Volcano storm ch 18
"Ugh, why does it have to be, like, so disgusting here." Kapri complained while treading through the woods.
"Yeah, couldn't Uncle just have sent us some place with, like, less nature?" Marah grumbled.
"Do you ever not complain?" Ash-a-Trops asked them.
"Well," Kapri said insulted, "It's not our fault Uncle sent us so far from the Rangers."
"Hey, monster-thingy, do you even have a plan for attacking the Rangers yet?"
"Huh?" Ash-a-Trops stopped, "Oh, uh, nah, but I'm sure it'll be a piece a pie."
"Does he mean a piece of cake?" Marah whispered to her sister. Kapri shrugged, and turned her attention back to Ash-a-Trops
"You won't defeat them like that." Kapri warned with her hand on her hip. "You need a plan if your gonna beat those Rangers."
"Oh, well..." he looked around. All of a sudden, a beast charged out of the trees and into their path.
"AHH!" Marah screamed and shot some magic at it. It looked wounded for a moment, but dragged itself up.
The beast itself was a strange mix of magnificent and horrifying. It's silver and black patched fur glowed in the pale light of the moon. It's teeth were yellow, and dripping with red. Red eyes gazed at behind the threesome, and turning, they found more red eyes staring back through the trees.
"Uh, Marah, I think we're in trouble." Kapri said.
"Wait a min, I got an idea."
"Okay, I'm pretty sure it's 'wait a sec' or 'wait a minute'."
Meanwhile..
Alexis didn't know how long she lay awake before carefully pushing the covers away and getting up. Making sure, she hadn't woken Tori or Josh, she laid the covers as they were before silently making her way out of the hut. She saw Hunter, Blake, Shane, and Dustin sleeping quietly by the fire. Recalling years of ninja training, she made sure not too make a single sound as she crept through. Outside, the night air was cold, so crossing her arms, she made her way into the trees, going as far as she dared from the village. When she found a clearing in the trees, she tried to find stars above, but only a black emptiness met her gaze.
"Huh," she said aloud, "Right, magic floating island in the middle of another dimension. Course there are no stars."
"There's a moon though." A deeper voice replied. Alexis spun in shock to find Hunter behind her, leaning nonchalantly against a tree. He wasn't looking at her, rather his eyes were upward to the previously mentioned moon.
"Hunter.." she breathed. He finally looked at her. She bit her bottom lip. "I didn't know you were there."
"Believe it or not Alexis, the Volcano Academy isn't the only school that can produce good ninjas." he scoffed at her. He didn't take his eyes from hers, his words penetrating deep. She shrugged one shoulder softly.
"Guess I deserve that." she sighed.
"You deserve a lot more than that, after what you did. You betrayed the whole Thunder Academy, everyone there. You betrayed me,.."
"Stop using that word." Alexis interrupted. She ripped her eyes from his and turned away. "It wasn't betrayal. I was never on your side in the first place."
"Wasn't it? You earned our trust, and you betrayed it. You hurt everyone there. The students, the school, most of the guys were devastated when they found out you and Sensei J were spies."
"No offense Hunter, but I could care less about how most of the guys felt." Alexis retorted annoyed.
"Then what do you care about?" Hunter grabbed her shoulder and forced her too look at him again. She was startled by the sudden yet somehow expected aggression. He was once again looking at her with that deep, penetrating stare.
"I care about you." she breathed out. "I cared about how I hurt you, and the time we spent together, and the way you made me feel."
Hunter let her go, and it was his turn to look away. "Don't lie, Alexis. It's beneath even you."
She could only look at Hunter in awe for a moment before feeling her infamous temper flare. "Now hang on a sec." she said angrily. "Say shit about my school, talk down on Danny and Josh, heck, take as many shots at me as you want, but don't, you, DARE say my feelings for you weren't real."
Hunter huffed.
"I'm serious Hunter." This time it was Alexis who moved back into his view. "I do care about you."
"Then why'd you do it?" He replied just as hotly.
"The Academy is my home, I had a loyalty to it above myself. You of all people should be able to understand that."
"Don't you dare use that against me." He warned darkly.
"Why don't you understand I'm not trying to be against you?" She cried at him. "I've never wanted to be against you!"
"Then honestly Alexis, what do you want?" he yelled back.
"I DON"T KNOW!" she screamed. There, it was out there in the open. One of her deep secrets, something she wouldn't admit to anyone. She calmed herself a bit. "I'm...confused, Hunter." The look she wore showed she was ashamed of herself for feeling such an emotion.
Hunter looked at her like she was missing the obvious. "Alexis, you don't always have to know the exact answer."
Alexis stared at him in disbelief. "Yes Hunter, I do. I always need to do the right thing; what's best for my school. Why do you think I could hate you and Blake when I came to Blue Bay Harbor? I had gotten so good at hating you...like I should."
"You're saying you hated us because it's what was best for your school?" Hunter asked astonished. Alexis looked down, registering what she had said. "What about what's best for you, Alexis?"
"What's best for the school is what's best for me. That's what it means to be apart of the academy."
"Is that your head or your heart talking?" He asked, somehow acting coldly, yet not angrily.
Alexis moved her head up again and open her mouth to reply, but no sound came. She had the answer in her head. Somehow, she couldn't say it and feel completely sure.
