For Worse

In the past, always being if both a rule abiding person, and a cautious one, Juliet had only ever ended up in the dark shadows of the Forbidden Forest by her pure ability to not watch where she was going. It had been a horrible habit of her childhood, too lost in her own thoughts - whether day dreams or day-mares - to notice where exactly she was stepping. It wouldn't be until the cold that seemed to cling around the mysterious place wrapped around her, caressed her arms with its unwelcome embrace that she would even notice where she was.

And then she would often panic; not having any idea how to get out.

But that had been the old her, the childish girl, with childish beliefs. Now that she was older - if not wiser - she could see some of the errors of her ways. In no way was Juliet going to attempt to claim the forest a safe place to play, in fact, she was well aware of the danger, she could still feel its unnaturally cold embrace as she weaved herself through the dead, warped trees, but the difference this time was she welcomed it. She wanted to feel the danger, that spike of adrenaline that came with being somewhere she wasn't supposed to be.

Her life had been spent shirking away from things that could have positive outcomes, just because the negative ones were more prominent. It was true, the young girl couldn't state what the positive out come of this little foray might be, but that was the point. A change, a risk.

She didn't want to live her whole life without taking any risks.

So, it was with great inner strength - and more than a little pigheadedness - that Juliet wrapped her arms around herself, kept her head raised, and tried to ignore the precise and constant snapping of twigs from behind her.

The forest was made for things like him. Mars believed this since the first time he set foot in it. It was a haven for monsters and beasts. Mars fit right in.

In contrast the girl seemed horribly out of place. She still belonged to the world where shadows only lived at night. She was gutsy though. Mars was not surprised to find her wandering here where she did not belong. It amused him.

He followed her with a lot more noise than he would if he were stalking her. He wanted her to know he was there. It was more fun that way and eventually she would turn around or run. He bet she would turn around to face what was following her.

Instead of stopping or drifting off in another direction like she had hoped the snapping, rustling leaves, and general tells that someone - or something - was following her continued on. The caution she felt mounted into something akin to all out fear, her heart rate rocketing, the sound of it echoing in her ears. Then, the girl just reached a while, and the fear morphed into a false confidence - an annoyance.

Planting her heals into the ground she stopped suddenly, waiting to see if the sounds did as she suspected they would and stopped with her. Gazing at the darkened forest before her, counting slowly in her head, before she whirled on her heals, glaring into the darken shadows straining to, and thinking she could see a figure.

She took a half step forward, squinting as she did so, then thought better of it, and placed the foot where it previously was. Not moving forward, but not backing down.

"You know," her voice threatened to quiver but she wasn't going to let it, "I think you're generally more successful at whatever you plan to do, when you don't let the person know you're there. Gives the game away, just a bit, don't you think?"

Mars stopped as Juliet did, shoving his hands into his pockets. "What if my game was to see how long it took you to turn around?" he asked. He walked forward until she could see him. He smirked.

"You make a habit of wandering the forest a lot? Lots of dangerous things are in here. Giant spiders, antisocial centaurs, some dog-thing that hunts in packs. Never know what you might find in here." Mars grinned at the thought. The forest always had a surprise.

The familiar voice reached her ears before the familiar image, both doing wonders to calm her racing mind and tensed nerves. Juliet decided to rationalize the fact that it was any familiar face, and not one of the list of assorted dangers Mars so kindly listed for her,was what accounted for how quickly she stopped feeling the need to wait for something to pounce.

"Then I suppose that was a successful way to go about it. Did I turn around fast enough for your expectations?"

Glancing around them, she seemed to be taking in her surroundings before she settled back on him, looking him over almost as closely as she had the trees, "Are you telling me this as a warning, out of concern for my poor innocent self, or are you just implying that I can't protect myself?" She raised an eyebrow, her tone slightly teasing, though there was some genuine curiosity there that Juliet didn't completely understand. If she thought she was fishing for something, she had no idea what that something was.

"Thought you'd turn around a bit sooner actually," Mars said. "But you knew I was here pretty much all along, so that counts in your favour."

"Can you protect yourself?" he asked, smirking. He moved until he was just in front of her. "And if I said my warning was prompted out of concern for your poor innocent self?"

"And what do I get? For things going in my favour?" she raised an eyebrow as she watched him come closer, her expression doing an odd bounce between teasing, serious and then back again. It seemed rather spastic, unable to make up its mind on what she was supposed to be feeling - or at least what she was supposed to look like she was.

"I like to think I can; I do have one of the best for a mentor, I'm sure she'd like to think I haven't wasted all the time she's spent on me," the tone for this statement was light, though Juliet actually did feel strongly about such things. If anything were to actually harm her, logical or not, she'd probably feel as if she let Miss Mad down. The older woman seemed indestructible to her - anything less than that in herself would feel as if she wasn't living up to the promise she'd made when she became her apprentice.

There was a slight pause between her almost flippant answer and the second softer one that followed it. The pause came from the fact that she wasn't entirely sure she knew the answer herself, why she had bothered giving the option. Finally she gave a shrug, "Suppose I'd then have to ask why you'd care about poor innocent me. If you were to give that response that is."

