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It had been a rough day. The party had gotten lost, wandering in circles for hours, with monsters behind every turn. Strong monsters, too - a few weeks ago, they would’ve shredded Hawkeye. Now, they were survivable, but they’d taken a toll. Not one of them had gone through the day without damage, and if it wasn’t for Charlotte’s blessings, they wouldn’t all be here. As it was, the sun at set and they’d finally settled in at a little clearing to patch their wounds under the watchful gaze of a silver statue of the Goddess. Angela, who’d spent the day complaining about the heat and the woods and anything else she could think of, was continuing to handle it all with her usual grace.
”This sucks,” she declared, perched on a stone by the edge of the fire. “Like, seriously, this is the worst.” She plucked a twig from her hair and flicked it into the flames. “There’s got to be some filthy little inn somewhere around here, right?”
“There’s nothing close,” Riesz responded. She winced as Charlotte tightened a bandage around the wound in her thigh she’d gotten from a sneaky Molebear. Charlotte had used the last of her prayers to save Duran from a stinger through his gut, so for now they had to resort to more conventional first aid.
Duran was currently lying on his back at the edge of the clearing, his visor tucked down over his eyes and his pack under his head. “And you wouldn’t stop bitching about the last inn when we were there,” he said without looking up.
“That’s because it sucked! It was all dirty. But it was better than sleeping in the woods like an animal. I need a bath,” she whined, examining a strand of greasy hair.
“Woods not so bad,” offered Kevin.
“Oh, what do you know.” Angela scowled at him. “You are an animal.”
Kevin frowned. “Beastmen aren’t animals.”
Hawkeye’d been minding his own business. His vest had sustained severe damage during one of the day’s scuffles, and he was currently occupied in mending a fresh hole. Now, he set down the needle; the edge in Kevin’s usually gentle voice felt tense as a drawn bow.
Angela, on the other hand, either didn’t notice or didn’t care. “Please,” she scoffed. “You may be perfectly happy rolling around in the dirt but some of us have class.”
“Class…?” Kevin tilted his head. “I have class. Brawler.”
Angela rolled her eyes. “Oh my goddess, how are you so dumb? Seriously, I know you were raised by wolves or whatever, but somehow none of the other Beastmen I’ve met were so rock stupid.”
Kevin frowned. “Hey! Not stupid!”
“Not stupid,” Angela repeated in a nasally voice. “Listen to yourself. You can’t say a full sentence.”
“Not stupid,” Kevin repeated, his frown deepening. “I don’t need to talk good.”
“Don’t need to talk good,” Angela parroted. “No, I guess you don’t when your only friend is a dog who's dumber than you.”
Kevin jumped to his feet. “Karl not dumb!” he snarled. “Karl my friend!” His bared teeth were a bit sharper than normal, and the tips of his ears seemed to be growing.
“Karl was a dog,” Angela repeated, crossing her arms across her chest. “He was a dumb dog, and now he’s dead, and you’re dumb for wasting all your time over a dead dog!”
Hawkeye glanced at Riesz. This was about the time where she’d step in to break it up. She was sitting up, leaning against a tree, but she looked pretty out of it. Maybe her leg hurt more than she‘d let on. So he stood up instead. “Hey,” he started, “Angela, don’t - “
“Karl not just dog!” Kevin shouted, slipping ever so slightly further into his beastial form. “Karl friend!”
“Your only friend was a dead dog!” Angela shouted back. She hadn’t made a move for her staff but Hawkeye could see her tensing, ready to grab it. He grit his teeth and stepped in between them, arms outstretched.
“Alright, let’s take a breath,” he said, glancing back and forth. “Just relax, right? Everybody be cool.” Kevin took a breath, and Hawkeye could see some of the tension drop from his stance. He looked toward Angela. “Angela?”
No, of course Angela wouldn’t be cool. She stuck her tongue out. “Dumb dead dog!”
Kevin howled, and Hawkeye spun to face him as he burst into his beast form. Muscles swelled under waves of silver fur. His face twisted as his mouth became a snarling snout and his eyes turned golden. Hawkeye took a step back, dropping into a defensive stance, but he didn’t draw his knives even as he saw Angela lay hands on her staff. He kept his eyes fixed on Kevin as the beastman’s chest heaved, rising to his full height, teeth and claws glinting in the moonlight. Hawkeye’d had plenty of experience with Kevin in this form, but usually he was behind it. He was acutely aware of how easily those teeth could tear flesh. But Kevin didn’t rush forward to try to take a bite out of Angela. Instead, after a long moment, he gnashed his teeth and ran off into the woods.
Hawkeye sighed, slipping back to his normal stance. “Great,” he said. “Real nice, Angela.”
“Oh, what, the thief is going to lecture me now?” She sank back down into her seat. “Real paragon of virtue, you are.”
