#wildrunner

But now, it had been exactly a week, and you were both at the school football game. Both of you there to photograph the student section and the game. You and Harry had shared your usual un-pleasantries as you worked, both of you in the school photography club, and the best photographers for the yearbook staff. Harry had bumped into you as you were in the middle of taking a photo and you reprimanded him sharply for blurring the picture you had been so excited to take. 

“God, Holland, there’s an entire stadium around here and you decided to walk right where I am?” you’d rolled your eyes and brought up the blurred photograph on your camera screen, doing your best not to show your surprise that the picture actually looked good, as though it had been blurred on purpose. 

“Get a grip, YLN, like I would want to get any closer to you than I have to,” he had scoffed. “I probably made the picture, better, anyhow, y’should be thanking me,” he had then turned and walked away, leaving you alone beneath the bright lights of the field to take your pictures. 

You tried to convince yourself that you didn't miss the company. You tried even harder to convince yourself that you even remembered why you and Harry hated each other so much. 

Your school team won the game, the student section had gone ballistic and shortly after, everyone had piled into cars and headed to a party to celebrate your team’s win. Your friends had convinced you to go, and before you knew it, you found yourself with a red plastic cup in your hands and your bones shaking from the volume of the music that pounded like a pulse in the house. 

You were a light-weight, you knew that from the first sip you’d taken that night, not used to the burn and buzz of the alcohol everyone else around you seemed to be tolerating so well. You were so drunk that you saw two Harry’s instead of one staring t you from the other side of the dim room.

“I’m tripping off your love and all the other drugs we’re taking”

At this point, you had injested just the right amount of Jello-shots to make your away across the crowded basement, rolling up your sweater sleeves and walking right up to harry, so close that your chests nearly touched. His friends noticed you immediately and didn't wait to begin giving the two of you some space. Harry smirked at you, crossing his arms, smirking at you. You could tell your face was flushed slightly, partially from the alcohol and partially from the heat of being in a crowded room in your thick sweater 

You didn’t really process the image before you, you didn’t notice that Harry’s eyes were red, or that he slightly swayed on his feet unintentionally.

“I don't mean to come off aggressive”

“Why do ya keep starin’ at me, Holland? Hm?” you inquired, poking your finger into his chest in an accusatory fashion. He said nothing, only continued to smirk. “You’ve been mean t’ me all week,” The alcohol that had settled deep in your veins now pushed you on, causing you to step even closer, Harry didn’t back away in the slightest and now your chests were touching, not a measurable space between the two of you.  

“Have’nt been this close since they made us dance for gym in eight grade,” Harry teased. “Sure you savored that moment,” you quipped back. 

“Why d’ya hate, me, Holland?” you questioned more quietly now, your mood swinging wildly with the alcohol in your veins. Harry’s smirk faltered as you continued. “’S there somethin’ wrong with me? Why are ya always starin’?” now you were pushing slightly on his chest with both hands. 

“You fuckin’ had sex with me, like, a week ago, and you’re actin’ like it never happened, was it that bad? Do you despise me, or somethin’? What did I do-” Your voice was hushed but growing louder with emotion.

Before you could continue, Harry’s hands rested on your forearms, holding you steady and silencing you at the same time. You wished that you could self-regulate your actions, but at the moment you didn’t mind because Harry’s touch was a nice kind of warm. 

“No, ‘f course there’s nothin’ wrong with ya, YN, you’re the most goddamn perfect person I know,” he admitted quietly, his hands dropping to his sides before he made the bold decision to grab one of your hands in his own. “Let’s go out there,” he said, weakly pointing towards the door that led to a patio. His hands were clammy and slightly shaky in your own, you hadn’t stopped to consider that he was nervous. You hadn’t thought until now that Harry was just as gone as you were, his eyes were pink and so were his cheeks.

The two of you found your way to the empty patio that sat above the large backyard of the house, lots of your classmates mingling around below where you sat, walking around the lawn on legs that made them look as stable as new-born deer. 