"You want a reward for being aware of your surroundings in a big scary forest?" Mars smirked at her. Her expression kept changing back and forth like she didn't quite know how she should be feeling.

"Big scary mentor? No wonder you're not afraid.

He stepped even closer. He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Like I said, there are lots of predators in the forest."

Her flickering expressions finally settled on a smirk, an sharp head nod causing her hair to bounce sharply around her, "I do; not everyday that I manage to remember to do that you know." It was a slight exaggeration of course, but Juliet couldn't deny that some of her clumsiness came from the mere fact that she did not watch where she put her feet, or what was around her.

"An angry Miss Mad is far more terrifying than anything I can find in here."

Taking half a step closer herself, Juliet cocked her head to the side, causing the strand of hair he just pushed back to fall lose, "And what about you? You seem at home right now. Does that make you a predator? Or are you going to protect me from them?"

"I guess that deserves a reward then," Mars said. "What do you want?" He grinned at the way she described her mentor. If she was anything close to that description, Mars thought the woman must be interesting.

He put his hands on her waist and pulled her hips against his and held her there. His eyes looked into hers as he smirked. "Oh, I am right at home. Definitely one of the predators. You should probably run. I might eat you up."

"Hmm, I get to chose my reward, huh? How generous of you," she smiled easily, eyes sparking as she leaned against him, placing her palms firmly against the chest that was now in front of her, "What do I want, what do I want, what do I want?"

She wasn't at all concerned at his response, though a small part of her wondered if perhaps she should be. After all, Juliet hadn't always had the best judgement in the past; trouble had seemed to be able to follow her, even when she was perfectly sure she was fine.

"That sounds like sound, advice, however here I am already in your grasp - I think it might be far too late for me."

Her eyes danced as she glanced him over, her mind still at work on his former question even though it had appeared as if she had forgotten it, "I want something good for my reward. So, it better be good, wouldn't want to disappoint me, now would you?"

Mars watched her with an amused smirk as she put her hands against his chest and made a show of thinking about what she wanted. He had noticed that she seemed to do that a lot. It suited her.

"You're right," he said. He wrapped his arms securely around her waist. "I already got you. Not much you can do about that, now. Guess I should have warned you sooner."

"Something good? Of course. But I asked for your choice so I would not have to think of something. So, tell me," Mars said. His thumb rubbed slow circles into her low back. "What do you want? After all, wouldn't want to disappoint you."

"You really should have, if you were going to be kind about it," she grinned, "But I do believe I was lead to believe once upon a time that you weren't nice." A random flash of their first conversation came back to her, as her lips curled upwards.

She raised an eyebrow, "What? What happened to the boy boasting of a great imagination. Getting lazy are we? Making me do all the work?"

Letting out a breath, slowly and with care, she focused her energy back to her thoughts, her hands moving slightly as she thought, fingers tracing designs instead of laying flat.

"Oh, I know," her eyes twinkled as she spoke up again pressing her toes into the ground so her heals rose of the ground and she gained height, only stopping when her nose was level with his own, "I think," she leaned closer, nose against nose now, lips just hovering over top of each other, "I want," she dipped closer, lips brushing teasingly against his before she moved back with a jolted movement and a crooked grin. The first object that came to her mind was what came out of her mouth, "Chocolate."

"I am definitely not. It's good you remembered." Mars chuckled. "I knew you would recall that." He grinned rakishly at her antics. She amused him.

"Chocolate?" he said. "Now who is being unimaginative? I'll do you one better. It occurs to me that I promised you a date we never had. We'll go out, have dinner and good time. I'll make sure there is chocolate." He leaned close to her. "For dessert of course."

"What do you say, Trip? Will you go out with me?"

"It's not unimaginative at all," she smiled innocently, the way she was bouncing on her heals practically preening. She was proud of herself. Tilting her head every so slightly, her eyes appeared to widen for half a moment before she relaxed her expression back into one of neutrality.

"Wee-ell," she dragged out the word as she thought, "Usually, I'd be forced to say I am very busy, don't know when I'll be free, but," again she dragged the word out, tilting her head the other way so it righted itself again, "If you're going to throw in chocolate..."

Refraining from answering the question, she pressed her lips to his, this time actually leaving them there, leading a slow and lingering kiss.

"What do you know, I'm free next Saturday," smirking slightly she leaned back until she'd twirled out of his grasp. "See you at seven?"

Smirking in the darkness, she turned on her heals and started to flounce back the way she came, enjoying herself. Her parting words were flung over her shoulder.

"Don't be late."

"I'm sure your social calendar is very busy," Mars said. He kissed back when her lips lingered on his a hand settling on her waist.

"Next Saturday at seven is perfect," he said with a smirk of his own. He stuffed his hands in his pockets as he watched her walk away. "Wouldn't dream of it."

This time when he followed her, he did so without a sound until she had left the forest.