Touch Starved

4

I blinked, almost thinking my ears were deceiving me.

"What?" I asked quietly. He put his blades away.

He spoke again, moving towards his horse. I jumped after him.

"What are you doing? Don't leave me. Wait-" I tried grabbing his upper arm. He shook me off before I could even get a grip.

He untied his horse, hopping on in a fluid motion. He stared down at me and I stared up unsure of what was going on. He jerked his horse, backing away from the post. My eyes widened but he didn't stop, steering his horse away.

"Nonono, you cannot leave me. Oh my God, take me with you. Is it 'cause I'm not wearing pants? Do I stink? I can fix those easily. Just take me with you." I said running after him. I hadn't even bothered to pick up the dropped blades. He couldn't seriously be thinking about ditching me, could he? Did he think I was an enemy?

I chased after him, not bothering to stop and even though my body was screaming that I needed to stop, I couldn't. I wouldn't. My chance to get out was here. I wasn't going to let it slip for a second time.

"Wait! Please! Come back!" I tried to run faster. He peered over his shoulder and saw me chasing after him still. He seemed mildly surprised at my persistence. We had made eye contact and I tried my best to plead visually with my face. I hoped he could read my eyes, because I couldn't read eyes. Especially his.

I tripped and fell over a rock. The knee high grass, which had been swatting at my legs now swallowed me up. I slammed my fist down, groaning in frustration. Shifting to sit up, my head barely peaked over the grass.

I doubted he would stop or turn around to come back for me. He made it clear I wasn't going to be on his conscious. I pushed myself up, standing slowly. My knee was scraped red and stung. I looked up towards where he was.

Color me surprised, he sat waiting on his horse. He looked expectant and his eyebrows seemed to dip even further towards his eyes. He started to turn his horse and trot off again.

He went noticeably slower and I started to run after him. My ankle throbbed and when it made its first contact with the ground again, a bolt of pain shot up to my hip.

"Ow!" I yelped, almost falling back down. I tried to ignore it. An adrenaline rush would be nice right now, I groused. I continued running, although I was also going slower myself.

He had by now gotten a distance away, but seemed to have heard my yell and had peered back. I tried to hide my limp, scared that he would deem me injured and unhelpable. I pushed on and he seemed to do a twice over as I tried to chase him.

Suddenly he turned his horse, but instead of away, it was towards me. He trotted and met me in the middle. We had another staring match. I felt like a mouse staring into the teeth of a starved lion.

His hand was in my face and it took me a moment to realize he was offering help to hoist me up onto Joergen.

I took a step back, but ultimately reached for his hand. I didn't like this - I was pantsless and about to be riding on a horse with a man who I had thought of as fictional until today.

With zero grace, and almost kicking Levi (Ackerman!) in the face, I was settled. He had a grip on my hand still, and I felt uncomfortable knowing he could feel the literal sweat from them. He yanked my hand, reached and grabbed my other hand and pulled on them until my fingers met each other on the other side.

Basically I was hugging him. And I didn't have pants on. Nor did I speak his language. And this was so uncomfortable. I swallowed thickly.

He said something and then we were off. I bounced uncomfortably from the horse's speed and my grip would shift, causing me to have to readjust or tighten my arms to keep myself anchored.