"'Two atoms are walking down the street and they run into each other. One says to the other, 'Are you all right?' 'No, I lost an electron!' 'Are you sure?' The second atom replies, 'Yeah, I'm positive'"

Carlos laughed at his own joke, but Dorothy Ann on the other hand, looked rather unimpressed. "Um - do you maybe want to do something else?" she groaned. Carlos saw her shift slightly closer to the warm fire they had finally gotten to keep at a steady burn.

The cave they were in was quite cold, though it did shelter them from the icy wind outside, and, with the fire crackling merrily by the mouth of the cave, it didn't bother him too much. Only his ears and fingers were uncomfortably cold. Carlos repositioned himself closer to the flames.

His stomach suddenly growled. Dorothy Ann and himself had eaten almost every morsel of food they had leftover from lunch and he was still hungry. It was from all that hiking. If he had known he wouldn't have made it to the cabin before dinnertime, he would have packed a lot more food. He didn't want to ask Dorothy Ann if she still had a candy bar or something in her bag that she didn't mind sharing, so he looked at his watch to try and get his mind away from his empty stomach.

It wasn't even seven o'clock. Now Carlos began wondering how on earth they would sleep in here. The floor of the cave was nothing but rocks and very packed dirt. He supposed they could sleep on the soft bed of mud a little ways a way from the fire, but - he smirked imagining what the look on Dorothy Ann's face would be if he suggested that.

Carlos shivered and rubbed his arms. His sweater was rather thin, but he wasn't even thinking of asking for his jacket back. Sleeping on the rocks and ground here would drain both of them of their heat in no time, no matter how close they slept to the fire. He looked worriedly at Dorothy Ann who had pulled out a book on - he couldn't quite read the title - and was trying to read it by the firelight. Her socials textbook?! Anyways... he wondered if she had been thinking along the same lines as him.

He sighed, and though he was feeling very tired, didn't have any inclination for sleep. He thought for a moment, trying to think of something to say. The silence was killing him. "How about we play twenty questions?" he finally suggested.

He heard Dorothy Ann sigh next to him, but she did look up from her book; the light was too dim. She raised her eyebrows tiredly.

"Hey, do you have any better ideas?" Carlos asked.

DA paused. She looked like she was in deep thought, as usual. He cleared his throat and she jumped. "No..." she said finally, defeated. "Might as well. I suppose..."

"Okay, what's your favourite colour?"

What?" Dorothy Ann stuffed her book back into her bag and looked at him, frowning. "Are you serious."

Carlos shrugged. "Sure."

"You've known me for how long and you still don't know my favorite colour?" she asked indignantly, folding her arms across her chest.

"Well, what's mine?" Carlos countered. He grinned at the dumbstruck look Dorothy Ann gave him.

"My favorite colour is violet," Dorothy Ann said, choosing not to answer the last question for herself. He saw her move forward, away from the side of the rock cave she had been resting her back on, and nearer to the fire. "Now what's yours?"

He ignored her question. "Why violet?"

DA shrugged; she wasn't looking at him anymore, staring at the flames instead. "Just because. What's yours?"

"Well you have to have a reason for liking it above all the other colours of the rainbow." He was starting to bug her now, he knew, but he just loved those expressions she gave him when he did.

"I think it's pretty, that's all," Dorothy Ann said impatiently. "What's yours then?"

Carlos shrugged, he really had no idea. Hardly ever given it a second thought. Wait...

"Blue," he said.

"Blue, why blue?"

Her eyes. He had just remembered. It was difficult to make out their colour at the moment because of the dim lighting the fire gave off, but damn it was hard for him to tear his own eyes away from those baby blues when the sun reflected in them. He didn't tell her any of this though, she'd probably never look at him again. "Just because," he answered simply. "Would you rather have no eyes or no ears?"

Dorothy Ann looked at him disgustedly. "Carlos, what kind of question - "

Carlos shrugged. He wasn't really sure why he'd asked it either. He saw DA shake her head, trying to suppress a smile.

"No ears, you?"

"No eyes," he replied. "I'd miss the shrill sound of your disapproving voice after a while." Dorothy Ann narrowed her eyes. Well, thought Carlos, it was true; he would miss it. It was funny; her voice drove him insane like no other, but he'd rather loose his eyes than live without it.

"Lose a finger or lose a toe?" he asked next.

"Carlos, this is getting stupid, even for you," Dorothy Ann sighed. "We already know everything there is to know about each other. Except favorite colour. We've known each other for ages."

"I wouldn't say everything," Carlos said slowly. There were a few questions he was dying to ask her. Questions he had never quite been able to ask. But in the dark, cold, dangerous atmosphere of the cave, with only her as company, he had a feeling they'd finally manage to slip out tonight. It may or may not have been one of the reasons he wanted to play twenty questions in the first place... verses him actually being bored. How could he be bored? He was lost in the mountains, God knows where, alone in a cave with her. There was nothing that could bore him about the situation.

