Guys the title sort of rhymes I'm so happy with myself :3
Raif's pov
"You can't wear white, we'll lose you as soon as we take a step onto the trail." I say exasperated, it hasn't even been a solid hour with Rafa and Mikhail and I'm already regretting my proposition.
Rafa grumbles and puts away the heavy jacket, "but that black one makes me look fat," she whines as she grabs it and basically throws it at the only worker in the small store I found. I roll eyes my eyes as Mikhail says, "no it doesn't, I doubt there's a fashion show happening where Raif's taking us."
"But what if we happen to run into someone who's flippin hot, I can't be looking like a marshmallow!" Rafa grumbles crossing her arms over her chest, I sigh and am about to tell her to stop whining when Mikhail suddenly blurts out, "yes you can be, I'm the only flippin hot person who should be looking at you and your marshmallowness."
I raise an eyebrow at him and when he meets my eyes he awkwardly coughs and turns away, Rafa looks like a tomato but before I can question them on what the hell that was, the worker speaks, "is that all sir?"
I turn to him and say yes as Mikhail puts his stuff on the counter, he's about to take out his wallet but I stop him and say, "I got it man."
"Nah it's okay I'll pay for us," he says tugging at his pocket, "no no," I quickly try to get my wallet but Mikhail's faster, "so the total?" He asks the worker. I finally manage to get it loose and pull it out pushing his hand away at the same time, "Raif I'm serious I got it!" He says.
"Mikhail shut up and put your wallet away," I yell, he shakes his head, "nah you put yours away."
"I'll run away without you two right now if you don't put it away," I threaten feeling the bored eyes of the worker on us and our bickering, Mikhail scans my face but then rolls his eyes and steps back, "ok fine go ahead."
I grin feeling accomplished, the worker sighs tiredly and tells me the price, "$140."
My eyes widen at the three digit number, "uhm," I mumble as I scrounge my wallet, from behind me I hear Mikhail chuckling, I turn to him quickly, "shut up and give me some money."
"Mhm I am I am, ok so how much you got," he says pulling open his wallet, as we both count up whatever we have, with coins falling everywhere and notes clung in between our fingers, Rafa blurts out, "let's go losers."
"But we haven-" I'm about to say but she purses her lips and holds up a giant bag, and then walks straight out the shop leaving me and Mikhail fumbling with money trying to catch up.
"Where'd you get the money?" I ask as we fall into step with her, Mikhail on one side, me on the other. The winds seem to have gotten harsher and colder since the morning, I eye Mikhail and Rafa shivering more than I am in their flimsy jackets but know that once they change into the ones we just got they'll feel much better.
"I had some saved up," is all she says before urging Mikhail to quickly open the jeeps doors. I let Rafa climb in first so that she's in the middle.
As they put on their new gear which consists of better gloves, hats, pants, and jackets, I grab my spare map from my backpack which was in the backseat.
"Mikhail move over," Rafa says as she struggles to take off her old jacket, Mikhail rolls his eyes, "does it look like I have enough space princess?"
They grumble and fumble for a few more minutes before finally sitting up straight, a little too close for my opinion, but there's no space in the front to begin with. Suddenly they both turn to each other with small smiles upon their faces and I raise an eyebrow, when their staring and blushing continue I end up coughing to grab their attention.
"Uhm is there anything I need to know?" I question.
Rafa is first to shake her head and stutter out, "no what would there be to know. I mean you're Raif you already know everything that needs to be known because that's just how you are with your kno-" she's cut off by Mikhail's hand being placed upon her mouth.
"Yeah, be quiet." Is all he says to her before turning to me, "so where to?"
I ignore the glares and glances they give each other and instead turn to my journal, it was a hard and slow process getting to where I was when they found me just because I didn't have this trusty old thing. My brain tends to plan better when it writes everything down, since I didn't have that I was slower than I expected.
"Uhm just a few kilometres ahead towards a place where you can get snow tires, then 140 km up north, an exit from the highway, then we'd have to take it by road there, not a very dense place but we have to get past the tourists." I mumble thinking of a way to avoid any potential traffic there.
"After that we keep climbing until we meet my friend Ajax who's a professional climber, weird I know. Then a trek towards a campsite where we will lay, then we continue by foot. Ajax will lead but he doesn't wanna go all the way so he's gonna show me towards another site where we rest for two hours, then I take a picture of Ajax waving to me as he leaves, then we continue, or I continue if you two can't do it, and then you'll see.
Then you'll see the magic happen."
