The Fateful Heart

"It was," Evaline said through a sigh. It was an old memory, and it was a strange feeling to reminisce and long for something that was impossible. It wasn't impossible in the sense that she couldn't repeat the same scene if she were to return to Earth; it was impossible in the sense that she would refuse to recreate the same memory if she could.

She changed the subject before she could dwell on it too much. Something light, something light.

"Okay, my turn," she said, shifting to a more comfortable position as she quickly thought of something to say that could make things interesting in an easygoing way.

"What do you do at night to keep yourself busy while you take watch? You can answer that, or you can jump across this fire."

James scoffed. She didn't need to wait for the game to ask him that, but he'd rather answer than leap over the fire - even though he could (a lot more easily now), he didn't want to. It wasn't worth it.

"Write. Draw. If Elliot's up, I'll groom him, feed him. Give him a break from carrying all of our things. Before you started traveling with me, I would play my harmonica in downtimes as well. Sometimes I'll pace and just think. And, well, I'll change bandages. Sometimes I'll trim up my beard, or clip my nails. I don't know. There's a lot of little things I do."

Evaline mused over his answer. There was certainly a lot more he did than her at night, but she was limited by the supplies she had. Maybe if she had extra money from the town, she could buy her own journal or some other form of entertainment. There was only so much thinking, pacing, and stargazing she could do. She was surprised it took a month for her to finally accept this, but boredom was only something that people with minimal problems experienced.

She was lucky she was starting to feel bored, then.

"I wouldn't mind if you played your harmonica," she murmured, staring at the fire in front of them grow even bigger. "Even while I sleep. I think it would be nice background noise."

James looked at the fire, and then at Evaline.

"That wouldn't wake you?" he asked quietly.

It might.

"No," she said.

Even if I do wake up, I think it'd be nice to hear you play.

"Or at least, I'd learn to treat it like background noise."

"Sleep is hard enough to get out here," James said, looking down into the fire. "I wouldn't want to chance it."

Evaline pursed her lips, trying to think of a way to convince him. She glanced up at him to see if she could read his expression, but the only thing she took away was that he seemed serious in wanting her to get some sleep.

"Try it for tonight, then," she said. "I can let you know if it's too loud and I can't sleep."

James sighed and looked back up at her.

He felt like... she just wanted to hear him play more. He wasn't really sure what she was getting at. But she seemed as adamant as someone could be without saying anything outright.

"Alright," he agreed. "But do let me know."

"Of course," she said with a hint of a victorious smile. It may wake her up, but it was worth losing a little sleep for one night.

She looked up at the sky, realizing that it was just the end of dusk and early stages of night. They had plenty of time before it would get late enough to sleep.

"Do you want to play again?" she asked, still looking up. "We don't have to."

She paused.

"We could just talk," she said softly, trying to make it sound like a natural idea. It felt stupid to suggest such a small and obvious thing, but she couldn't read James. She didn't know if this game was feeling forced again for him or not. This wasn't her intent.

James shrugged. "I don't need a game to talk to you," he said, leaning back on his arms with a sigh.

"I appreciate the game, though," he said. "It's a good idea. It feels like we're taking slow steps towards... well, you know. And it's fun, sometimes. Doing dumb dares. It makes me feel like a kid again."

She found herself letting out a quiet sigh of relief. It wasn't like that night when he sadly looked over at her when she dared him to hear her apology. They didn't need a game to talk to each other. That was right. Everything was okay between them.

"Right," she agreed. "Slow steps."

He didn't exactly say what the slow steps were towards, but that was okay. She didn't really know either.

She tried to let out a smile, turning towards him without showing a flicker of doubt. "So you did a lot of dumb dares as a kid, huh?"

James shrugged again, looking out into the forest as he tried to recall.

"I was not immune to peer pressure," he said, with a small amount of sarcasm. "I mean, I never did anything too crazy. My little sister convinced me to do a few dumb things that got me into trouble -- because, as the oldest, I always ended up taking the blame, naturally. It wasn't until I was in my teens and around other people my age that I was convinced or dared to do stupid, stupid things for attention. But I didn't just do anything," James said, looking back at her with a little smirk. "I counted the cost, and I didn't just let anybody push me around."

It was nice to hear James talk about his past. Evaline knew there were parts of his past he wasn't so proud or open to share, but this wasn't one of them, and it seemed to just give him... more depth.

"So counting the cost, what was the riskiest dare you've done?" she asked with the beginnings of a smirk, setting her elbows on her legs and letting her head rest on her fingers.

James laughed, but it was almost a groan as he tried to recall. His gaze flicked over to her, and he noticed her posture and her little smile - how attentively she was listening. He felt a little heat rise to his cheeks, but he looked away, playing it off like he was just trying really hard to remember.

"Well, I-- I don't know, riskiest is a little hard to measure. But one time I climbed on the roof of a shed and did a cartwheel down the ridge. Miraculously, I didn't fall, and I didn't get caught. But part of that was because I climbed down very quickly after. I could've seriously hurt myself, but I think I was more worried about the consequences of getting caught at the time."

Evaline listened intently, her smile growing a bit wider with each passing word. When he finished sharing, she let out a chuckle and dropped her hands, facing him with a smile that reached her gleaming eyes.

"How old were you? You sounded rather adventurous back then. Although, you still are, just in a different way."