Chapter Eleven

Bramble ran well after her feet began to hurt. She continued after her calves burnt and her legs screamed in exhaustion. She sprinted past houses and roads, hills and trees. The chilly fall air stung her eyes and brought a fresh bout of tears to her lashes. She collected various odd looks, stares and hollers from the various Sims she passed. She saw none of it. All her brain could replay was the moment Chad had chosen to kiss her. It had been her first. Her first kiss and she didn’t want it. Stolen from her in a moment of weakness. At these thoughts a wave of Adrenaline surged through her and she picked up her pace with new vigor.

It was a while before she began to calm down. Her pace was still brisk but her mind began to comprehend her surroundings. She was in a forest on the outskirts of the lake. There was a man in front of her. She couldn’t quite make out the look on his face, but he was familiar. Calming. She knew this feeling.

Bramble took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She was determined to pass Airin without a word. She realized they were on a path of collision and knew either one of two things would happen. He would move or she would plow into him. If it is the latter, Bramble thought, I will not stop to help him up.

Imagine her surprise when she didn’t collide with anything. Instead her feet flew from the ground, arms wrapping around her waist. She had a whirl in her stomach that told her she was spinning. At the very last second, Airin had crouched down and lifted her into the air. He had used her momentum against her, expending it to propel their whirl.

Out of surprise Bramble wrapped her arms around Airin’s neck, eyes still squeezed shut as they slowly began to lose their momentum. Eventually her feet were planted safely on the ground again. Relunctantly, Bramble let go of him but Airin refused to do the same. His grip on her waist tightened.

“What happened?” He voice was breathless; taking in her tear stained cheeks and smeared mascara. Her hair was tangled from the wind and her eyes red from tears. She looked absolutely wild.

Bramble didn’t say anything. Instead she began to rub at her make-up in vain, trying to clean up what she knew had to be a mess. Her face was flushed - and not from physical exertion.

“Not talking,” The small frown on his lips was unmistakable, “are you running from something?”

“No,” her voice was choked from crying, “yes - I’m not being pursued. “

“Well, that’s good.” He said softly, finally letting go of her, “Were you hurt?”

“No.”

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” He asked, his smile returning.

“No.”

“Will you come with me?”

Bramble raised her eyes to meet his, surprise written clearly on her face, “Where?”

“Not far, I promise.” He turned his back on her before kneeling on the grass, “come on.”

“What?” Bramble eyes were wide, “What do you want me to do?”

Airin chuckled, “I’m giving you a piggy back ride silly. You look like you’ve had a hard day. I can at least save your poor legs.”

Bramble hesitantly looked down at Airin. Weren’t these for children? She was sure she had never seen anyone except five year olds receive them before, “I don’t think so…”

She heard Airin sigh, shaking his head and running a hand through his blonde hair, “Well then, you leave me no choice.” He stood up, spun around and scooped her up in a blink of an eye. She yelped in surprise, smacking his arm. He didn’t even flinch.

“Put me down!”

“No.” The size of his smile nearly split his face in two. He was mocking her and own one sentence refusals.

How infuriating, “Airin! Put me down!”

“No.”

“Where are you bringing me?” By now Bramble had begun to squirm in his arms - a desperate attempt to free herself.

“Hey, if you wiggle I’ll drop you.” Airin warned.

He still hadn’t answered her question. She continued to struggle as they entered the clearing of Buckshot Lake.

“We are here.” He announced, dropping her ungracefully to the ground, “I told you not to struggle.”

He was playing with her. It rang in his voice, making her shiver. She would never understand why she became so flustered and nervous around this man.

“Why did you bring me here?” She asked, patting her dress down as she stood up.

He shrugged, walking next to the water. Bramble watched silently as he bent down and stared at his own reflection. Eventually she joined him, gazing down at her reflection. Suddenly embarrassment swept over her and she tried to fight with her hair fruitlessly. Airin turned to watch her, smile still tugging on his lips. He reached up and pulled her arm away from her hair.

“I brought you here because every day since I met you I’ve come here.”

“Oh,” She pulled her arm out of his hand, “and why do that?”

“Because, every day since the day I’ve met you I’ve wanted to know you. Really know you,” His dark skin tinted red. Bramble was sure she must have imagined it, “you know, you’re the only person who gives me mixed symbols.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means subconsciously you want something that consciously you think you do not,” He stated, brushing her hair out of her face. Bramble shrank away from his touch, “like right now. You won’t let me touch you but you want me to touch you.”

