Blooming love

A week later,2:17 PM

She hopped all the way home cherishing the moments she had with Qwez. He was the sweetest person she had ever met, And on the plus side, she never missed Kaz when she was with him. He made her day complete and even though she had some humongous bruise on her hand, all that mattered was she was happy never like before.

She had been happy when her parents brought her surprises, but this was something so different, she couldn't figure out the source of happiness but yet she felt it.

"Oops!!" she bumped into a stranger mesmerized in her thoughts and a smile which she wore.

"It's okay" he replied and looked at her Amber eyes.

"I've never seen you around, you're new?" she asked. she was curious at the familiar face, she had seen before but couldn't figure out where, but he looked weirdly familiar.

"Nope, I gather survivors, you wouldn't have seen me around here" he snickered and something hit her

"Have you rescued someone called Millie?" she asked him, suddenly curious and hoping he'd know about Lily's daughter.

"Full name?" he took out a pocket note and studied her looking up.

"Camille Rizore, she had blue-green eyes you know and very long blonde hair, small eyes, small lips and -" she continued with the picture she had in her head

"There's a survivor call Camille, no full name, just Camille, but yeah, I remember her having blonde long hair. She was given a place at Area 13, you could go check" he smiled and patted her shoulders.

She couldn't believe what he had said, she knew she couldn't be so sure it was Mille, she ran with her bruised hand cruising against the winds to see the person whom she admired, who used to babysit her when she was small.

She counted as she ran, she saw Area numbers carved in a wooden plank and when she reached sector 13, she panted and read the names listed outside the houses.

When she found the name Camille she blindly knocked at the door, keeping both her hands supported on her hips.

A young girl who looked about her own age opened the door and smiled

"yeah?" she asked.

"where's Camille?" Aura asked her, desperate to see her and share the happiness with Lily in case she finds her.

"I'm Camille" she clarified giving a refreshing smile.

And Aurora thanked her and told her she was looking for someone else with the same name, Camille offered her sympathies and reassured her that the search party are finding people who are still alive even now.

7:00 PM

Aurora left the place and she headed towards her home, she had a lot going on her mind but she didn't let herself drift into thought. She saw Qwez looking at her from another home and he gave a confused expression and lurched towards her.

"Woah, hey, I thought you were heading home," he questioned her.

"I was searching for someone, and yeah he told me she lives here," she said looking at the guy who had earlier given her address, approaching towards them.

"You've found her?" he asked her and she shook her head.

"Mmm, actually you know, from the reported bodies, there's a name called Camille" he looked at her apologetically.

"Fred, it's so dumb dude" Qwez gave a weird look at him and replied to Aura.

"It might be someone else too Aura" he looked at Aura, and she seemed as if she was going to burst into tears any moment.

"Is there a second name? hair colour? anything?" Aura asked him ignoring Qwez.

"Actually she was dead on the spot, we took her name from her notebook, so no hospital records so no much details, but yeah I remember her hair colour, it was nearly white, not blonde exactly but really short," he said reassuring her but her thoughts went to the memories of her seeing her the last time, it would've been months ago, what if she had cut her hair short and changed her hair colour?

"Woah, slow down man, she's not an adult to handle this kind of information" he whispered through his teeth to Fred.

"She asked bruh, thought she deserved to know, how do you know her though?" Fred asked Qwez, while Aura was still thinking about the possible explanations.

Qwez shot an apologetic look to Aura and calmed her pulling her close to him and he drew circles in her palm, just to comfort her.

"What's up between you two?" he asked him, which Qwez shut it down with a finger on his lips.

"She means a lot to me," he whispered admiring her Amber eyes.

"Huh, Qwez?"Aurora responded lost in thoughts.

"I'm sure it's not Mille, she likes her hair, she'd never cut it short" she reassured herself and smiled at both of them. She had already lost her parents, she wasn't ready to prepare to grieve for another one when she hadn't moved on yet.

"Quit the detective job you're doing today mam" Qwez responded and turned to Fred and winked at him.

"You live here?" she asked Qwez looking at the house he was standing before a while ago.

"Yep, you wanna come?" he asked her nervously.

"Why not, but you could definitely wipe that smirk off your face" Aura giggled and looked at him. and he gave a confused expression.

He opened the door and picked up the clothes he had on the bed and cleaned it up within a short time and gave her a cheeky smile.

"Welcome to my humble abode" he offered her a chair and she looked around the beautiful house he had made. The entire house was decorated with beautiful and colourful carvings which were illuminated by the evening sun. There were two beds, one large and another one small even though there was no difference in design.

The room smelled of strawberries and lime, she realised that he had been making scents for himself too and wondered whether he would help her make her cottage more visually appealing like his. It's not that her cottage wasn't, it was very decent but not as beautiful as this.

"wait, don't you live alone?" she asked him.

"I live with Nat," he shrugged and Aura eyed him.

"don't worry she's over 80," he laughed.

"why would I worry?" she asked him, and he looked reasons to cover his accident-prone blurting

"I mean in case, you think I live with my mom" he knew it was a lame reason but she pretended to buy it and gave a smile.

"It's so pretty," she eyed the house.

"You know you could decorate your home, I'd help you" he offered.

"Really?" she asked with amusement.

"Yeah why n-" before he could complete the sentence she looked at the clock and realised the time had passed away so soon

"I need to go, Kaz would rip my throat, well not literally, but yeah" she stood up and rushed to the door and Qwez followed her behind until she was out of the door, he left a deep breath out after she had left.

