A/N: Hello everyone! It's been a while, I know, but here is Chapter 16. I wrote it quite a while ago, but didn't like how it flowed. Then I got a writer's block. I have probably changed this chapter more than I have any other chapter. Enjoy!
16.
Ravyn was hungry, wet, tired, and cold. The last thing she wanted was to run, but run she did. Now fully healed, Kurt matched her pace beside her. He kept taking glances behind them, keeping a lookout for the cop car he knew pursued them. They were going at a painstakingly slow pace, and Ravyn looked like she was going to faint at any second.
"You said back there that you knew where we are. Where are we?" Kurt said, steering Ravyn back on course. She stumbled, temporarily losing her balance before stopping in her tracks. Through her muddled mind she forced herself to concentrate on the events that happened no more than ten minutes ago.
Kurt grabbed her arm. "We can't stop. They'll-"
"If they wanted to find us, they would have followed our Goddamn footprints!" Ravyn screamed, pushing him away and gesturing wildly behind them. She was unreasonably angry at him and she knew it, but she needed him to shut up in order for her frozen mind to work.
"Picketsville." She spoke the name of the town she had lived in for almost three years. Even though it was snowing and the visibility was nearly zero, a map created itself in front of her. She soon recognized every rock, every dumpster around her. She had spent many long hours wandering aimlessly around the town, memorizing every alley and the insides of every building. She turned to Kurt, who was still staring at her, puzzled. She was forced to smile at his irrational trust in her. "I lived here. Teleport me half a mile in… that direction."
Kurt grabbed her and obediently teleported. One second Kurt was holding her and the next she was staring at the building she had called home ever since she became an assassin. She approached it warily, recalling many of the memories she had of the place. She put out her arm in front of Kurt, stopping him from moving forward.
"What now?" Ravyn noticed a hint of exasperation in his voice.
"Cameras." Ravyn expertly avoided the front of the house and jumped up the side of the porch. Standing on her tiptoes, she reached for the spot where she knew a hidden camera lay. She felt the cold metal of the electronic, but found her job already done. The camera's wires were already cut, obviously by an incredibly sharp pocket knife. She nodded down to Kurt. As she jumped down, Kurt approached the door to her apartment.
The door was slightly ajar.
Kurt placed the tips of his fingers on the door and gently pushed. The door creaked open and both mutants cautiously entered the apartment.
It was a mess. Furniture was everywhere, some of it thrown into piles of unrecognizable junk. Wallpaper was torn off the walls and littered on the floor. Her bed was turned over and the mattress cut open. Floorboards were pierced and ripped out of the ground. The kitchen was a mess, spoiled food lay discarded on the ground. The telephone or what used to be the telephone was sprinkled on top of the food, creating some sort of grotesque cake.
"Welcome home, Lillian," Ravyn muttered to herself. Kurt stared at her suddenly remembering that she had told him her real name. She sat with her back against the door and stared blankly at the room. With one look, Kurt knew that she didn't want to be bothered. Grabbing the leg of a wooden chair and the remains of what could've been a wooden table, he filled a large metal trashbin with parts of furniture. Ravyn stood and disappeared into the kitchen, only to emerge holding a book of matches.
"Wanna do the honors?" she said dryly, handing the book to him. Kurt silently took it and lit the furniture. Immediately, heat radiated up their cold limbs. They both took a seat close to the bin, leaning against the wall.
Ravyn turned to him, a wry smile on her face. "Look what I found." She placed a bottle of beer in his hand. "Drink up, prude. It's all I found." She gestured to a six pack of beers that lay beside her.
Kurt found himself smiling at her as he popped the cap off his beer. He toasted his bottle to Ravyn's and they both drank. Ravyn didn't know how thirsty she was until she felt the liquid burn its way down her throat. Kurt, on the other hand, couldn't get over the overwhelming bitter taste of the drink and shook his head in an attempt to clear it from his system.
It wasn't long before Kurt broke the silence and asked the question that had been hanging over both of their heads. "Lillian," he began, fumbling over her newfound name. Ravyn turned to him, and rested her head on her knees. She looked almost peaceful, almost like how he pictured a girl like Lillian would be. "Who did this?"
Her face dropped. She didn't even need to think before answering. "Connor."
"Ex-boyfriend?"
"I guess that's the closest thing that categorizes the relationship," Ravyn replied sarcastically.
"And what relationship is that?" Kurt looked at Ravyn, her face parallel to the fire. All trace of Lillian was gone. The fire half lit and half darkened her face, giving her a mysterious, evil glow.
"It's a long story."
Kurt was silent, and Ravyn began. "He was the closest thing I had to a friend in the business. We were both 'found' at the same time and trained together. Since we were around the same age, Connor and I were always paired up to practice against each other. He knew my every trick and fault; I could read the smallest change in his expression. We were… inseparable." Ravyn smiled as she recalled what seemed to be the years she lived decades ago. "I still think about him a lot." She paused, closed her eyes, and then continued "I made three mistakes."
