This is the second last chapter... just so you know.
Thanks to Twi-Twanger, piccolover22, stefffie, ladaane, TK-MR, brokenfromthepast, bamy60218, iamnicolecullen, bellandeannedwardfan78, HockeeChica, boosterrich, littledhampir13, RawSugarX23, anoek013, aleex9530, O'SheaFan and quertreader123 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.
Wanda POV
"Well, are you ready?" Ian asked from his spot beside me at the booth with everyone else.
"Ready for what?" I responded, wondering what he was thinking about; we had just finished up our dinner, which was complete with much bantering from Kyle, Ian and Jeb as we all ate.
"Your soccer lesson," he replied, putting his arm around my shoulders and I curled into his chest.
"Right now?" I groaned, not expecting him to bring that up so fast; I figured that he'd give me a day or so to get used to the idea; not throw me right into it like that.
"Yes Wanda, right now. Nobody's down there and I've already hidden the ball away so that we can use it without stealing it off of anyone, cause that always sucks."
"I dunno Ian, we just ate and everything, I don't want to get a cramp or something," I said and he pushed me away from him a little and looked right down at me with his stupid puppy dog pouting face.
I sighed as I looked up at him; he knew that I was never able to resist that face, so it wasn't fair at all. I shook my head and patted his cheek a few times before rolling my eyes and smiling.
"Should I take that as a yes then?" he asked eagerly and I nodded. Ian smiled back at me and nodded a few times.
"Don't push your luck though; if we're doing this it has to be now before I change my mind," I warned and he made to stand up right away, stepping out of the booth and signalling for me to stand in front of him.
"Where are you two running off to?" Mel asked from the other end of the booth but before I could answer Ian had spoken.
"I'm going to give Wanda a soccer lesson so that she can join us the next time that we play."
"I don't think that it will be the next time," I said warily, but he just smiled at me. "I mean, I would love it if it was, but this body is just so slow."
"Then you just need to tone it up a bit. Working with Ian will help," Jared said. "He's a tough as nails coach."
"I call bullshit!"Kyle called out and we all turned to look at him. "Ian is not 'tough as nails' as you put it, Jared. Far from it."
"I sure am!" Ian rebutted while laughing and holding onto my hand.
"Yeah right, Ian. Do you not remember all those times that coach made you cry during our practises?"
"Kyle, I was six!" Ian chuckled, lacing his fingers through mine and squeezing our palms together. "And besides, he was a mean coach to begin with so there."
"You two are so childish," Mel said, shaking her head and leaning her head on Jared's shoulder. "I'm so glad that we have you two around for entertainment purposes, at least."
"Shut it," Kyle told her, but Sunny gasped at his reaction and it quickly made him backpedal and begin apologizing to Mel.
"Come on, let's get going before Kyle starts spewing some more embarrassing stories from our childhood," Ian whispered gently in my ear and I smiled and started to follow him out as he tugged on my hand a little to lead me on.
"Awe, but I think stories from when you were little are cute," I told him and he just laughed.
"Well, I don't really. Especially not when Kyle decides to recount them and all; he tends to elaborate a little more than necessary and I'm not really a big fan of hearing that," he shrugged and I frowned a little.
"But why wouldn't you want to re-live what happened in the past? I think that it's wonderful to hear stories about it and all and..."
"Because I don't like to dwell on the past, Wanda," Ian said, interrupting me as he led me through the maze of tunnels. "It's done and over, and I'm not proud of some of the things that happened; most of which are the things that Kyle would just love to retell. I'm just not up for hearing about it as it brings back too many memories.
"You really don't see how lucky you are, don't you?" I asked gently after thinking about what he had said.
"What do you mean? Of course I do; I understand that I'm damn lucky that Kyle and I even ended up here, I'm lucky that Jeb let us in, I'm lucky that the souls inside our parents haven't come for us, and I'm especially lucky to have you," he finished off, and I swore that he had to gasp for breath at the end of his little rant.
"You're also extremely lucky that you knew your parents and that they loved you as much as they did. You're lucky that you got to experience a normal childhood too, you know," I said lightly. "Freedom and Isaiah will always remember this as their childhood, and it's not exactly the ideal place to be."
Ian didn't answer me right away; which was fine as I didn't really expect him to and we walked along until he stopped dead in his tracks and I ran right into his back.
"Oof," I said as I pushed myself away from him.
"Sorry Wanda," Ian replied, turning all the way around to face me. "I just thought of something, is all. Do you mind if I ask you?"
