Adrenaline Rush - Redcrackle Smut

1.

👁️👄👁️.

Wind.

It was all she could think, all she could feel, her hang-glider clinging to it's pathway for desperate life as it tore through the air like a bullet.

It battered Carmen's lithe figure from every which way, air pressure tightening at her ears and sending her hair flying in the wind. The only place she could not feel it's wrath was her underside, where a warm, hulking mass acted as a barrier from the harsh cold. The thief forced her eyes open, sensation returning to her nerves. She suddenly became aware of the fact that this warm, hulking mass was, in fact, her slightly amnesiac former best friend.

Gray clung to her from beneath, strong arms wrapped tightly around her waist. His head was tucked against the nook of her shoulder, allowing her to catch a whiff of his musky scent. They were so impossibly close to one another, closer than they'd ever been. She could feel all of him, every curve of muscle pressing cleanly against her body.

In a split second, every event leading up to this moment flashed through Carmen's eyes—-Her bringing Gray to New Zealand to secretly assist with the caper, him figuring out it was a trick then helping her anyway, the both of them leaping off that platform after disabling the EMP, gripping one another for life as they fell through the sky like fallen angels.

The further they glid from the laboratory, the less light remained for them to navigate their landing space. An explosion could be made out in the distance—-signaling that Bellum's device had been totaled and Gray's tampering, successful. If they hadn't been falling to their deaths at the moment, Carmen would've smiled.

"This glider isn't designed for two!" She huffed, desperately scanning for any breaks in the forest canopy that they could make use of.

Gray removed his head from Carmen's shoulder (oddly enough, she kind of missed the warmth). "We're going down like a Kiwi?....Flightless bird, national symbol of——"

"Brace yourself!"

The two of them swept through the tree line cleanly, soaring towards the forest floor dangerously fast. Carmen shut her eyes and Gray did the same, gripping her waist even tighter.

BAM! The glider made contact with the ground, the force wrenching the two apart and hurtling them ten feet from their crash site.

Blackness eclipsed Carmen's vision in hot, painful flashes. The wind had been utterly knocked out of her lungs, and the thief struggled to regain her ability to breathe. She thumbed at her comm, her first instinct being to call Player, only to find it crushed to smithereens. Finally managing to get some air within her system, she heaved herself upwards, only to spot Gray's unmoving form.

"Gray?" Carmen asked, rubbing at the sore spot on her temple before scooting closer.

No answer.

"Gray?"

Panic began to settle in. Right as Carmen began to calm down from the crash, the fear of the worst sent her heart racing all over again. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, her bloodstream sending into overdrive at the thought of losing her best friend.