I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPLOADING SOONER. Basically what happened is that I didn't have time to write at first and then my computer kinda crashed, so I couldn't write OR DO ANYTHING ELSE, so I almost died, but here I am.

I hope you guys are still with me on this.

Things are getting interesting here. (;

CHAPTER 4: WHAT DESTINY MAY BRING

April 3rd

Watching people is a good hobby, but you have to be

careful about it. You can't let people catch you staring at them. If

people catch you, they treat you like a first-class criminal. And maybe

they're right to do that. Maybe it should be a crime to try to see things

about people they don't want you to see.

Carol Rifka Brunt – Tell The Wolves I'm Home

Kate wakes up ten minutes before the train is supposed to stop. She licks her chapped lips and takes a sip of water from her bottle.

Then she looks at Rick.

He's slumped on the seats, his mouth open and eyes tightly shut. His hair hangs on his forehead in bangs, messy and adorable.

Kate sighs, moves from her side of the coupe unwillingly and shakes Rick's shoulder gently. He mumbles something, then tries to turn around in the cramped space.

Kate groans and tries again, this time calling for him.

Rick finally stirs and opens his eyes, sleepily looks up at her.

"Hi," he husks, then startles when he wants to sit up, but can't because of Kate's hand on his shoulder.

Kate realizes that she's tracing circles with her thumb over the fabric of his sweatshirt at his collarbone, immediately retracts her hand and shuffles back over to her backpack to make sure she has everything before the train stops.

"Where are we?" the man asks her.

"We're almost here, I think. A few minutes maybe."

"Why are you going to Brussels?" he suddenly probes and Kate stifles at her spot. She shuts her eyes closed and then opens them with newly found determination and turns back to Rick.

"Why does it matter why I'm going there? Why do you even care? I'm just going and I'm not very keen on second-guessing my own decisions," she tells him sternly. Rick blinks at her slowly, then lowers his head and gives her a curt nod.

"I'm sorry," he says sincerely, looking back into her brown irises, then rises and packs up his stuff. There's a moment when he comes closer to grab his blanket and he's so near, if Kate leaned in for a few inches, she'd be breathing into his mouth. She's tempted for about a second, but then remembers who he is.

Then, she realizes she doesn't really know who he is.

They both step off the train at the same time and Rick almost wants to kneel on the ground and kiss it. He gets a bit sick on trains, but somehow, this time it wasn't as bad as it usually is.

Kate is staring at her shoes intently, like she's trying to will them to move away from him.

But she doesn't move, doesn't even say a word.

"Where are you going?" he asks her, because he'd really like to stay close to her and get a chance to get to know her better.

"I don't know," Kate mumbles.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Well maybe we could find something to see, you know, together?" he half-asks, silently praying she would say yes. Kate's surprised eyes lift up to regard him and then she bites her lip and slowly shakes her head with an apologetic smile.

"No."

"No?" He wants her so badly to change her mind and go somewhere with him, anywhere.

"No. I'm sorry, I just – I think I need to do this on my own."

"Do what on your own?"

"Find… something. Find myself, maybe."

"But –"

"It's been nice. Travelling with you and all. But it's time to say goodbye." Rick's heart breaks.

She's leaving, just like everybody always leaves, Richard. You're on your own.

"Rick?"

"Yeah, yeah, um… So, I guess – have a safe trip?" Kate smiles and Rick can see a hint of pearly whites showing, breaking the barrier of tight lips.

"I will. You too," she says, then offers a hand to him. He takes it with a strong grip and a hint of pleading that he's not entirely sure she notices.

"Thank you again."

"Thank you. I hope you'll find whatever you're looking for."

"Me too. Goodbye, Rick," she softly murmurs and then extracts her hand from his sweaty one.

She never even looks once over her shoulder.

Richard feels a hole in his chest, a gaping chasm of haunting fears and ghosts. He doesn't even feel his heart beating.

He really thought Kate could maybe change something inside him. In a way she did. But only as a stranger on a night train to Brussels and that's what saddens Rick the most - that he never even got to know her, all her flaws and routines and the cause for her pain.

Maybe it's best he did not. He could see Kate wasn't willing to share her troubles with anyone, much less himself, but he still kept the stupid ball of hope stuck somewhere deep inside his ribcage, like a fool.

Kate strolls the street of Brussels headlessly, without a cause. She doesn't know where she's going, just that she wants to feel something, meet someone, maybe someone like Rick.

And here she is, thinking about him again.

He's made quite an impression on her, not without trying on his part, though. But still.

He was interesting and intelligent. Kate hasn't met a person like him in a long time.

She sighs, pushes her curly hair behind her ear. The sun's scalding on her skin, like cigarette burns, so she takes her cardigan off and revels in the feeling of light breeze on her skin.