"Do you sing in the shower?" he finally asked. No, it wasn't what he'd really wanted to ask, but he just wasn't ready yet. A person had to be ready for this sort of thing, or they'd screw it up. Actually, when it came to Dorothy Ann, he always managed to screw things up, no matter how carefully he had previously planned the situation out in his head.

"No, I don't," Dorothy Ann replied and she hugged her knees with her hands. "And um - oh I don't know... what's the worst thing someone has ever said to you?"

Now that was an interesting question... He had never actually thought of it before. Damn, she could really make him think sometimes. He stayed quiet for a moment, staring into the crackling flames, trying to recall.

Dorothy Ann noticed him going silent and added, "What's said in the cave, stays in the cave. I won't tell anyone."

"I didn't think you would," Carlos said, moving closer to the fire, and, consequently, closer to her. "I'm just trying to remember..."

"Oh..."

The worst thing someone had ever said to him? No one ever said anything nasty to him - at least not to his face. He was quite well liked at school - even by the teachers. He suddenly frowned. He had just remembered something that had struck him particularly hard. It wasn't nasty or anything even remotely cruel - or rather, meant to be cruel. One of his best friends had actually said it. Only two weeks ago..

'I like her a lot Carlos.'

Okay, so that part had been okay. He had actually been paying a lot more attention to the ball he had been tossing up and down while he lay on his back on Tim's bed. "Oh yeah?" was his inattentive reply. "Who?"

"You...you know, um.."

Carlos remembered sitting up at this point, his curiosity rising. Tim had never looked as nervous as he did then. "I know her do I? It's not Janet is it?"

Tim had given him a rather icy glare for the mocking question. "No! Geeze, what kind of guy do you think I - "

"Who then," he then started tossing the tennis ball on the hardwood floor and catching it as it came up again.

Tim had taken a deep breath. "It's... it's Dorothy Ann, Carlos."

The bounced ball landed on his head; his whole body had gone numb. But was that the worst thing that had happened? No... no, it was what came shortly after that cut through him like a knife.

"So um..." his throat had gone very dry at this point. He tried to control it, he tried as hard as he could not to jump up from the bed and strangle Tim with all his might - honestly where had all that aggression come from all of a sudden? "Um.. So what are you going to do about it..?"

"I - I... don't laugh."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Carlos had said tensely, unballing his fists for the fifth time. What was wrong with him?!

"I have free movie tickets, because I work at the theatre you know - "

"Yeah I know," Carlos said quickly. Get on with it.

Tim looked at him carefully, as if daring him to laugh. "And I was thinking of asking her to that new chick flick."

And that was it. It was the worst thing someone had ever said to him.

"'Love is Endless?!'" Carlos had asked disbelievingly.

"You said you wouldn't laugh!"

"I'm not!" Carlos said, trying to relax; trying to ignore everything that was happening. Nothing was making much sense to him now.

"Okay," Tim had said finally. "Thanks."

Carlos had then made up some fast excuse to get the hell out of there and bolted. He had to, if he didn't want to end up physically tearing one of his best friends apart. He had then spent that following night up in bed, worrying about what Dorothy Ann was going to say, and wondering why it bothered him so much that Tim was going to ask her out. Tim was a nice guy; a good artist, loyal - but DA could obviously do better than that. She'd know that surely.

She had luckily gotten food poisoning that night at Wanda's house, thank God, and didn't show up the next two days for school. Carlos supposed Tim saw it as some sort of sign that it just wasn't a good time, because when she did come back, he never asked her.

"Carlos?"

Carlos looked up at her from the flames. He blinked, temporarily blinded from the contrast between the burning orange flames and the dim light coming off of DA. Then they adjusted. And he couldn't help noticing how... cute she looked with his jacket wrapped around her... He shook his head, clearing it of the image of his arms wrapped around her instead that had suddenly popped into his mind.

"I don't - I don't remember," he said finally.

Dorothy Ann looked at him sceptically. "You obviously remember something, the way you were glaring at the fire. What was it?"

"Nothing," Carlos said quickly.

"So no one ever said anything that bothered you tremendously.." Dorothy Ann said, nettled. "Right... Because you're life's so perfect."

"I never said it was, I just really can't remember!" Carlos said, trying to think of another answer that she'd be satisfied with. "Um... Mr. Ramone, I'm sorry to say you did not pass your drivers test."

Dorothy Ann looked very unimpressed, almost angry. She seemed to know he was hiding something from her. But the way she was looking at him now.. What, did she expect him to tell her everything there was to know about him?! Read him like an open book? Although, even though he wasn't telling her the truth at the moment, he did want to. He really did. But.. He just - couldn't, so Carlos instead looked around wildly for something else to say.

"Um... I don't suppose I could ask you the same question now?"

She just looked at him disgustedly. "No," she said reproachfully and stood up. "I'm going to get more firewood." And she stalked off without a single backwards glance at him.

Carlos snapped a twig angrily and threw it into the fire, almost as frustrated with himself as he was at her. Why couldn't she had just asked him if he'd rather lose an arm or a leg?!

This chapter was fun to write :) :p I didn't forget the others, don't worry.

Review!