Running • Iggy

Memories

We flew.

I have never flown for longer than 10 minutes in my life, and I've never even come close to flying for this long. The air rushed through my ginger hair, the chilling freeze of the October air making me feel alive. Flying is like a drug, I decided. It's addictive, I can see why children always long to fly like a bird, or even like Superman. They just want to be free, explore. I want to be free.

And I was, flying over rooftops, treetops and rivers. We were flying to the nearest city, though I couldn't tell you its name. It was about a 4-hour flight for us, and now that two hours had ticked by, and the sun was slowly beginning to cast orange glows across the landscape as it set, we needed a rest.

"Land on that cliff!" Max called. I nodded, slowing down slightly to fly next to Iggy, matching his stroke to avoid our wings touching. "How are you gonna manage this?" I asked, practically watching the cogs turn in his brain. We began to descend slowly, heading towards a cliff's edge that seemed to connect to some type of cave.

"I'll probably face plant into the wall. At least I'll know where it is then." He said sarcastically, his hair flying through the wind. "If you keep descending like this, you'll land on the cliff no problems." I informed him, probably not very helpfully. "Gotcha" he grinned, and my heart fluttered. Huh? I thought, pressing a hand to my chest. It was probably just the air pressure shift doing it.

I sped forward, landing on the cliff second to last, waiting for Iggy to land. Everyone had already traveled into the cave, checking for any harmful animals such as snakes, rats or bats. I watched as Iggy descended, but slightly too fast. I didn't have time to call out to him to slow down, I just moved fast. He almost landed, but if I hadn't been there, wrapping my hands around his waist and pressing myself into the ground, he would've stumbled and slammed his face into a wall.

Instead, the momentum pushed us both back into the wall, my back and wings flush against it. "Got ya." I murmured, my heart speeding up from the mini shock. "We'll work on landings." I told him, but I didn't let go. Why aren't I letting go? I questioned, but he didn't seem to protest. "Thanks, it wasn't too bad for a first landing, was it?" He asked.

"Not at all." I smiled, putting my head against his chest. "I'm kinda stuck, y'know," I told him after a few seconds, addressing my current Wall x Iggy sandwich situation. He grinned. "No you're not, you could literally pick me up bridal style if you wanted to." he said matter-of-factly. I could. I thought. So why the hell am I not shoving him off me? I was frozen, processing whatever the hell was making me think this way. "Citrus," He said in a quiet voice, right next to my ear. I flinched, realizing he had gotten closer, his body against mine, one forearm pressed to the stone above my head and one wrapped around my waist. "Why aren't you letting go?" He asked, I could hear that god damn smirk in his voice.

"I..." My brain felt like honey, not sure whether to be embarrassed, angry, annoyed or.. whatever other emotions existed. I couldn't quite think of them. My eyes were still closed, but my forehead was now against his shoulder, tilted down slightly. "I... Uh." I repeated. Okay, I'm sick. I decided, but that was the only full sentence that managed to swim through my head. His teasing demeanor turned to confusion. "You alright?" he asked softly, moving the arm from above my head down to stroke my messy, tangled hair. "I don' know..." I managed to say, trying to clear my head.

Fun fact: when your mind is clear, sharp and never hazy or slow, when it finally does slow down it's thousands of times worse. Slow thoughts weren't even thoughts, just words that didn't feel connected. Ideas formed like melting wax, taking ages just to fully melt. Random thoughts would pop up, but I didn't have control over them. When usually your thoughts would be jumbled when you're sick, mine were hazy and slow instead of fast. Only when I was sick though, when my thoughts were jumbled and I wasn't sick, my brain went faster and got louder, sharper. It felt terrible.
Usually. This felt.. slightly better.