● AUTHOR'S POV

"Ava?" Xanthos said, as getting closer to the ground he saw a familiar back sitting on one of the swings in the playground.

Ava's head snapped back, when she heard her name being called from behind, and the voice sounded way too familiar.

"What are you doing here at this hour?" Xanthos questioned, as he approached the swing beside her, and sat on it.

After their little cottage 'incident', Ava was somehow offered leniency; regarding her going around in the city. She still wasn't allowed to leave it, but she could freely roam about it, and the 'kindness' came only when Xanthos and Ava both realized, that she won't be trying to flee anymore.

Ava had a juice box in her hand and was sipping on it, when she got interrupted by the sudden arrival of Xanthos at the playground.

"I could ask you the same thing." she retorted, taking another sip of her juice.

Somehow, the time both had spent together, unintentionally, had taken out the formality and seeped in a little candidness between them.

"Fair enough." Xanthos agreed, taking hold of the swing chains on both his sides.

After a moment's silence, Ava tried initiating a conversation, as it felt too odd just sitting there and listening to nothing, but the squeaky sounds of the nearby empty swings.

"If I didn't know it was your sister's engagement, I would have thought you were crashing some underground Mafia gathering." Ava said and suddenly realized, that maybe a little congratulatory comment would have been better, rather than matching his appearance to a potential party crasher.

"C-congratulations! Congratulations on your sister's engagement, everyone was talking about it at the club..... that's how I know." Ava blurted out, before Xanthos could reply to her earlier remark.

"Right, thank you." Xanthos replied looking at her, and Ava felt it being sort of a judgmental look. Ava thought, maybe she shouldn't have joked about his appearance like that.

"Juice?" trying to keep the situation from getting awkward for her, Ava offered Xanthos the box of juice, that had been in her lap all this time, incase she wanted to go for seconds.

"Nestle Fruita Vitals, Red Grapes." Xanthos read out, as he took the juice box from her.

"You like this flavour?" he asked, pulling off the straw glued to the packaging, and uncovering it, he poked it into the foil cap.

"Ahan, it's like the red wine of juices for me. Makes me feel real fancy drinking it." Ava stated taking another sip of her juice.
(Ahan: sound that one may use instead of saying 'Yeah'.)

A small smile crept up Xanthos' face at Ava's little confession; about her love for juiced up red grapes in a box.

"Relax, if I were to take such feeble things to heart, I wouldn't survive in this world." Xanthos commented, as he could feel Ava being a little jittery after her party crasher statement. "I can differentiate when one is being disrespectful, and when one is not. Also, I'm not an 'entirely' awful man, who can't even take a joke, so you're good." Xanthos assured taking a sip of his juice.

Ava inwardly sighed in relief, and kept herself focused on her flavoured extract.

Unknowingly, both; Ava and Xanthos, had somehow managed to make each other comfortable in one another's presence. Xanthos had taken the openness between both of them a notch further, by indirectly allowing Ava to be comically transparent around him, whilst keeping a fine line between being funny and being impolite.

Things were taking time, but there was indeed a progress, a progress that somehow Xanthos and Ava both didn't know was taking place, in their minds it was just two people, who got cleared up on some misunderstandings regarding one another.

"It is good." Xanthos agreed to Ava's fondness of the flavour.

"I know." she replied, feeling a bit more ease in his presence, after his little assurance.

"You have no other siblings, right?" Xanthos questioned for the sake of carrying on the conversation, and not having to sit in an awkward silence with a bunch of squeaky swings around them.

"Nope. Even though, I wanted to have four elder brothers, but sadly I was the first and the last child." Ava replied, as she softly pushed herself back and forth on the swing.

"That's oddly specific, why four though?" Xanthos questioned as he joined Ava's pace, and himself started swinging lightly, their feet, still intact with the ground, and the swings just slowly moving to-and-fro.

"I don't know, maybe the wish of having another sibling, more than one, not younger than me, and also not of the same gender. I wanted a sister when I was a kid, but as I grew up, I wanted brothers, and four of them. The idea of me being the only girl, with four protective brothers just seemed fascinating to me. Or, it could be my deep-rooted desire for still being the center of attention, that I wanted to be the only girl and the youngest." Ava replied shrugging her shoulders.

The statement rather than amusing Xanthos, made him feel a little sorry for her, he had a rough idea about her life, with not many narrow details, but still, he knew she had a tough life, had to be independent for most parts of it, and still, has to be.

Her seeing other girls being protected by their fathers or brothers, was something that made her yearn for a similar feeling of protection, which may or may not have made her; wish for elder brothers, and not just one, but four of them, as if she wanted something similar to what others with a protective fatherly figure had, and wanted a lot of it. From what Xanthos had judged through their conversations, her father was never a good character in her books, hence her craving for the fatherly love might have manifested itself into the desire of having elder brothers.

"Well, having elder siblings is good, but not very fun for some parts of it." Xanthos commented, and Ava looked at him with questioning eyes.

Xanthos sighed a little before starting, "My elder sister went through a witch phase in her life, she was very much absorbed into witches, broomsticks, and thick black books with patterns on them."

"But, do you know what happens, when an elder sibling goes through a 'phase'?" Xanthos added, and Ava shook her head sideways in response.

"Well, the younger one becomes a victim to their horrendous experiments." Xanthos stated and took a sip of his juice.

