Page 21 of Homesick, Lovesick
"It could be a down payment, maybe," Ronan replied with a chuckle."Definitely not the whole house, dork."
"Do you have one?"
"One what?"
"A ring."
"Oh."Ronan laughed."No, I didn't even think of that.How about you pick one out when we get home?Take smelling salts."
"Oh, shut up," Match retorted before dragging him into another kiss that turned into more than he could count.
Eventually, though, as much as he'd rather fuck by the waterfall, risk of spiders be damned, there were still a few glaring problems that needed addressing."So what did you do to those fuckheads?"
"Put them to sleep.It'll only last two, maybe three hours, though, so we'll need to do something to secure them."
"I'll take care of that.You dig out the sat phone and call the team.I want them here before we face down the others.Also, I would like to say again, that little move of yours with the double matches, the way you whammied them, was the hottest thing I've ever seen.Pretty sure you don't need me for protection at all."
"I need you every hour of every day," Match said."Now, let's get to work.The sooner we do this, the sooner we're home, because I'll quit the Guard and work at the fucking diner before I'll finish helping these fuckheads.This whole territory can rot."He kissed Ronan one last time, then led the way back to the campsite.
The first step was moving camp.The fight with the golem had wrecked their campsite, and the corpse was gonna start smelling shortly, and nobody wanted to eat or sleep around that.He was still sofucking pissedthat a poor, innocent golem had died just to try and…what?Make him look bad?Ronan didn't think killing him had been the point, but they were all fucking lucky he knew what he was doing, because the fight could have gone south very quickly.
Which reminded him all over again that Lynwood hadn't helped at all.That question was gonna be asked when the little shit woke up.
Once he'd moved everything, he hauled Marvin and Lynwood to the new site by the pond, then found some rope to secure them.No doubt once Match was done with his phone call—Benny, by the way he was talking—he'd add some additional precautions, so they wouldn't have to worry about them doing anything stupid when he had to let them go to piss or something.
With everything finally moved, the tent set back up with his and Match's bedding in it and the assholes' bedding and other belongings set aside, he turned his attention to building a new fire and getting some food going.After all that fighting, he was fucking starving, and Match would be at least as hungry.
So he got the fire going, sadly without the help of a magic boyfriend, and then rifled through Marvin's stuff until he found the freeze-dried beef and barley soup, which was a personal favorite.
He also found a small baggie of white powder that nearly ruined his mood, but he'd just gotten engaged and handfasted, damn it.Nothing was bringing him down, not even all this nightmare fuel.So he set it where Match would see it, got the soup going, and then finally went to fetch his spare fleece.It wasn't quite as nice as his favorite, but it would suffice—and hopefully sometime tomorrow they'd be back in their own house, and he could do laundry.
Of course, it would probably take longer than that.It would be several hours before the others arrived.They probably wouldn't even leave for a bit yet, since there was stuff they'd need to do first.So what, twelve hours at best?Stuck in the woods with assholes one and two, ugh.On the other hand, stuck in the woods with his fiancé.
Going through Marvin's bag some more, he found a bag of chamomile tea that he dumped right into the fucking fire.As long as he lived, he would never be able to stand the taste of chamomile.Possibly honey, but he hoped not, because he really liked a whole lot of things that involved honey.
There was also black tea and green tea.Little bastard liked his tea."Match, do these smell okay to you?I think that's the powder, but…" He was gonna be rampantly paranoid for a long fucking time.He was really fucking pissed at Lynwood for the nasty little aggro spell, but he rather thought he hated Marvin more for violating him in such an insidious way, a way that would have him fucked up long after this nightmare was over.There was something particularly gross about someone who smiled and chatted and offered you poisoned tea to help you relax.
Ronan gave a sharp shake of his head to banish all the gloomy shit trying to drag him under.He was okay.Match was okay.Match wanted to marry him.They were going home soon-ish.Those two fuckheads and everybody else would be wishing themselves dead by the time his team was done with them.
Match came over and took the bags, sniffed them."Yeah, they're fine, but to hell with it anyway.Benny, hang on."He lowered the phone."Give me like twenty minutes, and I'll be back with some mint."
"Okay."
Match kissed him, then went back to talking a mile a minute, something he really only did with their group.Otherwise, he wasn't all that much of a talker.
Ronan focused on the food, adding more water as it seemed necessary, and pulling out what looked like a packet of biscuit mix and getting that going.He wasn't the greatest at campfire cooking, but he'd done it enough he generally didn't burn things.There was also a packet markedchocolate cakethat was definitely getting made.The instructions only mentioned adding water, so it must have literally everything else in powder form.Nice.
After everything was cooking either on or near the fire, there wasn't much else to do.
A soft groan made him startle, and he looked over at the fuckheads to see Marvin was stirring.Anger filled Ronan, scorching hot.He snatched up the bag of powder and stormed over."You wanna explain yourself, jackass?How often do you go around slipping mickeys to people?"
Marvin stared at him, the bag, then back up at him."I was only doing what I was told."
"Who told you to fucking drug me?Do you know how easy it would have been to kill me?Over what?Maybe convincing Match to move?That's so fuckingstupid.I should break your goddamn face the way Match broke Lynwood's."
He didn't reply at first, but when Ronan scruffed his shirt and yanked him upright, he held his hands in front of his face, cowering as he replied, "My mom!My mom, okay?She gave me the stuff, told me how much to add per cup of water.I measured!I was careful!I didn't want to kill you.Nobody wants that.Murder is bad.We just wanted you to sleep—it's not that big a deal."
Ronan let him go—then punched him so hard he hit the ground.Blood gushed everywhere, but Ronan spared him no pity past making certain he wouldn't choke on his own blood."Not that big a deal," he hissed."Fuck.You."
