𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐄 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄

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𝒂/𝒏 𝒔𝒐 𝒊𝒎 𝒓𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒔𝒐 𝒊𝒎𝒎𝒂 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂 𝒋𝒐𝒌𝒆.
𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒈𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒏'𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒅?
𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒘

ǝnɔǝ-qɹɐq ɐ
𝒊𝒎 𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒊 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 (𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒆𝒔 𝒊 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒂 𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒐)
𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚
𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁𝔁

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃?
ɪғ ʏᴏᴜ sᴀʏ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ᴍɪɴᴇ, ɪ'ʟʟ ʙᴇ ʜᴇʀᴇ ᴛɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ ᴏғ ᴛɪᴍᴇ

𝑨𝒔𝒉𝒍𝒆𝒚'𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒗
Once she arrived at Mirkwood, she sent out a thought to Mike. Here It was simple, but it was all she could muster due to her exhaustion. It had been an eventful day and she had to climb up 4 trees in order to hide from people. She followed the path, and came to a house. She closed her eyes, concentrating,  but she didn't hear any thoughts.
She decided to walk round the back, and sneak in through a window (𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒋𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒎). Once she had climbed inside, she took a look around the room.
It looked like a boy's room, with a blue quilt on a single bed. Ashley sat at a desk and noticed some drawings left on it. She picked one up and noticed something familiar about it.
She reached into her pocket where Will's drawing was and held it up next to the other drawing. She was right: they had the same style. Which meant...this was Will's room. If he took Mirkwood home then this was his home, so this must be his room. She looked around the room once more before climbing back out of window and doing a circuit of the garden. As she got to the back of the garden, she saw a shed and decided to take a look.
As soon as she entered the shed, she immediately regretted it. Her head began to throb and she instantly felt sick to the stomach. She tried to push those feelings aside and remember what she came here for: to find Will. She looked around the shed and saw many new things but one thing in particular caught her eye. One corner was a mess, there were wood planks on the floor and mould everywhere. She leaned in and realised it wasn't mould, because mould didn't move. It also didn't emanate a sinister aura. She moved the wood planks out of the way and saw more of the 'mould' surrounding a tunnel-like hole.
She stepped back, closing her eyes and frowning in concentration. If this thing was moving then it must have a conscience, and she should be able to convince it to let her in. She concentrated on an image of the hole getting larger and opened her eyes quickly, feeling an electric jolt down her spine. She stepped towards the hole and saw that it was now big enough to crawl through.
She took a deep breath and crawled through.
What she saw on the other side shocked her. It looked just like Will's garden, but covered in vines and mould. In the damp air were flakes of decay and the sky was an angry grey. She knew this place from Papa's experiments. She closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to find any living thoughts. Her head focused in on one. Should i stay or should i go?  It seemed to sing. Ashley turned around to the hole she had just crawled through, but it was already closing up. No going back that way.
Instead, she decided to follow the thoughts. So cold. And dark. Scared. Really scared. Need help. Ashley knew that voice. As she followed a thin path through the woods, the thoughts grew louder and clearer. The path came to a stop at a small shack with a sign.
"Cass-tell Byers" she read aloud, her voice soft. She heard something stir inside Someone's here. Help me, please. I'm dying in here. The thoughts pleaded.

