Twist of fate

The days that changed everything

  Cracker felt restless as he headed for the beach, something pulling him to the quiet place. He'd had many sleepless nights of late, his mind refusing to shut down. He wouldn't lie to himself, it was because of Ava. Even with all the woman and drinking, he couldn't stop feeling like he should be out there looking for her.
  She had somehow burrowed under his skin over the last two in a half years, or was it closer to three he couldn't remember anymore. With every interaction, every exchanged word, she'd dug a little deeper, and he didn't know how to stop it.
How had it even happened? All they ever did was spend ten or twenty minutes throwing scathing remarks back and forth and fighting once or twice a month. But he still felt a connection that shouldn't be there, a need to have her close.
Cracker wasn't stupid, he knew that sounded sleazy, and wrong. Ava was twelve years younger then him, thirteen to his twenty five. Didn't mean he could just turn the shit off.
He was just so dam tired of fighting with her, so sick of seeing her run. But he couldn't seem to do anything but antagonize and brutalize her .
Walking down the moonlit beach, he felt the cool breeze waft over his skin, his hair tickling his back. It was surprisingly peaceful, his mind calming the farther he went.
Something bright pink caught his eye down the way.
As he got closer he realized it was a shirt and a pair of light colored shorts.
Someone had passed out on the shore.
Make that two someone's.
A second person came into to focus.
It didn't take long to recognize his younger brother Dacquoise by his dark red wings.
So that meant....
His steps grew faster, eyes landing on bright purple hair.
Ava was curled into Dacquoise's side, arms drawn up close to her body, head resting on his chest. Her face was smoothed out, looking peaceful as she slept.
What the hell was this? And why the hell was he boiling at the sight.
Ava shivered and her knees curled up a little.
Cracker felt the urge to pick her up and carry her back to his home.
He didn't bother resisting it either. Even knowing she was going to be raging mad when she woke didn't bother him.
Carefully, he slowly lifted her into his arms. She burrowed closer to his chest, mumbling.
"Not today Cracker!"
A pang hit his heart, something like tenderness filling him. Was Ava dreaming about him? And if so was it a good or bad dream?
He looked at her face, taking in the changes that had occurred since the last time he'd seen her.
She'd shaved the sides of her head, the long strands on top fanned out over his arm. Her lashes looked like little crescent moons on her cheeks. She'd gained weight, which made him happy, she wasn't going hungry.
Even with the scar across her face, she was a beautiful girl.
Shaking the thought from his head, he nudged Dacquoise with his foot. He didn't wake up.
That was the boys problem.
Feeling petty he turned and headed for his home.
When he walked into the foyer, his servants eyed the girl in his arms.
"Would you like me to ready a guest room Sir?" His head butler Davos asked, his stiff face giving away nothing.
Cracker shook his head. "No."
"Very good, Sir."
He made his way upstairs and to his room.
Placing Ava into his bed, he pulled the covers up over her and she snuggled down into the mass of blankets and pillows .
He watched her for awhile, a foreign feeling filling his chest. Pulling his eyes away from her, he made his way over to a chair in the corner of the room. Sitting, he leaned back, sighing.
  He felt lighter then he had in months with her being here. That should scare him, should make him uneasy at the very least. But he couldn't muster the energy to care.
  After hearing Dacquoise talking about how much fun him and Ava where having the last month, he'd realized that he wanted that too. It was time to try and patch up the bad blood between him and her, start over from scratch, if she would let him.
  He'd thought he needed alcohol, woman, and parties to get her out of his system. That had been so far from the truth that he wanted to laugh.
  Closing his eyes, he let himself drift off to sleep.

   Ava slowly roused, the feeling of being surrounded in warm softness making her want to sleep a little longer.
  Whatever she was on felt like a cloud.
  It took her brain a moment to process that her bed didn't feel this soft. She also hadn't fallen asleep in a bed, she'd passed out on the shore of Biscuit Island with Dacquoise.
  Had Dacquoise moved her at some point during the night?
  Peeling her eyes open she sat up, she was a big four poster bed, golden drapes falling from the top of it, laced open.