"Sure Ian, go ahead," I told him, but my voice was a little shaky as I unconsciously became a bit nervous about what he had to say.
"Did you ever know your parents?"
I frowned at him before shaking my head.
"No Ian, we never do. Our existence comes about in an entirely different way than yours does."
"What do you mean?" he asked seriously and I knew that he wanted to have a real conversation about it, but I was a little wary with doing it in the middle of the hallway in case people were eavesdropping or something; which I totally wouldn't have put past them.
"Well," I started, taking his hand in mine and practically dragging him the rest of the way through the main field to the tunnel that led to the games room. "Humans have very different ways of mating and breeding; way different than any other species that I have ever come into contact with. A lot of the offspring on all the worlds that I have been on do not know who their 'parents' are, so to speak; and are conceived through other means, like pollination and such."
"What about the dolphins though? Wouldn't it be similar to the way that the dolphins here on Earth procreate?" Ian asked, but I shook my head.
"Well, in a way it is. I explained it all before, remember? About how they all live with their different sets of grandparents while the parents go off?" he nodded and I shrugged. "It's just different. I can't really go into great detail about it since I've never been there, and the only way for me to get there is if I leave Earth..."
"Which is never going to happen," Ian practically growled.
"Right," I said with a bit of a giggle.
"So..." Ian said, egging me on, and I was fascinated that he appeared to be taking such an interest in my species at that moment, but I was impressed.
"Are you sure that you want to just discuss the boring aspects of our life as souls, or did you want to teach me something about soccer?" I teased him, wiggling my eyebrows.
"Wanda, nothing about your life is boring, I can promise you that," Ian said, reassuring me and wrapping me up in his arms.
"Still, Ian, I thought you wanted to do something."
"Never thought I'd see the day when you asked me to play soccer," he teased and I hit his back gently with my hand.
"I'm not asking; simply distracting," I said, pulling away from him a little.
"Oh right, sure," Ian said, touching my shoulder gently before walking over to pick up one of the spare lanterns that he had made sure they left behind so that we could use it. Even though it was still daylight outside, the games room was too dark; and the lantern wouldn't light up the whole room, just enough so that we could use one net.
"Ready?" he called out to me from where he was standing with the ball.
"Ready as I'll ever be!" I replied, giggling a little as I trotted over to his side.
"Now, first thing we've got to do is work on your stamina; your long distance running so to say, so why don't you run around for a bit and we'll see how you do." I just stood there and looked up at him until he spoke again.
"What?"
"If you think I'm running around by myself, you've got another thing coming, Ian."
"Okay fine, that's legit. I wouldn't want to run by myself either. Come along then," he waved me on and we started jogging at a light pace.
"I always hated when coach made us run laps," he told me and I shook my head.
"So then why are you making me run around if you hated it so much? What makes you think that I will enjoy it?" I half-laughed, concentrating on my footsteps and trying to keep up with his pace.
"No idea. Sounded like a good one though."
"Well it is. I do want to work on long-distance stuff and all. I'm just giving you a hard time, you know that right?" I said, looking right up at him to make sure that he knew that and didn't think that I was being totally ungrateful.
"I do know that," he replied, smiling down at me and I relaxed a little.
We continued to run around until my legs were screaming from exertion and I was incredibly tired, but I refused to stop because we hadn't even run for that long of a time and I wanted to show Ian that Pet's body wasn't as weak as it really was. I thought that I was keeping up a good show until I felt his hand on my arm and we came to a grinding halt.
"Wanda, I think that's enough for now," he told me, but I shook my head stubbornly.
"No, I'm good Ian."
"We can run again later, but I want you to take it easy right now."
"Ian, I'm fine," I protested, but he rolled his eyes at me.
"Please don't try to pull that with me," he chuckled. "Come on, walk around; we can't stop still after running like that."
"Why not?" I asked, following him as we marched around to get the ball and set up the net.
"Because the blood will pool and we don't want that to happen. It's the same as sitting on an airplane forever; you gotta still move around." I didn't necessarily get the airplane reference, but I was still able to follow along. "Or, as my coach used to tell us, 'your legs will explode from the amount of blood moving around inside unless you get moving.'"
"That's horrible, Ian!" I gasped, still following him around.
"Yeah, well, the man wasn't exactly cut out for coaching young children," he replied and I nodded.
"Was he the one who made you cry?" I asked tentatively and Ian smiled at me, nodding his head.
