Jared followed the bus for several hours. He was getting bored but finally he saw the last stop ahead. He drove around the bus, speeding up and pulled over. Jared closed his eyes for a moment; Mina was asleep. He hopped out of the car and leaned casually against the stand wall. The bus stopped and the doors swung open. The man looked at him expectantly. Jared climbed the stairs and stood in front of the driver.

"Do you have money?" he asked.

Jared looked him in the eyes. He gathered power and focused on bending this man's will. "I don't need money. Get off the bus, and go home. You won't remember any of this."

The driver blinked before standing up. He walked off the bus and started down the road. Jared slid into his seat and glanced behind him. Mina was still asleep and was leaning against the window. She looked so peaceful, he felt guilty yet again when he realized what she would be waking up to. He sighed and drove the bus away, speeding down the road.

He glanced up after hitting a particularly nasty pothole. Mina had woken up, and she was looking around disoriented. Show time, he thought before shifting into an ogre. While driving he had come up with a plan to not only save her from the reaper, but to also earn her trust.

"Excuse me! I'd like to get off!" He ignored her, but she stood up and walked forward. "Sir, if you could pull over at the next stop, I would like to get off now." When he ignored her again she touched his shoulder.

Jared spun around and saw the fear in her eyes. "Behind the yellow line." He tried to not laugh at the sarcasm he could pull off while in a stupid ogre form. She stumbled back and fell, but he kept driving.

He heard her scramble back but when there was a whoosh of air, Jared turned around. She had opened the back emergency door and was going to jump out. He stood up and grabbed her bag as she did, thankful that she was so lightweight, and pulled her back in as she screamed. He sat back down at the wheel just as the bus started going off the road.

He made some more random turns into a forest before stopping the bus. When he turned to her, she held up the Grimoire, expecting it to help her. She screamed in terror and Jared decided this had gone on too far. She was getting hysterical. He picked Mina up and tried to get her attention. When she started struggling, he didn't know what to do. She hit him with the book and he started to lower her. He wasn't expecting her to kick him in between the legs.

OW! The one time she fights back… his thoughts trailed off as he watched her run away, pausing to grab the Grimoire and then running into the woods. He took off after her, speeding up when he heard her scream. Crashing through the woods, he saw her falling over a cliff edge. He reached over the edge for her, but she pulled away. After two more tries, he was getting mad. Mina could not die because of his stupidity. She couldn't.

He closed his eyes, trying to calm himself. "Mina!" She looked up in wonder and he shifted back into his human form. God he was so stupid, he had to get to her. "I can't get to you in this form- you're too far away! Can you climb up farther?"

She looked relieved and then furious. "You jerk! How dare you! If it weren't for you I wouldn't be in this predicament!" She was right, but now was not the time to admit it.

"Stop arguing and get up here! Now is not the time to berate me, there's plenty of time to do that later! Give me your hand!" Why wouldn't she listen to him? She thought for a moment before reaching for his hand. Then she slipped.

"NO!" he watched her fall into the water. Damn it! He couldn't swim, but he had to try to save her. Jared shifted back into an ogre form and dove in after her. He struggled in the water for a few minutes. Something moving caught his eye and he growled in frustration. Would she really rather him drown as punishment for his stupid plan? He pulled himself to the edge, sputtering as he shifted back into human form. "You could have shouted to me that you were okay, instead of sitting here all safe and sound, making me look like a fool!"

She was fighting with her shoelaces. "You are a fool!"

Okay, he deserved that. "Point taken, but I thought you were dead." Jared felt lost at the thought of her being gone.

"And I thought you were dead, so we're even." He saw her shivering uncontrollably and leaned over to help.

"Here, let me."

"Don't touch me!" she pulled away and hit him with a soaking wet sneaker.

He was very aware that they were inches apart now. "I won't." He threw his hands up in fake surrender.

"What happened to the bus driver?"

"Uh. I tricked him into getting off a few stops ago and I took his place."

