The next day my fever had completely vanished, like it was never there at all. I awoke in a warm tangle of blankets on the couch, feeling completely calm and relaxed. The house was silent, and, deciding that Vashyron wasn't awake yet, I rolled over onto my stomach, sliding my arms under the small collection of cushions and snuggling into them, letting my eyes slip closed.

I wasn't particularly tired, nor did I have a headache, which was occasionally the case when I awoke, but I couldn't bear to get out of my little cocoon. It was usually quite chilly in this house. Not only that, but I wasn't wearing anything on my feet, and the thought of having to step on cold concrete instead of plush carpet wasn't very welcoming.

The sound of a door opening broke me out of my half-asleep trance, and I silently cursed Vashyron for having his bedroom downstairs. He always woke up early, too. I heard footsteps go by close to the couch as he walked across to the bathroom.

Still too lazy to get up, I waited until he came back out, willing him with all of my being to go back to bed so I too could continue sleeping. Unfortunately, he didn't get the signal, and I pretended to be asleep as I heard him come over to where I was lying. I was expecting him to wake me up, but he didn't, and I could feel him watching me for a couple of minutes, before he went into the kitchen.

I lifted myself off the couch when I heard him come back, and he immediately rested himself on the seat beside me, smiling and placing a mug of coffee he was holding onto the table. His hair was messed up as if he hadn't bothered to tidy it when he woke up, and was barely in a ponytail anymore, the band simply tangled around a few strands by his shoulder.

"...Your hair..." I pointed, trying to be helpful, but he just raised an eyebrow at me questioningly.

"Huh?"

I reached over and pulled the band out of his hair gently with one of my fingers, holding it out to him.

"Here."

He chuckled, taking it and wrapping it around his wrist, before brushing his fingers across his scalp. It didn't really tidy his hair up much, and instead he ended up with some of it hanging over his eyes, but he ignored it, picking up his coffee and taking a sip.

"Thanks. How are you feeling this morning?"

"...Really good, actually. It's like I was never even ill."

"Great. I guess you just needed to rest. But you should be more careful next time. Going out into the snow without so much as a pair of gloves is not a good idea."

"...I...don't have anything like that."

"Exactly the reason we're gonna go shopping today," he chuckled into his mug, and a small cloud of steam rose up in front of his face, "You only have, like, two outfits."

I shrugged, trying to show him that it didn't bother me. In all truth, I really hated people buying me things, because it meant that they were spending money on me. It made me feel really uncomfortable to know that someone's hard-earned cash was going towards someone like me.

Vashyron seemed to read my thoughts, and before I could say anything about it he held up his hand.

"I know what you're going to say, and if it really makes you feel better then we can say that this money is the share you earned from our most recent job. In which case, technically, you'll be paying for the stuff yourself."

I spent a while mulling this over in my mind, before nodding a little.

"Okay. As long as we don't buy anything expensive, because I didn't really do much on that job. Most of the reward should go to you."

He rested his forehead against the back of the sofa where his arm was now placed, running his fingers through his hair roughly and letting out a heavy sigh, followed by a slightly tired chuckle.

"Zephyr, I really wish you would stop with this."

"...With what?"

He lifted his head to rest his cheek on his palm, looking me straight in the eye.

"You know what; this thing you have where you put yourself down constantly. Do you really...think that little of yourself?"

You have no idea.

"Yeah, I do," I said, nodding, making sure to maintain eye contact with him to show that I was serious, "But...if you had done...what I've done...then maybe you would understand."

"You think I don't understand?"

I felt my throat become dry as his gaze was still fixed upon mine.

"I was sent to kill a fifteen year old kid," he paused, taking another sip from his coffee mug, before his eyes left mine, "And that wasn't the first time I've had to do something like that. Do you think I'd still be here if I let myself constantly think about all of the things I've done that I regret?"

He shook his head.

"The past is the past, Zephyr, and we're human; we make bad decisions and do things we shouldn't, but that doesn't mean we're any less deserving of happiness than anyone else. You don't put yourself down about it. You go back out there and do twice as many good things."

