Thirrrty five! NEVER thought that I'd ever write a story this long, so this is very exciting!!
Thanks to kimmitwilight, TeamIanandEdward, iamnicolecullen, brokenfromthepast, Twi-Twanger, TK-MR, anoek013, RawSugarX23, piccolover22, ladaane, HockeeChica, islandofdreams, macaronichezez96, hanaharoo, yourmumwenttocollege., BlazingWolfFire and stefffie for your awesome reviews!!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.
Mel POV
After I had taken our plates back to the kitchen, I had put them in the bin and then leaned back against the counter.
"You okay Mel?" Trudy asked me and I nodded.
"Yeah, I'm just thinking about a conversation that Wanda and I just had is all," I said, shrugging my shoulders before smiling at her.
"I'm glad that she's back," Trudy told me, patting my shoulder. "It just wasn't the same around here without her. And it was awfully brave of you to go out and bring her back."
"It was scary, but it had to be done," I said. "Plus, if I didn't do it someone would have anyways."
"I don't know about that," Trudy said, dishing out some more pasta on a few plates. "Sure we all missed her, but I think we were too fearful of going out there and getting caught like she did to go and rescue her."
"You know that she wasn't really caught in that sense, right?" I asked her and she nodded.
"I heard the story of how she was taken and all, but still; it took a lot of courage."
I shrugged and offered to help her, but she shooed me away insisting that I go and do the job that I was assigned to do; that I didn't need to do anything extra at all.
I took her advice and left the back of the kitchen and scanned the room looking for Jared, not spotting him anywhere. I sighed and walked down and out of the dining hall, turning the corner while looking the other way and ran smack into someone.
"Sorry!" I said, trying to assess my body to see if there was any damage. I felt a pair of arms around my waist and heard a chuckle, realizing that it was just Jared that I had bonked into and I didn't feel so bad.
"I was just looking for you," I told him, wrapping my arms tight around his neck.
"Well what a coincidence, so was I," he said, letting me go a little bit and taking my hand. He smiled down at me and I returned it, but not very enthusiastically.
"What's wrong, Melly," he asked, running a hand through my hair and I shrugged.
"Just thinking about some things," I said to him while spinning my engagement ring around my finger with my thumb at the same time.
"You want to talk about them?"
"Not here," I said, shrugging.
Jared was silent for a minute before I smiled at him and tugged on his arm, determined to have the conversation with him right then instead of putting it off like Wanda was doing to Ian; that shit just wasn't fair to him. We passed Jamie on our way and he gave me a funny look, but I just smiled at him. As we got closer to our room, Jared wrapped his hand around my waist before pushing the piece of cloth aside and letting me lead him through.
I sat down on the mattress and looked up at Jared, realizing then just how distressed he seemed to be.
"Jared are you okay?" I asked him, a little worried.
"Uh, yeah baby I'm fine," he lied, pacing around while running a hand over his face a number of times. "What was it that you wanted to talk about?"
I pulled my knee up to my chest, resting my nose and chin on it.
"Spit it out already Mel, you're killing me," Jared said and I could audibly hear the distress in his voice.
"Do you think we're moving too fast?"
So fast that I barely even saw the movement, Jared was on his knees in front of me and I could see that his face was absolutely white with panic. He placed his hands on the mattress around me and was breathing rather heavily.
"Jared, are you okay?" I asked, cupping his face in my hands, really concerned about him.
"I uh. Define moving too fast," he said, swallowing hard.
"Well I was just talking to Wanda a little while ago and she feels that Ian is moving too fast and trying to get them back to where they were before that whole mess and I wondered if I had done the same thing to you once I was back in my own body. I mean, don't get me wrong," I said, pressing my forehead to his as I could see him growing paler. "I love where we are now and I love that we're going to be married some day, but I can't help to wonder if I maybe pushed you too hard to get to this point."
"Oh Mel," he said, sighing and I could see him visibly relaxing a little. Jared put his hands over top of mine on his face before pulling them away and linking our fingers together.
"No, I don't think that we were moving too fast at all," he said with sincerity in his voice. "Honey, I would have told you if I had thought that; you know I would have."
"Yeah, but I just can't help but to wonder," I said, shrugging. "I mean, we were apart just like they were and you put up a front like Ian and then I got my body back and..."
