Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

82 - ꜰᴀʟʟᴇɴ ᴡᴀʟʟꜱ

IN A following week of summer, Athena and Jasper decided to take a random walk up to the hill with the rope swing. She had wanted to spent the day reading in the back garden, in direct sunlight due to the good course of weather they had experienced for the past few weeks but he was rather adamant on going. So she of course agreed, instead taking a book to read ontop of the hill if the time came. It wasn't like she didn't carry a book with her at all times anyway. "Guess what," she grinned, as they walked through the forest alive with summer colours and wild animals.

"A horde of Bunnies," he replied with a smug grin, watching her head turn in his direction instead of a few birds flying through a canopy.

"No, It's not what Napoleon was attacked by," she laughed, dismissing the comment altogether. His eyebrow raise at her knowing that fact was also dismissed, even if it did bring the smallest of cocky grin to her face. "I taught Bella something yesterday."

"What did you teach her?"

He saw some sort of joy flash behind her eyes, like the passion for writing and books that she got ever so often in conversation. He wondered if it was about teaching, whether she loved that more than she had realised before. She explained with a prideful grin, now hurting her cheeks so much so that she tried to smother it with her lips or hide it by looking down to the floor as they walked, "How to remove the blocking ability that she has, the wall into her mind so Edward can read it when he wants. It was fun too."

"Did you ever think of teaching? Like actually teaching?"

She shook her head almost immediately, "No, because I couldn't surely."

"I think you could, Carlisle is a doctor after all," he responded and silence befell her, the turning of her mind reaching a degree it hardly got to in the forest.

"You think so? Oo I could teach English!" she exclaimed, a little too loud for a forest walk. She had always had a rule never to speak too loudly in the forest, not wanting to disturb the wildlife but she just could not at the very prospect of her becoming an English teacher. She wouldn't be a boring one, no she would strive to be an entertaining one that inspired the next generation of young writers. And the generation after that...

"You should look into it," he paused, draping his arm over her shoulder as they turned to go past a fence in the woods. "We can get the degrees made for you as soon as you choose."

"I'd like to work for it first, go to college and everything. Then we can forge the ones after moving around," she grinned, a plan forming in her head. It would be far too late for admissions now but she could apply in the autumn, catch up with night classes since she did not need the sleep and already knew most of the content to some degree. She just wondered where it would be, given that it couldn't be any place that she or Jasper had been for at least a hundred and fifty years. At least. "I love college too, uni in England is spectacular and most of the buildings are beautiful."

"I'm sure you'd be an amazing teacher," he replied, dropping his voice to a whisper as they got too close into the vicinity of a pair of hiking mortals. She chuckled softly as he continued, "After all, you do have the knowledge given that they'll mostly be studying your novels."

She laughed, forcefully quietening herself, "True, very true."

Athena politely smiled at the two mortals as they crossed paths, their conversation coming to a natural halt at the perfect time. They walked in silence for a little longer, just waiting to get out of the mortal's earshot so they could converse in peace - without risk of spilling the beans accidentally. Then, once they were completely out of a sort of mortal range, Jasper - with some great reluctance - asked the question that had been on his mind for weeks, near months, "You don't have any mind walls up when it comes to me, right?" It just hadn't worked itself into the conversation until now.

She sighed then checked her head for existing walls that hadn't broken down, she found one. A singular wall that blocked him from feeling the entire basis of her love for him, an interesting wall that still existed. Though she was rather glad it did, this way she could loose it at the most random times and give - what she hope would be - a rather incredible experience. "I do, but only one."

"Still?" he didn't know whether to be angered or surprised at the concept, maybe a little of both mixed with disappointment? He would not and could not make an opinion until he knew why though, not wanting to get angered over something that she either couldn't control or did not realise existed.

"I never took it down after everything happened. I only put it up to begin with so you couldn't know how I felt about you," she explained softly, doing it so she hoped it wouldn't hurt his feelings more than they already had been. "I didn't want that pesky secret out too soon."

He smiled to himself, throwing thousands of unsure thoughts from the beginning away. Then he whispered once more, guiding her slightly closer to him, "Can you show me? Please?"

"Only because you asked so nicely," she chuckled softly then stopped walking. He stopped too, watching her eyes turn vacant again as she delved into her own mind, finding the wall almost instantly and letting it clatter down within a few seconds. The first surge hit him then, a semi great surge of love that metaphorically slapped him in the face. Going from the dulled feeling of love to this just made it all the more intense. Then, unable to keep it back anymore, he kissed her. And felt every single little thing that she felt. The thickening of her stomach, the fire that lit and fizzed across every nerve in her body. The adoration that seeped off her, clinging to every thought in her mind as it deepened to the point it only did when they were in private. Within a minute, after the weakening of her knees had reached a specific point, she pulled away and let her eyes flutter open - catching his closed for a minor second. He just stared at her unable to form a word let alone a sentence, just plain speechless due to the intensity of it all.

She grinned ever so brightly, pulling her journal and pen out of her pocket. She, while he still just stared at her letting the feeling swoop over him even more, flicked to a specific page in her book and added a line to a short list of tallies. "Number of times Jazz has been speechless, five," she smiled, tapping out each word with the end of her pen as she spoke.

He laughed then, falling out of the daze, "May I make an edit?"

"Not to my journal, how rude," she jokingly gasped, tapping the pen in her hand twine before he took it and added near a hundred new lines, each of various lengths. "You ruined my counter!"

"No, I made it more accurate," he corrected, handing the pen back to her as she just stared at the page.

"Soppy," she responded with a raised brow, fighting a grin once more."But still! My poor poor notebook!"

"Would it be any better if we went to get you another?"

She looked down at the page again, smiling at the two different handwritings on the page and what all the little lines stood for. "No, this one will do just fine for now," she dismissed, deciding not to notice the raise of his brow. Though, before she could help it, her brain went into defence mechanism mode. She blurted with such quickness that it was obviously hiding something, "Just because I don't like to waste paper, as it's trees you know. And the cover is awfully beautiful. Plus getting a new one just because someone else wrote in it is hardly sane."

"Sure," he smirked knowingly, putting his arm back around her shoulder as they continued to walk again. "You're just as soppy as I am."

"Maybe that's why we're such an incredible couple," she shrugged, laughing softly.