Page 17 of Homesick, Lovesick
So, yeah, he had thought they'd celebrate at the county fair.
Orange diamonds and hick fairs, boy what a fucking prize he was.Couldn't even fucking wake up when he was supposed to.
"—should see it, a lot of families choose it for their venue.Some of them get married in the church on property, some in the house with the big open hall, flowers hanging from the rafters and the balcony, snow falling on the skylights… but there's also a pond and waterfall out back that would be perfect right?"
Ronan was going to kill somebody.Probably Lynwood, for talking aboutmarriagewithhisfucking boyfriend.How dare he suggest a waterfall, that was Ronan's idea!Though he'd only thought of it for a proposal.Getting married in front of one was way better, even if he died a little inside admitting Lynwood had one up on him for that.
"Sounds pretty," Match replied, a bit of wistfulness in his tone."Is that where you want to get married someday?"
"Oh, no, my family always gets married in the family church.It's tradition.The same place we're sworn as paladins and take the vows as witches."
"Huh," Match said."We do our vows in the woods back home."
"My family did the ostentatious church bit," Ronan said."Whole stupid Roman Catholic thing, takes like a bajillion hours."All the stupider because his family was about as religious as potatoes.But whatever, he'd gotten through the whole ordeal, then he and Benny had met up to do their own thing in the woods.Because in Harper Valley, it was the woods that surrounded them that mattered most.
Marvin said, "Lynwood's wasn't ostentatious at all.It was a beautiful ceremony, on the harvest moon, light streaming through the stained glass, the choir singing…"
"Mine was on the blood moon."
Lynwood looked at him like Ronan had spit in his face."How bloodthirsty."
Ronan shrugged and resumed walking, leaving them to catch up or not.He wasn't gonna be baited over something so stupid."It's also called the Hunter Moon, which my family believes is apropos for those of us who hunt and fight monsters beneath the moon, the original purpose of the dark paladins."
"He looked so good in his fancy regalia," Match said with a sigh, unraveling another knot in Ronan's stomach."We don't have much cause to dress up, so it's always a delight when he does."
Ronan had felt ten kinds of stupid that day, wearing a dumbass tunic and hose for the love of god, reciting stupid Latin shit he'd forgotten the moment it was finally said.Seriously, they didn't live in medieval Europe.If any of his kids followed the tradition, he'd come up with a ceremony that meant something tothem, not to people who'd been dead for hundreds of years.
Though probably they'd just wind up with a bunch of miniature Match's, because being a witch looked way cooler than being a paladin, even if he got the neato sword.
Well, he hoped they'd wind up with a bunch of Mini Matches.Sometimes it seemed like Match was done with all of this, especially when he made wistful noises about traveling to Italy.Which Ronan would do in a heartbeat, but like Match had said, he couldn't just up and leave like that.Traveling a few hours away was one thing.Thousands of miles was something else—that kind of distance risked the wards breaking down entirely.They were a living thing, when it came down to it, and Match was the beating heart.
Thankfully, conversation lapsed after that, Lynwood apparently having nothing more to say about blood moons.Ronan kept alert for further trouble, but trolls were pretty territorial, and where there was one, there wasn't likely to be another.The only exception was mating season, which was in spring.
By the time they stopped for the night, his head was still throbbing, and he felt tired to the bone again.In his defense, it was just past four, and they'd started at four, so a twelve-hour haul was a hell of a good reason to be exhausted.
Thankfully, this was their first node, or a point of strong energies, ideal as an anchor point for the ward.Which meant they'd rest tonight, Match would do his thing tomorrow, and the day after that they'd head off for the second one.They'd do five total before heading back to base for a long break, and then do the remaining five.
There were five groups covering five section, with ten nodes to each section.Taken together, they'd ultimately form a three-tiered system of wards, with ten in the innermost circle, twenty in the middle, thirty on the outer ring.Though 'ring' was used loosely here, as it wouldn't be nearly that perfect, just following the border of the territory.
As he had the last time, he set to work on the tent, humiliation and tension sparking anew.Once it was warming up, he changed his clothes, stuffed his dirty ones into a special bag so they wouldn't stink up his clean clothes, and stowed it.
Yawning, he sat down on the mat Match had laid out for them, as there were no handy logs to perch on tonight, and chairs weren't worth hauling around.
Marvin was already hard at work rehydrating dinner, but once again, he paused to make tea, handing Ronan his cup with a smile.
"What kind?"Ronan asked.
"Just chamomile again," Marvin said with a shrug."I tend not to bring out anything with caffeine at night, and chamomile is relaxing."
Match smiled."It smells great.I'll keep an eye out tomorrow, though, see if I can forage some mint.I didn't bring more than what it's my case.Silly of me."
"Nah, chamomile is fine.It's nice to have something that isn't water."Though all day he'd been thirsty no matter how much water he drank.Thankfully, the teams that had gone first to mark the nodes had also buried plenty of water to keep them well supplied, and they had the stuff to clean creek water if it came to that, too."Thank you."
"No problem!"
Marvin turned back to making dinner, and Match was busy going over all his supplies, and Lynwood was…somewhere.Ronan took the opportunity to dump the stupid chamomile and refill his cup with water, after rinsing out some sugar or whatever that hadn't dissolved properly.Wait, hadn't he said he used honey last night?Or was he imagining that?God, he'd been so tired, Marvin could have said it was chamomile sweetened with the blood of innocents and Ronan wouldn't have noticed.
Lynwood reappeared from the woods just as dinner was ready.
