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Hawkeye holds out his hand. The air in these woods is cool and damp, and tiny droplets of moisture collect on the surface of his skin. Above them, the full moon is ringed with an iridescent rainbow. It's quite the sight.
The three of them are about an hour out from Mintas when Kevin, their guide, stops in the middle of the worn footpath.
"Can we visit a place first?" he asks suddenly.
Hawkeye turns to Angela to make the call.
Angela deliberates for a moment, then shrugs. "Fine, sure. Whatever."
Kevin goes down a path to the left and runs off excitedly.
Along their lengthy little detour, they're unlucky enough to encounter a few ghosts, and, later, a pair of beastman sentries. Hawkeye and Angela incapacitate them quickly, then pause and look around in confusion at the fact that Kevin seems to have left them on their own to fend for themselves. It's unusual -- if there's a battle, Kevin is certain to be in the thick of it.
The next moment, Kevin pops up from behind a dense thicket, a bundle of yellow flowers in his hand. These he puts in his mouth temporarily so that he can use both of his hands to climb a tree.
"Uh, Kevin?" Angela says. "Now isn't exactly a good time for tree-climbing..."
Hawkeye has a suspicion of what Kevin is up to, though, and he jabs an elbow in Angela's side, eliciting an indignant, "Ow!"
Kevin jumps down lightly from a branch, his bundle now containing a set of pink flowers. "This way," he says, once again running on ahead.
Hawkeye and Angela follow Kevin to a clearing. Near its edge, in a patch cleared of plants, a branch juts up from a piled-up mound of dirt. Kevin crouches by the mound and lays the gathered flowers at the foot of the grave marker.
"Karl... is here. His grave," he says quietly. "Karl was... my best friend."
The words send a lance of pain through Hawkeye's heart. Even after all the adventures and new experiences and new sights that have proven to be quite the welcome distraction, even after the recent successes they've had, in the end, neither he nor Kevin are quite over their grief.
Hawkeye crouches beside Kevin and places a hand comfortingly on his shoulder. He does envy Kevin a bit, for one thing: that he was able to give Karl a proper burial. Even though it must have hurt, that's some amount of closure at least. Hawkeye wasn't even allowed to see Eagle's body after he had been arrested. He supposes at some point, Eagle would have been cremated -- Flamekhan and Jessica would have seen to that, mind control or no. But he should have been there, Hawkeye thinks bitterly.
But this moment isn't about Hawkeye -- it's about Kevin. "I'm sure Karl is in a better place," he says, "able to chase sticks to his heart's content." Hawkeye's not actually sure he believes in an afterlife, but it just seems like the right thing to say.
"Really?" Kevin asks. "You think so?" From his wide-eyed expression, it's like the thought has never occurred to him, like no one has ever suggested that Karl might live on in some vague, unspecified sort of way. Kevin's eyes are practically shining with hope now at the thought, and Hawkeye doesn't have the heart to do anything but double down on it confidently.
"Yeah, of course!"
Kevin throws his arms around Hawkeye. "Thank you," he says. "Hawkeye is... my new best friend."
Hawkeye only has time to feel extremely flattered before Kevin closes the distance between them even more, planting a kiss on Hawkeye's lips. For a moment, the world shrinks and there's only them, their faces, lit and shadowed by blue moonlight filtering through thin leaves.
Then time flows again and Hawkeye blinks, looking at Kevin in surprise.
Kevin pulls away and says hesitantly, "Ah... Should I have... not done that?" A look of guilt creeps over his features.
"Oh no, it's uh--" Hawkeye isn't sure how to express the jumbled collection of emotions that kiss made him feel. One part is just impressed and surprised -- he didn't think Kevin had it in him. Then there's a sort of bittersweet ache: missing Eagle, protesting that Kevin isn't Eagle, thinking how unfair it is that he and Eagle never got a kiss... And then there's something else, something fresh, something tentatively open to the idea that this is a thing that could be. "I... just didn't realize you felt that way," Hawkeye says, neutral, neither leaning into the possibility nor shooting it down. He needs more time to process whether this is truly what he wants, whether he's ready for it.
"If the two of you are done cuddling, can we go now?" Angela's voice interjects into the quiet, and Kevin blushes red and practically dashes off into the forest.
Angela isn't the most... sensitive of people, but in this particular case, Hawkeye does at least appreciate the interruption. He wasn't really sure what to say, and he didn't want to make Kevin awkward with a long silence.
Their detour finished, they head back in the direction of Chartmoon Tower. Hawkeye doesn't have much leisure time to think -- the soldiers in this land are hostile and it's best to keep alert so as to avoid unnecessary run-ins. And Hawkeye is best at keeping an eye out and directing the other two toward safety.
Still, there are some quiet, empty parts of this forest where there's room for idle thoughts, and Hawkeye's thoughts turn to Jessica, in Diin. She's safe now, and free, which means that the last thing of Eagle still remaining in this world -- his last request of Hawkeye -- is also gone in a way. Hawkeye's not sure whether to feel proud or remorseful of that fact. But perhaps... that too is a form of closure.
And Kevin... As for what Hawkeye thinks of him... Well, Kevin doesn't remind him of Eagle at all, which is actually... kind of nice. Heck, Kevin doesn't remind Hawkeye of anyone he's ever known -- the half-beastman is an odd duck, completely unique, from his shyness and his odd, stilted way of talking to his seemingly-effortless skill in martial arts, to his exuberance over the most mundane things.
Hawkeye has to admit that Kevin's been a big part of why this adventure has been so fun. And also that he's flirted with Kevin a bit in the past (that's just his way). It didn't really mean anything... But it could.
As they make their way through Duskmoon Forest, Hawkeye feels his heart beating quickly, almost in excitement. The world feels larger all of a sudden, so vast and full of possibility.