She feels fatigued. Not because a lack of sleep, but because of life. Life drains the power out of people and turns them into these numb night monsters then demands they walk in the daylight, wander like little children in an endless crowd of bed hair and wrinkled clothes and frowns and scrawny hands.

Kate feels like she doesn't belong in this sun-kissed city.

Then again, she feels like she doesn't belong anywhere at all.

He tries to look for her, tries to think of what he'd do if he were her, but it's hard, because he doesn't know her. It's getting him really pissed off at himself for not trying hard enough to stay by her side.

Rick rubs his eyes with two fingers, then sighs impatiently. He doesn't know where to go.

Then he sees a little café on the street corner near a cathedral and decides it's best if he just gets some caffeine in his system first.

But before he can sit down on one of the chairs outside the café, he sees Kate at one of the tables, cradling a coffee cup and looking at him as if he were a ghost.

Au Soleil is a nice and cozy place with a beautiful terrace outside. Kate is drawn to it because of the sun and her craving for coffee. She sits down on a chair facing the sun and closes her eyes. She opens them when the bartender comes to take her order.

Five minutes later, as she takes a sip of coffee, she looks up to the street to look at random passersby and instead sees someone she thought she'd never see again.

Rick's hair is messy and there's a hint of a smile on his face, like he's all too happy to see her, but not willing to show it. He walks towards her and scrunches up his face in thought.

"What?" Kate asks.

"No 'Hello, Rick'?" he teases.

"I don't say hello to stalkers." Rick laughs and plops down in a chair opposite to her.

"Hi, Kate," he says softly and it melts her insides.

"Hi," she says back. "So… What brings you here?"

"Coffee and good company, I guess," he answers her and then shows her his teeth as he grins.

"I can't believe I'm seeing your face again," Kate huffs exasperatedly and hides her face in her hands as she feels the red creep up her neck.

"I'll take this as a compliment," he says and as she lifts her head, a smile lightens up Kate's face involuntarily.

"God, you're incorrigible."

"I know."

The bartender interrupts their staring match and Rick orders coffee without looking away from Kate.

As he leaves, Rick comments, "I guess we're both coffee addicts, right?" Kate grins and nods.

"Yeah. It's something I can't go without," she says, then looks meaningfully at him.

They take the right turn and walk slowly down Rue des Grands Carmes. They don't talk; they simply enjoy the beautiful day and each other's presence.

Sometime after leaving the café, Kate puts on her black sunglasses and is graced with Rick's smile.

"You know I used to put my sunglasses on and pretend I was a spy when I was still a kid," he tells her. She just snorts, brushes a hand through her cobwebbed hair.

"I'm not surprised."

"That's too bad. Well then, let me try you," he offers excitedly. Kate half-turns towards him in confusion. "What?"

"Let me try to figure you out, Kate." Her face blanches and she looks away, shrugging. "There's nothing to figure out, Rick."

"Oh, I'm quite sure there is. You're like an onion; layers and layers of –"

"Did you just call me an onion?" Rick gulps, stutters even as Kate laughs at him. "You're too easy."

But he's already forgetting her jab, because she has just laughed and there's still a big smile on her face. Another layer of Kate. He wants to peel back those layers, until there's only soft and shiny core and – okay, that got out of hand way too fast. What he means to say is: Kate's complicated. He wants to know what's hiding inside her, like her past and all of her secrets.

"What happened to you?" tumbles out of his mouth before he can stop himself and he hears Kate suck in a breath.

"What?"

"Why are you searching for yourself?"

"You're stepping way over the line here," she warns him angrily and he can't help but think there's something buried so deep within her that she doesn't want out. He wants to help her get it out.

But she obviously doesn't want him to probe her anymore. He understands. He wouldn't want anyone poking at his secrets, either.

"I'm sorry," he says then, because he truly is; he's a jackass and insensitive, oh but Kate's eyes light up a bit and her mouth quirks up into a curve as she shakes her head, "It's fine, I just… I barely even know you."

"How about we fix that, then?" he asks her, with a half-serious expression covering his handsome face. Kate bites her lip and think for a moment, then mentally curses herself when she realizes she wants to get to know him.

"Sure," she answers him, lighting up the blue of his eyes.

Kate finds out soon later that she can't stop smiling; Rick walks next to her, with his hands waving animatedly in front of him as he tells her all kinds of stories.

He's very amusing and interesting; maybe a bit creepy with the way he sometimes stares at her, but she likes it either way – not that she'd ever admit it to him, nuh-uh.

But he's got this aura of existence surrounding him, like there's something in him that Kate's looking for. She thinks maybe she hasn't come here to find herself after all; maybe she's come here to find someone like him.

Just him.

Rick.

So, I hope you liked it.

Reviews would be greatly appreaciated and they'd also make me write faster.

Ariela