Arron and Trexx

Chapter 74

Third person pov

Arron got up the next morning and got dressed like nothing was wrong. She highly suggested that she wanted to get changed with Shikamaru, like she hadn't had a panic attack the night prior. She hugged Shikamaru and clung to him just like she did every morning, as though she hadn't admitted to being stuck in that retched camp. As though she hadn't saved those poor children and burned it to the ground.

As though she hadn't been taken again afterwards.

"Arron, are you ready to go?" Ino asked as Yoshino quietly let her into the house. Arron, who was snuggled deeply into Shikamaru's side, reluctantly pried herself from the boy's side. Ino winked at him suggestively, wiggling her eyebrows in a teasing manner that made him scowl. Still, his cheeks went red, just as they did every time she did that.

"Ino, please keep a careful eye on Arron today." Shikaku requested. He was still, admittedly, a little shaken from what Arron had told them before. From their encounter with Coldwell. Arron had revealed just a meager fraction of what she'd been through. A small, miniscule portion, and yet... it was something so big. It involved fires, and risking her life, and getting captured. It was... It was just so much.

"What? What happened?" Ino picked up on their distress immediately. Arron looked up from her shoes, which she'd been trying to wrestle on, to tilt her head in question. She understood why maybe the Nara's were taken aback by what she'd revealed. But it wasn't... it really wasn't that big a deal. Far worse had happened. It didn't come close to some of the other events she'd lived through. Other events she'd fought through.

Shikamaru scowled deeply, trying to kick down the sudden urge to grab Arron and keep her here for the day. "Just... keep her away from Coldwell." Shikamaru's voice came out snappier than he'd meant it to, but Ino didn't seem offended. Her teal eyes narrowed considerably, her gaze flickering to Arron. She knew Coldwell had been up to something.

"What happened?" She asked again, her voice lower than before.

"He and Arron knew each other while she was still..." Shikaku trailed off. "They were in the same... place. He was sold too." He grimaced. Ino froze. That... wasn't what she'd immediately assumed. So Coldwell was a victim too?

"I don't want her to get triggered. Seeing him might bring up some memories. Last night... was pretty rough for Arron." Shikamaru said softly as the girl finally got her shoe on, tuning out the conversation. He was a little glad for that. She seemed to understand his need to set guidelines for her, and she seemed to get why he and his father would be such sticklers after what they'd witnessed with her and Coldwell.

"We'll keep it easy today." Ino promised. "If anything happens, I'll bring her home immediately."

"Thanks." Shikamaru let out a breath of air. He knew he could trust and count on Ino. Arron seemed... alright. Normal, almost, which was actually more unsettling than it was comforting. He tried to brush the tightness in his chest off. How could he be missing Arron when she literally slept in his bed with him?

"Well, Arron, you heard the man. Today's an easy day!" Ino turned to the girl happily. Trexx slunk into the room holding Mothball and Noot by their heads. The pair had probably been fighting again. Their scuffles, during which Noot would try and cannibalize Mothball, could get pretty out of hand. To the point that Mothball was actually screaming out muffled welsh curse words as he was being swallowed whole.

"Hire." Arron said, and Trexx nodded, dropping Noot to pull the bag of money out of his... stomach? Ino didn't want to know why that was a thing.

"Hire? Why do you need to hire people?" Shikaku looked lost. "Is that money?"