⋆.˚ ᡣ𐭩 ASKING FOR IT      ╱     Blown Away.𖥔˚
chapter SIX

          Back at the motel, it was hard to rip her thoughts away from Tyler and his team, and just how much she and Kate probably jumped to conclusions about who they were. It was a sobering feeling, especially when they had been nothing but kind to her. Made Carmen feel like one of them. They had given her no reason to doubt them━━━had given them more reason to believe in them, more like it━━━and how did she repay them? By immediately jumping to conclusions.

Maybe she shouldn't care so much, it's not like any of them knew of her metaphorical betrayal━━━could this even be considered betrayal? What did that make of her if so, of her loyalties?━━━other than Tyler, and she already vowed she'd find him first thing in the morning and apologize. Possibly get the answers she hadn't gotten before.

For now, she focused on finishing the mechanical steps that came with getting ready. She'd made Kate promise they'd go to the rodeo while they were in town, one of the only requests she'd made of the blonde. It'd taken a little bit to get the other women to agree, but once she did, she knew she'd had her. So, there was no way she was letting a shitty day and sour mood ruin it for her. It was still going to be a good night.

Just as she was fluffing the last of what felt too-dry hair, to match the heat of the day, and plopping one of her Stetsons on her head, there was a steady rap of knuckles on the door.

The sound made her frown. She'd told Kate they'd meet in her room, and there should be no reason for her to come over early. Not unless something was wrong, and nothing should be wrong. Unless—

Before the thoughts ready to suffocate her could take full form, quick hands were clicking the lock and pulling the door open, revealing Tyler Owens on the other side.

Not only was it Tyler, but there was a pizza box in his hand. Wide eyes flickered between the two, before landing on Evergreen orbs. "What's this?"

"Lily said you didn't eat." Somehow, he sounds almost shy, rubbing at the back of the neck as he offers the cardboard box out to her. It's not a look she'd ever think to associate with Tyler, but it's definitely not a bad one. There's a doubt in her head that there's one that exists at all. "Figured I'd stop by."

Her hand wraps around the offering, noticing absently the heat that came from the box. "You didn't have to do that. Thank you," she adds when her instinct catches on the inevitable argument brewing in his hardening eyes and opening mouth.

Immediately, the look softens into something quiet and unexpected, and she shifts on her feet. A smile pulls at her lips, one that tries to match the expression on the cowboy's face subconsciously. As it does, she lifts the box in her hand. "This is sweet. But uh, I was actually heading over to Kate's. I'm taking her to the rodeo tonight." The disappointment that cracks along Tyler's face does not hurt. It doesn't.

"You could," she pauses, taking stock of the words leaving her before letting go so freely. It probably wasn't the best decision, inviting Tyler like she almost had when he and Kate were at such odds right now, but it was impossible to get rid of the idea now that it was almost out in the world and just on the tip of her tongue. Deciding better to ask forgiveness than permission, she swallows and starts again. "You could come with us if you'd like."

Clearly, Tyler wasn't expecting the invitation as much as Carmen hadn't planned to give it. But as his eyes lit up with a not-so-secret joy, she couldn't bring herself to regret it. Hopefully, Kate doesn't frown too harshly. She's always hated seeing her frown.

"Yeah," he breathes, hooking his thumbs into the front belt loops lining his jeans. "I'd love to, cowgirl."

Carmen smiles, stomach untwisting a little when a mix of earlier guilt leaves her. Yet, part of it remains, and she can't help but ask, "But actually, real quick, can we talk? Just, before we head over," she adds, looking away from Tyler's raised eyebrow.

"Okay. What's up?"

"In town earlier," she starts before getting cut off almost too quickly.

A voice heavy with regret and its own kind of guilt takes over the space, and she blinks. "I'm sorry about that," the wrangler tells her seriously. "I shouldn't have acted like I did."

The words start and stop her like an old engine failing to turn over. Finally, after shaking her head and maybe rearranging the thoughts in it, she starts again. "No, just━━━I'm sorry, too." Under the brim of her hat, she has to tilt her head a little to keep meeting his eyes. "We jumped to conclusions, Kate and I, and we shouldn't have. I shouldn't have. I just━━━"

Carmen shrugs helplessly, arms flailing a little at her sides. "Why did you say that, about StormPAR? What aren't we seeing?"

"Sweetheart," Tyler groans, dragging a hand down his face. For all he seemed to go on about it blazing earlier, the idea of talking now had him clamming up. Frowning, she poked him in the chest in quiet demand. "Don't 'sweetheart' me. Tell me."

It seems to be the last thing he wants to do, maybe for fear of messing up an evening starting back toward a track they'd prefer, but with another press of her finger on his chest he caves. "Riggs━━━StormPAR's main investor━━━works in real estate. Buys the wrecked land people just lost in a twister for dirt cheap. Hits them when they're weakest, and gives 'em almost nothing in return."