“If I wanted you to touch me, I’d let you touch me.”

Airin smiled, “Yes, I guess you’re right.”

He stood up but continued to look down at her. An emotion Bramble couldn’t quite comprehend twinkled in his eyes. She had never seen anyone look at her like that before. It was the way her father use to look at her mother all those years ago. It made her uncomfortable.

“Airin, stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“Stop looking at me like you care. Stop saying things that confuse me,” She demanded, standing up straight, “why would you come here every day for almost two months in hopes of running into me? It doesn’t make any sense!”

“It does,” He turned his attention back to the water, playing around with a rock that had washed up ashore with his foot, “I told you, I want to know you. Not the ‘you’ you pretend to be. The real you. The one that was hurt tonight.”

“I told you I wasn’t hurt,” It was stubborn of her to try to deny it.

“Not physically. Someone hurt you though. You let someone in and they hurt you,” He glanced down at her, “right?”

“He didn’t hurt me,” Bramble mumbled, “He kissed me.”

Airin’s eyes widened. Slowly the surprise melted off of his face and laughter shook him. It was loud and boisterous. Bramble found herself drowning in the sound, “That’s why you ran? Because someone kissed you?”

Another round of laughter over took him and Bramble found herself scowling at his back, “Without my permission. He took advantage of the situation. I trusted him.”

“Bramble, the poor guy is probably heads over heels for you and took the easiest way out.”

“Well, I don’t appreciate it when men push themselves onto others.”

The laughter ceased and Airin turned around, ruffling her hair with that playful smile on his face, “You should talk to him. I don’t think he meant to take advantage of you.”

“How would you know?”

“Bramble,” Airin had turned serious, “you realize you aren’t the easiest person to confess anything to. You always find the bad - even in the good.”

“Right, cause you know exactly how he feels about me,” She was not happy with him defending Chad, “and exactly how I feel about relationships.”

“I don’t,” He relented, “but if it’s anything close to how I feel about you than this man was just displaying his affections in the only way he knew how.”

Bramble froze.

“What… did you just say?”

Airin raised an eyebrow and smiled, walking along the shore of the lake, “Oh, nothing.”

Bramble followed him, eyebrows knotted. She wasn’t going to allow him an easy escape, “You just said that you had feelings for me.” It came out as an accusation.

“And if I do?”

“Why,” She asked, throwing her hands into the air, “I kidnapped your grandfather! I’ve killed thousands of people! I’ve set homes on fire and forced children into starvation!”

“See, this is why he kissed you,” Airin chuckled, “He knew if he told you he liked you, you’d try to convince him you weren’t worth it.”

“I just don’t understand, I’m horrible. You two, you could be so happy with someone normal. Someone beautiful and innocent –“

“Bramble, look at me,” She hesitantly met his gaze, “You are beautiful. Even now, looking like a wild animal, you’re beautiful. You just don’t see it. You can’t see through the past and envision a future where you’re happy.”

“I don’t deserve to be happy.”

“Yes, you do. Everyone deserves to be happy, Bramble,” he ran a hand through his hair, “you’re putting your life on the line every single day in order to help those you were forced to hurt. Don’t you see, it is not and never was your fault?”

“Then why,” She countered, “did you blame me. Why does everyone blame me?”

“I didn’t know,” He sighed as tears began to cascade down her cheeks, “I do not think anyone knows. King Richard does not say he has slaves. He says he has soldiers.”

Bramble had never heard this before. She thought the enslavement of the Vestige in Riverview was common knowledge. That everyone was aware of how she and others were treated; that they were forced to do their kings biddings. That disobeying meant death. Did all the kingdoms think that she had tortured, murdered and maimed for fun?

This time when Airin reached out to caress her face, she didn’t move. She was tired. Tired of running away from everything. Tired of being afraid. She just wanted to rest, to be safe. She just wanted to be normal. Free.

When he bundled her in his arms she nearly fell into his embrace. Just like the last time a wave of warmth overwhelmed her. Slowly, he bent down and swept her back up into his arms.

“I think you’ve had enough for one night. I’ll carry you home.”

“You don’t know where I live.”

“I guess you’ll have to give me directions then,” he smiled down at her, “won’t you?”

