Pineapple 19 & Pomegranate 17
Author: Casey
Story: Nothing is Ever Easy universe, Post NIEE
Challenges: Pomegranate 17 (first aid) & Pineapple 19 (as far as I can throw him)
Toppings & Extras: Caramel (superCaramel), Hot Fudge (Leigh), Sprinkles, Gummy Bunnies (Origfic Bingo: Reunion), Cookie Crumbs ( Leigh and Will chat), Malt (Cookie Crumbs request from Nina: Leigh’s POV of above piece), Fresh Peaches (The day ahead will be trying for you, Leo. You will have a fire raging inside.), Fresh Blueberries (Simply having rules does not change the things that people want to do. You have to change incentives. - Jimmy Wales)
Word Count: 2,809
Rating: PG
Summary: There's a fire and a rescue and sometimes, even Leigh doesn’t understand herself.
Notes: For Casino Night (Caramel, Gummy Bunnies, Cookie Crumbs). More Leigh and superCaramel. Part 1 for 8/7 for the Summer Challenge.
When the call went up in town of fire, Leigh Parker did not know what to expect and she was not entirely surprised to learn it was the inn. Poor Jake had a gang of thugs hanging around there far too often and she had spent quite a few nights pondering ways to get rid of them without resorting to fire. Now it appeared someone had. The irony was not lost on her as she pushed herself to the front of those gathered. “Jake! What happened?”
“One of the idiots knocked over a lantern. It was impossible to get there before the fire had spread.” He gave her the minute version, including the stupid attempt at heroics of the visitor.
“Anyone left inside?” she asked briskly.
“My cook and the visitor.”
She blew her breath out through her teeth hard and slipped by him, racing for the burning building. A second later, she heard him hard on her heels.
“They said it’s not safe!”
She shot him a grin over her shoulder. “It’s me, Jake, wait here if you’re worried.” Leigh ducked low as she entered the inn, hurrying through the entranceway into the main room. “Where?” she yelled over the reassuring crackle and pop of burning wood.
He pointed first towards the common room proper and then back towards the kitchen.
It took Leigh only a second to assess. “Go get the cook,” she ordered and ducked towards the stronger flames. She found the young man in record time. Even in the flickering light, it was easy to see the bruise forming on his temple and also to identify him. “William Darcy,” she sighed as his eyelids flickered briefly, a small cough escaping him. “Doesn’t this just figure. Best get you out of here.” She hauled him upright, slinging one of his limp arms around her shoulder as she headed back towards clean air, coughing a bit herself. She loved fire, but in this sort of situation, even she was not immune to the heavy, clogging smoke.
She spied Jake just ahead, supporting the cook, who stumbled along beside him and then all four of them were out. Leigh heard a loud crash behind them and was fairly certain they had just gotten out in time. “I’ve got him,” she told Jake. “Go help the others keep your stable from burning down. The rest of you make yourselves useful!”
Too distressed by the loss of his property, the man never questioned the usually solitary woman’s decision to take in an injured party. No one else seemed to notice the pair, so Leigh made her way through the crowd, still dragging dear William. Without too much trouble, she got him back to her small two room house and lay him down on the bed. She lit a candle and carefully checked his breathing. It was a bit labored, but he was coughing now, almost on the edge of waking. She moved over to the kitchen on the other side of the room and rummaged in her cabinet, emerging with a small bottle. She poured about two teaspoons into a cup and went back over to William. Setting it down briefly, she hefted the younger man upright, propping him against the wall before opening his mouth and pouring the concoction into the back of his throat. He sputtered, coughing a bit more but swallowed it without much fuss.
Leigh lay him back down and stepped back, hands on her hips as she regarded him. The medicine she had given him seemed to help, because within minutes, he had settled back into a deeper sleep.
“What in the name of the gods am I supposed to do with you?” she asked out loud. “I like this house and this town and now you’ve gone and messed it all up.”
Unable to help herself, she reached forward and smoothed his hair back away from his face.
