Archive of Our Own

Estela hadn’t seen Taylor since morning; the latter went off by herself to forage about a mile or so away from the resort. Though Estela had confidence in Taylor to manage herself, she couldn’t help but feel that she should’ve gone with. Just in case.

Her pacing had not gone unnoticed by the others. Most of them chose to ignore it, let Estela cope with her nerves how she will, but a few wanted to step in and distract her. After all, nervousness was contagious.

Sean whispered to Jake, “Hey… do you think we should say something? It’s not like Taylor to be gone for this long.” Concern painted itself across his face, never taking his eyes off of the pacing, scowling figure.

Jake rolled his eyes. “Cap’, you know as well as I do that Princess is more than capable by herself,” he nodded towards the direction Taylor went. “Sarah Connor knows that better than the rest of us.”

A moment passed. Estela seemed to be working herself up, and the others had started to stare. Sean looked to the others and frowned. Nobody else really seemed to know Estela, certainly not enough to pacify her doubts. He heard someone get out of the pool.

“Awright, I got this, don’t worry your pretty little head,” Jake muttered, quickly drying himself off. He made a pitstop at the cooler sitting nearby, grabbed two beers, and headed over to stand in Estela’s path.

Keenly aware that everyone had been staring at her, Estela gritted her teeth. How could everyone be so calm?

Not looking up, Estela growled out a short, “Move,” at Jake, who stood in front of her. He cocked his head.

“Now is that any way to treat a friend?” He smirked, holding up one of the beers. Estela stopped and glanced at him suspiciously.

“What are you doing?” Estela deadpanned, cautious. She didn’t quite trust Jake’s intentions. He was good to have in a survival situation -- he’d proven his capabilities time after time --, but he seemed to be a bit lacking when it came to making friends. She empathized to a degree, but didn’t find it useful to make everyone else the butt of a joke only he knew the punchline to. Surely this was just another one of those times.

Feigning offense, Jake gasped and spoke in an exaggerated tone. “Why, Katniss! I’m offended! I only wanna help you take a load off.” He offered the beer again, smiling when Estela took it. He dropped the dramatized voice. “C’mon, let’s sit down.”

He sounded sincere enough. It was a side of him that seemed hard to come by, so Estela resigned with a shrug and followed him.

Using a tooth to remove the cap, Jake took a swig before sitting down. “So,” he started, gazing off into the horizon painted in hues of orange and pink. “D’ya really think she can’t handle herself out there?”

Getting right to the point, huh? Estela shot him a glare. She knew he was baiting her and couldn’t bring herself to respond. After all, of course Taylor can handle herself! What kind of stupid question was that?

Jake watched her. She turned the ice-cold bottle around in her hands, not wanting to freeze her fingers.

“Need a hand?” He nodded towards the bottle, but she absently shook her head.

“No.”

Jake shrugged noncommittally and chugged a third of his bottle. “Suit yourself.”

Time passed, silent, between them. He didn’t know what he was expecting - Estela to open up the floodgates and pour out her frustrations? Jake huffed a quick, humourless laugh.

“Why chain yourself here if it’s just gonna make you miserable?” Jake asked, though it was more rhetorical than a true question. Estela answered, anyway.

“I don’t want her to think I… don’t trust her,” her voice sounded strained; Jake was a bit surprised at the vulnerability he heard. His eyes softened as he looked at her, still fidgeting with her unopened bottle.

“Come now, she don’t think that, ‘n’ you know it,” he said, as soothing as he could muster. She looked away, becoming interested in the stars that were starting to peak out behind the curtain of daylight.

Another minute or so passed. The silence wasn’t comfortable, but Jake didn’t rush to fill the gap. He could do awkward, it was by far the easiest trial La Huerta would see, and he’d much rather deal with this a thousand times over than fight another sea monster, or run from another sabertooth.

“You should go to her,” He offered, glancing at her to see her face morph from screwed in concentration to consideration. Glad to see he was getting through to her, in one way or another, he continued, “She prolly misses you as much as you miss her.”

At that, Estela turned to study Jake’s face. Was he making fun of her? She knew she could get overprotective and she was working on it. It’s not that she didn’t trust Taylor, it’s just… she was scared to think of something happening to Taylor without being there to help. If she let anything bad befall her, she didn’t know how she’d be able to forgive herself.

Jake returned eye contact. Without either saying anything, understanding passed through them, which turned into a moment of shared comfort.

Estela placed the bottle on the ground and stood up, suddenly. Her face hardened with a new resolve; one with a purpose, a goal beyond waiting and worrying herself sick. Jake smiled as he saw Estela head off in the direction Taylor went that morning.

