The campfire crackled and spat as the flames overtook the logs at its center, the warm light illuminating the scene of an equally warm reunion of family seated at its side. Three women and one man sat in a circle, mugs and bottles in hand and blankets draped over their shoulders to fend off the crisp autumn evening breeze.
“And then!” The man was in the midst of animatedly relating a story to the others around him. “As if it weren’t enough left on its own, she threw her drink in my face before calling me Captain and telling me she was taking her leave.”
“I mean,” the oldest of the women giggled. “To be fair. You were flirting with her sister. At her homecoming party. What did you think was going to happen?”
“How was I supposed t’ know that was her sister?”
The youngest woman chirped into the conversation. “You were only dating her how many moons?”
The three women collectively sighed in unison.
“You’re never going to learn, are you?”
The man pulled a face at his older sister and shrugged. He opened his mouth to give a sharp retort, but the miqo’te woman on the other side of him spoke up before he could.
“He wouldn’t be our Danny if he did,” she giggled, and leaned over to nudge the man in the arm.
The three burst into laughter again, Aidan’s protesting barely audible above the chorus. “What’s that supposed to mean, huh?”
Honoura waived her hand in front of her face and grinned. “Nothing, dear brother.” She reached down by her feet for another bottle, only to find them all empty. “Hmm. Seems we’re in need of a restock.”
Emma hopped up from the rock she had been occupying. “I’ll go with you sis! I’m almost out of cocoa.”
Honoura laughed and patted her littlest sister on the back. “Maybe Baderon can find you some more, mm?”
Aidan and the miqo’te woman watched the duo traipse off into the wood in comfortable silence.
“So… It’s been a while since we’ve done this, hasn’t it?” he muttered, shifting his bad leg to a more comfortable position.
“Nearly a summer I think,” Avali hummed, sipping from her bottle. “Sorry, things’ve been busy for me with the need they’ve had for healers in the Ala Mhigo campaign. I meant to visit sooner.”
He nodded, almost curtly. “Could have written.”
“You could have too, before the Calamity,” she teased back.
“You’re still holding that over me? It’s been more’n half a decade.”
“And I’ll never let you forget it.” She grinned coyly at him for a moment before her smile faded. “I was just glad you came home after.” She sighed and leaned against his shoulder.
They sat in silence a few moments before Aidan peeled his gaze from the campfire to gaze at her with a soft stare. “For what it’s worth, ‘m sorry.”
Avali nudged him with an elbow. “Is that the first time in your life you’ve managed an apology to a lady?”
“Are you trying to get me to swoon for you?”
He paused and grinned, wrapping an arm around her. “What if I am?”
She giggled and smiled back. “Then you need glasses, because if you could see you’d know you don’t have to try so hard.”
She shifted to sit on her knees so that she could cup his face in both hands, and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. She tried to pull away afterwards but found his arms keeping her there and gave in with little protest.
Emma stood with eyes wide behind a tree just out of sight of the pair, Honoura close at her heels. “Nora— are you… are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
Honoura laughed quietly and grabbed her sister by the shoulders, turning her away before things started going farther. “Yep.”
Honora steered them both back towards the tavern, figuring the two by the campfire might need a moment or two… or more… alone. “Sis, this’s been something that’s been going on longer than you’ve been alive,” she laughed. And its about time, you two, she couldn’t help but think.
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