Summary: Their trio's down to two...but not for long.
Serious spoilers for episode 14 of campaign 3
“Should we still be getting a room just for us?” Fearne asked. They'd all retired for bed for the evening, but since Dorian had left both Fearne and Orym had been having trouble falling asleep.
“What do you mean?” he asked, trying to twist so he could face her, with no luck. She'd scooped him up so they could huddle together in the middle of the bed, and there was no getting away from her. The first few nights they'd tried leaving the empty space between them, but it hadn't felt right. Some habits were just too hard to break.
“Well, we could divide the rooms up between boys and girls,” Fearne reasoned. “Then we'd only need two rooms.”
Orym craned his neck back to try to see her face, but the angle was too awkward. “We could try it, if you want to. I don't think anyone minds the extra cost at an inn.”
Fearne sniffled, and Orym patted the top of her hand. “I guess I just miss him. I didn't think it would be so hard.”
“Yeah.” He gently squeezed her wrist. It felt a little better knowing he was probably headed back for their other friends in Tal'Dorei, but that didn't fill the Dorian-shaped empty space in their trio. “We'll be okay.”
She hugged him a little tighter and curled around him so her forehead was pressed to his shoulder. “I know,” she replied, her voice muffled. “But I want it to be okay now...I want us to be together.”
Orym swallowed past the lump in his throat. “I'm sure he does, too.”
“Yeah.”
A few moments passed in silence, and Orym had almost drifted off to sleep when Fearne spoke again. “Should we have gone with him?”
“I don't really know,” Orym mumbled. He yawned and shifted a little, trying to stay awake enough to keep Fearne company. “I think it would have been a lot harder to smuggle four of us out of the city.”
Fearne heaved out a sigh, heavy enough that Orym felt himself rock forward and back with the movement. “And we'd just gotten engaged.”
“You...know that was just for the plan, right?” he asked hesitantly. “He wasn't really proposing to you, just tossing you the ring?”
“Well, a girl can dream,” Fearne said mildly. She pulled one arm away from Orym and held it out to admire the ring around her thumb. “It might have been nice to have a fiance.”
Orym chuckled and reached back to pat her shoulder. “There's always next time.”
“I'm not getting any younger.”
“And I'm not sure you're getting any older.”
“That's true,” Fearne wrapped her arm around him again and let out another sigh. “Do you think he misses us?”
The lump caught in Orym's throat again, and he had to blink back the tears. “Definitely.”
“Probably hopeless without us.”
“Dorian might be okay, but he'll have his hands full with Cyrus.”
“Oh, Cyrus,” Fearne shook her head. “I probably should have just killed him.”
Orym waited silently, until Fearne let out a little snort of a giggle and ruffled his hair. “I was just kidding.”
“I know.” He smiled and patted her arms, which was all he could comfortably reach in this position. “Feel any better?”
“I'm sorry.”
“No, don't be.” Orym wanted to turn around to look her in the eye, but every time he started to move she just held on tighter, so he had to lie there staring out into the darkened room. “We both miss him; it's okay to want to talk about it sometimes. We were all together for so long, then it was just the three of us. Now it's just you and me.”
“And everyone else.”
“Yeah, but you know what I mean.”
A comfortable silence stretched between the two of them, until Fearne shifted again. “Do you suppose-”
“Oh for heaven's sake!” another voice shouted out from under the bed. “When are you two gonna stop yapping and get to sleep?”
Orym struggled away from Fearne and managed to lean over the bed enough to look under it. “Chetney?”
“Who else?” the gnome glowered up at him. “I was TRYING to get some sleep in my usual spot, but as usual you two won't shut up!”
“Why are you sleeping under our bed?”
Fearne had wriggled over to look over the bed with Orym, her hair trailing down to the floor. “Oh! Chetney! I didn't see you down there.”
“I always sleep here,” Chetney declared. He was wrapped in a thick blanket until only his head was poking out, glaring between the two of them like he was daring them to say something.
“You should come up here with us,” Fearne suggested. “We have plenty of room.”
“Yeah, old man,” Orym agreed, when Chetney started protesting. “It's gotta be more comfortable than the floor.”
Chetney worked his jaw back and forth for a moment before nodding. “Well..okay. But only because you insist!”
He scuttled out from under the bed and climbed on top of it, making himself at home in the exact center. “Well?” he demanded when the other two didn't move.
Fearne smiled and climbed over to one side of the bed, lying up against Chetney with her hands folded on her stomach. “Good night, Orym. Chetney.”
Orym took the other side, not touching Chetney but still within arm's-reach. It wasn't the same as before, but it did make the bed feel a little less empty. “Good night.”
“Hmmph,” the old gnome grumbled. “It'd better be. I don't want to wake up finding I've been relegated to middle spoon in the night.”
“Oh, of course not,” Fearne giggled, as she rolled on her side to throw an arm around Chetney and Orym and pull them close to her. “Sleep tight, boys.”