The words almost burn, and a bitter laugh rips up out of her chest as images appear behind her eyes. The man in the cowboy hat, shaking those poor people's hands and circling like a shark smelling blood. Javi, who'd approached him and stood by like he was responsible for the killing shot. "Jesus, how stupid could I be?" Her words are for both the universe and herself. Why had she never pushed? Never asked the deeper questions about the money that came with Javi's shiny new toys.

Deep down, she knew. It was because she was selfish and aching. Desperate for the call of wind and pound of power. So blinded by the idea of getting it again, if only this one more time, that she ignored anything that might've meant she'd lose it.

"Hey," the man in front of her demands, bringing her eyes back to his without even trying. "You're not stupid. You didn't know."

"I didn't ask, either," she counters immediately, frowning harshly.

Palms shaped and reformed with toughened skin in the form of callouses and tightened lines cup her face, thumbs digging into her cheeks ever so slightly and forcing the frown into something calmer. Her eyes widen, and she looks at Tyler. His eyes meet hers head-on, and he shakes his head forcefully━━━unlike her, no part of him looks concerned with their new position.

"Sweetheart, you shouldn't have to ask something like that. Especially when you're going into this kind of situation with a friend. He should've known how you'd feel about it, and never have put you in the position. Kate neither."

"But I," she tries to say, only to pause and listen to her own breath hitch when Tyler's hand slides across her face. Slowly, his thumb presses just lightly against her lips, and he shakes his head at her. "No buts."

If Carmen's eyes hadn't already been latched onto Tyler's, there's a very good chance they would've flown there in a panic. Instead, they widen comically as a tint of pink takes over the apple of her cheeks. As if not to disturb the hand, she nods only with minuscule movements.

Neither of them moves right away, and instead, their chests begin to move in tandem as their bodies hone in on each other and their breathing locks together. There's a flurry of emotion spinning through Tyler's eyes that she wishes she could decipher. But it spins around much like the tornadoes he adores and it's hard to catch anything for more than a minute. It really shouldn't be a surprise she's itching to.

Abruptly, Tyler pulls away and nods. "Right. We should get Kate." His hands slide back into his pockets, and the brunette feels off-footed and hung out to dry from the sudden abandonment. Taking a moment, she rolls her shoulders and forces that interaction into a box carefully labeled 'Do Not Touch'. There's no time to pick it apart right now.

"Yes," she nods, slipping back into her room to grab her wallet and keys before toward the hallway again. "Let's go. She's just down the hall."

Outside of Kate's door, the two stand almost touching as they wait for her to open it. Just as Carmen's knuckles come off the door, it's opening. Clearing, her friend had been waiting. Still, it's not the brunette her eyes land on, but the cowboy behind her. A silence lingers between them, and Carmen swallows as they continue to stare at each other. Just as she's ready to force herself to say something, the blonde asks, "You find the dog?"

"Of course I found the dog." If he wasn't so tense, he'd almost pass for overly confident.

It feels like passing a test when Kate nods and exits the room, ready to follow them with nothing more to say.

The rodeo is exactly what Carmen needed from the second they stepped foot in the area. From the smell of spun sugar and fried dough floating in the air and dancing on tastebuds to the cheers and excitement from overexcited fans. It was reminiscent in every way of the perfect moments of her childhood; when her parents were too blinded by love to care that their kid was having a second funnel cake of the evening and petting too many horses without washing her hands clean in between, and when Carmen was ecstatic all the time because of it.

It's these memories that are running through her head as she and the two around her make their way up the stands and into the free seats waiting for them. Sitting between Kate and Tyler, she smiles at the sight of a cowboy on a horse roping around in the main section. From her left, Tyler leans around to look at Kate━━━the heat of him seeps into the fabric of her shirt. "You ever see anything like this, city girl?"

"You keep calling me that." Sharing a secret smile with Carmen, their shoulders knock together. "You know I grew up on a farm?" Tyler's face must do something, but the brunette is too focused on the fact that Kate is talking about home with a hint of a smile. "Yeah. Sapulpa. Couple hours from here. This ain't my first rodeo."

"Look at that," the cowboy chuckles. "I learned something about you."

Leaning forward to put her elbows on her thighs, she scans the rodeo in front of them. People and animals alike move around in organized chaos, a system many days built and admired.

"So tell me this. What was your first tornado?"

Immediately, a story told over and over at dinner fills the chaser's thoughts, and a smile cracks when her best friend laughs. "No, no," she deflects. "Carmen's first."

Shaking her head, the hat on her head tilts, and she smiles at Kate lazily under the brim before turning it to Tyler. It's clear to see the intrigue in his eyes, and when an eyebrow lifts easily, she feels almost challenged.

