I wish I could use having a life as an excuse for not updating… but I've been sleeping. Bad naps that I don't wake up from. Bad.

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They both crept forward to the edge of the spire and looked down. Kiley had stood up and moved over to a spire on the opposite edge of the circle, and was now leaning against it as she shaded her eyes with one hand. Something off towards the horizon had her attention, but neither Knives nor Ace, with their better vantage point, could see a thing.

Knives shifted his attention from the far-off to the slightly more near. He rarely got a chance to stare at her unobserved, and he took the chance that was offered. His gaze analyzed her, as if what made her so incredibly interesting could be seen and weighed. He wished that it could; if it were completely physical he could rend it from her, and be done with this fascination.

He wondered what had gotten into him. A human. Sure, modified like she kept saying. And kept saying. And kept saying… but in the end, merely a human. Flawed, like all other humans, and weak, like all other humans. Scarcely worthy of the attention it would take to squash her, and yet, he was still fascinated by her, wanted to be close to her.

Climbing up here had not been an escape, he reasoned with himself. It had been the perfect time to talk with his littlest sister. The woman was distracted by another one of her sulks and wasn't paying attention to either of them at the moment. Truly, that was his only impetus for climbing all the way up here.

It had nothing to do with the foreign desire that had gripped him, to take her in his arms and soothe away the pain that she was feeling. His hands clenched at his sides as he watched her and fought against the desire to go back down there and offer comfort. He was not the sort of person who did that. He was a warrior, an exterminator, fighting and killing until the danger to his people was gone. He wasn't a… whatever these desires would make him. He was hard, strong, and capable of whatever it took to get the job done. He didn't give hugs.

A firm push to his backside slid him forward a few feet, and in the scramble that ensued to keep him from falling on his head he abandoned that line of thought. After ending his struggle with gravity, he turned and glared at a very solemn Ace.

"Go. She needs a hug."

"Why don't you hug her then," he asked waspishly, panting a bit from the adrenaline surge.

"She needs comfort from someone she doesn't feel the need to protect, moron. My presence will affirm her sense of purpose, but yours will help her heart."

"Why would I want to help her heart?" he groused, but still began his descent.

"Why not?" was her response.

"Just like a woman," he grumbled as he forced his way down. "Always has to have the last word."

As he climbed down, he thought only of the next step he had to take, the next hold his hand needed to grab, carefully not thinking of anything beyond the moment, but once he reached the sand that barrier between the present and the too-soon future dissolved.

He looked across the oasis. It had never seemed so large, and yet so small at the same time. He didn't pause to collect his thoughts, or to figure out what he was going to do next, because he knew that if he did, he was going to lose his nerve. Instead, he began to walk towards her, subconsciously willing her to turn around so he wouldn't have to do this. If she looked at him, he would stop, would be able to go back to who he was, and ignore these strange feelings. They were easier to acknowledge at night, where the darkness gave an illusion of privacy. To do something about them in the daylight… He willed her to turn around.

But she didn't. Even though she must have heard him walking up behind her, she still stared out across the sand. The hand shading her eyes had dropped to her side at some point, and she stared, squinting into the distance. Her hair had grown long enough to dance in her eyes, and she shook her head a bit to move it out of them.

Knives took a deep breath as he came closer, and his heart nearly stopped as he found his arms moving around her shoulders, encircling her. He drew her back against his chest and nearly panicked when she held herself stiff against him. Then she relaxed, and his heart remembered how to beat again, and his lungs to breathe, and suddenly, everything felt good.

She nestled her head against his shoulder, her left hand leaving the rock beside her and coming to rest atop his arm. She moved her head to the right a bit, breathing deep of the scent of him, then let the tension of the morning flow out of her in a sigh that left her almost limp.

"Thanks," she said softly, rolling her head back to its original position.

He didn't respond with words, but held her tighter for a moment, then relaxed his hold to where it had been before. Now that he had her in his arms, he found himself very reluctant to let her go. Thankfully, she seemed equally reluctant to leave. He didn't know what he would do if she didn't want him as much as he wanted her. He might be a superior being, but his heart couldn't distinguish between levels of rejection. Hers would hurt just as much as his brother's, and he marveled for a moment that she had managed to entrench herself in his life that far already.

They stood like that for a few minutes before he risked a comment. "What are you looking for?" he breathed softly into her ear.

"I just get the feeling that someone is looking for us," she said, tensing a bit. Instantly, he regretted bringing the subject up. His right hand sought her left, covering it, fingers stroking the back of it until she relaxed again.

"It's alright," she said after a moment. "No one's near. I just don't like the feeling."