---Katherine---
' "Kath, you're beautiful." And then his lips were on mine, a touch as light as a feather, yet magnified a thousand fold in my system.'
'I froze—eyes wide, cheeks warm, hands mid-push against his chest. All I could think about was how soft his lips were, how he had taken my first kiss, and how this was Aaron freaking Kane who was kissing me, the same Aaron whom half the girls in the Academy would kill to date. My heart felt like it would beat out of my chest.'
'Then he pulled away, smiled at me with that oh-so-charming smile and passed out, lurching forward into my arms.'
I shook my head, trying to dismiss the images and clear my mind so I could sleep. Yet the scene replayed over and over in my mind's eye, and I'm transported back to that moment when Aaron kissed me. If I concentrated hard enough, I could still feel his lips on mine. My cheeks burned in the night.
On the bed, Aaron slept peacefully next to Charles and Christina, snoring lightly. I tossed and turned on my makeshift bed on the floor, unable to sleep. I tried to distract myself by thinking about Josephine and the drugged ginger ale instead. Why would she try to drug us? What did she want from us? What did she want from Aaron? Actually, that one was pretty easy to answer—Aaron was handsome, and Josephine was lonely. Eventually, amidst the other questions that swirled in my mind, I slowly drifted off into a light slumber.
I awoke to a chorus of voices above. "Charles, Christina, please settle down, your loud voices are giving me a headache." Aaron grumbled.
"But we're hungry," Charles whined. "It's time to get up, Aaron."
I sat up and stretched out the knots in my back from sleeping on the hard floor. "How did you sleep, children?"
"Very well," Christina replied as she moved to the edge of the bed to peer down at me. "Much better than when we slept in forests."
Charles nodded and crawled over Aaron to join his sister. "Why did you sleep on the floor, Kath?"
I glanced at Aaron, who was still trying to sleep with his arm over his eyes, and then quickly looked away when I felt a blush coming on. "Because Aaron had a few drinks too many, and he took up all the space on the bed." 'Not that I would've slept in the same bed as him anyways.'
"Ugh, my head feels like it's going to split in half," Aaron groaned. He slowly sat up and put his head in his hands. "What happened last night? How much did I drink?"
"You don't remember?" I snapped my gaze back to him, staring at him in disbelief. "You don't remember anything from last night?"
"Not really…" Aaron rubbed his forehead and tried to think back. "I was talking with Josephine…we had a few glasses of ale…and then…and then…"
"You kissed me," I answered softly, almost to myself.
"What was that?"
"I said, Josephine drugged you," I hurriedly jumped to a more important topic. "She drugged the ale, and if I hadn't showed up, she would've succeed in seducing you. I can't believe you don't remember. She was holding your hand, literally trying to make out with you, and you two were this close to kissing." I pinched my thumb and forefinger together to show how close they were. Aaron stared at me, appalled.
"I—Josephine—what?!"
"Aaron! I thought you and Katherine were boyfriend and girlfriend!" Christina, who was listening to our conversation, exclaimed in shock.
"Yeah, you can't pick someone else. You have to be with Kath!" Charles folded his arms and shook his head at Aaron in disappointment. My cheeks burned.
"Charles, Christina, don't be silly. Aaron and I are not boyfriend and girlfriend. Go get ready for breakfast. This is grown-up talk; you shouldn't be listening." I shooed the giggling children into the bathroom. Aaron's brows were bunched together in concentration.
"Did I really—"
"Yes! You were going to follow her to her bedroom too if I didn't stop you!" All the anger came back in a rush. I was pissed—at Josephine for having the nerve to try something on Aaron as if I didn't exist, and at Aaron for falling into her trap when I had clearly warned him. Aaron watched me with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"What?" I demanded, knowing full well how red my face was.
"Now that you mention it, I sort of remember feeling dizzy and numb after drinking the ale," Aaron said slowly. "I think I remember Josephine tugging me towards somewhere…but kissing? Did I kiss her?" A flash of panic passed through his eyes.
"No, you didn't. I stopped her just in time." 'But you kissed me.' I hoped he would remember our "moment" from last night, but at the same time, I hoped he didn't. 'Should I bring it up? Should we talk about it? What did it mean? Did it mean anything if he was drunk?But why would he kiss me for no reason—there has to be something in his subconscious, right?'
"Kath?" Aaron waved his hand in my face. I didn't notice that he had got up to stand in front of me. "What are you thinking about?"
"N-nothing. Stop staring at me." I ducked my head and turned to go to the bathroom. But I paused and asked over my shoulder, "Do you really not remember what happened last night?"
"Why, did something important happen?" Aaron looked at me, his gaze clear and unwavering. He didn't look like he was lying. My shoulders slumped slightly in disappointment.
"No. Nothing important at all."
* * * * *
Breakfast was very tense. Josephine avoided my gaze while Aaron didn't acknowledge anything that happened last night. Maybe he really forgot. As soon as we finished eating, I made Aaron grab our things and prepared to depart.
As I opened the door to let Charles and Christina exit, Aaron fished out two gold coins and took Josephine's hand to put the coins in her palm. I tightened my grip on my sword. "Josephine, thank you for letting us stay here for the night, and thank you for all the delicious food."
"Oh, it was no problem," Josephine said shyly, blushing. The nerve she had… "I really wish you could stay here a few more days; it gets quite lonely when my husband is on his long business trips."
"Sorry, but we really need to get going. Ravenstone is very far away." I butted in impatiently, glaring at Josephine. Her gaze darted towards me, and she swallowed visibly.
"Oh, speaking of which, do you have any maps we could look at? I forgot to ask you last night." Aaron remembered that we didn't know where Ravenstone was. Josephine nodded and walked over to a bookshelf next to the fireplace. She pulled out a couple of folded pamphlets and gave them to Aaron. "Here are some maps of Crystallea, I'm sure Ravenstone is on there somewhere. You can keep them; we have a lot more."
"Thank you!" Aaron beamed at her, shaking her hand in gratitude.
"Ahem, Zach, honey, we need to go." I cleared my throat when it became apparent the two of them were just going to stand there and hold hands. Josephine reluctantly let go, and I all but pulled Aaron next to me.
"Act like we're dating," I hissed in his ear, then stood on tip-toes and lightly kissed his cheek. I made sure Josephine had a clear view of this. 'Aaron isn't mine, but he definitely isn't yours.'
To my surprise, Aaron slipped one arm around my waist and hugged me close to him. I recovered from the shock enough to smirk at Josephine as she paled.
"Good-bye, Josephine," Aaron waved nonchalantly, not noticing the tension between Josephine and me. "If I pass by again, I'll be sure to visit you." I steered him towards the door, snorting as we walked out. 'Visit again? Fat chance.'
As soon as we were out of sight, I detached myself from Aaron. "Good acting back there," I muttered. "Now let's see if anyone can sell us a horse."
"Actually, Kath, why did we have to act like we're dating?" Aaron tilted his head, staring at me with large puppy eyes. "And did you just kiss me back there?"
"No, I didn't. You're hallucinating. Let's go, kids." I strode away from Aaron, two kids in hand, hiding my blush and ignoring his calls of "Wait up, Kath!" Honestly, I don't know where the courage to kiss him came. It just felt right at the moment. Also, he kissed me unexpectedly, so it was only fair for me to kiss him when he was off-guard. We're even now.