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“Which one do you want?”
Eretria looked up from sharpening her knife. Firelight played over Amberle’s face as she gestured to the two rabbits on the spit.
“Doesn’t matter. I don’t care,” she said with a shrug. They were equal in size and both very burnt, because the princess still had some learning to do when it came to cooking on the road.
“You don’t care.” Then Amberle hummed a bit in amusement. “You’ve said that before.”
Eretria grimaced as her knife suddenly slipped off the sharpening stone and almost sliced her finger open. Glancing up through her eyelashes, she glared at the grinning Amberle. She had been making sly comments like that for days now, and it was making the fluttering in Eretria’s stomach grow more insistent each time it happened. It was unacceptable really, so she said through grit teeth, “That really has to stop.”
“What has to stop?” Her voice was light and so very mockingly innocent. It made Eretria want to punch her (but only a little bit).
“You know what.” She ran her finger gently down her blade, pressing a few times to test her work.
“Oh, that you care? I do know. You said, earlier.”
Amberle just laughed when she sent her another glare. “Eat your dinner, princess, before I decide I want both.”
Then with a huff, she sheathed her knife and stood, reaching for the spit to retrieve her dinner. The other girl didn’t speak again, and for a while only the sounds of the fire crackling and them chewing filled the night around them. An owl hooted in the distance, and Eretria shivered.
“I’ll put more wood on,” Amberle said immediately, jumping up. Eretria watched her throw a few cut branches on, the orange glow of the fire turning her hair the color of redwoods instead of its usual mahogany.
“Do you want to take first watch, or should I?” She blurted, because she needed a distraction other than staring at the princess’s firelit silhouette.
“Hmm, I don’t know which one I want. Do you care?”
“I’ll take first watch then,” Eretria snapped. The fluttering in her stomach was back.
Amberle smiled as she sat again. “No problem. I like watching the sun rise anyways.”
She didn’t tease her again until they were by the stream, filling up their canteens for the night and the journey tomorrow. Amberle was so close to her their arms kept brushing as they dipped the containers below the surface and watching bubbles blub to the surface as water filled them.
“I was thinking we could trying riding on the road tomorrow. I know you like the tree cover for the forrest, but we’re behind schedule as it is. Riding on the road will be so much faster.”
“Faster, but more likely to have someone spot you and try to cut your ears off.”
Amberle sighed impatiently. “If I lose an ear, I lose an ear. It’s not going to matter much anyway if we’re too late to stop the demons. Besides, what does it matter to you if I lose an ear? I didn’t think you–”
Apparently Eretria wasn’t thinking at all, except of a way to shut the princess up, because suddenly she turned and crashed her lips into Amberle’s. She gasped slightly as she softened the kiss, coaxing the girl back from her surprise into curiosity and then want. Soon it was Amberle who was doing the seeking, chasing Eretria’s mouth as she pulled away with warm cheeks.
“I do care, alright?” she whispered, her words so quiet they almost got lost on the whistling wind. “I do care.”
“Alright,” Amberle murmured back, blinking dazedly at her.
They finished filling up the canteens in silence, but it was a comfortable, soft and sweet. The fluttering in her stomach had stopped, instead becoming a silken, fluid pulsing, because it was one thing to care about someone. It was quiet another to know they cared about you too.