Author's Note

"Breathe" by Legs Occult is the hottest song I've ever come across and it's exactly where I'm going for a certain pairing. 

I've been having a lot of feelings this week, and I can always explain them better on paper. Please enjoy. 

Dove's arms wrap around the hem of her disheveled sweatshirt, pushing it down until every bit of exposed skin hides once again. Silas's dark eyes subtly follow her movements, but Dove watches him watch her, unsure if she likes his attention or not.

"You know this guy?" Eli's voice becomes full with surprise. When she turns to glance back at him, suddenly remembering Eli is even present, he's halfway through putting his shirt back over his freckled shoulders.

"Yeah, yeah," she whispers without real attention pulled towards Eli. Instead, she's fixated on the other man standing beneath the light of the moon. "Silas, right?" Dove fills in, as if she forgot.

Silas doesn't answer immediately, only watching the two teenagers carefully, as if he were attempting to understand what he unintentionally walked in on. His dark eyes only flicker to Eli, as if even acknowledging his presence was unnecessary, before they reel back to where they belong: on Dove. 

"Right," he tells her in a voice tangled with something that sounded like the woods and the wild. Something Dove will never be able to touch. "You're on private property, Dove," Silas whispers in an unexpected tone embellished with tenderness. 

"This is Rose Water," Eli reminds both of them of his existence with his words. "It ain't no one's but the county's."

Silas's polite smile turned to a tense line as he replied to Eli, although his gaze stayed fixated on Dove's flushed face. "The other side of the creek is where the county ends, and where Ulfric property begins." 

"We have, uh," Dove swallows before continuing, using the pause in her words to think of something intelligent to say. "We've been coming to Rose Water for... forever, when-- why such the strict policies all'uva'sudden?" 

"You could say it's a family reunion," Silas allows himself to clench his jaw in frustration, marking the first trace of real contempt. 

"Don't explain why you're brooding around your property at eleven o'clock," she shoots back at him, not one to be deterred from finding the real reasons behind every action she finds interesting enough to pay attention to. 

Silas laughs. It's airy, hardly there-- and taken by the wind before she could appreciate it completely. He gives her a smile he slips into like an over-sized sweater, like he's still unsure about the size but wears it anyway. "And why are you parked in the middle of nowhere, little bird?" He wonders. "Nothing past ten is a good thing, haven't you heard?"

"You sound like my mother," Dove snaps at him, but a sudden warmth in her chest raises from his words. 

"I sound like a property owner who discovered two teenagers trespassers on my land," he reminds her gently of why he even stood in front of her, all dark-eyed and hardly visible if it weren't for the dim moon. 

For the first time, Dove takes in what truly is in front of her. A man, hardly nineteen, with a tense enough posture that told her he was still trying to leave boyhood in the past. One rough hand rests on the windowsill of the truck, while the other hooks on the edge of the roof, filling up the frame of Dove's world. The only protection from the October air looks to be a thin cotton shirt that reached his elbows and showed his sharp collarbones, along with a pair of worn denim jeans. He doesn't necessary seem tired, even with the time-- more than anything, he appears excited-- amused, maybe. 

"We can go right now, sir. It's no problem," Eli rattles from somewhere behind Dove, breaking the beautiful universe that felt as if it only existed between Silas and the teenage girl. 

"Actually, it is a problem," Silas moves his head to speak to Eli. He reaches inside, animating the truck with his presence, and all Dove can think to do is watch the way his Adam's apple bobs with every word he speaks. 

"Pardon?" The teenage boy replies as his hand hovers around the keys already in the ignition. 

Silas leans on the edge of the windowsill before continuing on with a tone lacking amusement. "The road back to the highway collapsed." 

"What do you mean it collapsed?" Dove whispers, surprised before she immediately realizes just how screwed she may be if Silas is telling the truth. 

"The rain from last night finally caught up with it. It was an old pillar of broken cement, anyway," Silas fills them in, as if this wasn't the worst news for two teenagers who are now stuck in a place infamous for quickies when they told both of their parental units they'd be wasting time in the next town over, grabbing fast food and maybe a late movie. "Its time has already past, we're lucky it stayed this long."

"But-- we drove through it just a couple hours ago," Eli tries to form words, realization clear on his own face. 

"So did ten other vehicles heavy with Ulfrics, my family," he bites back, hardly impressed by the wide-eyed teenagers. 

"And-- you're telling me because of this, because the road collapsed--" Dove realizes Eli has never looked so scared, that this is what he must sound and look like when he's been backed into a corner.  It's unflattering. 

"You both have no way of getting home," Silas interrupts before he can stutter any more. "Unless you're comfortable with walking."

"And our options are?" Dove cuts to the chase before they can freak themselves out more at all the flashes of their angry parents sporting equally disappointed expressions. 