"And you can just do that? Change into his form and take his place?" she was freezing and he felt horrible.

"Yeah, I can- it's that easy."

He explained what he had done before she stood up to look around. When she started walking away, he stood up, too. "Where are you going?"

"Home, I have to get out of here. My mom will be worried sick," she started climbing up the river bank.

He took the lead, pretending he was trying to help her get home. Jared could easily flash her home, but he needed to throw off the reaper. "I think we're lost," he finally said when he knew it was true. He turned to her. Mina was about to fall over from exhaustion. "You are done in."

"No, I have to get home!" he could barely understand her, she was shivering so badly.

"Mina, your lips are blue!" he briefly thought about how it would be to kiss her to warm them up. "I'm so dense, I forgot how frail you humans are." Jared grabbed her freezing hand and pulled her over to a small cave. He made it bigger and shoved her inside.

He pulled out a lighter and started a fire. Mina mumbled something unintelligible but leaned in so close Jared thought she would catch on fire. He grabbed her hands and started rubbing them, enjoying how close they were.

"Are you sick?" Jared looked up at her in confusion. "You are so hot."

He smirked. I know I am, but he answered seriously. "No, I can make my body temperature rise to warm me." He suddenly decided to give her his shirt, thank goodness he had another one on underneath. "Put this on." She tried to protest. "That wasn't a request. Here, I'll walk over there." He walked towards the river until he was sure she was changed. "I think we should stay here until morning. We aren't making good time, and you need to get dry."

They briefly had an argument about her mother before she crawled into the cave. "Hey, is there room for me?"

"No! Don't even think about it. And just because you got us into this, you can keep watch and tell me if you see anything."

"Fine!" An idea was already forming in his mind to sleep in that cave with her. He started babbling about random things he saw.

Mina sat up. "Jared?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you going to shut up?"

"Nope." He smiled.

"Will you shut up if I said please?"

"Probably not."

"Fine, then you can sleep in the cave if you promise me that nothing is going to eat us," she moved over to give him room.

"I promise if something comes to harm us during the night, I will eat it instead," Jared climbed in, trying to not touch her. Being this close was already tempting, he didn't know what would happen if they touched. Wait, what? God she's making me think the craziest things. She hates me and that's why I am going to not touch her, end of story. He lay down and faced away from her. There was about ten seconds of peace before she started questioning him.

He felt her shiver slightly and then start her interrogation. "So how come you never told me you are an ogre?"

"You weren't ready."

"And what made you decide to tell me now?"

"I was tired of you always being angry with me because there are some things I can't tell you. And in a way, I wanted you to know." He was serious, for once not trying to manipulate the truth. There was still so much he didn't tell her though. "You also have to remember that I'm not gonna win homecoming king in my Fae form." Ah yes, ruin the moment with a joke.

"So how come the Grimoire didn't work on you? Isn't it supposed to protect me when I'm in trouble?" This was a touchy subject.

"It won't work on me." And you weren't in any real trouble.

"Why not?"

"Cuz I'm cool like that," he laughed, hoping she would drop the subject.

She sighed, sounding annoyed now. "Jared come on, don't evade my question. I actually thought that you might be truthful with me for once."

Why couldn't she just be grateful for what he was telling her? "Mina, I don't know what to tell you other than the Grimoire can't harm me. Call it ogre power if you must."

"It can't, or won't?"

"Both… Neither. I don't really know what you're trying to get at," Jared sighed. He lay quietly while she told him her fears. He was surprised when she opened up to him. Maybe she was starting to trust him. It seemed like it.

Eventually she was quiet. He could hear her crying softly, but she soon fell asleep. He felt her shiver, and when he was sure she was asleep, he picked her up gently, trying to keep her warm. This was bad, he couldn't feel this way about Mina Grimm, whatever 'this way' was. If she finished the quests, he would have to leave her and go back home. If she didn't finish the quests, that meant she would be dead and he would still lose her. He was in trouble, serious trouble.