CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Song: Who'll Stop The Rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival


When she finally made it out of the bath and had gotten dressed, making her way out of the bedroom, Star saw that the row of knives Scary had been working on earlier were gone, and he had placed their wet boots on the hearth by the fire in the den. She felt bad now, knowing that there was a chance that it would take a day or so for them to dry out. There was a chance that his boots may be better off than the ones she had been wearing, since his actually fit him. Hers were a bit too big, and stepping in all the puddles had soaked her feet pretty good. They were probably all squishy inside. She had not paid attention, or really cared, as Scary had dragged her back to the house.

She had put on a shirt, boxers and sweatpants, a common staple in her limited wardrobe with a second layer of socks to keep her feet warm. A towel was wrapped around her head and hair for now. She figured she would deal with it after eating. It would take too long to brush through and then braid to get it out of the way. At least the den had warmed up considerably since this morning.

Scary was in the kitchen at the stove, stirring the leftover stew he had placed into a large pot. It was strange seeing him do something so normal. Thankfully, he had put on some more dry clothes, specifically a shirt. She was glad they had scavenged the extra clothes from the guards, because at the rate they seemed to be going through them, they would all be used. The only problem that Scary had was that none of the guards were as muscular as he was, so all of the shirts seemed to be just a bit too tight. Unfortunately, it was not in a bad way either. At least she had something nice to look at for her last few days.

"Need some help?" she asked starting to move towards the kitchen.

"None, go sit, it'll be just a few more minutes. I think I got this," he said shooing her away the same way she had done to him before.

"You think you do?" she amusingly asked. Scary just turned her head and gave her a harsh stare.

Taking that as her cue, she went over to sit on the hearth, feeling the warmth from a newly burning log. Looking at the stack of wood now, and then looking back at the window, where the rain seemed to have let up some, she began to wonder how long they would be able to keep it going. She knew there were only about three to four days at most left before her time would arrive. After that, knowing how Scary had his own internal furnace, he probably would not need to have a fire. Now, thoughtfully considering the pile, she realized it was a countdown clock for her life. Great, good depressing thought, she told herself.

"Alright, it's ready," Scary said grabbing the bowls with spoons and carrying them to the table. She walked over to where he was, a smile forming on her lips as she looked at him. "What?"

Reaching up, Star ran a finger over where the powdered sugar still rested on his upper lip, wiping the evidence away.

"Well, you're only an assassin, not a spy," she said, turning her finger to show him the substance. "I guess that requires a different kind of sneaky-sneaky skill."

"Really," he said crossing his arms. "I seem to remember sneaking up on you a couple of times."

"And yet, you leave evidence of the crime on your lip," Star said, taking a step towards him, poking him in the chest with the powdered sugar covered finger, to which he actually took a step back.

"Now, I know why you wanted to get lunch ready," she continued with another poke, and another step back from him.

"Those are supposed to be a treat, once you have eaten your meal," another poke and him, a backwards step.

"You didn't earn them," poke, step, and his back was now up against the wall next to the bedroom door.

It was at that time that the towel, which had been precariously resting on top of her head, decided that it needed to be on the floor. As it fell, all of the mass that was Star's hair came to rest messily, covering her face in a dark brown waterfall. Shaking her head to the sides, she tried to get it out of her face, but no such luck.

"Well, this is not a very threatening look!" she commented from behind the hair.

A strong set of hands, then parted the mass right down the center, allowing her to see the smirking look on Scary's face.

"Are you in there?" he asked holding the hair apart.

"Damn mess. That's it!" Star said taking a step back. Heading towards the kitchen, opening the first drawer and beginning to rummage through it. She began to mumble to herself, "Where were those damn scissors? I know I saw a pair."

A second after the words had left her mouth, both of her wrists were grasped firmly by a set of hands, whose arms were wrapped around her. Lifting her hands from the drawer, Scary brought their arms up, so they rested against her chest, his arms cradling her into a firm hug.

"Please don't cut your hair, Star," he asked in a soft voice.

"What?"

"I like…I don't want …" he started but he couldn't finish the statement. Even given their talk in the bathroom, Star knew that he was still having a hard time trying to explain what was going on inside of him. He didn't express himself easily, and this was another big admission for him, even if he didn't know the words. Turning around where she stood, he dropped his hold on her wrists. Parting the hair so that she could see him better, she just nodded her head in agreement with his wishes.

