Matters of the Heart

We made it to the main camp the following day. Despite having been pushed to travel at high speed, we weren't as tired as expected. I didn't know if this was because we had gotten stronger or if it was due to all of us being too nervous about our first battle to feel the tiredness. Either way, it was a good thing because we were put to work as soon as we arrived. For the first day, everyone was split into groups about their specific jobs. The goal was to help everyone stock up or prepare for the upcoming battle.

I was the last person to be given my orders, but as soon as Laurec commanded me to the alchemists' tent, I turned to make my way there. The camp was like a city of tents, and before I knew it, I was running around in circles trying to find my way to the appropriate area that I was supposed to be in. I turned a corner, still looking around when I saw Tim. The cleric looked as lost as I was, and I called over to him. The man turned around and smiled when he saw me.

"Hey, Todd!" He waved me over, and I jogged to meet up with him.

"Hey, what are you doing out here?" I asked the tall cleric. He blushed a little bit before responding that he was lost. I chuckled a little bit and explained that I was as well.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to be lost together," Tim said and winked at me. I was glad that he said that and blushed a little. It had been happening more, and the past few weeks, anytime I talked to Tim, I would start well, but he would do something like that, and I'd start blushing furiously. I'd never really thought about romance on earth, but lately, around Tim, I've been having these strange situations pop into my head.

He and I were walking down the street in the lamplight holding hands, us dancing at the ball before the battle. His face in the moonlight while the snow fell. Lately, the emotions that I was experiencing with him were welling up inside me, and I had begun accepting them for what they were.

"Hey, Tim?" I looked at him nervously, and I had never done anything like this before. The man smiled at me.

"What's up?" He questioned. There was a long awkward pause, and I felt like if I didn't say anything that the moment would fall away, and I would never have the courage to broach the subject again. So I took a deep breath and pressed forward.

"Do you like me?" I asked. I wasn't sure if I was hopeful that the answer would be yes or no, but I knew that I wanted an answer. Tim gave me one of his kind smiles and chuckled a little bit.

"What do you mean? Of course, I like you!" He gave me a friendly nudge on the shoulder. It was clear that he didn't understand what I was saying, so I would have to force myself to go further into detail.

"No, Tim, do you like me like me?" My friend's back went stiff, and even though he still had that smile plastered across his face, I could tell that he was nervously considering how to respond to my words. "It's fine if you don't," I started. "I just figured I would ask because I like you, and I enjoy spending time with you. There's no pressure or wrong answer. I was just curious, is all-" My string of words was cut short when Tim pressed his hand to my lower back and covered my mouth with a soft kiss.

I'm sure that it was really just a peck on the lips, but at that moment, my world froze, and I could feel the heat of the sun on my face, or maybe that was just how it felt to be so close to Tim. As he pulled away and looked at me expectantly, I somehow remembered that I was supposed to be breathing. I looked at his face, and it appeared that he might have been just as out of breath as I was.

"Well?" He asked me like I was supposed to say something. I didn't really know what to say, but I did know for once how I was feeling. A smile slowly spread its way across my lips, and I nodded wordlessly at him. I probably looked like an idiot, but I didn't care as Tim wrapped his arms back around me and really planted one on me this time. The kiss lasted several seconds, and just like before, the world fell away, and all I felt was his embrace pulling me in. Unfortunately, this moment was interrupted by a passing Cleric.

"Excuse me!" The girl exclaimed. "We have been expecting all Clerics at the tent to begin our prayers, and I didn't expect to find you curled up with some boy. We have a war to win, and it starts with doing our job, so come on before I have to report you!" She was about to drag him away when I asked her for directions to the alchemy tent so that I could begin my own preparations. She was right. After all, we did have a war to fight and win. But I was still happy that I'd gotten lost, that I had finally had the time to talk to him about what I had been feeling.

I walked briskly to the tent that she had given me directions to and began making potions. The preparations took us several hours as we were tasked with making hundreds of health and mana potions and various types of chemical bombs, most of which I did not have the recipe for. Luckily the other alchemists were mostly happy to share their research for the cause. I say most because, unfortunately, I had the bad luck to run into Roman. He had come with another platoon, but I had to work with him right now, and he was just as unhappy about it as I was.