“I like it better short,” she murmured even as she scowled at him.
She stared at him for another minute before shaking her head, turning to her closet to find her extra blanket and pillow.
The next morning, she was up before William, who had woken her throughout the night thrashing and coughing at various points. Leigh yawned, told herself that she was a patient person and she would at least talk to him before she killed him, if it came to that. Still, the urge to sit up and throttle him at times in the night had been hard to resist. She was not used to sharing her space any more.
Finally, after studying the young man for another minute out of sheer confusion over what she had been thinking the night before, she set to work making breakfast to keep herself occupied until he woke. That did not take long as he abrupt disintegrated into a heavy coughing fit. She turned to find him doubled over with the effort, curled up on his side. She grabbed the glass of water she had waiting for him and marched over, grabbing his hand and wrapping it around the glass. “You idiot,” she scolded, “you inhaled half an inn full of smoke. Do not take deep breaths.” She helped him sit up. “Your eyes are going to feel dry too, so take that slowly. Here. Take slow sips and wait until your throat feels better.” He finally seemed to understand because he took the cup.
She stood and returned to the counter, humming as she went back to work on breakfast - and waiting for Will’s brain to catch up with recent events.
“What?” he said finally, coughing a bit more.
Leigh turned to face him, smirking. “Welcome back to the land of the living, William.”
She almost laughed at the overwhelming confusion on the eighteen-year-old’s face. “How?” he sputtered.
“The inn burned down, thanks to that pack of idiots.” She shrugged and decided to embellish a bit. “Took some doing, but we got everyone out alive.”
“I don’t…”
Her eyes narrowed, hating that phrase so much. “There’s a lot in life you don’t understand, Darcy,” she said, the switch to his last name automatic. Then she dismissed him, returning to her chopping. “Drink your water.”
“There was a fire? And you’re here,” he started.
His insinuation was almost more than can she could bear and she started laughing. “Every fire in the world is not set by me. Accidents do happen.”
“Why should I believe you?”
The amusement was officially gone. She turned on him, knife she was using for chopping gripped tightly in one hand, all but forgotten. “First of all, if you give yourself a moment without speaking, I’m sure your memory will return and you’ll recall that you saw the lantern knock over. Jake said you were on your way to right it when you got knocked out and the blaze started. Second, I am not a murderer.”
The boy frowned, a disgustingly cute gesture. Leigh wanted to scrub her brain with soap the moment the thought crossed her mind. This was William Darcy, the young man she still remembered clearly as a twelve-year-old brat. Not to mention technically the largest thorn in her side. He was not cute, gods damn it. “That’s not true.”
She gestured towards her collection. “Just because my wanted posters say that does not mean it’s true, William,” she said, making sure he picked up on her displeasure.
His gaze followed her gesture. “You killed the three people in your hometown.”
That gave her pause. She had almost forgotten that. Almost forgotten about the early disasters, the learning curve, the…she would not say it was not her fault, because it was, even now, so many years later. “Yes, I suppose I did, didn’t I? Then let’s say I don’t make it a common occurrence.” She smiled, making sure he knew she did not mean it. “If I had a habit of killing people, you and your friends would be long dead. Now shut up and drink your water.”
“I don’t get it. What are you doing here? How were you here?”
Leigh tilted her head, amazed at the interrogation after she had so recently saved his life. “You are so often one of the most irritating people I have ever had the chance to meet, William. Don’t you know how to leave well enough alone?”
“Not really.” He coughed again.
She turned away briefly so he would not see her amusement. At least he admitted it. “Of course not,” she said, making sure it sounded scornful. She plucked a well-used jar off the shelf and tossed it to him. “You got burned, since taking a nap next to a burning lantern is not a brilliant idea. That lotion will help heal them.”
“Is this how you keep from getting burned?” he asked.
“This is not going to turn into Leigh shares all her secrets,” she told him. “I will finish making breakfast, which you can partake in, and then it’ll be time for you to get going. Jake’s got your horse since we managed to save the stables.” Once she had been certain that dear William would not die on her, she had gone to check on Jake and the inn.