"During my sister's witchcraft days, she was into potions and absurdly incoherent spells. At one point, she even made me drink a vile concoction of soap and detergent." Xanthos said, reminiscing the old atrocities he had to face, all in the name of elder-sibling supremacy.

Ava's swinging came to a halt, and she stared back at Xanthos letting go of her straw.

"Bahaha haha!" Ava broke into laughter, making Xanthos look at her in pure astonishment, as he had shared his sibling abuse story, but somehow it was humorous for Ava.

"I could have gotten soap poisoning, if I had ingested more of that self-proclaimed 'magic' potion." Xanthos reasoned only to have Ava fall down from her swing, and laugh out loud as she was now on the ground, on her knees.

"Oh my god... Oh my god... Oh god." Ava inhaled and exhaled, trying to replenish her oxygen levels, as her constant laughter had left her breathless.

After about a few minutes, she had finally calmed and stood up, dusting off her clothes, she sat back down on the swing.

"No no, I get it. It was dangerous, she could have washed away your life." she said as she stared back at Xanthos, trying her best to swallow down her laughter.

Xanthos had a sullen expression plastered across his face, which wasn't something that just anyone could make happen, because he didn't allow just anyone to do it.

"I never expected you to be this insensitive." he complained, and Ava noticed how he was now sulking, which was something she hadn't ever witnessed before, and it somehow felt addicting to her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to violate you." Ava feigned, her lips curving into a broad smile.

"Forget it. Like I said, I don't take feeble things to heart." he said returning back to his normal self.

Ava giggled as she resumed drinking her juice, the sound of her soft giggles made a faint smile carve in on Xanthos' lips, and a little chuckle escaped his throat, which soon turned into laughter.

Ava's eyes snapped back at him, and she saw Xanthos was now laughing, whilst he kept shaking his head sideways.

"She gave me this magic bracelet made out of rubber bands one day, and told me it would give me strength and I'd be undefeated. I wore it to school next day, tried picking a fight with a bully, let's just say it did not end well." he said as he lightly laughed remembering the old days, the days that were fun, the days they were all together, the days he had his whole family with him.

Ava chuckled, listening to yet another one of his amusing childhood tales.

"Hey, atleast you stood up to a bully, that's a good thing I guess." Ava replied, as she came to sip down the last few drops of her juice.

"Well, in a way yes." Xanthos agreed shrugging his shoulders.

"Though, it was painful but nevermind, people go through worse." Xanthos casually added, not paying much heed to the fact, that he was slowly getting comfortable in speaking without any barriers, around Ava.

Ava realized that his statement wasn't regarding the bully incident, he was one of those people who thought others had it tough and that their own pain wouldn't be anything in comparison, which could be expected of a man like Xanthos, building up his walls, he had started to suppress his own emotions.

The being, strong and independent stance of his, was taking away his ability to 'feel' for himself.

"Bullshit." Ava replied, making Xanthos snap shift his eyes towards her, inwardly shocked at her little comment.

"Excuse my language, but that's a bullshit narrative. Just because you came out of your hardships and stood through your tough times, doesn't mean you didn't go through them. It's on you that you were able to beat them and stand up, the only comparison here that could be made is probably the tolerance level, that each person has a different one of, just becuase you came out of it and somebody else didn't, does not mean your pain should be taken for granted. Sure, some do have it harder than others, but that does not suggest that if somebody else is going through a tougher time, you shouldn't acknowledge your own pain." Ava said, as she stared back at the emerald eyes, that were fixed on her, taking each word in, memorising each movement of hers.

"You're allowed to be reasonably sad for yourself; when you go through life's trials, just like you're allowed to be happy for yourself. It all helps you stay in touch with your feelings, it helps you vent at times, which isn't that bad of a thing, thinking it's kind of cathartic." Ava said reassuringly.

Listening to her, Xanthos felt a faint memory pop up in his head.

"At times, you're alot like someone. Someone I closely know." Xanthos said, as he kept staring meaningfully at the night eyes focused him.

"Who?" Ava queried, whilst her eyes remained locked with his.

"Me." he replied, as his hand; letting go of the swing chain, came upto Ava's face, and he tucked away a few strands of her hair, ever so gently, that had gone astray by the soft night breeze.

Author's Note
HELLO!!
(This chapter was a huge milestone in their soon to be forming relationship).
So, a couple of things I want to say.
Since, basically I'm dealing with human emotions here, that's why some chapters are little detailed in explaining them, I'm trying to let both my leads, slowly melt down their walls and be the lost piece to each other's puzzle. I don't want to rush things but I will also not take them way too slow. I'm trying to let the progress happen, and show you how both of them are truly meant for each other, how both are what they need in life for one another, how one is the key to the other one's lock, how when one feels insecure, the other one is there to lift them up, all that cringe stuff lol. In this chapter you might have realized how they both actually judge each other quite perfectly, in regards of their emotions, and it all didn't happen instantly, it took its time, also it is not that both are observant or very perceptive, it's because both have gone through shit and well, the hearts are slowly connecting, and once they do, I'm gonna flood you all with all the romantic moments and dialogues and all that cheesy stuff.
Like previously said, if you're reading carefully, you will see how their characters are developing and leaning towards each other.
..
..
..
About the paying of debt cuz I put my faith in you thing will be revealed later on, that what actually went down, so stay tuned to find answers to your questions.
..
..
..
Vote and comment if you enjoyed it, doing a slow-burn for the first time, but I promise, it won't be irritatingly slow, I just need them to connect, then I'm gonna go to town.
Thankyou.