A few weeks had passed since the last time she'd thought about a certain Blonde boy who she'd kissed and ultimately done the dirty with, thus sealing his fate on her dad's $h*t list forever. She'd gotten dragged home, argued a lot and very loudly the whole way, and cooped herself up in her room to work on essays and class work until her house arrest was over. 

She'd actually forgotten all about the whole thing until one morning at breakfast, when her dad had brought it up again snarkily, and she was reminded that she still needed to rub his face in it some more. So, after loudly proclaiming that they were still dating, and that they were actually going to go on a three day hunting trip up in the forest, she packed a bag and headed out to get everything set up. 

Was she going to call Xavier and tell him that he'd been roped into all of this unknowingly? No. Because her dad probably still had her phone bugged and she didn't wanna give him the satisfaction. 

Elke made it back to the Rez in record time and headed over to her second oldest brothers house to borrow his Truck, one of the Tipi's they normally used for the yearly Powwows. A few hours later she had the truck packed with everything she would need for food, shelter, and protection, and she was on her way back into the city. 

A full day after she had told her dad about it, she showed up at Xavier's apartment in the wee hours of the morning, picked his lock, and let herself in. 

"Rise and shine! Get your @$$ dressed, we're going camping!"

She stopped at the end of his bed, hands on her hips in camo pants, a loose tanktop, and a camo jacket. "Jesus, you sleep in like this all the time?"

It was 3 in the morning.

Three weeks and four days.

Three weeks and four days had gone by since he'd run into Elke at school, and his whole day had been turned on its head from there. He'd spent much of that time confused and mystified about what was going on in his life. She'd said he was her boyfriend, but he didn't have her number, didn't know where exactly to find her, and no one had been willing to help out for fear of getting on the Masochists bad side.

So there he'd been, waiting to hear from her... Wondering if this had all been a ruse or if he'd been imagining things, or misinterpreting something...

Had she forgotten about him? How could... anyone forget that night? He couldn't. He couldn't stop thinking about it. It had been hard to focus on other things since then. I mean, he still did, but it had been really hard!

He started to stir when he heard a bit of a racket at his door. His open floor plan carried sound pretty far, so he was just looking up with sleepy eyes when someone suddenly barged in. He was standing on his bed in his jammies by the time Elke was at the foot of it, standing there with a confused and sleepy expression as he took a self defense pose, and stared down at her.

He blinked a few times.

Wait, Elke? Camping. "What- uh what?"

He looked over at his alarm clock, where a pale green display flashed 3:02... "Sleep... in?" I mean, he tended to rise early, but... wow. 3am? He looked back to her. "Uhm... Elke... You, uh... look good?"

Smooth.

She lifted a dark eyebrow at him and crossed her arms "@#$%in 'course I do." She stated simply, and then huffed. Was he always this slow in the morning? Maybe she'd just have to wake him up a bit first. "Ditch the pants, nerd."

She threw her jacket at his face as she began to peel her tank-top off.

-- FTB --

An hour later she was dressed again and grumpily making room for his stuff in the borrowed truck. They were behind schedule now, but, eh, some things you couldn't avoid, right? He was awake now, they were about to get on the road; the ball was rolling.

"If you need breakfast before we hit the highway you better say so now. It's a 4 and a half-hour drive to the camping spot and I only planned for one bathroom break."

The back of the truck was packed finally, and so neatly organized it look like she had played a game of Tetris with all of the supplies. She climbed up into the driver seat and buckled in, turning the truck on and waiting for an answer.