Harry found a chair around an empty patio table and you sat in a chair across from him, trying to get comfortable as you felt yourself growing more and more sober, the buzz you’d felt earlier beginning to ebb away now that you’d realized what you had done. You’d just made it very clear that you cared more than you’d previously let on to Harry, just as your friends had told you to do for years now. You’d always told them you never would, but you supposed that was now a lie.

“I’m just here to pass off the message”

 “So,” Harry began, trying to think of what he wanted to say and how he could possibly say it sounding more put together than he really was. 

“So,” you repeated quietly, playing with the sleeves of your sweater, thankful for the light breeze that whispered throughout the backyard, the music in the house seeming more like background noise now through the closed patio doors. 

“Why is it so hard to talk to you when I’ve seen you naked- I’ve fucked you, for fucks sake, and I can’t even talk to you,” Harry sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration, and leaning heavily back in his chair. His feet slid forward just enough to tap against yours at the movement and you winced as though the slight contact could somehow do you harm. 

Harry cringed internally at the fact that the unexpected touch made you recoil so obviously. “I don’t hate you,” he spoke out loud, looking up from his hands that were sat in his lap, his fingers tangling and untangling themselves. 

You nodded. “I don’t hate you either, don't even know why we have this whole rivalry thing goin’ on, if I'm honest,” you spoke, a quiet laugh slipping past your lips as you looked up to meet Harry’s eyes. 

He wished he could express how wild you drove him. Not wild in a way that made him want to beat you at everything the two of you competed at, not the kind of wild that had the two of you shooting comebacks at each other constantly. 

No, something about you- everything about you, drove him the kind of wild that made him search up your social media pages and tiptoe around the ‘like’ buttons to fawn over you. The kind of wild that made him want to bring you up at every possible moment, the kind of wild that made his friends sick of hearing about what you were up to. Everyone assumed that it was the rivalry, that his actions were driven by spite but they were wrong, his actions involving you were, and always had, (even since that day in seventh grade) been driven by his feelings for you. Harry Holland had a crush on you. He had since he met you in middle school and some- if not most days, he was convinced he always would.

So when you looked up at him with those pretty doe eyes, and your smile that made him think of stars. Your mannerisms that had made him look up your compatibility according to astrology websites more than he would ever admit. 

It had been worse since the two of you had found yourselves kissing in a back hallway after photography club, with nobody around to see. That had ended up with you on top of him in the back seat of his car in what he was sure was the best moment of his life. The two of you had dressed and acted as though nothing had happened. He couldn't get your face, your touch, your taste from his head. He couldn’t stop thinking of how your voice had sounded calling his name as your head was thrown back in his car. 

“I can’t stop thinking about you,” was all he said.

“Then it’s probably good that we’re talking,” you replied with a small smile.

“I need your therapy”

Harry nodded, he had never needed to talk to somebody so bad in his life, he wondered if this was what having a shrink was like. Probably not, he decided quickly.

“I think I have a crush on you.” You blurted out, you clapped your hand over your mouth for a second before dropping it helplessly at your side, shutting your eyes in disbelief that your self control had dwindled down so much that you had allowed yourself to become so vulnerable.

Harry, on the other hand, had never felt so relieved, so light, so elated in his life. He felt like the sparks that shot out of a dying star, he felt like the rays of sun that warmed the earth, like a firework, he felt like the human embodiment of a lightbulb, a hot air balloon, a candle, a lightning bug, a fireplace,the first rainbow. Harry felt like love poetry and the like the music that pounded in the house. He couldn’t hold back the smile that spread from one side of his face to the other. 

“Great, now you’re never goin’ t’ let that one go, might as well start to transfer out of our school now, you’ll probably spread that around like wildfire-” You sighed, pulling one of your legs close to your chest. Harry had never shook his head faster in his life. 

“I hope I made the impression that I was always interested, all the feelings I kept in”

“No, listen, I like you too, have for like, forever,”

“couldn’t have liked me for forever, Holland, only ‘ve known ya since year seven,” you quipped, wishing you could suck the words back into your mouth. “Sorry,” you spoke quickly. “old habits die hard, I guess,” you spoke quietly, kicking yourself internally for ruining the mood. Harry laughed a little bit, his eyes crinkling. 

