Prompt: 020 New
Character: Emily/Edward
Edward ran through the forest, just trying to keep up with Emily who moved so quickly between the trees he was slowly falling behind. He didn't dare call out to her, that would give away their position. They were being chased by Matthew and James who had ruined their attempt to ambush Tym and Tobias.
The ODSS had been dropped off in the forest and, as their squad leader had put it, had to hunt all the other teams like a battle royal, but without all the actual killing. They'd been given no weapons, no armor, and no supplies. It had already been three days and so far max, David, and Patrick were out. Edward had no idea about Luke and Peter, he had yet to see them.
Emily took a sharp turn and suddenly she was gone. He heard the sound of rocks falling over other rocks and stopped, looking down. Emily had turned and the ground given out under her causing her to fall to the bottom of a hillside. Edward moved down after her, being careful to control his decent as he moved down the hillside of loose rocks. He reached Emily and found her struggling to get to her feet. He didn't stop, just picked her up and ran.
He ran along the open space until he finally spotted a river nearby. He turned toward it and without hesitation jumped in. Once they were under the surface Edward had to grab onto a root on the riverbed to keep them from floating up. He looked around for any shelter they might be able to use to hide. He searched until he found a small ledge that the two of them could use for cover. Edward pulled them over and they surfaced, only enough that their heads were out of the water.
They stayed there for a quarter of an hour until Edward was sure the other team was gone. He pulled the two of them up and out of the water, moving to his feet. Emily remained on the ground, her hand feeling her ankle. Edward knelt down beside her, still keeping an eye out for enemies. "Are you all right?"
"My ankle hurts, probably sprained. I need to let it rest," Emily answered. She tried to stand up but she couldn't put any weight on her foot and nearly fell back down. Edward caught her before she fell and he turned around. Emily didn't question him, didn't argue, just climbed onto his back and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Edward stuck to the shadows and whatever cover he could manage before finally finding a large tree and using a space in its roots to take cover. He set Emily down carefully and turned his attention to her ankle.
"It just needs to rest," she insisted. Edward ignored her Focusing on her ankle as he ran his fingers over the skin to be sure everything was correct. Once he was sure that there wasn't any serious injury he moved to sit beside her.
They sat in silence for some time, not really sure what to do with their time. Finally, Emily spoke up. "So are we going to talk about what happened?" she wouldn't look at him as she spoke.
Edward wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't used to being uncomfortable, particularly around Emily but here he was, uncomfortable. This was new and he didn't like it. He wasn't sure if he wanted to talk about what had happened or not. He didn't know what would happen if they talked about it. He and Emily had a careful balance to the way they worked. One bad fight, something like what had happened, and it could ruin that balance.
"We can't just ignore it forever, Edward. It happened and we have to talk about it." Emily turned toward him and Edward caught the annoyed look out of the corner of his eyes. "Was it really so bad you want to ignore it?"
"Don't make it like that, Emily. You know that's not the problem." Edward turned his gaze to her, looking into those angry eyes and leaned over, gently touching his lips to hers. He pulled away a few seconds later and the anger was gone from Emily's face. "There is no need to talk about it."
Emily stared at him for a moment and got his meaning. The small action was all he really needed to fix what fears and uncertainty had been threatening to ruin the system they had worked out so perfectly. She leaned toward him and pressed her lips to his cheek softly before setting her head on his shoulder. Emily curled up a bit and settled in for the wait, shutting her eyes to allow herself to get some rest. Edward allowed her to lean against him, he would let her sleep for now, knowing that before dawn they'd have to be up and moving again.