Well, what else was he supposed to say?! It was the first thing to come to mind, and it was three AM, and he'd just woken up, and, oh, she wanted him to take off his pants. "Okay."

~~~~One Hour Later~~~~

He was awake, that was for sure. He was... Wow. Like. This was awesome. Wait, was it awesome? Terrifying? Confusing. So, so confusing. But, he was packed. He knew how to fit a lot of stuff in a small place(don't gutter), on account of his camp outs for hero LARP events and the like. He'd always ended up cooking for everyone as well, so when she said they were going camping, he'd been confused, but also interested and maybe even a bit excited about it.

He presented her with the bacon he'd whipped up real quick while she was messing with the truck. Who didn't like bacon? Chewy, like god intended. It was important not to eat too heavily for long road trips, so he hadn't made too much.

"I've got you. Want some?" He opened up the paper toweled ziplock baggy and held it out her way, grabbing a strip for himself either way. The tall man buckled in, and looked at her with and expectant look as he chewed his mobile meal. "So... It's been a bit, huh? How'd it go with your dad? He, uh... seemed mad."

Grab a piece of bacon she did. She chewed on it like a strip of jery as she got them out onto the road and started heading toward the freeway.

"Eh, he's always mad about something. That's never gonna change." She didn't bother elaborating until they were out of the early morning traffic enough that she could concentrate on actively replying.

"Kinda forgot about the whole thing until he opened his stupid mouth and asked me about it a few days ago." She settled into her seat a bit more and reached for her tumbler of coffee for a sip.

"I was planning on going hunting soon anyway, so I figured this was a great time to test your lame ass eagle scout skills." She offered him the tumbler since he hadn't brought along any coffee of his own. It was black. No sugar, no cream, just like dear ole dad drank.

"You get to choose what kinda game we're taking down when we get there. Deer are pretty common, but there's also a small game like rabbits and squirrel if you're squeamish." She wasn't sure if the scouts, any of them, really went into that.

"You ever slept in a Tipi?"

Someone sped up and tried to keep her from merging in front of them on the highway. She flipped them the bird casually and merged after they passed.

He seemed happy that she grabbed the bacon. I mean, he'd thought she might be hungry, and they'd certainly earned it in calories. He sorta nodded a bit when she mentioned Saphirus always being mad about something. That checked out. He always seemed grumpy as a persona.

He sort of looked at her with two slightly raised eyebrows as she mentioned forgetting about all of this until a few days ago. "Like... you forgot about... me?" He politely turned down the coffee. He didn't drink coffee during road trips to avoid its diuretic properties causing the need for more stops. More importantly, what? Like... Did she... really forget? I mean. It had been an AMAZING night. And Morning. And then. His window. There was a big fight.

What did her life look like to make that a forgettable occurence?!

He frowned, looking out the window for a moment. She asked about what game he wanted to hunt, and he thought for a moment. "Wait... Is it even deer season?" He wasn't going to poach! That was wrong!

He paused as she asked if he'd slept in a tipi. "Can't say I have... Wait, you brought a Tipi?" He grabbed the Oh-sh#$ bar as she merged into traffic somewhat aggressively. They'd lost some time to... uhm... packing, so there were slightly more cars on the road, but it wasn't too bad.

"So... growing up with the Masochist for a dad... Must have been interesting."

"Uh... yeah?"

She glanced at him and gestured slightly like that wasn't a surprise. "I've been stuck as a ten year old for months. Do you have any idea how behind on assignments I am?" Well, was. She'd knocked out quite a few while cooped up for three weeks, but whatever.

Was it deer season? "Nope, but populations are up and @#$# paying the city to hunt on my people's own goddamn land." Whatever though. She'd told him about the other stuff they could hunt, too. It wasn't an issue.

"I didn't grow up with him. He adopted me a few years back, and it was either that or some other dumb foster family again. Didn't turn out too bad, really. He's a hardass but at least he doesn't have a stick up his butt about everything."

She could still remember that one old crone who'd forced her to wear frilly dresses like that was going to bleed the street kid out of her.

"If you've got questions don't beat around the @#$&in bush. Just ask. I hate people tiptoeing around me because they think I've got fragile feelings."

