As Kieran listed off his orders, Aura struggled to make mental notes of it all, her eyes lazily studying his face, shoulders, and arms as exhaustion had overcome her long before they ever crossed paths.  Now, in a matter of an hour, he held her life in his large, rugged hands-

Snapping back into reality as his last statement was made, her eyes widened and she nodded rapidly. “Sleep, yeah.” She stood back up with a groan and dusted her black pants off vigorously to rid them of the dirt that settled long ago on the garage floor. “Don’t try anything,” she grumbled as she squatted behind him and began to work at the knot holding his wrists behind his back. Once loose, she gently tugged his arms until they were free of the rope. 

“You run,” she sighed as she headed towards the cot in the corner and unfolded it from the wall until it cracked into place, “and I’ll have a hit out on you by dawn. Plus, I’m a light sleeper.”

While Aura made plenty of idiotic decisions in the past few hours, this may have been the dumbest, but in good conscious, she couldn’t let the man sleep in the position she had him. Hopefully her threat would be enough to keep him in place for the night.

As if a dog curling up on his blanket, she took her time wiggling about until she found a comfortable position to sleep in while being able to keep an eye on him. Once satisfied, she groaned and let her eyes start to flutter. “Good night, Kieran.”

[center]***[/center]

Aura awoke completely startled and almost launched herself off the cot. Father’s garage? Oh yeah. Clothes drying on the chair? Yes, it was raining. Man asleep on the floor? She wished she could forget.

While he remained asleep, she quickly changed into the close from the previous nights and laced her boots quietly, using them to nudge him gently as she towered over him. “Let’s go.”

The walk though the fields was silent, more awkward than any morning she’d had before with a man, and her body remained on full alert the entire time. She had seen herself in the reflection of a glass just before leaving, and she had inconspicuously worked on removing the round smudges of coal that had blurred around her eyes as they stomped along. The sunrise began to peak behind them, and it drenched their surroundings in pink and orange. Aura couldn’t help but peer over her shoulder a few times.

The guard tower was finally visible in the distance.

“I have to stop here,” she panted, planting her feet apart and crossing her arms. Attempting to seem intimidating felt stupid in front of the skyscraper in front of her, but Gregor always said, [i]”Pretend to be the warrior you want to be.”[/i]

The thousands of thoughts racing through Aura’s mind made it hard for her to keep a steady breath and remain present in the moment, but she had fucked up enough to know that she couldn’t - at least in this moment - take back anything that transpired.

“I can meet you in the tunnels tonight,” she offered with a blank expression. “9:00 PM.” In defeat, her eyes shot down to the ground between them. “Bring food. Meat if you can get any. Ale works too.”

Without another word, Aura extended a hand to Kieran. A silent agreement that they both were bonded together by a mutual need. Once they broke off, she shoved his bag in his hand, complete with his gun and paperwork. "Please don't fuck me over, Kieran."