fallin' out of love (stemxstud)

25

Valentine

about one month later...

"I like the way I can smell the fire in your hair," I whispered, staring deep into her eyes. The fire in question crackled at our feet, eating at the logs we had thrown into it as the night sky hung over our heads like a giant blue blanket, carefully detailed stars winking down at us, sly as hell.

"Do you love me still?" she asked, her voice barely audible. It was deeper...more grown up now. And her face had changed, her body too. She was different than the strong minded girl I had met, but not weaker for certain.

She sat on my lap, wearing the same shirt she had been in for more than a few weeks now, washed and washed so many times that it's hard to tell what logo had ever been on it.

"Of course," I whispered back, laying my hand down on her thigh. It spread more now. Like her lips as they parted just now, ready to say something slick.

"I'm scared I'm gonna lose you to this stupidity."

Not slick, then.

"If you're scared, then you've already lost," I told her.

She frowned, laying her head under my chin, "I don't like losing."

"We have to keep searching. I don't like laying low. We need to know more about me. Things that I don't even know about me," I stated.

"Where would we even start at? I don't trust anybody that I once knew," she said. "And we don't have access to the type of things that we used to either."

"We can make do. We have to start searching. The answer to my importance in all of this has to be in my past. I know that shit in my blood," I stood up.

Instantly, the chill of the countryside set over me.

"We're running low on ammo, using it all for huntin'. Your mother is dead. Teece is dead. Anybody who would have wanted me gone is out of the way now."

Anaela flinched, as if she had heard some part of me say 'Except you'. "I don't trust that. I don't want you in danger."

"We can't live here forever...I barely got you together and your injuries after we left the house."

"I'm ready to go inside," she dropped her eyes.

I only sighed, focusing on putting out the fire as she went back inside of the abandoned house we had taken over.

"Someone was shooting at us that day...don't forget that, Valentine," she said quietly, pausing as she took the flannel wrapped around her waist off and slung it over her shoulder. It was something so masculine about that action that turned me on.

"I won't," I promised, my gaze softening as I took in her worry.

The next day, I didn't say anything as Anaela packed up the few important supplies and things we'd need to leave here. I warmed up the car behind the house that I had hid from the street view, even though the thick of trees that ran along the property allowed little viewing of the acre.

"Thank you for agreeing to this," I told her, pulling up along the side of the house, driving over the tire tracks barely visible in the frosted grass from weeks ago when we had first arrived. Anaela quietly packed our things into the vehicle.

She got in eventually, turning on the heater.

"I don't know this area- this town well at all. We're gonna have to find a gas station soon because she's runnin' low- another car too eventually," she added.

"Maybe we can get some money for this car and run off with the cash, get us some comfort and set up station somewhere where we can research...and still lay low," I added that last part for her benefit.

"What? A car dealership? Where would we even find a Pagani dealer in Texas, Tino?" she asked.

"Look, it's not about selling for its worth right now, okay?" I sighed, "We just need a lot of money to survive and figure out what that contract means for both of our lives. We can go anywhere and take whatever deal."

"I can't believe that Teece was..." Her gaze hardened, "Two sisters falling for you. Must've been nice."

"This experience has been anything but that, Anaela. Sometimes you let your jealousy cloud your reasoning," I stated. "And I'm not saying that I don't either. Like your mother said that day- you're the one with all the power now."

"I don't feel like I have any power. I was forced into a lifestyle I found difficult to accept, and once I was finally getting into it, Hell fell down on me. How ironic," she chuckled, shaking her head. "I don't have any people at my disposal. I don't have any money we could access without people knowing our location. We just plain lack the resources to accomplish anything in the time frame that we need to. Which is very soon," she stressed.

"If all those things mean power to you, maybe you aren't the leader I thought you were," I told her, glancing over. "And you are the leader I've always believed you to be. And your mother was beginning to see that. We killed evil. We did what a lot of the good guys can't do, nine times out of ten. We don't have a villain in our story anymore. Now we have to write our own pages, Anaela."

She shook her head again, "I find it hard to believe that we're the good guys after everything that's...been done. How would it be good without evil anyways?"

"Maybe we'll find out soon enough," I sighed.