Page 16 of Homesick, Lovesick
The ring felt heavy and out of place in his pocket.Maybe he should have left it back home, instead of hoping for a pretty waterfall, a field of flowers, bright moonlight, and as close tohappily ever afteras life ever got.
Whywouldn'tMatch be tempted to go with the people who showed him so much appreciation and made it clear they'd support him properly?Even fuckhead Lynwood had done his job while Ronan snored the night away.
Ugh, his head really fucking hurt.
They stopped a few hours later, around ten, for a late breakfast or early lunch, Ronan wasn't sure which.
He hefted himself up to sit on a boulder next to Match, guzzling water like his life depended on, hopelessly thirsty on top of everything else.What the fuck was wrong with him?Was he getting sick?He never got sick.It seemed weird he would now all of a sudden.Reaching into his pack, he dug out trail mix, jerky, and an electrolyte packet to add to his water to help perk him up and maybe abate some of the headache.Match still hadn't offered him anything for it, and at this point, Ronan was too scared to ask for fear of rejection.
Instead he fished out all the peanut M&Ms he could find in his mix and silently handed them over.
"Thanks," Match said, looking up to smile briefly at him before adding the M&Ms to his own bag.Later, when they'd stopped for the night and he had a second to himself, Ronan would add one of the bags of M&M's he'd brought to his mix and repeat the whole thing at lunch tomorrow.
A few minutes later, Match tucked his stuff away in his bag, then hopped down and crossed their little clearing to start messing with the ivy that covered a few trees.He tugged at it, swearing throughout."Ronan, help me."
Ronan abandoned his food immediately, shoving a last handful in his mouth as he obeyed the summons."What are we doing?"
"This ivy is choking these trees.It shouldn't even be here, pretty though it is.English Ivy is invasive."
"Whatever you want."Ronan started yanking, grabbing random handfuls and pulling.The stuff went damn near all the way up the tree, so he didn't know how they'd get it all, but his was to obey.Match wasn't an idiot; he must have a plan.
He paused ever so briefly when he saw a flash of color that didn't belong, then laughed."Look, there's a piece of ribbon or something caught in this mess."He went for it right as Match grabbed right next to it, yanking in tandem—and toppling over as it gave way far easier than they'd anticipated, throwing off their balance and putting them on their asses.
"Ow," Ronan groused, even as he laughed.He shifted to one knee, turning to face Match."You all right?"
Match was staring at their hands though, where Ronan had grabbed his reflexively as they fell.The ivy and what was actually a piece of red rope, the kind used by campers for all kinds of things, was tangled around their hands and wrists, almost binding them together.
Before Ronan could ask what was wrong, Match looked up with a smile that was…bashful, almost.Ronan had never seen anything like it.Match was quiet, often reserved, but he wasn'tshy.
"What's up?"Ronan asked softly, reaching out with his free hand to cup Match's cheek.
Match pressed into the touch, eyes closing briefly as if to savor it, which made Ronan's heart go straight to two hundred.Maybe—
"If you two are done with your stupid tree or canoodling or whatever you're doing," Lynwood said sourly, "we need to get moving."
All of the soft, tender joy on Match's face vanished, replaced by the blank, not quite stoney expression he wore when he was done with life."Come on," he said with a sigh."We'll talk later."Instead of just yanking his hand free, though, he carefully untangled the ivy and rope, then wound the bit of rope up and stowed it in the pocket of his jacket.The ivy he clipped a piece of and wound it around his neck, then he tucked another bundle of it into the folded over bit of Ronan's toboggan.
Then he was standing and walking off, leaving Ronan feeling like he'd missed something important about the stupid ivy.
"Good luck, trees," he muttered, making sure to kick all the torn ivy well away from them, where hopefully it would die off and not cause further problems.
The walking continued, miserable and boring as nobody seemed to want to chitchat with him, only Match, who they continued to woo by explaining all there was to do in town, all the connections they had across the country and even internationally.Lynwood spent at least a fucking hour talking about the friends he had in Italy and the villa they'd totally let them borrow if Match wanted to join them for vacation in the spring.
"I bet it's really pretty that time of year," Match said."I could never leave my duties that long, or travel that far from my wards though.That'd be irresponsible."
Marvin scoffed."There'd be plenty of witches to cover for you.My mom goes to Bermuda every summer, and they cover her wards and work just fine."
That actually made Match draw to a halt, Ronan barely avoiding crashing into him."They cover her wards and work just fine," he repeated icily."That's not how wards work.The only reason I could come do this little project was because my family has long maintained the wards for Harper Valley, so even when they're no longer woven into them, the wards still welcome them back.There is no way I could leave my wards with anyone but my mother without months of preparation.Either your mother has someone else permanently woven into her wards, which is a massive security and ethics breach, or she just says they're woven in and has been banking on there being no problems all these years."
"Her sister," Lynwood said hastily."Family, just like you.Her name is Gertrude—we call her Aunt Gerdie.She's not much of a witch, but she's enough to hold the fort when Carmen needs a break.Don't you go on vacation?"
"No, I don't, not like that," Match replied as they resumed walking."My family never had the money for that kind of thing, and we'd never want to leave the wards that long.Part of being a Guard is always being there, or making certain someone else equal to the task is if you absolutely cannot be there yourself."
Marvin and Lynwood both scowled, and Marvin said, "You have to see how messed up that is, that you're never allowed a break, any time to yourself.What'll you do if you get married someday?What are you going to do, honeymoon at the county fair?"
"I think my spouse—" Match's voice seemed to hitch on the word, though Ronan was probably just imagining things "—would understand my life and obligations,obviously."
Ronan wanted to crawl into a hole and die, because yeah, they'd never be able to do the traditional honeymoon, but that wasn't really their bag anyway.Hehadthought they could rent out a tent or something at the county fair, invite family and friends to hang out, pass out tokens that were good for pretty much all of the food booths and even some of the game booths.Lots of people did that.It was practically a marriage tradition in its own right.