"You’re making me breakfast?” he asked, sounding surprising dumb, since, if there was one thing she had learned about the new face of KIN, it was that they were at least as smart as their parents, if not smarter.
“I’m making myself breakfast and, since I’m feeling kind, I’m making more than usual,” she said sternly, still not turning back to him. Not with the way her thoughts kept betraying her. “After all, I already saved your life in the last twelve hours and slept the night on the floor, I certainly don’t owe you breakfast on top of it. Especially since you’re being a nosy little creep at the moment.”
And that’s when he got too smart, just as she had known he would. “You live here.”
As much as she did not want it to her, her back tensed, giving her away, even as she clipped out, “Excuse me?”
“After all the time we’ve invested searching for your hideout, I end up here because you decided, for some unknown reason, to save my life.”
Not so unknown, if she really thought about it. She was fairly glad he obviously was not thinking it, though. “Yes, and thank you so much for that since I’m now going to have to move.”
She heard him shift. “No, you don’t,” he said quietly and she glanced over her shoulder, fairly certain she must have heard him wrong. He was watching her steadily through clear, bright eyes.
“And why not?”
“As I said, you saved my life. I owe you one.”
“How do I know I can trust you?” He held her gaze and she had to smile. “Ah yes, that KIN nobility. Never thought it might work in my favor.” Then, to her surprise, she actually winked. “Don’t be offended if I still decided to move.”
“Do people here know?”
She finished her chopping and dumped it all in the bowl. “Of course they do.”
“But they’ve never turned you in,” he said.
She rolled her eyes at his apparent naivety. “I’m the town secret, much like Mr. Dakamar is for all of you. Instead of turning me in, they bring me the wanted posters KIN posts, which I hang. The place has a ridiculously bad group of constables, although on occasion they decide they want glory and we go through the runaround.”
“Look, Leigh,” he began after a moment of silence.
“What is it now, William?” she asked. She set the pan down, playing her fingers through the edge of the flame, enjoying the way the heat licked at them.
“Why do you do it?”
“Burn things? Or insist on torturing you?” She was not sure he was capable of understanding either but since he asked, she would give it a stab at explaining.
“Both?”
“Regular life bores me,” she said, very aware of the fact he now came to lean against her kitchen wall, just within eyesight. Him and his damn KIN training coming into play, no doubt, wanting to see her expressions. Two could play that game. “I suspect you would feel the same way. When things burn, they’re gone, right? Just ashes and soot and gone.”
She paused and it took William a few second to realize she actually wanted an answer out of him. Then he nodded, almost puppy-like in his eagerness. “Yes.”
“No, not really. Burns allow for new things to grow in their place. Look at natural fires. Within a year, there is new growth and new life where the old used to be. That’s what I do. I allow for the new growth that otherwise wouldn’t exist.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, wondering what he might think.
“But sometimes at the expense of something amazing.”
She laughed, unable to help herself. Sometimes, he was so clueless. “I don’t burn down amazing things, William, just old things. Or things that need a fresh start.”
“Like the villages early on,” he said and Leigh supposed he had to understand, at least to a degree.
“It might not be the most conventional way of doing it, but I helped those people,” she said, meeting his eyes evenly. “Because of me, they were able to move past the human tragedies and come together as a community even stronger than before. I helped them.”
“At the expense of all their possession.”
“Possessions can be replaced,” she said, in a voice that booked no argument. “People cannot.”
“This is because you…”
She cut him off before he could get any further. She did not talk about that with anyone, including Mr. William Darcy himself. “Darcy, unless you want to get burned for the second time in a day, I would rethink your impending comment,” she told him.
William bit down on his lip, which made her either want to pinch his cheek or kiss him, she was not sure what, but she hated both thoughts as soon as they had formed. “So if that’s why you burn, why do you torture us? I wouldn’t call that helping us.”
