Aaron "Sullivan"
Aaron left Pamela behind him, trying to forget about the drama for as long as he could. But even he knew that at some point, it would come up again; Evanne was going to seek him out and he didn't know what he was going to do when he saw Noah again. If he had any semblence of self-control, he might only end up stabbing the leader.
After making a few turns between the houses of Dust, he finally arrived at where he wanted to be. Dropping his backpack, he rummaged through it for a metal wire, bending it in an odd manner so that he could pick the lock before him. Normally, he knocked, but for the moment, he didn't feel like talking and he particularly did not feel civil. And also, his main rationale, he didn't think Juniper would mind.
With his town guard expertise under his belt, he was able to pick the lock in short time enough that people would've thought he had a finnicky key. Opening the door, he dropped the wire back in his backpack, and dragged his backpack inside of Juniper's house.
Aaron promptly shut the door behind him, looking around at the interior of a place he had been only a handful of times. He walked towards the middle of the living room, setting his bag downto lean on the couch, and let himself flop down on the comfy furniture as he awaited Juniper's arrival.
Juniper's wild hair bounced as she walked back to her house. While she kept a steady pace her eyes wandered from face to face, ready to pounce if something else fishy happened. Creating a dust path she muttered the recent events over and over again. Oh, she needed to go home and take a moment to absorb everything. Juniper went to jiggle her door open, something that wasn't too hard. Most days Juniper didn't even care to bring her key with her, if you had the magic touch you could get that door open. Unsafe? Yes. But there really wasn't anything to steal so it didn't bother Juni.
Without any effort Juniper opened the door. In front of her was Aaron, laying on her couch. "What the-" Juniper started as she closed the door behind her. "I thought you'd be jumping town... After hearing the news and all."
"Yeah, about that, sunshine," he said to her, with a hint of friendly sarcasm in his voice as he spoke, "you've always been bugging me that you want to go out into the mountains sometimes. So I was wondering, do you want to go like, now? Or in the morning?"
"I-" Juniper stopped herself from saying that she couldn't go out into the wilderness with him. The blonde plopped herself on the couch next him, "Here, scoot over."
Aaron sat up sluggishly, sliding his rear over on the couch so his friend could sit down. So much of her wanted to go out with Aaron and forget all of the nonsense that was stirring in Dust. "I can't, Aaron," she finally said. Trying to come up with a half-assed excuse she spat out a stupid one. "I have to work." The former town guard scoffed; even he knew that was a joke.
"Yeah, right. Like Luke would say 'no' to you if you said you needed the next three mornings off," Aaron replied bluntly. "Listen, I get it if you genuinely don't want to to go. I gather that you learned what I learned tonight about Evanne's... situation." Aaron was still apprehensive, and angry, about the whole ordeal, but he went on just the same. "I'm not going to force you to talk about any of that if you don't want. I'm not gonna push all the shit I'm thinking about right now on you just because we're going camping together. But if you still honestly don't want to go, I get it. If I were you, I'm not sure I'd go with me. I just hoped you would."
Juniper listened to Aaron's small monologue then watched him lie back against the arm of the couch. "It's not that I don't want to go," she contended, "I just-" Did she really want to tell Aaron all of her personal woes? No, not really. She was having a hard time leaving because she didn't want something to happen to the Thompkins while she was gone. Somehow she felt responsible for them, and if not for them, then for Robin.
Observing his friend's hesitant response, Aaron simply waited for Juniper to say something more. If she wanted to say something, then she would. It seemed there was a long and tense silence before she said anything.
"Let's go," Juniper answered, finally making up her mind. From there she stood up and ventured into her bedroom to collect her backpack. Luckliy for Aaron, everything was already packed and ready to go. When she returned, she was greeted by a surprised look on the young man's face.
"Are you sure you have everything? Water, food, knife, method of firestarting, rope, some bags, and a compass?" he asked, listing off the few most essential things for going out into the wilderness.
Juniper laughed at him before saying, "Baby, I've been waiting for this for a long time." Aaron cocked an eyebrow at her response. But, he decided to leave it at that; he wasn't going out alone this time. It would actually be a new experience for him.
"Alright then." With that, Aaron synched up his pack and hoisted it over his shoulder, putting his arms through the shoulder straps and buckling it at the waist. He had no reluctance in leaving Juniper's house, and the town of Dust, if she were to change her mind, or he was to change his.