"Yeah. But not because of that; he was just a mean guy in general."
"Not like you; you're a nice coach," I replied and his smile became wider.
"Why thank you for your optimism, but I'm not much of a coach if you really must know. I don't have much practise, and probably won't until I have children."
At the mention of kids, his blue eyes seemed to sparkle even more and my stomach panged with guilt as I thought of the conversation that I still hadn't had with him about everything. Not that I could blame anyone but me for that; I was the one putting it off and all.
"I'm sure that you will be a fantastic coach for them," I said, liking the mental image of Ian standing with his dark haired, blue eyed children around him, learning from him.
"Let's just hope that they like soccer; even just a tiny bit," Ian chuckled and I shrugged.
"I'm sure that as long as they've got a part of you inside of them that they will love soccer," I said, still smiling at my mental image.
"Well, until they come along, I have you as my guinea pig, all right?"
"Sounds fine to me," I said. "Let's get started."
"I love how you're so eager Wanda," Ian said, hugging me briefly before letting me go to retrieve the ball. He lightly jogged back over and placed the ball at my feet before launching into a whole speech about how to properly hit the ball; half of which I tuned out until he began to ask me questions and I bit my lip while searching for the answers.
"Were you even listening?" Ian asked and I looked away again. "Not even a little bit, eh?"
"I'm sorry Ian, I was really trying to, but I think that I learn better through actually visually seeing things and doing it myself than just listening to you talk. I mean, I get most of what you're saying, it's just that... yeah," I trailed off as I noticed him nodding his head.
"You don't have to apologize, you know; I understand," Ian replied, gently taking my hand. "Come on, I'll help you."
We spent forever on little drills and he taught me how to properly kick the ball, and I ended up even scoring some goals on him, though I was pretty sure that he had let me. I barely noticed that the lantern we had been using was nearly dead until I heard someone call out my name and I turned towards the voice, barely kicking the ball in the process.
"Are you planning on keeping her in here all night O'Shea?" Melanie's voice called out to us and I giggled, finally noticing just how dark it really was in there.
"Do you have a problem with that if I do, Melanie?" Ian asked, coming up beside me and wrapping an arm around my waist.
"I don't have a problem as long as you promise to treat her right and give her all she needs," she responded, winking at me and I blushed, getting her subtle hint.
"Like I would give her anything less," Ian said and she laughed.
"Well I think that it's high time you gave her a break at least," Jared piped up from in behind Melanie. I smiled at him and he gave me a goofy grin back. "We don't want her to keel over again now, do we?"
"Hey!" I said in protest to his little jab at my fainting from months before and everyone laughed.
"Pass it over here, Ian. I'll beat your butt at a game of one-on-one," Mel said to Ian and he nodded, passing the ball over to her before looking at me.
"Is that okay Wanda?" he asked me and I nodded.
"Of course it is," I replied and I took a few steps back before sitting down on the stone ground. A few seconds later, after wishing Mel good luck, Jared came to sit down beside me.
"So how did you like that little lesson? Are you ready to join the rest of us the next time that we play?" Jared asked, lightly bumping my shoulder with his and I shook my head while laughing.
"Definitely not. But I think that with a few more sessions or something I might be able to keep up for at least a little bit of it," I replied and he nodded.
"That's fair."
We sat and watched Ian and Melanie try and beat each other and it was actually quite comical for the most part; she was quite a bit shorter than he was and kept trying to jump up and knock him out of the way, but Ian was holding his ground pretty well. I kept cheering him on while Jared booed at the same time and I couldn't help but to laugh a lot at his efforts to diss Ian. I noticed that every time I laughed, Ian would look over at the two of us almost wistfully, which I didn't necessarily understand; it was almost as if he was jealous about it. He didn't have anything to worry about though; I belonged to him, and nothing could change that, ever.
"Hey what's going on with you and Ian?" Jared asked, breaking the short silence that had fallen between us as we watched Mel and Ian fight for the ball.
"What do you mean?" I answered with a question, tearing my eyes away from Ian to look over at Jared and frown a little.
"Well, I dunno something just seems a little off between you two for some reason."
"Have you been talking to Melanie?" I asked and he shook his head. "Ask her to explain it to you; I'm not in the mood."
I turned my head back to watch Ian running down towards Mel's net and was able to clearly see all of the muscles in his back moving when he ran. He had discarded his shirt while we were practising; checking with me first, though I didn't have any problem with it, and hadn't bothered with putting it back on.
