✓ | TOUGH AS THE IRONWOOD (A.FORRESTER 2)

Wildest Dreams. Chapter Twenty One.

The Great Hall was silent, the only audible sound being that of the fire; it's burning embers crackled through the afternoon's quietness while 5 children sat around it's flames. One sat in a wooden chair, pulled close to the heat the fire presented, she was sewing while her younger brother sat at her feet. Mira. Ethan sat on the floor near to her, with a knife and block of wood to hand; he lay, sprawled out across the floor, in his usual fashion. Sat in another chair on the other side of him, was Cynthia. She had her head down as she focused on the portrait she was sketching of Mira. Ethan's twin, Talia, sat beside him scribbling down lyrics for a newly thought up song. And finally, perched against the wall opposite them, there was a brooding Asher, who attempted to focus on the book in his hand, but he soon found his disinterest prevented him from doing so. He would moan in frustration from time to time, but besides from his impatient grunts, all was silent. All was calm. All was as it should be.

The children lay at one another's sides as they always should. Mira was home, so was Asher, and they were together, with Cynthia, like they should be. Everyone was here, with each other, and nothing was wrong. As it should be.

"Alright - who wants some fun?" Asher yelled, tossing the book into the fire. Cynthia wasn't sure what it had been he was attempting to read, but gathering his reaction to it she imagined it was nothing of any interest to him. He lurched off of the wall with grace, and stepped towards the younger members of his company, who were easily persuaded to do something, in Asher's words, more entertaining. And to little surprise, they both cheered and clambered to their feet - abandoning whatever they'd previously been doing. "How about we play hide and seek?" Asher beamed, a wild and mischievous glint igniting in his grey eyes. It was a shimmer of amusement and devilious deceit that Cynthia couldn't help but fall in love with every time it caught her attention. It was one of the many things she adored about this man. "But it's raining." Talia frowned, folding her arms as if that meant the end of the world as they knew it. "We cannot go outside, mother told us not to." Ethan chipped in, mimicking his sister's actions to a tee. "Well we'll just have to play inside then, won't we?" Asher replied with a growing grin - one that Cynthia had seen far too many times prior to now. Both the children roared with uncontrollable enthusiasm, and began frantically fidgeting on the spot in excited anticipation for the game waiting for them. "Ladies, will you be partaking?" Asher asked; and though he used the plural, his eyes had locked solely onto Cynthia's, and a singular hand outstretched to her expectantly. He knew her too well by now, he knew what she wanted - almost all of the time.

She smirked up at him, then to the girl sat beside her, and then back at him. She stood quickly after that, grasping Asher's warm, large hand with eager, yet concealed, fascination with him. God how had she gone so long acting like this, feeling like this, and how had he managed to go so long without any sort of acknowledgement to what had to be so obvious to him by now?

The children giggled between themselves while both girls stood and silently agreed to whatever plans Asher had in store for them. "Who counts first?" Asher inquired, glancing about at all those stood around him. "Me! Me! Me!" Ethan called, puffing out his chest in a 'manly' sort of, authoritative stance. "Alright, little brother. You know how it goes." Asher winked down at the dark haired boy; and with Cynthia's hand still held tightly within his grasp, he rushed off down a nearby corridor.

She swerved along with him, into a part of Ironrath that was hardly ever frequented by those other than the staff. Cynthia had only ever explored areas like this in times like these; when the rain outside prevented them from exploring elsewhere, and the occupants of the house were left with little else to do besides run wild about the halls. It was fair to say, especially where the older kids are concerned, they all knew every corner, nook and cranny in the entire building, back to front with their eyes closed. But now, on this occasion, Cynthia was prepared to pretend she'd never seen it before, never even knew these halls existed before now, if it meant Asher would hold her hand for the tiniest bit longer.

"Keep up Glover!" Asher shouted - though she couldn't help but feel that that was anti productive given the nature of the game they were participating in. "Oh shut up!" Cynthia called back, feeling her body lurch as Asher rounded a nearby corner, down a barely lit corridor. Her hand still tingled like lightning had struck her veins, and the warmth radiating off of Asher's hold was enough to ignite the flesh in which his hand connected with hers. She knew she shouldn't still feel this way, not towards him, but she couldn't help it. Not anymore. And yet she wouldn't confess any of it. Never to him.