"I can see where you're trying to go with this and it's not going to work, Mel," Jared said, cupping his hand around my cheek. "Yes, our situations might seem a little similar, but at the same time they're very different, you know. For instance, we knew each other for awhile, before we were separated like that, so we had way more history; it was only natural that we would pick up where we had left off. Ian and Wanda didn't have that though. They had only known each other for a few months while she was in your body; and only a month after she was taken out. I think that you're forgetting that they didn't have nearly as much time together to work everything out beforehand."
"You're right Jared," I told him, releasing his hold on my hand and wrapping both of my arms around his neck. "But I just can't help but to feel that our engagement was..."
"Mel, I will wait as long as you want before we get married, I promise you that," Jared interrupted me and I rolled my eyes before gently hitting his arm.
"You shouldn't interrupt me," I chastised him and he smiled.
"Sorry baby. What were you saying?"
"Ah, I forget," I said, smiling sheepishly and he leaned into peck my cheek.
"All right, well if you remember, let me know and we'll talk about it, okay?" he asked and I nodded, running my fingers through the hair at the back of his head.
After a few minutes of silence, I smirked at him.
"I remember now," I said with a giggle and he laughed at me.
"Tell me then," Jared prompted me, running a hand through my hair.
"Why did you propose to me? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love you and I love that we're going to be married; but to me it seemed very out of the blue. We didn't really discuss it much at all or anything," I kept talking so that he wouldn't cut me off but when I finished I felt a little silly, so I looked down at the ground instead.
"I proposed to you because you are amazing, Melanie Stryder; you really are, and you don't take the time to step back and realize that half of the time. You're smart, independent, amazing, strong-willed, beautiful... there are dozens of other words to describe you, I just can't think of them all right now," he said with a chuckled and I giggled, looking up at Jared's face to see that he was beaming and I could practically feel the love radiating off of him.
"Mel, you're my other half in so many ways; and I know that everyone knows that we're together and in a time like this it's kind of silly for someone to get married when it can't even be legalized or properly documented, but I have to make you mine. I think a part of me has always wanted to from the first time that I saw you in that house and you kicked me," he said, running his hand through my hair again and cupping the back of my head. "It's kind of selfish of me, and you're more than welcome to tell me to piss off if you don't feel the same way, but it's the truth."
"I know, Jared. And I feel the same way; I can't wait to be yours, you know that," I said to him, patting his cheek. "I probably don't say it enough but I really am thankful that you are in this situation with me, Jared, I wouldn't want it any other way. I think that I've taken what we have for granted too much and I know that it's something for me to work on, but Ian and Wanda's situation helped me to take a step back and have a closer look at our relationship. You just never know when someone you love could be ripped away from you."
"That will never happen to us again, Mel," Jared said before kissing my nose. "I won't let it. And if for whatever reason something happens to us, we go down together."
"I wouldn't have it any other way," I told him, smiling.
"God I love you so much, Mel," Jared said sighing and I gently laughed.
"I love you too."
Jared leaned in then and pressed his lips to mine gently before I started to kiss him back. We didn't get carried away or anything because we didn't need to; the kiss was sort of a mutual understanding between us, knowing that we were in it for the long haul and nothing was going to stop us. When we broke apart, Jared kissed both of my cheeks before wrapping me up in his arms and burying his face in my hair.
"When we get out of here, I'm going to officially make you my wife. We can do the whole big white wedding thing and have anyone that you want there and we'll go on a honeymoon and I'll frame the document with our signatures on it so that every time we walk past it, it will remind us of everything that we'd been through and how we made it," he whispered fiercely and it brought tears to my eyes.
"You're too good to me," I said, my voice sounding thick with emotions and he gently shushed me.
"I don't need all of that stuff though," I whispered back one I'd regained some composure. "I mean, the framed document and the honeymoon sounds fantastic and everything, but I don't need the lavish wedding or anything like that, Jared. I'd be just as happy with a few close friends and be done with it. I've already asked Wanda to be my maid of honour, just so you know."
"Mmn, how did she take that?" he hummed in my ear and I shrugged.
"Took her awhile to come up with what the term meant, but she seemed enthusiastic for the most part."
"I was going to ask Ian," he said and I nodded. "When Jamie and I came to the caves he was the first one to really accept us; even if our friendship did get a little strained when you came to us, and there are times that I could wring his neck, but he's a good guy."
"He is," I replied. "Aren't you worried that Kyle will try to beat you up for not asking him though?"
"Nope," Jared answered simply. "He'll get over it really quick."