"I was six. My dad was a professional chaser. He decided it was time I go with him out on a chase. My mother, of course, didn't like the idea, but my dad was relentless. Long story short, my dad won that argument. So, in the middle of nowhere, he took me to see this EF1. It was magical. The second it connected in the sky, I was shooting out of the truck and toward it." Laughter slips from her lips almost uncontrollably. "I don't even know if my dad even knew I had unbuckled my seatbelt, and by the time he did I was running. I remember wanting to touch it, something that grand. Thankfully, before I could, my dad scooped me up and took me back to the truck. Demanding the whole time we never tell my mother what happened."

She smiles at Tyler, delighted to see him laughing along with her. It's a warm feeling, pulling that from him and knowing she was the one that did. "Tell me about yours," she requests, as the laughs subside and the glow continues.

He hums and looks toward the arena before nodding. "I was eight. Driving with my aunt. Sirens are going. All of a sudden, this vortex just lowers right down in the center of the road." He lifts his hand and waves it around like he can replicate the vortex with the wind around alone. "I was just mesmerized. Then I looked at my aunt, and she's got this look on her face, and...I realized in that moment I was supposed to be scared."

Frowning, the blonde leans around a little to look at Tyler. "Were you scared?"

"Yeah." It's only logical one would be. No matter how much one adores something dark and twisted, doesn't mean it suddenly loses all fear. "Yeah, I was."

"Oh, the Tornado Wrangler is scared of tornadoes," she teases, voice light and full of mirth. It settles something in Carmen's chest after the day they've had. Even more so when Tyler scoffs playfully and mutters in return, "Okay, Sapulpa."

A ways down in the arena, their eyes drift to a man set to bull ride. When he spots them, lips pull and his fingers begin to spin above his head in a motion similar to one of a cyclone. Almost positive he's not doing it for her or Kate's sake, she looks to the man beside her, who's dipping his chin at the other.

"Do you know him?" She calls over the cheer of the crowd.

"I used to compete." The admission is far from the answer she thought she'd be getting, but one she can't fight once slotted into her brain. Alongside the titles Cowboy and Tornado Wrangler, Bull Rider didn't seem too shocking. "Got my head stomped on by one too many bulls. Thought college might be better for my brain."

"You're scared of tornadoes but not of riding bulls?" The blonde laughs, leaning onto Carmen and propping her chin on her shoulder to continue giving her attention to the man.

"Well, tornadoes, bulls, same thing." The damning smirk, the same one that pulls at his Evergreen orbs and morphs his whole face into something cocky and prone to lead to bad choices, comes out again as he shrugs at them. "Fear's the reason you do it. You don't face your fears, you ride 'em."

At the same time that Tyler finishes speaking, the crowd cheers. Almost as if they were agreeing with his words━━━no matter how impossible that is. As the three looked back toward the arena to see what exactly it was they were truly cheering for, a terribly strong gust of wind picked up. The hat on her head jumped, and she had to clamp down on top of it to hold it down.

In the distance, thunder rumbles alarmingly quickly for a night that was clear only moments ago. Something twists in her gut, and she tears at the skin of a nail when Kate reaches forward. Her hands come back with a leaf━━━nothing that should've been near them here. "Were you tracking cells out this way?"

Around them, the crowd begins murmuring, and Carmen shifts to look around. "I don't like the look of the sky all of a sudden," she admits.

"Air feels heavy. This isn't good," Kate agrees.

Shrill beeps fill the suddenly chilled air, and everyone moves for their devices at the same time. It's as her eyes scan the emergency alert that's come twenty minutes too late, the outdoor sirens spring to life, suddenly demanding attention.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I just received word a tornado has touched down near the area!" The three are already up and moving through throngs of people as the man fills the once-joyous rodeo speakers with panic. "We need to evacuate this arena right now! Once again, ladies and gentlemen, we need to evacuate this arena right now!"

As they abandon their seats in search of shelter, Carmen stumbles back with the force of a man pushing past her with urgent determination. "Hey!" He doesn't chance her a second glance, but Tyler reaches back to grab her hand at the sense of slight distance.

"Come on, darlin'. Don't let me lose you." He squeezes her hand, following blindly behind Kate as the blonde rushes past moving cars and racing people. Her eyes are set on a building across the street, and the three cut through heavy air with long strides.

Only once does Tyler let go of her hand to assist a woman pushed to the ground, before swooping it back into his palm and holding it with a force sure to leave marks. It helps keep her grounded when she's sure they're close to being swept away by the wind.

Outside what she thinks is a motel, Carmen's eyes lock on a mother ushering a child into a car, and she bursts from Tyler's side and rips her hand away to get to them first. "No! No, come inside!"

