Whole Again [Davy]

Chase Pack

Today was a normal day for Chase. He had awoke early that morning and gone outside to sit for awhile in a spot not far from his house. He had sat there for an hour or two thinking about anything from the weather to the Capital, and everything in between. Today was different in one sense though. As he sat and thought his mind couldn't get off one topic. Arizona.

They had met only once. It had been awhile ago, or maybe it was just last week. Either way it had been an amazing day for him. There was nothing he would rather do today than wander the woods with her. Oh well, the odds of that happening were slim and he knew it. He would just have to that day the best he could. He would try and enjoy every minute of it even though deep down there would be a feeling of emptiness.

The sun broke the horizon and interrupted his thoughts. The sun brought warmth which flooded the place that he sat. It started gradually, but soon it grew to a flood of warmth that he couldn't ignore. It was going to be a beautiful day. As the sun rose he could see no red anywhere. If the old stories were right this meant that it wouldn't rain.

He knew that soon his dad would wake. For most people this would be a good thing, but for Chase this would be bad. He knew that his father would want him to go to the lab with him, or go to school. This would be the worst thing that could happen to Chase today. The day was far too nice to waste indoors in a desk suffering through classes, or worse in a dark lab slaving over a microscope or a test tube trying to develop a cure for the common cold or some other useless medicine.

He knew what he needed to do. He quietly snuck through his house gathering all he would need for today. His load was light today since he wasn't even considering the possibility of rain. Today he really only needed two things. He would wear his normal outdoor clothes. This consisted of tough Khaki Cargo shorts, and a light weight quick drying olive green top. He strapped his knife to one of the belt loops on the shorts before leaving.

He walked for what felt like forever through the woods. He explored new places that he had never seen before, and enjoyed himself. His mind had been cleared of everything that usually flooded it. Now only two thoughts remained. The first was that the sky was still clear and the weather was perfect. The second was the ever present Arizona. As he walked he stumbled upon a field which he hadn't seen before. Fields didn't necessarily interest him since they were almost all the same and fairly boring. This field he discovered was special though.

He had reached about the middle of the field when he saw a strange color in the grass close to the ground. What he saw was red, but not a natural shade of red this was definitely man made. He was immediately on guard . His hand went down to his knife and he snuck up towards it being as quiet as possible. He was getting close now and could almost make out a face. Within a few more steps he could make out the entire figure, and to his surprise it was her.

This was like a dream come true for Chase. He immediately felt stupid for being so worried. He watched her for a second and decided she was probably asleep. He had just decided to leave quietly without disturbing her when he burst out laughing. He had just noticed how she was laying. Spread eagle in a dress was by no means the most ladylike posture in the world. He knew he most have woken her up and so he decided it was time to introduce himself. "Good afternoon Arizona, it's such a beautiful day. Remember me I'm Chase." He said this in a soothing voice to try and make sure she didn't freak out since he knew sometimes her head wasn't quite right, and if her nerves got the best of her the last thing he wanted was for her to have a break down in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere.

As Ari spoke he flashed back to that night. Jon. He never was very fond of that boy. He could never bring himself to trust him. Even though he had offered Jon his dagger it didn't mean they were friends. It didn't even mean he was remotely close to trusting the boy. In fact if he had it all to do over again he probably would have killed him without hesitating. Well maybe he wouldn't have. Killing someone is hard to do, and Chase had never done it before. Could he really have lived with himself if he'd taken the boys life?

Now wasn't the time for that. He hated his mind sometimes. He was finally with the girl who he'd been waiting to see for what felt like an eternity, and all he could do was think about Jon. That was going to stop now, in fact he wasn't going to think about Jon again until after Ari was gone.

She was standing up now and she had replied to his comment about the weather. He looked around now and admired the scenery which he hadn't noticed before now. The field was completely surrounded by woods. On one side a mountain rose covered by trees until it's summit, which was covered only by rocks. It was a beautiful place, but it was quite a distance from the district border. It was farther than even Chase usually ventured, and Chase usually went a fair distance. He wondered what brought this girl so far out here.

That question would have to be answered at a later time because he saw some movement in the grass, and almost immediately she looked uneasy. Even before she said it he knew it was a squirrel. For some reason she was completely terrified by even the thought of squirrels. He looked down and sure enough there it was. This squirrel was bigger than the average squirrel, and didn't appear to be scared of them. This was odd since it had probably never seen a human before.

Then he realized that he was being stupid. Ari hated squirrels, and he liked squirrel meat. This one would be especially good, and at this distance it would be an easy target. In the blink of an eye he had taken his dagger from the sheath and thrown it at the squirrel hitting him in the perfect spot. It stopped moving immediately. Chase walked over and examined it. He held the squirrel up on the knife for Ari to see and said, "Is that better?" He let a small laugh escape before putting the squirrel into the small satchel he had brought with him.

Knife throwing was one of Chase's new skills. He decided it was important after his encounter with... Wait he wasn't going to think about him. Anyways it had taken him hours in the woods to reach a decent level with it. He still wasn't perfect by any means though. He walked back to Ari feeling the squirrel in his satchel bouncing off his hip as he walked.

In truth he had killed the squirrel more to impress her than anything. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about her yet, and he knew showing off couldn't hurt. He didn't need to think about feelings now. That was later for some morning sitting in the woods for now. "So what are you doing out here Ari?" He asked. He said this more as a distraction than anything to buy time for him to clear his mind. He was already enjoying his time with her.

Chase was immediately confused as to why Ari seemed mad. Sure he didn't like to kill things, but the last time she'd seen a squirrel she had completely lost her mind and he didn't want that to happen again. Anyways, it was just a squirrel who cared if it had a family... Wait what was he thinking of course that mattered. Something weird was going on in his mind that he didn't have an answer for, but now wasn't the time to get caught up with that.

