That's it?

Watching her head hang low in an embarrassing shame after demanding such a thing from him...

Well, it did catch him off guard a bit...but, it wasn't something to be ashamed of.

So, he started stating his thoughts on the matter like he would usually do when faced with an awkward situation.

"Well, I'll admit...it is a pretty strange thing to ask for but-"

"Then just forget I even asked about it!"

Stoping him from saying anything else as she shouted at the top of her lungs while covering her face with both her hands, trying to hide from his judging eyes.

"Ann I-"

"I know it was insensitive of me to ask such a thing from you so let's just drop it, ok!"

Feeling even more confuse as to why she was being all overdramatic about it, when her demand wasn't even that much of a big deal and what was she being insensitive about?

"I can understand if you want to leave...So, I'll never mention it again...just please don't hate me for it!"

Now he was at a lost on what was going on yet again...and here he thought he had the hang on figuring out women during his time bartendering but Annette was something else entirely,

Firstly, she wanted something from him but now she was asking him to leave if it was too much to ask of him and to not hate her for it?

At this point, Zac wanted her to listen to what he had to say but, first he had to calm her down somehow...and honestly, it really wasn't that much trouble for him to do if that's all she was asking from him.

In fact, after taking some time to actually take her words into consideration on how much courage she must have muster to be able to ask such a thing knowing that she might hated for it...?

He began thinking more deeply of what she asked of him just a few moments ago...reminding him of back then when they started traveling together from place to place all those years ago...

*******

"Alright! Today was a pretty good haul! Good work out there Ann!"

"Of course! So, how about I start on preparing our dinner while you go wash up"

As two silhouettes of a man and a girl were emerging out from the forest after hunting some small game out in the wild for supper tonight.

"Sounds like a plan! Then I'll head down the lake to freshen up, I trust you can handle the skinning of the animals right?"

"Mhm! You have nothing to worry about!"

As she began taking out a small dagger from the sheath behind her backside and started skinning the small rodent like rabbits with tiny antler.

Seeing how she was taking care of her business, Zac decided to go and take care of his own business as well

He might as well come back as soon as he can to let her get a chance to wash off the horrible bloody smell after she's done.

Reaching the lake, he began taking his clothes off one by one, leaving them on top of a huge boulder on the side of the water.

Submerge himself in the water half way while staring at the reflection of his body from the water's surface...

(I guess these scars are pretty much permanent like they said huh...)

Posing a downcast look on the surface of the water...while thinking that the first person the see him like this was a young girl like her...

(How horrified was she of me when she saw my body in such a state... she probably thought I was some monster at best...)

Wondering whether or not he traumatized her a bit that day...well, it's not like he can make her unsee what she already saw with her own eyes...

*Sigh*

While washing his scarred body from today's hardwork he felt a strange presence from a distance...watching him.

Deciding to ignore the spectator since this wasn't the first time he's felt this weird stare before.

In fact, they were multiple occasions when this happened at different locations. Whether it be at a lake or river he just threw caution in the wind and just imagined that it was just a wild animal being alert about a strange human bathing in their water source from where they were drinking from.

After a while, the strange feeling of being stared at from a distance would vanish completely, finishing up and getting clothed as he started heading back to camp where Ann was waiting by the fire with sticks of meat rotating over it.

"Hey, that's smells great! what seasonings did you use this time?"

"Eep!"

Seeing her jump up from just being called out seem rather weird as he's known her for being on her toes...

Unless she was distracted with her own thoughts but, who was he to ask such a thing from her.

"Oh sorry about that, didn't mean to make you jump like that but~ that was a pretty humorous reaction"

"Hmph! I was just deep in thought is all!"

"Right well, I'm done taking a dip in the lake if you want you ca-"

She interrupted him by passing a stick of rabbit meat that was already cooked and ready to eat to for him while saying the following.

"I'll go after we eat something first"

Seeing her turn her head away from him while giving him his portion of the food, thinking that she might still be in a pouting mood after the initial scare so, he just reached out and grabbed the stick of meat from her hand.

In doing so, he accidentally touched her hand more than was needed to and made her jump once again thus making her lose her grasp on the stick of meat.

With his inhuman like reflex, he managed to quickly snag the falling food before it touched the ground.

Only to see her look at him with a terrified look in her eyes, noticing the direction of her stare was on his scarred arm, he quickly hid his arm from view to spare her the disgusting view...

"Sorry about tha-"

He put on a careless smile but couldn't even apologize in time as she left towards the direction of the lake in a hurry...

