.Chapter Two: The Thing About Everything.

One second Kristian was struggling against death by electrocution, and the next he was struggling against having his face introduced to the bathroom tiles.

"What the heck happened to my hairdryer?!" A voice screeched. The bright pink electrical applicant which had been firmly in her grasp just moments before had disappeared.

The same electrical applicant was worth a week's wages. Now let's throw in the fact that it was brand new and yet to be used.

Well, Cecilia thought to herself, forgive me for being a touch hysterical.

The owner of the voice turned towards Kristian with murderous intent, grabbing a fistful of his shirt before proceeding to shake him so hard his head snapped back and forth.

"H-a-i-r. D-r-y-e-r. Where is it?!"

Her brown eyes were blazing. He could almost distinguish thin licks of flame fizzling between the gold specks lining her pupils.

It was official.

Kristian Hayden was trapped with a madwoman. Someone had just popped into her bathroom from nowhere- let's emphasise that, from absolutely nothing but thin air- and all she could think about was a hairdryer?

He was surprised that he wasn't actually stuck in a padded cell with her.

Kristian moved his hand to his shirt, prying away what appeared to be iron claws. His back hit the towel rack.

"Okay, just take a deep breath now," he muttered, looking nervous.

"That's it my petal, breathe. Now count to three. You will remain calm. One…"

She stared at him incredulously, her large eyes blinking.

"Two…"

Her arm began to twitch.

"Three-"

His face was smooshed against a cold wall before he'd even finished counting.

She leaned towards him, trembling with anger.

"I'd like to see you try to petal" she spat the word out like it was poison, "me again."

Stalking towards him, Cecilia hissed, "I'm not a damn flower and I'm not having labour, all I'm asking you is where my hair-dryer…" her eyes widened and her voice rose an octave higher, "JUST what the hell do you think you're doing in my BATHROOM?!"

Kristian grimaced.

So she'd finally noticed.

He tried explaining but her foot came in contact with his shin and he was doubled over, the after-effects of his recent electrical overdose kicking in. He could usually take a lot more pain.

"YOU PERVERT!"

Kick. Kick. Kick kick kick. And kick.

Okay, so now was obviously not the best time to explain, what with the kicking and her attempting to deform his face and all.

She seemed quite busy.

Too busy, in fact, to hear a word of what he was saying.


"Ahem," Kristian cleared his throat, shifting uncomfortably in the leather seat. His conscience was reprimanding him. He knew shouldn't take advantage of her like this, but he just couldn't help it.

Admit it, you enjoy riling her up.

Let's re-track a bit. After the whole, why hello random guy who popped out of nowhere, this is my bathroom and hey bathroom, this is the random guy who just popped out of nowhere… oh my, I'm sure his face would like to personally greet your wall scenario, she'd almost managed to kick him out of the house, muttering, "You're lucky my parents aren't home, if they were… and you gave them synchronised heart attacks… I would have reported you for trespassing, abuse, defecation-"

"Defecation?" He cut in, eyebrow raised.

She stared down at her hands sheepishly, "Well, yeah, it sounds good… after all you did barge into my bathroom and-"

And that's when he'd kindly reminded her of her hairdryer.

Which lead to how he'd come to find himself sitting at Starbucks with her glowering at him from across the table.

"Try holding my hairdryer hostage and you. Will. Die." Cecilia menaced.

In actuality, he didn't have her hairdryer. It was probably somewhere on the other side of the world. Okay, so he knew it was, in fact, on the other side of the world. But she didn't. And that was the most important thing.

Smirking at the colour rising in her cheeks, Kristian calmly took a sip of coffee.

"If you want your hairdryer back, I suggest you be nice to me."

Cecilia grumbled under her breath. He couldn't catch all of it but the gist was wanting to wipe the arrogant smirk off his face, or even better, wipe his face off the planet. Yeah, it's good-bye earth to you… and then she'd started to cackle.

He stared at her stonily, refusing to let the corners of his lips have their way. Unlike his stony self, Kristian's eyebrow was having the workout of its life. He couldn't help it. Hiding an amused grin behind the rim of his coffee cup, he tried desperately not to snort into the rich brown fluid.

She hadn't changed.

Except, of course, for the fact that she didn't exactly recognise him.

He felt a strange bitterness at that thought, but then, it could have just been the coffee.

Well, it was expected. He should have been prepared for it.

It had been seven years. Plus, he highly doubted she wanted to remember him anyway, not after…

After you left without a word?

Kristian himself had only realised exactly whose bathroom he was in when she'd kicked him- painfully, he might add- in the shin.

At that moment, the achingly familiar name had formed automatically on his lips.

Cecilia.


She was looking down at him, her hair flying out behind her.

"Why are you so slow?" Cecilia demanded from the top of a hill, small hands placed on her chubby waist.

