Jack walked throughout the areas of Anthemoessa and he furrowed his eyesbrows when he didn't see Juri around, anywhere. He went to the dining area to make sure, it was empty. He checked with Himeropa, nope. He even asked the Guardians, they didn't know either. So Jack walked to the Springs and the memories of earlier hit him, making him blush and slightly chuckle due to how unlucky the situation became more and more. He decided to go farther past the Springs, after a while he began to hear some hitting, swooshing and grunting sounds from afar. Curiousity got the best of him as he went and followed the noises. Nevertheless, Jack came to an area that he was unfamilar with since Juri hadn't show them this during the tour. And ironically, Juri was in that area, with a long spear in her hands as she swung it around in different techniques. With the dummy behind her, she threw the spear's blade directly into the heart area. With quick movement, Juri pulled out her bow and arrow and shot arrows into two more dummies including the one she originally stabbed. Her arrows also aimed at the boards around her, she spun around and shot the board that happened to be attached to the tree right next to Jack's head.
"Woah!" He yelled jumping when the arrow hit the board beside him. Juri gasped and stood from her pose with wide eyes. Her eyes became narrow as she said, "How did you find this place? No one knows about this area but me."
"Oh well sorry. It's just that I couldn't find you so I came looking for you. I thought you would be with Himeropa waiting for me at the least." He said rubbing the back of his neck as he walked over to her.
"Oh I'm sorry. It's just that you were taking a while talking to Leukosia, so I thought in the mean time after I spoke with Himeropa, that I should do some training. It's been a while actually..." says Juri.
"Well you still got it, after you almost shot my brain out."
Juri giggled and Jack observed the weapons and the very beaten up dummies that lied around. "You think you could teach me a few moves?" He asked.
"You think you have what it takes?" She responded back with a smirk.
He laughed, "Oh I know, besides you did say that you could help me in combat just in case."
Juri arched an eyebrow chuckling, "Okay. But I won't go easy on you."
Within a blink of an eye, Juri had already retrieved a sword from the weapon stand and swung at Jack. He jumped out of surprise on fast she was and she swung her sword again at him, this time he used his staff to block the blade as it pushed down upon him.
"Warn me next time." He said through gritted teeth trying to remove her sword away from the staff, but her strength made it difficult.
She laughed, "I told you I wouldn't go easy. Grab that right now." She said, pointing at the bo staff, and pulled her sword away from him. He put his staff beside the tree and grabbed it, Juri did the same.
"Now strike me." She commanded, he was hesitant because he didn't want to hurt her, but then again: Juri would beat him in combat any day from what he saw earlier.
"Do it! If you're being hesitant, just pretend you're striking me. Like demonstrate how you think it's done, but on me."
Jack swung the staff lightly towards Juri, but she was quick on her feet. Her staff went to his side under his arm, but she didn't strike. They both paused.
"Now if this was a real battle, you would be hit. Never strike like what you just did right now, it gives your opponent the advantage to hit you since you just gave them an open area to strike. And if your opponent is thinking good combat, then they'll do this."
Juri formed their staffs together into an 'x' formation then at the same time, had flipped Jack over onto his back. He groaned as he layed on the mat (which he was glad was there to soften his fall). Juri giggled down at him, then pulled him back up on his feet.
"Maybe the bo staff isn't much for you. Let's start another weapon." She looked down at her wrist as her bracelet shined up at her eyes. "I got it!"
Juri slid the bracelet off her wrist and removed the gem, then it formed to her bow and arrow. "How about we try this?" She suggested.
Jack's mood lit up, he remembered the day she showed him how to shoot an arrow in a mini lesson. Also the day he gave her the ring and almost kissed her. His hand fiddled with the metal band that layed inside his hoodie pocket. He nodded and she says "Warning! This will shock you if someone, that isn't me, touches this weapon. So you are going to have to use me to shoot."
The whole memory replayed in Jack's head, even though he remembered how to shoot decently from her past instructions, he decided to play dumb. He stood behind the small Siren, placing his hands on top of her soft ones. His fingers wrapped over hers around the head of the arrow, as he pulled up the bow and pulling back the arrow much farther than what he was suppose to.
"Woah! Hold up big guy. You're too tense and position is wrong. Place your arms shoulder width apart and feet must be pointed straight ahead to that board." Juri says, pointing her nose to the board approximately 10 feet away from them. He followed her instructions, as she continued, "Relax yourself. When pullling it up, you want the head to be close don't clutch the weapon. You want to let it fly from your grasp not jump."
He relaxed and Juri said, "Now point the tip of the arrow straight at the bullseye, same for bow too. Once you got it targetted, tell me."
Jack closed one eye and focused on the tip pointing to the bullseye. Once he was sure it were to hit the board he says, "Got it."
"Okay." Juri says, "Ready. 1, 2, 3. Let go."
They both let go simultaneously and the arrow slipped from their grasp as it flew across to the board. Almost a bullseyes, just by a few inches.
"Dekára! So close!" Juri said gritting her teeth, clutching her hand into a tight fist. Jack laughed at her reaction, "At least you somewhat got it."
You somewhat got it.
Why did it feel like she had said this before to him? It rang in her head as an immense amount of deja vu slammed at her mind.
"Ahh!" She hissed, clutching at the sides of her head as she fell to her knees. Images began to seep through that it pained her.
"Juri!" Jack proclaimed as he croutched down to her level. Juri tried to supress the pain and in this process, the images. But her curiousity was starting to push through: wanting to see these images, but her stubborn ways made it difficult to the point she was fighting her curiousity, making the pain more immense. Her eyes were shut tight as she fell in pain.