"Well...guess I'm eating alone then..."

Taking a bite from the rabbit meat and chewed ever so slowly as if contemplating over what just happen...when an idea came to his mind.

(Even if its permanent...it doesn't mean I can't hide it, right?)

He began devising a formula in his head on how to go about hiding his terrifying appearance with a type of magic coating.

"...Hmm, let's try it and see if it works...if it doesn't work? Well I'll just keep improving the formula until it does!"

Knowing that if his efforts made a breakthrough then he might actually be able to spare her the terrifying eyesore for her at least.

*******

Coming back from his reminiscing thoughts...

Zac started to think that he might have actually misunderstood her from all those years back...as her demand kind of made proof of this.

(Well, let's defuse this bomb as carefully as I can for now...cause if I don't do it properly...)

Thinking of how best to disarm the situation at hand...I mean.

What could be the worst possible outcome? He gets knocked unconscious for the rest of the night with a broken bone or two?

But by doing nothing and walking away from the problem...well it wasn't really a solution either so, he decided to do what he does best in these types of situations.

Getting up from his seat while walking a few steps and kneeling in front of Annette while taking her hands gently within his own, making her shake a bit from the sudden touch.

Seeing that he wasn't pushed away immediately by the moment he grabbed her hands; was already a good sign.

Feeling her hands trembling like a little horned rabbit caught in a snare trap as he made direct eye contact with Annette, making absolute sure that she knew, he wasn't judging her one bit with his relaxed lovingly gaze.

As he saw her tear stricken face, showing small signs of guilt when looking into his eyes.

Wondering what he was going to say to her.

Zac took a few moments to find the simplest way to convey his thoughts to her but to Annette, it as if he was building up some more tension on purpose to mess with her fragile heart and gave her a gentle voiced answer.

"I'll do it...for you"

She showed a wide eyed look on her delicate face, not knowing if she was in deep shock or in unbelievable amount of happiness. But, one thing is for sure is that he had her full attention.

"But I..."

"Shhh~"

Zac quickly shushed her softly while putting his hand on her tear faced cheek while gently wiping her dried tears with his thumb as he held her other hand tightly, telling her thoroughly through his actions that she had nothing to feel guilty about and to show her how much she wasn't in the wrong for asking him such a thing? He decided to do exactly as she asked from him.

"Trust me, I feel more relieved and happy that you actually wanted something like this"

Delivering Annette his most genuine smile to her as if conveying to her how he felt like a weight was lifted off his back after all those years of traveling together.

"But, I will say one thing though..."

After saying this one ominous line he let go of her hand and removed his other hand from her cheek, all in one motion while getting up and turning his chest away from her, showing nothing but his back.

This made her freak out a bit, thinking that she might have really mess up when asking Zac her one demand from him.

Before Zac could let Annette go any further with her line of thought, noticing that she was probably taking his words the completely wrong way again.

He continued with his words from where he left off.

"I'll only show you because I might have...misunderstood you all those years ago"

Annette's expression fill with an odd sense of clarity yet at the same time with confusion, she never would have imagined in her wildest dreams that Zac would agree with all of this...but, what did he mean by 'Misunderstood you all those years ago'?

But, she wasn't given the chance to ask what he meant by being 'Misunderstood' when Zac tossed his white shirt to the side, revealing a clean lean back to her, with no signs of any scars on his body.

It was until he casted his hand over his chest, in a steady swiping tearing motion over his bare scar-less body, almost like he was releasing a complicated magically locked camouflage over his entire body, as small hints of magic energy were seen flowing out of his being all around him.

After doing so, his arms as well as his legs started showing faint red-ish like scars...then his back began revealing the most prominent scar that'd still looked as fresh as the day it happend despite having a decade pass.

Annette's face couldn't be in more awestrucked at the view of his scars littered across his entire body after such a long time, even more so his sun shaped scar on his back...knowing that his chest had a similar one from when she first saw his body when she nursing him back to health that one time...

Zac could have swore he saw a type of sparkle shine in her eyes at the sight of it all when turning his head around wondering what kind of expressions she had at that moment...while asking her a simple question.

"Well, how is it...?"

"This 'is' what you wanted right?"

Waiting for a response but there was nothing... not even a peep from her. Just pure utter silence, as she just stared at his entire body with a heated haze in her eyes while not hiding the fact she was in her own little world ogling all around his body with unrestrain eyes.

She was so absorbed in taking in Zac's scarred body that she didn't even registered Zac's own presence in the room.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she started remembering all those years ago, traveling with Zac...especially those times he'd...

