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Carefully, ever so carefully, Shez crept through the underbrush. She had spent the good part of an afternoon pursuing these bandits’ trail, but she hadn’t expected quite so large and lively an encampment to lie at its end… Still, it wouldn’t be a problem. Not for her, not after all this time on her own. All she needed was to find an opening…
…And there it was. Shez smirked; sometimes, her luck was uncanny. A back turned there, a weapon laid down there; all of it, for a moment, had aligned just right. Unsheathing her swords, she shifted just barely, preparing to pounce.
It wasn’t until both feet were already off the ground that she noticed the snag around her leg. She yelped, and a dozen eyes turned to her.
They blinked, and she was gone.
A mile away, Shez hit the ground. The impact of her fall was dulled by the crunch of dead leaves, but it stung all the same. For a time, she just laid there as the embarrassment of her latest failure sunk in. This was far from her first brush with near-death, but it was certainly her least dignified. The thought crossed her mind of all those brigands howling with laughter at the sight of her sprawled on the dirt, practically volunteering to be captured and sold, if not killed outright. It was a fate she narrowly avoided, but only because…
“I know I shouldn’t have, but I actually expected better from you.” In an instant, Arval’s piercing red eyes met hers. They floated just inches above, an expression of annoyance clear on their face. “Apparently, you’re even worse at this than I thought.”
Shez grimaced, then finally pulled herself off the ground. It was irrational, she knew, to be angry with the person who had just saved her life (and not for the first time, either) for scolding her over such a stupid mistake, but… well, no one was paying her to be rational. “Oh, shut up,” she spat. “You don’t have to rub salt in the wound.”
“What wound?” Arval asked. “You’re completely unhurt, thanks to me.”
Shez narrowed her eyes, studying their expression. Arval, as always, was difficult to read, and Shez had no way of telling whether or not her companion was being sarcastic just then. “It’s an emotional wound,” she clarified. “Stumbling like that was embarrassing enough without you making fun of me for it.”
Arval crossed their arms. “What’s embarrassing is my partner in destiny struggling to go a week without making a fatal misstep. Honestly, how many times do you expect me to bail you out?”
That was not a question Shez had considered. After a bit too long, she responded, “Uh… As many times as it takes?”
For a moment, there was silence. Then, a sigh. “Shez… You can’t keep doing this. Seriously.” Slowly, Arval started to glide around her, pacing anxiously in their own ethereal way. “I know… I know you can do better than this. You have so much potential, I know it.”
This was a new side of Arval. Normally, Shez would be quick to dispute their scolding, but… well, she wouldn’t dispute that she had potential, that she could do amazing things if she really tried. It left her oddly tongue-tied, even as Arval paused in anticipation of a snappy comeback. “Are you… going to say anything?”
Shez shrugged, turning around to avoid eye contact. “Nah… I mean, you’re not wrong. I can do better.”
Arval spun around to meet her gaze. “If you can do better, then why do you keep doing this?”
Shez was quiet for a moment. Then, she let out a deep, frustrated groan. “That’s… that’s the thing,” she said. “I don’t know why. I have no fucking clue.”
Arval pulled a face, clearly unsatisfied. Shez, in turn, shifted awkwardly between feet, unsure what to see. What she had just said… well, it was a lie. And she’s not a very good liar. She didn’t want to say what she was really thinking, but…
Goddess, Arval was difficult to lie to.
“Okay, okay, fine. The actual reason is… I think it’s you.” Shez paused after saying it, hoping to gauge her partner’s reaction. Surprisingly, their expression didn’t budge an inch. It seemed they were still expecting more…
“Okay, I… I’m not trying to blame you, or anything. I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me. It’s just…” Shez paused, then took a seat on a nearby stump. In a quieter tone, she continued, “before I met you, I lived every day like it could be my last. That’s just how it is, living as mercenary. Mercs who don’t internalize that… tend not to last very long.
“Since you came into my life, though… I mean, I’m practically invincible! It’s technically the same work as before, but… it’s totally different, too. I can drop so many precautions when I can warp away from any danger. Most of the time, that just means faster work, done with more confidence. Every once in a while, though…”
“…You wind up tripping into the middle of a bandit camp?” Arval finished.
