Hunter

Well, he said it, didn't he?

He doesn't see any fairy tale romances starring Galen and Hunter in our future. It hurts that his reasoning behind that decision is so hard on himself. Sure, I don't know the guy, but he is not as shallow as he just made himself out to be. I hate that he seems to believe that.

I don't think Xavier is shallow, either, though he clearly agreed with Galen's assessment. Xavier is just on a high created by sudden success and is gluttonously stuffing himself on it after starving for too many years. He'll come down eventually and be normal.

Galen exudes a lot of depth. I don't just think that because I've inexplicably fallen head over heels for the guy the first time I saw him messing around on the ice with Jax. Feeling his joy and seeing his defiant cockiness triggered something in my heart that had been dormant for most of my life.

I like feeling this way about him.

That is not why I doubt Galen's capacity to be shallow. It's his eyes. Through him, the belief that the eyes are the windows to a person's soul is proven true. His eyes reflect a myriad of thoughts and feelings too complicated to express in words.

It's not just physical attraction that I feel for him. It goes much deeper as if his presence in my vicinity touches me right to the core of my being. I think that if he stayed with us much longer and I got to know him even better, I'd end up truly and irrevocably in love with the boy.

Why is he so hard on himself?

"If I had any doubts, I would've been sure now, Hunter," Xavier says, tearing my attention away from Galen's departing back to look at him instead. He is still ignoring Claire, clinging to his arm; instead, he looks at me with a slight smile on his lips and sympathetic eyes. "You were never all that into me."

I'm about to argue or get mad and tell him to quit with his excuses, but he still gazes at me with a knowing smile, and I realise he means it. He is right. I know that now.

"It's because she's a lesbian," Claire says and wisely grabs a hand full of grapes and hurries away before Miko launches herself at her. I've seen her launch herself at bigger people. Miko is not a violent girl, but she is fiercely protective of me and doesn't like Claire and her constant taunting. The girl is always going after me one way or another. Calling me a lesbian is one of the nicest things she's ever said to me.

We were friends when we were little. That friendship turned sour when we passed through puberty, and our approach to how our new curves should be treated differed somewhat. I generally prefer to keep mine to myself, while she wants hers to be on display as much as possible. My lack of blatant exhibitionism irritates her. She also hates that I can have good, friendly relationships with most of the boys without letting them put their hands all over me.

She finds the concept 'alien and obnoxious'. Those were her exact words.

"You sure as hell have never looked at me the way you just looked at McKenna," Xavier says, not acknowledging Claire or her parting remark.

"I have no idea what you mean," I mutter, lifting my eyebrows and giving Xavier and Miko a haughty look when they scoff at me.

"Hunter," Xavier speaks again when Miko grabs another paper plate from the stack and starts to add food to it, moving away from us. "Can this be over now, please?" he asks softly. "Can we be cool with each other now? Please?"

"It's been over for months," I inform him, looking everywhere except at him when he snorts. "It has!"

"Please tell your goons that, then," he grunts. "And your face."

"I don't have goons... and what's wrong with my face?"

I lift my eyes to look at him, and my heart contracts when I see real distress in his eyes. I know the guys have been hard on him occasionally because they think I'm pining for him. It's not him I've been pining for. It's closeness and something that never existed between Xavier and me. Romance.

I've told them many times to leave him alone, that nothing matters, and everything is fine. I didn't just do it because if there were actual fights, they could all get suspended or expelled, but because they're training buddies. The animosity is starting to affect their ability to work together. I will not be the girl who breaks up their team.

Besides, I know the guys actually like Xavier. This was all such a big, miserable mistake, and here I am, once again, on the verge of getting my heart broken. For real, this time. I don't want Galen ostracised before he has even settled in properly.

I've been trying to hide my loneliness from my housemates, but Jax and Kame are too perceptive for their own good, and Denny can sometimes be pretty volatile. He becomes fierce when anybody in his 'family' is under threat. They still blame Xavier for my lack of interest in social gatherings here at the academy, and I haven't done enough to explain that he is not the real cause.