*Gulp*

Swallowing her own saliva, of all those times she'd use to sneak a peek at his naked scarred body whenever he'd go down the lake or river to wash off the dirt and grime from a hard days work.

She'd sometimes use the excuse of being on cooking duty or setting up camp as an alibi in order to not draw in any suspicion from him.

Because there were times when she underestimated his keen senses and was almost caught by him, even asking her if she ever felt like she was being observed by someone while taking a dip at a river or lake by any chance.

To which she replied saying that it was probably a wild animal being cautions of them, which was a pretty convincing and logical answer...or more like a good excuse for her to keep peeping on him without alerting him too much.

In fact, she was wondering when she started to become so infatuated with his scars...I mean the first time she saw them was when he was at his most weakest state, but she wasn't repulsed by them because they looked disgusting.

It was more of a worried scared feeling of what could have happen to him in order to get such horrible markings on him...

At first, she thought his scars were an insecurity of his or just bad memories he'd rather not bring up.

As he never brought up the subject or just gave a short response when asked but, that never did stop her from wondering how he got them...

Soon...all she could think about was his scars, to the point of stealing glances from time to time like some perv and thinking of exaggerated heroic scenarios from where he would save other hopeless people just like her.

With the mind set of thinking that every scar has a wonderful or painful story behind it but, that just shows that you survived and lived to tell the tale.

She thought a man's scar was a man's pride. They shouldn't be looked down on as a disgrace or a stain in their life!

Soon after she began observing him more closely whenever he was distracted or lost in thought.

But, then it started to escalate to watching him while he bathed...feeling that it wasn't enough just stealing quick looks of his manly scars or just daydreaming about them all the time...

At times, she wanted to ask his story on how he got such wonderfu-*cough* wounding scars...but, she felt like it was rude to ask him about such personal matters.

Plus he never seem to bring it up...almost like he wanted to avoid the subject all together...so, she decided to wait when he trust her enough or when he felt like telling her his story about them.

But, as time passed by...he never did get to tell her...even after a decade...

But, what made matters worse was that he somehow managed to hide all of his scars during their time of traveling together!

She only found this out because of her normal peeping routines, as more and more of his scars kept disappearing! she didn't know how he could have done it!

She came up with theories like maybe he found a way to heal them but, threw that reason out the window.

Knowing full well that gorgeous scars like those couldn't just be healed with simple healing magic or with a high grade elixir from an alchemist.

So, she went with her other theory.

Maybe he was using some type of magic from his own body to hide them but...why and how?

She couldn't wrap her head around on why he would hide them other than being insecure about them, much less how he managed to do it and why now all of a sudden after all these years of traveling together...?

Unless...Zac knew that she was the one spying on him all those years...

But...there was no way he would know about her peeping on him all those times at the rivers or lakes because she would always cover her tracks very well, Due to Zac teaching her in order to not let unwanted guests or predators waltz in uninvited and finding them at their most vulnerable.

It was then she remembered that one particular day when she was giving Zac his rabbit on a stick while trying to not look him in the eyes due to the embarrassment of being discovered daydreaming while cooking...and felt his scarred hand touch her own...

...She kinda freaked a little that moment as she was conscious of his scarred hand as she already saw him bathe and felt a little heated from her peeping session...and almost dropped his food on the ground, if not for his quick reaction to the situation and grabbing it just in the nick of time before it fell to the dirt...

But, as he did...

She stared at his outstretched scarred arm with a blank look before getting up, turning away from him and walking towards the direction of the lake in a hurried fluster, not even listening to what he had to say or even apologizing for almost dropping his food.

Reaching the lake and taking off all of her dirty cloths and tossing them over a tree branch and submerging herself all the way to her nose as bubbles emerged from the water.

(Annette! You big idiot! why did you run away?! Now he knows for sure that you were ogling at his scars like some cat in heat!)

She never felt so ashamed of herself that day... which soon kind of explained why he was hiding them if that was the case...and how less and less scars were disappearing after that day as well...

*Snap Snap* "Ann? Hell~o are you in there?"

Hearing the sound of snapping fingers as she was still in a hazy like state from having flashbacks of all those years of being a 'bit' obsessed over his scars...

Zac saw that she still wasn't responding to him as he waved his have over her face, getting no reaction from her.

Thinking that he might have really broken her this time, when he thought of something rather brilliant!

(Let's try it! Though I might regret it later...but I'm sure she'll understand or even go along with it!)

(If I'm lucky that is...)

