4. Mika #2
“Ow,” I heard him groan, and my eyes opened as I fought for breath and found I was weighted down. And then there were dark eyes above me, staring down into mine, so dark they could have been black, as if they sucked in everything around them and held it close.
“Get,” I gasped out finally, “off…me.”
“Would love to,” he grunted, twisting to look behind him, his elbow digging into my side and his crotch grinding against my thigh. “But I’m stuck.”
“How are you stuck?” I asked, trying my best not to notice his dick against my leg.
“Root,” he grunted, twisting around and sighing. “You’re going to have to help me; I can’t twist like that.”
“Lord help us all,” I muttered, trying to figure out how to get out from under him without adding more suggestive positioning. Only to realize there was no way to get away with it.
“I don’t think it’s time to pray,” he said, and I sighed heavily, not just because he still didn’t know when to stop telling jokes, but also, I knew there was no way I was getting out of this without it being awkward. At least he didn’t seem to notice.
“Quit moving,” I snapped, holding his hips so he stopped thrashing.
His head snapped to me, and I kept my eyes anywhere but on his.
I had already caught the flash of…something I didn’t want to think too hard about.
But at least he wasn’t flailing all over the place, and I could move, pulling my leg out from between his and giving him a moderate shove as I got out from under him with a grunt.
I saw what the problem was immediately. His leg had been shoved up and slightly twisted by a root.
With me under him, I had unintentionally been shoving up into the root.
Now there was more space, I could yank his leg out and eye him when he groaned.
I watched as he picked himself up and sighed when I saw he was favoring his right leg.
“Please tell me you didn’t break something on your first trip out,” I told him with a sigh, already able to hear what Xander would have to say about that.
“I’m fine,” he said, putting pressure on the leg and wincing a little. “It’s not broken. Probably just…twisted. I can walk on it.”
“Good thing Colin’s not here,” I said. “Because he’d probably have a few words to say about you walking on a twisted ankle.”
“It’s a mild sprain at worst,” he said with a frown. I could see the stubbornness setting into his features and bit back a sigh.
“Are you sure?” I wondered, knowing I was pushing things, he could be prickly when you pushed his pride too much.
Despite how calm and reasonable he seemed to other people, his pride could still pop up at the oddest times, and when it did, you were inevitably headed straight toward a full-blown attitude.
“I’m fine,” he insisted, then frowned at me.
“Hey, I know how stubborn you can be,” I said, keeping my tone light, almost teasing, because unless he was really feeling himself, that was the best way to keep him from getting pissy…usually.
His frown deepened before he looked away with a sigh.
“And when did you ever know me to push to the point of hurting myself? I know how to take a break, and I know what it feels like to sprain my ankle. If Colin wants to yell at me, he can do it when I get back. I don’t need you getting on my ass though; I don’t care if there’s seniority at play here or not. ”
“Fine, whatever,” I grunted, not willing to argue with him over something like that. Not when we still had something to do. “Limp around for all I care, but are you able to climb hills?”
He peered up the hill we’d fallen down and grimaced. “Dammit.”
“That’s what I thought,” I said, immediately realizing the mistake when his look turned dark.
“I’m sure Mav will be happy to help,” he bit out, and I knew right then I had officially pissed him off. He wasn’t biting my head off, but he was being mildly spiteful, the first warning sign that I needed to shut my mouth if I didn’t want an argument on my hands.
I was cautious, knowing I could step on the proverbial landmines.
The chirp of my walkie sounded, and Mav’s voice asked our location.
I’d known being around Aidan again, even in a friendly context, was going to be difficult.
Despite us moving on, Aidan was inevitably going to be more sensitive to what I said or did than he would be with anyone else; there were just too many old wounds and triggers to ignore.
It had been years since we’d seen one another, and while I had noticed some changes, there were bound to be things I didn’t know about and couldn’t predict.
It was like wandering into a house you used to live in.
You still knew which stair squeaked the loudest and expected the light in the bathroom to still flicker, and there was one window that never opened all the way.
At the same time, someone had changed the furniture, there was a new stain on the carpet that had a story of its own, and if you weren’t careful, you would walk through the space on autopilot, only to smack your shin on a new coffee table.
