[03] Mountain Sector

[Ashe]

"You know, I was thinking about what you said earlier," Ashe announced, returning to the bunker. Kaden and Belle looked back up from the table where they had been happily stuffing their faces, leaving the courier to push a chair out next to him for her to sit down, to Belle's dismay. She took the seat, thanking him, before scanning the dirty plates before her. "You guys sure have been busy," she noted.

Belle glared at her as she reached her fork towards a slab of steak that was left, finding the boy's fork intercepting her's halfway in an attempt to lay first claim on it. Kaden coughed loudly while giving him a look and Belle relented, but not without argument. "Oh, come on! She's going to clean us out!" he complained, ignoring the fact that the two had almost reached their unreachable limits until Ashe arrived.

"Anyway," the girl interrupted, completely paying no attention to the raving kid across from her. She carved a bite off the steak with her knife before putting it into her mouth and chewing it tastefully. "Hmm, this steak is excellent. My compliments to the chef," she mused before continuing on. "But yeah, you know the thing about the pottery, right?"

Wiping his mouth with his napkin, the courier looked at Belle for a moment and then back at the student, thinking back. "Uh, yeah, I do," he coughed. "Why?"

She reached across the table and grabbed random bottle sitting nearby. Studying it a moment, she finally twisted the cap off of it, taking a quick swallow. After a moment, she set the bottle down with a slightly disappointed expression. "I totally hoped that was alcohol or something, but I think its like some knockoff of Diet Pepsi or something. I'm not really sure," she mumbled.

Kaden nodded, picking up the label from the floor and setting it on the table with a grin. "Actually, its supposed to be Diet Dr. Pepper, but nice guess. Belle and I," he jerked his head into the orange haired boy's direction, "were sitting here trying to figure out how they managed to make a drink where they kept the diet but removed the Dr. Pepper."

Belle started to speak up but Kaden cut him off with a jab of his thumb. "His theory, of course, is that-" The louder boy would not allow Kaden to finish, wanting to lay claim to his theory on his own. "Menstu Ration did it!"

She sat a moment in the silence as Kaden covered his mouth with his napkin to keep from cracking up. "Is he seriously blaming this on PMS?" she finally asked, unsure whether to be amused or offended. Not giving either of them a chance to follow up on that, she change the subject. "So back to the pottery. I remember watching this movie with my friends sometime last year at a sleepover, right? Well, it was this movie about some surfing penguins, and it was actually really adorable if you ever get a chance to see it."

The blond haired companion tossed his napkin onto the table as he recovered from his amusement, giving her a slightly odd look. "How does this relate to pottery again?"

Belle pushed his plate forward suddenly before she could respond. "You guys are boring!" he announced, jumping to his feet. He immediately cleared out of the room leaving all of the dishes sitting there for the two of them to clean up.

Ashe paid him no attention and picked back up on her conversation. "Well, let me finish!" she pleaded, watching him hold up both hands in mock surrender as he leaned back in his chair. "In the movie this penguin is trying so hard to live the dream of being a professional surfer, which is kind of cool since he's, you know, a penguin."

"Have I seen this movie?"

"Probably, unless you've been living under a rock," she answered, not catching the wince he gave in regards to her comment. Without picking up on it, she continued. "So anyway, he is trying so hard to be this professional surfer and live up to his idol and ends up running into this other fat penguin hermit dude that lives somewhere else on the island."

Kaden was now picking at his teeth with a toothpick as he listened to her drone on.

"Well, he ends up finding out that the fat hermit penguin is actually his long lost idol, so he starts trying to get surfing tips from him and train under him. The guy teaches him all kinds of cool things like how to carve out a surfboard by putting your heart into it and tells him all the time to chill out and about the things he really enjoyed when he used to surf. The younger penguin is all hardcore focused on how many points each type of trick brings in, though, and he is trying so hard to figure out how to win the competition and give it his all. The only thing he wants to focus on is what will help get the attention of the score keepers. Put in all of his focus and all that."

Somehow, during this long drawn out monologue, she had managed to finish the steak under her and pushed it to the side, pulling a bottle of water off the table to wash the remains down with. Twisting the cap off, she continued her tale. "So the fat penguin looks at him and was like, Why so serious!" At this part she changed her voice for dramatic effect, laughing as Kaden leaned forward while waving his hand in the air.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Ok, I've seen that movie," he began.

"What?" she laughed. "The one with the adorable penguins?"