I simply lost interest.

Miko is right. I will have to work much harder to hide my feelings from them all. I do not want Galen to end up on their wrong side. We live in the same house. There will be no escaping from each other, even after hours. I've been allowing the animosity with Xavier to drag on for too long. I need to put in more effort to end it completely.

"Look, Xav-"

"Everything all right here, Hunter?"

I jump when Jax talks behind me and smile sadly when I see Xavier's defeated sigh.

"Oh, yes!" I assure Jax, turning a much brighter smile on him and Kame, who is, as usual, by his side. "It's all sorted now. Xavier is very sorry he got out of bed this morning, aren't you, Xav?"

"I am?" I'm not sure he gets what I'm trying to say; he gives me a freaked-out look, and I nod slowly, smiling encouragingly at him. "Yes, I am," he sighs, scrubbing his hand through his short hair. "I seriously am. I'm so friggin' sorry I got out of my bed. It was warm in there and nobody was glaring at me," he assures Jax and Kame, a smile twerking his lips when Jax laughs. "Oh, f#ckit, I'm going back to bed. I'll probably regret getting out of it again tomorrow. Take care, Hunter."

"You too, Xavier."

When he turns to walk away, I give Jax's sleeve a pluck, nodding my head towards Xavier when he gives me a questioning look.

"Go on. It's all good, I promise," I smile. "I've forgiven him completely now. Really."

Grinning, Jax follows Xavier, dropping his arm across the guy's shoulder when he reaches him. "Come and have a beer with us first," he says, pulling Xavier towards a coolbox.

"Cool!" Xavier chuckles, turning his head to give me a grateful smile.

Awesome, the natural order has been restored. Now, on to inadvertently creating the next storm.

"Finalfrigginly," Miko says when I pick up the plate I'd left on the table and walk with her to where the others are still gathered. I drop the stash of serviettes on the high table's surface, and Ginny eagerly and gratefully grabs a couple to save herself from her custard catastrophe. The problem has grown with what seems to be some jam and possibly caramel added to the mixture on her lips and fingers. As expected, she has been picking all the desserts from the plate, leaving the savoury items for Libra. Ginny loves everything sweet.

My eyes land on Galen's plate, nearly depleted by the vultures who set upon it when he left to fetch himself a drink and ended up rescuing me from Claire's spiteful tongue. I wonder where he went. He said he needed air, but I hoped the cold would drive him back to the table.

"I thought you were going to let that cold war carry on forever," Miko says when the others return their attention to their food and conversations.

"Me?" I frown, not liking the look she's giving me. "I never asked them to freeze him out or be mean to him. I definitely never asked them to punch him!"

"You don't have to ask them to do that, Hunter," she whispers, and I know she's right. I've known it for the last couple of months. I just ignored the problem.

"I didn't mean for it to get this bad." I feel genuinely terrible now. I should've made it clear to the guys much earlier that not all my issues were because of Xavier. My emotions were all over the place and his lack of care really hurt me, but I barely gave Xavier a thought until he flirted with me, and then I was just angry again each time. I now suspect that his flirting was an attempt at apologizing. It's almost funny. The guy is so warped sometimes.

I have to hide my emotions better.

How do I do that? I'm not the stoic kind. Dad always says he can see my thoughts and feelings from a mile away. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I try not to. My eyes stray to Galen's plate again, and I wonder if he's all right. He didn't look all right when he left us. I don't think the lost look on his face had anything to do with me and Xavier and the conversation we were having. I wish the boys would go check on him.

Jax and Kame are playing darts with Xavier and Glenn. Denny will have to be surgically removed from the girl in his lap. The others here at our table don't know Galen well enough for me to ask them to go see if he's okay. He might not appreciate strangers intruding on him. I'm about to head to Jax to ask him anyway when Miko lays a hand on my forearm, stopping me.

