Found again

May's POV

We'd been searching for hours. We'd been screaming for her until out voices were both hoarse and Jaiden had almost lost his. It was very croaky and quiet now. I sighed. This was apparently more serious than I thought.

"Mina!" I yelled, rubbing my hand over my neck. My throat ached and it was so dry. Jaiden put his hand on my shoulder and I could instantly feel how shaky his was.

"May, we've been here for hours," he said, "and we haven't found her. What if she's…"

"Dead?" I finished for him. He slowly nodded. I shook my head.

"Mina wouldn't be dead," I said, "she can't be. She's too stubborn to die."

"But what if she is?" Jaiden asked, his eyes sad.

"Don't think like that," I said, "We'll find her and deal with whatever might have happened to her after we find her. I promised Jaiden and I mean it. We'll find her." His head drooped.

"Hey cheer up," I said, "You really think that's the first face she would want to see on your face?" He gave me a flat look in response, not saying anything.

"Smile," I said, poking my fingers into his cheeks to push his lips into a smile. He batted my hands away.

"I just want to find Mina," he said. I opened my mouth to say something, when I heard a noise.

"Did you hear that?" I asked. Jaiden looked at me, confusion on his face. I push my finger over my lips, motioning for his to be quiet and listen. It came again. It was a small sobbing/whimpering sound and it sounded like-

"Mina," Jaiden whispered, finishing my thought. I nodded and we ran, straight into the forest.

"Mina!" Jaiden yelled, "Mina hold on." I pushed branches out the way as we ran together. Jaiden wasn't even paying any attention to them, just running through, letting them hit him in the face. The sobs grew louder until we came to a clearing. I looked around, not seeing her.

"Mina!" Jaiden said, frantically looking around. The smell of smoke was in the air.

"Jaiden?" I turned to the direction of her voice, my eyes widening when I saw her. She was hanging from the branches of one of the trees, upside-down, with a net tangled around her. Her clothes were ripped and torn and the jacket she usually wore wasn't on her, revealing scratches and gashed all over her bare skin.

"Mina, what happened?" I asked, moving towards her, "Don't worry, we'll get you down."

"You climb up and cut her down, I'll catch her," Jaiden whispered, "But don't tell her what you're doing or she'll freak out." He walked under her, looking up at her. She whimpered and wriggled. Her face was red and puffy and it looked like she'd been crying. I climbed up the tree and pulled out my little dagger. I quickly slid it across the rope. Mina screamed as she fell, but stopped when she landed safely in Jaiden's arms. She whimpered slightly as Jaiden gently stood her upright. I scrambled down and started to cut the net away.

"What happened Mina?" I asked. She sniffed and cried loudly, flinging herself at Jaiden once I'd cut the net away.

"F-f-f-f-fire," she sobbed. Jaiden's eyes widened and he looked at me. I'm sure I had a similar expression. We both knew Mina was scared of fire. Terrified. It's how she got her scars and had left her traumatised. All because she was caught in a burning house. Jaiden knew more about it than me. Apparently he had been there and the first to notice she hadn't come out yet. He'd immediately tried to go in after her, but was stopped by a fireman. Another fireman had come out, a very weak, injured, coughing Mina in his arms. I didn't know the rest yet. Mina didn't like talking about it.

"Why don't you see if you can find some water May?" Jaiden asked, "I'll stay here." I nodded and ran away.


Jaiden's POV

"What's wrong?" I asked, putting one arm around Mina as soon as May had run off. I used the other to gently stroke her hair.

"Fire," she repeated.

"What happened?" I asked.

"There was a girl here," she said, "calling for help. I could hear her. So I came looking for her, but when I got here, there was no-one around. I heard someone say, 'run little girl'. I could smell burning and when I turned around, there was a fire behind me. So I ran away from it and trees cut me and I lost my jacket and next thing I know, something was wrapped around me and I was falling. Then a rope was around my legs and I was pulled up and the fire…It came this close to me Jaiden-" she pulled away to show me with her hands, "-but it never touched me. And then the same voice just said 'finally'. And I was there for hours Jaiden and I couldn't do anything." She sobbed, her eyes showing the terror she was feeling. She was trembling. I pulled her back to me. It was at times like this that I wished I could just kiss her and make it all better. But I couldn't. Because I wasn't her boyfriend and I was too much of a coward to ask. Even if I could though, it wouldn't do much to help. I could only hold her and hope she felt protected.

"Oh Mina," I whispered into her hair, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I couldn't do anything." It was like watching what had happened 12 years ago. I was helpless. I couldn't do anything. And she'd needed me back then, but I couldn't. And she'd suffered for it. I know she put on a brave face, always smiling, but deep down, I could tell sometimes it would get to her. Whenever she caught sight of her scars and winced. Whenever a flicker of sadness would pass over her face whenever someone mentioned her habit of wearing her jacket to conceal them. Whenever her eyes filled with terror when a fire was mentioned, or she caught sight of the flicker of flames. And it hurt me every time to know that I couldn't do any more to help her. I couldn't protect her.

"I'm back," May said, "and I brought-" She cut herself off and I looked up. She was just staring. I shot her a questioning look.