"I'll neither confirm nor deny," he said avoiding the answer. "But the 'why so serious' thing was totally from a different movie, one with no penguins in it!" he added.

"Psh!" she snorted, pushing a strand of fallen hair back behind her ears. "Maybe," she relented before continuing on. "But it could work as a paraphrase of what he said either way. He was trying to get the young penguin to lighten up and just enjoy surfing, teaching him that surfing was about just being one with nature and letting go, going with the flow instead of fighting everything. There was even this entire scene based around him and this girl penguin that he met where she's trying to teach him that if he is trying to always force everything to go his direction then it will just send him off course, but if he just goes with it and sees what happen, he may not end up where he planned, but he will still enjoy his experiences along the way!"

"You got all of this from a movie about penguins?" he asked, blown away. "Man, I'd hate to see what would happen if the penguins started dancing or something."

"No, that's a different movie, and its also adorable," she piped up.

"So I take it that this entire story relates back to my pottery story by the base point that you are trying to hard and should relax?"

"What?" she suddenly pouted, having lost focus on what had brought it up in the first place.

He quickly changed the subject. "So have you figured out anything else with energy then? Like how to just go with it and not try so hard?" he hinted.

"Well," she began, pausing for a moment before looking at the table. "Not exactly. But I think I might be close to something. Man, that steak was really, really good!" she gushed, realizing just how fantastic the flavors had been.

She climbed to her feet and walked past him, tossing her dishes into the sink while deliberately ignoring Belle's. She'd leave his for the cleaning crew when they arrived. "I don't know, I mean, I just feel really good about now, other than this sharp pain in my back from when that Maleficus guy started manhandling us."

Kaden came up to her side and put his plates on top of hers. "Yeah, sorry about that again. So that's the guy you fought last Combat Day?" he asked.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Not much to really talk about though. Take what you just saw when he was here, expand that by however long the fight actually was, and there you go."

He nodded.

She turned around and went back to sit on one of the beds in the bunker, noting that Belle was once more no where to be found, somehow. "Ugh, my back does feel like crap," she whined. "But yeah, I'll try to put some more practice into the energy later. It might come in handy if I ever actually figure out how to go with the flow and get it to work."

Kaden stood for a moment thinking before sitting down next to her on the bed. "Here, lay down a moment," he offered.

"Huh?"

He put her fears to rest by gently laying her down so that she was facing the bed. "I think you were right about that steak. I'm feeling generous, so I figured I'd help work some of the knots out of your back since you worked hard today to practice," he explained.

"Uh, well," she began, letting him move her into position. His hands did feel great on her back, she had to admit, even through her shirt. "Sure," she relented, laying down and resting her head on the pillow with both of her arms stretched down along her sides.

As his fingers began digging into her muscles, she gave a small noise of happiness without actually intending to. "Haha," he laughed, taking that as a sign that he was doing a good job. "Feeling a bit better?"

"Oh man, you have no idea," she whispered, soaking up the attention. She would have found it slightly odd that he was suddenly so laid back instead of brooding as he had been off and on, but she didn't think much of it. There was no way she was going to argue against a great back massage that had been offered.

She felt as if she had taken extacy, feeling a large rush of passion washing throughout her system that just really helped take the edge off. His fingers seemed to dig into all the right places, finding every bad or painful place in her back and sides. They danced along her ribs and up her spinal cord like a symphony of comfort, releasing all of the pains that she had felt, but only as long as he stayed in contact with her back.

After a while, she finally rolled over, turning around so as to lay her head into his lap to look up at him. He seemed a bit surprised but she really couldn't help herself. At that moment, she had an overwhelming urge to just be with him, and she could only blame the steak that they had eaten. "Is that wrong?" she suddenly asked out loud.

"Is, uh, what wrong?" he repeated, stiffly leaning back against the wall next to the bed as she looked up at him.

She turned slightly red but didn't say anything, instead rolling over onto her side with a happy smile and wrapping her arms around his leg to better position her head. She didn't care if she was comfortable or not. She just wanted to feel him close to her, and she felt that by having him nearby, all of her stress and pains would just go away.

"Are you two making out?" Belle suddenly yelled into the room in accusation.

Kaden jumped in surprise, still unsure how to handle the situation, and raised his hands defensively. "What? No, not at all!"

At the same time, Ashe blurted something entirely different. She immediately regreted her words, having no idea where they had come from. "Why, do you want to join in?" she had asked hopefully.

