Numbing the Poison(Private)

Colin awome to a bright light shining down on his fsce. It toom him a while to real I ze tgat it was the sunrise, snd a big longer to realize Leila was still asleep.
Colin smiled yo.himself as he lay back down beside her,  pickung up het hand anf placing his on top of it.

She looked so delicate and breakable in the paddle orange gold of the sun. So easy tobreak, so easy to hurt. Sure, he knew the truth was far from that, but everyone needed just a little someone to protect them, right?

And for the first time in a long time, Colin promised to be Leila's someone.

All Leila remembered was a blank sleep. No dreams, no nightmares. She was grateful for the latter actually since on some occasions when she was feeling particularly depressed or sad, memories from the Battle of Manhattan would haunt her. Mostly the faces of the dead; whether they were in her arms or laying on the street, she'd never forget it. She also saw her own dad asleep in his car when Morpheus had passed on a kind of sleep across the state that made everyone look dead themselves.

She was awaken by a heat kissing her skin and she blinked her eyes opened until she remembered that they had slept outside and the sun was currently awakening from the previous darkness. She groaned, closing her eyes and tugging the blanket over her head to block the light. Yes yes the sight was utterly beautiful for sunrise, woopdeedoo! Leila was just not a morning person. She curled in on herself, bringing her knees to her chest so that there wasn't an inch of her that wasn't hidden by the blanket that she had probably stripped Colin of. Speaking of the boy, he already seemed to be awake so she didn't feel too bad about taking it from him.

She nudged his side with her head, peeking a sleepy gaze up at the boy bathed in sunlight. "Morning."

"Morning," he groaned in response. Wait, what? Nature boy wasn't a morning person? 

Well, that wasn't really the reason behind the groaning. It was actually more like  Leila-had-woken-up-so-he-couldn't-stare-at-her-perfection dissapointment.

Colin gave an easy yawn before sitting up and stretching. He slud his glasses on, before turning to face her. "If we leave niw, we can get breakfast before the airport, and you can sleep in the truck," He suggested, dragging his backpack over to.him.

"Mhmm," Leila replied as she flipped the blanket off of her face and started to sit up. She yawned, scratching the back of her head before blindly reaching by her side to get her camera. She took a quick candid of Colin one which was absolutely glorious with the sun hitting on him at the perfect angle with his bedhead and all before she leaned over towards him and put the camera in front of the both of them. She gave a big smile and had her button ready to take the shot, "Say cheese!"

She took the photo and looked back over it, brightening when she saw the picture, that one was a keeper. She smiled faintly at it and hung the camera back around her neck before standing up with the blanket. After folding it and tucking it inside Colin's backpack she went back to go put on her shoes. Once her sword was secured back onto her, Leila brought the camera back to her face as she backed up, the loose white dress swaying beside her as she angled the perfect shot.

There.

A beautiful valley bathed in morning sunrise. She'd managed to sneak in a photo of the stars right before she had went to sleep and was grateful for it too; who knows how long before she and Colin came back here? Or if he wanted to come back with her at all. She dusted off the loose dirt and grass from her dress as well as those kinds of thoughts because really, all they did was make her feel bad and doubt herself so why have them anyway?

"I'll sleep on the plane or when we get back to camp. It isn't really one of my number one priorities right now." Leila declared flashing the boy a grin. It was true though since the urge she felt to be awake and talk more with him was definitely more stronger than her urge to sleep a few more hours.

Colin couldn't help but smile, as he flipped his head over and gave her a wink for the picture. Afterwards, he laughed and pulled his backpack over his shoulders, standing up and slipping on his hiking boots.

"You ready?" He asked as he looked over at her, once again shocked by her overall beauty. Oh, gods, that's cliche.

He opened up the un-beaten path again and slowly trekked through, knocking down spider webs and holding branches out of the way for Leila as he did so. When they finally reached the camp site, they quickly packed everything up before heading down to the truck and loading up.

