Oliver was still in a weird state of shock and started stuttering “wh… I thought you were going to stop me…why did you let me touch you? You said you were going to cut off my hand…” he said with visible panic on his face then he was struck by something and frowned, “what did you just say?” he asked looking at her.

Chloe didn’t know what to say, yeah she would have obviously stopped him if he tried to touch her inappropriately, but he was way faster than her. She sat up and looked at him, “You found my scar disgusting right?” she said, chuckling bitterly. Oliver had just the time to touch the ruined skin under her left breast and was probably taken aback. Even someone like him who fucked around, couldn’t take the joke that far.

He was speechless and his hands fell on his sides, “What the hell are you talking about, Chloe?” he asked. He was flabbergasted 

“You immediately moved your hand away when you felt it,” she whispered looking down. Why was she now disappointed? Did she want Oliver to keep touching her?

“I didn’t move my hand away because of your scar, I moved it away because I was this close to touching your nipple. I expected you to be quick and almost snap my wrist. I shouldn’t have joked around, but I really didn’t think I was going to be able to lay my hand on you at all,” Oliver explained and he looked very troubled, his breath was short and he kept squeezing his own fingers to keep his hands from moving. Chloe kept quiet and looked away. Nonsense.

A few seconds had passed and finally, Oliver spoke again “How did you get it? Is it that big?” he almost whispered.

Chloe shrugged and sighed “During the last days of the war I was cut badly from back to front. I was able to move away just in time before they could have pierced through my heart,” she said. Recalling that moment was very scary, she could only remember how her brain shut down and she didn’t feel any pain, only the blood gushing all over her lower body as she tried to fly away and hide. Oliver gasped, he had no idea, because that scar was barely visible with her clothes on, it could have been easily a small wound considering the portion of it that one could have seen on her side.

“I had no idea you were wounded this badly. After the war I was in a coma for over a month… so when I woke up you were already all patched up,” Oliver said with a lower tone, he looked at his hands again. No good memories for him either, maybe even worse for him actually. “Does it go from the back to the front? I always thought it was a minor one, like mine on the hip,” the male fairy said pointing at his left hip.

Chloe shook her head and slowly moved her chemise slightly upwards, obviously covering her breast while she showed him how the long scar went from her back to her chest right at the centre, it was curved upwards and obviously made her feel very self-conscious. Oliver’s eyes grew larger as he looked at her, biting ever so slightly his lower lip “It is very ugly right?” she said putting down her clothes and covering up again, crossing and hugging her own arms to try to hide it all.

“Chloe, it is a scar, it is proof that you survived a war, there is nothing ugly about it,” Oliver said “Also do you really think that if I wanted to really touch you inappropriately… a scar would stop me? Like…from touching boobs?” The last sentence left Chloe speechless while it made Oliver laugh nervously as he got flustered and looked away scratching his nose.

He got flustered, how dare he? She was the one who was supposed to feel shy. She grunted “Whatever!” she said, grabbing him by his vest and pulling him down again to sleep. This time she was on her side, more comfortably, she used her arms to keep her breast from spilling and hoped it was going to stay that way till morning.

Oliver was surprised by her gesture but he then smiled and nodded, adjusting his position.

After a while she really felt cold, maybe it was the temperature dropping or the fact that the rainstorm outside made her feel cold inside. The sound of rain and wind always made her feel like that. The other noticed her shifting a little “Are you cold?” he asked. She shook her head, but he was stubborn so he moved to take off his vest and place it on her “This isn’t much but it can cover you a bit,” he said getting back down and crossing his arms.

“Nonsense,” she said, taking the vest from her shoulder and giving it back, “You’ll be cold this way, it’s silly,” she added.

Oliver then moved to take the towel from under his head, “Let’s use this then, I can sleep on my arm but we get to be covered at least a bit,” that said, he opened it and placed it on Chloe’s shoulders, trying to then cover himself a bit too. Obviously, since they weren’t close enough the towel was too short. Chloe rolled her eyes and scooted a little closer until their legs and arms touched. She had never been that close to his body, to the point she could sense the warmth emanating from him.

“Don’t you dare tell others that you slept this close to me,” she said, closing her eyes to avoid looking at him. She heard him chuckle.

“Don’t worry, no one would believe me anyway.” Those were the last words she heard before finally falling asleep.

~

When Chloe woke up she was alone in the hut, hugging her bag, still covered with the towel, but definitely taking more space than the night before.

She looked around, luckily Oliver wasn’t inside. She looked down and her bobs were inside too, maybe no major accidents happened. She quickly took her top and put it back on, folding the towel and placing it back inside her bag before getting out of the hut. She stretched her arms and back and breathed in the morning air. It was fresh but not too much. 