"Were you guys just kissing?" she asked, "Gee Jaiden, if you wanted to be alone to make your move, you could've just asked." I blushed.

"No, we weren't kissing," I hissed. She pouted and crossed her arms.

"You were close enough to be," she said, "aww, but you just had to spoil it. You could've just gone along with it. You spoiled my dreams of you two finally getting together." I blushed again and Mina quickly pulled away. I already missed the warmth from her, my arms feeling cold again.

"Anyway, I got some water," May said, holding out a drink bottle to Mina, "You look a little dehydrated." Mina took it and opened the cap. I just watched as she gulped it down. She finished it and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Finished," she said. I smiled slightly.

"You missed some," I said. Without thinking, I went over to her and gently brushed my thumb over the stray drip. She blushed and I realized what I was doing. Blushing myself, I stepped back, looking at the ground. May coughed forcefully, gaining my attention.

"We should get going," she said. I nodded, wanting to get out of the awkward situation.


May's POV

I sighed as I watched Mina and Jaiden ahead. They were walking next to each other, closer than normal friend would be. Their body language just screamed shy couple. The way they kept glancing at each other and then looking away with a blush on their face. I wish they would get together already. They were doing nothing but putting themselves through trouble. I mean really? They expected me to believe they didn't feel something for each other. I may be dense as Drew likes to put it, but I wasn't stupid. They were almost kissing today when I came back from getting water. I don't even think they realized how close they were to each other.

A loud stomach growl brought me from my thoughts. Jaiden grinned sheepishly.

"I'm hungry," he said.

"You're always hungry," Mina said, playfully smacking his arm, "you always complain about food. You're worse than May."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips. Mina smiled slightly. Well, it was good to see she was back to normal. Sort of. She was still pretty quiet, but at least she had her self-confidence back, due to Jaiden giving up his jumper for her. Honestly, that was just another thing that made them look like a couple. It was defitely not hers. It was too big for her and Jaiden was the only male around us.

"Exactly what it sounds like. You complain about food a lot, but Jaiden's worse," she said.

"Ouch, that's gotta hurt," Jaiden said to me.

"You realize she insulted you too?" I questioned.

"Mew Mina," He said, putting his hand over his heart dramatically, "Double ouch. When did you get so cruel?"

"I've always been like this," Mina said, giggling as she put her nose in the air, pretending to be snobby. Jaiden chuckled.

"I don't believe that," he said, tapping her nose. She blushed, rubbing her nose shyly with the back of her hand. Jaiden's stomach growled again.

"Ok, I get the picture," I said, "You need food. Let's stop. We need to set up camp anyway." Jaiden nodded. He started to set up things to cook. Mina and I set up the sleeping bags under the cover of a tarp between two trees. It was an arrangement between us. Mina and I always set up sleeping arrangements and Jaiden cooked. He was the only one of us who was really able to. Mina could cook some pretty great cakes though, but I couldn't cook a thing.

After a few minutes of waiting by the electrical, portable pot Jaiden always used (we never cooked over fire for obvious reasons), he announced that we could eat. It was a short, quiet meal. No-one talked. I think we were just all so tired from our experiences today.

Once done, Jaiden quickly cleaned and put the dishes away as Mina and I scrambled into our sleeping bags. Jaiden crawled up and slid into his. We huddled together, Mina in the middle to conserve body heat since we never used fire as heat for the same reason we didn't use it to cook.

"Night guys," I said.

"Night May," they both said. I closed my eyes, starting to drift off already.

"Hey Jaiden," Mina said.

"What?"

"Thanks for everything." I felt her shift and roll over. I smiled slightly as I let sleep come over me. They were still so obvious.


A/N: All is well. I am back and better ;D Thanks for waiting. Thank you to all those who wished me well, that was nice of you. Anyway, I had to take a while to read over my previous chapter and figure out exactly what I was doing with it. Because I can't remember what I was thinking when I wrote it. Oh well. Now, did you notice little hints I put in towards the end of chapter 4. Mysterious voices of people who weren't actually there. Mysterious whispering. Something bad happening. The clearing in the forest. That was all done for a reason. Well done if you spotted them without me pointing them out. I do have something to say though. This is important. This story will be having a slower upload rate. I have decided to write another fic at the same time as this and alternate between them. I know, a bit disappointing, but this is what I want to do. Because I had inspiration to do a Legend of Zelda fiction. For all you Zelda fans out there, that will be my next project. If you want to know, check it out, I will be putting up the first chapter very, very soon. I'm sorry for all of you who don't like or have never really gotten into Zelda, but again, this is just something I really want to do. Because I love Zelda as well and I have wanted to do something for a while, but haven't had a chance. But after some recent encouragement from a friend (you know who you are) I decided that I can do them at the same time. So this will be continuing, just as a slower pace. I don't think it'll be too bad. If anything it might draw out the cliffhangers I feel like leaving you guys ;P In all honesty, if writing two fics at once gets too overwhelming though, you know this one is my priority so don't worry about a hiatus or anything. I will finish this no matter what. Oh yeah. Tell me what you think of this chapter. You get to see a bit more of what Jaiden's feeling. And it's got a bit of caffeineshipping for all of you who have taken a liking to my OC pairing ;P So review please. I want to know what you think.