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Ashe
The sound of rain woke me up. The moon peaked through the window, letting me know we had napped a little too long. As I began to sit up I felt fingers rubbing my back, I plopped back down with a groan. August's sleepy chuckle rumbled out of his chest. Memories of when we'd first met began to flash threw my mind.
Flashback ;
I was so cold, the ground was covered with snow except for under the bridge I'd used as shelter for the last couple nights. All I had to wear was a long-sleeve shirt, boys jeans, a windbreaker and boots that were falling apart. My hair was matted and my skin was dry from the cold. I pulled my knees into my chest as I huddled under the bridge. In front of it a large grey-brown wooden sign stood with red letters reading "Welcome to Wolf Creek."
A branch snapped in the distance, I jerked my head in the direction I heard it but saw nothing. I gripped the knife in my hand so tightly my knuckles had started turning white. Then there was a rustling in the tall grass just outside of the bridges shelter. I got up and put myself into a defensive position, I'd been attacked enough to know how to deal with almost any situation at this point. There was no other shelter near by, so I wasn't about to give this spot up without a fight.
A tall, blonde haired figure with bright glowing blue-silver eyes slowly stepped out of the brush. He had his hands in the air, his palms were open and facing me as if to show he wasn't a threat. Of coarse I didn't trust that, plenty of people would butter you up first to try getting your guards down, making it easier for them to attack.
His eyes stayed locked with mine, they held an emotion I hadn't seen in so long I almost didn't recognize it; concern. People didn't usually concern themselves with the homeless, even homeless children and especially not teenagers, as a matter of fact a lot of them avoided us, aside from the occasional hateful glares for making their precious streets look 'trashier' as they'd put it.
I had no family, no friends, no one who'd be concerned for me, I was all I had so the concern in his eyes only made me more anxious. I took a step back as he took another slow step forward, keeping his hands up the whole time. "What're you doing here?" I asked, using a low warning tone. He took another step forward, slightly smiling as he did.
"Take another step and I'll shred your fucking throat into jerky strips," I snapped, I'd learned that the wilder the threat sounded the more likely they were to leave you alone, it didn't always work but it was always worth a shot. He just stood there, giving me that stupid smirk. "What the hell are you doing here? Don't make me ask again," I spoke louder, getting more antsy and irritated by the second.
He sighed and sat down on the cold ground that the bridge had sheltered from the snow. 'The audacity of this boy', I thought to myself as I shook my head and huffed, keeping my defensive stance. "I heard sniffling and got curious as to who would be out in the snow at this time of night, it's not safe here for kids like you," his voice was warm and deep, almost sleepy.
"I've been living in these streets for the last couple years just fine by myself, I think I can handle it, I certainly don't need a mans protection," I shot at him. He tilted his head to the side with a chuckle, amusement dancing in his eyes now, only irritating me further. "I'm August, by the way, August Stone. What's your name?" I was speechless for a second, his casualness through this whole interaction was weird and honestly annoying. I couldn't tell what his intentions were, I just knew I couldn't trust him, or anyone else for that matter.
After a moment I shook my head again, "that's not important, I won't see you again after tonight. Now unless we're going to fight for the spot or unless you're going to tell me your true intentions here, then leave." He pretended to be offended and held a hand to his broad chest, the sudden movement causing me to tense back up. "We can't share it?" He asked sheepishly as he moved his hand back to its position in the air. I burst into laughter, "Share the space? No way, I know what happens to people who share their space with the wrong people."
His shoulders tensed and then fell, his eyes dropped to the ground and I could see signs of sadness lingering. If I wasn't confused before, I definitely was now. "I know exactly what can happen to those who share spaces with the wrong strangers, from experience, I wouldn't do that to someone," he spoke sharply now but silence quickly came over us and lasted longer than I could handle.
I wanted to believe him after what he'd said, and what his eyes had silently said, but that was the issue. In the streets, you never know who is lying about what, the attackers didn't have sympathy so they didn't care to lie about serious subjects to get your guard down, some of these people are unpredictable and selfish over half of the time. The look in his eyes seemed genuine. Something in me pushed me towards him anyways, cursing under my breath as I walked a circle around him, searching for any visible weapons and sat back in my spot. "You can have that area, but you have to stay over there unless you're leaving," I said while pointing to the opposite end of where I was.