"Nope, you're just fast," the boy grinned, a gap showing between his teeth. He'd recently turned six and had knocked his tooth out on a branch the day before. They were climbing trees. Cecilia had been up it like a squirrel, and he'd followed her, afraid she'd fall.

The inevitable happened. She'd slipped and he'd caught her.

Unfortunately, at the same time, a branch had caught his mouth.

"Come on Kristian!"

Pretending to be puffed out, he gasped, "You're too fast for me Ceci!"

Her laughter carried on the wind.

Cecilia was still looking at him as she ran, and when he glanced up, she was heading for a ledge.

His heart thumped painfully.

"Ceci!"

And then Kristian was running, scrambling up rocks and wedging between boulders, not caring if his knees got scraped or his hands banged against stone.

"Huh?" she gaped, confused at the sudden burst of speed from her companion. Her expression turned to horror when she realised her foot was dangling over thin air.

That's when he rocketed into her, and they were rolling to the side.

When they'd both caught their breath and lay sprawled on the grass, Kristian uttered, "That was stupid,"

Cecilia shifted from the grass tickling her neck, earnest eyes peeking out of a dimpled face.

"No, you're stupid."

"What?" Kristian sat up, his gaze disbelieving, "You're the one who-"

"You're stupid." Her chin jutted out stubbornly.

"Am not," he retorted, brushing grass off his pants.

"Are too!"

Her eyes were wet.

Kristian knew the signs too well. He had a moment to prepare himself before she launched herself at him, bawling her eyes out.

When she had finished wiping her snot on his new t-shirt, she'd proclaimed, "You can too run fast!"

Then Cecilia promptly kicked him in the shin.

"You're not allowed to lie to me!"


Sunlight glanced off her cheek as she leaned forward, elbows placed on the coffee table.

"So, how exactly did you get into my bathroom?" Cecilia snapped, irritated by the arrogant smirk spreading across his face.

Rolling up the sleeves of his shirt to reveal lightly tanned skin, Kristian downed the rest of his coffee in one mouthful. His grey eyes had lightened to a pale shade of blue, and were searching and slightly hesitant as he carefully selected his next words. He ran a rather long and complicated list of terminology through his mind, then gave up, opting for a simpler version of the truth. Not the whole truth, but some of it. He owed her that much.

Noticing his unwavering gaze, Cecilia felt the back of her neck tingle. She swallowed uncomfortably.

"I teleported," he deadpanned.

"Oh, so you teleported… that's nice."

They blinked at each other.

Cecilia appeared to be taking this surprisingly well, Kristian thought.

She slammed her hands on the table, causing his empty coffee cup to topple.

Ok, maybe not so well then.

"You teleported my ass!" She yelled, nearly knocking over her leather backed chair.

"No, not your ass, just your hairdryer," Kristian grunted under his breath.

She didn't hear him.

Cecilia ignored the weird glances being cast in their direction and continued ranting, "I ask you a simple question and you don't answer. I ask you a slightly more complicated question and your brain obviously gives out on you. And now," she waved her hands in the air, "you've resorted to grunting. Are you a caveman? Because you're giving a damn good impersonation of one!"

"No, I'm far more advanced than a caveman," he retorted, slightly irked by her accusations. Fine, he'd just make something up then. That'll satisfy her.

"Okay, I'll tell you the truth," he sighed, sitting back in his chair.

Awkwardly, Cecilia lowered herself, blushing as she realised how an elderly lady was gawping at them, a piece of cake suspended comically near her mouth. She ducked her head.

"I needed to use a toilet," Kristian stated simply. "I saw your house, the window was open so…"

Cecilia grasped the edge of the chair with white knuckled hands.

"The window to my bathroom?"

"Yeah…"

The colour drained out of her face as she hissed, "What did you see?"

Kristian hadn't seen anything but her standing in a towel. The bathroom wall had also proved fascinating. But he wasn't about to let her know that.

It was payback time.

Licking his lips, Kristian whispered silkily, "Everything."


A/N: Yay! Amazing huh, yet another chapter is up! Whoot! I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter 'cause I sure as heck enjoyed writing it… grin… you might notice that it's (markedly) longer than the previous chapters… ahem, yes, that would be me trying to get back into the typing long chapters mode. I'm not promising anything but I'm trying! So plenty of action this time huh? Some things are still unexplained, but if I explained everything then we'd be done! The story would be finished lol! Oh and Kristian and Cecilia are happy about this chapter too… probably because there was so much of them in it. They're quite big headed, you know.

Join me for the next chapter? A tidbit… hmmm, it's school/uni/college/study time- whatever floats your boat. Expect new characters… smile…

Much love,

eyesofahuntress

P.S Thanks also to all who added me/the story to their favourites but didn't review, I'll try to live up to it… winks.

P.P.S Please review if you can. You know I love reviews, they feed me. And I'm always hungry. Hungry writers can't write… cough… CC's also welcome, anything to help improve the story/my writing.