"Don't you go causing trouble though," I warned him and he laughed.
"Don't worry about me; I can hold my own."
"That's what I'm worried about," I mumbled and Jared squeezed me tight.
"Knock knock!" a voice called from the door and I rolled my eyes, slightly annoyed that someone was interrupting our moment.
"Can I help you?" I asked as Jared released me and I saw Brandt stick his head through the curtain.
"We're all heading down for a game of soccer, are you guys in?" Brandt asked and Andy poked his head around too, nodding like crazy.
"It's up to you, Mel," Jared said, looking down at me and I smiled, liking that he was giving me the option of staying back and continuing what we were doing.
"Let's go," I said to him, wanting to play since it had been too long; and plus, our moment was kind of ruined anyways.
Jared stood up and held a hand out to me, which I took and he helped me up off of the mattress before pulling me close to him for another hug. I held him and we rocked back and forth a few times before he let go of all of me except for my hand and led me back out of our room and through the mess of halls to the games room. I was really glad that we had had that talk as it helped to clear the air a bit with the things that were on my mind; but I hoped that it didn't scare him off at all. It didn't seem to, but Jared could be the master of disguise when he wanted to be.
Jared POV
When Melanie told me that she 'had to talk with me' it seriously scared the crap out of me; those are the words that no guy wants to hear at any time in their life, especially when they're coming from their fiancé. Those words are right up there with 'it's not me, it's you', and I'd heard that enough times in my life to last me for the rest of it.
Although I knew the reasoning in behind Mel's insecurities about our engagement, it still hurt me a little to know that she questioned it like she did. Granted, we didn't discuss it a lot before I did propose to her, but I was glad that she had accepted, not really thinking anything else of it.
I looked down at Melanie as we walked through the halls towards the games room and smiled to myself at how lucky I had been when I found her. Little did I know way back when I had seen her in that kitchen that I had met my other half then and I would stay with her for the rest of our lives; I was certainly glad of the outcome.
I knew from the moment that she had first touched me and I felt a little spark between us that I could never let her go; never mind the fact that I wouldn't have even if I hadn't felt that because she was the only human I'd had contact with in a long time, but still. I didn't know if she had noticed the electricity between us right away, but I figured that she had come around by the time that we'd settled in at the cabin and she suggested that we had taken the bed instead of Jamie. At first I was shocked about that because I never expected it, and she was also younger then, but inside I was cheering at the notion that she must have felt something for me or she never would have mentioned it.
I took my hand from hers and wrapped it around her waist, effectively crushing Mel into my side as we continued to walk. I wasn't exactly sure how she would react since she wasn't a really big fan of showing huge amounts of affection around the others, but she simply wrapped her arm around my back and nuzzled her head under my arm. I gave her a gentle squeeze and resisted the urge to kiss the top of her head; I would save that for when Brandt and Andy buggered off so she wasn't as likely to kill me or something. I hated that little rule of hers, but I was determined to follow it so that I didn't end up in the proverbial dog house, but it was a rule that I would try and break eventually.
We finally entered the game room where I noticed that just about everyone was gathered; it seemed that even uptight Sharon had let school out so that the kids could go and watch as well. I saw Jamie warming up with Aaron, laughing and continuing on and it made me feel good that I could bring that kind of happiness to the kid after everything that he'd gone through in his short life. Freedom and Isaiah buzzed around the room, running through people's legs in what looked like an intense game of tag; seeing them playing around made me think of a younger version of Kyle and Ian.
"Where's Ian and Wanda?" I asked Sunny as she had come to stand by Mel's side. It was funny, after all that the six of us had been through, she was still only really comfortable around Wanda and Kyle; but could manage Melanie's presence. She still had a bit of a hard time around Ian and I, but we were getting there.
"Kyle went to go and find out," Sunny said to me, but was facing away from me. "They knew about the game from Jamie, but hadn't shown up so he went. I hope nothing happens to him."
"He'll be fine, Sunny. Ian's been a little better to him since he's got Wanda back with us," Melanie tried to reassure the other girl, but she just shrugged her shoulders.
"Really, Sunny. Kyle's been able to hold his own with Ian since they were kids; and plus I doubt that Ian would do anything to him in the first place, there really isn't any reason for him to," I added and she nodded.
Mel lifted her head up to smile at me, turning up a corner of her mouth and I couldn't help but to lean in that time and kiss her and she didn't even protest or make a scene; it gave me hope that she was slowly going to let go of some of her silly rules.