"What is it about Ian that you love so much?" Jared asked and I bit my bottom lip while thinking about it and watching him steal the ball from Melanie.
"Everything; I thought that much was clear," I responded and Jared chuckled.
"Well, I knew that much, but what really drew you in?"
I sat and watched Ian grab Melanie around the waist, pick her up and lift her out of the way, setting her on the ground behind him so that he could take the ball from her. I smiled a little at his actions, and Jared hit my knee.
"That's cheating!" Mel's voice rang out through the room and seemed to echo forever.
"She's right!" Jared responded while Ian just winked at me.
"What was wrong with that? It was fair," I said to Jared and he shoved my shoulder a little harder, nearly causing me to fall over.
"Hey!" I said, sitting myself back up again and saw that same look on Ian's face as he looked over towards us. Unfortunately, his momentary distraction let Mel steal the ball away from him and she tore off towards his net. Jared cheered her on and I groaned, making Ian look to see what had happened.
"Well, what is it about him?" Jared asked again as we watched Ian slide and kick the ball away from her.
"He's just... amazing," I replied, smiling to myself.
"Well that's nice and vague."
"Well, you know what I mean," I said. "It's like the same things you like about Mel, only reversed, cause obviously Ian's not a girl."
"Clearly," he snorted. "But what was it initially?"
"Why are you so interested in knowing this? Don't you find it a little creepy?" I asked, finding it a little suspicious.
"No, why would I find it creepy? I'm merely just interested. I can't really see anyone falling for him like you did, particularly when he hated you so much in the beginning," Jared explained and I nodded. "I also find it interesting how you could fall for someone of a completely different species and not have a problem with it at all."
"Everyone has the chance of falling in love with a species, or a member of another species when they go to that planet; it's the chance we take. That's really the whole point of going to the planets; to find somewhere that you absolutely fit in and fall in love with," I explained to Jared while watching Ian chase down Mel for the ball again.
"I never found that place until I came here to Earth with you guys. I kept on going from planet to planet and never found anything; never found the thing that drew someone in and compelled them to stay there," I paused for a moment and smiled over at Ian, though he wasn't looking at us. "Ian is the one who helped me to fit in the most, beside like Jeb, when I first came here even though he obviously didn't like me very much in the beginning. So yes, I fell in love with this planet, but it was because of the compassion that Ian showed towards me that helped to open my eyes to it."
"So you're really happy here then?" Jared asked and I nodded.
"I am. I'm really glad that Ian stayed behind from that raid, even though he wasn't exactly very nice in the beginning and everything," I told him and he nodded.
"Hey now, why so serious?" Mel asked us and I looked up to see her and Ian standing over us.
"Nice pun Mel. That was an awesome movie, eh?" Ian said, smiling down at her.
"It could have been way better," Jared replied, standing up beside them. Ian extended an arm to me and I took his hand as he helped me up. "It would have been awesome if I was in it."
"Oh please Jared, you're so full of yourself," Mel told him, wrapping her arms around his waist.
"But you still love me all the same," Jared said, looking down at her and I felt a tug on my hand and looked to see Ian pulling me away.
"I figured we should leave before they get too mushy or something," he explained and I happily followed him.
"We'll take the good lantern since they're clearly too preoccupied," Ian chuckled, scooping it up and we walked out of the room.
"What movie were you guys talking about?" I asked Ian and he looked down at me.
"It was an old Batman movie. Well, not so old I guess, but it was a few years ago. It was a big movie in its time. Heath Ledger, this actor was in it and it was all big cause he was the Joker and he died before the movie was released and stuff."
"Oh. Sounds like a good movie?" I said a little warily, not understanding what a Batman or a Joker was, but I just went along with it.
"It wasn't bad. One day I'll show it to you. It disappeared when the souls started coming around because you know, it was all about violence and stuff."
"Okay," I agreed, starting to picture the movie in my head, and tried not to get too excited and looking forward to actually seeing it, because it probably wouldn't happen any time soon.
"I think that a bath for both of us is in order, what do you say?" he asked, breaking me out of my imagining of it and I nodded.
"I feel all gross from sweating and you don't exactly smell so nice yourself, Ian."
"Let's go and get our towels and soap and get cleaned up."
We walked through the caves and said hello to a few people, but I always tugged on Ian's arm and excused us before he could stink up the air around them, because he really did smell. I didn't mind it so much because it came from him, but it still stank and I was really just thinking about them. We got back to the room and I pushed aside the door and he shook his head before walking through and started to root through all our clothes.
