"Ok, that redneck kid... What's his face...Todd or something? Whatever. I know he's creepy, always staring at me like an idiot, but...it seems like he's worth having as a pet for a little while...at least until I can get back to Samey. I mean...he stuck his neck out for me once before. I know I can count on him, at least. He seems loyal, dependable...pretty strong...kinda cute...I-I mean cutthroat! Yeah, he's...he's cutthroat and sneaky. Plus he doesn't give me any backtalk-that's a huge improvement over Sparemy! He seems like he's...really perfect... A-As Samey's replacement! That's what I meant! Don't take that out of context, you morons!"

That one confessional was the first sign of my weakening resolve. A simple chip breaking off of a great stone wall. A single scratch in an ironclad suit of armor. Annoying? Yes. Problematic? Possibly. But easy to repair all the same. I just had to take care of it fast enough, and it'd be as if nothing happened.

Simply put, my repairs didn't happen fast enough. I was slow. Far, far too slow.

Before long, his every act was destroying all I'd built to protect myself. Small stone chips breaking away became entire bricks being forcefully removed. Scratches in the armor became huge, gaping holes, exposing the bare skin underneath. Attack after relentless attack came from him the more time we spent around each other. I tried to rebuild. I got meaner to him. Harsher. Bossier. Nastier. But nothing worked. The attacks just kept coming...

Why? Why hadn't I done something about this nonsense sooner?

"Amy, wait up, will ya?!"

Like clockwork, all thought processes stopped completely and my leg muscles seized at his command. Well...it was a request, really. He'd never try to control me. He knew better. And yet...my body was intent on bending to his will anyway.

No. I couldn't have it. I wouldn't have it! I was the master here, not him.

Eyes fixed on the beach yards ahead of me, I huffed and flipped some pale tresses over my shoulder. "I told you to back off, didn't I?! And I'm not even moving that fast! If you'd quit lagging behind like a slug all the time, we wouldn't have this problem!" The blood in my veins turned to magma as I took longer, faster strides away from him. But even then, the effort to put distance between us felt like more than it was worth. Screaming muscles, churning stomach, feet ten times the weight of cinderblocks, and a heart being held in the tightest stranglehold I'd ever felt. My body opposed my brain, fighting back as hard as it could. 'What the hell is the matter with me today?'

"Amy!"

My body's rebellion against me halted when I realized he'd caught up to me. As if his voice calling my name wasn't enough to shake me up inside, the sudden feeling of his fingers clasped around mine caused my heart to swell until it was damn near crushing my lungs. Any other time, I would have screamed at him to release me, but I'd just frozen in place, trying to will myself to breathe again.

My hitched breath did eventually return to my lungs, but by then, I'd been turned around, no longer facing the Pahkitew Island shores. No...now, I was face to face with him. ...and those eyes...those goddamn hypnotic eyes of his. The setting sun had set fire to those steel grey irises in a way I never thought I'd see. That or he was upset that I'd ignored him to continue my trek away from his presence. Or both.

"Will you take five seconds to at least tell me what the heck is wrong with you? You've never cancelled a planning session before. Not once."

Yeah, definitely a bit of both.

I groaned and tore my hand out of his grip before crossing my arms over my chest. "You seriously need me to tell you your next move? What kind of competitor are you?! You can't possibly be that brain dead. Figure it out yourself."

Equally defiant as I was, Scott shook his head, maintaining the stone expression on his pasty face. "It's got nothing to do with that. If we were gonna to be done with...whatever this is..." He motioned between the two of us before continuing on. "If this was ending already, you would have said something earlier, Amy."

"Get over yourself!" As I snapped at him, my arms unfolded and my fists clenched tightly at my sides. "You knew this was going to be temporary! Just because I didn't tell you it was going to be over today doesn't mean a thi-"

"You're lying to me through your teeth, Amy, and you know it."

"E...Excuse you?! Who do you think you're talking to like that?! Who's in charge here again?!"

"Nobody if what you're claiming about this is true. And either way, this needs to be said, so I'm gonna say it. That cool with you?"