She saw her view of the bow and arrow in front of her. But Juri didn't seem to recognize this bow, the arrow was the same she had today but certainly not the bow. Her bow at that view only had one string and the bow was made of thin onyx metal with a detailed design for the grip section. Unlike this one, her bow today was completely different. Her hands were positioned correctly on the weapon, but she wasn't alone, for another pair of hands were placed on top of hers.
She saw a head next to hers, very close for her taste. But in the image, she didn't mind at all! Like she wanted the person next to her.
"Let go."
Then the shooter let go of the arrow as it hit the board. "You somewhat got it."
When the vision turned to look at the person, the vision ended.
Juri gasped and opened her eyes. Her head slowly turned to Jack who was on his knees behind her. His hands were placed on her ribs and shoulder, as he looked down at her, with the most look of fear she's actually seen on him.
His hands...why do they...?
Juri went back to her vision and saw the resemblance of both hands.
"Juri, are you okay?" Jack asked, his voice calmed her and she slowly sat up. Her gaze was to the ground and replies with "I don't...know..."
He was about to ask her another question until she cut him off by saying, "I gotta go. Training's over."
She stood to her feet and planned to go talk to Leukosia about her vision. As Juri was about to leave, Jack grabbed her hand. Juri froze, the touch: it was the same she felt in the vision.
"Juri, are you okay?" He asked again, this time it was more genuine.
Her eyelashes kissed her cheeks as she looked down at his hand touching hers. They went back up as she stared at him, "I'm fine, I promise."
She wanted to seal what she had said, so she turned on her heel to the Winter spirit. With her index finger over her left breast, her eyes stared up at him saying, "Cross my heart."
After she made an 'x', her hand reached to his. But he was quick, and had already pulled up his hand with his pinky out, latching it to hers. Her green orbs went wide eyed as he continued.
"And pinky promise." Jack says.
"How do you...?" Juri whispers, her heart was beating so fast she could hear it and her face was heating up. She detatches her finger and quickly stomps off.
.::*::.
Jack wasn't letting this go. She saw something!
He knew she saw something, she was in the same state as Parthenope when it happened to her. But Juri was walking away from him, from the vision, a fragment of her memory.
"Juri! Juri!" He called after her, but she still didn't stop walking. She even picked up the pace.
"Juri,why are you running away from the problem?!"
"I am not! I have to be somewhere that isn't your concern!"
"The Juri I know wouldn't run. Parthenope has really rubbed off on you huh?" He said sarcastically at the end. But this was no time for laughs, Juri's steam was rising.
"You don't know me! You don't know me at all!!! Unlike you, Parthenope actually knows me and cares for me!" She yelled back, "She was right. I should have never lend my kindness to you Frost!"
"But does she know that you cross your heart and pinky promise on every promise you make to seal the deal?"
Juri stopped in her tracks.
How does he know?!
"Lucky guess." She spat.
She tried to step ahead but only hearing,
"Does she know that you replace your 'i' dots with a heart?"
"Pshh, eveyone knows that. They all have seen my handwriting!"
"Do they know that you only drink your drink with a straw or else you won't drink at all?"
"They've seen me eat!" She says, she sighed in frustration. "Look: this is getting no where so if you're going to keep rambling, go ahead. But I'm not going to be listening."
As she began to walk off, Jack thought to himself, I have to go deeper. Her deepest secrets, peeves, anything that only I know.
"You're afraid of thunder and lightning."
Juri gasped and went completely wide eyed as she stopped on her tracks. No one ever knew that secret fear she always had, not even Amelia or Leukosia. No one.
"And reason being: because you were exposed to something that made you scared at a young age, with no one to go to. Because no one was home." He finished. His blue eyes, so sincere, looked at his love as she paused. Juri turned her head slightly to look at him, listening.
"When you sleep, you curl into a ball only when you're cold and always: hug whatever is next to you. You have a passion for baking. You go out of your way to please those who you care for, because you think everyone deserves a bit of care. You love Winter because it was your mom's favorite season and you had the best memories in that season. You hate tomato but only like it on your sandwich. You don't like your hair being short because your mother always said you had beautiful long hair. She sang to you lullabies all the time, even when she was drawing on her spare time. You play the piano epically. You have the voice of an angel. And you love, sweet cheesy love story books. You pout your bottom lip when you think or are deep in thought. You think it's weird, but you have an adorable mouse sneeze."
"And..." He continued.
Juri was fully turned to Jack, slightly flinching at each sentence he finished. He stood in front of her, taking her hands into his as he looked into her eyes.
"And you try not to go to anybody about problems. You try to keep them in, your fears and secrets, so you don't burden anybody. Because, of the day that your mom died..."
Juri stared at him in awe, "H-h-how..."
She couldn't speak. No one knew of those things but her.
"Because...I know you Juri. You may not think you know me, but I know you for sure."
She began to stutter and looked down in embarrassment of her voice. She planned to run soon, away from him. He doesn't know me! He can't!
Jack slipped his finger under her chin, pushing it up so she could look at him.
"And I love you Juri. So much."
Juri gasped.
They looked at each other for a split second, until Juri tore away.
With that, Juri dashed. Faster than she has ever done, muting his calls, everything. Faster and faster she ran, because she knew: if she stopped or even looked back, Jack would have her.
HanaFair's Note: Im sooo sorry that I didn't update more chapters last weekend like I usually do. But I hope this makes up for it and hopefully more to go! Oh and: has anyone heard Chris Pine (voice actor of Jack) sing??! I have, and its great (: ! So see the video at the side of him singing!