"Carmen!" Tyler shouts her name like a demand, half ushering at the mother and daughter and half focused on pulling her back to him. "Don't do that," he warns lowly as the five burst through the small door, Kate slamming a palm down on the counter and interrupting the man complaining there. "Do you have a storm shelter?"

"All right, maybe like a basement." Tyler huddles her with the mother as he does the same, and she circles them to her and murmurs what she hopes are reassurances. "Do you have a basement?"

The customer at the front frowns at Tyler, unassuming and arrogant. "There's a line here, buddy."

"We need to get these people underground right now." His words could cut through stone, and Carmen shudders at the look on the girl's face beside her. Pure and unbridled fear defines her, and stupid wonders of what she would look like happy and free. Not weighed down by the gravity of a situation like.

"Okay," a new voice cuts in, "there's no tornado. Nine times out of ten, it's a false alarm." Her words are annoyed and clipped, the true tone of someone who's heard the boy cry wolf too often to care to listen anymore.

As her friends continue to insist and search, Carmen turns to glare at the women. "This is the one time out of ten," she bites, not listening to her retort as Kate bursts back into the room in a flurry of limbs and rush.

"Everybody, come with me!"

Without a second to doubt her, she never has before and this would be a shitty time to start, Carmen ushers the mother and daughter toward Kate. With a firm and commanding hand on her back, the wrangler does the same to her. "All right. Come on. Move, move, move."

As the three push to follow Kate, the piercing scream of glass shattering and a collision sounds from behind them. Carmen ducks on instinct, the hat that somehow stuck with her until now flying off, and resists the urge to retort when the disbelieving woman screams. "There's a tornado! There's a tornado!"

Their voices and demands and pleas all overlap into a chorus of panic and fear and just barely clinging hope, and Carmen closes her eyes and sends a silent prayer to a God she hasn't known since her dad left━━━if not for herself, but then for those with her now. She knows just how much she's toed the line until now, and what can she say other than if it's time then it is? But it wasn't theirs. That, she was sure.

"Carmen!" Hands slam down onto her arms, pulling her back to a moment she knows she'll never escape━━━not even in her sleep. "We got to go!"

Looking around, she watched as the mother and daughter dropped into the dried-out shell of a pool, and after using Tyler toward the ledge, followed below immediately. "C'mon," she murmured with a hand on each of their arms. Instinct took over as she began ushering all of them toward a set of pipes in a section of carved-out concrete, and instructed them to wrap their arms around and, "Hold on and stay low."

"Cover her eyes," Kate instructed, slipping in next to the two and squeezing tightly. It wasn't hard to notice hers already were. All ghosts seemed to join them in the pool, and the brunette almost screamed.

With the other three secure, Carmen turned to find the missing piece. "Tyler!" She screams harshly, watching in dawning horror as he crawled further away, and toward the hotel clerk. Stepping forward on instinct and ducking low, her pause only came with harsh words.

"No, I swear to God! You stay over there!" His declaration forced her to stop because she knew it was the right call. There was not much she'd be able to do to help that Tyler wasn't, but it still stung when the clerk was seized by the wind and swept away before she could blink.

At the sight, the idea of it being Tyler next flashed before her eyes, and she stepped forward again. "Tyler! You get your damn ass over here I swear to God!" The words tore from her throat and ripped at it, coming through cracked and raw.

When leaf green eyes met hers, stormy as everything else around her, she reached a hand out on instinct. "Don't you dare leave me." Lighting lit up the scene, and right as their hands connected, a truck slammed into the ground where Tyler once was and creaked ominously before falling toward them.

Pulling with a strength she's never needed until now, Carmen forces herself against the pipes with Tyler right there with her. She refused to let the fingers intertwined with hers slip away, even if it meant twisting both arms awkwardly around the metal.

"We're gonna be okay!" The mother screams, words meant for her daughter reaching all their ears and twisting inside them. "We're going to be okay! I've got you."

The words echoed around them in a cycle, as if picked up by the wind and spun around their heads, until the moments when there was no wind to carry it. Instead, there were only their labored breaths and shaking hands against metal.

A weight dropped on her shoulder slowly, and she leaned into it. Tilting his head just so, Tyler's lips connected with the skin of her exposed neck right above her shirt collar as his head shifted to fit in the crook there. Not only did the action show him she was real in front of him━━━what she knew he was looking for━━━but it let Carmen know just what she didn't lose.

Swallowing roughly, her eyes slide to meet Kate's, whose are already searching. Unwrapping the hand not claimed, she stretches it out. Immediately, the other woman snatches it, exhaling shakily only after it's wrapped around hers.

"Is it over?"

▬▬ mads speaks     ╱     deep breaths, y'all. deep
breaths. the pool scene is always crazy, no matter if
just in the movie or in a fic. it was especially insane
for me to write, but it's here!! hope you enjoy xx