Chapter Text
Well, here they are, at the end of the known world.
The last few days have been quite uneventful. Nothing interesting jumped in their way, nothing but endless walking through forests, deserts and rivers just to get to the end of Jacks map.
But, in the end, everything paid off. They were close, one more village left until they headed into pure wilderness. From there on nothing but new and unexplored lands! Just as Ivor would say, ‘Adventure!’.
It was Petra’s idea, she’s the adventurer after all, she's in her natural habitat here. If it was on the map, somebody must’ve explored at some point before them, and just as likely must’ve took everything that wasn’t nailed down, and probably what was nailed down too. So, why not go even further? Somewhere new!
“Ow, stupid flint and steel!” swore Petra, plucking Jesse out of her thoughts, sucking on her finger. With a sigh, Petra looked at her finger, well, thankfully, nothing but a scratch. “I give up! Hey, Jesse, wanna give it a try?”
“Alright, sure”, putting the map copy away, Jesse joined Petra in her attempts to light up the fire. But, unlike her, it took Jesse just one try. Bathed in an orange glow, Jesse could help herself from giving Petra her trademark grin.
“Showoff”, she huffed, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. “Hey, don’t look at me like that, I could have done it myself, you know.”
“Aaand then why did you ask for my help?” her grin now turned into one smug, sly smile.
Petra narrowed her eyes, and after a moment of silent battle of stares, she deflated.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Don’t rub it in, though!” she said, failing to wipe of Jesse’s dumb grin. “Anyways, how much until we reach the village?”
She was curious, truly, but it also had the benefit of finally making Jesse lose that smug smile. She pulled out the map close and gestured her to come see.
“So, we’re here” Jesse pointed to the forest where the shack they took as shelter was. “And the village is here” and then she pointed to a small spot two steps away from the border of the map. “By how much we traveled by now, I think we’ll reach it just in time for lunch. Perfect time, if I say so myself. I’m honestly tired of apples and dried meat.” Petra chuckled lightly as Jesse stuffed the map back into her pocket.
“Good,” she nodded. “Ugh, Jesse, can you believe it?” Petra put her arm around Jesse’s shoulder “We’re finally here! The edge of the know world. From now one there’s nothing except new, unexplored lands! Isn’t it amazing?”
“Yeah, I know!” Petra grinned and pulled Jesse in a tight side hug. “Man, I’ve never seen you get so excited like now.”
“True,” Petra lessened the hug, but didn’t let Jesse go, instead opting to rest her head on Jesse's head. “I mean look!” she said with a swiping motion of her hand. “I’m on a great adventure with someone dear, what’s there to not be excited about?”
Petra stayed silent for a moment, enjoying everything around her, just to be brought back to reality by Jesse.
“Yeah, dearest of friends!” she exclaimed.
“Yeah!” she let him go as if her shoulders burned. “Of course, friends…” she finished it lamely, followed by an awkward laugh. Well, she hoped that her disappointed didn’t make itself known, and that the uncomfortable warmth hadn’t turned her face into the same shade as her hair.
Jesse just thinned her lips and raised an eyebrow, questioning her words.Honestly, Jesse could be gullible in some moments, she just hoped that this was one of those moments. Thankfully, in the end, Jesse just shrugged.
“Yeah. You ok there, Petra? You seem a bit red…”
Jesse took a step forward, narrowing her vision. Petra, as subtle as she could, looked all around the room, searching for something that could change the topic. Nothing much, here in the shack, a bed, a crafting table, a furnace, a window and a fireplace. Eh, at least the sunset looked nice through the trees.
Wait, sunset?
Bingo!
“Yeah, sorry, you know how I look during sunsets,” she pointed out to the window, Jesse moving towards the glass to watch the sun moving closer and closer to the horizon through the tree trunks. And that gave Petra more than enough time to sigh and rub her face. Yup, it was warmer than normal.
“Hey, yeah, good catch, I totally forgot about the time,” Jesse turned back towards Petra, who took off her helmet and was running a hand through her hair.
“What? It started to feel funny,” she said, looking to the side. Petra wanted to put it back, but Jesse stopped her.
“Wait.” Petra stopped, holding the helmet under her arm instead. “It’s nearly night, I think we should better prepare to go to sleep.” Petra stood for a moment to think, looking outside at the sunset, after which she nodded.
“Yeah, no comment here,” Petra shrugged and rubbed her eyes. “And at least we’re having a solid bed here. Been a while since I’ve got a good night’s sleep”, Petra moved over to the furnace, placing the helmet, the gauntlets, all the bits and pieces that were her armor upon it. By the time she was in normal clothes, so was Jesse – how could she change so fast? – but she was looking at the bed with a thoughtful expression. “It’s just a bed, Jesse, you won’t learn anything new from it.”
“Yeah, that’s the thing. There’s just one bed.”
“Oh, ok. So?”
“And since we haven’t seen any sheep around here, we can’t make another one” Petra nodded slowly, wondering where was Jesse going with the train of thought. “But don’t worry about it. You can have it, won’t be the first time I slept on the – “
“No.” Petra stopped herself from slapping her mouth, but still grimaced on the inside.
“Huh?”
Well, she opened her mouth, time to give a good reason.
“Uh, Jesse look, I can’t simply let you sleep on the floor. I just can’t. I would offer myself to sleep on the floor, buuut I know that you won’t let me.” Jesse nodded and shrugged nonchalantly, well she was right. “How about we share?” the words left her mouth before she could stop them.
Jesse’s vision widened slightly. This was an interesting proposition, she thought while scratching the back of her head. Petra, on the other hand, looked calm as always on the outside, while berating herself on the inside.
What was that all about? This isn’t her specialty! Fighting and adventuring were her specialties, not talking!
“Yeah, sure, why not? Won’t hurt to try,” Jesse’s response nearly was nonchalant, almost painfully so, and nearly let Petra with her mouth dropped open. But, trying her hardest not to let it show, she just nodded, going with the flow, following Jesse towards the bed, while the sun was finally setting over the horizon.
By some luck, the bed turned out to be big enough for the both of them, as long as they stood on their sides. Even then, Petra couldn’t feel herself falling asleep, at least not at this moment. They were back to back, Jesse taking it better than her, she fell asleep as soon as she hit the pillow. She didn’t know what she hoped when she had proposed the idea, but she guessed she wanted something…. more? Yeah, more. But what was that more?
Her train of thought was interrupted by something unexpected.
Jesse shifted on her other side, putting her arm over Petra's side.
To say that she froze would be an understatement.
And then, even better, Jesse fidgeted again, holding onto Petra tighter. Now, at the very least, she didn’t have to hide that her face turned redder than her hair.
Well, she said she wanted more. And well, she got it. And, honestly, yeah, she liked it. Just… being close, her holding Petra, feeling her body close to her. Yeah… she could get used to this. Petra sighed and nudged herself closer to Jesse, savoring the moment as long as she could.
There could be a chance that Jesse could feel the same, she wanted it deep in her hearth, but this was also of the risks Petra didn’t want to take. Jesse - Jesse almost didn’t say anything back there in Admin’s Cabin, what about now? What would she think? They went so far together, but still, she couldn’t shake that fear from her mind…
But that was a problem for another time, Petra forced herself to think that. Right now, she got what she wanted. Even if it this was the first and the last time this would happen, she won’t forget it, not for a looong time.