𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡 ˚𖦹° ᴀᴏɴᴜɴɢ x ᴏᴄ

Chapter 15.

We touch down when the sun has risen and the air is warm and fresh. We touch down in the forest, and I slide off first, letting him get off himself. I disconnect our queues and whisper goodbye to Ze'nna.

"I'll see you soon, Ze," I say, touching our foreheads together before I walk back through the forest, Aonung following me.

"So? How was it?"

"It was... terrifying," Aonung says truthfully, and I laugh. I feel his eyes brushing over me. It's strange, he always does that, his gaze always softening at the sight of my soft dimples.

"Did you like it?"

"I loved it. It was strange, that it's so different to everything I've ever done, and something that always terrified me, but it was so beautiful."

"Good," I say, still smiling. "I'm glad you liked it. I thought you would."

"Why did you take me? I thought you hated me?" Aonung asks, pausing a little.

"I... don't," I say slowly. "I hadn't exactly forgiven you, but I don't hate you."

"Good," Aonung says, and he sounds a little relieved, but I can't think why. He pauses for a moment, then he says what he had been holding back. "There's something here."

His fingers brush my waist and I freeze. I look down and see his fingers move gently over my scar before softly dropping away. 

"Oh, yes. It's just a scar," I say dismissevely, trying to calm my heart, which had suddenly sped up at the contact of his hand against my waist.

"How did you get it?" he asks softly as we reach my hut. We move up the branches, Aonung much more comfortably, and I wonder if he's come to the forest more than the two times I've seen him.

"I was shot," I respond. "I was protecting my siblings from some avatars, and one managed to get me. I got four of them first though, so ha."

"Four? You killed four people?" Aonung asks incredulously and nervously, and perhaps a little impressed.

"Um, sure," I say uncomfortably.

"More? Five?"

"Directly and intentionally, six. But possibly eleven."

"Eleven!" He explodes.

"Well, it was sort of an accident. A good accident!" I say hurridly, at the horrified but maybe slightly amused expression on his face. "I was in battle, and the two gunships I shot down may have squashed and exploded a few people."

Aonung laughs, and I scowl.

"Your scars are all from the sky people?" he asks as we move into the hut. He sits comfortably on the floor as I rest my bow against the wall.

"Some of them, yes."

He looks angry at this, and I'm surprised at the defensive spark in those large blue eyes. I smile a little, and he frowns.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Most of them are from other stuff," I say evasively, gesturing over my body. "I got this one from getting in a fight with Lo'ak. This one's from the palulukan, and these as well."

His eyes are fixed on each scar as I point them out, and his fingers brush my knee. 

"What's this one from?"

"From you, idiot. When we were sparring."

"You didn't say it was-"

"It's fine," I tell him, though I'm not sure why I'm reassuring him. "It didn't hurt, and it wasn't deep."