"You don't know, do you?" Hunter pointed out, his face showing emotion, but unclear. What Alexis mostly saw was a sort of disappointment.
"No." She admitted. She pushed her fiery-red hair out of her face.
"Figure it out." Her mouth opened in slight surprise. She hadn't expected such a blunt, unsympathetic answer from him, though she probably should of.
'That's why you fell for him, remember 'Lexis.' her subconscious reminded her, 'he was one of the only men in your life who wouldn't sugar coat it.'
Alexis took a deep breath. Now is when she should be thinking everything through carefully. Of course she did the opposite.
"I know I was able to make myself hate you and all the other Thunders again after I left because I knew it was what I should do. But somehow, after everything that happened, all these feelings I had for you have just come back, and now I don't know if I should be loyal to lessons, or my feelings."
"Right, those again." Hunter said in reference to her supposed feelings. "If it was real, it wasn't a fling."
"Don't Hunter," Alexis warned, her tone changing yet again, shifting to a darker side. "Don't you dare say you didn't care about me."
His darkness matched hers. "Even if I did, it's over. I've moved on."
"Really, pray tell, when?"
"I stopped caring about you as soon as I saw you in that wreckage." he answered plainly.
Alexis remembered his reaction perfectly. Disbelief, anger, sadness, had all been present when he and Blake found her destroying their Ops. She could have easily accepted it then and there if it hadn't been for one little detail.
"If that's true, why did you purposely miss me when you fired that blaster?" She said, giving him a look that said 'you're not fooling me'.
Hunter was shocked. How had she known he'd moved the blaster? She had been watching him fire it, but no way she could tell it wasn't aimed directly at her. A moment of silence passed between them, until Hunter, being Hunter, smirked as a response.
"So, you're saying I have perfect aim?"
"Oh LORD, Hunter!" Alexis cried in frustration. "Stop playing with me. Say you didn't have any real feelings for me, even after what happened."
"Well," Hunter resumed his nonchalant stance, gazing at the moon. "That's easy enough. I don't"
Alexis felt shocked to her core when Hunter said those words. But she had come this far. She wasn't leaving yet.
"Fine." she replied coolly.
"Fine?" Hunter looked at her in confusion. "You spend 15 minutes arguing with me, and then your just..fine?"
"Hunter, we both know your lying." And Alexis did. Even with everything going on in her life now, she was now, somehow, more sure than ever what she and Hunter had been real.
"I'm serious, Alexis."
"Then look at me when you say it."
Hunter looked at her like she'd grown a second head. "This is pointless." he mutters and turns to leave.
"Hmm" Alexis said, with what would be a smirk but with no emotion behind it. It made Hunter stop though. For another while, both just stood in silence, waiting for the other to make a move. Alexis took a deep breath.
'What have I gotten myself into? How the heck did it come this far? I just didn't want him to think I used him and now...'
"I'm tired of this. I did care about you Hunter, and some if not all of those feelings are still there, but I do not know how to handle this. I don't care what you say Hunter, as long as it's true. I need closure here. Enough trash about my school, or grief about my friends. How do you really feel about, not the school, not the uniform, not the moral, but me, and just me?" Alexis braced herself for the worst. She asked him to be completely open with her. A favor she couldn't return, she couldn't even be honest with herself.
Hunter stood still for a moment almost ignoring her. After an eternity he spoke. "You are rash, stubborn, reckless, annoying, you confuse me, you're selfish, and I'm pretty sure at least a little mentally unstable." He finally turned to face the unsuspecting fire ninja.
"You have no respect for others." He took a step to her.
"You don't think how putting yourself in danger will affect everyone else." The distance between them grew smaller.
"Being around you makes me want to pull my hair out." He was now sanding in front of her.
"And since you arrived here I have tried to hate you like you obviously hated me, but for some stupid reason I fell for you, again, and I do still have feelings for you." With the last words he said the gap between their lips closed, and they both released their pent-up emotions into the passionate gesture.
A/N- there you guys have it, Alexis and Hunter finally kiss. Will it last, will everything be okay now, will Josh accept it, will THEY accept it?...pssshhh, yeah right, I'M the author here. Since I'm a lot better at angst than romance, my friend helped me out, and she pointed out to me, I really abuse Alexis. And then White Fairy Writer pretty much confirmed it. Seriously, can the girl really not get a break, or are they exaggerating. Also, I'm kinda disappointed, the prequel didn't seem to get a lot of views. Its up people, and im actually rather proud of it. K so, everyone enjoying school? Cause it's keeping me from writing, and my siblings losing my main writing unit, but, oh well.
ALSO, too anyone with artistic talent, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to attempt to design a cover for the story? I hate it having my user icon. I'll accept any and all submissions, and if I get multiple ones, me and two others will look at them all and choose the best one. So, review or PM me if your interested in that.
So, special thanks too
Hunter Bradley
Abby0512x
CamaroDude1989
Malloryxoxome
DCLWLOKPR44424(OK SERIOUSLY, WHAT DOES THAT STAND FOR! I figured some of them out but im confused)
vanillapalmtrees
sk8erchick
Pharuhi13
Twistergirl14
Kara Peace
And, as always, White Fairy Writer, for beta'ing and being down right amazing.