Miguel/Julia idea pt2

part 1
[link]

"so where do we go now?" the tall strong Spaniard turned to her. He was willing to put his trust in Julia, but what was her plan?

"well, I'm glad you asked." she pulled out a smartphone- or at least that's what it looked like. "I'm heading to Mongolia, that's where I will find what I'm looking for."

"your research?" he had already heard of her "forest regeneration" research; technology that could grow life where there was none- he also knew what it the Mishima Zaibatsu was currently using it for.

"there was a reason i let them keep it." she said as they headed to her car. It was a small van; large enough to keep lots of supplies but ordinary enough to go undetected.

"you LET them keep it?" he said as he opened the passenger door. He could see the dried blood from when she had first hauled his body to safety.

"when ever i have had the opportunity i take a copy of what they have accomplished through their - 'enhancing' program and use it towards my botany samples." she said as she got in the driver's seat. "are you ok to drive?"

"we're driving from Europe to Mongolia?!!!!"

"yeah and if we take turns we will get there faster." she smiled

This sounded like a horribly stupid plan. but he needed to give her a chance "what's in it for me?"

"i have been able to hack their system 4 different times, but each time i get only as much as i can download from their central servers- in 60 seconds. but if you accompany be as my backup I guarantee i will get you the locations of all the safe-houses used by Jin Kazama and his pointy haired family."

Julia waited for a reaction before starting the car. "and then it will be your turn to make a plan...."

She looked back at him, she door was still open, he could leave if he wanted to, but instead he simply shut the door. "lets go." she said as she pulled her hair in to her signature ponytail.

Julia took off the feathers in her hair and put on her glasses. she was prepared for the long journey ahead.

They traveled in silence for the first few days, only the voice of Julia's GPS system could be heard, as the pair switched every 8 hours or so to sleep.

but as they crossed in to desert of Asia, Julia decided to stop to rest for an entire night. "we should talk about something," Julia suggested. She pulled off the road, deeper and deeper in to the desert sands.

"what?" he yawned.

"i thought maybe we could take a break from driving, maybe make camp out here and sleep a full night." she said as if he had no choice in the matter. she took out a camp fire meal, the kind that require actual hot water. Up until then they had been surviving on food that came ready to eat (like various candy and protein bars, with just bottled water to wash it down.)

She parked the van near a large stone, to supply a little wind resistance, then tried to start a fire with old papers, rocks and a lighter. It was a bit of work with such a small amount of printer paper (and possibly a little toxic,) and for some reason the printer paper did not catch fire as easily as she thought it would- but eventually she had a large enough fire to put a pot on for hot water.

"is that how you do things in Arizona?" in the time it took her to make a fire Miguel managed to locate actual wood pieces.

"i didn't think i could locate plant life in our current location." she said as she put a little bottled water in her metal pot.

"you never know until you try." he shrugged. Miguel sat down and shifted the fire so it looked more like an actual camp fire. He put the lid on the pot and used a larger branch to place it in the fire. "so, what did you want to talk about?"

"um," she knew she needed to think of something. She easily located the boil-in-a-bag food, but stayed in the van until she could think of a conversation starter. She noticed a fireproof glove and took that as well- so she could manage the campfire without any further assistance.

Julia exited the car but jumped a little as she was face to face with him, next to the open door. she thought of the most generic question possible; "do you have anywhere to come home to?"

"not really." he answered, the days he spent in her van was the closest thing he had to a "home" in a while. "When your family hates you, you can't stay in one place very long." he said out loud. 10 years ago it would have been painful to utter those words, but now the wounds had long scabbed over.

He looked in the van for a blanket to sit on, as to not get sand on himself."can i take this?" he asked as he took a red blanket from the sleeping area of the van.

"sure", Julia rubbed her bare arms and sat close to the fire, checking to see if the water was boiling. She was not cold, but the warmth still felt nice.

"how about you? how often do you go back to Arizona" he noticed she looked cold. Out of some kind of gentlemanly instinct he sat down, wrapped the blanket over her and pulled close.

Julia could feel the warmth of his body and it made her shiver more then any desert night.
Was she shy? probably. she had plenty of male friends, but Miguel was different, he had a beauty to him that cut to the soul.


"too often," she said without thinking.

"what?" he thought that was a strange answer. after all most of her time was dedicated to her research, so she must find that place a little enjoyable.

"..because it's beautiful and inspiring,"-- like your eyes and your smile-- she said to herself, "I'd love to take you there someday." she had to stop before she said something she might regret.


part 3 [link]

part 4 [link]

part 5 [link]