Outcast Villiage

"Ah...m-maybe not when there are littl'uns around to hear it." Ephraim gently ran his hand down Ariadne's back.

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"No. Thank you, though. Did you want to sit?" He scooted over slightly.

"If you'd like." She told him.
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Evelyn raised an eyebrow. "Later then, when we continue the journey?" She asked.

"Only if you want to stay," Ranger replied quietly. "Though I may not be a great conversationalist."

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"Sooner. When she goes back to bed." Ephraim looked down to Ariadne again.

"She's already asleep." She nodded to the small child that was fast asleep in his arms still sucking her thumb.
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"You never were." She reminded him as she sat next to him.

"I can't hold a serious conversation while there's a baby in my arms, sorry Evelyn, but I'm not quite comforted just because she's asleep."

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"I suppose not." Ranger folded his hands on his lap. "I really should be going to sleep - so should you, for that matter - but I'm not entirely sure Citlali will come back and that's bothering me."

"Alright I'll put her in her bed but we'll have to stay outside of the tent or she will start to scream." Evelyn told him and she stood. "Unless you want to put her in her bed."
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"I gave up on sleep years ago."' Moira shrugged. "She'll be fine."

"You put her to bed. You know how to do this better than I ever would."

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"I just...I turned my back once, and she got caught up in the Numbers shit again. Not only her, but they got her friend, Chiquita too, and Chiquita wasn't even one to start with and..." Ranger shook his head. "I'm surprised you even want to talk to me."

"Well I do hold your contract remember it would be hard not to talk to you." She told him.

Evelyn nodded. "Come and watch so you know." She suggested and she took the little one back, carrying her to her tent and putting her.

"Just because you hold a contract doesn't mean you have to be obliged to look after me," Ranger reminded her. "It's glorified servitude. You could tell me to stab myself sixty times and I'd have to listen. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable with the situation."

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Ephraim hesitated and then slowly managed to get to his feet, wincing in pain.

She shrugged. "I don't know what I feel anymore." She told him. "I still care for you but I don't know if you still care for me, or if there would be any point because there is no way to go back to how things were between us."
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Evelyn watch him.

"I care for you," Ranger said quietly. "But I'm not going to push when I don't know what the limits are any more."

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Ephraim winced briefly again as he was finally stood and walked over to Evelyn.

Evelyn led him over to her tent and she showed him how to tuck their daughter into her bed, protecting her legs and wrapping her in blankets first, before she put her teddy bear beside her and she joined Ephraim outside.
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"Me neither....Maybe one dauber could make new boundaries?"

Ephraim watched closely and quietly, as if committing every movement to memory. As soon as they were both outside and it was quiet, he bluntly said, "I've hit my death cycle again."

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"I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable in anyway."

"That's why I said maybe one day we could." She told him. "But I don't want to make you uncomfortable either."
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Evelyn nodded in understanding. "But it will pass right?" She asked.

Ranger nodded, and fell quiet again. Eventually, he asked, "Citlali thinks Alex is angry at her; is he?"

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"It'll pass. I've just got the soreness, the sensitivity, the...slowly dying. It'll pass."

"No, he thinks she doesn't want to speak to him."
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She nodded going silent for a few minutes before she spoke again. "I still love you you know, but with the contracts in play I don't know if things can go back to how they were." She told him. "I don't know if you would see a relationship between us as nothing more than a master and slave, and I don't want that for you. I'm
Sorry I didn't tell you this before but I didn't know how to tell you." She told him and it was easy to see that Evelyb was finding it hard to hold back any emotion. "But no matter what you decide you wil always be able to see Ariadne whenever you like and if you decided to find someone better then I would stand back and let you, I only want you to be happy I don't want you to feel that you owe me because I saved your life." She told him. "Now I'd best go back on watch." She told him and she walked away wiping away tears that fell as she turned away from him but she wiped them away.

"They're young. They'll fix it."

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Ephraim stood so quick he cursed at the pain it caused, but didn't stop as he reached out to catch her elbow. "You couldn't force me to love you, Evelyn. That's all me. A contract can't force anyone to care. I love you because it's me that loves you, and if it ever happened I didn't love you - not that it would - that's my decision too. A contract is physical actions. Like fuck would I let it manipulate my feelings. I love you. Me. It's not some stupid master-slave relationship unless you made it that way. I appreciate it immensely that you would contract with me, that you think highly enough of me to care for me like that. I feel the same way as I did before this contract, regardless of what happened between and after. So...so please. Don't get upset. I...I still love you." Ephraim's voice broke at the end, quietly, as if he was rather emotional himself. "So please...don't say stuff like that. Please."

"Yeah they will."
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She looked at him, gently entwining their hands. "So what do we do?"
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Meanwhile Angel was looking for Citlali. "Citlali where are you?"

Ranger nodded, and shifted so he was sat cross legged instead of how he had been sat before.

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"We live like we did before. There's no need to change anything. We loved each other and trusted each other and that's how it should be. A contract is just a fancy word and a reason that I'm alive and free, nothing more."

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Citlali, to her word, had only jogged out by four or so kilometres from the camp, and instead of circling as she had said, was sat at the base of a tree, simply staring at her hands in her lap.

"Citlali, can we talk?" Anjuli asked.
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Evelyn smiled softly kissing his cheek.
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Moira sat beside him pulling her jacket close to her.

Citlali flinched at her sudden appearance and scrambled to her feet in surprise. After a moment she said, "U-Uh, s-sure?" Citlali nervously scratched her chest, trying to calm down from the sudden fright.

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Ephraim's expression softened, and a tension in his shoulders seemed to relax at her reaction.

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"If you're cold, do you want me to grab the blanket?" Ranger gestured to his tent just beside them.

"It's fine I've been colder." She told him.
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She smiled at him before she seemed to tense as there was a sound of a hellicopter.

(Should it be the one who had control of the numbers who finds them and tries to take back the numbers?)
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Anjuli smiled warmly she had grown up quite a lot and her long hair had been cut into a pixie cut whilst her wings were the cleanest white in the wild. "I wish to talk to you about my dad."

((It can be if you like ^_^ Who should control them?))

"Are you sure? There's no reason to be cold if you don't need to be."

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Ephraim tensed and asked, sarcastically, "What's the chance it's just a pass over flight."

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Citlali nervously wrung her hands together in front of her. "Is everything okay?"

((No idea, the same woman? Because she seemed to have it out for Evelyb etc and she could try and get the numbers to destroy them))
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"I'm hoping it's a pass over flight." She told him and automatically she pushed him into the trees so that it couldn't see him.
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"If I were to ask you how you felt about him what would you tell me?"
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"It's fine, I can manage."

((She'd get really pissed of though because her contracts wouldn't work any more lmao))

Ephraim grabbed her wrist as she shoved him, so she was forced to follow and he muttered, "We need to tell the others."

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Citlali tilted her head as if wondering if it was a trick question. "W-Well, I never stopped loving him if that's what you're asking."

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"Getting ill at this point won't help anyone."