I really didn't know what to say in reply, so I just sat there staring at him from my side of the sofa as he drank some more of his coffee. If there was one thing I had learned about Vashyron from living with him for this long, it was that he was so genuine. He had an answer for everything, and nothing was kept a secret. If you were doing something wrong, he would tell you, the same if you were doing something he liked. To sum up, he seemed to always know exactly the right thing to say at the right moment.

"Now go and get dressed," he added suddenly, waving his hand at me from behind his coffee cup, "If you don't I'll keep rambling and I might end up saying stuff like 'you're a beautiful human being' and 'you need to love yourself'."

I couldn't help but chuckle as I pushed myself up out of my little nest and made my way into the bathroom to take a shower. When I returned he wasn't there, so I quickly pulled some clothes out of the small section in the wardrobe that was mine, dressing myself then and there. He came out of his bedroom a few minutes later, wearing his regular jeans and a shirt which he had left open. There were still bandages fastened in place around his stomach.

"Hey, can you take a look at this for me?" he asked, motioning to that area, "I can't really see it properly from this angle."

Thankfully, I knew what he was talking about, which meant that I managed to avoid looking at his chest.

"Uh...s-sure," I mumbled, placing myself on the edge of the sofa beside him awkwardly as he sat down, "...Does it hurt?"

He shook his head, unwinding the bandages and moving them aside to reveal a slightly red, recently formed scar just above his left hip. It still looked quite sore, but considering the fact that he was shot only a few days ago it had healed very quickly.

"How does it look?"

"...It looks fine, actually. But, uh...I think it's gonna leave a mark."

"Well, it'll just be another to add to my collection," he chuckled, fastening his shirt, before his gaze fell upon my own, "But it looks like you're building up a few of your own."

He reached over, brushing some of my hair away from my neck. I knew what he was talking about; I have a thin, dotted line-like scar running down from my ear to about quarter of the way down my neck. It's barely noticeable unless you're looking closely. I've had it for as long as I can remember, but the weird thing is I don't know how I got it. The only thing I know is that I dislike people touching it.

I flinched away from his hand, pushing myself up off the sofa quickly to try and make it look like I was just getting up.

"W...well, aren't we gonna...go shopping?" I stammered, hastily making my way over to the front door to pull on my shoes, and there was a brief silence, before he, too, came over and put on his boots, taking a leather jacket from a hook on the wall and shrugging it onto his shoulders.

"Okay, well if you're that eager you should've just said," he chuckled, taking the house keys out of his pocket and swinging them around on his index finger, pushing me out through the door and locking it behind us.

"I'm not...wearing a jacket." I tried to point out, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my jeans, but he simply shrugged, making his way out of the gate and motioning for me to follow him, "That's why we're going shopping!"

Getting through town was definitely not my idea of fun that day. The streets, which were usually rather empty aside from the odd weirdo, were now packed full of people, mainly children. As far as I could see there weren't any sales going on in any of the stores, but I saw quite a few of them holding what looked like gift bags or carrying balloons.

"...What's going on?" I asked Vashyron as we neared the clothes store and a small girl ran past us carrying what looked like a large, stuffed unicorn, "Why are there all of these people?"

"There's a fair today," he chuckled, motioning to a large, brightly coloured poster stuck right in the middle of one of the boutique's glass doors.

"Oh."

Unfortunately, the fact that the town was full of people attracted to the fair meant that the stores were all crammed, and we had to wait in the boutique for a large group of girls who were clearly trying clothes on just for fun.

Vashyron seemed to find it funny, especially considering the fact that the girls kept looking in our direction, and were now obviously trying things on just so they could waltz around the store in front of us, generally wearing things that didn't have enough material to be considered 'clothes'.

The fact that they looked around my age, maybe a little older, made it even worse, and I kept getting weird looks from Vashyron as he tried, repeatedly, to get me to go over and talk to them, and I tried, repeatedly, to act like I was doing something else.

When the girls eventually moved away from the changing rooms, Vashyron forced me into one of them, handing me a large pile of clothes, and I was left to try all of them on. They all seemed to fit right, and they were nice, as clothes go, but I couldn't help looking at the price tag on each item and feeling bad about it.

I couldn't really let him buy any of these things for me, could I?