"We finished our training and started going on our separate missions. Usually missions last a day or two, maybe three. But there was this one time I didn't see him for weeks and was convinced he was dead. And I cared. I loved him… or thought I did. That was my first mistake." Her face fell into a disgusted frown. "Something changed when he came back. He was quiet and withdrawn and would yell out really… horrible things at anyone who tried to help him.
"He became extremely competitive after he returned. Since the time he became a full-fledged assassin, he's killed two people who he thought were threats to his standing as the best killer in our… company. When people began comparing the both of us I lost my trust in him. He would always tell me that the only reason he didn't kill me was because of our friendship. It was around this time when I figured out that he was crazy. Irreversibly crazy. So I backed down to him; my second mistake."
Ravyn fell into a deep silence as she retreated into her thoughts and memories.
"You said you made three mistakes." Kurt's eyes were glued to hers. The flickering fire flickered in the center of her pupils. For a moment her hazel eyes seemed to match his gold ones in color.
"My third mistake was… letting him know I was alive and wasn't coming back."
"He's looking for you." It was a statement, not a question.
Ravyn nodded. "And it's only a matter of time before he finds me." Kurt looked at her doubtfully. "I'm serious. He has his ways. I already had to kill two of my co-workers to stay hidden." Her voice dropped to a whisper "He will find me."
A heavy silence filled the room. The only interruptions were the crackling of the broken furniture in the makeshift fire. Ravyn silently finished her first beer.
"H-How about you, Kurt? Any girlfriends?" She joked, in an attempt to relieve the heavy air that had settled between them. She nudged him playfully, flashing a smile. She was on her second beer and welcomed the numbing feeling she was beginning to feel in her brain and in other parts of her body.
Kurt smiled and looked away from her.
"Huh. Boyfriends?"
Kurt chuckled as he swallowed another mouthful of the beer. "Her name was Amanda."
Ravyn almost choked on her beer. She never thought that Kurt could have had a girlfriend. She tried to fight the intense feeling of jealousy. "Was she pretty?" she asked. She took another long gulp of beer and tried to act nonchalant.
Kurt coughed uncomfortably. "Um… Yeah. She was. She really was the first non-mutant to see me without my watch… and I fell in love with the fact that someone like her could love me."
"Then what happened?"
"Mutants got exposed, and pretty much every non-mutant who tried to get to know us was blacklisted. Before I knew it, I was barely spent any time with her. I didn't want her to risk everything for me. We didn't belong together… We couldn't belong together. As soon as we both figured that out, we ended it."
"I'm sorry." Ravyn said, but her mind thought the opposite.
"It happened some time ago. I'm fine."
After a respectful pause, Ravyn staggered to her feet. She approached the pile of destroyed furniture and pulled out the remains of her wooden dresser. She threw it into the fire. Sparks flew up, violated by the bulk of wood.
Kurt stood up and mimicked her movements to refill the metal bin. When he finished, his eyes met Ravyn, who stood across the fire. She stood motionless, a half-empty beer bottle in her hand. Kurt straightened his back to stare her directly in the eye.
He was too easy to read. He was tired, exhausted from their adventure in the mutant prisons, yet he still made it a point to stay awake with her and help keep her warm. He did not need the fire. She did. He drank alcohol with her despite previously telling her he would never touch it. Within his eyes were exhaustion, pain and a little bit of fear, along with another emotion. It was one of the many emotions that she had only seen a few times, and only when she was younger.
"Stop staring at me like that."
"Like what?"
"Like I mean something to you." The words echoed through the empty apartment as Ravyn stared down Kurt. Her face was unreadable, but her eyes glistened, not with tears, but with raw emotion.
Kurt stepped around the warmth of the fire. "Maybe you do."
"No." Ravyn took a step back, hitting the cold wall behind her. She couldn't think of anything intelligent to say. Her mind was a muddled mess of everything they went through together.
"Why does that scare you?" Kurt was between her and the fire, casting a shadow on her figure. The fire behind him only made his eyes glow more. He stopped a foot away from her.
"I'm not scared of anyone." Ravyn managed to stutter out. Kurt took a step towards her, closing the gap between them. "Only you," she whispered, weakly, as she pressed herself against the wall to get away from him. She felt scrutinized under his gaze, yet her eyes never left his.
Kurt was glad that he had alcohol in his system, which was giving him the courage he needed to confront her. For a moment they stood still, their lips inches away, uncertain. They both knew what the other wanted, but not what they did. Kurt could smell the overpowering smell of alcohol on Ravyn's breath. Was he taking advantage of her? Did she even know what was happening? Kurt pulled away slightly.
Ravyn's hand gently grasped his collar as her eyes switched from his eyes to his mouth. Kurt threw caution into the wind and did what they both expected. He kissed her.