"Ian, all of our towels and shampoo are on the top shelf, what are you looking for?" I asked, giggling a bit as he winked at me.
"I know. I'm looking for our bathing suits. You do have one, don't you?" he asked and I frowned at his back.
"Yeah, I do," I said warily. "Why do you need it?"
"So that we can take a bath together; save water and all."
"W... we don't need to do that. I mean, there's plenty down there and all, right?"
"Are you okay?" Ian asked, standing up from where he was kneeling to grab his suit from the bottom shelf and looked over at me.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I just... yeah."
Truthfully, I was freaked out that he was even suggesting that we bathe together, even though we were technically going to be wearing clothes, but I never thought that he would want to do that with me. It had never occurred to me before then that Ian would want to get closer to me, other than the kissing and stuff we had been doing, but then I remembered that he was only human and controlled entirely too much by him emotions. Just realizing that he might want to be intimate one day really messed with my head and I was a little freaked out.
"Wanda what's up? You know that you can talk to me about anything, right?"
"Yeah, I know," I said, sitting on the side of the mattress and I felt it sink with Ian's weight as he sat down behind me.
"You want to talk?" he asked, rubbing his hands up my arms and tingles ran up and down them.
"I... it's okay," I said. "It's really nothing."
"Wanda, look at me," he instructed, wrapping his arms tight around my waist and picked me up before settling me down in his lap again. "Something is bothering you and I want to know what it is."
"Ian..."
"Wanda," he said firmly and I knew that he wasn't going to budge. I looked down in our laps and saw his hands rise to cup both of my cheeks, lifting my face up to his and then he touched his nose to mine. I sighed before nodding and moving both of our noses with the small movement.
I pulled my face from his and looked down, clasping my hands together in nervousness that the conversation would go badly.
"Ian...do you...do you think that we're moving too fast?" I said gently and heard him gasp.
"Wha...what do you mean?" I noticed that Ian's voice was a little elevated and I knew then that he was just about as nervous as I was.
"It's just... I dunno. Since I came back here and we decided to give this another shot, I just kind of feel like we've been moving a little fast and it... please don't take this the wrong way, but to me it feels as though you've been trying a little hard to get us right back where we were before, and yeah."
"I see," Ian said, sounding a little down and I chanced a small glance up at Ian to gage his reaction and I sort of wished that I hadn't. He was looking down at me quite sadly and nodded his head once he noticed that I was looking.
"I'm sorry Wanda if it feels like that to you. If you want to take things slower, we certainly can. I just was so happy at the prospect of finally having you back right where you belonged that I suppose that I overdid it a bit."
"Ian..." I tried to say something, but he placed a finger over my lips to silence me.
"Tell me what I'm doing wrong and I'll fix it, I swear. Do you just need some space? I can give you that. I'd give you the world if I could, and I'd certainly give you the time that you need for this. I don't want to guilt you into this, I want to make that clear," Ian continued, making sure to look me right in my silver eyes.
"No. The one thing that I don't need is space; I don't want to go anywhere away from you ever again, even if it's just moving rooms for awhile. I can't do it Ian," I said, looking up at him pleading with him to understand that. "I just feel like... I don't know."
"It's okay Wanda. We can take things slower," Ian said, sliding me off of his lap and standing up, grabbing his swim trunks and a towel.
"Ian," I called out to him, but he offered me a small smile and walked through the doors without saying a word.
"Crap. Ian!" I called out again, running out to the door, but he had already disappeared from the hallway.
I quickly ran back inside the room and closed my eyes, hating that he seemed so down about that; it was why I didn't want to talk to him in the first place at all. I hurriedly tossed through my clothes looking for my bathing suit and put on the first one that I found, shoving my clothes on over top of it and tearing out of the room with my shampoo in hand. I left the room and ran right into Jamie.
"Hey Wanda! What's wrong?" he immediately asked, probably noticing my frazzled face right away.
"Have you seen Ian?" I asked and he shook his head. I took off running down the hall before he could even respond to my actions.
There were quite a few people milling around the main plaza, some of them were inspecting the crops that were just starting to shoot up out of the ground, but I kept close to the wall and sprinted towards the tunnel that led to the bathing room. Between all the practise drills with Ian and the running that I was doing to find him, I thought that I would be in great shape from then on.