  The room was huge, even bigger then the one she'd been put in at the Whole Cake château.
It was painted a warm golden color, the furniture just a few shades lighter then the walls. Weapons hung from a few spots between pictures. Large double balcony doors where open wide and sat on one side of the room, the first bright rays of dawn and a cool breeze coming through them. In front of the bed sat another door, bathroom? Or was it the one next to it? One of them had to be a closet. The one on the other side of the bed had to lead out to the hall.
  "You look like your eyes are going to pop out of your head!"
A chill ran up her spine. She knew that voice!
  Rolling out of the bed, her feet hit the floor and she crouched behind it, looking to the balcony doors.
  Cracker's large frame was leaning against the door jam, arms crossed as he watched her with a predatory look. His hair was down, cape and shoulder piece gone. His normal wide smile was missing and that spooked her more then the look.
She hated that, amongst her fear of the man, was an appreciation for the way he was built. He was handsome and he knew it too. To bad that underneath it all he was a douche bag.
Ava growled "What am I doing here Cracker? Where is Dacquoise?"
  His lip tilted up a fraction, his right eye twitching. "Found you two sleeping on the beach last night. You looked cold, so I brought you here. Dacquoise didn't wake up so I left him where he lay."
  He sounded mildly irritated.
  She quirked a brow, feeling very uneasy. "I was perfectly fine where I was at. Besides, weren't you supposed to stay away from me while I thought about what I wanted to do?"
  His small smile turned into a smirk. "No, I'm not supposed to try and capture you. Nothing was ever said about trying to be friendly."
  She barked a sarcastic laugh and stood up, her hands landing on the bed. "You, friendly! All you've done since I got here was try to cage me, and hurt me! I don't think you have a friendly bone in that big body of yours!"
  Cracker shrugged. "Mama wanted you, i was doing as I was told." He said matter of factly.
Was this idiot serious? The little fear she had felt was blown away replaced by agitation.
"I get that your loyal to your mother, I get that you guys are a close nit family. But you didn't have to get violent. Ever heard of the saying you catch more flies with honey then vinegar?"
Cracker shook his head, his eyes no longer looking mean but amused.
"Well it means that it's easier to get what you want by being nice and polite rather then being rude and mean!"
He laughed, eyes crinkling at the side. "Would it have worked?"
"Probably not." She shot back, his nonchalant ploy throwing her off.
What the hell was this? Why was he trying to be nice? Where the hell had this...this, easy going Cracker come from?
"What am I really doing here Cracker?"
  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. When he opened his eyes again, Ava seen an emotion she hadn't expected from the brute.
  Regret.
  He pushed from the door jam and walked towards her, making her want to bolt.
  But she stood her ground.
  Cracker stopped on the other side of the bed. "I'm sorry!"
  Ava's brows furrowed down, confusion best describing what she was feeling.
  Had she heard him correctly?
  "I'm not sure I heard that right! Can you repeat what you just said!"
  He bared his teeth at her. "I SAID I'M SORRY! You know, for all the shit that happened over the last three years!"
  Ava glared feeling her ire rise. "How is sorry going to fix anything?" She pointed to her face. "You permanently disfigured me Cracker! Chased me down like a dog, made threats, had me living in fear." Her hand thumped on the bed. "Do you have any idea where the hell I've been staying for the last year?"
Cracker's lips set in a grim line, shaking his head.
She motioned around the room her voice low and deadly. "While you got to stay in this lavish home, I was fucking living in a cave. A cave, Cracker! Because you ran me from the more suitable places to stay."
Cracker felt an almost crippling guilt. "I didn't thi..."
"Of course you didn't think, that's the problem. All that you seen was the goals you'd set in front of you, didn't matter how you reached them, it didn't matter how it affected others. It wasn't just what your mother wanted, you took it as a slight against yourself when I hurt you that first time and escaped."
Ava didn't realize she had climbed up onto the bed, or that she was now walking towards the big burly man, to blinded by her anger to notice she was headed straight for the lion.
  Crack tried to protest. "That's not.."