Rafa's pov
Raif's ends off with a grin plastered to his face, I sit in silence, in awe at how he planned everything, but Mikhail is the one to question the biggest question.
"How in the world did you get all of that," he pauses, "from scribbles and drunk drawings in your journal!?"
Raif smirks and throws us a wink, "it's coded in adventurer code. I made it up."
"Alrighty then, let's get a move on." I say excitedly feeling some weird feelings, "is this that feeling you were describing Raif?" I ask with a grin as warm tingles rise up through my body at the thoughts of our adventure ahead.
My brother turns to me and grins even wider than before, "you feel it?! See I told you!"
Mikhail turns on the car and gives us both a look, "you siblings are hysterical why do I even know you."
"Pfft you're glad you know me." I say feeling him lean a bit closer to me, "hm true very true," he mumbles with a small smile. I'm too lost in the warmth and the rich musky smell that's coming from him to notice that Raif has turned his full attention on both of us.
"What the bloody hell is this?"
"What?" Mikhail asks with a cheeky innocent smile as I try to hide my face knowing that with one look at my face Raif can decipher everything.
"This!" He motions his hands dramatically between us, "uh nothing?" Mikhail says but it sounds more like a question as he turns his eyes away from his best friend.
Before Raif can say anything else I quickly use the good old grade three tactic, "ew Raif grossss of course there's nothing, cooties bro cooties why would I ever, I would die. I can't even, how could you even begin to think, like ughhh gross to the extreme." I say exasperatedly feeling Mikhail's body shaking with hidden laughter.
Raif scrutinizes me with his eyes before slowly nodding, "ok...good girl."
I smile and he returns back to leaning against his seat. While he stares out the window I feel fingers gliding up my palm making swirling motions, an immediate blush follows as I trace the fingers to the hand and then to the face of Mikhail who's ever so slightly smirking.
I'm about to move my hand away when he grabs it and pushes it back down, he takes a finger and begins to trace something upon my palm.
He traces a C, then two O's, followed by a T, I, E and S.
I inwardly growl and push his hand away as he finishes, he chuckles lightly to himself before putting both hands where they belong.
On my face, allowing him to bring me closer to his his face and crush our li---A/N what the hell am I writing, they're gonna flippin crash omg, *shakes out of her sleep deprived faze*
-before putting both hands where they belong. On the steering wheel.
We drive in silence for a while enjoying the warmness of the car and watching snowflakes drift past the windows in a frenzy. It wasn't dark outside yet but evening was approaching, the night comes quicker during the winter. Seeing that we're already so up north the sun will set at an even faster rate.
Raif was idly skimming through his journal with happiness lacing his features, seeing him like this made my heart warm with joy, I guess the inner twin in me was delighted to see its other half happy.
"Which way Raif? I already feel the tires skidding a bit." Mikhail says as he leans forward, Raif looks up and out toward the barren snowy road. "There's an intersection a few meters ahead according to my google map research, just turn there and we'll get the tires fixed up."
A few minutes later we approach what he was talking about and Mikhail slowly rolls down the road until we reach a medium sized automobile shop that looks to be on the verge of extinction. "Is this the right place?" Mikhail voices and Raif nods as we roll to a stop, he pulls his hood up and says, "I'll be right back." He then proceeds to push the door open, bitter and harsh wind sweeps in biting at our uncovered skin.
I watch as he takes huge leaps to not get stuck in the snow and tugs at the shops doors. Just as he enters I remember who he left me all alone with. "Why did the tomato blush?"
I turn to Mikhail with a confused face, "what?"
He smiled a tiny sigh and repeated, "why was the tomato blushing?"
"Uh why?" I asked, realizing that he was telling a joke.
"Because he saw the salad dressing."
It takes me a few seconds but then I get it and the chuckles slips out making Mikhail join in too. "Wow where'd you get that one?"
"Facebook." He mumbles with a smile before looking ahead.
And suddenly the atmosphere feels different.
Maybe it's snow falling outside that brings it on, or the warmness the car emits, maybe how dim it is inside the car..but something, just something makes me shift a little closer.
And something..just something makes him intertwine our fingers ever so slowly. He brings my hand towards his face, a sudden rush of heat spreads through me as his cold yet soft lips touch my knuckles, "Rafa I have to tell you something." He whispers, now bringing his other hand to cup my one. "Hmm?" I mumble feeling like I'm in a daze, fogged out from the rest of the world.
When his eyes meet mine I lose myself even more, the bright green orbs seem to suck me right in and he's saying something, those lips of his are moving but I can't seem to decipher anything.