“Oh you woke up. I was coming to get you,” Oliver said, appearing out of nowhere. He was holding a big drop of water in his hands “I brought you some water,” he said, getting closer and moving his hands towards her. Chloe looked at him unsure what to do but seeing him gesturing to her to drink some, she simply bent down and drank a bit from his hands.

The cool thing about big droplets like that was that the tension on the surface made it so easy to carry around, so when she drank some, the drop readjusted and kept its round shape “Wanna use some to wash your face? I already did it with another one,” Oliver said. He was smiling softly, very weird for him to be this kind to her, but she decided not to complain. She had no energy to start a pointless fight that early in the morning.

After gathering the water she simply splashed her face and felt immediately more awake.

Oliver then moved to pick up something on the branch. “I also cut this berry, I saved some for you,” he said, handing her a large slice of a red berry, very sweet and definitely well ripe. Chloe was sceptical but still took it and then moved to sit on the door of the small hut. It was slightly taller and more comfortable to use than the branch itself. He was being exceptionally nice that morning, probably he felt guilty for keeping her there, and for what he had done… No, Chloe, stop thinking about that.

The other took another slice and sat next to her. They ate in silence for a bit then she spoke again, “Did you wake up a long time ago?” she asked, looking at the horizon.

“Mh, not really, just maybe half an hour ago, right around sunrise,” he replied casually eating another bite of the fruit.

“Ugh, always showing off.” But she didn’t even realize she had said it out loud. That was why she was surprised even more by the other’s answer.

“Nah, nothing that calculating… I just had to pee,” he said honestly, taking the last bite of fruit before lightly shaking his hands from the residual juice. He chuckled by himself, probably finding his sentence funny.

“You really say whatever you like, right?” she commented looking at him. Oliver turned around and tilted his head.

“Yes, I think life it’s already hard as it is, so at least I should say what I want. At least with a few selected people,” he said looking around again and squinting a bit looking at the sky.

“ How luck o…ow” Chloe was replying but then something went in her eye and she was forced to close it.

Oliver got closer immediately “What happened?” he said, reaching out but not daring to touch her face.

“There is something in my eye,” she said, unable to open her right eye. “No, don't touch it!” she added when Oliver tried to grab her chin to look at it.

“Let me see, stop with these hands, Chloe be still, let me see…” he succeeded in grabbing her chin, then moving his hand to the side to cup her cheek, while with his other hand he gently opened her right eye. She was trying hard to open the eye but it was too sensitive and also he was so close to her face that she ended up closing her other eye too. She felt his soft breath on her cheek as he inspected her eye, then he chuckled softly and slowly picked up a long eyelash that had gotten stuck between the others.

“All done,” he said but he had to yet take off his hand from her cheek when she slowly opened her eyes, squinting a bit at the light and the fear of feeling that pain. She looked at him, so close to her face that she felt her heart skipping a beat. He stared at her, moving slightly from her eyes to her cheeks and finally to her lips before going back to her eyes. It was probably only a few seconds but they lasted an eternity, especially when she saw him slightly tilting his head and slowly closing the distance, staring at her lips one last time.

When he was about to touch her mouth she held her breath, but doing so she tensed all over snapping him out of the trance he had seemed to be in. He cleared his throat as he pulled back immediately. Jumping into a standing position and stretching “Ah now that we had breakfast we better start flying back!” he said avoiding her. Chloe sat there staring at his back for a second then she took a deep breath. Ok.

“Yes, right, we better get going, we will be scolded either way, so we better hurry,” That said she made sure she didn’t leave anything behind, Oliver did the same, and finally they started to fly.

The redhead decided to fly slightly faster than her, and she could only look at his back while they flew. She was looking at him and wondered what had gotten into him that morning. The water, the fruit and the… she immediately felt her cheeks getting warmer. No, she was wrong, he wasn't about to kiss her. She was so distracted by all her thoughts like it often happened that she hadn’t realized she started flying fast and almost surpassed Oliver. She was stopped when she felt him grabbing her wrist and pulling her slightly to a side as they barely avoided crashing into a bumblebee “Chloe watch out!” she heard and when she was surprised and saw the bee butt in slow motion in front of her eyes, she heard Oliver chuckle.

“You really are not a morning person,” he said promptly, letting go of her arm and avoiding even looking at her. It seemed like he really made up his mind not to even mention that awkward moment they shared. If he wasn’t going to talk about it, neither was she.

It was fine to just fly for four hours in complete silence. At least she could have some peace not hearing his annoying voice or his chuckles. Even better if she didn’t have to see his smug smile and see him winking at her.

Yes. It was better to be back to their usual selves when avoiding contact was a must.