Chapter 3 - Tar

Why on earth had my eyes changed colour!? I stormed into the school building, furious with myself. Had I let my guard down too much? I didn't think so. I hadn't felt any different to usual. How often did this happen? Had she noticed before?
No, I was sure she hadn't. She would have said something earlier. Jak wasn't the type to keep anything to herself for too long. What would I tell her now? She wouldn't drop this for long. I'd better come up with a reason. I felt her arm slip into mine, and sighed. She only did that when she was worried about me.
'Tar?' She said my name in almost a whisper.
'Yes Jak?'
'Have I upset you?'
I stopped walking suddenly and turned to look at her. 'No, of course you haven't.' I smiled at her. She was truely beautiful, long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, a perfect figure. For a split second my mind was sidetracked again. I shook myself back into reality. 'I upset me. But I'm fine, don't worry.'
She tried to smile back, but it looked uncomfortable, forced. 'But, you're cold Tar.'
'What do you mean I'm cold?'
'You're skin... It feels cold. Usually it's warm. The last time you felt cold was...' her voice trailed off, and her eyes wandered to the floor.
'Was what Jak?' I hadn't noticed the cold. But I hadn't really ever thought about my temperature. I couldn't feel any difference between hot and cold usually. Not in an uncomfortable way. Now that she mentioned it, I could feel that the skin on her arm was much warmer than mine, even through the fabric of both of our jackets.
'When Bear left.' She looked like she was about to cry.
I flinched at the memory. It was painful to think about. Six months had passed since Bear had announced his departure. He insisted he was going to find a 'Cure' for immortality. I had a sneaking suspicion it had more to do with the way I felt for Jak. After all, he hadn't given me any indication where he was going, and no way for me to contact him. He hadn't exactly hidden his dislike for Jak either. Instinctively I wrapped my arms around Jak and held her close.
'What's wrong Tar? Are you worried I'm going to leave? Is that it?' She asked me. She wriggled her arms inside mine and wrapped them around my waist, burying her head into my collar bone.
If I'd needed to breathe I would probably have hyperventilated. 'You're... not leaving are you?' I could barely talk. I hadn't even thought about the possiblity of her going anywhere without me there with her. Everytime she'd ever mentioned going anywhere, she'd always included me in her plans, after all, we'd been together four years now. But then again, Bear had been with me for 20 years and he still left. They had all left me, in the end. Fel, Marv, Tucker... I gritted my teeth and shook the thought from my head. No, Jak was different. She wouldn't leave. She couldn't leave me, I was too important to her. She needed me.

'No, of course not. I couldn't leave you on your own, could I? Then the house would never be clean!' She looked at me, the corners of her mouth turning into a slight smile. She meant this one, it showed in her eyes. Her voice lowered 'Plus, who would I chase in the forest at night if I didn't have you?'

Relief flooded through me and I couldn't help but laugh. Suddenly I became aware of the people watching us. Reluctant to let go of her, I whispered, 'Well I'm glad that's settled. Now perhaps we should stop staring into each others eyes, people are already suspicious.'
I expected her to move away quickly, but instead she hugged me tighter. She was only a couple of inches shorter than me and when she straightened up, her head rested perfectly on my shoulder, like now. Her mouth only inches away from me, she breathed into my ear, 'I like being close to you. I don't really care what they think Tar.'
I froze, uncertain of how to respond. I knew what she meant by it, or more specifically, I knew what she didn't mean by it. But all the same, it was the second time today my heart would have skipped a beat if it could. Almost all of my resolve melted away in that moment. Her sweet smell taunting me, it took all the strength I could still muster not to lean in and kiss her. As we stood there, holding each other close, I could feel her chest rising streadily with each breath, and realised I had stopped breathing all together. I sucked in a deep breath, even though it was unnecessary and felt her scent burn through my sinuses again, making my head swim. After what felt like an eternity, but I'm sure was no longer than a few seconds, she pulled away from me. I felt that familiar sinking sensation in my chest.
'We're going to be late for class.' She said, blushing slightly.
I looked around. 'So is half of the school, from the looks of it.'
She followed my eyes to the crowds of people watching us. 'Hmmm... that's embarassing.' She blushed more.
'Yeah a little.' I blurted out one of the million thoughts running through my head. 'I wonder what they'd do if we flew off right now?'
She looked at me again, slightly shocked. 'I thought you said we couldn't do that?'
'Well,' I paused, sucking in another deep breath. 'We can't. But their faces would be a picture if we could.'
She sighed too, looking more than a little dissapointed. 'I wish we could just fly off.'
'I know.' I nodded gently. 'Me too. One day huh? You've gotta finish school first!'
She nodded at me, looking even more dissapointed now. 'I know. C'mon, lets get to class.' She turned and walked towards the Mathematics block, with me closely behind her.
'Oh. Tar?'
'Yes Jak.'
'I haven't forgotten the eye thing.You don't have to tell me. But you can trust me, Tar. I promise.'
I sighed. 'I know I can.'

Chapter 4 - Bear  (13+) 'Incendia'I muttered,holding my hand over the pile of logs from earlier in the evening #1479732 by Kay