She couldn't believe what she was doing. She slightly nodded her head, while staring at his eyes. His eyes looked down at her lips, and within seconds he pulled her towards him, kissing her.
Echo let him kiss her at first, his lips were soothing, and soft.
She eventually pulled back, as he began deepening the kiss.
"You're a jerk!" Echo blurted, straddling him. She picked a pillow, and hit him on the head with a smile.
Damon smiled, sitting up, their faces almost knocking on each other, "This is unfair!"
"Pfft! There's nothing unfair here!" Echo replied. She smiled, sweetly until she was hit by a pillow. "Oh! You want a pillow fight!"
"You started it," he hit her on the face with a pillow again.
Echo laughed as she hit him back.
Damon smiled, lifting the pillow up. He remembered what she said earlier, and his smile faded. Dropping the pillow, he stared at her, while cupping her cheeks. She looked at him with a sweet smile.
"I think we need to get something out of the way," he voiced the first thought that came to his mind.
Echo was confused. 'What was he talking about? What did he want to get out of the way? Oh my goodness… the anticipation is killing me.'
The sight of Echo blinking with a blank look on her face made Damon chuckle. "Relax! I just want to talk to you."
"Talk to me?" Echo asked, with the same blank look on her face. He surely knew how to make her get stuck in her thoughts.
He chuckled once again, "It's about Kaia!"
"Oh!" she smiled awkwardly, dropping her shoulders back to a relaxed position. "What about her?"
Echo did not want to even think about what he was going to say. It was just killing her inside that he wanted to talk about Kaia.
"Kaia is just a friend to me. You don't have to be threatened by her," he pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "I promise you, there's nothing going on between us."
Echo smiled, her heart eased. "Okay! Now I need to change!" She got off the bed, and sighed, when her hand stretched out, and the handcuff stopped her from moving away from him.
"Do you really need to change?" he asked.
"Yeah! This is really uncomfortable!" she replied, with an embarrassed smile.
He smiled back at her cuteness. "Okay! I'll be outside!"
"Wh-" before she could finish her sentence Damon stood up, and stepped out of the door, keeping it ajar. He turned away, with his hand stretching in towards the door.
Echo sighed, staring at the closet that was across the door.
"Damon!"
"Hmm."
"I need to get my clothes from the closet," Echo blurted.
"...and?" he asked in confusion.
She sighed, in disbelief. Was he teasing her? "My closet is on the other side of the room," she explained.
"Oh!" It finally hit him. He opened the door, and gave her an expressionless look.
—
Echo got dressed into something more casual, while Damon stood out of the room. She stepped out, with a smile.
After a silent dinner, Echo woke Hunter for her dinner, which she devoured in seconds and went back to sleep.
Damon sighed, standing next to Echo, as she watched the cub asleep. He crossed his arms, brushing his hand on Echo's.
"Can I have my hand back?" Echo asked, glancing at her hand, which was dangling from his.
Damon did not even turn to her when he blurted, "No!" A smirk appeared on his face, he continued "This hand is now mine."
"Well too bad, because this hand doesn't listen to you!" Echo replied, with a smirk of her own. She pulled her hand away from him, leading him to the bedroom.
Stopping to assess their situation, Echo sighed. They couldn't sleep in two different rooms. Each time they had to tackle a hurdle, she would get more and more annoyed with the commander. After all it was all his fault… and Damon's.
"I'll sleep on the ground!"
"What?" Echo asked, turning to Damon. She thought for a while, continuing, "Okay."
Damon was surprised at her response. He expected her to ask him to sleep on the bed. Does she not have a conscience? Or was this just her way of punishing him? Whatever the reason, Damon just nodded his head, and sat on the ground near the bed, while Echo laid down on the bed. His hand was dangling from the bed.
He glanced at Echo, who was staring at the ceiling in silence. "You didn't even let me change!"
"Hmm?" she glanced at Damon, noticing that he was still dressed in his coat. "Sorry! Do you want me to leave, so that you can change?"
Damon smiled, "It's fine. The ground is kinda cold anyway."
Echo nodded, and continued staring at the ceiling. After a while of silence, she asked, "Would you have imagined this would be our life… on the first day we met?"
Damon followed Echo's gaze to the ceiling, "I try not to think about the future, because I guess I always knew that there was no use thinking about it."
"Why?"
He pondered her question, it was something he had never asked himself. The future was always untold, anything could happen, and sometimes it's good but sometimes it's not. He thought she would know this by now, after all she had gone through some unimaginable things too.
Echo turned to look at Damon, he looked lost in his thoughts, "You don't have to answer that… it was a stupid question, that I probably already knew the answer to."
"What is the answer?" he asked, locking eyes with her.
Echo stared at his eyes, "You've been through a lot since you were small. A lot of… bad things. It's obvious you wouldn't want to think about the future anymore."
Damon smirked at her reply. It seemed that he had not overestimated her. She had grown up to be a very smart woman.
He stared at her, hoping to ask the one question he was dying to know the answer to.
"What happened to you in the last year?"