FicWad

She found herself awakening to the sounds of someone humming. She was wrapped tightly in a warm blanket that Pete had draped across her. Her eyes winced as she moved, releasing the pressure in her side, formed from sleeping on her bag all night. At least he was nice enough to not go through it, and not slip it off of her after she fell asleep. Once she shifted her weight so that she could sit up properly, she found her eyes focusing on the genuinelly nice guy that had saved her from the cold last night. It was true, much to her dismay, he was her impromptu hero, allowing her to join him in his cabin and filling her stomach with enough warm food to last a week.

She noticed how the light shown in perfectly through the window and fell upon his face. She watched as the beams danced around the curve of his lips and paced themselves down to his chest which rose and fell with each slow breath he took. As quietly as she could, she reached for her sketchbook and found a new page to begin drawing her savior. She reached in her bag, and grabbed her broken pencil and her pocket-knife. She wittled away at the pencil until a crisp point shown good. She pressed the tip to the page and began to take a photograph as best as she could without a camera.

She started with the curve of his eyes, and made to shadow the circles beneath them. She shaded the space beneath his hair, which created a cave-like curve over his forehead. She rubbed in the five o'clock shadow that lined his strong jaw and rounded out his stern chin. Creating the curves of his lips and little lines that surrounded his mouth, she watched as he mouthed words she couldn't quite make out, but knew captivated his mind at this very moment. She wandered what it was that he was dreaming, and wondered whether or not he would remember that she was here when he woke. She breathed silently, working to make his face a lasting impression upon the page, adding little details like the length of his eyelashes. She must have been working a while because her fingers were blackened with the shards of the lead creeping from her pencil.

"What do you have there?"
She felt his eyes upon her, peering over to the creation pouring from her hands. She flashed him a small smile, where only half of her mouth curved slightly, put down the pencil she was using, and brushed her hands on the sides of her jeans, leaving traces of black along the seams.

"You."

"Can I see?"

She folded back the other half of the notebook so that he could hold it without difficulty, and turned the sketch to face him. She hesitated slightly, not usually letting anyone see her book with her own consent, but handed it over to the boy across from her. She watched his face as it took in what she drew. His eyes focused on every little detail, and wondered the contents of the page with excitement and amazement. He brought his hand to his mouth and took in a deep breath before letting his fingers trace the darkened outlines that she had laid out before him. He rose his head to find her sitting and staring at him, face vacant of any emotion but eyes filled with happiness that he knew she felt from his reaction.

"I feel captivated."

She smiled, which he liked. Hardly anyone but his closest friends and family ever understood his compliments, dangers of a writer's soul, but she did. He knew that in those three simple words, he had given her the greats acknowledgements she could have wished for, and he was happy to do it. A lot of people had given him drawings of his face in the past, but no one had ever given him one with a piece of his soul attatched. He bent his head downward once more to take in the mirrored reflection that showed him in her drawing. He was brought back to reality only when she coughed and sniffled. She looked like she had been waiting forever for him to return her book, so he parted with his gift and returned the pad to it's rightful owner.

"You are very talented."

"Thanks, I've never really been one with words, so I had to find another way to say what I wanted people to hear."

"Well, you're very good at it, that's for sure. I could have sworn it was a real photograph of me. I don't think anyone has ever drawn me while I slept, though."

"People draw you often?" she asked with a sarcastic smirk.

"Yeah, mostly from the pictures of me they find on the internet. I mean, most of them are good and some are really great, but none of them have ever looked like that."

She looked around, trying to figure out who this guy was if his pictures were plastered all over the internet. She searched for some clue, and found nothing but more candy wrappers and crumpled up paper. She picked up a piece and stretched out the wrinkles, forcing the page back to it's original shape. It was covered with words and phrases jutting out in all directions. Some were scribbled out so hard that the blackened spaces raised the back of the paper. She began to read, moving her head from side to side to follow the uncertain direction of the context. She managed to make out a few lines, but was cut short by an angry pull that came out of his fingers. He grabbed the paper, and crumpled it back up, returning it to its more comfortable state. His forehead wrinkled with fury, and he stuttered and spat at this intrusion she had accidently made.

"Don't read that."

"I'm sorry."

He moved away from her and gathered the few other pieces off the floor and threw them into the bathroom with the other contents of his cabin. He turned around to face her again, this time with a forced smile on his face.

"How about some breakfast. Come on, I'll take you down to the dining car."

"No thanks, I'm fine. Hey thanks for the couch and the hot meal last night, but I really should be going."

She wanted to get out of this cabin as fast as she could. One minute this guy was nice and sweet, paying her compliments on her most personal treasure, and the next he was infuriated with her for reading his. She made to gather her things, and noticed a small wad of cash on the windowsill. With his back towards her, she grabbed it and thrust it to the bottom of her bag. She moved towards the door of his cabin and looked back, half to see if he had noticed that she just ripped him off and half to see if he was upset that she was leaving him.

"What do you mean you're all set. The train doesn't stop for another three hours, what are you planning on doing until then? Go back to the back car and hide out?"

"Maybe."

"Oh yeah, real effective that was. I fucking found you back there. You'd be a meat popsicle if I hadn't invited you in here."

"You're probably right, so thanks for that. But look, I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to read your daily discards. So just because your pissed off that someone saw them, don't blame the girl you invited back to your cabin."

They stared at each other, knowing that both of them were acting like jackasses. He threw is hands in the air and she followed, doing the same. She licked her lips and pulled to tighten her bag around her.

"I mean it, though, thanks...for everything."

"The least you could let me do is let me buy you breakfast and let you stay warm until we get off."

As much as she wanted to get out of this place, she couldn't help but see the up-side of his offer. She would be fed and warmed before hitting the cold winter streets of wherever it was they were heading. In truth, she really didn't know where the train was going when she climbed aboard. She stood in his doorway and finally reached a desicion. She would stay with him until the train stopped in the station, and then part ways with this slightly unstable kid. Maybe, she thought to herself, all heros are slightly unstable.

"If you are going to buy us breakfast then you might need your cash back." and she reached inside her bag to pull out the money she had stolen from him, having a moment of guilt rush over her. After all, he did just offer to buy her breakfast.

"Might help."

He smiled, and reached out, grabbing her hand and twirling her around, leading the way to the dining car. Neither of them understood, but they both felt safe with their fingers clasped round each other.

"I'm shocked, Jane. In one night we have shared our deepest secrets and had our first fight."

She looked at him with slight confusion. What the hell did he think this was, a relationship? He stopped suddenly, letting go of her hand and turning to face her. He stared her dead in the eyes and moved his hands towards his pockets.

"That sounded a little stalkerish, didn't it? I'll be right back, don't move."

He disappeared back to his cabin and shuffled through to his bathroom, throwing everything he had thrown into it last night back out into the main room of the cabin. She could see around the corner slightly and noticed that he was reaching for a pill container. He opened it with ease an popped a small pill into his mouth, sucking on the free flowing water from the faucet to wash it down. He stood and faced the mirror to make sure he had wiped the excess water from his lips and saw her face in the reflection. He turned to face her, and stared down at his feet with a shy embarrassment.

"Meds usually help when I remember to take them. Crazy mood swings are so out this year. Perks of being bi-polar."

So he was mentally unstable. Something she could relate to.

"I know what you mean."