𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧🧭

Chapter Twenty-Three

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The soft sounds of owls hooting, crickets chirping, and the wind whistling decorated the night atmosphere. 

The hunter and the healer walked side by side in the dark forest. 

"Funny how history repeats itself," she spoke suddenly.

A warmth filled her stomach at the familiar scene. They had walked through forests before together carrying out the same task of searching for firewood. 

Trevor looked over at her with a frown, "What do you mean?" 

"We were collecting sticks for a fire not even a year ago," she looked at the couple of branches in her arms, "I didn't think that this was going to be such a normal occurrence."

His voice got quiet "...Do you remember what we talked about?" 

She picked up a dry branch and added it to her pile, "Of course, we talked about the tree near your home and how you always wanted it to climb it." 

The conversation they had was delightful and one of the biggest glimpses she ever had past his stone-cold hunter facade. 

"Oh", his eyes widened and he broke a branch off a tree, "You remembered?"

"Why wouldn't I?" she adjusted her grip on the sticks, "I could tell that it meant a lot to you." 

The hunter's cheeks tinged with pink. 

She led her gaze to him, "Why did you ask?" a teasing smile came into her face, "Have you been climbing trees in my absence?

Trevor scoffed with a barely noticeable grin, "I have not."   

The healer paused her walking, causing him to stop in his tracks, "You didn't answer my question." 

He averted his eyes, "I did, I haven't been climbing any trees."

She crossed her arms, "You know what I mean." 

There must have been a reason as to why he brought up their prior conversation. No one references topics such as those only for them to be forgotten. 

"Fine, you caught me," he slowly dragged his gaze back to hers, "I've been thinking about a lot of things recently." 

"What type of things?" she stepped closer to him with raised brows. 

"When I was little all I could think about was climbing that tree. It was the hardest task at the time and one of the only things I've ever cared about. It mattered so much to me and in a single moment it was gone," the light in his eyes dimmed and his gaze went to the forest floor, "I don't want to-- I can't ever lose anything else that I care about again." 

She knew that there was a reason he brought it up. Her chest ached at the thought of him falling into a pit of despair at the loss of something he held dear. 

Nonetheless, now he had people in support of him and he would never have to be that scared boy who lost his family ever again. She would make sure of that.

"You won't have to," she placed her free hand on his forearm, "Things are different now and you have many people backing you up. I'm here for you and I can guarantee that Sypha would say the same." 

Y/N watched as a sense of peace washed over Trevor's face before he dropped his bundle of sticks and pulled her into a passionate kiss. His hands cupped her face and smoothed the apples of her cheeks and he kissed her with such passion.