My eyes roam his features drinking every little thing up and when his mouth stops moving I realize I just missed everything, "huh what sorry sorry what did you say?" I quickly stumble out, shaking out of my emotions, his face seems to fall however as soon as I say that, a light pressure is felt on my hand and I look down at how he's still holding on and then back up to his face.
"I l-" and he's cut off again, not by me zoning out but by a heavily cladded in snow Raif who leaps into the jeep suddenly. "Ok just take the car in and he'll do the- are you guys okay?"
I nod, feeling the warmness around my hand disappear, "so how long will it take him?" Mikhail asks after clearing his throat, he avoids looking at me and looks to be having a huge inner conversation with himself.
"Don't know. But hopefully not too long, Ajax is probably waiting up for us," he says mumbling the last part to himself.
Mikhail drives the car in after a man opens the door and we are ushered out into a waiting room.
It took a bit longer than expected but that was only because there was one man working, but soon we were on the road again. An hour passes in silence, a little comment here and there but not too much of a convo. Another fifteen minutes and Mikhail says with a tired tone, "Raif can you drive I feel light headed."
With everything going on I completely forgot that he was still sick, I quickly make him stop the car on the side of the road, "why didn't you say anything before man?" Raif says placing a hand on Mikhail's shoulder, he slumps against the steering wheel with a groan and mumbles, "I was fine before."
Raif quickly hops out of the jeep and goes around the door opening the drivers side. I move over so Mikhail can let Raif sit behind the wheel.
After we get everything sorted Raif begins driving and I notice how much faster we're going now than when Mikhail was driving. Mikhail has his head back against the seat and is rubbing his forehead. After a few minutes he falls asleep, "do you think he'll be fine?" I ask Raif wondering if Mikhail is healthy enough to join in.
Raif glances at him and shrugs, "don't know we'll see when he wakes up," he says with a sigh putting one hand against the side of his head and the other tight on the wheel.
------
I didn't know what I was expecting but I did not expect Ajax to be so kind.
After driving for around two hours Raif had led us towards a makeshift campsite. Or that's what it seemed from the outside. When we wandered in further it was more advanced then I would have imagined. It was like a whole new world up this north. With large cabins, tents here and there and a small bonfires everywhere.
There were tourists who couldn't stop taking pictures of the mountains, even though it wasn't light enough to see everything, and also people who were native to the area. Ajax looked like a mix of both.
With Caucasian features, a thick build yet a bit short he looked to be the perfect mountain climber. Maybe it was that name of his that made him sound like some rude tough guy. But he was the exact opposite. As soon as Raif introduced himself his face lit up brighter than the snow and he immediately welcomed us warmly.
As of now we were sitting in his small cabin, drinking hot chocolate after a small meal of rice and beans. The hot chocolate didn't have any marshmallows because they weren't halal which made me gloomy. Mikhail had noticed this from across the room, knowing how much I love marshmallows in my hot chocolate, and was rolling his eyes at my pout.
"So when can we head out?" Raif asked after the small talk ended. Ajax looked up from his mug and grinned, "why the rush?" He asked with that deep voice of his laughing lightly.
Mikhail, who now felt much better after taking a nap, said, "that's Raif for ya, always on the move never in one place." Everyone grinned except for Raif who rolled his eyes, "yeah, yeah."
"Well sorry to say but we can't right now, my crew doesn't get here until seven in the morning." He said, "we'll head out then, for tonight you guys can stay in my guest room, it's meant for two people but I'm sure three can fit."
Mikhail and I nodded but Raif seemed to be in thought, yet he still absentmindedly nodded and smiled as Ajax got up to lead us.
The room was as he said, small, but one bed was big enough to fit two people and one was big enough for one person. As soon as Ajax said his good nights and closed the door after us Mikhail and I, like children, leaped onto the bed we preferred.
And that bed ended up being the same one, we both fell on it at the same time bumping shoulders and legs on the fall. I turned my head noticing how close his head was and then started laughing at how his hair which he always kept so neat was scattered all over his forehead. I'm not gonna lie, messy haired Mikhail was a hotter Mikhail.
I had the urge to reach out and move it for him but I suddenly remembered that Raif was standing right above us, "you guys are such children, get away from each other, Astaghfirullah." He said with the tone of a parent, Mikhail and I laughed and I quickly hopped onto the other bed, leaving the bigger one for them two to share.
