Drabble Challenge: Day 26

    I forgot to ask last post; how's the new layout/color/design for my blog? More readable? Trinity commented that the white on the red was difficult to read, so the purple was my alternative after a bit of fiddling. 

    This bit got mixed reviews from me. I really liked how I started it, but when I got further along my groove started fizzling out so I'm a bit "meh" over the end. 


    Drabble Challenge: Day 26 - escape
    Word Count: 1,655    Minimum Goal: 1,560

    Jandy stumbled into the cafeteria at six-thirty, knowing Dechlan was already inside, but having to search for him. This effort was aided when a hand—his—went up in the air across the large, busy room despite the way his back was turned.
    She made her way through the early morning bustle of people, nearly tripping over a pair of outstretched legs on her path to her partner. Dechlan held out a hand to help her step over the bench when she reached him, waiting until she’d sat down to let go and move a Styrofoam cup of coffee in front of her.
    Not bothering with a verbal thank you, because he’d already picked up on her fuzzy gratitude, Jandy tried the coffee sludge from Mars and managed not to grimace for once.
    Mornings were not her thing, at all. She was just grateful that it didn’t bother Dechlan. 
    “We’re supposed to meet the Daxtons at oh-seven-hundred to continue off yesterday. Warren wasn’t too pleased we didn’t finish on schedule,” the male said, matter-of-fact as he moved an extra plate of eggs off his tray for her to eat. 
    “He can go stuff it,” Jandy mumbled, leaning against his shoulder, just wishing she could go back to sleep. 
    Dechlan elbowed her and she caught the wordless command to eat. A quiet sigh escaped her.
    “They said it gets easier,” he continued after she’d started to poke at the food before her. “It’s just harder for us because we’re not related and that makes it more difficult to get to the level of familiarity that they need.”
    A huff of amusement escaped Jandy. “Familiarity, sure.”
    They both knew what Warren wanted, but, as acquaintances of barely two weeks, it was hard to get there and remain in their respective comfort zones.
    And, if she was honest with herself, Jandy knew that she was scared of ending up like Jane. The pressure of training and developing their connection would keep getting to her until her heart gave out and—
    Dechlan bumped her. Stop.
    That was the most they’d been able to manage thus far in terms of intelligible thoughts. A single word, backed by a fairly strong emotion or mixture of emotions. They’d discovered it when she’d woken up from a nightmare, screaming for Jane and almost giving Dechlan a heart attack.
    But Jandy didn’t respond, chewing on her cooling eggs and ignoring his gaze boring into the side of her head. The coffee was doing its job in waking her up, despite the awful taste. 
    As expected, he didn’t press her any more than that, but she could feel what he was holding back and wished that there was some way she could erase the intense mixture of emotion weighing on both of them.
    Jandy only got a brief warning before Dechlan stood up, which was out of the ordinary, because he usually waited for her. The oddity further increased when he held out a hand for hers. “Come on. Bring the coffee, if you want.”
    “Where are we going?” she questioned, leaving the sludge behind as she let Dech pull her to her feet.
    There was no forthcoming reply, but Jandy caught pieces of his plan through their link and she shot him a look as he forged a path through the crowd of soldiers and scientists. He pretended not to notice, leading her on a winding path from the depths of Warren’s complex until they were in the upper levels where you could see sunlight.
    It was still mostly dark out, with hints of pink and purple starting to streak the sky, and Jandy couldn’t have cared less, pausing in a long hallway on ground level to look out at the heavy blanket of white covering the slope of a nearby mountain that rose up over the compound. Dechlan paused when he realized she wasn’t following.
    “Jandy, come on. We don’t have that much time before we need to meet with the Daxtons.”
    She couldn’t tear herself away from the overlook. “But how much better can it get than this? We could watch the sunrise from right here.”
    A curl of satisfaction made its way through the connection, drawing Jandy’s attention from the window and to Dechlan where he stood several paces away, attempting to keep that emotion from transforming into a smile. “Would you like to watch it from here, or from outside?”
    Outside. Fresh air. Cold air. Snow. Cold. Jandy couldn’t think of a time she’d eager to go outside, but after spending what felt like months cooped up in Warren’s laboratory, nothing sounded more like heaven.
    “Outside.” She responded a heartbeat later, jogging to catch up with her partner, her dark mood from earlier releasing its hold on her. If her eagerness to be outdoors had been any less, Jandy would’ve considered that he’d done this on purpose. Even so, she couldn’t find it in her to be even fractionally miffed at him.
    The security guards at the door the soldier led them to weren’t too pleased to be letting Jandy out and about without prior authorization from Warren, but Dechlan applied just enough pressure on them to get them to think again.