They resulted in hiding in the amory. It was towards the back, west side of the building where Royland kept most of his equipment for the training guards, but now no one ever really ventured into it much. Not even Royland too often. They concealed themselves behind a shelving unit stacked with disorganised armour pieces and old weapons. It would've been impossible to see them from the doorway, as the lights in the room had long since died out, and yet Asher still felt the need to press into the corner, holding Cynthia between the wall and himself. His breathing was marginally laboured by the run here, whereas Cynthia was heaving her lungs out, and his eyes burnt bright even in the darkness.

"Stop breathing so loudly!" Asher whispered harshly, his frown set like stone along his forehead. "You stop!" She snarled back, though all in good humour. That was the sort of relationship they had - teasing, taunting, retorting. It was all fun and games, or at least to Asher. To Cynthia it was all so much more, and yet she couldn't utter a word about how she felt; not to anyone. "I'm not the one heaving like a wounded boar." He smirked down. It was in this close proximity that it became clear how much shorter she was than him. He always said it was one of her cuter characteristics, but she always said it made her feel vulnerable. "It's not my fault." She retorted teasingly - she knew her face would be flushed, not just from the sprint, but she hoped that excuse would be enough to conceal it from his deduction. "You saying you didn't enjoy it?" He cocked his eyebrow impossibly further up his forehead, with a slight tug at his upper lip. "I never said that." She whispered. His breathing had touched her face as he spoke, it was warm and mildly damp in the air that was expelled, and it made her skin tingle. It made her tingle all over. "That's what I thought," His voice had lowered too by now, it was just a murmur, a breath with hardly any trace of sound at all. 

"I found you! I found you!" Ethan screamed enthusiastically from a distant room. It was hardly a screamed by the time it reached Cynthia's ears, but she knew he had to be getting closer. "Shush." Cynthia hissed abruptly, slapping a hand straight to Asher's mouth to cease whatever boastful rant he was about to recite. "Come on!" Ethan's childish voice resonated from the end of the corridor, paired with several thudding footsteps that pounded the stone floor. "Where are we going Ethan?" Talia's chipper words erose next, with vague innocence laced in her tone. She was so naive at this age. So young and vulnerable, yet, like any Forrester, stronger than would be believed. 

"They won't find us." Asher muttered between barely parted lips. "Are you certain?" Cynthia peered up at him with shadowed eyes, hooded by the warmth coiling in her stomach. The light fluttering that rippled through her veins. "Yes. I'm certain about a lot of things." He pointed his chin up in the air with a smart smirk - though Cynthia was beginning to wonder if it had vanished at all in however long they'd been stood here. "Care to elaborate?" Cynthia pursed her lips temptingly. "You." "Me?" Cynthia suddenly frowned. "I'm certain about you." Asher quipped. Ethan's voice could still be heard faintly from beyond the wall, but it was clear this was the direction he was heading in. "Certain about what, precisely?" Cynthia couldn't wrap her head around his words this time. On any usual occasion it was all perfectly clear, but now it was as vague as fog. "Certain about this." His voice was quieter, hoarser, thicker with his familiar northern accent and ever so alluring. And that was that. His lips crashed to hers instantly, though it had felt like a lifetime waiting for it, and Cynthia was enveloped in his warmth and compassion. "What about in here?" Ethan called out from the doorway, but Cynthia didn't even flinch. Neither did Asher. They were caught together like this, in this moment, savouring every second before it burned out like the scorns on the wall. 

When Cynthia woke up her lips still sparked, and her ears still pricked from the faint, familiar voice that had resonated through the room so clearly seconds ago. A thin layer of chilling sweat dampened the skin of her face, and the distant blush still tainted her skin. All Asher's words, all his actions, they'd been real, felt real at least, and Cynthia could still feel it like fire on her flesh. Ethan. She'd heard him. He'd been real, the memory of him had been alive in her thoughts for so long, she could still hear it now like it had just happened. But none of it was. Ethan was gone and Asher; Asher was just another futile hope for a life that would never be. Cynthia, despite all her dreams and fantasies, had to accept that at some point.