Cold seriousness clashed with scolding fury over and over, and finally, one side overpowered the other. I screamed at the top of my lungs, digging my nails into my scalp for what felt like ages.

...and then I stopped.

Sighing heavily, I let my arms fall to my sides, standing still as death itself. Waves of concern rushed over me from the ocean of sheer confusion calling itself Scott, and that just managed to frustrate me more.

Finally, my teal hues slowly drifted upwards, locking with steel grey all over again. Annoyed as he was, all that showed in Scott's eyes now was worry. Worry for me and me alone. I didn't know whether to smile at him for that or go into a second bout of banshee like screams. "... Talk. Now. Before I change my mind."

A curt nod was all I received before he spoke again. Watching his eyes harden was like watching wax shape itself around a wick. Every moment passed and every word spoken helped his candle eyes take their form. "I know you, Amy. Better than you think I do. If this was gonna be over when the teams merged, you would have told me from the beginning. All you said was we'd work together until Jasmine's gone and away from your sister. Last I checked, those two are still very much a thing right now. Or have I been hallucinating these past few days and nobody bothered to tell me?"

His words made my limbs quake and my cheeks come to a boil. He wasn't wrong. I hated it when he wasn't wrong. Was my little redneck always this smart? ... Wait...my redneck? "Ugh! He's not yours! He never was! What is wrong with you?!"

"... What are you talking about?"

My eyes shot open and my blood froze over in my veins. There's no way, no God given way, I would say that out loud! And yet... When I looked up, I saw Scott staring me in the eyes, looking just as red in the face as I probably was. Why? Why did I scream those words out loud, for him and anyone else to hear?!

I groaned heavily at first, but then I decided it was time to elaborate. There was no point in keeping my thoughts quiet anymore. "You heard me! You're not mine, Scott! You're not mine, and you never were!"

Smack!

Wide eyed, Scott slowly turned his head back in my direction, the force of my slap having turned his head to one side. "... Oww?!"

"You're a replacement! Nothing else! You're not mine, and I'm sure as hell not yours!" A backhanded smack from the other side forced him to step backwards, but I reacted in kind, keeping the distance the same as before. He wasn't going anywhere.

"It doesn't matter what you do!"

Another slap.

"No matter how many times you smile at me!"

Slap.

"No matter how many times you hold me in your arms and make me feel stronger out of nowhere!"

Slap.

"No matter how many times you make me laugh at that stupid Jasmine impression of yours!"

Slap.

"No matter how many times you tickle the life out of me on the beach and make me get sand all in my hair!"

Slap.

"No matter how many times you go out of your own way to save my life for NO DAMN REASON AT ALL!"

I kicked him that time. Kicked him just hard enough in the stomach that he fell to the ground. Then I stood on top of him, hands on my hips and a high heel pinning him down by his chest while I stared him down. I already felt better. This was the natural order of things, I was certain. Seeing him dominated by me like this made towers and walls of soulless ice build themselves around my spirit. He'd never break me again. Not ever. That knowledge made my lips curl up in a smirk. "You're not mine... I'm not yours... We don't need each other. I can drop you to force Samey to do my dirty work all over again, and it won't change a thing. ... Everything's gonna be normal soon... Everything's gonna be just fine for me... It's all gonna be fine..."

But even as I said those words, something just felt...off. Something still had to be said, but I couldn't think of anything else to say.

Scott sure did, though. The way that calm smile slowly tugged at his lips was more than enough to tell me that. But what confused me was that chuckle. It wasn't that devilish snicker I'd grown so used to. It was so...warm. So lighthearted. There was no reason for that. Not that I could see.

I growled and dug my heel deeper into his skin, but following the initial wince, he just chuckled some more and looked straight at me. I'd never seen that look in his eyes before. That mix of bliss and understanding all at once...for all I'd just done to him, how the hell did a face like that make any logical sense? "... What the goddamn hell do you have to smile about right now?!"

Clearly ignoring the fact that it was hurting him, Scott let his fingers clasp around my leg, running from my mid calf up to my knee. We'd found out that particular motion had a way of soothing me pretty quickly, and without fail, it was working again this time. But just when I felt relaxed again...

"... I really like you, too, Amy."

