Boyfriend Hunting

[thethirdwonder]

Last night, Cassie had suggested a new training exercise. Sam knowing how to defend himself was very important to her, especially given the things that tended to happen on the island. So far, he'd been doing well but she'd decided to it was time for a test.

The test was simple. They went out early in the morning when it was cooler out and she gave him one instruction. Run. He was getting a fifteen minute head start and that was it. Then she was coming after him.

As she moved through the trees, Cassie admitted to herself that this was a great idea. She didn't know about Sam, but she was having a blast! Plus, she already had plans to make it up to him later.

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[thethirdwonder]

When she returned with the water, Cassie wasn't surprised to see that Sam had moved even if it annoyed her. He'd already tried to be macho enough for the day, now he was just going to make it worse.

She heard the snare release and sighed to herself. Changing her course, she dropped down to crouch beside him. "Why didn't you stay put?" She offered the water bottle but didn't move to release him yet.

[not_so_smooth]

"Because you're blaming yourself," he said, giving her a small smile from where he was on the ground before taking a long drink from the water bottle. Never had anything tasted so good as the water. Sweet, cool water.

"I said I wouldn't move if you didn't blame yourself."

[thethirdwonder]

Rolling her eyes, Cassie gave him an exasperated smile. "You have the survival sense of a kitten, you know that?" She leaned over and freed his ankle before looking back at him. "Come on, let's get you to the clinic. Before you find some other stupid thing to do."

[not_so_smooth]

"I will stop doing stupid things when you stop feeling stupid guilty," Sam told her, hoping that made at least a little sense. Right now it was kind of hard to tell and he wasn't sure how much of this he would remember.

"I know you. You feel guilty even though it's my fault."

[thethirdwonder]

"Maybe if you stopped doing stupid things, I'd have nothing to feel guilty about!" Cassie snapped and regretted it immediately.

She sighed. "I'm sorry. But seriously Sam. I was chasing you through the woods when you were sick. You were afraid of me." And that was one of the things that disturbed her the most, the fear in his eyes when she'd surprised him.

[not_so_smooth]

"S'okay, you totally just admitted it was me doing something stupid. So it's my fault."

Sam was pretty sure that she would still blame herself, but hopefully she would blame herself a little less. Probably not, but maybe.

"Not afraid. Just... respecting your abilities. While running."

[thethirdwonder]

Cassie sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Can we get you to the clinic before we keep talking about this? I admit, the feelings of guilt would be better if I knew you were okay."

And she really just wanted to stop talking about this. Especially the afraid of her part.

[not_so_smooth]

"Sure."

Sam's pretty sure the guilty feelings will only be minimally better, but anything he can do to help her feel better he'll do. At least this made her forget that he mistook her for her pony. That was something.

"Okay, this may still be the fever talking, but I think there's a banana stalking us."

[thethirdwonder]

Oh, Cassie hadn't forgotten that. But it really more just added to her worry more then guilt. For him to be that out of it had to be bad.

Though she couldn't help herself as she laughed. "Should I sic Iris on it?"

[not_so_smooth]

"No, no," Sam said in a hushed voice. "We need to follow it back to the bunch."

Sam was not really serious about that. Mostly. It was a pretty solid strategy, he was sure about that, even if the banana probably wasn't real.

[thethirdwonder]

"Uh huh." Cassies said, humoring him as she kept him walking in the direction of the Compound. "And why would we need to do that? I think we're well stocked with bananas, we don't need to find their secret lair."

[not_so_smooth]

"To kidnap the Banana King of course," he said. He wasn't sure anymore if he was making all of this up or if at one point he had been convinced that some of it had been real.

"We can ransom him back. Unlimited bananas for life, baby. Think about that. Thiiiiink about it."

[thethirdwonder]

"Oh I'm thinking about it alright." Cassie said with a soft chuckle. She wasn't sure either if he was still hallucinating or being ridiculous just to cheer her up but if it was the latter, she appreciated the effort. "How do we tell him apart from the other bananas?" She asked, humoring him. "Will he have a tiny crown?"

[not_so_smooth]

"Duh, and a tiny scepter," Sam said with a nod. He could have gone on and on about the Banana King but he was pretty sure if he talked too much about it she would start to really worry. He would too.

"Eternally at war against the Monkey King! And that's... I'm going to stop there."

[thethirdwonder]

"Oh, please continue, so I have more to remind you of when you are feeling better." If she could bring herself to tease him after all this. Cassie didn't know. She knew Sam didn't want her to feel guilty but she still felt responsible.

[not_so_smooth]

"No, no, I'd better stop being I need to focus on not throwing up," Sam said, suddenly feeling a bit nauseous. If he just focused on breathing properly, he probably wouldn't puke. Probably.