The Fateful Heart

James laughed quietly and lifted an imaginary glass, before lowering his hand and shaking his head.

"Well. Guess I have to go." He met Evaline's eyes for a moment, staring at her intently for just a second before he broke eye contact. "Again."

He sighed and straightened up slowly, feeling his back and shoulders ache and stretch.

He wanted to lie down, but he didn't know if that would make things awkward. That, and he still felt... uneasy. Couldn't shake the idea that they could be minutes away from another disaster, even though they'd spent the last two days, almost entirely, on the move.

A wave of exhaustion started to roll over him, and his eyelids felt heavy. He started slouching, even though it hurt just as much to do that as have good posture. It didn't really matter, at this point. Everything hurt to some degree. It just all seemed to hurt more at the end of the day, and as tiredness finally caught up to him, it started compounding.

He knew he wouldn't be able to fall asleep anytime soon. But he wished he could. He often did. Every day he did.

As an always-present dull headache in the back of his head started growing stronger, he closed his eyes.

Truths. Lies. Something.

"My mother taught me how to read. When I was little, my little sister would always get me in trouble. Uh..." he sighed again, eyes still closed. He didn't really want to pick something boring, anymore. "I have an irrational fear that if someone pokes my bellybutton too hard, it'll unravel and my insides will spill out."

Evaline let out a dumb giggle. She didn't spend any time thinking through his answers.

"The belly button fear," she said through a laugh. "There's no way that's true."

James smiled, just a little. He cupped his hands over his face as he slouched further forward.

"No," he muttered through his hands. "That one's true. My dad taught me how to read."

Huh. So she was wrong.

"Oh, really now?" Evaline said in a teasing voice. She suddenly leaned towards him with a devilish grin. "Sounds like this needs to be tested."

James slid his hands down to his chin and looked up at Evaline, feeling a small amount of panic stir in his stomach.

"I don't think that will be necessary," he said carefully, keeping his tone neutral, even though he could already feel his body itching to flee.

Evaline suddenly scooted right next to him. "But how am I supposed to believe that?" she said in an innocent voice, leaning towards him so that her arm was touching his.

"I mean, we just have to prove it. Right?"

She had the biggest grin on her face.

James shrank away from her touch, leaning to the side. He felt like what was coming was inevitable, and mentally, he tried to brace himself for it. His muscles started to tense - which really, would only make it worse - but he tried to take in a deep breath to relax, at least a little.

"I see you're not the type to simply take me at my word," he said hesitantly, watching her hands out of the corner of his eyes.

"Nope," Evaline sounded out. She quickly leaned in about to jab him where she thought his belly button was, but then decided to gently touch it instead when she remembered him, all those days ago, sitting by the river without a shirt, his chest filled with bandages.

She didn't want to hurt him, but...

She also had to find that belly button.

James watched her hands and he instinctively brought his hands over his stomach as her finger jabbed towards his gut. She pulled her punch and he deflected her hand by hitting it with his arm, so she ended up poking his belt. But if he hadn't, she probably would've found his bellybutton.

He slapped at her hand and started to scoot away, pushing back with his legs.

James slapped her hand away and caused her to miss, but that just made her want to try even harder now. A silly sense of competition rose to the surface, and she vowed that she would find out his reaction if she poked his belly button.

"Hey, come back here!" she barked, scooting towards him again, this time crawling on all fours, about to transition to be up on her feet.

James grit his teeth and pushed himself to his feet before Evaline could grab him. He pushed himself to go at full speed from the start, darting off towards the field.

So they were racing now.

Well, one thing was for sure: Evaline wasn't going to lose against a hobbling man.

She sprinted after him, knowing full well that James had the advantage of a head start. She was more of a long distance runner and wasn't an amazing sprinter, but with James's bad leg, she easily caught up to him.

She reached out with both arms, gently wrapping them around his chest so he was secure and wouldn't get away under her grasp.

"Gotcha!"

He didn't get very far before Evaline caught him. Even though she wasn't applying much pressure, he felt her arms lock around his chest. He let his legs do what they wanted to do, and they buckled, and he fell.

He slipped through her grasp, and he felt her arms tighten around his shoulders, but not in time. His head made it through and he dropped to the ground, catching himself with his hands. The impact made several areas of his body start to ache, and he couldn't tell if it would've been better to just take it.

He huffed through his nose and attempted to crawl away, but his leg was burning.

Evaline watched him crawl away when she was towering over him, and she almost pitied him.

Almost.

She didn't want to hurt him, so she purposefully let some wiggle room in her grip around him earlier, but he took advantage of her considerations and fell through anyways. Pssh. Next time, she wouldn't let him get away this easy.

"Admit defeat yet?" she teased, walking along side him as he crawled away.

The fire was farther away now, but with the crescent moon radiating above them with the blanket of stars, she was able to hear and dimly see the waterfall nearby.

James knew he didn't have the energy to escape. Not for something as trivial as this. This wasn't a life or death situation. He didn't have the extra push of adrenaline.

He stopped, and flopped over onto his back, looking up at her. And in fateful irony, his shirt caught between his back and the ground, tugging around his waist, and it slid up. The cool night air nipped at his now exposed bellybutton.

"Fine," he said in defeat. "You win."