Fragile

41. Hiking

"No, no. I'm sorry I woke you up. But it's almost midday and..." I can't say it. Something seems to stop me from letting all my thoughts away, just speaking about my feelings was so freaking hard and frustrating that it didn't even help. But Fox sometimes knew how to help, more than my therapist. "I ate breakfast alone." I say instead of admitting that I really wanted to end my recovery state.

"Oh my gosh Liv that's amazing! I'm so proud of you." He smiles sleepily.

And that was all I needed to hear to continue my hard journey.

"Thank you." I smile. "No nightmares?"

"No nightmares, you really did kiss them away." Fox smirks, making me laugh. "Shit, how long did I sleep?"

"Over thirteen hours. Feeling better?" I ask while tracing the lines of Fox's face with my finger.

"Much better." He says.

"Good." I smile. "What do you wanna do today? It's summer and we're finally free."

"Hmm, how about this?" He asks and surprises me with a gentle morning kiss on the lips.

"Sounds really nice." I smile widely as we slowly pull away for breath.

"But other than that, what'd you wanna do?" Fox asks and fidgets his moon ring. "I have an idea of you don't mind."

"I don't mind at all, tell me." I say excitedly.

He studies me for a moment, probably to figure if I'm going to laugh at his idea, but then he opens his mouth again. "Picnic?"

"I love that!" I really don't, but I have to get over my fear of food at some point. "Where are we going?"

"You may not like this, but I know a really pretty place. It's a little hard to get to, but not impossible." Fox smirks.

"What? Like, hiking or something? Bears?" I ask terrified.

"Not that dangerous. It's just really difficult ground to walk on. But I promise it's worth it." He then goes to press the moon charm on his ring and then smiling as he says; "And now we can always tell when the other one is in trouble."

"I didn't even think that, but I guess that works. I'll remember to notify you if I get attacked by a bear." I laugh and finally pull Fox up from the bed. "Come on, we don't have the full day to rot in bed."

He sighs deeply, but still looking far more spry than usual. "Alrighttt."

***

"Where are you going?" Elijah walks into the kitchen as me and Fox pack our picnic foods: two leftover muffins, slices of pizza from yesterday, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, and lots of lemon water.

"Picnic." Fox tells my brother.

"That's a lot of food for one sitting." He just mumbles back, snatching an apple from the counter. I stare at Elijah for a moment, not wanting to believe he just said that. "What?" He asks confused.

"Nothing, but you should really know when to shut that stupid mouth of yours." I murmur.

"Ugh, what's your problem now?" He rolls his eyes, looking bored. "I was just saying?"

"You're twelve, learn some manners already." I scold him a little, ignoring his filthy comments.

"I'm turning thirteen in a month!" Elijah says and then wavers off to his room, not bothering to argue any more.

"They don't know exactly that I'm recovering. They don't know a lot of stuff." I mumble at Fox when I see his worried gaze. "Don't worry about it, it's fine. I'm better now."

"You sure?" He meets my gaze to make sure I'm not lying.

"A hundred percents." I say almost truthfully.

"Okay, promise to tell me if it begins to bother you." Fox strokes my cheek softly and I smile.

"I promise. And now seriously let's go, it's already past noon." I hurry him, grabbing the picnic basket from the table.

The bus ride takes an hour, making me nervous about the new places. But Fox assures me the whole time that it's going to be amazing and fun. I trust him, and I'm bored since I don't have to stress over calories 24/7 anymore, so I just go along.

"Just a little more walking and we'll get to where the hiking trail begins." Fox says as we hop out of the bus.

But the little more walking turns out to be false information. It actually takes us nearly half an hour before getting to what seems like a dead town and lots and lots of trees.

"Where the fuck are we?" I ask.

"The trail begins here." Fox smiles towards the forest.

"This isn't a very popular hangout spot, is it?" I ask, glancing around us. There was absolutely nothing besides tall and gruesome woods, and us. Not a single soul.

"Tod used to take me here, and believe me when I say it scared the shit out of me for the first times." Fox laughs at the memory. "Alright, let's get going then."

"To there? You want to go there and hike? That looks like the beginning of a horror movie, and you know I hate those." I ask like a scaredy cat.

"It's worth it, I promise." He smiles reassuringly and I hesitate a bit before finally giving in.

Whatever 'trail' he was speaking off, was also false. There is not a single trail, or a single sound. Everything is eerily quiet and my scaredy cat brain is waiting for a murderer to jump out of the woods beside me. There's no road, no people, no sounds apart from nature, just pure magical forest.

"How long is this going to take?" I mumble, trying my best to avoid getting hit by a branch.

"Be careful with those." Fox ignores my question and holds the branches out of my way.

I blush at that, for whatever dumb reason I have. "You didn't answer my question."

"Well, to the main area is about two hours-" he's cut off by my screech.

"Two hours!? What do you mean two hours?"

"Just trust me, it's going to be fun." He laughs at my shocked face.

So I try to trust him, giving this headless trip a chance. The sun is almost fully covered by the tall trees and though it's not even one p.m. yet, our surroundings are dim. Only a little sparkling sunlight perks through.

"What did you mean by the 'main area' thing, by the way." I ask after a while of trying not to fall down from the difficult ground. Roots and leaves tried to tackle me every passing second, and branches tried to hit me full-force. I wouldn't even be surprised if a snake or beard would attack me in the next heartbeat, or maybe a murderer...

"This forest holds a lot of secrets and amazing places. The main place is, at least I think, the coolest. But there's things along the way there, and they're all abandoned and covered in moss. Though I think that makes them even more interesting." Fox tells me.

"What places?" I ask.

"I don't want to spoil, you have to see them yourself." He just smiles, taking my hand into his warm one suddenly.

"How do you know all this?" I ask.

"Tod, he is amazing at finding cool stuff like this. We used to play here, sometimes even sleep." He smiles, but after noticing me come in a halt with a shocked look he continues: "Don't worry it was fun back in the days."

"Sounds really really fun indeed." I mumble, gripping into his hand tightly and then we continue our stumbling together.

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Words: 1950