My footsteps seemed to echo very loudly off the walls of the tunnel until it opened up into the area outside of the bathing room where the stream was. I looked around for Ian, but it was hard to see because I hadn't brought my lantern with me and it was all dark inside there.
I groaned to myself and dropped my towel and shampoo to the floor; the latter making a very loud noise as it hit the rock and ran my hands through my hair in frustration. I had figured that Ian would have gone to bathe, but I couldn't see him anywhere, and I wasn't about to check in every single little crevice and shadow.
"Wanda?" Ian's voice echoed from somewhere and I looked around for the source of it.
"Yes?" I said, still continuing to look around for him.
"I'm over here," he said and I noticed something shift in the shadows about five feet from me. I slowly walked over to him and kneeled down on the hard rock in front of his huddled form.
"I'm sorry," I offered but I heard him sigh in response.
"Don't be sorry, you were telling the truth. I admire that about you, you know."
"You shouldn't. All it did was hurt you," I replied, shaking my head.
"It didn't hurt me," he said and I sighed.
"Ian. You are not the one to run away like that. You just..."
"I am though, Wanda. I am that type of guy. I... I don't like confrontation when I'm caught like that and I tend to flee; I always have, since I was a little kid. I also have this thing where I get mad really quickly when I don't like things. I think that part of that has to do with growing up having Kyle as an older brother though, but still, that fact still remains," he confessed and I shook my head.
"But you're so compassionate and loving and..."
"That's just one side of me. You've seen the other side too Wanda, remember?" Ian said, reaching out and touching my neck. Even though his touch sent sparks of electricity flowing under my skin, I shuddered a bit knowing what he was referring to.
"I'm sorry that you ever had to see that."
"No, it's good. I'm glad that I got to."
"You're glad?" he asked, his voice all steely and I could hear his teeth grind together. "You're glad that I tried to kill both you and Melanie? What the hell?"
"No no no. I'm not glad that you tried to kill us, I'm really not. I'm happy that you didn't of course. I'm just glad that I know that you have another side to you and everything. It would be bad if I didn't and something happened and yeah," I trailed off, feeling stupid. "I don't know what I'm saying. Ignore me."
"No, I get it Wanda. And I left the room because it was hard for me to think clearly in there. I guess I was hurt a little tiny bit because I didn't see it coming, but I really just wanted to think about how to back off from you a little bit so that I wasn't so overbearing or trying too hard with you, you know," Ian told me and I closed my eyes.
"This is my fault. I felt a little overwhelmed for awhile and I talked to Mel about it and she told me to tell you about it. I didn't want you to feel like you had to change anything too drastically. I mean... I loved where we were at before, but I think that me going away changed things Ian," I explained and I heard him sigh.
"I just think that in the beginning... I dunno. I thought that we would have to start again from scratch after I hurt you like that, and it seemed as though we didn't; like we just started where we left off and it freaked me out a little bit. And I'm sorry for that."
"No, I am," Ian said, holding my hand in his. "I should have talked to you about everything instead of just assuming. But I'm glad that we got to have this talk right now. I think that I know where you're coming from now."
"I'm sorry," I said again and bit my bottom lip.
"Wanda," Ian groaned. "Stop apologizing right now. This isn't your fault; it's mine too and I'm going to take some blame for it, okay?"
"You shouldn't have to," I mumbled and felt his body shift on the ground beside me and I could tell that he was standing.
"I'm going to go clean up; think about this some more, okay?" Ian asked.
"Yeah, that's fine," I replied, listening as he retreated into the pool room and heard the tiny splash as he jumped into the pool.
I sat there for a moment longer thinking about the conversation that we had just had and about how he thought that he had to change himself when that really wasn't true; I had to as well. I felt bad that I had put that on him about us moving too fast because he seemed to be pulling away from me, and that wasn't what I had wanted either. I realized that I had messed it up, and it was going to have to be my job to fix it.
I was determined to fix it right then and there and take a page out of Melanie's book and be confident with what I wanted. I wanted us to be like where we had left off, but I realized that it would take some time to get there. I smiled to myself, scooped up my towel and shampoo and marched into the bathing room, praying that Ian was still wearing his swim trunks.
"Wanda? Is that you?" Ian asked from the other side of the pool where he was probably swimming. Evidently he'd heard the footsteps, but just wanted to make sure it was just me being his peeping tom.
"Yeah, it's me," I replied, taking my shirt off and undoing the button on my shorts, sliding them down my legs and kicking them off to the side.
"What are you doing? I..."
