They went back to the circle and sat on a small wall overlooking the lake. Stephanie realised her shoelace was undone, and tied it before her shoe fell off. Wait a minute. She checked down the cliff.
"Guess you are in luck." She said with a smile.
"Oh?"
"Shoes!"
There down the cliff on some rocks were shoes. She scanned the cliff to see if she can find two of the same pair, or at least two of the same size that looked similar. She started climbing down the cliff.
Instead of being worried, he admired her bravery.
"Hey! Give me a hand!"
He lifted her over the wall.
"Here you go, these look about your size, and I got some for me too"
He didn't like the idea of wearing someone elses shoes, but the pair she had looked new.
"Someone lost a whole bag of them, all new ones, aren't we lucky?"
She was surprisingly optimistic for someone who had just been through all she had.
They sat quietly watching the view. He felt her staring at him, so he turned to face her.
"Hey.. what's your name?"
"Hades." He said, feeling a bit embarrassed.
"Oh, I'm Stephanie." She said trailing off in thought.
He was surprised at her reaction, but after all that's happened, it only makes sense she wouldn't question him. She seemed quite carefree, and he liked that about her.
"Let's find a place to set up camp." She said getting up with a smile.
He let her take the lead. She stopped outside an old wooden house. It looked as if no one was staying there at the moment, but a lot of things were still left inside. The door was locked so she went around the property searching for a way in.
He looked at her desperately trying to climb up to a window out of her reach. He sighed, and changed into his flame form. She noticed the burst of light, but couldn't turn around.
"Hades?"
She looked up and there he was on the other side of the window. He opened it and helped her in.
"Right, old habits.." She giggled.
He lit a fire, and layed some old blankets on the carpet. He scrounged around for some food, but there was only some cans with red beans inside.
She came down stairs and looked at the fire, and blankets. They were sleeping next to eachother? She blushed a bit, it made her feel kind of happy. She wasn't sure where he had gone, so she decided to look around the house. She looked through some old books. She had never seen any of these books before, but that didn't strike her as odd. There are many books in the world.
She heard the door open and went back into the living room. Hades stood there holding a bag. She could smell it was food. She got excited, it smelt so good. He sat down by the fire, and opened the bag. Some squid on a stick and rice with veggies. She wasn't exactly sure where the people in the town got their food from. It certainly can't be from the lake.Still it looked just like what you get at the convenience store.
They sat eating together for a while before laying down. He layed on his back, she turned to face him. He pretended not to notice the serious look on her face.
"Hey.. Hades?"
"Yeah?"
"This isn't a dream, is it?"
He turned to face her.
"You should rest now." He stroked her hair.
"Ok.." She said yawning.She was so drowsy she couldn't say another word.
She didn't dream that night.
****
When she opened her eyes she saw her room. "Tokyo? She checked her phone.
"It's dead.."
She plugged it into her charger and looked out the window. It looked like it was morning, but late morning. Did she oversleep? She waited impatiently for her phone to charge. She felt kind of sad thinking Hades was a dream. She could still feel all the emotions from the last day lingering in her heart.
Her phone made a sound,then it switched on.
"11:23am!.. Wait does it say Wednesday? That can't be." She quickly checked her calendar.
It really was wednesday. It was too late to go to school so she decided to skip the rest of the day. She emailed the school apologizing for her absence, stating she was sick. A lot of people never showed up, so she probably wouldn't have too much trouble. Just catching up on projects may be a pain. Work was a real problem though.If you don't show up, you can get fired, and she needed the money. She had no option, but to apologize, try use the same excuse and hope it works.
She checked her miss calls and messages.There were loads of them from her boss. She called him and apologized for missing the last day of work, and promised she would be there tonight.
She felt really tired like she hadn't really slept at all. She took a small nap before work. Before she fell asleep she held onto her necklace for a while, thinking of him. Would she see him again?
Work was alright, but she definitely had to be on her best behaviour the next few days if she wanted to keep her job.Luckily she was a valued member of the team, and they wouldn't be quick to fire her.
The next day she went to school. She was studying graphic design, and her first class was illustration. There was one person from her main class here by the name of Suzuki , so she went to go sit with him. He was quite handsome, and about her age. It was rare considering she was attending the school later than most.
She felt a bit nervous sitting next to him. He looked like someone who should be an actor or a j-pop star. She enjoyed spending class with him, and they got along quite well.
When school was over she stopped at the entrance to get her umbrella.
"Wanna walk to the train station together?" She looked around her and saw Suzuki standing there.
"Sure."
Walking back with Suzuki made her so happy. He had the cutest smile she had ever seen. The end of the street was quite busy so she moved closer to him to give space to the other people. When she moved closer to him she could feel the back of their hands brushing against one another. She blushed and took a step back.
"Hey, you fell behind on your projects this week right?" He asked.
"Yeah I did." She said feeling disappointed in herself.
"Want to meet on Saturday?I can help you do some of them."
"Yeah, I'd appreciate that." She smiled, and said goodbye.