Woah. Just like... A casual admittance that he wasn't that big of a deal to her. He looked to the road, trying to just... wrap his head around all of this. "Oh... Okay."

He sort of felt a little better when she blamed it on school. Yeah. She just had a lot going on. It's not like you've been thinking about her for three weeks straight, right? Not at all. God, he was such a loser. He shook the blow to his morale off and leaned back in his seat.

She mentioned populations being up and whatnot, and he frowned. "I think we can pick something else, then. I'd rather not poach." Wasn't now the time of year that the young were being raised and whatnot? He wasn't sure. Deer weren't his area of expertise. Maybe if they started wearing capes?

He was back on attention when she told him more about her experience with the Masochist. "Oh... Huh, I guess I just assumed he was your actual dad." Come to think of it, they were both equally rough and tumble sorts, but there wasn't exactly a family resemblence.

He raised an eyebrow when she mentioned beating around the bush. "I wasn't given the impression you had fragile feelings. You seem pretty tough to me. It's sorta like... I dunno. The world can't tell you no. If you want to do it, you're going to do it. I honestly admire it."

They were on the bridge now, leaving the dense parts of the city behind. It had been a while since he'd been away from the tall buildings and dark streets of the city. There was a bubbling sort of excitement at the thought of being out in nature. He looked over to her. "So... What tribe are you from? You said your people's land, so I assume you're from up here." He asked with genuine interest. He'd wanted to study american history as one of his minors back when that was still his path in life. You know, before his dream came true.

The Native grinned. He wasn't wrong. Often, telling her any variation of 'no' just made her want to do whatever it was even more. With a few exceptions, that is.

"You're not wrong. The world's been telling me no since the day I was born. Never would have gotten anything done if I'd paid attention to @#$% like that." Being, uh... admired was a bit new, though. She couldn't recall if she'd ever met anyone who had said that to her before. Whatever though, she wasn't gonna get a big head over it.

"Oneida." She glanced at him sidelong and tried to figure out if she wanted to turn that point into an argument or not. "... And it's all my people's land, but I was talking about the State Forest."

The sun was just barely up, coloring the sky in brilliant purples, yellows, and oranges. She lapsed into a brief silence.

"I grew up on the Rez there, just off of 46. Hiked my ass all the way into the city as soon as I was old enough to fend for myself." The sky wasn't too cloudy and the weather report had said that there was a super low chance of rain. Not that that would have stopped her... she'd camped out in thunder and hail before.

"My Grandad raised me a few miles away at his place. Taught me almost everything I know."

He watched her as she watched the road. That grin. That determination. She liked to be challenged, and liked to challenge others. He decided he like that. "I guess It's been the opposite for me... The world has always told me yes. I was given no reason to believe I don't come from a place of extreme privelege... That's why I want to work hard to do good with that I have been given."

He seemed glad that the subject had changed, especially to the top it of her heritage. A smile overtook his features again as he spoke up. "The people of the standing stone! Your tribe has a really rich history!" He paused for a second. "Uh, sorry. History major. I studied the Iroquois alliance for a while." Right, nerding out about someone's culture while talking to them was a little much, wasn't it? He shied into himself for a bit.

He let the view pull his attention for a bit. She spoke up after a while, and he listened quietly for a moment. "So... Your parents?" He didn't elaborate on the question at all... Had they passed when she was young? He wondered how young she had been when she left... As young as when he first met her?

He didn't want to bombard her with questions. She didn't seem the type to talk a lot about herself normally, so he wanted to just sort of... let it happen.

"Good. Don't @#$% it up." And that was that. As much as she loved a good argument she didn't wanna get too riled up behind the wheel and crash her brother's truck... again. He still hadn't forgiven her fully for the last time after it took two other trucks to pull it out of that embankment.

She glanced at him sidelong as he mentioned what he knew of her people, the tip of it, she guessed, and that he was more of a nerd than she had originally pegged him as. "I'm not gonna bite your head off for knowing things, X. Jesus. Just don't get any of it wrong." Or then they would have problems. Temporarily problems, with him trapped in a truck with her going 60 for 4 hours, while she educated his ass.