The next morning Bramble rolled out of bed feeling like her eyes were weighed down by sandbags. Crying sure had nasty side effect. Stretching lazily, she headed out the small bedroom of her foreclosure in an attempt to reach her bathroom. She didn’t make it past her bedroom door.

Airin was in her kitchen. He was humming a song to himself, looking awful peaceful as he chopped up some vegetables. It wasn’t just the fact that he was still there that startled her. Nor was it the fact that he was currently cooking. No, the real reason Bramble eyes were glued to the man in front of her had everything to do with the shirt he currently wasn’t wearing. The rippled of his muscles as he sliced the vegetables was hypnotizing.

Then he laughed. It was so completely unexpected that she jumped. Still laughing, Airin put down his knife and strolled over to a pile of clothes that were dumped on the floor next to her couch, “I think I better put this back on. Your desires are distracting.”

If Bramble hadn’t been blushing before she knew she was now, “Oh, god.” She mumbled before rushing into the bathroom. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it, slowly sinking to the cool tiled floor. She rested her head on her knees and took deep breaths. She had asked Airin to stay over in a moment of sleep deprivation. After carrying her all the way from Buckshot Lake to her home, he had tucked her into bed and told her he was going to leave. Half asleep, she vaguely remembered begging him to stay.

She supposed it was her own fault.

Having no running water left her with no way to cool down her scalding skin. She really didn’t want to go out there again, not when he knew everything she wanted before she even did. It was an unfair advantage.

“Bramble, come out,” Airin called from the other side of the door, “I finished making salad for us. It was the only thing I could make since you seem to lack a stove.”

She stayed silent.

“Oh, just don’t look at me. I can’t tell anything if you don’t look at me.”

Right. Just don’t look at him. Taking another deep breath, she stood up and opened the door. Bramble kept her head held high and her eyes closed as she strolled right past the blonde. Easy enough. Eat salad. Ignore Airin.

Only thing was, she couldn’t keep her eyes off him for more than five seconds. No matter how hard she tried her eyes would drift to him of their own accord, “Can’t you turn it off or something.” She asked eventually.

“To make you feel comfortable I would,” He said, taking a bite out of his own salad as he sat on the other side of the couch, “but I can’t. Doesn’t work like that.”

“Oh,” She thought about that for a moment, “well, it could be useful, right? Like if we were in a danger you could tell how I wanted to respond.”

“I think it’s useful in daily life but yes, I suppose I could use it like that too.”

“Oh, I’m sure your ego loves all the girls who swoon after you.” Bramble couldn’t help the roll of her eyes.

“It certainly doesn’t hurt it.” He replied casually.

“That’s not fair. You don’t ever have to risk being rejected. You know whether a girl wants you or not.”

He turned to face her, face completely serious, “Bramble, will you be mine?”

This startled her so much she nearly dumped her whole plate onto the floor. She managed to regain balance of it at the last moment, “No, I will not.” She said indignantly.

“Like I said last night – mix symbols.” He shrugged.

“So, you can get desires wrong then?” She asked, chewing on a piece of lettuce.

“No. But apparently you don’t want what your subconscious wants.”

“Me,” Bramble swallowed, “this hasn’t happened with anyone else before?”

“Nope. Only you,” He said happily, “first and only girl to reject me.”

She frowned.

“Speaking of rejection,” Airin broke the momentary silence, “are you going to go talk to your friend? I think you should.”

Bramble nodded. She had decided that Airin was right. Chad hadn’t meant to betray her. He had only been expressing his feelings for her, albeit in a manner she didn’t appreciate.

“Good. I bet the poor guy is miserable.” Airin stood up, empty plate in hand, “This has been thrilling but I have other things to attend to today. Is there a place where I can do my dishes?”

“Uhhh, I don’t have running water.” She said sheepishly.

“No water. No lights. No stove,” Airin listed off, “is this even your house?”

She didn’t see the point in lying to him about it anymore, “No. It’s a foreclosure. I’m just squatting in it.”

“Ah,” he stated with a grin, “and here I thought your life of crime was over.”

She rolled her eyes again.

“Shut up.”

“Well then, I’ll just leave you with the dishes,” he dumped his plate on the counter, “good luck with your mystery lover.”

“He’s not my lover!” She yelled as the door slammed shut.

He was so maddening sometimes.