"Ok, Scary. I won't cut it," Star said, reaching around his chest to give him a hug. His arms then wrapped their way around her, holding her against his warm form. Star had no idea why the cutting of her hair meant so much to him, and she actually guessed that he had no real idea why it did either. Maybe it was just something different that he was not used to seeing, being around military people with their short haircuts. Maybe it was because it was the only way that he had known her, and he didn't like the idea of change. She could deal with it for a few more days, then it wouldn't matter. She let him stay like that until he finally pulled away.

"Our food is going to be cold," Scary said, releasing her to step over to the table, looking down as if he was almost embarrassed at the intimate encounter they had just had.

"Grab the bowls and head over to the couch," Star said picking the towel up off of the floor and heading back into the bedroom. "I'll be right back."

In the bathroom, she hung up the towel so it could be drying, and grabbed the ponytail holder. Gathering up the long mess, and twisting it around a couple of times, she was able to wrap the holder around it enough so that it formed a messy bun at the back of her head. That would be as good as it was going to get until after she ate. Grabbing the hairbrush, she turned the light off and headed out.

Back in the den, she found Scary sitting on the couch, which was still directly in front of the fireplace, already eating his food. The record had stopped, so she took a moment to put another one on for some background sounds, besides having to listen to the rain. Hopping over the back of the couch, Star landed with a bounce next to him on his right. Reaching to where he had left her bowl on the hearth, she put the hairbrush down and picked the bowl up, and began to eat, stretching her feet out so they rested as close to the fire as she could stand. Scary then followed suit, matching her stance, but then leaning his heavy frame slightly onto hers.

"Why haven't we been doing this all along?" he asked taking another bite.

"Because it's hard to eat some meals when they require cutting with a knife, like steaks. But also, I grew up always having to sit at a table during mealtime. 'No eating in the den' was my mother's mantra," Star said taking another bite.

"But we were eating popcorn in here the other day," he pointed out.

"That was a snack, not a meal. Just eat your food. Don't make me send you back over to the table," she said pointing her spoon at the distant item. That seemed to satisfy him enough so that he finished eating and cleaned the bowl without another word.

Once they were done, they sat their bowls down on far ends of the hearth, out of the way enough so they didn't get kicked. Star reached over and grabbed a hold of one of the blankets, spreading it out over the two of them.

"Did you know that it was going to rain? Is that why you had the wood brought inside?" she asked after they had been sitting there comfortably in silence for a couple of minutes. She rubbed her hands together to try and get her fingers to warm up, wondering how they could be getting cold already.

"No, I actually thought that it would get wet from the snow melting," he said, stretching his arm underneath the blanket until he found her clasped hands. He began to rub his warm hand over hers, helping to warm them back up quickly, she realized. Even once they were warm, he kept a hold of hers. It was a few minutes later when she spoke again.

"I need to brush my hair, before it dries all tangled," she told him, hating to have to pull her hands away from his warm one. Turning so that she was facing him, her back away from the couch, she grabbed the brush and began the tedious task. As she did so, she could easily see Scary just watching the movements, fascinated as he had been the last time she had done this. When she was done, and it was still hanging loose, she thought of something.

"Would you like to play with my hair some?"

"You would let me do that?" he asked curiously.

"Sure," she said handing the brush to him, and then thought to ask, "You've been wanting to play with my hair for a while, haven't you?"

The dropping of his head was all the answer that she needed, bringing a smile to her face at the silent admission.

"Spread your legs," she told him, which made his head shoot upward, very quickly. When he did so, she put a pillow on the floor to sit on, and then sat down onto it, her back against the couch with his legs on either side of her shoulders. Gathering her hair up, she let it rest behind her in a pile on the area of couch between his legs.

As Scary began to gently brush a section of her hair, she wrapped her arms around his upper calves, pulling them in tight to her body to wrap her in their warmth. Sitting like that for a while, neither of them speaking, she felt him brush as well as just caress her hair. The simple actions were calming to the point where, not long after, she found herself relaxing, and starting to yawn every once in a while. The gentle sound of the rain, the crackling of the fire, the warmth coming from Scary, the tender touches he was giving her, all of them were making her sleepy.

After a while, Scary put the brush down on the hearth, off to the side away from the fire, and then moved his legs apart, freeing her from their enclosure.