"I'm really glad we got to do this, you know. Its a lot more fun having someone with you," He said, giving her a small smirk as he opened her door for her.


OOC: Since Colin already started the quest, do you want to start the whole topic we talked about earlier? You know, where they, like, talk about the issues at camp/middle of the night depression idk.

OOC: Sure

BIC:

After putting the last of their things inside Colin's car, she climbed inside the door that he had opened so gentlemanly for her. Leila gave the son of Serket a cheeky smile and leaned over to give him a peck on the forehead, "I am too. Thanks for inviting me, I had a blast."

She closed the door without seeing his reaction and leaned back on her seat as she closed her eyes. This has been the best camping trip of her entire life. If only she had friends to brag about it to back at camp. Oh well, it didn't matter. A little smile crept onto her face and she faced the door beside her so Colin couldn't see the look of utter happiness she had right now.

OOC: OH MY GOD KAYLA YOU JUST UGH THE FANGIRLING IS TOO EXTREEEME LIKE UGH GDAIUADGIYGDAUIW

BIC: Colin's face broke out into an uncontrollable grin and he cleared his throat, circling back around to the driver's side of the truck.

"So, I'm thinking about a rock climbing trip in Tennessee in a few weeks. What d'ya say?" He asked, dying to spend more time with her. Over the past few days, Leila had progressed from a stranger to a companion, from a want to a need. He'd felt that way before with someone, and he wasn't going to let that feeling escape him again.

Since Astaria, there'd been a gaping hole left in him, and Leila, no matter how cliche it sounded, was slowly filling that hole back up.

Leila fought hard to keep the grin on her face from spreading too wide as she faced Colin although she couldn't help it. She was beaming like the sun. She bit her lip as a strand of her hair fell in her eyes but she tucked it back behind her ear while she nodded, "That sounds great! I'd love to go."

Gods she was going to regret saying this.

"Are you from Tennesee?" She asked. Without waiting for a response she continued, "Cause you're the only ten I see."

Leila giggled until she was full out laughing at herself. That pick up line was just so old and cheesy that she couldn't help it! Once her little fit of laughter subsided she combed back her hair with her fingers to get the mass of inky waves out of her face. She looked back at Colin and smiled again. She liked this- Whatever this was. He was a great friend, that she could say in the least. But she couldn't stop the selfish feeling tugging at her chest that she wanted something more than just friendship. She looked away, cheeks burning, gods she was selfish.

Colin couldn't help cracking up at the line. Wow, she was great. As he cruised back down the road, Over My Head slipped in through the static on the radio, and he turned it up.

"Are you from Connecticut? Cause I feel a serious connection." He responded, playfully nudging her as he did so.

***

As they re-entered the camp's boundary, Colin couldn't help but feel a bit sad. He really didn't want this trip to end. Once this was over, they would probably never see each other again. After all, it was a big camp.

"I'm really glad we got to do this. We should try this again some time," He said, turning to face her as the mid-day sun beat down across his back.

Leila was content as they entered camp borders. Sure she was probably not going to be able to see him again for a while since camp was so big and full of people but she'd find him. That sounded really stalker-ish and creepy but they'd meet again. She was sure of it. She walked with a skip in her step and stopped when Colin turned to face her.

"I had an amazing time. With you, of course." She added, praying to the gods that she wasn't blushing.

"And don't sound like we're never going to see each other again! You can always look for me in my bunk or scout me out in The Mess Hall. Besides, you can't leave me hanging when you said we should go rock climbing in Tennessee." Leila gave him a beaming smile and shoved him playfully. She combed her hair back from her face with her hand before looking back up at him with a faint dust of pink scattering on her cheeks. Gods know there was no way he couldn't see her blush now. "And I like you. You're one of the few friends I have at this god forsaken place."

OOC: i know we started the other rp but i feel like i shouldn't have just left colin hanging like that