He didn't so much regret killing the squirrel as that he regretted making Ari mad, but never the less he started to bury the squirrel. Using his knife as a shovel he started to dig. This was killing him inside because he knew that this was just dulling his knife. He dug until the hole was about a foot deep and a few inches long then he less then gently placed the corpse in the hole and hurriedly replaced the dirt.

He then realized that Ari would probably be even more mad now since he hadn't really showed any remorse while burying the animal. He had an idea that he thought would work. "I'll be right back." He said to Ari before disappearing into the field. It took him about 15 minutes to have finally gathered what he was looking for.

He went back to Ari and approached the grave with reverence (actually it only appeared to be reverence, but he was a good actor and inside he thought this whole thing was ridiculous) and placed a small bouquet of flowers on top. He thought the flowers were quiet nice, but they weren't the best part.

He turned back to her and said, "There I think its soul is probably at rest now. Now I have a surprise for you. Close your eyes and hold out your hands." He waited until he thought her eyes were closed and then placed a bouquet of about 12 flowers in her hand. They were all red and actually matched her dress perfectly. He said one more thing before she opened her eyes. "What were you going to say before you stopped and went off into thought?" He asked in a softer tone than he usually used.

He watched her open her eyes with anticipation. He knew she would like the flowers, or he at least hoped she would like them. After all he had spent most of the time he'd been gone trying to find those. As he looked at them he realized that he recognized the flowers. They were roses. Way to betray your thoughts he thought to himself. As if his thoughts hadn't been clear enough he had to go out and get her a dozen roses. Then he realized the worst part.

He realized she hadn't answered the question yet. What if it was because she didn't like him back, or worse maybe he had creeped her out with the flowers. Either way there was no way she didn't know that he liked her now. He tried to keep a calm appearance on the outside, but inside he was going crazy. He was focusing so much on her and everything she did trying to figure out how she felt. Then she calmed him as only she could with one sentence.

He sat down next to her and took a second to look at the sky. The day was still beautiful, but now there were some clouds drifting in. He didn't think it would rain, but if it did he knew he had nowhere to go to escape it. He relaxed and felt the warm breeze on his face. Then he realized he hadn't answered her question yet. "Of course I promise not to tell anyone." He said.

This may have been what he said to her but inside he was screaming 'hurry up and say it. The suspense is killing me.' He was actually having trouble keeping this thought in his head. He felt that if he wasn't careful that it may come out. He felt like he was in a free fall and his heart was beating so fast. Then he looked into her eyes and was able to calm himself once more.

He was so relieved when he saw her hand reaching for his. It was like the last hour he had spent stressing about this hadn't even happened and now he was just happy. He couldn't think of any other word to describe it because his head was still spinning. He was happy for the first time in awhile, and it was amazing. He was so happy that he barely even heard a word she said when she was talking to him. Then he noticed something that brought him down from his high.

It was like she was trying to hide behind the roses he'd given her. She looked like she wanted to escape from him and get far away from him even though she'd just told him her feelings about him. She should be just as happy as he was. He knew he had to cheer her up and make her feel more comfortable, but how? He had never been good at all this relationship stuff.

Then it came to him naturally. He didn't know where his actions came from, or what made him so brave in that moment. He just knew what he had to do. He looked at her compassionately and slowly moved the hand she wasn't holding. He placed his hand gently on her cheek and quietly said,"Look at me." As soon as he saw her eyes he kissed her. It wasn't a big kiss or anything just a small one. It was just big enough he hoped to make her feel better.

Then he thought that she may be mad at him for moving so quickly and decided he needed to lighten the mood. "In case you can't take the hint I like you too." He said, "I like you a lot and I have for awhile now. I'm so glad you feel the same way." Then he waited to see what her reaction to this would be.

As Chase listened to her he looked to the sky and saw the clouds floating towards them. They weren't moving fast, but they were coming, and within an hour it would be pouring. This was the first time he'd actually looked forward for rain. He was completely unprepared for it, but that was ok. He was with her and a storm would be the perfect excuse to go somewhere like a cave or abandoned shack to wait the rain out. Sure it wasn't the most romantic date in the world, but it would give him an excuse to spend a lot more time with her.

His thoughts on the weather were interrupted by her talking about how she felt about him. He listened and tried to keep his face from turning red, but he knew that was like fighting a losing battle. The truth was he knew exactly how she felt. He felt the same way, and he hadn't felt this way in forever. Now came the hard part trying to think of the words to say.

He knew this would take some time because he felt so much for her and when he tried putting words to it all his thoughts got jumbled up. As he watched her he could tell something was wrong and he immediately wondered what it was. He opened his mouth to say something when he felt a rain drop land on him.

He then squeezed her hand and asked, "Do you want to go somewhere dry and wait out this storm?" He wasn't sure if she caught the last part or not because thunder began to rumble in the distance. Then he felt the wind building up. This wasn't just going to be a shower this would be a storm. This was definitely the perfect way to start their relationship... Not!

As Chase listened he couldn't help but notice a growing urgency to find cover and get out of the rain. It wasn't so much the rain that bothered him as it was the lightening. He couldn't shake the thought that if just one bolt hit just the right spot then he could lose Ari in the blink of an eye.

As soon as she said her house was close he was relieved. He knew that surely they could make it. He was about to take off running when he realized he'd forgotten something. He turned back quickly and grabbed her hand before he took off in the general direction she'd pointed in.

It seemed like they'd run forever. The rain had picked up and he was soaked and cold and just wanted to find cover. He kept running even though his lungs kept urging him to stop. Finally he saw a house and without asking ran under a cover on the outside before turning and asking her,"Is this your house?"

OOC: Sorry this sucked I was busy and had to type this in a hurry