Elementals: Entwined

Chapter 29: Tiffany

Given that we slept on a boat, something told me that I was partly responsible for the tired bags under his eyes. Amy raised an eyebrow at me, standing and turning to Uri. He gave her a tired smile, and I knew I had to to as I was told. The two of them did not deserve the stress.

"Meeting in an hour," Uri reminded us. Holding hands, he and Amy walked away.

I watched them leave, feeling more awkward with every step they took. Only when they had vanished from view did I finally look at West. My eyes unexpectedly met his, and I felt my cheeks redden, feeling slightly embarrassed. I was mostly in the wrong here, and I hated feeling that way. "I -"

West had opened his mouth to speak too, but now he stopped, running a hand through his hair. Slowly, he sat down on the lounger Amy had just vacated. Unlike her, though, his instinct was to instead close the umbrella. Both of us were stalling, not really wanting to admit to being in the wrong.

"I'm sorry." I was surprised to find that I had spoken first. "I should never have treated you like that. Chaos being your father isn't your fault, and acting like that was out of line." I was speaking so fast that the words almost seemed to tumble over each other in a rush to get out. "Please -"

West cut me off by leaning over, placing a finger to my lips. I blinked at him, shocked to see that he was now actually grinning. He seemed bemused, but I could also see relief in his eyes. "I forgive you."

"You do?" That was fast. "I thought you would be angry at me."

Now he winced, rubbing the back of his neck. "At first I was - I was angry at a lot of things, not just you. Talking to Uri surprisingly helped. He's used to it too, so he got what it felt like." His jaw clenched at the memory, and he angled his eyes away from me, keeping his irises out of sight. I don't know what I was thinking, but before I knew it my fingers were tracing his cheek, turning his face to look at me. Amy was right: we did need to trust each other. That trust went both ways, though - West needed to know that he could also trust himself to be around me without me flinching. I watched as the ruby red colour slowly faded, reverting back to that shimmering gold.

"You didn't have to do that," he murmured.

"I needed to." The intensity of his gaze had me blushing, especially given that he was less than a foot away. I felt a weight fall over my right hand, and my breath caught when I realised West had covered my hand with his own, keeping my fingers held to his face.

"Thank you." The corner of his mouth tilted upwards. "You're the first person to do that - the other chosens tend to avoid looking at me."

That was awful. "Sorry." I felt bad all over again. West laughed, surprising me instead.

"That was a compliment. Learn to take one."

I scowled. "Dick."

He smiled teasingly. It was apparently infectious, because I grinned back. "Get used to it, because I'm kind of sick of sleeping on the floor. You owe me a million massages."

I snorted. "So that's what you've been doing the last few days."

He chuckled. "What can I say? The masseuse was hot."

He'd said it jokingly, but for some reason I felt instantly pissed off, pushing his hand away. West sighed. "Now what have I done? You're angry."

There were times I almost wished I didn't know about the link Drydan had created. The first thing I was going to do when I met him was demand he remove it, no matter how scary I had found him in West's memory.

"Are you going to do that all the time now that I know about the link?"

"Only when necessary." He frowned, seeming to focus. "Are you actually jealous?"