She smiled slightly. “That’s just because it keeps life interesting. Your parents and the rest of their generation issued a challenge I would have been remiss to ignore. It’s always good to test yourself against a stronger opponent.”
“So you admit we’re stronger,” he said, and she could see the amusement dancing across his face.
Leigh forced a smirk as she reached over and patted him on the shoulder. “You just keep telling yourself that, dear William. What they didn’t realize was just how vulnerable they were. Kids are the worst mistake someone in our position can make.”
William frowned again, damn him. “I want to have kids someday and I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
“And how old were you when you first got burned?” They both knew she meant by her.
The frown deepened, which was even worse. “Eleven? Maybe twelve.”
“My point exactly. Although,” she reached out and tweaked his nose, highly amused when his only reaction was to swat at her hand ineffectually, “I will admit that life would have been a lot less entertaining without you lot around. What are you doing here by yourself anyway? I thought you always had your little posse.”
“Just a small job down south a day or two. It didn’t need more than one person.”
“Mm.” She turned her attention back to breakfast, giving it a good hard stir, needing to break the eye contact as naturally as possible. Leigh barely resisted the urge to reach out and try and remember where those old burns were. “Well, you picked a good town to accidentally be almost crisped in,” she said. “Now go put that burn ointment on while I finish breakfast. Then I’ll walk you back to Jake’s.”
To her surprise, William moved obligingly back to the bed. “It’s weird to be burned but not by you,” he said and her heart skipped a beat. This was not good.
“That’s a weirdly intriguing statement,” she said as neutrally as she could.
“Why don’t you give me a tour of the village?”
This time, she kept her back from stiffening, if barely. What was he thinking? What was she thinking for that matter? Nothing about this could end well. They were too far on either side of a too long conflict. “I might be convinced,” she said. “If you stop with the interrogation, which I know is hard for you, being KIN and all, but is also probably good for you.”
“No more questions,” he promised.
She was scared of the words that came out of her mouth then, her own promise inherent in them: “Then we have a deal.”
Story: Nothing is Ever Easy universe, Post NIEE
Challenges: Pomegranate 17 (first aid) & Pineapple 19 (as far as I can throw him)
Toppings & Extras: Caramel (superCaramel), Hot Fudge (Leigh), Sprinkles, Gummy Bunnies (Origfic Bingo: Reunion), Cookie Crumbs ( Leigh and Will chat), Malt (Cookie Crumbs request from Nina: Leigh’s POV of above piece), Fresh Peaches (The day ahead will be trying for you, Leo. You will have a fire raging inside.), Fresh Blueberries (Simply having rules does not change the things that people want to do. You have to change incentives. - Jimmy Wales)
Word Count: 2,809
Rating: PG
Summary: There's a fire and a rescue and sometimes, even Leigh doesn’t understand herself.
Notes: For Casino Night (Caramel, Gummy Bunnies, Cookie Crumbs). More Leigh and superCaramel. Part 1 for 8/7 for the Summer Challenge.
When the call went up in town of fire, Leigh Parker did not know what to expect and she was not entirely surprised to learn it was the inn. Poor Jake had a gang of thugs hanging around there far too often and she had spent quite a few nights pondering ways to get rid of them without resorting to fire. Now it appeared someone had. The irony was not lost on her as she pushed herself to the front of those gathered. “Jake! What happened?”
“One of the idiots knocked over a lantern. It was impossible to get there before the fire had spread.” He gave her the minute version, including the stupid attempt at heroics of the visitor.
“Anyone left inside?” she asked briskly.
“My cook and the visitor.”
She blew her breath out through her teeth hard and slipped by him, racing for the burning building. A second later, she heard him hard on her heels.
“They said it’s not safe!”
She shot him a grin over her shoulder. “It’s me, Jake, wait here if you’re worried.” Leigh ducked low as she entered the inn, hurrying through the entranceway into the main room. “Where?” she yelled over the reassuring crackle and pop of burning wood.
