Vigilante (Under Construction! Please Excuse the Dust!)

Chapter 18: cute.

Rain Maker:

A stupid grin was plastered on my face. I couldn't get it to go away. I would pull my lips in and press them into a hard line, but then they would just open up again into a smile.

I was taking my time going back to my room, leisurely stalling to look into rooms for signs of life, of which there were none.

The distraction of Mach had worked even better than expected and now I was stuck with this idiot look on my face, but it felt good, like something warm was heating me up from the inside, leaving me ticklish and red-faced.

Talon, was this a-?

No way. Couldn't be. I just... appreciated Mach's feelings for me. That was it. Yeah.

Right?

I couldn't... like him, too? I mean, it wasn't like Mach was gross or something. I just didn't expect to feel like butterflies were going insane in my guts now that I thought back on the cute redness that had colored his face and-

I stopped mid-step, hands out in front of me and eyebrows coming together, twisting my expression.

"Cute?" I said aloud.

Did I just refer to Mach Seven cute? What?

My thoughts started speeding up and I was going a hundred miles an hour before I could stop and think to ask myself what I was really feeling.

 It's not like I think he's ugly, I mean, no, I thought. He is attractive, I have to admit, and it's not like I couldn't like him, too, but he's... just...

"Not what I expected," I breathed.

Mach had always been sort of a prick. He made blatantly rude comments and his teasing always seemed to take more of a malicious stance rather than playful, but there were times when he was different.

Like he had been just a few minutes ago when we sat together.

My experience with relationships- let alone relationships with other men- was drastically limited to a select few that had taken the first few steps themselves; such as asking me out for the first time. To my disappointment, however, they could lose interest quite quickly in the desk-duty cop that was my normal life.

There had been someone. We had been together for a long time, but...

A voice cut through my thoughts and my head whipped up in the direction of it.

On my left side, a door was ajar. Seeing which door it was sent a prickle up my spine as I approached it and eased it open further hesitantly, my muscles tensed.

I had been purposely avoiding this room for a while now, but it looked the painfully the same as it had always. Savannah's memorial made my gut clench the second my eyes grazed over it and seeing it now made the crackling of electricity sound in my ears and the smell of smoke seem as if there was a fire in front of me.

The room only reminded me of bad memories.

I swallowed thickly. My stupid grin twisted downwards as I closed my eyes for a moment, trying my hardest not to see all the reminders of her presence by trying not to focus on anything.

"Hello?" I called out. "Dawn, you in-"

Big eyes stared at me from the darkness, reflecting the light of the candles. A curtain of hair hung from their head, spilling over their shoulders.

Before I could even react, they were scrambling away.

"Talon!" the eyes said, stumbling backwards over scattered items, arms pinwheeling momentarily before they cracked their head against the wall. They spat something like a curse, but I couldn't understand what it meant.