A few beats of silence passed with her paying attention to the road, and then he asked about her parents. Might have been a hot button issue a few years ago, but she was more or less past the drama of it all now.

"I'm the youngest in my family. I've got three older brothers, and by the time I came around my mom was done. Over it. She checked out as soon as I stopped breastfeeding. My dad and her hit a rough patch but both of them were too chicken @#$% to actually file for divorce, so he just ran off have a midlife crisis, while she stayed home and slowly killed herself with pills."

She glanced at him to gauge his reaction and snorted. "Part of the reason I @#$%in stabbed you is because you had the audacity to tell me that you found it 'profoundly sad' when I mentioned that I didn't have parents to be tattled on to. When I was that age I was still pretty pissed about all of it, so... heh, more than a little volatile."

At ten she had still been running home after escaping from hopeful transplant homes, trying and failing repeatedly at forcing her family back together when it just wasn't meant to be.

"My grandad took over for my mom when she started to get really bad. He taught me things since I wasn't in any kinda formal school. Neither of my parents really had a connection to our culture, so laksótha showed me that stuff too. He's the one who taught me how to shoot a bow, how to hunt and fend for myself." @#$%, she still missed that man so much. "When he died I ended up in foster care and, heh... well that's a whole slew of complicated stories."


She'd really lucked out that Saph has also been a part of that flawed system, so they had something in common to bond over after a while. "My mom and dad are still alive, but off being immature douches who can't see past their own failings." She wasn't gonna go into how she still visited occasionally if only to make sure neither of them had died unexpectedly.

"I won't." He stated simply. The city had started to fade into the distance. It was amazing how fast it could get so far away. It was strange, he'd only lived in the city for 5 months. She was very focused on driving. He wondered how long she'd had a liscence. She was older than he was, after all. Not by much, but old enough to be driving legally. Right?


He smiled a bit when she didn't admonish his nerdiness. "Oh, I won't. At least, as far as I know. Text books and articled aren't always accurate, unfortunately."

He watched her as she spoke. She was pretty. He'd think she was rough around the edges, but the apparent truth was that she'd taken any rough edges she had and sharpened them into points. Was it the danger that made it so he couldn't stop looking? No. It was a sort of honest energy about her. "My parents argued a lot when I was young. They almost got a divorce as well... But then mom got sick. We sorta banded together after that." He looked down to his lap for a second, and over to his hand, still on the oh Sh#$ handle from earlier. He let go, dropping it to the little arm rest on the door. "Until she passed, we just sort of... tried to make it all work. It was hard, but we just tried to make it all as happy as we could."

He scratched the side of his head as she talked about stabbing him. "Volatile? I hadn't gotten the impression." He joked, rubbing his back in memory of the shanking. "I couldn't imagine being without guidance as a kid. I learned who I was with a supportive family, even if they argued. Heh, part of that was learning how to do it right be seeing it done wrong, I suppose."

Xavier watched her as she talked about her grandfather. He could just sort of see it poking out. That little bit of softness underneath the sharp edges. She had people she felt fondly about, after all. He would have to figure out where he might fit into that. She was a puzzle, after all. He couldn't tell for sure if she even liked him, yet here she was, taking him on a hunting trip? Seriously, what was he even doing in this truck? Running off into the woods with a girl that hadn't talked to him in almost a month? A girl that had given him the worst wound he'd ever had. Why would he do something so stupid?

Boy, she really was pretty. And it felt like he hadn't seen even close to all of her. Maybe he just... wanted to see more?

"You'll have to tell me about your adventures some time! Your Grandad sounds like he was amazing... I would have loved to have met him. Probably could have talked to him for hours." He honestly loved those moments in life. Meeting someone who had seen so much, and soaking up all they knew, all they'd experienced in their lives. Going to central park and playing chess with old swindlers was one of his ideal guaranteed good times.

