Apocalypse

19

Kate

"Will you stop that?" Liz grumbles as I lean over her shoulder to adjust her arm position again. She keeps lowering her hands, I can't decide if she's just tired of holding them up or doing it to spite me. It's only a little aggravating though. Just a little.

"Well if you'd do it yourself..." I sigh, trying hard to ignore just how close she is and how it's making my heart trip over itself inside my chest.

Her back is pressed into my shoulders as I have to use my own arms to try and get her to hold the pistol right, and I can smell her hair. She's warm compared to the slightly chilled air, and the scent is welcome next to the metalic tang the wintery air holds. The clouds had rolled back in, so the sun was gone now and there was nothing but our clothes to combat the cold. What we had on wasn't much, but I wasn't as bothered by the fridgid temperatures. She kept shivering against me, and I'm tempted to give her back my sweater like I had earlier in the day.

"This is the most cliché thing I've ever done..." Liz mutters under her breath as pull my hand away so she can hold her own arms up again.

"What is?" I ask, baffled. Drawing back and away from her, worried that I'd done something wrong.

"I-- oh. Nothing." She mutters quickly, a heavy blush creeping onto her face.

"Okay." I mutter slowly, her reaction doing nothing to ease my uncertainty.

We'd spent that afternoon after our walk around the field trying to teach Liz how to shoot a weapon.
Jason had lost his seemingly 'endless' patience as soon as Liz missed the target a few dozen times. He'd then left after wishing me luck.

I was glad he was gone though. He wouldn't be there to check my temperature and ask me how I'm feeling every five minutes.
He'd also kept touching Liz's waist and trying to pull her close to him in ways that had nothing to do with teaching her to hold a gun. Way more contact than what he needed. I thought my blood was going to boil over just from watching. Though, I can't really figure out why it bothered me so much. Now though, she was pressed into me, not any more than she needed to be (I'm not a hypocrite,) trying her hardest to mimic my form. Taking aim and firing ever so often. She hasn't missed once since I started leaning over her shoulder to adjust her aim. I stopped helping a few shots ago, and she was still hitting the targets. I feel pride bubbling up in my chest and I can't help but smile at her progress even though I really didn't have much to do with it.
Liz seems genuinely pleased with her results for today, and lowers her arms, which had long since begun to shake with exhaustion. She stepped away from me and I stepped back. Straightening my back and stretching because I was hunched over for so long.

"You did really well." I comment, smiling fondly at her.

Liz nods excitedly and rotates her shoulder to rid it of any soreness as she smiles brightly at me. I feel my own smile widen and I shake my head. Trying to push it back off of my face. I wasn't very successful, and my effort just made Liz smile wider.

"Don't expect me to continue to help you though. You'll have to do it yourself eventually. The sooner you learn, the better." I tell her, beginning to turn to head back to pack our bags like we're supposed to be. We were going to be moving later today because of the wolf.

"Yes, Ma'am." Liz scoffs sarcasticly.

I roll my eyes and keep moving.

I grunt in surprise as I'm shoved forward without any warning. I turn and look incredulously at Liz after I regain my balance, who's standing a little too innocently. Looking down at her hands, a faint smile painting her features. It would have been cute, had the smile not been so mischievous. Okay, I'll admit, it's still cute. But not enough to get away with the stunt she just pulled.
I feel my confusion melt away, quickly replaced with the ever elusive playfulness. I turn to face her again, and much to her surprise, I tackle her. She yelps and squirms to get out of my grip. I have my arms secured around her waist though so I don't expect her to get anywhere very easily.
She laughed as I pulled her backwards, towards a puddle of water from the now earlier that morning.