Chain Mail and Butterfly Wings

By the time Aiden was finally "comfortable" enough to sleep, it was well past midnight and I felt like I was going to pass out from exhaustion. The only thing that kept me from falling asleep once we'd set up a makeshift camp was knowing that I had to capture Aiden and drag him back to the castle, or not go back at all. Needless to say the first option sounded more troublesome, but also more beneficial.

I lay on my back with my eyes open, staring blankly at the stars through the leaves of the trees above me. I hadn't heard so much as a snort from Aiden to tell me whether he was asleep or not. This was a bit of a problem, if I made my move before he was asleep, I could pretend like I was getting up to go to the bathroom, but that would make him wary for at least another half an hour before he might fall asleep again. I was starting to get impatient and I didn't want to wait any longer than was necessary.

Another half an hour passed and I finally heard the one thing I had been waiting for: Aiden snored once and I heard him roll over onto his side and then back again.

He was asleep. Perfect.

I sat up quickly and quietly, reached behind me to the leather handcuffs that every guard got and stood up. The fire that Aiden had built was dying to flickering embers, which made it easy enough to see him. He was lying on his back, using a pack of some sort as a pillow. I kicked my distracting thoughts aside that quietly said things like, "He looks cute when he's sleeping", or "This is more than a little underhanded" and bent low over him trying to find a way to tie his arms without waking him.

I wiggled my fingers in anticipation and then carefully slipped my fingers under one of his wrists and lifted it so that it was level with the hand resting on his stomach. I reached into my belt where I was keeping my leather handcuffs for easy access, and frowned when I found that they weren't there. I glanced away from Aiden's face, to my belt, my leather handcuffs were gone. I followed my trail of where I had come from and saw them laying just beside the fire. I refrained from letting out a low growl and laid my hand gently on Aiden's ribcage, then slid my hand out from under his wrist, letting his hand rest on his stomach as I moved back toward the fire.

I picked up my leather handcuffs with a low grumble, turned around and stalked back over to where Aiden slept. I licked my lips and slid my fingers under Aiden's wrist a second time, keeping my handcuffs in my free hand this time, I slid one of his hands into the leather and maneuvered so that I was on his other side while keeping from moving his other hand. Just as I was about to put his hand through the second part of leather, he twitched.

I froze, my eyes widened and I almost yelped when Aiden shot forward with his free hand and grabbed my wrist. He pulled me down on top of him and then rolled so that he was sitting on top of me. His eyes were flashing with excitement and I could only gape at him as I realized something: I was caught. I felt my face drain of blood and I began thrashing to sit up, and somehow escape from Aiden’s hold.

“Whoa, whoa, calm down,” Aiden had been saying before I got my arm free and elbowed him in the face. His hand that had held on of my wrists tightened and his opposite hand gained control of my flailing arm. “Calm down,” he ordered harsly, his eyes emphasizing his tone.

I stopped my thrashing, knowing full-well that I needed a weapon if I was going to defy him, and I would definitely need to be in a better position. I was breathing heavily, and having him sit on my stomach was not making breathing very easy.

Aiden sighed and released one of my arms to draw a hand over his face and then looked down at me. He absently, took the leather from around his wrist and tossed it into the nearby fire. Great. I would need to replace those now. “And here I was thinking you were just going to give me a kiss,” he stated with a wry smirk.

A kiss? I thought with a snort, he really was diluted. Someone was going to have to show him the line between fantasy and reality if that had really been what he expected of me.

“You know, this isn’t a very good way to show appreciation to someone that’s helping you out. After that little stunt you tried to pull I can’t say I trust you much anymore my dear Angel.” Aiden grinned when he saw the fire that lit in my eyes at the name he’d called me.

“What…did you just call me?” I asked slowly, in a dangerous tone.

“What?” he asked innocently. “You don’t like that nickname? Alright, then how about Angelcake?” I blinked at him in disbelief, I had just tried to tie him up and drag him back to a prison and he was coming up with nicknames for me? “No? Then maybe my Guardian Angel? What about Angelina-Fo-Fina? Or--”

I interrupted him, “None of those! Just Angeline, but that doesn’t matter! Aren’t you mad at me? I just tried to take you back to the castle, not to mention I elbowed you in the face!” I nearly shouted.

“Oh yeah…” Aiden’s hand vaguely ran over his cheekbone which was a little red, even in the dim firelight. “Well, I guess I can overlook it…for a price.” He rose his eyebrow curiously at me and I frowned.

“A price? Like…money?” I asked, knowing that I didn’t have any money on me.

“Not…quite,” Aiden murmured, holding my gaze with his amber-colored eyes.
I felt my face turn red and I began to sweat like a hooker in church, as Aiden began to lean his face closer to mine.

“W-what are you doing?” I demanded, pressing the back of my head hard against the dirt in an attempt to get farther away from his approaching face.

Aiden paused, but didn’t pull head face any farther from mine. “Of course, if you have money I suppose I could take that instead, but I think this would be much more pleasant, for both of us.” He searched my eyes for a moment and must have decided that I didn’t have any money and grinned. “You don’t have any money with you, do you?” he inquired casually, leaning his face ever-so-slightly closer to mine.

“I…I…Uh…” I swallowed hard and admitted, “No.”

“Then it looks like this is the only way.” Aiden smirked and made it so that his lips were only inches from mine. “Just one kiss,” he assured me in a whisper, with a smirk curled on his lips.