Mikhail sent me a sad face behind Raif's back and I rolled my eyes with a smile. He then got up and looked around, "which way do you think the qibla is Raif?" He asked and while they tried to sort that out I went into the bathroom to take a warm shower, my period was on its last day, I was blessed to have such short time periods.
Wait. If the periods leaving..then that means my emotions are back to normal!!
Then why the hell is my stomach still fluttering from just his voice! I mentally remarked as I took my hijab off letting my hair out.
Maybe this shower will help.
---
Wrong. It didn't help at all, I came out of the bathroom all clean and warm with a towel covering my hair and a scarf covering my neck and the sight of him praying made my heart do somersaults.
Raif was busy scribbling into his journal to notice my expression and before Mikhail could get up I quickly dashed towards my bed.
After Mikhail went into the bathroom I prayed the travelling prayer and after I was done I let my hair out starting to quickly dry it.
Raif looked up and remarked, "your rainbows fading." I gave him a look and rolled my eyes, "I know, I haven't used my conditioner on it that's wh--" the bathroom door suddenly clicked open and I looked at Raif and he looked at me, gasped and chucked a pillow straight at the door, or more like straight at Mikhail who was just emerging. The pillow hit him straight in the face and he groaned as he fumbled backwards.
I quickly used the time to put the scarf over my head and dive under the covers. I was silently giggling at how overprotective Raif was acting, sadly not knowing that his sisters hair has already been seen. "What the hell Raif?" Mikhail growled as he threw the pillow back. "Rafa had her hair out I had to do something!"
(A/N I'm having a déjà vu moment, anyone else or is it just me?)
"So you decide to take my face out? I have enough man powers to look away duh," he said rolling his eyes, and I chuckled mumbling, "lies," under my breath. Raif didn't seem to hear but Mikhail did and he pursed his lips at me as Raif got up to use the bathroom, "I'll keep that in mind," he said to Mikhail before disappearing.
As soon as the door closed Mikhail looked over at me with a smirk, "but I don't have enough man powers when I'm left alone with her." He said low enough almost purring it out.
His voice made me feel a different type of sensation, a sensation that erupted and made chaos in my chest as he stalked towards me.
He missed the last two steps and instead leaped onto the bed, looming over me, with his legs around mine and hands holding himself up inches above my face.
I gulped.
RIP to my heart.
"Why do you look so scared?" He said leaning closer and closer with each word.
BECAUSE YOUR DOING THINGS TO MY BODY THAT MAKE ME FEEL LIKE IM MELTING BUT I CANT BLAME THE PERIOD ANYMORE!!
Is what I mentally said, but what came out was, "hamsters are fat," in a breathless voice,
He deadpanned me for a second before falling into deep fits of laughter, and by falling I mean he literally fell. Right. On. Top. Of . Me and my crazy hormones that went even more crazier as I felt every ridge of him on top of my blanket clothed flesh.
I heard the faucet closing and was pulled back from my hysteria, I quickly pushed him off whisper yelling, "get off Mikhail! Raif's coming!"
"Uff, I wanna sleep with you though," he whined but the look on his face said it all, he was just messing with me. I blushed but then rolled my eyes pushing him even harder, he chuckled as he leapt onto his bed.
I was quick in fake sleeping and pulling my scarf up higher and tighter around my face. I heard Raif fumbling with the makeshift prayer mat and then with the light switches after he was done. Soon it was dark and silent inside the small warm room until the sounds of hushed arguing erupted from the pair. They seemed to be shoving each other and calling each other names. After a few more minutes of the continuous mumbling coming from them I finally yelled at them to shut up. Which they thankfully did, and soon I was fast asleep.
But not for long.
After no more than five hours of sleep Mikhail and I woke up to a frantic Raif.
"Shit, shit shit. Guys wake up!"
"What's wrong," Mikhail sleepily groaned, "Raif go back to sleep," I whined.
"We have to go. Like right now." Was all he said in the most serious tone ever.
------------------
MY FINGERS ARE DEaD RIP
My brain is too, but not from writing but from math, ugh so much math
Oh and HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA YOU GUYS FELL FOR IT SO BAD!!!! I'm not getting married, incase anyone else missed it!!!
omg though you are all soooo sweet with your duaas and your blessings like I nearly cried, I'm so mean, just keep those duaas safe until the future iA lololl, you guys are the best XD :"D
Anywayssssss what a long chapter, it's all over the place though because I'm stupidly trying to stuff everything in. It's very bad thing to do but it needs to happen because this book is ending soon, tears everywhere, it's gotten too long and too filtered lol I'm sorry but it has one more twist to go and then the end :((