Witness Protection ✔

Understanding

Since the old home wasn't connected to the internet and they were still on the run they had no choice but to spend their evenings watching shitty cable tv. They would've read a book but the only light bright enough to read without hurting their eyes was the bathroom light, which they didn't feel like putting somewhere else since they needed that light to shower.

She laid with her head in his lap while his legs were propped up on the table in front of them. One of his hands lightly massaged her scalp while the other was flung over the back of the couch.

The show they were watching wasn't particularly thrilling but she still got annoyed when the 5th commercial break started. No show needed that many breaks.

When she looked up at him he wore the same neutral face he always had, but the twitch in his jaw indicated he was annoyed as well. She reached up to stroke his jaw lightly with the back of her fingers until the tension decreased.

"Will you tell me about you?"

His eyes instantly connected with hers and slightly narrowed. She knew he'd put up his guard out of reflex but she wanted him to lower it for a little while.

"Like what?" he replied. The answer gave her hope since he hadn't outright said 'no'.

Shrugging, she continued running her fingertips along his jaw. "Anything you want to tell me."

He was quiet for a while, mulling over his answer. She still didn't like that she knew so little about him while he knew everything about her.

"I don't like raccoons," he said, causing her to giggle a little bit.

"Why not?" she asked, smiling. "They look so fluffy and cute."

The corner of his mouth lifted upwards while he removed his hand from her hair to run it along her neck, leaving a trail of electricity in his wake. "You grew up in the city right?" he asked before continuing when she nodded. "I didn't. I grew up in a rural town in the middle of nowhere. Every night I could hear them sift through our trash with their little hands."

"I think that bothered me the most about them, their hands. I feel like they shouldn't have hands," he ended with a frown.

His final confession made her burst out in full-on laughter. She clutched her stomach and almost fell off the couch. The more she laughed the less air she could breathe and it took her a few moments to calm down enough to take a good breath of air.

"Do-- Do you think there are raccoons in this area?" she asked all of a sudden. She'd never actually seen one before but if he didn't like them she was sure she wouldn't either.

"No, I haven't seen any signs of them."

She relaxed back into the couch, but instead of placing her head back in his lap, she scooted upwards to lay against his side.

"Your turn," he said all of a sudden, confusing her.

She felt like he already knew everything about her, she wasn't nearly as secretive as he was about her life. "What do you want to know? You already know everything, right?" she asked.

"I know the big lines, where you were born and who your family was. But I want to know more personal things about you, stuff they don't put into those files."

It made sense but her mind drew a blank. What could she say? Talking about herself was something she'd always had trouble doing.

"I... I like painting?"

It came out more like a question than an answer but it was good enough for Darius. "So what do you like to paint?"

She shifted and grabbed his arm to put it around her before she answered, "Anything, nature, people, animals. I'm not very good at it and I don't feel bad admitting that but I do enjoy it."