"Come here," he said, putting his hands underneath her arms, and lifting her back onto the couch next to him. Leaning over to his left, he guided her body to follow his movements, so that they were now laying down side by side on the couch. Star grabbed the blanket and tossed it over the two of them, not sure if Scary really needed it. But after only a moment, stuck between him and the fire, she was reveling in the warmth of her position.

Scary was using his left arm as a makeshift pillow, while she did the same with her own arm. His right arm had reached over and was resting over her side, his hand rubbing just above her belly button. Their legs had twisted together into a messy pile. Lying there, Star felt calm and happy. It didn't take her long before she was asleep.

Star had no idea how long she had slept, and she wasn't even sure if Scary had slept himself, when she finally woke up. The fire was still going, but she could see that it needed to have more wood added to it. Listening and feeling his chest moving at a steady pace, she figured that he had fallen asleep also, comforted in the situation. She never would have thought that assassins took naps. Giving her body a small stretch, she tried to not wake him up. She had nowhere to go, nothing to do. It wasn't even late enough to start dinner yet. Lying in the warm, comfortable position, Star figured she just needed to enjoy this moment.

But, she must have moved just enough with her stretching, to stir Scary in his sleep, because she felt him begin to move his own body. At first, she figured that he was also just stretching, but then his left arm began to slide down so that it was moving underneath of her head, until it made its way just past her shoulder, surrounding her body. He then brought his left arm and hand upwards, so that it wrapped over her breasts and it pulled her firmly into his chest. His right hand, which had been resting over her belly, then began to move also. His palm flattened out and began to rub across her entire stomach area. His legs, still wrapped with hers, began to tighten so that she could not move them, immobilizing her to the spot.

The tight encasement that Scary was now holding her in brought butterflies to her belly. But, when his right hand that was still circling, began to head lower over her pants, closer to between her legs, Star took in a sharp inhale of breath. When his hand finally stopped its movement, it rested just above her warm crotch. Then his hand began to press against her, pushing her hips hard against his own. Star's eyes went wide as she felt his member begin to harden against her, wedging itself against her lower body, rubbing the soft space between her legs. She could feel her own body starting to respond to his touch.

Then his left hand, which was across her chest, began to follow the shape of her right breast, his fingers tracing the outline of it, before his thumb began to move towards the center, his metal thumb rubbing over her shirt, discovering her nipple, making it hard. Star was shocked, not only that he was touching her so intimately, but that she felt her body wanting him to continue.

But, as the moments passed, his hands never went any further, and then they stopped their movements, resting near where they had been, but no longer giving her what she was wanting. Her stretching must had just barely touched his senses as he was sleeping, that was why he had begun his caresses. How could his automatic response to feeling her in his arms as he slept be to arouse her? His own body had definitely responded at feeling her against him. Was it just a normal male response, or something else?

Star laid still, in his arms, for almost an hour she guessed, thinking about what it had felt like for him to touch her, so gently, and how much she had liked it, before Scary actually began to stir and wake up fully this time. His own stretches were what finally released her from the imprisonment of his body. He had not moved any more, at all, not even to release the firm hold he had on her. What worried her was the fact that she had liked it.

"Star, are you alright?" Scary asked as he suddenly pulled his left arm back from being around and underneath her.

"I'm fine, why?" she asked using her arms to prop herself up into a sitting position. Scary pushed himself back away from hers so that he was on the other side of the couch, as far away as he could be from her.

"My arm. I didn't hurt you, while I slept?" he asked squeezing his hand into a fist, his arm making the noise as the panels moved around.

"No, you just wrapped it around me. That's all," she said lying…well, maybe omitting, and hoping that he could not tell. There was no way she was going to tell him what had happened, how he had moved or touched her in his sleep. To play it off, she stood up and took a log from the pile and put it onto the fire, then reached for another one. By the time that she sat back down on the couch, he seemed a bit less worried, his arm no longer making the noises.

"The rain finally stopped," she informed him, trying to change the subject. Did he remember what he had done? Had he dreamed about it? What do assassins dream of?


Author's Note: The next chapter will be Sunday morning, with Tue & Thur & Sat for the next three (which should really catch your attention).

Thanks again for all the positive reviews and hi there new followers. I know the story is slowly moving forward, but just wait. It won't be for long...

NoVacancyMind - in just a few chapters, you get a real cliffhanger.

LeeAnn D - if you liked the fingers, I hope that you liked the nap too. And, fyi, I have a big fear of snakes myself, so it made writing that scene a bit easier.