The Differents | ✓

T W E N T Y - F O U R

Sometime during the early hours of the morning, I woke up. Sniper still hadn't made an appearance even though it had been hours, and while I wanted to stay mad at him, I started to worry. I wasn't going to deny that I cared about him. Whether it was in a friend way or something else, I didn't want to know, but he hadn't come back so I got up to go looking.

The sun hadn't risen yet, and the sky had stayed relatively cloudless during the night. It was that time of morning before the stars went away but when the faintest touches of grey light brushed the edges of the sky. A light dew had settled on the rocks and on the plants at the edges of the forest, and it sparkled slightly, reflecting the light of the moon. I was about to step outside when I saw a movement by the waterfall and shrunk back into the shadows.

After my eyes adjusted and I became very still, I registered the sound of water moving in an irregular way. It wasn't like the steady rhythm of the waterfall; it sounded more like it was being pushed around by something in it. I waited, and after a while a figure came into view. As soon as I realized it was a person, my muscles tensed up and I got ready to run, but after a few moments of panic and a wave of different emotions and debates on whether to fight or run, I realized, stifling a laugh, that it was only Sniper. He was wading around quietly by the waterfall, his shirt and jacket draped over one of the rocks. It looked to me like he was either immersed in his own thoughts or he purposely didn't acknowledge me when I had come out of the shelter. Something told me to stay put, that it wasn't the right time and place to intervene, so I sat down in the entrance and enjoyed the peaceful air.

I like to think I am the type of person who will notice something as a whole and subconsciously take in the details the first time I see it, but I will have to really focus if I want to remember any of those details. Often I have to come back several times to get a good look at one thing. This happens often, whether I'm aware of it or not, and I started to notice things I hadn't before. About the rocks, how they were layered with different textures and streaked with a different type of rock; something smooth and white. About the sounds the breeze carried with it -- not just silence, but faint sounds of the world sleeping and the night creatures going about their business. About the boy under the waterfall, how his hair curled at his jaw and was probably going to be in need of a cut soon. How effortlessly his body cut through the water, making only the smallest of waves.

It wasn't often that our team went and trained in the pool back at the Core, and so it always came as a surprise to me what a good build my teammates had when it wasn't smothered in layers upon layers of jackets and belts and gear. They were all incredibly strong, both physically and mentally, and it was quite evident from looking at them. It was usually the boys who surprised me the most, though, since Captain and I often trained in similar ways. I never did and never will understand their training schedules, but whatever they did certainly paid off. I realized this now, looking at Sniper. It came to my mind that I had never really appreciated or even acknowledged his strength, since we so often relied on Bear for those things, and I made a mental note to try and be more conscious around him from then on.

It wouldn't be hard.

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A/N: short chapter this week because Im finding it hard to find good places to break chapters up. But dont worry, more chapters are on the way! Please vote if you enjoyed and comment you thoughts :)