"GROSS!"

***

She awoke a couple of hours later to find that Kaden had let her rest in the bed and had opted to go to nap in a chair instead of taking one of the beds himself. It was a bit disappointing, but she knew that sometimes people needed to be warmed up to one another. Had she come off a bit strong, she wondered? She dismissed that idea quickly, wondering why it had even occured to her. Right now, every inch of her wanted to be with him. It was like a major crush had just passed over her, a love at first sight type of thing.

If she didn't feel like her chances were so good right now, she would have been depressed that he had relocated himself. It was pretty obvious though that he was just being shy, or else he wouldn't have reacted so favorably, she supposed. Belle hadn't been around much, she had noticed. He seemed to run in and out whenever he wanted, and despite his constant commenting, he seemed like he was enjoying himself overall. That was good, she reasoned.

Creeping across the room to pick up her bag, the courier suddenly awoke and looked at her while yawning. "Hey," he called out, causing her to jump in the air.

She turned at him and stuffed her hand back into her bag, snatching the entire thing back up instead of pulling anything out. "Uh, hi," she responded, drawing out her last word.

"How'd you sleep?" "How'd you sleep?"

They both had asked each other at the same exact time, echoing each other perfectly.

"Uh, great-" "Excellent!"

Their responses trampled that synchronization.

"You headed out for a walk?" Kaden suddenly asked, yawning again and looking at a clock. "I was thinking that we could find Sophia again," he added cheerily.

She felt a small wave of gloom pass over her, dousing her mood a bit before vanishing almost instantly. She shook her head and jabbed her finger at the bathroom door. "No. I mean, sure, we can head out again, I uh, just need to use the bathroom real quick." She turned quickly and rushed towards it.

"You need your entire bag to use the bathroom?" he called down the hall, receiving nothing more than the door slamming as a response.

***

She pushed open the door and slid through it, pulling her jacket around her to shut out the chilly Mountain air. "Should we find Belle and let him know?" she asked, siding up close to Kaden. She stumbled a bit at the door frame, falling against him before catching herself and stepping out.

He didn't seem to mind the proximity, thankfully, although his mind appeared to be elsewhere. "Nah, I don't think he would care either way. Sophia's probably having a fit though," he pointed out.

He didn't see Ashe look up at the sky a moment to let the thought pass. "I guess I can see that," she acknowledged, pointing a hand up at the sky excitedly. "Look!" she breathed, trying to get his attention.

He looked up right in time to see a streaking light passing by over head. "Haha, nice, looks like a falling-" Ashe's hands suddenly clapped over his, holding them together in her own while looking up at the sky. He looked back at her quickly but saw that she was still looking up at the sky.

"Hurry up and make a wish!" she prodded him, smiling.

"Uh," he stirred, trying to think of something quickly. Settling on nothing, he waited till she watched the streak of light fade away and then saw her immediately look into his eyes, beaming.

"What'd you wish for?" she asked quickly, putting her finger suddenly over his lips to shush him as he began to try to cover up that he hadn't been able to think of anything. "No, don't tell me, that'll ruin it! Keep it secret," she laughed. "Don't you know how these things work?"

"Ashe, your eyes are glowing," he suddenly announced, looking into her eyes as she smiled wider.

"Of course," she gushed. "I'm happy, I'm having a blast, why wouldn't I be glowing?" she spilled out all at once, nudging her elbow into his side.

He shook his head, closing his eyes for a moment before he reopened them, his Sight taking effect and a small hue emanating off of them. "No, I mean like this," he clarified.

Her pure blue eyes widened for a moment as she giggled. "Yeah, I think... I think I can see the rest of the starlight moving through things again," she agreed, using starlight to explain the way the Ki fields looked to her. "It's beautiful," she gasped, pushing away from him for a moment to spin around in a circle with her arms out, taking in everything at once before growing dizzy and falling over, thankfully landing in Kaden's arms. She laughed more as he helped her get her ground again.

"Yeah, it is," he agreed after a moment, looking around. "Hey, I think we might find Sophia if we go that way," he said, pointing off in the distance at a shimmering wall before tapping his head. "I just have a good instinct for finding people. But yeah, we should probably hurry before it gets late," he warned.

"Why so serious?" she giggled under her breath, changing her voice again for dramatic effect before pulling her jacket tighter around her.

Ashe and Kaden have left the Mountain Sector and entered into the Arctic Sector.