As I was fastening myself into a pair of white jeans, Vashyron came in behind me without announcing himself, closing the curtain again and sitting down on a small bench

"You know, I think some of those girls out there are interested in you," he chuckled as I frowned at him.

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"

"...But it's a curtain. You can't knock on a curtain."

"You could've knocked on the wall or something. What if I had been undressed?"

There was a short silence as he stared at me in disbelief, before he started to laugh, practically doubled over.

"...What?!"

"I'm serious!"

"...Zephyr, we're both guys, and it's not like you would be naked. And I mean, even if you were, I wouldn't care."

"Well 'I' would!"

He started laughing again, and I took an expensive leather jacket from one of the hangers, throwing it at him, but he took it off his head, standing up and forcing it onto my arms.

"Relax, would ya?"

Ironically, it was very hard to relax when he reached his arms around me, fastening the zip on the jacket as I desperately avoided looking in the mirror. He then straightened the collar, dusting my shoulders in a very cliché way.

"Okay, this looks good, right?"

He then proceeded to mess with my hair before I could answer, and all I could do was stand there like an idiot, watching him in the mirror.

"...You're making me look like a smaller version of you."

He chuckled, patting me on the back.

"Well, trust me, it works. Now go out there and talk to those girls."

He spent a good while trying to force me out of the changing room, and eventually I had to give up and go out, as he collected the various items of clothing behind me, taking them all to the woman at the desk.

"...You're buying 'all' of those?!" I whisper-shouted at him, trying to ignore the fact that the group of girls from earlier were, indeed, still in the store, and were standing by the exit watching me.

"Well, not these ones. These were already yours," he chuckled, holding up the clothes I had taken off, before returning to talking to the store clerk as she folded everything neatly and placed it all into paper bags with the store logo on the front.

I waited for him over by the changing room area, hoping the entire time that one of the girls wouldn't come over and talk to me. Luckily, they didn't, but as we left the store they still followed us with their eyes and giggled. Although, that may have been because Vashyron 'helpfully' pointed out to them as we walked past that I was single.

After being mad at him for a few minutes once we were out of the store, I gave up when I remembered that he had just bought me a lot of new clothes, all more expensive than the average person can afford. That and the fact that the leather jacket, jeans and shirt I was wearing were actually very comfortable.

"So, you wanna go to the fair?" he asked as we were heading back home, stopping and pointing at another one of the posters with his thumb.

In reality, I really didn't want to go, but he looked kind of excited about it and because of that I couldn't say no, so after briefly returning home to drop off the shopping bags we made our way there.

It was situated just outside of town near Café Chelsey, so it was just a short trip across the bridge, and as we got closer the number of people increased, and the distant sound of various carnival rides could be heard. The entrance was marked with a huge, yellow banner held up by poles decorated like enormous candy canes, and the only thing more obnoxious than the sign itself was the man at the ticket booth, who was dressed...as a clown.

Thankfully, I didn't have to say a word to him, as Vashyron bought the tickets while I just stood there trying not to get in anyone's way. It was difficult with a lot of people pushing into me, and I was beginning to feel really glad that I wasn't claustrophobic.

"See? Isn't this great?" Vashyron announced as we entered, immediately having to move aside as a hotdog stand on wheels was pushed between us.

"...Yeah."

He chuckled, returning to my side and putting his arm around my shoulders.

"Look, I know you don't like people, and you're...easily startled by loud noises..."

He chuckled as I gave him a threatening look.

"...But this will be fun. Trust me. Plus, this is the first time we've actually been out somewhere together."

"...We go out all the time."

"I meant besides the arena. This city is so boring; stuff like this rarely happens, so we should take the opportunity and have some fun."

"...Okay. Then what do we do here anyway?"

"Have you never been to a fair?"

"No. I haven't."

He led me over to a stall where they were selling candyfloss, buying some and handing it to me.

"Okay, well, to start with, you're supposed to eat basically as many sweets as you can, get really high on sugar and then go on all of the rides. You'll regret it later on but right now it'll be really fun," he chuckled, waving briefly to the guy at the stall, before dragging me away.

"O-okay...so...I eat this, and then..."

"Go on some of the rides," he chuckled, pulling some of the candyfloss off and eating it, "See anything you fancy?"

