I stand my ground, looking the stranger right in the eye. My gaze flickers over to Rose, who shrinks back a little into the boy's shadow.
So this is where she was?
"My name is Rowan," the boy says, lifting up one rather meaty hand to greet me. The other hand clasps Rose's hand rather protectively.
I refuse his handshake, and it wordlessly drops to his side. I glare at Rose. "This is where you've been all morning? Hooking up with any person you meet? Are you really that desperate?
Rose looks rather sad. "Nathan, it's just a misunderstanding," she begins, her free hand coming up to play with a strand of golden hair. "Rowan is simply an old friend..."
"So NOW your memory magically comes back?"
She pauses. "It's not that," she says, "He just feels... familiar in some way."
Impatiently, I raise my voice a little. "You're hallucinating, Rose, okay? We have to get back to the hotel," I say brashly, "the entire gang has been worried sick." Twigs snap under my feet as I stomp over to her. "Evan practically bent my brain in half when I told him you were gone," I find myself muttering harshly under my breath. "I swear, they were only moments away from sending out a search party."
I've only pulled her 5 steps away from this
Rowan guy before Rose digs her feet into the ground. "Rowan has to come too," she says stubbornly."Like that's gonna happen."
"I'm not coming if he doesn't come too."
I look in her eyes. She's dead serious. "Fine," I look at the guy. "But don't walk slow."
He bobs his mess of light brown hair up and down, and then we quickly head to the hotel.
The walk is quiet and awkward. Rose occasionally smiles at Rowan, who gives her a comforting grin back. We arrive at the hotel in 15 minutes on the dot, and Gwen pulls Rose into a tight embrace as they come back. I can't help but notice the fine, invisible line of disappointment buried in Gwen's actions, but nonetheless she bubbly helps Rose into the house and feeds her breakfast, and Rose can't help but gobble everything Gwen sets in front of her up. Evan takes Rowan onto the balcony for a 'peaceful chat,' but I can't help but know that my brother will put him in a grip at least once during what,in Evan's eyes is an interrogation session.
I myself, gather our little squad's clothes and throw them in the laundry station of our hotel downstairs. The walls and floors are a rusted concrete, and the entire place releases the general scent of rotting vegetable scraps, but the laundry machines work miracles.
YOU ARE READING
Avatar Rose: Dusk
FanfictionNathan and Rose have finally escaped from the Fire Nation. They're safe in the Water Tribe, but that doesn't mean that they lived happily ever after. Yet. Rose has changed a lot since the day Nathan found her unconscious at the entrance of his villa...