Taking a deep breath, as he grabbed around her thin waist and pulled her up from her bed that she was sitting on and putting his arm around the back of her head, pulling her into a deep kiss as he slithered into her mouth and started playing with her own tongue, wanting to get some kind of reaction from her.

This kiss lasted a good 10 seconds when he started feeling her react to his affectionate action, as she began fighting back his tonguing.

Thinking that she was going along with it he fought back a bit harder...

This was first mistake.

Assuming that she was going along with it...she began fighting back a bit more he felt a sharp pain across his cheek out of nowhere.

Sending him tumbling on the floor boards like a pool table ball and slamming his head against the wall really hard.

"W-w-what the hell do you think your doing?!"

Holding the back of his head in a pained daze as he heard her utterly confused and shocked shout from across the room.

"Oh...you know...a bit of shock therapy?"

Zac shamelessly said with a grin and a bit of integrity at that, as if it was the most logical and moral thing to do in the situation!

Despite knowing deep down that he just wanted to mess with her and see if she'd actually go along with it...and she it almost did.

"That's hardly a good reason and you know it!"

"Hahaa~ ya got there but, I had to do something or else you might have never snapped out of it"

Seeing her huffing at his answer and not admitting his wrong doing, as he staggeringly got up, tasting a bit of blood in his mouth...

(Well, at least I didn't pass out from her slap...So, I'll call that a win in my book)

Annette soon realized how hard she must of hit Zac, watching as how he unsteadily got up from his spot.

She started walking over to him very worryingly, wanting to help him up when she saw a bit of blood trinkle down the corner of his lips.

Hurrying over and supporting him up while moving over to her bed and sitting him down while wiping off the blood from his the lips.

"Zac, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to-"

Grabbing a hold of her hand that was cleaning off his lips from the left over blood it had and whispering to her with a reassuring voice.

"I know, you don't have to apologize"

While giving her a closed wink with his next line.

"Besides, I was kind of asking for it after giving you my little shock therapy session"

Giving her a cheeky like smile as he pulled her into his lap without warning, feeling the full glory of her big soft buttocks on his legs.

Putting her in a surprised state from his rash actions but didn't push him away this time, if anything...she scooched a bit closer to him, wanting to get in a bit more comfortable position on his lap while placing her arm around his neck and putting her hand gentle on his rough bared chest where his sun like scar was...

Since it's been forever after the last time she's touched his scars especially while being this exposed and intimately on his lap.

Zac saw Annette's actions as an ok sign to keep going and moved his hand across her shapely legs, up to her thighs and towards her unexplored neithers until a slender hand stop him.

"B-before we start, I need to ask what you meant by being 'misunderstood'..."

Wondering why she stop him, thinking that she might not really wanna go through with it and was getting cold feet but, she was only asking what he meant by misunderstanding her?

"Ah that, Well I presume for many years that you didn't like looking at my scars and found them scary or even a bit disgusting to look at so I..."

Pulling him into a quick kiss as she released him and finished his own thought.

"So you decided to hide your scars by camouflaging them with your own magical energy withing your body?"

"That's the short gist of it, yeah...was that bad move on my part?"

"Yes and no"

"?"

Feeling a bit curious as to why, she thought that him hiding his scars was both bad and good for her. As she posed a rather triumphant smile as she proclaimed to him.

"Even though I won't be able to see your scars in public..." pausing for a moment as she continued with a sly grin.

"...That just means that only I get to see your scars in private and not have to worry about others looking at them the way I do!"

Zac really wanted to hug this silly woman for having such a weird way of thinking in such a cheery odd way but, if that's what she wanted then he could only comply to her silly possessiveness over his scars.

"If that's how you see it then I don't see anything wrong with a private show of your own"

It was then that Zac thought of something...

"By the way, if you don't mind me asking but..."

Zac did have one one question that he needed to ask her about before continuing any further with her.

"What charm could you possibly see in my scars? Not that I actually mine but, just a bit of curiosity is all"

Seeing her glow a bit when being asked this question, without having the need to shy away from answering because she already knew Zac wouldn't think of her as a bizarre woman because of her own peculiar tastes.

"Well~ I could tell you~"

Hearing her teasing voice emerge from her cherry soft lips as she ran her smooth fingers up his arms then down his chest, feeling a sense of euphoria from just touching his battle harden scars.

"But~ that could take a while~"

As she moved her head towards his shoulder and giving it a few small love pecks with her lips while slowly moving up to his neck, creeping up dangerously close to his ear.

"Or~ I could just show you~"