'... What? ... WHAT?!'

Before I'd processed his words fully, I gasped loudly and covered my mouth with both hands, taking a few steps backwards with eyes I was sure were wide as saucers right then. No way. There's no possible what I'd heard him right.

Every single sensation associated with my surroundings was intensified all of a sudden, especially when it came to Scott. As he rose from his position on the ground, I was all but forced take in everything he was. The usually dull tangerine spikes on his head shined in the light of the setting sun, the freckles cascading from his face down to his toned chest and shoulders popped out even more against his pasty skin, every twitch that made his smile grow was more pronounced than it should have been, and those eyes, once ablaze with frustration, still warmed me up as if trying to replace the sun itself. Hyper awareness or no, I was too stunned to move away from him before he could take my hands in his own. "... I'm not a normal guy. I know that. No normal person likes being bossed around anywhere near as much as I do. ...and we both know I'm not the smartest guy, either. But even I'm not stupid enough to be unaware of what's going on here... I'm pretty sure you see it, too, Amy."

"I-I..." Though I was slow about it, I shook my head and took a step backwards. "No... S-Stop it. This is stupid."

But he just kept going, even going so far as to reclaim my hands with his own. Apparently, my command had come off as more of a suggestion to him. "I wondered for a while why you got progressively meaner to me. I knew the way you treated me was...I guess special would be the best way to put it."

No...not again. My fortress of ice was melting and cracking already. I could feel it. I shut my eyes tight and shook my head. "N-No! There's nothing special about it!"

Scott's easy demeanor didn't waver as he twirled some of my blonde strands around his finger. "It's ok, Amy. I get it now. All of the different sides of you that I've gotten to see over these past few weeks... Knowing I'd seen them just scared you. ... You're not good at letting yourself get close to people either, are you?"

I shook my head again, feeling the last of my defenses ready to disappear. That couldn't be it. There had to be something else. "No! I told you, no! Y-You're just annoying! You're useless and annoying! You deserve for me to yell and scream and hurt you as much as I can!"

Those rough, calloused fingers found their way to the small of my back, making me regret my cheer uniform's bared midriff as he pulled me into his form. "... I feel stronger with you in my arms, too, Amy. Holding you like this...it makes me happier. It always has."

Those were the final words. The words that broke me down completely. They sounded suspiciously like millions of tons of ice shattering to pieces all at once. "SCREW YOU!"

...

And then I cried.

No, I didn't just cry. I bawled. Bawled my eyes out right into that infuriatingly rock hard chest of his. No way in hell was he getting the satisfaction of actually seeing my face as I cried over what he was saying to me. I was already embarrassed enough as it was.

Scott didn't seem to have any objections, though. In fact, he seemed perfectly happy to just stand there, running his fingers through my hair over and over again. I forgot how he found out that this relaxed me, too, but I didn't really care. I'd only care if he stopped before I was done crying.

Quite the opposite happened, though. I was finished with the bulk of my sobbing pretty quickly, but we both must have known there was more. So he waited. He waited until every tiny little sob that wanted to force its way out of my throat had disappeared and I had no more tears left to cry. I felt a chill drift past my legs when I was finished. Was it dark out already?

I would have looked into the sky for myself, but having Scott tilt my head upwards and face him gave me my answer regardless. It wasn't dark enough to completely obscure his features, least of all the warm glow in his eyes. I'd seen that light in him so many times, and the closer it got, the more terrified I became. But...why? After all that crying, it's like I was starting to wake up from being under a sleeping spell for hundreds of years. Now, I couldn't even fathom why and how something so beautiful could have been scary to me? "... I like you a lot, Amy...I mean it."

My heart swelled again as I listened to him, but I didn't feel suffocated like before. I felt...weightless. Like I could drift away on the island's breath. "... I-I know...a-and I think I like you, too..."

That tricky trademark smirk tugged at Scott's lips while he quirked an eyebrow upwards. "You think, huh?"

I laughed softly and gave him a little shove in the shoulder, but all the same, I shook my head to make myself perfectly clear. "N-No, I...I know, Scott... I like you, too...a lot..." If I felt anymore weightless, I would have flown off into the stratosphere somewhere. I came back down to earth when I remembered what I'd done to his face earlier, though. Any trace of a smile slipped away before I kissed both of his cheeks. "... I shouldn't have slapped you like that."