My heart thudded in my chest and traveled up to my throat where it somehow got lodged. Just as his lips were about to touch mine, I squeezed my eyes shut and threw my head forward, head butting him in the nose, I was pretty sure. I heard him yelp in surprise and threw all of my weight upward so that Aiden fell off of me. I scrambled to my feet, and away from Aiden, holding my head which was throbbing in protest to my violent acts. Nobody wins with a head butt.

“Or, you could do that,” Aiden muttered, holding his nose with one of his hands.

“You,” I pointed a finger at him accusingly, “are a weirdo!” I shouted, then stumbled slightly as my vision set itself straight again.

“And you’re…unpredictable,” Aiden replied, standing up and checking his hand, which was covered in his own blood. “I can’t believe you head butted me!” he exclaimed, pinching his nose closed and tilting his head upward. “You made me bleed,” he complained, although it was half-hearted, he almost sounded amused.

“Well, maybe I knocked some sense into you!” I shot back, waiting for my heart to quit pounding.

Aiden chuckled. “On the contrary, it only makes me want to kiss you more,” he told me, although his voice sounded strange since he was holding his nose closed.

“That doesn’t even make sense!” I objected, shaking my head at his strangeness.

“Sure it does, anyone else I would’ve tried to kiss would’ve accepted it, maybe even kissed back. But not once have I met a girl who head butted me instead.” Aiden opened his bag and rummaged through it to find a ripped piece of cloth which he held to his nose as the bleeding slowed. “I think you broke my nose,” he pointed out moving his mouth from side to side in order to judge the pain in his nose. Aiden flinched. “Yep, definitely broken.”

Although it made no sense at all, I felt sort of bad for breaking his nose. I mean, I know that he was a convicted killer and had held me on the ground and tried to do God knows what to me…but I still felt bad. I let out an exasperated sound and moved toward him a few steps until he waved his hand out in front of him. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, you stay over there, I don’t need any more injuries.”

“I’m going to help,” I told him firmly, taking another step toward him.

Aiden smirked and said, “Unless you’re gonna kiss it and make it better, I don’t think I want your help.”

I flushed and scowled at him. “Fine then, go ahead and have a crooked nose, I’m sure every girl wants a man with a crooked nose.” I huffed and turned my back to him.

“Wait, what? Crooked nose?” he inquired, a distraught tone to his voice. “It’s not that bad really, is it?” Aiden asked seriously, sounding ever-so-slightly panicked at the information.

I snickered quietly to myself but turned around to face him and nodded, although he wouldn’t exactly have a crooked nose, it wouldn’t look too pretty for at least a week and a half. “You know how to fix it?” he asked suspiciously, as if it were a ploy to capture him…which it actually wasn’t, but he definitely had reason to believe such a thing.

I nodded. “I can fix it so it won’t even seem like you had your nose broken, and by a girl at that,” I teased, but my face straightened out again when I realized that I was teasing a guy I was planning on capturing. Then again I guess healing him was a little strange too.

I took a step toward him and he didn’t move away, so I stood only a few feet away from him. I pushed my mouth to one side and bit the inside of my cheek, then closed my eyes for a moment of concentration. When I opened my eyes again I raised my left hand and let it hover over Aiden’s nose. I took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly, closing my eyes again I felt something like a cool breeze circle in my chest and then move up to my shoulder and down through my arm where it exited through my fingertips. I stopped the breeze only once I felt that Aiden’s nose was healed, it wasn’t that I opened my eyes to see the progress, it was just a feeling. Once my healing had done its work, it stopped.

I exhaled again and let my hand fall to my side. When I opened my eyes Aiden was staring at me curiously. “…What?” I asked carefully, my brows furrowing in discomfort.

“Nothing,” Aiden said with a shrug and then added, “Thank you.”

“Yeah….well…consider yourself thanked, for letting me come with you.” I contorted my mouth and then added, “Even though, I tried to tie you up and drag you back to the castle.”

Aiden chuckled and shook his head. “Well Angel, if you’re planning on leaving in the morning I suggest you go back to sleep, you’re gonna have to leave pretty early if you plan on getting there before dark.”

I was about to reprimand him for calling me by something other than Angeline, but my vision blurred and I lost track of my own thoughts for a moment. I groaned as my head pounded and I rolled it from side to side, squeezing my eyes shut. It wasn’t until I felt the surface beneath me rise and fall that I realized I had fallen against Aiden. I clenched my teeth in concentration as I tried to stand, but my legs were too weak.

“H-hey, what’s wrong? Are you all right?” Aiden asked with genuine concern in his voice. But what did he care? I was a guard and I had already tried to capture him once before, once I had gone back to the castle I’d have to tell the General which direction he was heading and how far he’d gotten.

“Fine,” I croaked, my mouth was suddenly dry as paper. It was a side effect of my healing, it probably wouldn’t happen if I used my healing more often, but I never saw the need to do so. Not only was I weak, but my mouth was dry and my head felt like a maniacal chipmunk was going at it with a jack hammer. “You should probably just leave,” I informed him, waiting for him to set me down and disappear into the night, as he should have done.

“With you in this condition? What kind of gentleman would I be if I did that?” Aiden retorted with amusement in his tone.

I opened my eyes, ignoring them as they throbbed in their sockets, and regarded Aiden with a careful eye, he was completely serious. “You…are a…weirdo,” I informed him just before I nodded off, my body was finally too tired to keep functioning.