I lift Emery onto my shoulders, so he could reach the apples on the tree. I think it is a much better, safer idea than watching him trying to climb a tree so high and falling off. Yorin tells me not to coddle and I'm not. I just don't want a thing to ever happen to him. I can't say that he doesn't understand because he has a son himself. Really, I just...
Emery stands and balances on my shoulders causing my eyes to go wide.
"Emery—"
"I'll be fine." He climbs onto a branch and waves at me making me bite down on my lip. Soon he starts shaking one of the branches causing apples to fall on my head.
"You have to catch them!" Emery yells laughing at the same time.
This kid really isn't afraid of anything which I find amazing and scary all at the same time.
"How many do I have to get?"
"All of them!"
"That's a whole lotta apples. What are you going to make?"
"I'm not telling you," he sings causing me to smile.
"Ten. I'll get ten apples."
"Ten's fine." He shakes the branch again causing more to fall off hitting me in the head again.
"You have enough apples down here now. Come here."
I reach my arms out to him, but he backs away into the trunk of the tree. He shakes his head and holds on to it tight.
"I can get down myself. Stop babying me."
My lips purse before I sigh out. He's growing to be more independent by the day, I swear. He acts a lot older than his age suggests. He's definitely taller than the average three going on four-year-old. He looks a lot like four going on five, so it's no wonder why he acts like this.
"Emery, I don't want you to hurt yourself."
"I can do it."
"Emery."
"I can!"
I smile and nod this time. "I bet you can't make it here," I say pointing to my chest.
"I can too."
"I bet you can't."
He loosens his grip on the tree and turns slowly to face me. Before I have the time to extend my arms back out, Emery jumps onto me pushing me onto the ground while laughing at the same time.
"See, told you. I can do it," he says as he sits up and stares at me.
"Your other daddy would have killed me if he saw that."
That only causes him to laugh more making me flick him playfully on the forehead. He is a bit of a troublemaker, but who wasn't at this age? I definitely was.
"Let's play again."
"Oh, no-no-no."
He gets from over me and tries to crawl away, but I hover over him and wrap him up in my arms before he can get far. It only makes him laugh more.
Emery falls asleep in my arms on the way back. It is growing late into the evening and the sun is about nearly down. After all the climbing, running and jumping he had done, it's no wonder he knocked out so early. I kiss his cheek causing him to turn his head and snuggle closer into me.
All of my time has been spent with him lately and I couldn't possibly think of any other way to spend it and who to spend it with other than him. He's a really cute kid with little quirks of his own that I've fallen in love with. I want to be there to watch him grow and see what kind of person he'll become. With that, my heart can truly rest easy. He had taken it, after all.
I take away the apple about to fall from his hand just as we enter the pack house. Kaj is the first one I see guarding the entrance. He looks at Emery's sleeping form before looking at me with a small smile as if finally piecing it all together.
"You must be tired."
"Hm?"
"He has a lot of energy. Must have done a lot to make him this tired."
"Yeah," I breathe, "he does. But I'm not that old. I can keep up."
"For now."
I laugh and shake my head agreeing with him. "For now."
I head up the stairs not bothering to address to stares and glances directed towards me and continue down the hall. Just as I'm about to open the door, the door opens with a flustered Yorin about to leave.
"Seth, thank Lunas you are back." Yorin takes a step back letting me inside. "He was about to have my head," he mumbles under his breath only loud enough for me to hear.
In the next moment, Lance walks up to me and takes Emery from me.
"See, I told you. He's fine," Yorin says to Lance who only growls in return.
"No one told you to let him watch him. I asked you, not him," Lance says.
"He is his father too, Lance. You cannot be so like this now. Seth wouldn't let a thing happen to him as you very well know that."
Lance looks into my eyes for a moment before they lower. "... I suppose you are right."
"Here, let me take him. I'll give him a bath in the morning." Lance hands the sleeping bundle off to Yorin who graciously leaves out the room without another word.
It is quiet for some seconds before Lance breaks the silence with a sigh. "You are his father. I shouldn't be so dismissive of you. I should put personal feelings aside in this. I apologize." He looks at me, this time, keeping the distance between us.
"It's okay. You can't just leave your kid off with anyone, and we hardly know one another at all now... Isn't that right?"
I turn to leave at the silence threatening to swallow me whole. Lance takes my wrist in his hand taking me by surprise. He turns me around to face him and I can hardly stop my heart from beating so fast in my chest.
"He's yours too... and he adores you. It doesn't matter whether I know you or not. He'll find some way to find you. To come to you. He is stubborn and willful like that." He smiles causing my heart to twist and pull. "He doesn't like to be told he can't do something, you know?" He stares at me again. "He'll only show you that he can."
"He's a handful," I admit.
"He is."