He pointed first towards the common room proper and then back towards the kitchen.
It took Leigh only a second to assess. “Go get the cook,” she ordered and ducked towards the stronger flames. She found the young man in record time. Even in the flickering light, it was easy to see the bruise forming on his temple and also to identify him. “William Darcy,” she sighed as his eyelids flickered briefly, a small cough escaping him. “Doesn’t this just figure. Best get you out of here.” She hauled him upright, slinging one of his limp arms around her shoulder as she headed back towards clean air, coughing a bit herself. She loved fire, but in this sort of situation, even she was not immune to the heavy, clogging smoke.
She spied Jake just ahead, supporting the cook, who stumbled along beside him and then all four of them were out. Leigh heard a loud crash behind them and was fairly certain they had just gotten out in time. “I’ve got him,” she told Jake. “Go help the others keep your stable from burning down. The rest of you make yourselves useful!”
Too distressed by the loss of his property, the man never questioned the usually solitary woman’s decision to take in an injured party. No one else seemed to notice the pair, so Leigh made her way through the crowd, still dragging dear William. Without too much trouble, she got him back to her small two room house and lay him down on the bed. She lit a candle and carefully checked his breathing. It was a bit labored, but he was coughing now, almost on the edge of waking. She moved over to the kitchen on the other side of the room and rummaged in her cabinet, emerging with a small bottle. She poured about two teaspoons into a cup and went back over to William. Setting it down briefly, she hefted the younger man upright, propping him against the wall before opening his mouth and pouring the concoction into the back of his throat. He sputtered, coughing a bit more but swallowed it without much fuss.
Leigh lay him back down and stepped back, hands on her hips as she regarded him. The medicine she had given him seemed to help, because within minutes, he had settled back into a deeper sleep.
“What in the name of the gods am I supposed to do with you?” she asked out loud. “I like this house and this town and now you’ve gone and messed it all up.”
Unable to help herself, she reached forward and smoothed his hair back away from his face.
“I like it better short,” she murmured even as she scowled at him.
She stared at him for another minute before shaking her head, turning to her closet to find her extra blanket and pillow.
The next morning, she was up before William, who had woken her throughout the night thrashing and coughing at various points. Leigh yawned, told herself that she was a patient person and she would at least talk to him before she killed him, if it came to that. Still, the urge to sit up and throttle him at times in the night had been hard to resist. She was not used to sharing her space any more.
Finally, after studying the young man for another minute out of sheer confusion over what she had been thinking the night before, she set to work making breakfast to keep herself occupied until he woke. That did not take long as he abrupt disintegrated into a heavy coughing fit. She turned to find him doubled over with the effort, curled up on his side. She grabbed the glass of water she had waiting for him and marched over, grabbing his hand and wrapping it around the glass. “You idiot,” she scolded, “you inhaled half an inn full of smoke. Do not take deep breaths.” She helped him sit up. “Your eyes are going to feel dry too, so take that slowly. Here. Take slow sips and wait until your throat feels better.” He finally seemed to understand because he took the cup.
She stood and returned to the counter, humming as she went back to work on breakfast - and waiting for Will’s brain to catch up with recent events.
“What?” he said finally, coughing a bit more.
Leigh turned to face him, smirking. “Welcome back to the land of the living, William.”
She almost laughed at the overwhelming confusion on the eighteen-year-old’s face. “How?” he sputtered.
“The inn burned down, thanks to that pack of idiots.” She shrugged and decided to embellish a bit. “Took some doing, but we got everyone out alive.”
“I don’t…”
Her eyes narrowed, hating that phrase so much. “There’s a lot in life you don’t understand, Darcy,” she said, the switch to his last name automatic. Then she dismissed him, returning to her chopping. “Drink your water.”
“There was a fire? And you’re here,” he started.
His insinuation was almost more than can she could bear and she started laughing. “Every fire in the world is not set by me. Accidents do happen.”
“Why should I believe you?”
