Tempestas {l.h} || Wattys 2018

2.1

Harper was to (begrudgingly) stay at the house with Ashton- much to her dissatisfaction, and Ashton's too- to gather as much information as they could, whilst Calum and Michael were to search potential hideouts. Harper had spent a solid hour trying to convince the boys to let her join the search party, but they insisted she would just be a liability. Eventually, Harper had given up upon the decision that her words were better fought elsewhere.

That conversation, was how Harper found herself sat next to a brooding Ashton, whom would continually huff and puff like the big bad wolf he sought to be, much to Harper's frustration. She was finding him more annoying that the people that walked slow along a footpath, or the people that would continually press their click-pens, and perhaps most importantly those that snored. Yes, Harper thought, he was being more annoying than snorers.

She couldn't take it anymore, "Would you shut the fuck up? If you're going to breathe so loud then do it outside, or better yet don't even bother to breathe at all, because it certainly won't bother me either way!". Combust like a balloon indeed.

To Harper's astonishment, Ashton merely blinked and looked at her with his brown eyes that bore into her own green one's. Harper couldn't decide whether to jump with joy or throttle Ashton across the head upon hearing his next words, consisting of the simple two-worded, overused saying, "I'm sorry."

"Good."

"Not just for breathing, but for the way I treated you. It may not seem like it, but I care for your safety, and whether you choose to believe it or not is up to you, but I can be more protective and overbearing than Michael, just in my own way." His voice was soft, merely above a whisper, as if the words spoken weren't meant to be for anyone but herself, not even for the chirping birds outside, that she also wanted to throttle for they weren't easing the migraine that threatened to wash over her like a tsunami.

"Why do it then?" A small part of Harper cursed at herself for not just accepting the apology and moving on, but the bigger part of her wanted to get to the bottom of this situation, if only to distract her and perhaps ease her pent up anger.

"I used to be like Luke once," He trailed off, his brown eyes turned dull, as if he was reliving a past event. Harper waited for him to continue, but it seemed that Ashton needed a little push, for he was silent for a few more minutes.

"Do you mean lively like Luke? Or perhaps you were once good-looking like Luke?" She meant the end part as a joke, and by the tug on the right side of Ashton's mouth, she had succeeded.

"In love." Ashton paused, his head tilted to the side as he briefly smiled, "I was in love, like a fucking teenager in high school, it was that kind of love. It was real and raw, god did we fight and rile each other up, but at the end of the day she would always happily curl up in my arms and hug me so tight that all my worries would fade away. She was beautiful- everyone thought so- and it was a constant struggle to believe that she was all mine and not theirs, but she would remind me everyday that I was the only man who had and would ever have her love. She had a temper too, one that rivalled mine, and perhaps that was why we belonged together. . ." Ashton sighed, and it was then that that the brown-haired girl noticed the tears threatening to spill out of the males' eyes.

"What happened?" The tone was gentle, questioning but not demanding. Harper would never urge someone to tell her such raw and emotional experiences, not unless they wanted to share them with her.

Harper waited, her green-eyes flickered from Ashton's face, to the floor, the walls, back to his face, and repeated the cycle all over again. She exhaled a sharp breath, her heart not ceasing it's pounding beats, as Ashton whispered his reply, "she died, and it was all my fucking fault. It was supposed to be me who left this world first, but she was taken from this world before I could offer up myself as a trade." Harper glanced up and was taken aback by the orange irises that had replace Ashton's usual brown ones, flickering like wildfire that was fueled by his emotions, however she decided not to comment on it as the male opened himself up to her.

The way the tanned man spoke brought sorrow to Harper's heart. The way Ashton spoke as if he truly did not want to wander this Earth anymore, live this life, and breathe the air that she breathed. Each word was laced with an abundance of emotions; sorrow, fear, anger, they were never ending, but Harper could not detect any positive emotions in his words, in his voice.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry that you had to suffer through that." There was no response, instead Ashton shuffled through a bunch of papers and handed some over to Harper, without so much as a glance. Back to typical Ashton, although Harper wanted to cheer at the fact that he was silently breathing once again, score.

Harper proceeded to search through the papers in hopes of finding some useful information, but all of it seemed to be irrelevant, until she came across a file with the words 'LARKIN' printed out in a bolded format. The name wasn't the only thing that seemed to stand out to Harper, and like gears in a gadget everything clicked inside of Harper's brain as she let out a loud "Aha!", one that startled Ashton as he dropped the file he was holding and scowled at the loud girl.

"I think I got it! So as a child my dad and I would always go into the forest- well, we still do sometimes, but not as much- anyway, my dad would always talk about the quietness of the woods and how you could feel and hear anything even if it was a mile away if you just closed your eyes and willed yourself to listen. So I guess what I'm getting at is that if you wanted to hide somewhere secluded, it would be the forest because you can sense anyone approaching, especially if they are Potestas because they can use their powers to amplify these feelings." Harper deeply inhaled, which was much needed after telling Ashton her discovery.

Ashton blinked, taken aback by how many words just came out of the brunette's mouth in such a short span of time. he opened his mouth and closed it as his brain continued to process the information it had just gotten thrown at it like vomit. Finally, he spoke, "We thought of the possibility, however there is still a lot of forest out there and not enough time to cover it."

"Derelinquetur terra."

"I had no idea you spoke Latin, I'm sure Luke would be proud." Ashton smirked, the boys and himself didn't often encounter people who spoke one of their languages, ones that went back to the founding Tractatori themselves, who had visited this Earth and taught a small handful of humans in different areas, a few of the languages of their own homeland, to which the humans adopted and made their own.

"I don't, well not really. Anyway, it means 'forsaken land' and my dad used to tell me about it, we even visited there a few times. It's this section deep in the forest, overgrown and dark, beautiful in it's own creepy sort of way. It was a house of our ancestors apparently, not that I should believe everything that dad says, but wouldn't it be worth it for us to take a look?" Harper maintained eye contact with Ashton, her green eyes ablaze as she mentally patted herself on the back.

"I'll call the boys and we will go take a look at it."

"Yes! I knew you'd come around. I can't wait to go back there, it's been ages because dad rarely liked to make the trek there-"

Ashton abruptly cut off Harper's rant, "The boys and myself will go, you however will stay here where you can't get hurt." There was no room for argument, Harper knew that much, but that didn't stop her as she shockingly stared at Ashton, a mixture of anger and sadness plastered on her face despite the neutral look she was aiming for.

"That is bullshit, and you're going to have to tie me up and lock me away because I'm going with you guys whether you like it or not." Her nostrils flared in anger, and if it was possible Harper was sure she would have steam coming out of her ears like Harry Potter in the Prisoner of Azkaban.

"That can easily be arranged." Ashton smirked as he pulled out his phone and texted the boys, informing them of the new discovery.

"Fucking prick!"

Hey Guys xx

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