reflection ● jason grace

Michael trips

 Two weeks later and they were back in California.

They hitchhiked and stole their way onto trains that may or may not be going in the right direction. At one point somewhere near New York, Daria swore she saw one or two pegasi in the sky. But Daria was determined to make it back before May 24, Michael's birthday.

She found that she didn't really mind whatever they had going on. It wasn't a relationship, not really; Daria still found the idea of holding his hand and calling him her boyfriend odd, but they were definitely more than friends, whatever that meant.

"When I get back," Michael announced. "The first thing I'm going to do is sit in the baths for an hour, and then I'm going to sleep."

Daria snorted. "Where? On the bed of my old bedroom, or the couch?"

She knew it was stupid, but she just couldn't give up the centurion bedroom. She'd lived in it since she was 10, and with any luck, she would be back there in a few months.

But Leila had spies in the barracks. Someone who couldn't care less about who was centurion but wanted their praetor's respect. So Michael slept on the pull-out couch (sometimes she was nice enough to offer to switch after a rough day of training), she slept on the bed, and they drew a curtain between them.

"Don't even think it matters," Michael shrugged. He gave her a coy look. "We could share."

"You snore."

Michael scowled, his dark hair was cut short now though it was still longer than Jason's or Daniel's.

"Also," Daria raised her eyebrows, motioning between the two. The California redwoods towered over them, but Daria found it comforting. "Boundaries."

"Yeah, yeah," Michael slung an arm around her shoulders, completely missing the point as boys tended to do. "Next time I gotta save your ass, I'll remember those 'boundaries'."

Daria shook her head in amazement. "Kahale, you are so lucky you're cute."

"Cute?" He demanded. "I know you didn't just call me cute."

Daria knew what he wanted to hear, but someone had to keep his ego in check or his head would explode. "Adorable."

Michael spluttered. He was about to respond when he fell. Daria instinctively grabbed his arm as he dangled over the pit below, wondering how this had happened in a matter of seconds. Her shoulder stung from where he yanked it.

"Saving my ass, huh?" She asked as his face of panic settled into relief. The pit was only a few feet deep and her backpack was riding up on her neck so she let go.

"Hey," Michael grumbled as they both got their bearings. At least no one had died. They'd been pretty lucky on this quest so far, though Daria had probably just jinxed it.

Upon closer inspection, Daria realized it was more of a tunnel than a pit. She shrugged, discarding her backpack and jumping in, to which Michael let out a yelp when she landed on his foot.

"What are you doing?" He demanded. "In case you hadn't noticed, we're humans. We travel above ground."

"You say that like I've never made you travel through tunnels before." Daria squated, trying to get closer to the dirt. She peered down the path, trying to figure out if it was magical.

"Can you...?" Michael coughed hesitantly. "Can you sense anything?"

She sighed. Though her burns healed after Hawaii, her senses didn't. She spent the first few months of the year retraining blindfolded, trying to attempt the same thing with her ears or nose, which basically meant Jason used her as a punching dummy.