"I haven't read all of them, obviously, but a lot of them are really, really whitewashed. People tend to leave @#$% out that makes them uncomfortable to stand on the soil of the country they live in." Yeah, she had pretty huge, glaring problems with a lot of how history had been taught through the years. A good percentage of the populace didn't know basic important facts, important dates and names. It was a travesty. 

But, again, if she allowed herself to get riled up the likely hood that her trip would suddenly end in needing to be owed back to the city was going to rise exponentially.

She went quiet as she listened to him talk, since he had given her that same respect a moment before. "Eh, marriage is an antiquated idea pushed by religion, anyway. Most end in divorce, statistically.  Sucks that your mom got sick, but like... you can't be happy all the time. I was seven when my grandpa died and I didn't want false happiness. You can't just slap a band-aid over that kinda pain. I wanted to burn some stuff down for a long while, and really that was probably the best way for me to grieve. @#$%in society pressures people into just accepting @#$% and getting back to their lives as quickly as possible, and that's not how people work. You gotta be able to get the pain out somehow."

She left out the fact that she actually had burned down some stuff, just cuz he seemed like the type to lecture her on it.

Elke laughed, loudly, at his joke. "People are like clay. Everyone expects that your parents, or elders, are the ones that shape you, but that's not true. They try to shape you, sometimes with good intentions, sometimes with bad. Everyone just expects that you're gonna grow up being just like them; same beliefs same mannerisms. They forget that at a certain point we start to reshape ourselves, constantly, all through life. My grandpa taught me things, like... the stories, the history, the techniques for various things. He was a pacifist, so he tried to teach me peace inside and out. Always used to say to me, 'ksa'tiyo'. Be a good child."

Ah, man, Grandpa had probably rolled over in his grave quite a few times due to things she'd done, but... oh well. "A lot of people like to bring up the 'Two Wolves' story as a way to teach kids kindness and humility. I think they get it wrong all the time, though. You can't just feed one wolf or the other, you have to feed them both. Anger, sorrow, and guilt are just as needed as kindness, empathy, and compassion. The white wolf solidifies your standing in a just society, and the black wolf protects you when other wolves start to circle."

She chuckled again, because she could see her old grandpa hunched over on a bench with his walking stick, mumbling the entire history of the family line and every tribe story he could remember to this huge white boy. He would have loved it.

"You have no idea, dude. He loved talking culture with interested white people. Seriously. He'd sit for hours telling tourists all of the stories he knew at Powpow's." She lapsed into a brief silence as she thought back to that time, before she had really gotten into her own culture herself. She'd been so young back then that she didn't understand the difference between tribes, didn't understand symbolism, or the importance. She'd definitely been feeding the black wolf a lot more back then. 

"He would have started with the creation story, because nothing came before it." 

And so she proceeded to parrot the story at him, just as her grandfather used to do to her. She left out the detailed hand gestures and mimicking different voices because she wasn't any good at that, and also was still driving. 

Once that story was done and she wrapped up the twins and how they went their separate ways, she shifted to the story of why Owls have such big eyes, and then the legend of the thunder boy. The last story she brought up was how the bear had lost its tail, and was glad it was a shorter one. She hadn't talked this much in a long while and her jaw was starting to hurt. Thankfully it was also time to get gas and have a bathroom break, so as the story ended she was pulling off the highway and heading towards a truck stop. 

"-and that's why you never @#$%in trust a fox."

When the truck was stopped and she was able to hop out, she immediately stretched to get some feeling back in her butt.They'd been driving for two hours already so they were already halfway there. Still, sitting for long periods of time was never enjoyable for her. 

"That happens a lot with history, honestly. You have to read between the lines. Like those ancient accounts of women living together, and people saying, 'oh, they must have been really close friends!' Though I think native american history often gets the worst treatment. Not a lot of american historians wanted to acknowledge just how terribly your people were treated..." He trailed off a bit... Was it a little awkward that he was getting excited while talking to someone about their own culture? It wasn't like she didn't know all of these things. She was a college student, and a native american. Oh god, he wasn't mansplaining, was he?

