EMBER'S POV

"So what's the situation with the roof?" I asked, simply because I didn't want to get too carried away with sentiments, but Gracie looked at me with the most intense gaze and I felt a squeeze in my heart, "Hi Gracie." I said, giving in to my weakness.


"It's got holes in them, needs to be replaced. Would you like to pet her? it's been a while." Paris said, and I sighed, stepped forward, and ran my hand over her mane. I had abandoned too many of the things I loved when I left this place. Grandfather, Gracie. The smell of these stables.

"Long time, no see," Paris said after some moment passed, and I simply nodded,

"should have left it as such. But then, the leaking roof. You don't know a carpenter, by the way?"


"I mean, I do. But you played a role in all of this. In how these stables were built. It just didn't feel right to let anyone else fix it." he said and I sighed,

"So you've decided to make a carpenter of me. Alright then. We're going to have to get all of the horses out. Think you can handle that? I asked and he shrugged,


"I'll just get some stable hands."

It took nearly an hour to get all of the horses out and safe, but once that was done, it was easier to move around and figure out which parts of the stable required my expertise… so to speak.

"I'm not properly dressed for this," I said looking down at my button-up shirt, and denim skirt,

"You look handy enough to me," he said and went to the storage room. He soon came back with a pink utility belt that managed to bring back a lot of memories. Of course, I was sure he knew he had hit his mark because he smiled as he handed me the belt.

"do you remember this one?" he asked, and I couldn't help the fact that I smiled at it,

"How could I forget?" I replied, actually happily accepting the bag, and began to wound it around my waist, then clipped,

"It feels heavy. It still has the tools?"

"with your name on them and everything, sunshine."

"Thank you," I said to him, genuinely grateful for this little piece of yesterday.

"you're welcome, now let's get you a ladder so that you can climb up and see what's going on, " he began walking out of the stables and I followed behind him. He got out a ladder and positioned it beside the stables, then smiled in my direction, "All set for your climb, sweet cheeks."

I sneered at his term of endearment and walked toward the ladder

"make sure you hold on to this ladder. Because if I fall, you and I are going to have a lot of problems." I said angrily. I could not even pinpoint for sure why I was so angry, to be honest.

"don't worry. I won't let you fall."

"Of course." I adjusted the tool bag and began climbing up the ladder.

"I'm going to need those aluminum sheets by the way," I called out when I surveyed the holes,

"You want me to bring them up?"

"Can you climb up the ladder without support?" I asked uncertainly and looked down at him.

"if you'll hold it from up there."

"Let me try." I tried to keep the ladder firm and smiled at him when he got to the top, "you can't know how hard I've had to fight my intrusive thoughts."

"I can see it in your eyes that you would have loved nothing more than to shake me off this ladder. Let me through, will you?" I chuckled as I gave way for him to pass through,

"Here are your sheets." he sighed, dropping them beside him and looking up at me, "why are you watching me like that?"

"because now that you're up here, I'm genuinely considering putting you to work," I said happily, and he made a face,

"It's too late to go back down, isn't it?"

"Far too late. I might really shake that ladder if you attempt to." and he chuckled again,

"The two of us together are bound to get the work done faster, so let's do it then," he said and I got out an extra hammer, handed it to him, and together we got started.

There were not many holes on the roof, but it was a fit trying to identify the holes. The fact that the roof was flat made it a bit easier though.

"you be careful now," he said and got started,

"Yeah, you too," I said and took a sheet, began to nail it over a hole, and was reminded of the people we used to be. Once upon a time, it was this comfortable being us.

he was sweating by the time we were done covering all of the holes, and so was I thought. But Paris was pouring.

"Mind if I lose the shirt?" he asked and lay on the roof. Thankfully it was fair weather, so he didn’t have to worry about burning himself.

"not at all," I said, sitting beside him. He sat up, took off the shirt, tossed it to the side, and laid back down.

"mmm," I said and looked away from him. Perhaps it would have been best to ask him to wait before he took off that shirt because now, I was forced to look at his body. Paris had the best body. The lines of his chiseled belly always made the butterflies in mine dance. I had happily forgotten this fact and was forced to remember it today.

"I'm sorry I didn’t bring any water," he said, cutting through my mind space, and I sighed,

"It's okay. When we're a bit rested we can go down and get some."

But we were there for a while, and due to my weariness, I had simply laid next to him, and looked over at the clouds, and for the longest time, the world outside of the both of us on that roof did not exist. it was just him, and it was just me.

~~~~

"bloody hell." I heard Paris and forced myself to open my eyes in spite of their heaviness. I could not believe I had actually slept off,

"what's wrong?" he was sitting up now, and reaching for the shirt he had tossed aside, and when he looked at me, he seemed quite worried,

"It's the horses, Ember. They are getting away." that alone had me sitting up quickly.