I didn't hear the rest of his sentence, as I had taken a deep breath and leapt off the edge of the pool, jumping feet first into the warm water. As soon as my head broke through the surface of the water, I felt hand on my arm, dragging me along in the water until my feet were able to touch the bottom.
"Wanda, what were you thinking? I thought you were going to stay out there because we needed some space and to take it slowly," Ian said, still holding on to my arm.
"I do think that we need to go a little slow, but that doesn't mean that we have to pull away from each other like that. We were going to swim together before, why does it change now?"
"I... I just thought that you would never come in here like that. I mean, I thought that you didn't want to go so fast," Ian said and I could barely see his outline moving, though I knew that he was close to my by the way that the water rippled around my body.
"I know."
"You're confusing me, Wanda," Ian admitted and I giggled a little.
"I'm confusing myself," I said, shaking my head. "I just... I mean. I liked where we were before, but I don't want to get there too fast or too slow, you know?"
"No. I don't. But I think that this is something that we're going to have to figure out along the way," he remarked and I nodded.
"Hold on a second," Ian instructed me.
I could hear water moving around his body before a loud splashing noise and the slapping of Ian's bare feet slapping as they touched the rock and echo around the room. The footsteps got quieter before a light shone through the doorway and I could visibly see Ian running towards the pool and diving in head first. He must have brought a lantern down with him, but I didn't see it before.
It was still darker in the corner where I stood, which was why I jumped about a mile high when I felt something ghost by my leg. The scream was building in my chest when Ian's head broke the surface of the water in front of me.
"Ian!" I practically cried out to him, my heart still leaping in my chest. "You scared the crap out of me!"
"I hope that you didn't mean that literally," he teased, blue eyes bright and clear while I blushed.
"Of course not. But I really thought that it was something that had come out of the rocks, or something there was out to get me like..."
My voice faltered as I didn't want to bring up that day; I'd never voiced what had actually happened to anyone.
"Like Kyle?" Ian supplied and I looked away.
"Why do you always avoid telling me? I mean, I know what happened. I know what Kyle did to you. Actually, I'm surprised that you don't have like panic attacks when you walk in here from all the memories," he mused and I shook my head.
"I fell Ian, there was nothing to be scared of coming back here," I tried to argue, but he wasn't having that.
"I still don't believe it," he whispered and the sound of it sent chills through my body; good ones though.
"Are you cold Wanda?" Ian asked me, standing up out of the water.
I could see every bead of water falling off of his body and I followed one drop with my eyes as it fell from his hair until it got the tip of his shorts. I looked up at him then and blushed again when he smirked and raised an eyebrow at me.
"No, I'm not cold," I muttered, noticing the goose bumps that had mysteriously appeared on Pet's body.
"Really. Because that's not what your body is telling me," he said, rubbing my arms.
"Pet's body," I interjected before I could even begin to stop myself and his hands stopped moving.
"No, your body," he countered and I shook my head a little.
"Technically, it's Pet's."
"Wanda, if it was, you wouldn't be here with me right now, and you are. This body would be back where it came from and you'd just be in a different one is all. Besides, you wear this body better than anyone else could, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Plus, I wouldn't be able to do this if it were Pet now, would I? She would have turned us all in by now."
To illustrate his point, Ian moved his hands from Pet—my arms and placed them on my hips, pulling me forwards to him so that there was only about two inches between our bodies.
"I wouldn't be able to do this either," he murmured as he ran his hands up and down my back, massaging my neck a little.
"Or this," Ian whispered as he brought my face closer to his before pressing his lips to mine.
I literally melted in Ian's arms, as one of his hands was still gripping the back of my neck, while the other hand had snaked around my waist.
"You okay?" he asked, moving his lips against mine as he spoke, and I nodded while Ian gently bit my bottom lip.
"Good," he practically growled before devouring my lips.
My hands seem to move on their own as they wrapped themselves around his neck and toyed with the hair at the base of his scalp. My knees felt weak all of a sudden and I broke my lips from Ian's to try and regain some sort of composure.
"Back up," Ian whispered to me and I silently complied, taking a few steps until I was pressed up against the wall of the pool, fully supported by it.
"Better?" he asked, kissing my jaw and I nodded before he attacked my lips again.
I managed to get so caught up in his kisses that I lost all sense of time that I was with him, but I knew that it seemed much too soon before we broke apart, each of us gasping for air. As Ian kissed along my hairline, I realized that my legs had become wrapped around his torso and went to move them, but Ian's hands came to rest upon them, holding them tight around him.
