Consuming Fire

Chapter 72

Hunter walked into the Ring the next morning hoping to get an early workout before everyone else decided to wake up. She flicked the light switch on, watching the fluorescents blink awake and walked over to the lockers full of gym gear. As she was strapping her wrists, she heard the door creak. When she looked up, Will was stalking toward her in the same clothes he slept in.

"Did I wake you up?" she asked.

He shook his head, following her lead and strapping his own wrists. His hair fell in his eyes and as he dragged his fingers through it, Hunter bit her lip. Don't ever let him cut his hair. "I felt you get out of the bed and figured you'd be here. I thought it was a good idea."

She gave him a smile which he didn't return. He was still suffering from the loss of Fearne – unable to move on as fast as the others. That girl had been a part of his life for six long years. Not just a part of it, but his whole world.

He picked up the pads and helped her into her gloves. They moved onto the mat and started with some quick, successive jabs and hooks. Hunter was much fitter after being out of ICE for a couple of weeks, as was Will. Her wrist was still a little sore from the battle at the cabin, so she went easy on her left hooks. Thankfully, the bullet that grazed her arm wasn't too deep either.

They switched after twenty minutes and Hunter held the pads up for Will as he jabbed. She watched his eyes, so stern and focused. Then she was thinking about what Mikayla had said yesterday.

"Mikayla told me what the guards were doing to you in ICE."

Her words broke his concentration. He shot her a bitter look and then shrugged, picking up the pace. "It wasn't – anything important. I didn't want to worry you."

"Are you kidding?" Her arms burned from the pain of holding up the pads. "They tortured you for fun, Will, and you didn't tell me about it because it's not important?"

Will stopped. "Can we just forget about it Hunter? I think we have a bit more to deal with at the moment without bringing up the past."

Hunter dropped her arms. "If I had've known-"

"You wouldn't have been able to do a goddamn thing about it, now please, can you just dropit? And put your arms up again."

Hunter gave him a look of defiance and crossed her arms. The pads made it awkward to hold the position. She saw the corner of his mouth twitch in a smile.

"I don't think so. If I knew, I'd have been a lot more lethal with Jet at the cabin. He would've known a whole new meaning of the word 'burned'."

Will's frown turned into a beautiful crooked smile and he closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around her. The pads were so big that she couldn't pull out of them and stood there with her arms crossed, her cheek pressed against his damp, toned chest. She closed her eyes and imagined Will, strung up and beaten until he couldn't stay awake any longer and the fire began to burst inside her, so much so that there was a sizzling sound and Will jumped away from her with a yell. His skin was pink and her arms were on fire.

"Oops. Sorry," she murmured. Then she realized that she'd burned a hole in her pads. Ripping them off and shoving them to the ground, Hunter sat down, buried her head in her hands and sighed loudly. She heard Will sit beside her and felt his arm around her back. She was probably still hotter than a stovetop, but he didn't care. Hunter looked up at him in surprise.

"I won't keep things from you again," he said.

The fire dimmed, simmered by his loving gaze just like her heart.

"You'd better not," she smiled.

He leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to her lips, moving harder and gripping the back of her neck to keep her there. She still couldn't believe he'd never had this kind of physical relationship before now. He was incredibly good at everything they did.

When he pulled away, she saw pain in his eyes.

"Are you ... okay now? About Fearne?"

Will's fingers brushed across her skin, his other hand reaching for hers and playing with her frail fingers. There was a flash of darkness in his soul that she noticed, and it worried her. Will was not the greatest at hiding his emotions, but he was good at deflecting the subject.

"It's not easy but ... you make it better."

"Aw," she grinned. "You're just a big softie, aren't you?"

Will sniffed a laugh. Then his arm scooped around her neck and he pulled her into a headlock.

"Ow – Will!"

He laughed loudly, shoving her body to the ground. "Gotcha!"

"Get off!"

He slapped the ground, shouting "One! Two! Three!" and released her. "I am the champion!" he yelled at the empty room with two hands raised in triumph.

Quick as a flash, Hunter slipped her leg around his knees and yanked him to the ground where she jumped on top of his body and pinned his arms down. Will's smile was so bright and full of amusement that she couldn't help but kiss him. Her kiss was hungry and passionate and their sweaty bodies out in full view of anyone to walk in and witness them made it that much more appealing. But when they broke away, they were still alone.

As they were unstrapping and putting their gear in the lockers – or in Hunter's case, the trash – Will turned to her with a smile on his face.

"Look what I found," he said and held up a half-empty packet of cigarettes.

Hunter's mouth dropped open. "No way!"

"Should we, for old time's sake?" 

"Absolutely."

After looking around for any smoke alarms, they decided to hide in the back corner where the mats were stacked up. With their feet dangling over the edge of the blue mats, Hunter lit the cigarette and they shared a moment together like they used to in the guard's quarters, talking about nothing important, because everything important in their lives involved death and destruction, and they weren't in the mood for that. They found an old tape player with the Dirty Dancing soundtrack inside, and Hunter felt it was her duty to show Will how to do the lift in the final dance. She scowled when he chickened out as she sprinted at him, and Will's impersonation of a prim and proper ballerina had her in hysterics. They laughed together, pretending they were the only two in the world, and 80s romance movies and smoking rebelliously in the gym was everything that consumed them apart from the love they had for each other.

When the soldiers entered the Ring to train, Hunter and Will reluctantly snapped back to reality, but that morning was more wonderful than any they'd ever had because for a moment, just a moment, they existed without a care, together and in love.