    And it worked, because, with a final warning to be back in a half hour, the guards allowed them through, a gust of cold air greeting them and Jandy laughed, stepping out onto the pavement that bore a good inch of snow on it.
    Dechlan stayed close behind her once they were outside, directing her towards a good vantage point to watch the sunrise by gesturing the direction to head when Jandy checked with him.
    “You did this on purpose,” she accused, unable to keep from smiling even as she did so. The frigid temperature was causing her cheeks to turn red and her uniform wasn’t nearly warm enough for this, but she didn’t care.
    He shrugged, confirming her suspicion. “You’ve needed it.”
    There wasn’t a lot she could say to dispute that, because it was true. Jandy turned her gaze forward, being careful not to slip as she made her way across the un-shoveled grounds.
    The air was crisp, tingling as she breathed it in, and it was a welcome change from the sometimes-stagnant air deep in the belly of the gray compound that towered behind them. Jandy could feel Dechlan’s similar pleasure at getting outside, but his was for different reasons. 
     It’d taken until her nightmare just a handful of days prior for them to talk. Actually talk, not just maintain the uncomfortable front and pick up on every wayward emotion. About Jane, about how he and his brother had gotten involved in Warren’s program. About what had really happened last time she’d been at this compound.
    “She would’ve loved this,” Jandy murmured when they came to a standstill, looking out from the crest of the hill the entire complex had been built on. They were boxed in by mountains that were no doubt farther away than they appeared to be, but there was a gap between two peaks to the east where the sun’s light was already beginning to make an appearance.
    Dechlan glanced down at her but didn’t say anything, his silence respectful and comforting, in its own way.
    “Not that,” she amended, waving back at the buildings, stark against the white backdrop. “But the mountains. We lived in the heart of downtown Akita. The snow that reached us never stayed very long and traveling out of the city to see anything but buildings was difficult.” Fond memories of Jane’s excitement over even a dusting had a smile pulling at the corner of Jandy’s mouth.
     “She wouldn’t have blamed you for what happened.”
     I know. The self-recrimination didn’t fade though. Jandy pushed her hands into her pockets, letting out a breath that billowed in the air.
    The sun was close to making an appearance, but she wasn’t able to pay as much attention to it as she would’ve liked, instead being distracted by the internal debate Dechlan waged with both himself and her. 
    She knew what he was trying to do, but Jane had been her sister. Her little sister who she had been looking out for since they’d been five with their mom gone all hours of the day and sometimes into the night and their dad stumbling home long after dark, drunk as he always was after grueling day of manual labor.
    “How am I supposed to let go of that, Dechlan?” Jandy asked, turning to him with pain and frustration welling in her chest. “You’re in my head. You’ve seen how we grew up, you know how hard I worked to keep her safe from every problem my parents brought home when there was no chance of escape for us.”
    “Yes, I know. But I also know that being brought here,” he threw a hand out towards the nearby buildings, a certain amount of intensity in his fern-green eyes as he spoke to her. “Was not your fault. It was Warren’s. He decided he wanted you two and there was nothing you’ve could’ve done to avert that. Being linked wasn’t your fault; the strain of it wasn’t your fault.”
    Sunlight streamed through the mountain pass, warming the air and Jandy was momentarily struck with how it illuminated Dechlan’s features before wondering what it did to hers. “I could’ve fought harder against him,” she murmured at last, unable to help the underlying unsteadiness. 
    “And he would’ve pushed back harder.” Dechlan didn’t mince his words, seeking to drive his point home. “You know that.”
    A breeze blew past them, causing goose bumps to rise on her arms despite the long sleeves of her shirt. 
    Yeah. She admitted silently, her dark brown gaze drifting to where the sun was nestled between the peaks of the two mountains, rising at a steady rate. I know. But it doesn’t change the fact that she’s still gone.


    Also, just by the way, writing a mental link between two people is actually kind of hard. You constantly have to remember that you're not just writing one set of thoughts and emotions, but two. Maybe not in as great of detail, but you have to remember that the second person is there. 

    So, yeah. I like the beginning a lot. Later is okay. Sorta.

    Planning on combining the next two drabbles into "diamonds&letters" and "promise&simple" then the last one will be "future" and I do have something sadistic planned. As long as I can get my aching brain to cooperate with me, but we'll have to see how that goes.

    Anyways. Comments, questions, critiques, or concerns can be directed to the comment box and I would be pleased to respond to them. Thanks for putting up with me and I should be posting again today sometime. "Should" being the operative word there.

    Ad astra per aspera.
    To the stars, through difficulties.