The amusement was officially gone. She turned on him, knife she was using for chopping gripped tightly in one hand, all but forgotten. “First of all, if you give yourself a moment without speaking, I’m sure your memory will return and you’ll recall that you saw the lantern knock over. Jake said you were on your way to right it when you got knocked out and the blaze started. Second, I am not a murderer.”
The boy frowned, a disgustingly cute gesture. Leigh wanted to scrub her brain with soap the moment the thought crossed her mind. This was William Darcy, the young man she still remembered clearly as a twelve-year-old brat. Not to mention technically the largest thorn in her side. He was not cute, gods damn it. “That’s not true.”
She gestured towards her collection. “Just because my wanted posters say that does not mean it’s true, William,” she said, making sure he picked up on her displeasure.
His gaze followed her gesture. “You killed the three people in your hometown.”
That gave her pause. She had almost forgotten that. Almost forgotten about the early disasters, the learning curve, the…she would not say it was not her fault, because it was, even now, so many years later. “Yes, I suppose I did, didn’t I? Then let’s say I don’t make it a common occurrence.” She smiled, making sure he knew she did not mean it. “If I had a habit of killing people, you and your friends would be long dead. Now shut up and drink your water.”
“I don’t get it. What are you doing here? How were you here?”
Leigh tilted her head, amazed at the interrogation after she had so recently saved his life. “You are so often one of the most irritating people I have ever had the chance to meet, William. Don’t you know how to leave well enough alone?”
“Not really.” He coughed again.
She turned away briefly so he would not see her amusement. At least he admitted it. “Of course not,” she said, making sure it sounded scornful. She plucked a well-used jar off the shelf and tossed it to him. “You got burned, since taking a nap next to a burning lantern is not a brilliant idea. That lotion will help heal them.”
“Is this how you keep from getting burned?” he asked.
“This is not going to turn into Leigh shares all her secrets,” she told him. “I will finish making breakfast, which you can partake in, and then it’ll be time for you to get going. Jake’s got your horse since we managed to save the stables.” Once she had been certain that dear William would not die on her, she had gone to check on Jake and the inn.
"You’re making me breakfast?” he asked, sounding surprising dumb, since, if there was one thing she had learned about the new face of KIN, it was that they were at least as smart as their parents, if not smarter.
“I’m making myself breakfast and, since I’m feeling kind, I’m making more than usual,” she said sternly, still not turning back to him. Not with the way her thoughts kept betraying her. “After all, I already saved your life in the last twelve hours and slept the night on the floor, I certainly don’t owe you breakfast on top of it. Especially since you’re being a nosy little creep at the moment.”
And that’s when he got too smart, just as she had known he would. “You live here.”
As much as she did not want it to her, her back tensed, giving her away, even as she clipped out, “Excuse me?”
“After all the time we’ve invested searching for your hideout, I end up here because you decided, for some unknown reason, to save my life.”
Not so unknown, if she really thought about it. She was fairly glad he obviously was not thinking it, though. “Yes, and thank you so much for that since I’m now going to have to move.”
She heard him shift. “No, you don’t,” he said quietly and she glanced over her shoulder, fairly certain she must have heard him wrong. He was watching her steadily through clear, bright eyes.
“And why not?”
“As I said, you saved my life. I owe you one.”
“How do I know I can trust you?” He held her gaze and she had to smile. “Ah yes, that KIN nobility. Never thought it might work in my favor.” Then, to her surprise, she actually winked. “Don’t be offended if I still decided to move.”
“Do people here know?”
She finished her chopping and dumped it all in the bowl. “Of course they do.”
“But they’ve never turned you in,” he said.
She rolled her eyes at his apparent naivety. “I’m the town secret, much like Mr. Dakamar is for all of you. Instead of turning me in, they bring me the wanted posters KIN posts, which I hang. The place has a ridiculously bad group of constables, although on occasion they decide they want glory and we go through the runaround.”
“Look, Leigh,” he began after a moment of silence.
