A Lot of Empathy

"I cannot believe I've been in this town for almost a week," Marcellus said as we walked out of said town's marketplace.

I had been distracted by all kinds of thoughts that I was surprised we weren't still at the kebabs stall. I didn't even know where the three meat skewers in my hands had appeared from nor why they were still uneaten.

"…It feels like it was just yesterday when you walked into my inn," I responded with the hope that I was smiling normally.

I wasn't exactly at top form and hadn't been for the past few days. Sofia noticed, Maurice noticed, hell, even Sofia's dense brother had noticed. I'd been slipping, falling and making an utter fool of myself whenever Marcellus so much as breathed in the same room as me.

I was both sad and downright elated the man was leaving soon. At the very least, I'd be depressed for a week—a month or two—but then I'd get back to my usual self. This oddly intense crush needed to leave me.

"Are you sure you're alright, Diego?"

He was standing in front of me now, both of us stopped moving. I looked up at him, still not used to a man taller than myself, and there was that bit of concern in those deep brown eyes.

I noticed that we were further from the town's walls, getting closer to the forest north of the town, but that wasn't important.

What was important was that Marcellus had put his hand on my forehead again, leaning down to look me dead in the eyes. My traitor of a heart was beating so loud, I knew for a fact that the nobleman heard it.

"You really are always hot to the touch," Marcellus whispered, still looking at me.

Any other person, I would've found the staring a little odd but with Marcellus? I wanted him to do it more. I wanted him to keep giving me that intense gaze and no one else and that was the moment I needed to start walking again.

"Told ya, Marcy," I said with a smile as I took a step back and walked ahead of him, "I'm hot blooded."

I began to eat my now cold skewers, Marcellus easily catching up to me and walking beside me again.

I glanced at the taller man who seemed to absorb the moonlight. The sun gave him a golden glow and the moon gave him a silver one, the nobleman looking ethereal and out of reach in any lighting.

"So what is the story of this famous lake?" Marcellus asked, hands behind his back as he walked. He was smiling softly so of course I had been a little distracted. "Diego?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah. Lake. Story." I swallowed down the piece of meat, almost choking when I noticed that the nobleman was staring at my throat when I gulped it down. "Well, it's got a ton of stories."

"Well, I do have all night," Marcellus said with a light chuckle. "Which one is your favorite?"

We were walking inside the forest by that point and I made sure to check that I had my daggers while I made the path easier to walk on for my guest.

"No way am I answering that," I said with a laugh as I moved some vines for Marcellus to walk through. "It's so cheesy, everyone makes fun of me for liking it."

Marcellus nodded his thanks at me, his big smile making my clearly maiden heart flutter.

"I would not make fun of you for liking a story, Diego. So please tell me? I so do love your stories and I feel like I would be learning more about you."

Please don't learn more about me. I don't think I could take it if you did and found out I'm nothing special.

"Fine, fine," I sighed as we got closer and closer to the unnamed lake, the fireflies growing in number and the clearing within my sight. "But you promised not to make fun!"

Marcellus laughed from behind me, "I swear on my name."

Before I could've started, we were facing the river.

It wasn't a grand thing, so to speak. A small river within a small patch of forestry in my already greenery covered country. What made it magical was its natural made skylight, the moon beaming down on the crystal-like lake with the lilies and fireflies around the pristine body of water.

The surrounding trees added to the mystical effect the lake gave and I was oddly proud when I heard the soft gasp the nobleman made.

"A beaut, ain't she?" I said, turning to Marcellus to gauge his reaction.

The man was in awe, his eyes slightly widened and his full lips a little parted. Then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and the most peaceful look I'd ever seen on him spread across his face. That smile on his face was a work of art.

I want to kiss him. That thought made me almost snap my neck to look back at the lake, my impulsive nature almost rearing its ugly head.

"It's beautiful," Marcellus whispered as he walked forward, taking a seat on the ground beside the water. "It's so beautiful. We don't have wonders like this in my homeland."

I stared at his back in confusion, wondering what kind of place the nobleman was from to find a mere lake so wonderous.

"She's pretty small, but she's a wonder, ain't she?" I said as I moved to seat beside the nobleman, though making sure there was enough room between us that if someone else my size came up, they could've easily sat in the space.

Marcellus turned to me, glanced at the space, then slowly back up to me with an odd look in his eyes.

Then he shifted closer and I had the urge to smack him to stay right where he'd been.

"The story?" he demanded now that our shoulders were barely an inch from each other.

Damn you, you damn feline. "Damn. Hoped you'd forgotten."

Marcellus laughed softly by my ear, making me shiver slightly.

"Do you think little of me? I will not be able to forget a word you say to me, Diego."

Every fucking thing he says is so damn romantic. Is he trying to make me fall for him or is that just how he speaks? STOP PLAYING WITH MY HEART, YOU DEMON!

I cleared my throat and hoped my blushing was difficult to see even with the moonlight.

"This lake," I began, just wanting to get this night over with and return to my room to once again use my hand while thinking of the nobleman, "It's quite old, you see. It's been here since before my parents, their parents and their parents. There's many stories about this unnamed lake."

I glanced at Marcellus and he had his hands behind him, resting on the lush grass, as he watched my every move, that same sleepy but peaceful smile on his face.

"…This story was told to me by my granny, the old hag. My father and her used to run the inn, actually. She had too many damn stories, most probably made up," I said with a fond laugh. My grandmother was a pain in the ass but gods do I miss her every day.

"The story is about two unfortunate lovers," I said as I remembered my grandmother telling me it in the same spot. We'd put up a little fire, and she made me my favorite pork and potatoes soup as I strummed my little guitar. "One was the maiden of the lake, tasked by the goddess of the moon to watch over this tiny forest and keep visitors from visiting."