“Yeah. Exactly. It feels stupid to say, but it’s… it’s kind of frustrating. I’ve lived my whole life knowing that my actions have consequences, that one wrong move could spell the end for me, but… all of a sudden, that just stopped being true. I can do anything, and walk away totally scot-free. It was exciting at first, but now… it’s demoralizing.”
At that moment, they both avoided each other's gaze. Shez couldn’t be sure if Arval felt guilty, or embarrassed, or what… and, either way, it would be wrong of her to make them feel that way. They had done nothing wrong, not at all; on the contrary, they had given her an incredible gift. It was just… a little kink in Shez’s psychology that kept that gift from being totally perfect. She was frustrated, with Arval, with herself, with the stupid world they lived in. She was so goddamn frustrated.
“I guess that explains why you jumped off that cliff,” Arval finally said.
And suddenly, Shez couldn’t herself from laughing. “I just wanted to test it out!” she insisted.
“And the second time?”
“I… was repeating the test. It’s an integral part of the scientific method!”
It’s then that their eyes meet once again, and Shez finds herself staring. She must be embarrassing herself, she thought, but… what did Arval think? She was puzzled for just a second, only to get her answer very soon after.
Because Arval laughed louder than they ever had before.
Seeing that only serves to bring Shez’s blush back, deeper now than ever before. Arval’s laugh had a mocking quality to it, even when they weren’t intending it to; it was just inherent to their laugh, something that Shez could never stop herself from reading into. Like so much about Arval, it was frustrating, and it wasn’t their fault.
They laughed like that for nearly a minute, maybe a little longer, before they could even bear to get a word out. “Shez…” they managed to force out as they struggled to catch their breath. “I… I think I know what your problem is.”
“…Yeah?” Shez asked, though she couldn’t help but be apprehensive about what they might say.
Arval takes a few deep breaths, finally forcing themselves to calm down. Fully reset, they explained: “You’re stupid, Shez. So you need to start acting like it.”
…What? Shez waited for Arval to elaborate, but that… seemed to be their complete thought. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means,” Arval said, “that this kind of overthinking doesn’t suit you. We’re partners in destiny, you know? I know you. You’re a lot of things, a lot of great things, even, but you’re not a thinker. You’re a fighter, and I’ve seen you perform amazing feats when you’re just letting your instinct and adrenaline fuel you.” They shifted ever so slightly closer to Shez, locking eyes. “The last thing you need is to waste time worrying about how my influence could change that.”
Shez stared intently back into Arval’s eyes. They were always hard to read, but… this time, Shez could be sure of it. Arval was being 100% genuine. Slowly, a smile returned to her face. “That’s the lesson, then? Stop thinking?”
“Stop thinking about stuff that doesn’t help you,” Arval clarified. “Don’t go totally braindead on me, now, or we’ll end up right back where we started.”
“Getting bailed out of near-death because I did something stupid?”
“Exactly.” Arval smirked and added, “The wrong kind of stupid, I mean.” It was, on some level, difficult to parse just what distinction they were making; despite that, Shez understood it perfectly.
For a few minutes afterwards, they simply paused. From there, it seemed, there was nothing more to say. And yet, almost out of nowhere, Shez grew a devilish grin. “You know what else is frustrating?” she asked.
“That we’re still having this conversation?”
“Nope.” With a sudden spring in her step, Shez closed the distance between them. “It’s that you’ve done all this shit for me, and I can’t even kiss you.”
For a moment, Arval was silent. Then, just as suddenly as Shez changed her tune, Arval’s expression morphed to one of shock. “E-excuse me?” they sputtered, nearly leaping back in the air as a rare scarlet blush illuminated their alabaster face.
Shez giggled. “What? It’s an honest complaint.” She leaned in forward to meet their eyes, then continued, “You’ve saved my life time after time, and I can’t even reward you with a proper kiss. What kind of damsel in distress am I?”
There was a spot of silence as Arval regained their composure. “I… I really don’t follow. What about the things I’ve done implies I want you to kiss me?”