After a few more minutes of mingling with everyone, Kyle came running back into the room and scooped up Sunny in his arms, spinning her around in circles and making a scene, despite her protests. I could feel Melanie giggling against me and even I had to crack a smile at seeing Kyle so carefree and not as uptight as he usually was.
"They're on their way," Kyle announced to everyone once he'd put a slightly dizzy Sunny back down on her feet. "He said to go ahead and pick the teams though and that it didn't matter whose team he was on."
A murmur of laughter spread throughout the crowd as they all gathered around to choose the teams. They nominated me as one captain and Andy as the other and I right away chose Mel to be on my team and I heard a few groans, as they knew how good Mel could be when she really truly was on her A-game. Andy chose Paige and then Kyle and we then split up everybody else up between the two of us until there was just Wanda, Jamie and Ian left to pick from; Jamie was always among the last to be picked not because of his age, but because he wanted to be for whatever estranged reason.
"Well," said Andy, internally weighing his options. It was unlikely that Wanda would actually play, but we didn't know if she would or not since they hadn't shown up by that point. He also already had Kyle, so taking Ian would be like having a double threat, but on the other hand Jamie was also an incredible player as well.
"Hurry up already!" Jeb shouted from the back of my team and we all laughed.
"All right, all right! I choose Jamie," Andy decided and Jamie fist pumped the air.
"Yes! Now I get to beat my sister and everything!" he cheered and I knew that Mel was glaring at him.
"Not if I can help it, little brother," she said playfully, smacking the back of his head and he ducked so he didn't get the full force of her hand.
"Fine, then I get Ian and we'll see what Wanda wants to do," I said and Andy nodded, stepping forwards to shake my hand.
"Let's get everything set up while we wait for the other two and then they can just join in or whatever when they get here," Paige suggested as she and Violetta took off running for their teams' bench, declaring themselves the second line.
Jeb ran down to my net while Maggie went to the other side's net and I smiled as the air seemed to buzz with excitement for the game. It had been way too long since we'd all gotten together like that for a good reason, and to have fun to boot.
"You okay Howe?" I heard Mel's voice call out to me and I turned around to smile at her.
"Course I am!" I responded and she laughed. "You want to take centre?"
"No, that's your spot Jared!" she said and I shrugged.
"I'm willing to give it up for you."
"No way!" ________ yelled out to me and I laughed, turning in their direction. "There's no way that you can give up that position Jared, that would be like suicide! No offense, Mel."
"None taken," she laughed, beaming up at me and I shrugged. "I'll be on your line though."
"I wouldn't have it any other way," I told her as she walked over and threw her arms around me, hugging me tight before letting me go a little. "Let's kick their asses, okay?"
"Fine by me," I laughed before kissing her forehead.
"Hey, look who decided to show up!" Brandt called out from where he was stretching with Lucina and Trudy.
I looked towards the doorway where Ian and Wanda were finally walking into the room and I saw that she was blushing and sort of hiding in his side, which was partly her body's natural reaction to being announced like that, and partly all Wanda.
"They didn't talk," Mel stated and I frowned.
"What do you mean?" I asked and she turned around so that it didn't look like we were explicitly talking about them.
"Remember how I said that I'd talked to Wanda about how she thought they were moving too fast?" I nodded. "Well I told her to go and talk to Ian about it and I can tell that she didn't. Just by the way that they're walking I can tell."
"You're crazy," I said, wrapping up our little conversation as they got closer.
"Ian, you're on our team," Mel told him and he nodded. "Wanda, are you playing?"
She shook her head and started to walk away from us, but Ian grabbed her around the waist and kissed her head before she got too far. I rolled my eyes, but smiled a little since I'd basically done the same thing to Mel not minutes before and we all got lined up to play. I really wanted to win that game.
Wanda POV
So I'd chickened out of talking to Ian about everything like I had told Mel that I would; I just couldn't bring myself to once I got back to the room. When I moved the door aside and walked through, he had bounded off of the bed and leapt over to me to sweep me up in his arms, claiming that he missed me. Even though I knew that it was him trying to make everything the way that it was before, I still couldn't help but to melt in his arms and hold him all the same.