I ate some of the candyfloss myself, watching him for a while, before glancing around. It was hard to see past all of the people, but it mostly just looked like food stalls.

"Uh...not really."

"Alright, well, I'll decide, okay? You are gonna have so much fun you won't believe it."

We spent the next hour or so with Vashyron dragging me around from stall to stall, buying me sweets, drinks and random little trinkets, and making me go on every single ride we saw. He came on them all with me, which made it slightly more fun, and some of the rides were actually pretty exciting, but the fact that there were so many people there was really off-putting.

"Okay, so...there's not much left to do..." he said as he took a sip from a bottle of suspicious-looking, fizzy, blue liquid he bought at a large candy stall, "There's a haunted house..."

"No."

"You're right. Those are stupid. It would take more than that to scare us, right?"

He nudged me with his elbow, winking, and I took the bottle out of his hand, screwing the cap back on.

"...I think you've had enough of...whatever this is."

"You're right. It was starting to hurt my tongue."

He looked at me, sticking his tongue out.

"...Your tongue is blue."

We both laughed, and continued to walk back to the exit, before he suddenly stopped me with a hand on my chest.

"...Why didn't I see this before?"

"See what before?"

Before I knew it I was being dragged over to another stall, only this time when I saw it, I nearly ran for the exit.

Behind a group of people I could see a small platform with two chairs places on top of it. There was a very pretty young girl sitting in one of the chairs, and she looked rather nervous. The entire stall was decorated in pink and red, and there was a large, heart-shaped sign sticking out of the ground with the words 'Kissing Booth' written in glitter.

"Oh, look, there's no queue right now," Vashyron chuckled, pushing me forward.

"...What?"

"Go. Look at her, she's pretty. Are you gonna leave her up there all alone?"

"Then why don't you go?"

"Because this is your destiny," he whispered, still pushing me as I struggled against him, "You don't have a girlfriend."

"I don't want one."

"Okay, well, you just have to kiss her. Once. Who's it gonna hurt?"

"It's gonna hurt 'you' if you make me do this."

At our fighting, the girl looked over and gave me a nervous smile. If I didn't know any better I'd say she was trying to get me to go up there because she didn't want to do it, either.

"Woops. See? She looked at you. It's too late, now, you have to do it," Vashyron said, pushing me to the front of the group of people as a line began to form behind us, before stepping aside, leaving me with everyone staring at me, including the girl at the booth.

Deciding that I couldn't run away in front of everyone, or suddenly turn around for fear of hurting the girl's feelings, I took a step up onto the platform, hearing a few whistles and cheers coming from the crowd. I ignored them as best I could; keeping my line of sight on the girl so I didn't have to see how many people were watching us as I took a seat in front of her.

She was undeniably very pretty, with long, auburn hair and deep, brown eyes, which were fixed on me as I sat down. She was wearing a dress in the same colours as the decorations on the stall.

"...One of my friends forced me to do this," she whispered suddenly, and I noticed that her hands were clasped tightly together in her lap in a clear attempt to hide her nerves.

"Oh...m-me too..."

"I'm really glad it was you who came up here," she giggled slightly anxiously, "...I mean...you're..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but I knew what she was hinting at, and I felt my cheeks become quite hot at the thought that a girl might find me attractive.

"...Thanks. Um...s-so are you..." I found myself chuckling, and she laughed, too, before her expression settled and became more serious.

"I...suppose we should...kiss."

I felt my stomach basically do a back flip as she leaned towards me without any further notice and placed her lips against my own. It was surprisingly soft, and not really how I had imagined my first kiss to be, but she smelled quite nice, and there was a lingering, sweet taste on my lips after she moved away.

I didn't realise that I hadn't moved at all until she herself stood up, tidying her dress.

"...Your turn."

"What?" I was broken out of my trance in a moment of panic as I quickly jumped out of my seat, before she gently pushed me back down.

"...Those are the rules. Now we have to swap places and I get to go. Didn't you read the sign?"

She motioned over to the glittering sign I had briefly glanced at earlier, and I noticed that in smaller writing below the words 'Kissing Booth' there was, indeed, a list of rules.

"B...but I don't..."

"Those are the rules," she repeated, chuckling, before she stepped down from the platform, leaving me up there alone.