"I've had worse done to me." With a soft chuckle, Scott kissed my forehead before looking down into my eyes. He was smiling, but I could see that hardness in his eyes again. "More importantly, though... You're really into me. I'm really into you. Are we doing something about this or not?"

Thank God. A guy who's actually straightforward about this stuff. I was sure I'd have to wait until at least my thirties before I found someone like that. Still...the fact that he'd been so matter of fact about this threw me through a loop for the same reasons I'd been wanting someone to do that for years. And other reasons. Plenty of other reasons. "... I just had an emotional breakdown just trying to accept that I like you. Do we have to decide this now?"

Scott's entire demeanor relaxed before he laughed and shook his head. "No, I guess not." Even though he seemed to understand where I was coming from, that didn't stop him from holding me tightly to his chest and speaking his next few words. "Doesn't mean I'm not ready to compete alongside you from now on, ok? ... We'll make sure the rest of these losers know who the empress really is around here. I promise."

I couldn't help laughing and staring up at him again. "You're an empress now?"

After smirking and poking me in one of the ticklish spots on my lower back, drawing a squeaky yelp out of me in the process, Scott touched his forehead to mine and eased into a relaxed smile. "That's just what I always called you in my head... Ya know, 'cause you're definitely the ruler between us two. ...and queen and princess have been done before, but I heard an empress is a step above a queen, so...ya know..." Instead of completing that thought, he just shrugged those broad, freckled shoulders of his. Somehow, even that was adorable to me.

I couldn't stop myself from kissing him on the nose before giggling softly and staring into the light of his eyes. Everything felt like it was falling into place now. A Red Sea of smoke, ash and dust still clouded my mind with uncertainty, but it parted for the ray of hopeful sunlight that was the redneck's...my redneck's gaze. Eyes holding that kind of power...they could only belong to a warrior. A champion. No...better than that. "Well...that would have to make you my emperor then, wouldn't it?"

Even in the growing darkness, I could see Scott's eyes light up even brighter than before. That boy could put any Christmas tree and the entirety of Las Vegas to shame at the same time. But before he could respond to me, a nearby loudspeaker crackled to life, assaulting our eardrums with the voice of a certain host we'd both quickly learned to despise.

"Campers! Seems like it's that time of the week again. Haul your butts over to the campfire. It's time to see which one of you is getting launched in the slingshot tonight! Hehe... I'm particularly excited for this one. See ya there!"

I let myself groan and roll my eyes the minute Chris's nightmarish, ungodly voice was no longer emitting from the speakers. "Who's bright idea was it for a giant slingshot to be the elimination device for the season anyway?"

I could tell Scott was as annoyed as I was, but he shrugged the whole thing off and smiled at me regardless. "Well, it not too different from what the two of us are used to, anyway."

"True." After letting out another giggle, I separated myself from him and took the first few steps towards the campfire, snapping my fingers in his direction. "C'mon! The sooner we get there, the sooner we get to hopefully see Jasmine get flung a few hundred yards."

Before I'd gotten too far away, however, I was suddenly lifted off my feet. I squealed at first, entirely caught off guard, but I calmed down once I saw who it was that was carrying me. Even in the growing darkness of night, that freckle faced smile still made me light up on the inside.

Once I'd realized what was going on, I laughed and gently grasped onto his shoulders. If nothing else, I didn't want to let myself fall. "What do you think you're doing, huh?"

"Let's do some planning after the ceremony, ok?" Scott kissed me on the forehead, then whispered to me the rest of his thought. "Your sister and Jasmine are old news. We're gonna make this whole damn island and everyone on it part of your empire before we're gone."

That's when I felt it. The groundwork for a new fortress being built. I could feel the fortress and palace being built anew as I was carried off, only this one would be twice the size of the first. A haven fit for an emperor to finally unite with his hidden empress. "...Our. Definitely our empire."

"... Yeah, ok, I like that better."

"Good. I don't plan on changing it."