Every time Isaiah looked at himself in the mirror, he was constantly reminded of the most traumatic moment of his life. He grew to hate himself until Namiko randomly waltzed into his life one day and began teaching him how to love himself again. It...
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"I feel like Mark gon' get yo' ass for this. You sure you don't wanna take one of your soldiers?" Isaiah quietly chuckled, following her out of a hidden side door that led out of the castle.
"I am taking one. Aren't I?" She looked back at him with a grin, holding up his hand that she held.
"True. I don't got my gun wit' me though. You made me leave it at my house."
"Oh hush. You don't need a gun here. You barely need one in New York. Look at you—who would mess with you? You're like a hundred feet tall and triple that in weight." She said as if it was the most obvious thing ever, making him laugh. Then she shushed him since it was too loud, only making him laugh harder but he did try to make it a whisper.
"You'd be surprised." He shrugged.
Namiko held her nightgown dress up, and Isaiah smiled when she started running instead of the hurried walking they'd been doing. She still held his hand, pulling him with her as the wind blew through her deep wave wig. She could hear him trying not to laugh behind her which ultimately made her laugh as well once they were far enough away from the castle.
They ran for about a mile together and he was honestly shocked that she didn't get tired. Of course he didn't either; his legs were long enough to carry him for a couple of miles without getting tired and he also worked out frequently so he had more than enough stamina.
"Help me move it baby, please." Namiko let go of her gown to pick up a thick wood pallet, and Isaiah effortlessly moved it to the side on his own to reveal a pretty nice sized peddle boat.
He pushed it towards the river bank that it was a few feet away from and into the shallow water. Namiko climbed inside and sat down, then Isaiah pushed it further into the river before climbing inside as well. She wrapped her blanket around the both of them while he took the initiative to start pedaling without Namiko needing to say anything.
"You do this often, huh?" He chuckled, realizing how thought out her plan was to sneak away to the river.
"Yes. My father used to take me out all of the time. He hated how the soldiers always breathed down our neck 24/7 so this was our little escape—time to ourself, you know?"
"You miss him?"
"All the time. I actually didn't understand what death was until pretty recently. Mother only said that it was what happened when people went to the better place. I didn't know that it was—you know, death." She gestured with her hands.
"That's what I meant when I told you that one day, how it's probably nice not knowing the actual meaning of certain shit. I mean it's probably terrible once you find out, but that little moment of peace where you don't know is probably—man." He shook his head while leaning back into the seat.
"Yeah..I get it. It hurts my feelings realizing how sheltered I am though. I guess I could blame some of it on the differences in our two countries, but Jesus..when I got to New York, it was like a brand new world. And everyone was so mean to me at first because I didn't understand what was going on half the time." She chuckled at her own ditziness.
