When Does it Stop? ✔️ | (Reader x MCD)

Chapter 27 : Gatherers

Aaron's POV

I watch as Y/N runs off to where she saw the apples. I sigh and look at Garroth and Travis. Garroth was still sitting but looking angerly at Travis.
"What?" He says defensively. I sigh and stare off into the forest behind them. I hear a thud next to me. I quickly turn to see Y/N steadying herself. She was carrying a sort of F/C shield made up of tiny hexagons. This pattern looks like the barrier she used to protect Phoenix Drop... On the shield, she was balancing a dozen apples. She smiles brightly. Man, I can't get enough of that smile. Gah, don't think that.
"Anyone up for an apple?" Dante and Laurence walk up to us.
"That's a yes from me." Dante says. Laurence nods. She smiles at them and places the shield on the ground. We all sit down around it and take an apple. Crunches explode from all around the circle. Man these were ripe. It's feels like forever since I've had an apple this ripe. I wonder how she picked the best ones...
"These are delicious. Where'd you get them?" Laurence asks in between bites. Y/N takes a few seconds to reply, getting a mouthful of apples down first I guess. She points into the forest, behind the river.
"There's an apple tree down there." We all look through the lush forest. I don't see anything...
"Where?" Travis says. She chuckles.
"You might not be able to see it, but I can. It's pretty far after all."
"You have some vision, beautiful." Laurence says, smirking at her. She smiles triumphantly. We continue eating. She's incredible.

We're down to the last apple. Travis and Laurence are arguing over it. The rest of us are laughing at them. It's funny watching them have at it.
"But I'm still hungryyy." Travis complains.
"I touched it first!" Laurence shouts back. Y/N takes the apple from the shield, they both look at her shocked. She tries to contain her laughter.
"Don't worry flirts, I don't want it. I'll just half it for you." When she says that, F/C particles wrap around her right hand. The particles start to combine and make a white outline of a dagger. A small F/C flash surrounds the newly created weapon. I was right. It was a dagger. She takes the dagger and marks the center of the apple. She pulls down and cuts it clean in half. The rest of us watch, amazed. She wipes the dagger on the grass and puts it in a holster on the outside of one of her iron boots. She looks up and gives a half to Laurence and a half to Travis.
"Here you go." They both take it and thank her before eating it. Dante's the first to speak up.
"How did you do that?" He asks intrigued. She giggles then replies.
"I can summon particles to combine and make an Energy weapon of my choice. I can only make two at a time though." We nod. Dante points to the shield.
"Is that how you made that?" She nods, then touches the center of the shield.
"And I can make it disappear by doing this." As she says this, the outside of the shield starts to... dissolve it seems. The tiny F/C hexagons start to disappear. They make their way to the middle. She slowly raises her hand and like that, the shields gone. Is there anything she can't do? She looks back up, her eyes a bright, glowing F/C. Her eyes looks beautiful like that. Slowly, the F/C turns back into her normal E/C. She blinks and all the F/C is gone. Wow.
"What would happen if you used too much energy?" Laurence asks. She nods.
"Well... I could black out or lose it for a while." I speak up.
"What do you mean lose it?" She looks to me.
"My body will expel it for a while, it always come back though." She says matter of factly while crossing her legs.
"We should camp here for the night. It'll be dark when we reach Phoenix Drop if we go now." We all look to Garroth. He's rights. Y/N stands up.
"Good idea. I'll get more apples and see if I can find anything else." She backs up, ready to jump. I stand up as well.
"I could be of help." I offer. Everyone else stands up.
"Laurence and I will get fire wood." Travis says, putting his hand on Laurence's shoulder, he nods.
"Me and Garroth can make the campfire." Dante says, looking to Garroth, he nods.
"So it's settled, Aaron and I will get the food." She smiles and turns to me, I nod.

Everyone clears out, leaving Y/N and me, ready to jump across. She jogs, then jumps over the river with a thud in the other side. I look at the river. It's quite wide, I could jump it though. I back up and take a run up.
"You got this!" She encourages from the other side. I shake my head and sprint. I jump it, almost not making it. Y/N grabbed my hand before I could fall into it. She yanks me hard and I accidentally fall onto her. We both groan as we hit the floor.
"Nice jump." She says laughing. I'm laying on her. I awkwardly roll off and stand up. She sits up. I quickly offer her a hand. She takes it and get back on her feet. I know I'm blushing a lot, she's lightly blushing as well.
"I-I'm sorry. A-Are you o-okay?" I say while scratching the back of my neck. She giggles.
"Your fine, I'm just glad you didn't fall in." I look down and realize that I'm still holding her hand. I quickly let go.
"You ready?" She says a few steps ahead of me. I shake my head, freeing myself from my thoughts and walk up to her. We start walking towards this apple tree Y/N saw. I have to admit, she's amazing. I couldn't see it and she could from the other side of the river. I look to her, she's slightly shorter then me. I look from her eyes to her arms, they were still bandaged. I felt bad. I couldn't do anything to protect her.
"I'm fine, just a few scratches." I look up to meet her calm gaze. I must've zoned out because we had stopped. I flinch and respond.
"Sorry, I just feel bad. I didn't do anything to protect you..." I say quietly, looking down. What good am I? She steps closer and kisses my cheek. I look up, surprised, and blushing a lot I imagine.
"Knowing that you care so much means a lot, so thank you. And besides, you help more then you know." She smiles brightly.

She points behind me.
"We're here by the way." I turn around and see a giant apple tree. The red of the apples glistens through patches of light through the leaves. I look back towards the river. Its really far away. The only problem I saw was that the apples were really high up, climbing would be difficult... I turn around to see Y/N with an answer. She had her bow in her hand, and long F/C arrows spiraling around her other one. She looks at the trunk of the tree. I move back. She holds her bow back and pulls back the string. One of the arrows spiraling around the hand pulling back the string slides elegantly into position. She let's go of the string and the arrow strikes into the tree, halfway up to the apples. Another arrow slides into position and it whizzes into the tree, higher up. She clicks the bow back into a holster on her back and looks to me.
"Could you stay down here and catch the apples?" I nod and she jogs up to the tree. She jumps and grabs the arrow. She pulls herself up and stands on the arrows. She lifts herself to the next one and crouches on it. Now on the levels of the apples. Woah she's strong... I watch as she pulls the F/C dagger out of its place. More F/C particles wrap around her hand. A fine string is created. She molds the strings with the dagger. The particles disappear and she lets the dagger go, still holding onto the string. It dangles in the air. She quickly yanks it up and throws it towards the hanging apples. I caught the three that fell and dropped them on the soft grass. I look to her. She pulls sharply in the string and the dagger flies back, jabbing into the tree trunk, centimeters above her head. She just dodged in time. That knocked the wind out of me.
"Careful!" I yell. That scared me badly... She looks down, giving me an apologetic look.
"Sorry!" She yells back. I regain my composure and look back up ready for the next apples to land.

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A/N

Sooo... I had about 5 chapters saved and ready to publish but Wattpad decided to get rid of all my writing on them and leave the titles. Pretty mad that I have to rewrite them, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter nonetheless!