"So, the Xavier thing is not a problem anymore?" she asks me, studying my face.

"We'll be okay eventually," I assure her. "It's not a problem anymore."

"Clearly, you are sufficiently distracted now," she laughs, and I cannot argue with that.

"Soooo..." she says, pulling a face, and now I understand the extra plate she'd filled with food and carefully covered with a spare plate.

"Thank you so much for coming over to take care of me," I tell her, plucking on a strand of thick hair curving over her shoulder. "You're the best friend ever. You can go home and snuggle your cat now."

"Awesome!" Turning away, she says goodnight to Ginny, Libra and the others and takes her covered plate from the table. Bringing the other plate with me so I won't lose my food to the hungry wolves gathered at the table, I walk her to the foyer. I hold her plate with my free hand while she grabs her jacket and puts it on before hugging me.

"Take it easy, Hunter," she smiles, shaking her head when I offer to walk her home. Her house is only a short walk from here; she will reach her door before she can even feel the cold properly. "Are you sure you don't need me to babysit you to make sure you don't melt all over Galen's lap?"

"Very f-funny," I grumble. "I'll behave... probably..."

Closing the door behind Miko, I turn to the long hanging rail provided for visitors' coats. When Miko took her jacket, I noticed that Galen's jacket still hung beside mine, and the sight made me nervous. When he said he needed air, I hope he didn't mean that he was going for a long walk and then didn't take his jacket.

Worried, I put my plate on an entrance table, and hurry to the foyer windows to check if I can see him somewhere outside. All I see are shadows and pools of glistening snow from the lights scattered around the campus grounds. Nobody is walking around out there. I hope he didn't wander into the woods or decide to walk home along the road. It is a long walk!

Movement at the windows to my right catches my eye, and I sag with relief, seeing Galen's hair glow dark red in the trickle of light spilling outside. The corner where he's sitting is partially covered by the balcony above and won't be completely blanketed in snow. The wind won't get to him there.

Still, Galen shouldn't be out there without his warm jacket. I don't think he understands just how bad things can get here. He is not used to this kind of weather. The wind might not be strong on that side of the patio, but the cold will still creep under his skin and cause hypothermia before he even realises it. The thin sweater that was warm enough inside would not help him out there.

The air is heavy with the promise of more snow when I step outside, carrying Galen's jacket and my plate. I hurry along the patio, and when I turn the corner and see him looking up at me from the shadows, I hesitate, suddenly, uncertain of my welcome.

"You do know that even if you froze to death, you will still have to do tomorrow's evaluations, right?" I tell him, crossing the distance between us. I put the plate on his table, push it towards him and spread his jacket over his shoulders. The poor boy is shivering! "They'll just chip off the ice and drag you into the barn."

"Cheers a million," Galen smiles and pops his cigarette between his lips to free his hands so he can pull on his jacket. I sit down beside him for extra warmth and watch as he pulls up the zipper. Taking the cigarette from his mouth, he smiles at me and I'm happy to see that the smile is not telling me to get lost.

"I saw you through the foyer window and figured you'd need your jacket," I awkwardly try to explain my forwardness in joining him here in his solitude. I don't want him to think I'm stalking him. I am... but only because I was worried. "I know all of this can be overwhelming, Gan. I'll go back inside if you need to be alone."

"Naw, lass," he says, casually taking a meatball from the plate I put on the table to share with him. "I don't want to be alone." Looking at his warm smile, I can see that he means it. After eating the meatball, he takes a drag from his cigarette, wincing as if he didn't enjoy the smoke hitting his lungs, and turns his head to blow the smoke away from me.

"Do ye want one?" he offers when he sees me watching him with avid attention.

"No, thank you. I like my lungs," I answer absently.

I swear I could watch this guy boil water and find it mesmerizing. He has a way of moving that just stirs my mind in the best way. Even now, knocking the ash from his cigarette into one of the snow-covered ashtrays scattered on the long table is apparently the most fascinating thing I've ever seen.