Thankfully, I was spared having to say anything else risky by a chirp of the radio and Mav’s voice. “I’ve got him. He’s…fine.”
“He didn’t sound very confident, did he?” Aidan asked wryly, and I snorted.
“Probably means our guy isn’t in any real danger, but something’s up,” I said before picking up the radio. “Where are you?”
Mav shot back the coordinates, and after getting my bearings, I told him we’d be there in ten. It would probably be closer to fifteen, but he didn’t need to know that, and I knew he wouldn’t be counting the minutes anyway since it didn’t sound like there was any immediate danger to worry about.
“Follow me,” I said, hoping there wouldn’t be too much uneven terrain for him to deal with.
“Really? And I thought it would be best if I went wandering off in the direction I think he is. You know, in this massive forest I know next to nothing about,” he said sarcastically, but I could tell his bad mood was disappearing.
Back in the day, it had taken me a handful of missteps to learn that when he was firing up for an argument, the best thing was to leave him alone.
When he had nothing provoking him, he was as quick to calm down as he was to fire up.
“I suppose that would be one way to learn to navigate around here,” I said as I started walking in the direction Mav had given me. “It wouldn’t be a very effective lesson, though.”
“On account of me getting lost and probably dying horribly, you mean?”
“Exactly. And then we’d have to search for you.”
He laughed at that. “Wouldn’t that be a great way to get on the team’s good side? Make them come all the way out here to drag me back?”
“I’m sure they’d love that,” I said with a shake of my head. “Imagine Xander’s reaction.”
There was a pause, and I could imagine him shuddering. “Yeah, I think I’d take whatever horrible death awaited me than have to listen to that, thanks.”
“At least you recognize danger when you see it,” I said with a snort.
A few minutes later we found Mav, and he looked…
amused? It was hard to tell what he was thinking, considering he had a face that looked serious even when he wasn’t.
He was leaning against a tree, and I looked over to see a man sitting nearby, also under a tree, cross-legged and looking around curiously as if we were the interesting sight in the forest instead of him.
“Hello,” the man said brightly, and I blinked at his neon yellow shirt, stained pants, and boots, which were scuffed and covered in mud. There was a large pack on the ground next to him.
“Yeah, this guy doesn’t look very lost to me,” Aidan said, and I saw Mav glance at him, his brow quirking slightly as he saw the way Aidan was standing. “Don’t look at me like that; I’m fine.”
Mav grunted. “So he’s…apparently.”
“Sir,” I said, bringing the man’s attention to me, “can we get your name?”
“No,” he said brightly, “you can’t have my name.”
“Okay, why not?” I wondered.
“Because it’s mine.”
“O…kay,” I said and looked at Mav, who shrugged with both shoulders, which told me he was just as confused as I was.
Aidan gave a snort. “Okay, will you tell us your name?”
“Oh, sure, my name is Don,” the man said brightly, and I looked at Aidan in confusion, who snickered and shook his head.
“Okay, well, Don,” I began, not sure what had just happened, but whatever, we had his name. “We’ve had several reports that someone matching your description is out here, lost.”
“I’m not lost,” Don said with a wide smile, looking serene. “I come out here every year whenever I get time. It’s important to reconnect to our roots, don’t you think?”
“Your roots?” I wondered.
“It used to be that people spent most of their time out in the middle of nowhere, used to have to be connected to the earth they’re living on.
Nowadays, though, it’s easy for people to just…
forget about places like this and not realize how important they are.
It’s why we let big companies and the government ruin everything natural,” Don said with that same serene expression that was bordering on creepy.
“My friend,” Aidan said with a snort. “Just how stoned are you? Just like…moderately? Or are we at cataclysmic levels here?”
Don thought about it long enough that maybe he had forgotten the question before he nodded.
“Comfortably. I was listening to the forest before you guys showed up. Truth be told, I was still doing it with your silent friend here. He’s fantastic company when you’re trying to listen to the stories of the forest.”
Aidan met my eyes and smirked. “Cataclysmic.”
“Yep,” I said. “Alright, Don, well, it’s not a good idea to wander around this deep in the forest while, uh…intoxicated.”