While I was talking to Mel, he had taken my bag and opened it up, sorting all of my clothes by type and then by colour before laying them all out on the mattress for me. I walked in to see that he had moved all of his clothes back to where they had been kept and together we had organized the room and all of my belongings were put back where they belonged; that wasn't something that Ian had said, I had felt that it was where they were meant to be.
I had noticed that the mirror he had built was suspiciously missing and there were next to no remnants of it on the floor around it; the red rock sort of shimmered under the place that it had hung, but there was nothing else. When I had asked him about it, he had shrugged and said that he was going to build a better one anyways.
We had just finished putting everything away when Kyle barged in, demanding to know why Ian and I weren't down in the game room with everyone else for the soccer game that was apparently waiting for him to start. I blushed as I realized then that I had forgotten to tell Ian about the game, but he had just laughed and told Kyle to go ahead and get started without him.
The whole way down through the tunnels, Ian had pestered me about playing, but I really didn't feel like it. He had made me promise though that he would work with me so that I could play in the next game that they all held, so I supposed that I was morally obligated to learn to run and push my body faster.
When we had arrived, they made a big show out of it and I was slightly uncomfortable with all the attention; especially considering the fact that the waters still hadn't settled, so to speak. I just walked away from Ian and sat down on the floor by what was to be his bench, according to Jared.
I sat in relative silence on the ground, playing with a stone that I had found beside me and watched as Jared and Kyle led a group warm up of sorts, but all Kyle did was pick on Ian. I found it in my natural instincts to jump up and defend him, but Ian just sort of brushed it off and continued on like nothing had happened.
Eventually the game started and I made small talk with Lily for a bit as I watched Ian play. He was on the same line as Mel and Jared, and together the three of them were just about unstoppable. Kyle, Andy and Brandt were giving them a bit of a hard time, but everything they worked for would be diffused the moment that Jared would get that distinct look in his eye and Mel would dart ahead of the other teams' defence and Ian would pass the ball to her so that she could at least get a shot at Maggie.
After three attempts by them, Mel declared that it was time for her to take a break, so she skipped off of the field and plopped herself down beside me.
"So how was your talk?" she asked and I sighed.
"We didn't talk yet," I said, keeping my eye on Ian and watching as he ran back up towards his net as Lucina passed the ball over to Andy.
"And why the hell not?"
"Because the time wasn't right," I said, shrugging.
"Wanda, the time will never be right unless you actually say 'I have something to talk to you about'; trust me on that. Jared and I had a talk this morning because I told him that we needed to, you know."
"Well good for you and Jared then, but I don't know how to go about talking to Ian about it," I said, smiling as Ian looked over at me then and winked.
"I'm not going to argue about this right now or anything, but please just trust me; the few panicked moments that the guy gets when you say those words are well worth the quality time that you get to have when actually talking," Mel said to me before calling someone out so that she could go back and play in the game.
I sat there and cheered on Ian for the rest of the time that he played before they took a mandatory water break at half time. Ian grabbed some for the both of us and shoved it in my hands despite my protests because I wasn't even playing.
"Wanda, please don't worry about it; it's hot in here, you need to drink some water. And I'm not going to take no for an answer because I don't want another repeat of your fainting spells from before, remember?" he said, settling in beside me and handed me my water. I rolled my eyes and took a sip as he readjusted our bodies so that I was sitting in front of him with his legs spread around me.
"You're doing really well out there," I commented and I heard Ian snort from behind me. "What?"
"We're losing right now, Wanda," he said and I shrugged.
"I can't see that far down to the nets Ian," I said, defending myself. "I'm just going by the general cheers and groans whenever people score and try to match it up with the players."
"Oh Wanda," he said and I felt his hand snake around my waist and hold my upper body tight to his. "You're awesome, you know that?"
"Ian, please," I groaned while leaning back against him and I heard him chuckle.
"Yeah Wanda, you're just amazing," Jared teased me in a high pitch voice before dropping to the ground to lie on his back beside us.
"Shut it, Jared," Ian said, which only made Jared laugh.
"Yeah? What are you going to do about it, O'Shea?" Jared said, taunting him and looking over at us.
"Nothing. Nobody's going to do anything to each other," I said, not wanting them to start into something stupid.
"Yeah, just like Wanda said, nothing is going to happen," Mel announced, sitting down beside Jared and he put his head on her legs. "You can have your pissing contest later or something."
"Awe man, you ruin all of our fun, Melanie," Kyle whined as he sat down with us as well. I looked over to see that Sunny was handing out the water to everyone and I felt slightly proud of her and that she was taking the initiative to do so.