He looked down for a second, and then tight at her again as she stated her views on marriage.

"I guess I grieve differently than that. I always have to be doing something, you know? Something to make things better. I feel happy when I'm making others feel happy and safe. I guess seeing a marriage go wrong just makes me want to do it right." So, she wasn't into marriage. He was obviously enough of an idealist to totally be into the idea... you know, with the right person.

He smiled as she laughed. He listened to her speak about people, how there were molded. It made sense to him. It was a wise way of looking at things... Had her grandfather taught her that? That same smile persisted as she finished. "Wow... You don't meet a lot of people like that anymore... Honestly, if I could do what I do without even hurting people, that would be the best... It does sort of make me wonder why you are so harsh when you, well, do what you do."

Story time started. His eyes went wide with wonder as she dug into the tales her grandfather had told her. He might as well have been a kindergartner sitting criss cross applesauce and listening to a teacher read a picture book, he was so locked in awe.

He asked questions every once in a while, to clarify things, and know more, and diligently dedicated the stories to memory. He almost seemed disappointed when she finished the last one, and they got to the truck stop. Still, he stepped out and stretched as well, walking over toward the bathroom.

After he was out, he made his way to the vending machine, calling out. "Want anything?" He got himself a bottle of water, and awaited a response, looking out to the rest of the stop. It was rather empty this early in the day. There were a couple of trucks on the far side, a cop car parked, and two other cars aside from their own.

"Because some people are able to learn from kindness and being told not to do something again a few times, and some people are @#$%ing idiots who need to have their knees broken at least once before they learn not to be a @#$%head." She said ti matter-o-factly, because in her mind and from what she had been taught as well as observed, it was true. Sometimes it took touching the hot coil to learn not to @#$%ing touch the stove while it was on.

She'd never vocally admit it, but having someone sit and listen to her in rapt attention, as well as ask actual intelligent questions related to the stories, was nice. Really nice. She knew a lot because she'd made it one of her missions to understand her own culture better, but wasn't often an active participant of storytelling circles due to her... uh... temper... but did really love talking about it. She didn't often get a chance to. 

"Water!" She shouted back over the truck. She'd gotten the pump hooked up and was watching the numbers slowly tick up as the tank filled. She was also watching the empty cop car with sidelong glances, running the plates silently through her head to see if they matched up to any of the ones she knew and had history with.

"Ah, @#$%, it's John." Yep. She'd encountered him before. He was, as much as she hated to admit it, one of the good ones. A bit doughy and round since he didn't see much action these days. She'd run into him dozens of times in her life traveling the exact same route and begrudgingly had a.... bond? Eh. She was basically a stray cat he'd tried to befriend even though she hissed and scratched at him. 

Leaving the pump she stuffed her hands into her pockets, let a scathing scowl settle over her face, and stomped toward the convenience store doors. Once she was within reach of the door she threw it open semi violently and stood there with her shoulders squared. 

"HEY." 

There was John, caught buying a coffee and a bag of jelly donuts, looking at her like a deer in headlights. The clerk paused as well, in the motion of hanging him his change back.

"You old, fat, lazy-" She stomped on in, while John didn't do much of anything save for set his things down, and his thick mustache crinkled in a wide smile. "-son of a @#$%&@! How have you been?"

The Native teen allowed him to scoop her up in a hug, which looked a bit funny since she was slightly taller than him now. The older man let out a laugh that spoke volumes of how many times he must have heard that very same greeting from her before.

"Moose! You little rascal! You never told me you were gonna be heading up this way!"

She jabbed him in the gut lightly with a finger to gain some space between them. 

"You've gotten fatter, John. Your wife told you to lay off the doughnuts."

He chuckled sheepishly and scratched his head under the brim of his hat. "Hahaha... well, you know how it goes kid."