"Drive through six feet of water or spend the night in a guest room," Silas's voice runs smooth with his southern accent, making it clear the first suggestion was clearly a joke. 

Dove takes it to heart, turning to face Eli with a face so serious it almost frightens the other teenager. "Hell or highwater, Eli, c'mon," she reminds him with a dark tone. 

"Are you kiddin'?" Eli's wide blue eyes are animated with disbelief, his brows turned upwards as if Dove had just slapped his grandmother. "This truck ain't even seen mud, Dove." Dumb boys and their dumb trucks. 

"And what's your momma gonna say about this, Eli?" Her tone becomes high and more accented, pressing on all the buttons that made her sound more like her mother in attempt to intimidate him. "Trespassing on land and staying the night with a stranger?"

"My momma ain't gonna know," Eli promises. "She won't find out nothin', I'll tell her I'm spending the night with a friend-- you know she won't ask no questions." 

"And what about mine? You know she knows everything," her voice becomes shrill, desperate to find a way out of this mess. Maybe she can swim across the bridge and convince one of her friends to drive ten miles out of town to come pick her sorry ass up. 

"Tell her you're spending the night with Sonya!" He suggests with no real help. 

"My mom is a detective, it's literally her job to know when people lie, Eli. Do you really think she's going to believe me?" She hisses as she moves to grab her phone out of the cup console where it charged. "What do I do? Just, just say 'Hey, I'm spending the night with--" Dove stops, her fingers outrunning her voice as she sent the risky question to her mother over text.

A notification interrupts her. Her mother already replied, and with a lone and uncharacteristic yes. 

"Heaven only knows how that happened," she whispered, but she turns to Silas with eyes serious and slit for effect. Although he may be magnetic and unreasonably handsome, he's still a virtual stranger. "I'm texting my friend where I am, who you are, and what you look like. If she doesn't hear from me in twelve hours, she'll immediately call the police, and the police is my mother, so she'll be calling my mother."

"Which is a hell'uva'lot more worse than the police, man," Eli finally says something useful as the two of them hop out of the truck and into the night. 

*

Dove knows Silas isn't human, can't be. She knows human, the teenager is surrounded by them-- she is one. And Silas, Silas is the opposite. Even next to Eli, simply standing and towering over the boy, his differences are blatant. 

He doesn't know she knows, but that's fine. It makes it more interesting for her, and she watches while he acts normally, strange and unashamed as they walk through a forgotten cow-path of the forest only traced by the once-in-a-while group of tipsy teenagers hiding from law enforcement. At least, that was before Silas and his family reclaimed the property. 

"How far is it?" Dove asks, her hands wrapped tightly around her biceps as she shivers from the cold night air. 

"About twenty minutes," Silas replies swiftly, pausing to glance back at the trembling girl. 

She gasps. "Twenty minutes?!" Her thighs already hurt from the uncomfortable position she had held it in for Eli. 

"Ten if we run," he smiles at her complaining while he walks back towards her, leaving Eli to aimlessly trail out in front of them. "Are you cold?" Silas asks her softly enough that only the two of them can hear the words. 

"No," Dove lies, unable to make herself even more inconvenient. "Once we get really moving, all these goosebumps will go away, promise." 

"Do you want my shirt?"

She laughs, imagining him stripping half-naked in attempt to keep her warmer. She stops after she realizes the full potential of the vision, and just how beautiful he may be in the moonlight and only a pair of well-used jeans, framed in the forest and stars. 

He doesn't wait for her to answer; suddenly, arms are wrapping around the hem of his long-sleeve shirt and he moves up, revealing a white tee that clings to his skin, revealing every muscle. His body looks like a finely tuned instrument-- like a necessary weapon, built and bred specifically for either creating or destroying. This is natural-- the body of a predator treated like prey. Nothing like Eli, who's broad and strong, but only from days spent in football practice and the occasional steroid shot.  

Silas unceremoniously drops the shirt over her head, bunching it over her messy hair, hands careful not to touch any inch of her skin. She doesn't mind, just the nearness of the man satisfies her. 

"There, little bird," His voice hovers above her. 

She takes the fabric in her fingers, pulling the shirt down until it sits comfortably over her sweater. "Thank you, Silas," she replies. "But you don't have to do this, you're hardly wearing anything now--" not that I mind is left unsaid."Take it back, I feel bad." 

"Trust me," Silas tells her with a smile that might as well show sharp teeth and a snarl. "I run hot." 

*

Author's Note

Short chapter is short. I apologize. The next chapter will be much more exciting, I promise, and more explaining on things-- like why her mother was so quick to say yes and why the bridge collapses and why Silas is so damn hot.  I'm beginning to feel like Eli is going to become the stereotypical blond-bimbo but in male form, because we never get to see that. 

Thank you for reading, thoughts, comments, and votes are greatly appreciated.