He walked back to his desk trying to focus back on what he was doing before, but I continue to stare at him. My eyes couldn't peel away from him no matter what I try to do or think about it. I had to leave I try to tell myself. If I don't, it'll only lead to something I don't want to happen. I shake my head. No, Yorin had said...
"... I must come to accept things as they are." Lance breaks me away from my thoughts. "If something happens to me, you'll be responsible for him, so I want him to know you and I want you to know him."
My eyes widen.
"It's only right for him to be with you... and not Yorin or Dani."
"Do not say something like that, Lance."
He rubs his eyes before pushing away the hair falling in front of his face. It has grown and now it needs to be cut.
"It's a real possibility and I must prepare for it. War is not a pretty thing."
"War?" I ask.
"It's nothing that concerns you."
I walk to his desk and place one of my hands on it causing Lance to stare me.
"Whether you want it to or not, it does, so tell me."
"The packs to the west... They held a strong dislike of this pack way past the time I arrived here. I only inherited the issue."
"... I see."
"It started with small things such as mockery and then things that were meant to make me angry such as...sending over wolves with dyed red hair and such. I never paid it much attention but now there are skirmishes and lives have been lost... "
"Is there any way for peace?"
"They wish to broker some kind of truce... in which I'm wary of... The last time I... "He turned his head away from me. "The last time I went to one I ended up losing everything. This time, if I do decide to go, I know to prepare for betrayal."
"So that is why you're... "
"I'm tired of thinking the best of people. All I can see is the worst. It is what I know. And now that I have someone that has my very heart... I can't be so trusting anymore. He means everything to me."
"The Reds will—"
"I do not want his help."
"Why not?" The Old Man never liked them, to begin with, and has tried for decades to find a reason to kill them all.
"Because he'll want Emery in return and I won't agree to it."
"Lance... I can convince him for the summer or the winter as we discussed. Ask for his help."
"I rather not."
"Why are you being so stubborn?"
"Because I don't trust him."
"No, it's because you don't trust me."
"That too."
"Lance."
"You can leave now." He points to the door as if I had forgotten where it is.
"Fine. Have it your way. Be this stubborn thing." He looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "You're nothing but frustrating."
"As you are a lot of things, but convincing is not one of them."
I turn to look at him again catching his eyes going down my body before they meet with mine again, unabashed. Has he grown so bold now? I bend down to his level. Surprise registers in his eyes, but they settle after a second and a smile soon covers his lips.
"If you want to kiss me, you can."
I back away causing him to scoff.
"Suit yourself."
Just as he turns his head away, I grab his chin and kiss him softly but deeply. I tilt my head to get a better angle just as I feel a hand on my neck trying to push me closer. He kisses me back even slower bringing me down onto the side of the chair. His free hand tightens on at my side as his head leans back with a moan threatening to come out. It trails up my sides until it's pressed onto my face.
"Al—"
Yorin opens the door, sees us, and tries to close it back, but it's too late.
"Yorin, it's fine. I was just leaving," I say. I still feel the sparks on my lips. The sweet taste of him still lingers on my tongue making it undeniably hard to go back for more.
Lance's eyebrows furrow as his fingers brush against his lips absently ignoring both of our presence altogether.
"No, I was. Carry on with what you were doing," Yorin says.
"No. It's fine," I say.
"No, I insist."
"Y—"
He slips out the door and slams it shut.
"Don't," I hear Lance say catching my attention. "Don't kiss me like that."
"You said I could kiss you."
He looks at me with wavering eyes.
"Not like that. I don't want it." He wipes his lips with the back of his hand, but I go on and kiss him again watching him melt into me. I feel how his breath shakes and his nails sink into my skin. Soon his arm wraps around my neck pulling me close.
"But there was one thing I for—" Yorin appears through the door again causing Lance to pull away from me.
"Damn it, Yorin, what the hell do you want?" Lance says.
"I didn't think you would... ahem." He clears his throat. Yorin looks at me before looking back at Lance.
"You can leave... I think it's better this way anyway," Lance says to me while covering his lips with his hand.
I look at him as he avoids eye contact with me as much as possible. Instead of saying anything back in return, I decide to leave. As soon as I have the door shut, I close my eyes trying to get my heart to stop pounding so loudly. I swear he could hear it. I press my hand onto my chest and take in deep breaths. Even when it's something as simple as a kiss, he makes my heart beat like this. Why... after everything he has said to me, do I still feel like this?
I shake my head at this. Just one time. Just one time is all I need to settle these feelings of mine. I'm sure that's also what Yorin meant before. But... if a kiss can make me feel this way being so intimate with him in that way will only make it worse. I'm in love with him. Him not being in love with me doesn't change the way I feel about him. It never will, and these feelings will only continue to grow no matter what I try to do.
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[A/N] Another chapter for you guys. Lance is starting to come around in his own little ways. It's quite apparent how Seth feels, though. As for Emery, he is such a cute thing. What's your guys thoughts on it?