"Yeah yeah," she said, running her fingers through Jared's hair and I saw his eyes close involuntarily.
"Hey! You'd better not put him to sleep; we have a game to win!" Ian called out to her and she stuck her tongue out at him.
"Pah! You guys can't win this; we've got it in the bag!" Kyle responded, doing some funny sort of gesture towards Ian and Jared.
"No way, we just haven't turned on our A-Game yet," Jared said, jumping into their conversation and I tuned them out, just listening to the humming from Ian's chest as I watched them.
As I sat there leaning up against Ian, I looked around at the rest of the people in the room to see what they were doing. Outside of our little bubble of the six of us, it seemed like there was a lot of resentment towards us and how we were acting around each other; particularly the boys.
I also noticed a few glares in my direction as well and it made me very uncomfortable to see that; knowing that just a month or so prior nobody really had a problem with me at all. I sort of leaned back into Ian's body to try and almost hide myself; it was my body's natural instinct towards the situation and I felt his arm tighten a little around me. I wasn't sure if he was aware of what they were doing or if it was just him holding me to him better, but it helped me a little bit. I noticed that the glares intensified a little when I leaned back into him and it made me slightly scared of them.
After they finished their little banter and relaxed a little, I continued to watch the crowd that were still surrounding us in a sense, wondering if something was going to happen.
"You okay, Wanda?" Ian said gently into my ear, but I was so focussed on the others that I jumped as I wasn't expecting it.
"What? Uh, yeah I'm fine," I said to him as Ian rubbed his hands up and down my arms.
"No you're not, why are you so jumpy?" he asked and I shrugged.
"I dunno. Can we talk about something?" I ended up just blurting out and I felt his actions freeze on my arms.
"Uh... sure," he said and I could hear Ian's voice a little shaky and almost nervous. "Right now?"
"No, later is okay," I responded, turning around to face him. "I'm going to head back to the room, okay?"
"What? No, that's not okay," Ian frowned and I looked way. "Why don't you want to stay down here with the rest of us? We've still got the rest of the game to play and everything."
"I know, but I'm just not feeling so well," I lied, hoping that he could possibly fall for it just the one time and let me go back to the room in peace; I really didn't want to see the others' angry faces any longer.
"Well what's wrong? Are you sick? Should I have Doc take a look at you?" Ian kept asking questions and I could see Kyle eyeing me out of the corner of his eye and I gave him a small smile.
"No, I'm fine, it's just..." I looked up and at the crowd where the majority of them seemed to be staring at me even more since Ian was making a bit of a fuss about my 'sickness'. He followed my gaze and frowned over at the people.
"Is it them?" he asked, nodding his head in their direction and I looked right at him.
"Yes," I whispered quietly. "They've been just... I dunno, but I really think that I should get out of here."
"Absolutely not," Ian said to me, cupping my right cheek in his hand. "You belong here just as much as the rest of them do."
"No, but I just feel uncomfortable Ian. I can't take their glares and everything, that's all."
"Let's get the game started again, and I bet that they'll forget all about their 'glaring' or whatever it is that they're doing," Kyle suggested and Ian nodded.
"Trust me; they're not going to do anything. They're still on your side, don't worry about that, they just need some adjustment time like the last time. It's unfair to you, but it still has to happen, you know?" Ian told me and I nodded.
Jared stood up then and called the game back to order, so some of the people walked away, but I could still feel some eyes on the back of my head. I gave Ian a pathetic pleading face, and he glanced over my shoulder, shaking his head.
"It's just Sharon now, ignore her," I nodded again and sighed. "Do they say anything to you when you work?"
"No, I just get the stares and whatever, but that time felt like they were ganging up on me or something," I admitted and he nodded, seeming to really think about it.
"It's fine. You just stay here and they'll forget all about their silly little thing or whatever it is."
"Okay," I finally agreed, against my better judgement and Ian leaned in to kiss my forehead. He then stood up and rejoined the game right as they started again.
True to Jared's word, his team seemed to flip a switch or something and I was able to hear a lot more cheers coming from him and Mel, so I assumed that they were either catching up or winning. I happened to be sitting at centre field, so when they lined up for something, Ian looked my way and gave me a wink. I giggled and waved back at him and a few people started to yell,
"Heads up!"
