Author's Note

Chapter 16.5 - Come Back

Thomas laughed, shaking his head fondly as he leant back on his sleeping back, his hair swaying with the swish of his head. After a moment, he opened his eyes, grinning in such a way that it was both charming and patronising at once.

"Oh come on, we all know that cheese is the best," he stated, tilting his head and earning a bristle from the tanned boy as he pointed an accusing finger at Thomas, the reflection of the dwindling fire in his glasses.

"Look, ham is better and there's nothing you can say to convince me otherwise," Keith hissed, narrowing his eyes at the Irish boy, who leant forward playfully.

"Prove it," he purred in overwhelming amusement, giving Keith a coy smirk. Only he scowled and hit Thomas on the nose, who yelped, rubbing it in offence.

"Can't we just have ham and cheese sandwiches? And then we're all happy?" Katherine asked in exhaustion from the sidelines of their argument, with a gentle smile on her face as Thomas span to look at her.

"Well, my darling, I'm glad you asked. You see-"

"Never mind." She held a hand up to silence him. "I'm getting more firewood."

Thomas gaped as she cut him off and flashed him an award winning smile, before pushing herself up off the sleeping bag and stretching as she stood, her smile fading for a moment as she yawned. Dark, frizzy hair flowed smoothly down her back when she straightened, and then reached down for a bag, a few strands falling into her face.

"You really should tie that back, y'know," Keith told her matter of factly, and then took a gulp from his own bottle before holding it loosely in his hand, wrist resting against his propped up knee. She shrugged.

"I haven't really needed to today. Nothing's really happened, so it doesn't matter if it gets in my face." She paused for a moment, looking through the bag of firewood. Thomas wondered what she was doing, and why she had stood up, so he pushed himself onto his hands and knees and crawled over to look into the bag, black hair flopping into his vision. "Besides," Katie continued, "it's a pain to tie up." She paused again. "Thomas, what are you doing?"

"Being dumb, as per usual."

Thomas shot Keith a glare, while he only smirked at him, green eyes glinting behind his glasses. He huffed, sticking his tongue out childishly before answering Katherine.

"Trying to figure out what you're doing."

"Working out how much more we need. Is this our last bag?" She straightened, looking around at all the other bags, each one sad-looking and deflated as Thomas looked with her.

Thomas nodded. "Looks like it." He stood up, brushing the dirt off the knees and backside of his jeans. "I'll come with. It'll take a while to get enough, and its pretty dark anyway. Long day tomorrow."

Thomas heard Keith sigh in protest, and turned to look at him as he made his way to stand up. "Me too." He started, but was cut off.

"Nope, nope, no you don't." This time, Thomas smirked, while Keith frowned at him. "We need you here watching the fire. Our stuff's here and if the fire goes out then we wont be able to find our way back, it's too dark."

He watched in amusement as Keith twisted his lips, in something like his version of a pout. But angry. An angry pout. He was still halfway through standing up and had sort of stayed in place, one knee bent as though he were about to propose. Which only made Thomas even more amused.

"But staying here is boring. And we all know my navigational skills are better than yours, so I'd be able to find our way back easily, fire or not." Thomas watched as he raised his eyebrow, as though daring him to argue. Which he did. He had been put in control for a reason, you know. For his brains, not for how stubborn he was. He wasn't stubborn, thank you very much.