practice. So as she rubbed the burn cream on Millard's hand she focused on healing the skin now instead of in three to five days as the tube instructed. She had hoped that by now she could heal major injuries with just a touch, sadly she could only speed up the healing process. Millard knew it was quite discouraging for her.

"Can't believe I just did that." Millard said feeling foolish.

"Oh, I do it all the time. At least you I can help, when it happens to me I can't even speed up my own healing. But it is difficult to tell what to keep your hands off of, you never know what Olive's been up to in the kitchen." She said as she continued to rub her fingertips in gentle circles in his palm.

"It's feeling better already." Millard assured her, "Thank you Aurora."

She looked up at him and realized how close their faces were, close enough that she could feel his warm breath against her skin. She didn't notice Olive walking back in until the girl asked, "What happened?"

Aurora jumped startled, "Nothing!" she said a little too hastily, "Millard burnt his hand and I was tending to it, that's all." Realizing how frazzled she sounded she quickly made up an excuse to leave.

"I-I'm supposed to be going with Emma to mail Abe a letter, I'd completely forgotten, I've got to run, tata." And she bolted from the room.

OLIVE P.O.V.

She stared dumbfounded at the door where Aurora had practically just ran out of before turning to Millard for answers. He awkwardly cleared his throat.

"Well, I should be off too." He said before quickly marching out the opposite door. Olive just stood in the kitchen racking her brain for some kind of reasoning that would explain her friend's odd behavior. When she came up with nothing she decided to talk to Emma, being Aurora's roommate she must have some kind of answer, if something was bothering her newest sister she wanted to be able to help.

oOo oOo oOo

She found Emma upstairs in her room sitting on her bed writing – no doubt a letter to Abe – but Aurora had said she was leaving with Emma, now Olive was even more confused.