"Sorry," we both said at the same time before I giggled.
"You first," he chuckled, nibbling at my earlobe. "Though you know you shouldn't be apologizing to me at all."
"Yeah well, you shouldn't be doing it to me either. But I'm sorry for getting myself so wrapped around you; I don't know what came over me," I apologized, turning my head to the side and I felt his lips leave my skin.
"I'm certainly not sorry about that," he said. "But I am sorry if that was too fast. I just got so caught up in everything that I didn't think..." I cut him off by pressing my fingers to his lips, but he just ended up kissing them anyways.
"It was fine," I replied and he smiled.
"Awesome," Ian said, kissing my forehead. "Now how about we wash up a little bit, kay?"
"Sure," I agreed, going to move again but he held me in place, opting to carry me through the water over to where Ian's shampoo lay. He offered it out to me and I nodded, which was when he let me go and I gently floated down to the bottom of the pool.
"Turn around," he instructed me gently and I complied, smiling as I heard the lid being opened and the bottle squeezed. I had no idea what he was going to do until I felt his hands upon my scalp, rubbing circles in my hair.
I let my head fall back as he washed my hair and relished in the sensation of it; I had never had anyone wash my hair before, but the motions were stirring up Pet's memories of going to get her hair cut and having it washed. To her it had felt good, but nothing like how it felt when Ian's fingers were the ones doing the work; there was a certain element of almost magic to it. I involuntarily moaned at the sensation and Ian's fingers stopped working immediately.
"Are you okay?" I asked, lifting my head back up and starting to turn around to see Ian.
"I'm fine," Ian replied, gripping my arms and holding me in place. "You just have no idea what you do to me," he added, resuming washing my hair.
"What do you mean?" I asked him, getting confused with his cryptic little remark.
"Don't worry about it. I'll explain it to you some other time," Ian said, kissing the back of my neck and I shivered.
"Is it a good thing or a bad thing?"
"Definitely not a bad thing," Ian said, and I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was smirking.
"Okay then."
Ian finished washing my hair, letting me dunk my head under the water to rinse it out and I quickly washed my body while he did his hair; I had wanted to return the favour but wasn't allowed to according to him. He then quickly jumped out of the pool and helped me out, wrapping me up in my towel at the same time.
"Thank you Ian," I said, kissing his cheek gently as he bent over to dry off his legs and I felt my cheeks blush at my boldness both then and before when I had leapt into the pool.
"Trust me, the pleasure was all mine," he quipped before standing up straight and grabbing a hold of my face with his hand, pressing his lips to mine.
"Hey! You wanna get a move on? I've been waiting for like hours to get washed up and I'm getting tired of waiting!" we heard Jeb's voice echo through the cave and I jumped apart from Ian in surprise. He laughed at me as I gathered up our stuff and marched out of the room, passing by a smirking Jeb.
"'Bout time," he mumbled.
"Sorry," I replied and he shrugged before heading into the room.
"Wanda, wait up," I heard Ian call out, so I slowed down a little, allowing Violetta, Lily and Brandt to pass by me at the same time.
"Let me carry some of this stuff," he offered and I sighed, allowing him to carry his shampoo since I knew from many experiences that he wouldn't give it up. Of course he was quick though and took mine as well.
"You know, I really think that I can carry my own shampoo," I said and he shrugged, taking my hand in his.
"I know," Ian said as we walked hand in hand back to our room.
I knew that this kind of weird spot that we were in would dissipate soon enough once we figured things out; like how not to go too slow or too fast, and I was glad for that. I didn't want to seem like a brat for thinking like that, but I knew that he understood at least a little bit and for that I was grateful. I smiled up at Ian as we walked and he returned it, leaning down to kiss the tip of my nose. I knew then that we would be all right.
A/N: 8 014 words.
Okay so I know that this is verrrry late and everything but I haven't had internet on my comp since two days after my last update. Lame. So this chapter was stuck with no place to go!
Luckily since I had so much time with no internet, I finished this one, the next one and the start of another chapter too.
Has anyone been watching the Olympics??! Very exciting stuff ,and I'm very proud that it's here in Canada too! AND even better since we won our first gold medal in the Men's moguls last night as well!! Can you believe that it was our first gold medal that we have won in an Olympic Games on Canadian soil? It's never been done before! Well done Alexandre Bilodeau!
I'll update again Wednesday or Thursday by the latest!
Review :)