I looked quickly and spotted the ball flying in Ian's direction and he wasn't looking. Before I could call out to him, the ball smacked him in the head and bounced off. I stood up in shock, not knowing if he was hurt or anything. Ian shook his head and whipped around to look for whoever had done that.
"Kyle, I'll get you back for that!" Ian yelled and I sighed, thankful that he wasn't really hurting; or at least he didn't show it if he wasn't.
After they'd restarted whatever it was that they'd started to do before Ian was almost knocked out, the ball went flying up the field with Mel and Paige right on its heels, but Ian took off in the other direction. I wondered for a second if he was nuts or something, but then I noticed who was in his line of vision and shook my head. The ball was soon shot down to near where he was and Kyle jumped out to kick it when Ian went up from behind him and shoved him hard, knocking him to the ground while kicking the ball back out to Jared.
"Hey!" Kyle yelled out, thrashing his leg around until it came into contact with the back of Ian's and he too was knocked to the ground.
I jumped up again and began to run over to the two of them just as Ian pinned Kyle into the ground and I was really afraid of what he was going to do then. Sunny was probably upset that Kyle had been knocked down like that and then in turn brought Ian down with him, but I also didn't think that she knew that half of it was just them playing around; at least that's what I thought until Kyle flipped the pair of them over and grabbed Ian's cheeks with his hand, pinching them together.
"Knock it off you two!" Jeb yelled out from the other end as the game stopped and everyone groaned to see the two of them at it again.
Jared jogged up beside me and rolled his eyes before reaching them and pushing Kyle to the side so that they were both lying on the rocky floor beside each other.
"Bunch of idiots," he mumbled, walking away and I nodded in agreement.
"Are you okay?" I asked Ian as I got closer and kneeled down beside him.
"I'm fine, Wanda. It was just Kyle being a jackass again," he responded, laughing.
"Who are you calling a jackass? That was a dick move on your part!" Kyle answered, which only made Ian laugh harder.
"You're the one that started it, you know."
"And I finished it, that's how terrific I am," Kyle said, sitting up and smacking Ian's stomach, making him curl up.
"Oh shit," Kyle then said, scrambling to his feet and taking off across the way. I looked in that direction and saw Sunny standing there with her hands over her mouth and tears on her cheeks. Mel was standing with her and talking to her, but it didn't seem to be helping any.
"Serves him right," Ian said, putting his head back on the ground as he'd been watching Kyle as well.
"Ian!" I chastised him, hitting his arm lightly and he laughed, pushing me a little.
"Are you sure that you're all right, Ian?" Doc asked and we both jumped and looked around to him; we didn't hear him coming at all.
"I'm fine, Doc. Sorry about canning the game like that when my team was winning and all," Ian winked at him and smiled.
"Yeah, I'm sure that you're real sorry about that," Doc laughed, handing him a bottle of water. "Drink that, you must be dehydrated from all of that exertion."
"Course I am," Ian said, sitting up and taking the bottle from him. We chatted with him for a minute as everyone cleared out of the cave in search of food for dinner until it was just the three of us. Doc then left and it seemed eerily quiet in there.
"Did you want to talk now?" Ian asked from beside me and I nodded, my heart pumping wildly in my chest.
"I uh... Jared said something yesterday that I didn't exactly understand," I said quickly. I didn't have enough courage to have the conversation that I actually wanted to have with him and I chickened out.
"Really. And what did Jared say to you that has you confused?" he asked, smiling at me.
"Well, it was after Mel and I had walked away from you and Mel made some sort of comment about how boys are stupid and they don't think with their heads. Relax," I told him as I saw him playfully glare at me. "That's just what she said, I'm only repeating it. But then Jared caught up with us and said something about how boys do think with their heads, but not the right one. I didn't get it, so Mel told me to ask you what it was about."
I leaned away from Ian as I finished explaining because when I had told him what Jared had said, he had spit out the sip of water that he'd taken just then and it sprayed everywhere.
"Ew, Ian," I said, moving away from the wet spot as he wiped his mouth.
"Sorry about that. Are you sure that was what he said?" Ian asked, looking right at me and I nodded.
"Mel did this just to kill me, didn't she? It would have been so much easier if she'd explained, but no, she had to do things the hard way," he said to himself and I frowned.
"So what does it mean?"
"Well, it means that we don't necessarily always think with our brains; which I totally don't agree with, but it's Jared and Melanie and they don't always... whatever," Ian said, shaking his head. "Okay, well..." he trailed off again, running a hand through his dark hair and I could see the hint of a blush on his cheeks.