Marcellus had sat up again, his head resting on his knees as he looked up at me with an odd twinkle in his eyes but I was too focused on the memory of my grandmother to pay the look much mind.

"The maiden was proud of her task, proud to be of service to her mother, the moon. So much so that she wasn't aware that she'd been so very lonely."

I remembered the way I had cried to my grandmother, thinking about how sad it must've been for the lake maiden to have no one to talk to. Then laughed lightly thinking about the disgusted look granny had given me when I used my arm to wipe my running nose.

"Sorry, sorry. Thought of something funny. Anyway, she spent a long time here. Confusing humans and monsters alike, keeping them away from the moon goddess' little garden. Years turned to decades, decades turned to centuries. and without knowing, the maiden had spent thousands of years without hearing from another soul. She'd talk to the moon, but it never spoke back to her again."

This part of the story always made me sad, though this time, I didn't even have my grandmother to begrudgingly hug me as I cried, so I held it in. I didn't need to look even more pathetic in front of Marcellus.

"She'd ask the moon when her task would end. No answer. 'When can I return to you?' No answer. 'When can I die?' No answer. Her guarding continued, until one time, she made a mistake. She'd slept for the first time in years, unable to handle the crushing feeling inside her, and a lone explorer walked in."

I wasn't sure if Marcellus was even still listening, too into the story to fully be aware of my surroundings. I probably should've been, then I would've noticed how much closer we'd gotten.

"He was a simple adventurer, logging the places he'd visited and the wonders he'd seen, and he was met with the aggressive but innocent maiden. She was ready to fight him but the adventurer only stared at her in awe. It was love at first sight for him and confusion for her."

I smiled to myself lightly, the best part of this story coming up.

"And oh, how he loved her. Even after being chased away the first night, he kept returning, bringing her gift upon gift upon gift. When she hid from the strange, strange man, he'd sit here just like us and tell her about his day. With each story about the outside world, she'd step closer and closer to him until one night, she sat beside him as he gave her stories of anything and everything his mind could've made up. Then she'd wished for something for the first time in her life. She wished to leave the lake."

"Did she?"

I jumped slightly, not expecting an interruption, especially not one where Marcellus was so close and looking down at me with a serious expression. The look under his calm eyes was almost panicked, like he needed to know each and every detail of the story otherwise something bad would've happened.

I gulped, not sure how I felt by having his chest pressed to my shoulder or his breath fanning my face, but I continued the tale either way. "She did, they did, and it was a night none could've forgotten."

"The maiden, with silver hair and skin as pale as snow, was brought into my little town by this adventurer, hidden by his cloak and he showed her the wonders of the human world. She ate our food, danced to our songs and laughed for the first time since her birth. And after her and her adventurer shared their first kiss by the city's fountain, she swore to never return to that quiet forest."

Marcellus's stare was starting to make me feel hot, so I faced the lake again, hoping the nobleman would understand the social cue and move a bit.

He did not.

Fuck my life.

"W-well," I coughed, "That didn't work out for them, for either of them. The moon goddess was not happy, you see. You don't disobey the moon, not in any way. The moon goddess rained down a powerful storm upon the town, nearly flooding the whole area. The lake maiden begged and begged her neglectful mother, swore she'd return and never leave if she let her beloved humans live. The moon goddess' wrath was uncontrollable. The sacrifice was not to be her daughter, but the man that took her away from her mother."

"No," Marcellus whispered and I could've heard the genuine sadness in his voice.

"The adventurer, willing to sacrifice himself if it meant that his beloved could've been free and the town saved, was thus turned to stone and shattered by the moon. The goddess didn't stop there unfortunately. Her daughter, the broken maiden of the lake, was returned to the sky as the star she had originally been. That's the story of the maiden of the unnamed lake. That blinking star headed north is thought of as our maiden, still lamenting the loss of her adventurer."

I finished the story and could feel the tears in my eyes that I barely held back, with a sniff I turned to face Marcellus who was staring at the lake with a clenched jaw.

"Quite tragic, ain't it? Good story though," I said with a laugh as I sniffed again.

"What a cruel thing to do to your child," Marcellus said with a darkness in his voice, looking up at the moon. "What a cruel, cruel thing."

"Yeah," I said as the tears came back at the thought of the goddess' punishment. I'm too old to be crying over some damned campfire story. "I really do hope it's just a story. That'd be too sad if it was true."

"This being your favorite story about the lake is quite interesting, I must say. Also," Marcellus gently turned my face by the chin to face him, his cold hands moving upwards to wipe my widened eyes of my unshed tears, "I am noticing that you tear up quite easily."

My heart was trying to escape again!

"Why's it interesting?" I asked, sounding breathless. I sounded like I had been running for miles on end.

Marcellus was giving me that warm look again, still using his thumb to gently wipe under my eyes even though the tears had all but dried up.

"It's interesting because it confirmed what I had originally thought about you but also taught me a little more. You have quite a lot of empathy, even for a fictional non-human being." I frowned, thinking he was mocking me as well, and he laughed. "That is a good thing. Not many can care as much as you do, though do be careful about where you place your heart. Some might not treasure such a rare thing you have."

I didn't know whether he was complimenting me or trying to warn me about my obvious interest in him. Either that or I was overthinking yet again.

"…What else did you learn?"

"Hmm," he hummed as he retracted his hand from my face, put his hands behind him again but still looking at me. Then he smiled, but it was almost shy, too boyish. It made him look younger than he already did. "Oh I simply just thought you were more of a romantic than I had originally thought. You're rather adorable, Diego."

I got up in silence and practically tried to run back to the town, leaving Marcellus behind.

I almost kissed him. I had leaned forward and almost kissed him. I wanted to, and I almost did.

Gods above, was this another not-a-date?