“What is it now, William?” she asked. She set the pan down, playing her fingers through the edge of the flame, enjoying the way the heat licked at them.
“Why do you do it?”
“Burn things? Or insist on torturing you?” She was not sure he was capable of understanding either but since he asked, she would give it a stab at explaining.
“Both?”
“Regular life bores me,” she said, very aware of the fact he now came to lean against her kitchen wall, just within eyesight. Him and his damn KIN training coming into play, no doubt, wanting to see her expressions. Two could play that game. “I suspect you would feel the same way. When things burn, they’re gone, right? Just ashes and soot and gone.”
She paused and it took William a few second to realize she actually wanted an answer out of him. Then he nodded, almost puppy-like in his eagerness. “Yes.”
“No, not really. Burns allow for new things to grow in their place. Look at natural fires. Within a year, there is new growth and new life where the old used to be. That’s what I do. I allow for the new growth that otherwise wouldn’t exist.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, wondering what he might think.
“But sometimes at the expense of something amazing.”
She laughed, unable to help herself. Sometimes, he was so clueless. “I don’t burn down amazing things, William, just old things. Or things that need a fresh start.”
“Like the villages early on,” he said and Leigh supposed he had to understand, at least to a degree.
“It might not be the most conventional way of doing it, but I helped those people,” she said, meeting his eyes evenly. “Because of me, they were able to move past the human tragedies and come together as a community even stronger than before. I helped them.”
“At the expense of all their possession.”
“Possessions can be replaced,” she said, in a voice that booked no argument. “People cannot.”
“This is because you…”
She cut him off before he could get any further. She did not talk about that with anyone, including Mr. William Darcy himself. “Darcy, unless you want to get burned for the second time in a day, I would rethink your impending comment,” she told him.
William bit down on his lip, which made her either want to pinch his cheek or kiss him, she was not sure what, but she hated both thoughts as soon as they had formed. “So if that’s why you burn, why do you torture us? I wouldn’t call that helping us.”
She smiled slightly. “That’s just because it keeps life interesting. Your parents and the rest of their generation issued a challenge I would have been remiss to ignore. It’s always good to test yourself against a stronger opponent.”
“So you admit we’re stronger,” he said, and she could see the amusement dancing across his face.
Leigh forced a smirk as she reached over and patted him on the shoulder. “You just keep telling yourself that, dear William. What they didn’t realize was just how vulnerable they were. Kids are the worst mistake someone in our position can make.”
William frowned again, damn him. “I want to have kids someday and I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
“And how old were you when you first got burned?” They both knew she meant by her.
The frown deepened, which was even worse. “Eleven? Maybe twelve.”
“My point exactly. Although,” she reached out and tweaked his nose, highly amused when his only reaction was to swat at her hand ineffectually, “I will admit that life would have been a lot less entertaining without you lot around. What are you doing here by yourself anyway? I thought you always had your little posse.”
“Just a small job down south a day or two. It didn’t need more than one person.”
“Mm.” She turned her attention back to breakfast, giving it a good hard stir, needing to break the eye contact as naturally as possible. Leigh barely resisted the urge to reach out and try and remember where those old burns were. “Well, you picked a good town to accidentally be almost crisped in,” she said. “Now go put that burn ointment on while I finish breakfast. Then I’ll walk you back to Jake’s.”
To her surprise, William moved obligingly back to the bed. “It’s weird to be burned but not by you,” he said and her heart skipped a beat. This was not good.
“That’s a weirdly intriguing statement,” she said as neutrally as she could.
“Why don’t you give me a tour of the village?”
This time, she kept her back from stiffening, if barely. What was he thinking? What was she thinking for that matter? Nothing about this could end well. They were too far on either side of a too long conflict. “I might be convinced,” she said. “If you stop with the interrogation, which I know is hard for you, being KIN and all, but is also probably good for you.”
“No more questions,” he promised.
She was scared of the words that came out of her mouth then, her own promise inherent in them: “Then we have a deal.”