“Angewa!” Charlotte finally finished Riesz’s bandages and marched straight at Angela. “Stop being mean to Kewin!”
Even seated, Angela had to look down to see Charlotte. “Oh, good. The toddler has something to say. Maybe you can give the dog some elocution lessons.”
“Kewin isn’t a dog, Angewa! You’we being weally mean!”
Hawkeye glanced around. Riesz’s eyes had closed, and Duran hadn’t bothered to look up during the whole thing.
“I’m going after him,” he announced, a declaration that was largely ignored. “Try not to kill each other for five minutes.” He shook his head as Angela and Charlotte started to shout at each other. Then he turned to follow Kevin into the woods.
Hawkeye’s skillset was honed in deserts, not forests, but he didn’t need to be a great tracker to pick up on Kevin’s trail. The guy’d left a swath of broken branches and stomped ferns wide enough to ride a horse through. Hawkeye kept one hand on his knife, just in case, but nothing with a modicum of self-preservation was likely to be in the area after that display. And he supposed that included himself. But he couldn’t let Kevin just run off. Well, he could, really, there was nothing stopping him, but he didn’t want to.
The trail ended at a massive fallen tree. Hawkeye could hear sobs, and peeked around the end to discover that the hollow log provided a perfect shelter for a now-human Kevin to huddle clutching his knees. Kevin knocked on the wood. “Hey, big guy,” he said. “Can I come in?”
Kevin’s face was streaked with tears. He sniffled and nodded without looking up. Hawkeye crawled into the tree. It was a bit more cramped with two people inside, but he’d been in tighter spots. Call it cozy. He sat next to Kevin, looking out the opening.
“So,” he said after a minute. “Angela’s kind of a bitch, huh?”
Kevin hiccupped and shook his head. “Why she call Karl dumb?” he mumbled. “Karl not dumb.”
Hawkeye sighed and leaned back. “Listen. You’re still working on some of this human stuff, right? You spent a lot of time being a beast, and now you’re learning how to be a person.”
Kevin nodded.
“Well, Angela is too. You were raised by wolves. Angela wasn’t raised by anybody. She was alone for pretty much her whole life.”
“She lived in castle,” Kevin said. “Lots of people.”
Hawkeye wrinkled his nose. “Sure, they were there. But they didn’t take care of her. They kept her alive, they fed her and clothed her and all that, but they didn’t care about her. And she never had a friend like Karl.” He sighed. “Angela doesn’t know how much it hurts to lose somebody important, because she never had somebody important.”
After a moment, Kevin said, “That’s sad.”
“Yeah. It’s rough.” Hawkeye nodded. “I’m not saying that you can’t be mad at her for saying mean things, or that she has an excuse because of the way she was raised. But try to remember that she doesn’t know any better. Sometimes you mess up at being a person and do something like eating a raw rabite or bothering someone’s livestock.”
“Just wanted to pet chick!” Kevin wailed. “Wasn’t gonna hurt it.”
“I know, buddy.” Hawkeye patted him on the shoulder. “And we weren’t mad at you, right? Well, sometimes Angela messes up at being a person and says something mean for no good reason. You don’t know how to act around people. She doesn’t know how to act around friends.”
Kevin nodded. Then he sighed. “I miss Karl.”
“I know.” Hawkeye rested a hand on Kevin’s back. “I know.”
“You miss someone important too.”
Hawkeye swallowed hard, trying to ignore the throbbing in his chest. He was always trying to ignore it. “Yeah,” he said. “But I’ll see Jessica again soon enough. She’ll be fine until then.”
“You miss someone else.”
The throb in Hawkeye’s chest sharpened. “Yeah,” he said, keeping his voice light. “I do.”
“You love Jessica?”
He laughed. “I don’t think I’d be going to all this trouble if I didn’t. She’s family. She’s as important to me as Karl is to you. That’s why I’ve got to save her.”
“You love Eagle?”
Hawkeye stopped. “What’s with all the questions?” he asked.
“Trying to understand.” Kevin wiped his nose on his arm. “People say love. Love friends, love family, love each other. Kevin love Karl. Different from how Hawkeye love Jessica? Hawkeye love Jessica different from love Eagle?”
Hawkeye chanced a look at Kevin. He was watching him with a look of concentration, head tilted, like he was working out a puzzle. Hawkeye scratched his head. “Those are big questions,” he said. “Some folks might get mad if you go around asking questions like those.”
“Oh.” Kevin’s shoulders slumped. “Sorry. Make mistake.”
“It’s - it’s fine.” Hawkeye chuckled. “Love is complicated. And people get touchy about it sometimes. But, uh.” He sighed. “Yes, I love Jessica. And I think it’s the same kind of love you have for Karl. And yes, I love Eagle. And it’s - it’s not the same.”