She pulled back the curtains to reveal a boy in a yellow and red jacket, shivering and wet. She stepped closer and leaned down, brushing the hair out of his face. She gasped
"Will"
He didn't move. She shook his shoulders and said his name a little louder.
"Will!"
Tears began to form in her eyes as she sat him up, resting his head on her chest, trying to warm him up. She cupped his cheek in her hand and held one of his hands with her free hand. He was freezing. She didn't know how long she had been sitting there, but she began to grow hopeless. She closed her eyes and entered his thoughts.
Wake up, she told him.
Can't
No, can, she replied
Please, be okay
She opened her eyes and noticed his chest rise and fall a little more strongly, and felt his warm breath against her neck.
Good, she told him
His eyes flew open and he jumped back a little, before wrapping his arms around Ashley's waist and burying his face into her neck, making her shoulder wet with tears. Ashley cried too, salty tears falling down her cheeks and onto Will's coat. They stayed like that, clinging onto each other for dear life. When Will pulled away, Ashley stared at him
"What?" Was all she could manage. Will figured she was talking about the way he grabbed her.
"That was a hug." He replied simply
"Hug?" Ashley repeated.
"Yeah. A hug. It's like a sign of affection-" he paused, noticing Ashley had a blank look on her face.
"A hug" he tried again "it's a sign of love."
"Love?"
"Uh yeah. Love. It's this feeling you get when you're very fond of someone. Or you love your family and friends. And then there's love between boyfriend and girlfriend. A hug is a way of showing love" Will explained, a red tinge coming to his face.
"What is friend?" Ashley asked. She'd never heard that word before.
"A friend? Someone you love and care for. You tell them all your secrets, even ones you don't tell your parents. And one important thing: friends don't lie."
"We are friends?"
"Yeah. I guess. I mean- if you want" Will smiled.
"Okay" Ashley smiled back. "Wait. Mike. Mike is friend. You love Mike?"
"Uh" Will looked down, clearly taken aback "I guess you could say that. But there are  different types of love."
"Mike says you are his best friend. And he loves you" Ashley remembered her what Mike asked her to tell Will. (𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒊𝒎 𝒂 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒚𝒍𝒆𝒓)
"Oh" was all he said.
"We are friends. You love me?" Will stared at her before replying.
"Yeah. I guess, why?"
"Love you too"
𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍'𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒗
"Love you too" Ashley said. Will's heart felt like it was about to burst out of his ribcage, but he knew he had to keep calm. He felt warm, like everything that had happened...wherever he was, was something from another world. He was sitting in Castle Byers with his new friend, talking about love.
Okay. That wasn't normal at all.
"How else do you show love?" It was a simple question, but Will's mouth refused to answer. He took a breath and composed himself.
"Well, you can give someone a compliment or-"
"Complaint? But that's bad"
"No, no compliment" Will repeated, putting emphasis on each syllable.
"A compliment is saying something nice, like, for example, calling someone pretty"
"Will is pretty" Ashley mumbled. Will blushed, again.
"Uh thanks. I guess"
"How else to show love?"
"Well, there are physical gestures, like a hug...or-" Will cut himself off. He was not going to explain what kissing was to a girl he'd known for less than a week. He felt a hand on his cheek and looked up. Ashley was staring at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue.
"Or?"
"Or a kiss" Will swallowed, nervous out of his mind.
"What is kiss?" Will groaned internally, so Ashley couldn't hear. She had to ask that question. He looked at her, her stunning blue eyes and long, dark hair. The splash of freckles across her nose and her well defined cheekbones. She was, hands down, the prettiest girl he had ever seen. No, she wasn't pretty, she was beautiful.
His eyes moved to her lips. They were somewhere between red and pink, and looked totally kissable.
Woah. Will had never thought like that before. But it gave him an idea. He leaned in and tilted his head to the right, and Ashley did the same, clearly confused. He put her hand below her jaw, tilting her face up a little and closed his eyes, just as their lips made contact. He felt Ashley stiffen before relaxing quickly. He lingered for a second, feeling like fireworks were going off inside him, before pulling away and opening his eyes slowly.
Ashley's eyes fluttered open and her face went as red as Will's own.
"Kiss" she breathed.
"Yeah. Kiss" Will whispered, still trying to get over the fact that he had just kissed a girl. Ashley put her fingers to her lips, as if finally registering what had happened.
"Like it" she said, looking back up at Will
"Really?" he asked, genuinely surprised. It was his first kiss, after all.
"Yeah. Happy" she leaned in and hugged Will, wrapping her arms around him and fiddling with the hair at the nape of his neck. He hugged her back, pulling her closer and sitting her on his lap. She pulled back, still holding his neck, close enough that she could rest her head on his.
"Love you"
"Love you too"
★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎
𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝:1527𓃟︎
𝙳𝚊𝚝𝚎: 𝙹𝚞𝚗𝚎 22𝚗𝚍
𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚. 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒊 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 "𝑲𝒊𝒔𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍" 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒅. 𝒊𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒃𝒆 𝒂 𝒃𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒏𝒌𝒚 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒕. 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒎 𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒅 𝒊 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒃, 𝒊𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒔 𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒔𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒉𝒆𝒓, 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒋𝒂𝒛𝒛.
𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒆'𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒑𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏, 𝒚𝒂𝒚𝒚
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