Moving without realizing, I struck the bag again, raining down blows one after another, not caring about form or anything else, punching and hitting with both hands, again and again, beating the bag with my fists, my knuckles, then my open palms. I barely registered my panting breath or achy palms. I just had to keep hitting.
The bag lurched back suddenly, leaving me striking the air and tipping forward—Chase let the bag go and caught me, grabbing my wrists.
“I like knowing what I’m fighting for,” I promised since he seemed worried about me. “What I’m trying to prevent. Unleashing my inner fox is nothing compared to this."
"Hey, no. This stuff is whatwe’refighting against, me and Temple. What you’re doing is your own separate journey, one you were always meant to take. Focus on that, on you. Don’t let it be about anything else.”
"I’ll try."
Saying anything else was impossible. Not with his conviction and sincerity staring me right in the face. Both breathing hard, we were sort of clinging together. His dark eyes were so beautiful up close. If I let myself, could I fall into them and forget all the ugliness?
"Do what you can. I’ll do the rest," Chase vowed. “I promise. From one guy to another, remember?”
"Right, y-yeah."
"Hey, I’m fucking serious." Chase was so concerned with me believing him that he didn’t even care about our position. “We haven’t known each other very long, so you don’t know what a big deal it means for me to be so serious. It’s pretty huge. Damn, I can’t say I’ve never been more serious in my life because what, like that’s a high bar?”
“Chase.” I shook my head and backed away. It wasn’t gonna work, he wasn’t gonna make me smile now.
"Okay,my brotherhas never been more serious than I am now. Somewhere in Ashvale he just shuddered and said, ‘something fundamentally wrong is happening.’"
"S-shut up," I said. My lips curled upwards without my permission.
"I mean it, you know? You’re gonna be okay.” He turned solemn in an instant. “I’ll make sure of it. Whatever it takes. I’d d—"
“Don’t!” I waved my arms frantically in his direction. “Don’t say that.” That he’d die to keep me safe.
"It doesn’t have to be a big deal. Life-risking heroics are kinda implied in my line of work."
"But you shouldn’t say it aloud," I insisted, feeling a little silly. How seriously did the universe enforce jinxes? No idea. But I knew this, “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, especially because of me.”
"Yeah," Chase said, not taking his eyes off me. “I know the feeling.”
14.Love(?) is in the Air
Lucas
Chase said he had an idea. I tried not to get any ideas of my own when the blindfold came out. All totally innocent, given Temple joined us and we were in the living room.
"What’s going on?" I asked while blindfolded, not for the first time. How surreal.
“Here’s an activity to challenge you and we promise nothing will jump out and attack you."
"Figure it out,” Temple added. “Explore."
My mouth watering and stomach clenching stopped me from protesting. I recognized a smell in the air. “Pot roast?”
“Hey, you’re a regular bloodhound, except the fox version. What else do you smell?”
Chase figured out how to engage me and get my mind off the information he shared earlier. Curiosity. Curiosity helped my senses expand. The barest whiff reached my nose, not enough to identify, and then somehow, it became clearer. I correctly labeled roasted potatoes, apple pie, even salad dressing. Then…nothing. I had to get right in front of something to smell the food, but my weak human nose couldn’t figure it out.
"Okay, what about this?" Chase said.
"Cologne." The spraying sound provided a clue but the overpowering musk filling the room afterwards really filled me in.
"Alright. And this?"
"Paint? Where did you get paint?"