“Have you never heard a fairy tale before?” Shez shot back. “The hero saves the princess, and gets rewarded with a kiss. It’s a tale as old as time, Arval!”
Arval narrowed their eyes. “You’re not a princess.”
“I’m close enough!”
“In what way?”
“In every way!”
Arval opened their mouth to retort, but stopped before they could say anything back. Instead, they simply groaned and crossed their arms.
Shez narrowed her eyes to match theirs, unsure how to parse her companion’s reaction. Did they just not want it? That was… fine, if disappointing. But, then, it seemed just as likely that they really did want it, and they were just caught off guard by her sudden shift in demeanor. Either explanation made sense, she figured. And, regardless, she was never too great at reading people…
“Do you… wanna?” she finally asked, deciding, in her typical fashion, to walk the bluntest path forward. “It’s okay if you don’t, I wasn’t being too serious.”
Arval stopped. They would almost appear frozen in time, were it not for the blush slowly spreading further across their face. After a long moment, they muttered, “I don’t… not want to.”
Shez perked up. “Yeah? Really?”
Arval sighed, their eyes drifting off awkwardly toward the leafy floor. “...Yes. I wouldn’t mind it.”
It was at that point that Shez really took in, for the first time, just how cute Arval was. Granted, it wasn’t exactly proper form to notice such a thing after proposing a kiss, but Shez did always enjoy playing by her own rules. A bold move like that was perfect for seeing a haughty thing like them all flustered, a sight made all the more valuable by its rarity.
Interrupting that precious moment, Arval piped up once more. “That said, I… I don’t think I actually can . It seems… difficult to act out a kiss when I lack a physical form.”
Shez’s smirk dropped. Somehow, she hadn’t thought of that… Improvising, she said, “I mean, we can just… put our lips together. Even if we don’t feel anything, it’s basically the same thing.”
Arval raised an eyebrow. “I… suppose. If you insist on it.”
“I do insist on it.”
Arval sighed again, then slowly began to drift towards Shez. They both were totally flushed, now, though Shez was blissfully ignorant of her own blushing. Gently, without either making a sound, Arval brought their lips – at least, an ethereal projection of lips – against their partner’s.
Physically, it felt like nothing. Essentially, nothing actually happened; an image just clipped through flesh and blood. Despite that, Shez felt… alive. Her pulse raced as they held their poses, and a powerful warmth spread through her even in the absence of actual contact. Somehow, this whole thing was electrifying. It was nothing, and it was everything.
Finally, Arval drifted back. “You… really are stupid,” they said, though their even-deeper blush betrayed how they truly felt.
“I’ve been told,” Shez said with a chuckle, though she found it more difficult than usual to keep her trademark cool swagger. They were quiet for a moment longer before she added, “You know, that was, uh… technically my first kiss.”
“It was what? ” Arval shouted, somehow more shocked by that than anything else they’d just experienced. “But… you were so… confident!”
Shez gave an awkward laugh. “Yeah, well… I like to go into all my first times with confidence.”
Again, Arval sighed. “That… really shouldn’t count as a ‘first kiss’. We didn’t even make physical contact.”
That was true; Shez had been happy to dismiss that, but it wasn’t exactly a true “first kiss experience.” She couldn’t say for sure, but it at least made sense that the physical sensation of locking lips with another human being was a big part of what made kissing… kissing. She hadn’t gotten any of that, but…
It didn’t matter. She loved every second of it.
“I want it to count,” she finally said. With that, it was definitive; if she wanted it to be her first kiss, then it was. Even if it made Arval blush even more. Especially if it made Arval blush even more.
After that, there was yet again nothing left to say. They could kiss again, Shez considered, but… no, they shouldn’t so soon. The next time Arval saved her life, maybe. In the meantime, she scanned her surroundings; she’d missed the sunset in all the drama, and she stood now well into the night. She'd always had good night vision, though, and something behind the trees did manage to catch her eye.
“Hey Arval?” she said.
“Yes?”
In an instant, Shez launched into a sprint. “I’M GONNA GO JUMP OFF THAT CLIFF!”
In her dust, Arval watched.
And sighed.
And smiled.