“Love Eagle more?”
Hawkeye shook his head. “No, no. I love them both. If I’d ever had to choose between them I don’t think I could. And it’s not like I love Eagle better or more. Just… different.” He cleared his throat. “Do you know what that means?”
“Hmm.” Kevin paused. “Hawkeye love Eagle… like Duran love Angela?”
Hawkeye burst out laughing, tumbling backwards. It took him a minute to recover, clutching his stomach. “Goddess, I hope not!” he said when he finally got back enough breath. “Those two are - oh, boy. Woo. Listen, don’t let them be an example for you.” He sat back up, wiping a tear from his eye. “They don’t know what they’re doing. But, uh. In a more… general sense?” He cleared his throat. “Yes.”
“Angela mean because no one love Angela,” Kevin said slowly. “But Duran love Angela. And Angela love Duran? Why Angela still mean?”
“Hoo boy. You are much easier to deal with when I’m just explaining capitalism, or silverware.” He took another deep breath. “I don’t think Angela knows that yet. And even when she does, it’s not going to instantly change her. Maybe she’ll work a little harder to be nice, but it’ll take time. You know?”
Kevin nodded deliberately. “Kevin love Karl like Hawkeye love Jessica. Duran love Angela like Hawkeye love Eagle.”
Hawkeye raised an eyebrow. “Do you need me to draw a diagram?”
“Kevin not love anyone like Hawkeye love Eagle,” he continued. “But love just as good.”
“That’s basically it.”
“If Kevin love somebody, but not like Kevin love Karl, that still good?”
“Sure.”
“Kevin love Charlotte. But not like Hawkeye love Eagle.”
“You can stop saying it.”
Kevin nodded firmly. “Maybe when Mana Goddess bring back Karl,” he said gently, “she bring back Eagle too.”
Hawkeye couldn’t bring himself to disagree. “Yeah, maybe,” he said, avoiding Kevin’s gaze.
The reminder that the Mana Goddess would bring back his lost friend seemed to cheer Kevin up. He wiped his face and crawled out of the tree trunk. Hawkeye followed suit, brushing debris off his clothes. “Mana Goddess fix it,” Kevin said. Then, he spun and wrapped his arms around Hawkeye. “Kevin love Hawkeye,” he declared, squeezing tight.
Hawkeye grunted under the sudden pressure. “Thanks,” he said, trying to keep breathing. “I love you too.”
Kevin held him for another few seconds before releasing him. “Feel better.”
“Good.” Hawkeye patted him on the arm. “Good boy. Come on, let’s head back. And, uh.” He cleared his throat. “Could you do me a favor? Don’t tell the others about… Eagle.”
“Why?”
“It’s… I just would rather they not know. It’s a secret.”
“Keep secret.” Kevin nodded. “Understand secret.”
“Great. Let’s see if they’re still alive.”
By the time they made their way back to camp, the scene had changed. Angela was sulking on her seat by the fire, while Charlotte applied a bandage to a fresh wound on her arm. Riesz looked like she’d fallen asleep. Duran hadn’t moved. Hawkeye deliberately stomped his way through the trees to announce their arrival and keep from surprising them.
Angela stared at Kevin until Charlotte pinched her arm. She yelped, then stood up and cleared her throat. “Kevin,” she started. “I should not have said you were dumb, and been mean to you.” Her words were flat and bland, and Charlotte glared at her while she spoke. “I was wrong to be mean and I am sorry.”
Kevin stepped forward. Then, without warning, he threw his arms around Angela. “Kevin love Angela!”
Angela squirmed. “L-let go!”
“Kevin love Angela,” he repeated. “Angela friend. Angela important.” He squeezed her one more time before letting go.
Angela’s face was pink. “T-thanks,” she stuttered. “You… you’re my friend too.”
“Be nice to friends,” Kevin said, wagging a finger at her. “Part of being a person.”
“You’re telling me how to - “ She stopped and shook her head. “I mean… thanks. I’ll… try.”
Kevin nodded and patted her on the head. “Good girl.” Then he spun and returned to his original seat, leaning against one of the massive trees. Angela sat down, grumbling, as Charlotte waddled over to Kevin and plopped down next to him. Hawkeye chose to settle down next to Riesz.
“How did I suddenly become the adult here?” he asked. “I think that’s your job.”
“You could use the practice,” Riesz mumbled, half-awake.
“Hmm, practicing adult things? I could get behind that.” He winked, and accepted the weak slap on his arm. Riesz toppled with the motion, her head landing on his shoulder. Hawkeye brushed the hair out of her eyes. “Sweet dreams, Princess,” he whispered. Then he tilted his head back to gaze at what stars he could see through the trees.