Campfire

Kira / Natsolis (by twitter.com/reddapologist)

#DisasterRoyals

cn emotional shit

A warm breeze brought the first dream of spring. The familiar scratch of the bedroll scraped against her skin. Her ribs still hurt from the punches she took earlier. The campfire in her back warmed her as it slowly burned down while Arno was keeping watch, ever vigilant, but despite all the peace in her surroundings, there was a raging storm going on inside of Kira’s head.

She replayed the scene in her head for the thousandth time. How the damn turtle had pulled Nat down. How she hadn’t hesitated a single second and jumped after it, crushing it with a desperate lash of her mental prowess, putting all of her magic into that single spell. And again and again the only thought she had had in that second, that she might have even yelled out, screaming through all the panic: Not my boyfriend.

That was strange. Kira had never.. thought of them that way? They definitely had been close for some time now, especially since they started travelling together, but she had never felt the need to categorize her feelings in that way. That was something she was bad at in the first place and she felt like Nat had some sort of issue with it as well, but earlier today it had just felt.. natural? She shook her head at that. Maybe it did for her, but Nat clearly wasn’t comfortable with labelling their thing a relationship. What they had was good and felt right, but she wouldn’t impose that label on them if they didn’t want it.

Maybe she really would have to talk to them soon. Ask them about their past, in a little more detail. Why they were so afraid to open up to her. Or would that be too direct and scare them away? That would be the last thing she wanted, not only for her kingdom’s sake. The truth was just that, if she was being honest, Nat had started meaning much more to her than she had ever thought someone could and she wanted them to be comfortable. Maybe waiting for them to open up by themselves was the right call? She could tell they were thinking about it, but maybe the insecurities had taken roots too deep to loosen up alone.

But did any of that even matter? Maybe their thing didn’t need a label. It worked fine as it was, there was no need to change. Maybe. Hopefully. All she knew was that she loved them, and that was enough for her.

The campfire in her back warmed her as it slowly burned down, but the knowledge of Nat sleeping but a few feet away warmed her even more as she slowly fell asleep.