  She cut him off snapping at him. "Don't say that's not what happened!" She stabbed her finger into his chest when she stood in front of him, her lavender eyes meeting his pink ones. "It's exactly what happened. For such a big badass, you're a dam pussy when it comes to pain and we both know it. And your ego is so dam inflated that when I got away and managed to stay out of your clutches it pissed you off even more. You made it you mission to catch me. Your end game if you will."
  Cracker grew more and more agitated each time her little finger poked into his pec, his own anger starting to rise when he couldn't refute a single word she said.
  Her lips where curled up in contempt, eyes blazing fire.
  "I was ten Cracker, in a new place I didn't understand. I hadn't known anything but cruelty for years. So when you came at me aggressively I got scared. I lashed out in the only way I knew how, trying to stop the pain I thought was coming. Had you actually stopped to look at me you would have seen the fear, the sheer terror I was feeling the moment you grabbed me."
  Crackers hand shot up, snagging her wrist and flattened her palm to his chest. "We both made mistakes that day." He barked out.
  Ava tugged at her hand, fury rising but Cracker wouldn't let her go. "What about after that? Why did you have to change the game on me, why get to a point that this happened."
  She pointed to her face, her voice going quiet, feeling betrayed by his actions. "I had grown to look forward to our stupid bouts, the verbal sparring! And then you had to fuck it all up. I had nightmares for weeks." Her head fell.
  Crackers chest constricted at the misery in her voice, his hand tightening around hers. Her little nails dug into pec causing him to grimace at the bite of discomfort it caused.
"I'm sorry Ava!"
Ava felt the tears welling in her eyes but fought them back. "I hate you!"
She ripped her hand away from his grasp, her nails leaving welts and little drops of blood behind in their wake as they dragged down his pec.
Before Cracker could stop himself, his long fingers where in her hair, ripping her head back to look her in the eyes as a growl of anger left his lips.
It was an auto response to the pain, one he regretted almost instantly.
Ava's hands flew to his chest to steady herself, resentment and hurt causing her to tremble.
"See, you can't help yourself." She said sadly, meeting his eyes, fat hot tears finally falling.
  Cracker had the profound urge to wipe her tears away, hold her and tell her everything was going to be okay. What disturbed him the most was the want to kiss her.
  He released his hold, loathing himself, and she stumbled back a couple steps before she lost her balance and landed on the bed.
  He scrubbed his hands down his face. "This was not how I planned this."
  Ava wiped at her tears, not understanding the look he had just given her. "What where you expecting, that I would just accept your apology and we would be all buddy buddy, that everything would miraculously be okay?"
  Cracker sat on the edge of the bed with a heavy sigh, shaking his head. "No, but I thought you would at least listen. I'm tired of this game, I'm sick of fighting with you." He looked back at her, dejected. "I want to start over. If you join us, it's better to at least have a friendly relationship instead of one where we hate each other."
  Ava crawled over and sat next to him not really knowing how to deal with a Cracker who wasn't being an arrogant prick.
"Cracker, we are like oil and water, we don't mix." Looking up at him feeling emotionally exhausted she wiped at her face again. "A friendly relationship is never going to be an option for us, we are just to different." She stood heading for the balcony, letting her wings form.
Cracker felt a pang in his heart. It was sad that a thirteen year old girl was acting more like the adult in this situation.
She looked back before she walked out the door. "But a civil relationship isn't off the table!"
Ava took off running, flapping her wings. She got enough air to push off the railing and send herself soaring into the sky. She needed to get back to the beach and see if Dacquoise was still there.
Cracker watched her leave, feeling a little lighter at Ava's words. They gave him a flicker of hope that civil could become friendly.
  The other shit he was feeling was disgusting.
  He had to get these sick feelings out of his system. Fucking around and drinking hadn't helped at all, just made him feel hollow. There had to be another option.
  Whatever those options were, Cracker wasn't sure.
  For now he just planned on staying the hell away from Ava. She muddled his dam head every time she was near him, made him feel shit he shouldn't, not for a child.
  Why did it feel like fate was twisting threads together that shouldn't be twisted?