The Pilot of the Shadows

The Spark

[Warning: Swearing]

"You? Of all people, I'm left behind with you?!" She threw up her hands in frustration and turned around, walking away from him. The silence is broken by her footsteps and the sounds of nature around her. "I couldn't have been left behind with one of the other girls or a nice guy? Nope, it had to be the one that bullied me constantly!"

"Hey, I don't like it either! I could say the same thing with you, twerp!!" Mark scoffed and crossed his arms, looking annoyed and tired as if he just woke up. Winter ignored him and went around the camp to find anything that could help them contact the soldiers, but nothing was left behind other than a few spare meal rations. She then went through the tents to see if there was anything left by the students and to her surprise, there was a bag with a bit more food left but when she headed towards Mark's tent he pushed her away.

"Get your own tent, idiot." He smirked as he called her the name. Winter finally had enough of him and shoved him hard, knocking him over and stood over him while glaring down at him.

"Do you want to survive? Huh? Do you want to go back to your fucking home and actually have a life or do you want to die here on this planet with someone that you couldn't give two shits about?! Is that what you want, Mark?" She spat out his name like it was poison on her tongue, venom in her mouth. She had then turned away from him and continued to look through tents, leaving a stunned and confused Mark on the ground. After Winter had finished looking through the tents, she went to the biggest tent to sort through things when Mark tapped on the tent door.

"Um.....need any help...?" He seemed nervous but also confused about what to say so as not to get yelled at again. "S-sorry for bullying you...." Winter sighed as she didn't answer him, continuing her sorting out collected things while Mark spoke again.

"I...uh... I'm not the best with words, but I know that I would like to say that I'm sorry for all the hurt and pain I've caused you..." Mark sat down outside of the tent, putting his head in his hands. "I'm sorry, Winter..." She slowly stopped her sorting when she heard that, for once, Mark had said her name without any sarcasm. She didn't know what to do, so she sat in silence as Mark, the guy that she hated with her guts, sat outside the tent, feeling very guilty for all his actions. After a few moments, Winter spoke up quietly.

"Fine. Come in..." She busied herself with sorting again, not looking at Mark when he came in and sat down. He sat to the side of her, but not beside since she had surrounded herself with collected items.

"Can...can I help?" He seemed genuine when asking, but Winter simply shook her head no and continued her work, leaving Mark to just watch what she was doing. After everything was packed neatly into two large bags, Winter gave one to Mark and set the other one on the opposite side of her with her helmet on top of the bag.

"Your dad was very well respected..." Mark broke the long silence between them. Winter looked to the helmet and nodded slowly.

"The best Titan Pilot in the Militia army." She smiled softly as she looked at the helmet, and then her face lost the smile when she looked at Mark. "Why are you really here and not being rude? Are you trying to lure me in? What's your trap, Mark?"

"There's no trap. You just made me realize the reality after you yelled at me. " He smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck out of habit. "You're very convincing when angered.."

"I doubt that. You here for something, and I'll figure it out." She scoffed before laying down facing her bag, leaving Mark dumbfounded, but he didn't push and farther as he laid down the other way.

------

A few days had passed since the sudden left behind. Winter and Mark were somewhat getting along, but there would be the odd chance that Winter would get pissed off and yell at Mark, who would take the yelling and not yell back. Winter didn't understand why he didn't yell back at her. It confused her more than the day that he chose to first bully her.

"Why don't you ever yell back?" She finally asked when they were able to have a nice small fire. She was warming her hands and looking at the flame flicker, and licking the logs.

"I just don't see a point at yelling or bullying you anymore." He simply shrugged as he poked the fire with the poking stick. "You clearly have words you want to say, and I deserve them after what I did." These words came as a shock to Winter, but she didn't move, staying still and warming her hands. A few moments went past before Winter got up and patted Mark on the shoulder and headed to bed, which both of them had decided to share a tent for the warmth. Mark came into the tent not long after putting the fire out and cleaning up the small messes. He laid down behind her with his back to hers.

"We're running low on meal rations. We'll have to move out into the wilderness to get food. " He said, but Winter was almost already asleep, so he didn't say anything further. Once it was morning, Mark slowly opened his arms to see a sleeping Winter snuggled into his chest while an arm of his was around her shoulders to keep her close. He wanted to panic but also didn't want to wake Winter, so he slowly tried to sleep again. About an hour or two went by, and Winter stirred in her sleep. Once she opened her eyes to see a chest in front of her, she panicked while blushing profusely and pushed Mark away from her.

"H-huh...?" He slowly opened his eyes and looked at Winter, rubbing his eyes to get the sleep out. "Something happen..? Are we getting rescued?"

"No, you jackass, you had your arm around me!" She was still blushing profusely, looking away. "When did you put your arm over me?!"

"Must have been when we were asleep but man was it cozy" He yawned and stretched, the cold air getting into the blankets but Winter pulled the blankets toward herself, wrapping herself in the blankets while not giving Mark any blankets. "Oyi, I'm cold too, you know." He pulled some of the blanket towards him, which caused Winter to become unrolled and accidentally bump into Mark.

"Ah!" She tried to scoot away from Mark, but he put an arm over her stomach and pulled her close, his head snuggling into her neck. "M-Mark, what are you d-doing?"

"What? You're warm, I'm warm, the air is cold. We can keep our warmth if we do this" He was slightly muffled as he spoke into her neck, his low raspy voice making her get goosebumps down her back but she couldn't bring herself to move because he was right, it was a lot warmer if they snuggled but it didn't mean that she wouldn't kick him later for this. They stayed snuggled before one of them got up to make food, and then the other got up.

Winter made the food this time in silence as Mark fiddled with a stick, making a carving with a knife he was able to find. They then soon ate the food in silence, before Mark had the great idea of making a stupid joke.

"So now that we have slept with each other, does this mean we are together?" He chuckled, expecting to get hit by Winter in which he did. "Okay, okay, it was only a joke, kitten."

[1350 words, proofread]
A/n
Hello fellow readers! Things are getting a little spicy, aren't they? Oooo~! Nah, nah, jk jk, unless 👀 just will have to wait till Chapter 5, huh?

- Snow ❄️