A/N ~ Sorry this took so long. This was hard chapter to write. Well, here's Wren and Connor again. Enjoy!
When they broke apart, Connor nervously turned his head to stare at the ground. Wren turned in the other direction. She stared, and her eyes widened.
"Connor!" She gasped. He turned, and then looked to see where she was staring.
The trees, which had been just starting to grow leaves a minute a go, where now in full summer bloom. The flowers were blossoming fully in many radiant colors.
"What happened?" Connor whispered.
Wren just shook her head slowly, and continued to stare open-mouthed at the altered landscape.
~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~
Eventually, they had to pack up and move on. But it wasn't just the landscape that had been altered that morning.
Connor and Wren had been traveling together for months, years even. But this was different. They rarely spoke at all, and they almost never looked at each other. And if they did, it was just a nervous glance out of the sides of their eyes.
It was as if they'd gone from being best friends to complete strangers, Connor thought. He wanted them to be more than friends, but anything was better than this. This was awkward and frustrating. Not to mention lonely.
After five days, they stopped in a small glade near a stream. When they'd made camp, Connor stood, silently, looking west toward their destination. All of a sudden, Wren stepped in front of him. She looked at him solidly for a second, then she spoke.
"Connor, this has to stop. We're only making ourselves miserable. I don't want to go on like this, and I don't think you do either, so we'd better figure out a way to change it. Preferably before we get to the palace."
He nodded. "Yeah, I agree. So, how do we do that?"
"The first step," Wren said, firmly, "is to figure out the problem."
Connor winced and stared down at the ground.
"No, don't do that, Connor. We can't just turn away and pretend it didn't happen. Because it did. We kissed. Okay, now you say it."
Connor closed his eyes and breathed slowly.
"Say it!"
He mumbled something incomprehensible.
"Louder!"
He opened his eyes and looked right at her. "We kissed," he said, clearly.
She nodded. "Okay. So, the next question is, where do we go from here?"
Connor sighed, and turned to sit in the grass, facing the stream. Wren came to sit beside him.
"Well," she said, "we have a few choices. We can go on like this, which I don't think either of us wants to do." Connor shook his head.
"Or," she continued, "we can try to go back to being good friends, like we were before, or-" she hesitated before continuing. "Or, we could try being more than friends."
Connor turned to stare at her. "Can we do that?" He asked, quietly.
Wren drew a shaky breath in. "We can at least try," she answered.
Connor nodded. "Okay then," he said, and smiled. "Shall we try again?"
Wren nodded, and they leaned closer, their lips touching in a kiss.
A/N ~ Ahhhh. Okay, now you can review!