“No, ‘s okay, I think you’re funny, ‘s been hard not to laugh at the funny things you say all this time,” he admitted slightly sheepishly. You couldn’t hide your disbelief. “Really?” You inquired, your brows furrowing. Harry nodded his head to indicate ‘yes’.

“said I liked ya, didn’t I?” He grinned, his lips falling slightly as he continued to talk. “I’m sorry, I know I’ve been a real ass t’ you, especially this week. I tried to tell you one time, several times actually, but I could never get it out. Been tryin’ since like, fucking year seven,” He laughed at himself and you tried to process what he told you, taking the adorable sentiment to heart and letting it warm you from the inside out for a moment before returning sharply to the reality of the situation.

“So what should we do? Whatever you want to”

“So what do we do with this? Like, where do we go from here?” You questioned, finally giving voice to your uncertainty. Harry shrugged. Without thinking, you ascended from your seat, rarely letting your eyes leave Harry’s. 

You realized, now that you allowed yourself to freely think about Harry, that after the last 5 years of constantly competing, the two of you had learned quite a bit about each other. You knew the face he made when your jokes were no longer funny and he could no longer continue banter, you knew the music and movies and books and classes he liked, you’d learned what he wanted to do for a living nd what his family was like, you realized that you and Harry were more well-acquainted than anyone, even the two of you, would give yourselves credit for. 

You walked around the table and within a few quick steps you were upon him again, the two of you connecting as though you had been lovers for years, and not a few days. 

You had managed to get one leg on either side of his lap, similar to how the two of you had been in his car, but Harry broke from the kiss long enough to slow you down. “Wait, wait, don’t want t’ have you like this, want to be able to remember every moment in the morning, don't want to take advantage of ya, as bad as I want ya right now, believe me I do,” He spoke quickly, pressing kisses to the side of your face lightly and your neck in between his words. You leaned forward into him, your tiredness catching up to you unexpectedly. The shots you’d taken earlier working against whatever energy you had left. 

“I’m not the type for relationships, it’s overrated”

“Are we just going to keep doing this? Just keep this, whatever it is a secret, and not put any labels on it?” You asked, trying to keep your expectations as low as possible to avoid getting hurt tonight by the boy who had come to mean so much to you. You’d heard him say in passing before more than once that he didn't see himself as “a relationship kind of guy.” That was part of what made you leave his car so quickly after you’d finished, pulling your clothes back on and pulling your hair up as quickly as you could, grabbing your backpack from his floor-mats and trying to look normal walking away on slightly shaky legs, forcing yourself not to look back. 

“We could still be lovers, that’s all I’m saying”

“Do you want more?” He asked, his hand running encouragingly up and down your spine, the fabric of your sweater making him feel even more at home with you pressed close to him. 

“I just know you’ve said you aren’t a relationship kind of guy, so we could still be like, lovers, or something-” your words came out slow but quickly sped up as your nerves increased, worried about saying the wrong combination of words that could send Harry flying away from any form of commitment that was too much in his eyes.

“Whoa, whoa, love, I’m not goin’ anywhere, don’t worry,” he said, and you could hear the slight smile in his voice. You nodded slightly, your face against his chest. 

“What do you want?” You questioned, letting on of your hands play with his hair, he hummed quietly at your touch. “I want you,” he finally replied and this made you perk your head up and change your position slightly so the two of you were face to face again. “Meaning what?” You asked, your noses almost touching. 

“Meaning,” he paused for a second to think. “I would be a relationship kind of guy with the right person, and I like you, and tell me if I’m wrong, but I think you might like me a bit,” his voice sincere, only carrying the familiar teasing tome towards the end.

“ You’re not wrong,” you assured with a smile, resting your forehead against his lightly, Harry’s hands around your waist. 

He nodded, wild purple hair bouncing with the movement. “I doubt the Highborne will willingly make a second portal for stragglers. You know how they are.”

She made a noncommittal sound as she walked to a small chest to the side of the tree she had made her lodging. Gloved fingers slid along the chest to its latches with the familiarity of a lifetime. The battered metal and ripped leather certainly would have encouraged the idea that it had been in her possession for several millennia.

