#v. stranded.

her eyes widen as the other moves closer, shifting slightly on the balls of her feet as she feels lips against her skin. she doesn't say anything for a second after she pulls away, a part of her feeling both a mixture of confused and comforted. there's a defensive laugh bubbling in her throat, unable to be completely in the moment. "uh? hi. what was that?" another beat, taking a small step back. changing the subject quickly, her voice becomes teasing, a small smile on her face as she tries to push down how scary it always was to not know what she was doing prior to now. "is that how you're going to kiss misty?"

fingers move away from rubbing her eyes, glancing up at the girl in front of her. was it really that obvious? but at this point it wasn't even that she couldn't, more so that she didn't want to. normally with most everyone else, this is where she'd lie and deflect the question back to them. like obviously yeah no one could sleep - it's not like they were at a five star hotel. but this was akilah. taissa really did have a soft spot for her. she holds back a yawn before she speaks, eyeballs burning. "how could you tell? the deep eye bags or the fact that i've been staring at that wall for ten minutes?"

it's an ego boost and yet she still raises her eyebrows. they were doing chores together again, probably the best part of taissa's day. hanging out with akilah more often was definitely the only perk of being stuck in the wilderness. "yeah, well...." she starts off, grabbing another piece of clothing to fold. "i'd hate to hear my worst qualities, then."

there's a small pit in her stomach. belief was always such a strange thing to her - it was always such a push and pull of so many different ideals. but hearing akilah say it, was almost something different. "you're not so bad yourself," she says with a small smile. she doesn't want to get too emotional - too real. so she makes a small joke, "so, you believe in me more than lottie, huh?"

there was a reason why jackie was the captain of the soccer team, some people just had a gift of comforting other people. "i'm just worried that we aren't ever going to get out of here. do you really think they're still looking for us?" she places her hand on top of jackie's, nodding her head. "i think i need to get out of this cabin. it's suffocating, let's go."

"yeah, beautiful but deadly." taissa couldn't ever just sit in the moment and completely enjoy something. she was so hyper focused on how they were going to survive. she finally sighs, looking back at the blonde. "would be better if we were just on a camping trip, though."

it didn't matter how many times they kissed, taissa still felt like she did the first time. (which feels so far away now) in her mind they were still those girls who quickly clung to each other at soccer tryouts. being stuck in the wildness was terrible, but she honestly couldn't imagine what their relationship would have been like if they would have been stuck at home. maybe this was the better timeline for them. plus she didn't know what she'd do if she didn't have van by her side every night at this point. a smile spreads on her face as they pull away, softly bringing her hand up to touch the side of van's face without her scars. "let's stay up. it's not like we're going to get much sleep anyways - we never do." (she'd never tell van that she feels guilty waking her up every night to roam the forest in her sleep) "why bother ?"

she smiles, running her thumb against van's palm as she speaks. she can't imagine what it would have been like if either of them weren't on that plane. on one hand, she wants both of them to be safe, on the other hand if she didn't have van to experience this with - she might as well be dead at this point. "i don't know what i'd do if you weren't here."