A small, genuine looking smile appeared on his face as he made his way to the spot I'd pointed to. "Thank you," he spoke softly.
After a while of studying him in silence I spoke up again, "Are you hungry?" His head jerked up, he'd clearly been half asleep at this point, but nodded anyways. "I've got a little food in my bag if you don't have much right now, or if you want to make any trades, it's too dark to go foraging," he said as he pulled his bag open and started pulling out a few things.
I smiled a little at his offer, my intuition wasn't giving me any warnings but, as usual my trust issues were screaming no at me. He couldn't eat the food if he'd poisoned it so I'll just work with that. "Thank you," I eventually responded.
"Want to meet in the middle?" He gave me a goofy grin and gestured at the strip of land between us that had been sheltered from the snow, I nodded. With the knife still in my hand, we walked towards each other until there was about four feet of space between us, he sat first and then I did. The silence wasn't as awkward as I'd thought it would've been, it felt casual, normal even now that I had calmed down. I felt oddly comfortable with the bright-eyed boy in front of me, almost like we knew each other already.
We'd started talking about our adventures and a little of the struggles we'd both experienced during our homelessness. Eventually I decided to trust him a little bit, it felt nice to talk to someone again, to possibly have a friend. I found out he was only nineteen, just four years older than me.
The sun began rising, casting golden rays of light through the mist in the surrounding trees. If only I had woken up as peacefully as the view looked. My eyes snapped open as I realized there was an arm around my waist, before I recalled the visitor from the night before, I was jumping up and turning to stomp on his face for touching me at all. Before my worn-out boot came down, his expression stopped me as I finally recollected last night.
He didn't utter a word, for a second I thought he might even be holding his breath as if he was just going to take it, but his eyes glowed with some sort of pain, not fear or anger, but not exactly sadness either. It was like I had triggered a bad memory for him.
With a sigh, I set my foot back on the ground and took a breath, 'he hasn't hurt or drugged me, I know that much, he probably did it in his sleep' I noted to myself, remembering that I had gone to sleep after him and probably rolled close to him in my sleep. I ran my fingers through my hair as I sat back down in front of him. "I'm sorry, I don't do well with touch," I dropped my eyes to the ground again. I hated apologizing, it was awkward.
He put his hand on the ground a few inches from me as if he were going to touch my hand in a comforting manner, but respected the boundary I'd just laid out for him. "It's okay, I get it. I want you to know I didn't...do that on purpose. In the winter my sister and I would hold each other to stay warm before- well, it doesn't matter now. I should've been more careful," he spoke softly, his eyes still holding that unrecognizable pain as he offered me a smile, one I knew immediately was fake. I wasn't sure what to say, so we just sat there for a while.
We shared breakfast in silence and when the sun was almost in the center of the sky I stood to leave. "Thank you, for your kindness. You might've restored a tiny bit of my faith in humanity," I said with a small chuckle. He stood up with a smile and nodded while holding out his hand and said, "don't sweat it. I never got your name by the way, what do I call you?"
"Asheland Walker, you can call me Ashe though," I said simply, taking his hand and then deciding to pull him into a hug instead of a handshake. My whole body went stiff at first, it's been at least a year since I willfully even shook someone else's hand. He didn't fully wrap his arms around me, instead he gently pat my back with one hand and kept the other at his side.
"It fits," he said, meeting my eyes with his own and sending me a warm smile, "why don't we travel together for a while? I know Wolf Creek pretty well, I could show you the safest rest spots, what do you say?" I thought for a moment, it was an easy decision at this point, especially since I was already heading that direction, "I'd like that, friends?" He nodded as he smiled, "I'd be honored to be your friend," he giggled. With that, we set off into town.
***
The smell of coffee lingered in the air as I finally sat up. The moon was a little higher in the sky now and August wasn't in bed. I'd fallen asleep again, but surely I would've woken to him moving around to get off the bed.