My mesmerisation turns into laughter when he gently rolls the tip of his cigarette in the snow, partially covering the tabletop, to extinguish the glow and gives the soggy cigarette tip a perplexed look.

"Snow is wet," he states.

"Indeed," I laugh, watching him try to break off the wet tip, but the moisture spreads fast, his cigarette crumbling between his fingers.

"Bollox," he grunts and looking up from the mess in his hands, he grins at me. "So much for being all cool and suave and stuff."

"Oh, you're very cool and suave and... stuff," I assure him, thoroughly enjoying the drama.

"Aye, I've got deadly skills."

Laughing, Galen moves as if he wants to dump the cigarette in the bottle he brought with him but decides against it when he realises it is still full. He leaves the mangled cigarette in the ashtray for now and lifts the bottle to his lips, holding it out to me when he'd taken a sip.

"What the hell is this?" he asks, pulling a disgusted face.

"A strawberry and watermelon cooler," I tell him, taking the bottle and drinking from it. It is sweet and insipid and very light in alcohol. "Alba Finkle, who does all the catering, loves the stuff. She always includes a few bottles in the order, though hardly anybody drinks it. I guess the bottles make their way back to her after the functions," I tell Galen. "I didn't think you'd like this kind of thing. You look like a guy who would prefer something more... bitter."

"Aye, I'm pretty bitter," he grins at me. "This shite tastes like unicorn piss."

"Oh, wow!" I laugh happily. "I always wondered what kind of farm animals unicorns would be if they were used for farming. I was always afraid that their flesh was made of candyfloss and hated the idea of them being the kind that would be eaten to get any farming use out of them. I'm so relieved right now."

Galen chuckles, reaching out to grab one of my ponytails and gently wrap it around and around his hand by rotating his wrist. I think it's become a habit now, and I love it. I'll wear my hair in tails all the time if it means he will do this.

"How about just riding them like horses?" he suggests, looking into my eyes. His are dark and twinkling in the low-level light, reaching us through the window.

"What a crazy idea," I grin, holding the bottle out to him and watching breathlessly as he takes it, closing his lips over one edge to drink a long, slow sip, his eyes not leaving my face. It's like kissing... just... well... not like kissing at all. Still, my heart is beating way too fast now.

Galen lowers the bottle, peering up at me from under his lashes while he takes a small savoury pie from the plate without even looking at it and eats it in a way that makes me feel warm all over.

I so want to be that pie right now!

If he is going to eat and drink all seductively, I will do it too! Two can play his unfair game!  So, gazing into his eyes in a way that I hope is seductive but is probably a little scary, I reach for the plate and pluck something from it.

I tell myself that crumbling pastry flakes fluttering around my face, landing on my nose and sticking to my lips are very sexy and alluring in the right light. Almost choking and grabbing the bottle to wash the crumbs away before I have a coughing bout also ranks high in the seduction category.

"Are ye alright, luv?" Galen chuckles when I give up on the seduction business and just shove the whole pastry into my mouth and chomp on it in revenge. I nod my head, trying not to laugh and probably end up dead, when he grins and picks up a similar pastry. Following my example, he stuffs it into his mouth to eat it with the same aggression.

"Wanna see something really cool?" I ask him when we've finished the food and cooler, laughing and having fun, acting like morons. Seduction has officially left the building.

"You mean watching you eat wasn't cool enough?" he chuckles, putting the remains of his cigarette on the paper plate and folding it into a small parcel.

"Oh, you're right," I laugh. "Nothing can beat the extreme level of coolness involved in nibbling on biscuits like a mouse. Still, wanna see?"

"Sure, lass," he grins, gliding his gaze over my face in a languid, warm way, stirring tickling bubbles in my blood. "Ye can show me anything ye want."

There I go again! Giggling like a love-sick teenager!

So much for hiding my feelings better!

~~~