“Bring ‘er back safe,” he teased. She stopped momentarily and Jake froze, wondering if he just ruined her improved mood. To his relief, she merely turned her head back to look at him and softly thanked him.

Jake leaned back in his lawn chair and finished off his beer while Estela headed off into the distance.

Estela hurried. Night was quick on her heels, and she wanted to find Taylor before it set and made tracking ten times harder.

There wasn’t any real worry that Taylor got attacked; in fact, there wasn’t really a concrete worry for Estela to turn to and blame. She just… felt scared, and that kind of fear seemed to come with the territory of loving someone. It was an unavoidable aspect of the relationship she was struggling to get used to.

She tried to stave off the gnawing anxiety in her gut by internally repeating affirmations of Taylor’s safety. Of course Taylor was safe, why wouldn’t she be?

... No, I’m not humouring this! Estela viciously shook her head and took a deep breath. It’s fine. Taylor was fine.

Twenty minutes or so had past, and Estela knew she overshot the area Taylor usually went to forage. She probably went farther than usual, especially if she was gone all day.

Nearby, a bush rustled, and Estela whipped around, already in a defensive stance. She just realized… she forgot her spear. Dammit!

Quickly, Estela scanned the ground, in hopes of finding some sort of decent sized branch. If it came to hand-to-hand, she would be fine, but extra security never hurt.

The bush rustled again, and Estela held her breath. She spotted a long stick close to the brush, her eyes darting between the two.

Okay, just need to be fast, and I start off with the upper hand. She took a second to brace herself, then lunged toward the stick, rolled on the grass, and jumped back up, next to the bush. She yelled a semblance of a battle cry as she reared back to attack the creature--

“-- AAAH ! W-WHAT?!” was the response Estela got. She froze. That blood-curdling scream sounded familiar.

The bush rustled once more as Taylor backed out of it, properly emerging. She had a basket, filled with bundles of herbs and berries, dangling from her arm. Even in the waning sunlight, Estela could tell she looked pale.

A moment of tense silence passed as they got their bearings. Estela was the one to move first.

“ Mihermosaestabatanpreocupada!” Estela blurted out breathlessly, rushing forward to crush Taylor in a bear hug.

Taylor was only able to choke out a monosyllabic grunt as Estela squeezed tighter, burying her face in her shoulder, still muttering rapid-fire Spanish.

Still stunned from the pair of screams from not thirty seconds earlier, Taylor slowly brought her arms up around Estela to return the embrace.

“H-hey,” Taylor breathed, running her hand along Estela’s back in a soothing pattern. “How’s it… goin’?” She asked, lamely. Her brain still wasn’t functioning well enough to be conversational.

Estela pulled back enough to see Taylor’s face, arms still wrapped around her. “Your heart, it’s racing,” Estela declared, having the gall to sound surprised. Taylor narrowed her eyes and pressed her forehead against Estela’s, then dropped her voice, “Why do you think that is?”

As if just now becoming aware of herself, Estela’s eyes widened and she pulled back. She blinked quickly and suddenly looked extremely self-conscious. “S-sorry… I--”

Taylor smiled and pulled Estela back into her space, piecing together what had happened: Estela was actually worried about her, and it was adorable. Could Estela be any more endearing?

“Nuh-uh, no apologizing,” Taylor muttered, warmly. They were close enough for Taylor to feel Estela’s hot breath on her lips. “You’re here now, which means you get a prize for your efforts…”

Taylor leaned forward and claimed Estela’s lips as her own. It was a sweet kiss, and Taylor pulled back after just enough time for Estela to want more. It took a second for Estela’s brain to align with her mouth.

“ ...Oh. ”

Taylor giggled, happy to see Estela start to relax, preoccupied with a much more comforting thought than whatever anxious mess was running through her mind before.

“How’d you like your prize?” Taylor teased, fully aware the kiss wasn’t long enough to completely satisfy either of them. Then again, it would take far more than one kiss to do that. Far more…

The look on Estela’s face stirred something within Taylor. Estela’s eyes were half-lidded, clouded over with a longing so intense, it made Taylor’s lower abdomen flip. She felt herself shiver at the hungry once-over Estela gave her. I can almost feel what she’s thinking of doing to me...

Taylor vaguely became aware of backing up against a tree. One of Estela’s hands reached up to cup Taylor’s cheek, while the other snaked up to support the back of Taylor’s head. With her lips parted, Estela leaned over Taylor and deeply mumbled something that made Taylor inhale sharply as desire started to take over.

“...You’re mine. ”