I closed my eyes and took a big breath in through my nose and slowly exhaled, feeling the energy around me. Nothing seemed off so I tossed my legs over the side of the bed and slipped my boots on, however right as I reached the bedroom door August came around the corner holding two mugs. I jumped so hard I almost knocked him over, once we stabilized ourselves he started laughing. "That's not funny, you scared the shit out of me grasscrawler," I punched his arm and laughed again.
He set the mugs of coffee on the bedside tables and turned with a pout on his face. "You know I hate that nickname," he groaned as I rolled my eyes. "Well then I guess you shouldn't have been using the tall-grass fields to have all your late night-"
"OKAY, okay, shut up, let's not talk about that. You're not so innocent yourself," he said the last part with a smirk and a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. I scoffed, "I am an innocent child of the forest August Stone."
A deep laugh burst from him, "those pretty little ash-eyes of yours like to wonder when they think no ones looking," he shot a wink at me. My jaw dropped and my face lit on fire, "you have no idea what you're talking about sir, I'm purely observant," I said in a mocking tone. He continued to laugh, "so am I, I guess," he grinned before looking me up and down quickly. "Call me sir again," he smirked.
I tossed a pillow at his head but he caught it, "you pervert." Next thing I know we're in the middle of a pillow fight. A lot of people would call it childish for a twenty-year-old and twenty-four-year-old to be acting this way but, I haven't felt this good or happy in a while. After a few more minutes we finally calmed down. "I missed hanging out with your dumbass," I said as I ruffled his hair. We were now sitting crisscrossed next to each other on the bed, drinking the coffees and catching our breath.
"Oh, is Magna going to be upset that you won't be there when she gets back?" I asked after a moment. He shook his head, "I've always come and gone on my own like that, she knows how to reach me if she needs to." I thought for a while, they'd both said that now.
"What do you two mean by that?" I asked curiously. "It's a shadow thing, you can do it too but only after the transformation," he spoke casually, "I'm surprised you've never noticed the way your gifts have shown themselves to you." I furrowed my brows at this, I had gifts? August laughed at the confusion on my face, "you have a lot to learn."
We stayed up talking about what to tell the girls and more specifically, Oakley, until the sun rose, eventually deciding Oakley would likely need to come back with us since her birthday was in a month but, Savanna couldn't find out. When I noticed the light coming in through the windows, I got up to take a shower. Grabbing a pair of high-waisted black shorts, a black cropped tank-top, and grey socks on the way to the bathroom I glanced back at August, "feel free to make yourself at home, you know where the food and stuff is. If you want a shower you can grab one when I'm done, Oakley and Savanna usually sleep in anyways."
He smiled and nodded as he got up to head for the kitchen, "sounds good to me, as long as your prepared for them to tease us some more." I chuckled, "they should stop if either of us ask them to, they've never purposefully crossed boundaries although they suck at reading body language and taking hints. You have to be very blunt. Savanna's the one you really got to watch out for though, if she finds out you're single she might try to eat you right up."
"In her dreams," he grinned at me before turning into the kitchen, mumbling something under his breath. I sighed assuming he made some dumb joke, with a smile I rolled my eyes and shut myself in the bathroom. Turning the water on and setting the heat where I wanted it, I began thinking more about August. I was thinking about how he spoke to me, treated me, how my friends acted towards us among so many other townsfolk whenever we were seen together.
I still hadn't been able to bring myself to even attempt processing all the 'some legends and mythical creatures are actually real and I'm one too' information, so I did my best to come up with other things to think about and August made that easy.
I wondered if maybe he had feelings for me the same way I had feelings for him, it seemed like it sometimes but I wasn't sure. A light bulb flashed on in my head after a moment. There's one strong way to find out and sitting under the shower thinking about it wasn't how I'd get my answer. A grin slowly slid on to my face as a very stupid plan crept into my brain, getting straight to the point conversationally could be awkward for both of us, so I was going to do this our way.
By adding a little humorous chaos. I was definitely about to embarrass myself but I didn't care, I needed to know.
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