"Umm. Well. You know how there's like the male anatomy and all..." I nodded, thinking that he was very uncomfortable with explaining it. "Uhh well they call the top of it that and yeah."
I realized what he was talking about and turned my head away promptly as the blush overtook my cheeks and I could feel the heat from it creeping down my neck.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked," I apologized, biting my bottom lip. That was not the conversation that I thought that it was going to be.
"No, no it's okay!" Ian said, trying to reassure me right away, but I shook my head. "Wanda, really it's okay."
"I should have just forced Mel to tell me instead of just going along with her; it's my fault."
"And what exactly is your fault? You asked a question and I answered it, no big. Sure it was a little uncomfortable, but that's because Jared's an idiot and Melanie's no better for not explaining, that's all," Ian said and I nodded.
"Wanda please don't feel bad. I don't know why you do feel that way but you totally shouldn't; it's okay," I felt him take my hand and I smiled a little, looking into his bright blue eyes.
"I just feel bad that you had to answer it and I know that it was awkward for you and..." I was cut off when Ian placed his large hand over my mouth and I shook my head.
"Please don't feel bad; I certainly don't," Ian told me and I nodded. "Promise?"
I looked away from him, pretending to think about it and he laughed at me before kissing my cheek.
"You're too cute, you know that?" I rolled my eyes at him, but couldn't respond because his hand was still over my mouth.
"What do you say that we go and get some dinner?" Ian asked and I nodded and he finally let go of my mouth. He stood up quickly and held out his hand for me, which I took right away and he pulled me up to my feet, but continued to pull me up until I was practically hanging over his shoulder and staring at his back.
"What are you doing?" I asked and he laughed, hitting my thigh.
"Taking you to dinner," Ian answered nonchalantly and I shook my head.
"Not like this please."
"Oh, well since you said please and all," he quipped before pulling my legs down and somehow manoeuvred me around so that he was carrying me across his chest, supporting my back and legs with his arms.
"Better?" he asked and I nodded at him.
"Much, thank you."
Ian laughed and started to walk out of the tunnel, where we saw two figures coming towards us; I recognized them as Mel and Jared right away.
"How's Sunny?" I asked right away and she shrugged.
"She's a little upset I suppose, but that's the way that you first reacted when you saw them doing that kind of thing until I explained that it was just them playing," she responded and I nodded. "Are your legs broken or something?"
"No, her legs aren't broken; she's just recovering from the explanation that I just gave her, courtesy of you," Ian cut in before I could speak and I giggled, blushing at the memory of our conversation.
"What are you talking about? Mel hasn't said much to you at all, Ian," Jared said, wrapping his arms around Mel's waist and I noticed that she leaned back into him instead of pushing him away like she sometimes did.
"Yes she did... well, actually you said it, but she wouldn't give Wanda the definition," Ian clarified what he was saying .
"Oh my God you asked him about that?" Mel cried out, shaking her head.
"Well, yeah I did; but you wouldn't tell me what it was all about," I said, defending myself and crossing my arms. "You can put me down, you know," I said to Ian and he shook his head.
"Is this about the 'head' thing from earlier?" Jared asked and I nodded, which caused him to dissolve into a fit of laughter.
"I would have told me if you had come to me again, Wanda; I didn't think that you actually had the guts to discuss that with him!" she said and I blushed even deeper.
"All right; it's done, leave her alone and we'll all be good," Ian defended me and I patted his strong chest. "Let's all just go and get something to eat."
"Sounds good!" Mel chimed and I smiled, wiggling so that Ian would let me down; he had already carried me enough. He complied with my silent request, to my surprise, but snaked an arm around my waist instead, kissing the side of my neck.
I saw Mel give me a significant look when he kissed me, but I just smiled at her and she shook her head, clearly not happy that I still hadn't talked to him about everything; but the timing just simply wasn't right. There was no way that I could push it on him hard, especially after dropping something like I did on him with the head thing. I would do it though, and soon .
A/N: 8 027. I know that it took awhile, but it just wasn't flowing...
So Steph announced today that it seems as though they might split Breaking Dawn into 2 movies, as it's tough to fit everything into one; which I totally agree with. She says that if there's a way to do one and really cram everything in, then great, otherwise she'd like two.
Uhhh yeah!
Review! : )