The lid lifted slowly on springs that were getting too weak, revealing a few pieces of dark armor. She reached under these pieces, taking a couple of moments to feel around. Finally, she withdrew her hand, holding a small satchel in her closed fingers. As she closed and locked the chest, she said simply, “I have one more task here in Darnassus. Have someone take my armor and I will meet you.”

Jace grunted as she stood, moving to grab the chest and heft it on his shoulder. He took a few steps away before stopping and turning to her once more. She saw his shadowy figure watching her out of the corner of her eye but made no move to acknowledge it. After a long moment, he said, “Be quick about your business. Remember, you have less than an hour to meet us on the bridge to the temple.”

She gave him a singular nod. “I will fetch my saber from the woods and be there.”

He gave a curt nod in return and moved away, carrying the chest easily. Shleaenia stood in place for several long moments, debating which path would be better for the way she needed to go as she tied the small satchel around her belt. Straight down the main walkways was undoubtedly closer, but that meant other kaldorei to gawk and whisper. While most would not stop her, there had been a few instances where one or two had deemed it their life’s mission to make sure she understood she would never be welcome among her people. Fools.

Moving quickly, she moved along the outskirts of Darnassus. The shadowy colors of her vision made the passing scenery appear like a rainbow of varying shades of gray. Her long legs stretched out, padded footsteps pounding softly on the grass as she ran.

Finally she slowed to a walk as she neared her destination. Elune had smiled on her apparently because she had encountered hardly any other kaldorei on her way. She paused just outside the burial mounds, taking a moment to catch her breath and look at the gravestones. There were none in that area that she came to see, her family buried before the destruction of the Well and separated from her forever if the Breaking sunk their graves as it had many others. But her gaze traveled to the large shrine in the center.

She frowned slightly as the air felt tense to her, the spirits obviously wary at her presence. But their wariness would not stop what she needed to do. Stepping forward carefully, she moved toward the shrine and looked it over. Some of the edges were a little too rounded from the natural wear of the elements, but it still stood almost as tall as her.

The demon huntress’ hand traveled down to her belt and untied the satchel. One at a time, she pulled out rice cakes, cooled but still fresh, and set them in a row on the second highest level of the shrine. For a moment she paused and could feel the eyes of the spirits watching her. “My offering is small, but with no less love than if it was plenty,” she said softly, gaze never leaving the rice cakes. “I ask not for a blessing of my ancestors, but for the spirits to carry a message for me.”

Pausing, she reached into her satchel once more. Again, she reached in five times, pulling out one necklace each time and hanging it from the top spire of the shrine. When she was finished, she tied her satchel back to her belt and arranged the necklaces so all the pendants were side by side. All shared the same carved pendant: a crescent moon with an owl perched on the base. The two on each end and the one in the middle had the moon and owl painted all in black, except for the yellow that were the eyes for the creature. The other two which separated the painted ones from each other were uncolored save the yellow eyes. She touched the black pendant in the middle with a gloved claw gently, waiting a moment before continuing.

“Millennia ago, my heart was buried with them. My mate, my children, all gone before I could make it home to them. But two…” She moved her hand so that a finger touched each of the uncolored pendants. “Two were never found. The message I am beseeching you to carry is a promise, a promise that I will find out what happened to their bodies if I have to torture and kill every demon to do it. Ny’alleas, my oldest daughter who was just about to become a woman herself. Thala’rai, my precious son still young enough to find joy in every waking minute. I will bring you home and reunite your spirits with our families. This I promise you.”

Shleaenia leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on each of the uncolored pendants, sealing her promise. Then she planted a kiss on the middle colored piece before placing a kiss on the two outside pieces each. “Alalean, my mate, my love. Watch over Aroercia and Yi’lerae until I am with you all once more. I promise our family will be reunited when I have found our other children. My daughters, keep your father out of trouble in the spirit world. He is still pulling his trickery, I’m sure.”

This last was said with a small smile. With a sigh, she stepped back from the shrine. “Please, carry my promise to them.”