He had wanted to stay with her for some time, but he couldn't ask her to but he comforted himself that the next time would be better than this meet, he would do more things to make her happy.

She ran to her house fearing it would upset the people who were with her, a lump formed in her throat when she realised she used to do this with her parents too, which made it hard for her to move on.

When Aurora reached home, nobody was there, and since she was so tired she slumped to her bead, without bothering to change her dressing to the wound and fell asleep.

With the thought that she would meet Qwez tomorrow.

The next day, 9:00 AM

"Where were you yesterday?" Kaz asked Aura as she fiddled her route into the bathroom.

"As I told you, OUT!" she replied, her voice reverberating through the bathroom, she cleaned her face and tried to focus her mind after the pleasant slumber she had.

When she came out of the bathroom, she realised that he had withdrawn to do his job, in the kitchen to make hot water for all of them since the water was available only as raw in lakes, so everyone had to boil it before drinking it. She walked to the kitchen and saw him avoiding her as he built up the fire.

"What do you want?" he asked her realising she had been staring him for a while. He loved it when she stared at him like that, but he felt that he shouldn't encourage it.

"I don't get it, why do you have to be so angry? all I did was to hang out with someone I like!" she declared him, with frenzy in her voice.

"You were out an entire day, Aura, you should be also concerned about the people who live with you, who were searching for you," Aura realised why he was angry, she hadn't told him about the encounter with Fred and she was searching for Millie, all she told him was that she was going to hang out till... well she didn't say so it's reasonable for them to search for her.

"I'm sorry, do you happen to know about a guy called Fred?" she answered looking at the freshly brewed coffee seeds near her and she searched for milk

"Yeah, why? what happened?" he asked and she detected a serious tone in his voice.

"Nothing wrong! why do you get so creepy sometimes?" she questioned him laughing and he calmed down.

"What about him?" he asked her while he handed her a vessel of hot milk, which he had heated a while ago. He was just concerned about her and he didn't want her to random people even if it was encouraged her, especially not to guys.

"He reaches out for survivors you know, I asked him about Lily's daughter," she whispered leaning towards him, and he felt her breath brush his arms, he moved an inch apart.

"Did you find her?" he asked stopping his work and looking her, he suddenly started to notice her face never like before, her perfect nose and the line along her jaw, he lips which had a perfect outline and her Amber eyes which looked so beautiful with such long lashes.

It was the first time they were having a normal conversation, because each and every time, they ended up fighting.

"No" she whispered and checked around and she patted him on his shoulders and smiled.

"What was that for?" he asked chuckling and handing her over sugar packets

"For this, I would've drunk a coffee without sugar, and never would've noticed" she giggled and he smiled at her adoringly.

"You know, I miss this you, why wouldn't you talk like this to me anymore?" he asked her raising both his eyebrows.

*Flashback*

A distant memory flashed before him, he was 16 then and she was 12, they were having a normal conversation about her marriage.

"I would definitely marry someone who cooks," Aurora shrugged, her chestnut hair pulled into a messy ponytail and some amount of her short hair were dwindling on her face. Her eyes were illuminated in happiness.

"I bet you'll never get one," Kaz was jealous that he couldn't cook but she asked for a guy who could.

"Then who would cook for me? I don't want to get malnourished after the marriage since I'll have to move out" She provoked him further, indicating that he can't cook.

"We'll eat out every day, if you marry me, we can have tasty food," He wished he hadn't said that, but he made sure it sounded as a Joke.

"Haha, dream on loser," Aurora thought that he joked and kicked him, she ran outside when Kaz started chasing her to kick her back.

~

"You always fight with me, make me feel immature, you make me feel like something you'd despise" she wanted him to hug her, saying he doesn't mean to make her feel that way.

"Because you're immature, hanging out with random guys" he rolled his eyes and checked the door and realised Daisy had just left and wondered whether she had heard any part of their conversation.

"No not him again, and I'm not immature you know, maybe you are a 20ish big guy, but that doesn't mean I'm totally immature," she answered after drinking a sip from the coffee.

"So okay, I just wanted to ask you whether you want pizza for a long time," he winked and hugged her, he knew he was doing this without any reason, but she didn't pull away or answered his question. He had been planning this for a long time, to do something she loved.

Finally, she pulled away and looked at his face in astonishment. He wondered whether it was for the hug or was is for the Pizza.

"How could you possibly have pizzas here, where you don't even have most of the basic needs?" she asked him.

"Well you know, we made a big sized oven yesterday" he laughed and looked her face.

"Does it mean yes to nice food finally? instead of eating stone-aged food?" she jumped around the house and he wanted to say her he had convinced everyone to make an oven with various reasons, but the only reason he had in mind was that to make Aurora her favourite food.

And when he saw her beaming with happiness, he couldn't help to smile and look at the way her happiness was reflecting on him too. he sometimes wondered when everyone would go to their normal life and start working in their respective fields, even though they have tried replicating hospitals and everything in small scale, this wasn't enough, they had to go to their normal life.

But the damage that had been done to the city was so heavy surrounding them, they couldn't leave anywhere, nor any help was offered to them, which seemed so weird.

"Kaz?" she shook him back to his consciousness

"Huh?"

"When am I getting it?" she asked him

"I'll be free this afternoon, you could come and make it, I'll help you" he answered and patted her head.

She smiled and that made his day once again, he was happy with her, he wished that she'd get matured soon.