as written by Script and Sentry
The next morning came, and with it, an awkward tension that belied the seeming non-event of the previous night's conversation. Nairi had slipped out after rising with the dawn, and was perched on the barn's roof, watching the horizon with his knees tucked up to his chest.
He continued to replay the night's events in his head repeatedly, trying to piece together the chaos of emotions and assumptions into something understandable. Had Robin genuinely had no idea what he'd meant, or was he faking it to spare his feelings? Had what he said been that ambiguous, or was the thought simply so unlikely that it had never even occurred to the other boy to suspect it?
He'd spent most of the morning overthinking the entire affair, and sleep had come fitfully at best, despite his fatigue.
Below, Cameron stirred as a shaft of light his his face, yawning and stretching. He shuffled upright, glancing across at where the others had been sleeping and noting Nairi's absence with a frown. With Robin yet to stir, the boy clambered to his feet, set to climb down and seek out the missing werecat when he noticed that the window in the roof was open where it hadn't been before.
The night's activity hadn't gone unnoticed by Cameron. He'd always been a relatively light sleeper. Now, every time he closed his eyes he saw Harry screaming as dozens of tiny hands dragged him towards the bloodstained slab where their parents had been slaughtered like livestock. Felt the burn of rope on his wrists, helplessly struggling, almost pulling his arms out of their sockets in desperation. Saw the cleavers fall.
He shuddered, fighting back the images. His grip tightened on Lamby, the plush hanging limply at his side. No, sleep was far from easy.
And so he'd noticed the boys rise during the night, one at a time, then return together. He'd heard Robin fall asleep, and Nairi...
He'd not believed his hearing at first. Nairi had saved him from the creatures, and taken on every threat they'd encountered since without flinching. And so to hear the stoic, confident teenager quietly trying not to cry whilst he thought the others were both asleep had been ... startling. He still wasn't sure what to make of it, though he had his suspicions. He was a kid, but he wasn't stupid. He'd seen the way the werecat looked at his 'friend' when he thought nobody was watching. Nairi might have been stealthy, but in that, he'd been anything but subtle.
The morning sunlight was warm on his skin as he reached the window, setting Lamby down gently to one side so that both his hands were free. Carefully, he edged out of the window and onto the slope of the roof, spotting Nairi - as he'd expected - sat a short way up. The werecat had turned to look at him with a blink of surprise as he scrambled towards him. Thankfully, the roof was neither too steep nor too slippery, and he was able to plant himself next to Nairi without too much difficulty.
"What're you doing?" Nairi asked him, and Cameron shrugged.
"Why're you sad?" He figured he might as well skip straight to the point. From what he'd seen Nairi wasn't the type to respond to anything that wasn't blunt, and Cam wasn't exactly a fan of small talk anyway. If he was relying on these two to get him... wherever it was he was going to end up now, he didn't want them to be caught up on whatever it was that had happened.
It took the werecat a moment to react, staring at him with startled golden eyes that were altogether so catlike that Cameron wondered how he'd ever been surprised that his saviour had been in some way feline. "Don't know what you mean," was the eventual reply, accompanied by a shrug.
"I heard you last night," Cameron pushed, staring at the older boy. "I've not been sleeping well, so... I was awake."
Nairi flinched, grimacing at he realised that deflecting him wasn't going to be as easy as he'd evidently hoped. He didn't seem poised to offer anything else, though, so Cameron kept going. "Did Robin say something? Or do something?"
"No," Nairi snapped back, a little too quickly. So it was something to do with the two of them, rather than something else beyond Cam's knowledge. Hopefully nothing too bad.
"Did you?" He asked. "Why were you ... y'know?"
"Don't see that it's any of your business, kid," Nairi muttered, scowling like a thundercloud.
"If you don't tell me, I'll go and ask Robin why he thinks you might have been." That got the reaction he'd been hoping for. Nairi's eyes widened and he shook his head hurriedly.
"No! Don't..." He let out a frustrated groan, putting his head in his hands. "Why do you even care?"
Cameron thought for a moment. Why did he? Sure, there was a chance that it might mean that his protectors weren't as focused as they could be, but in the grand scheme of things he doubted that would make a difference. They might even leave him with this Charlie person, since she probably had a better way to get to the nearest town than walking. No, he wasn't that mercenary, not really.
So he shrugged. "I dunno. I guess I thought ... you've been nice to me. I wanted to see if there was anything I could do." He'd always helped Harry with things like that, and all his schoolfriends. And he was starting to suspect that despite being a fair bit older than him, Nairi didn't have a lot of experience with ... talking to people. As if his speech patterns weren't clue enough, the conversations he'd overheard between him and Robin had hinted at it.
Nairi's irritated glare turned softer for a moment, and he sighed. "It's nothing you can help with. Thanks, but..."
"You like him, don't you?" Cameron interrupted, taking a gamble. He immediately knew that he was right, when the werecat's eyes widened and his pale cheeks went red. Cam was almost proud with himself, before he remembered how obvious it had been. The real surprise was that Robin seemed to be oblivious to it. "Did he... turn you down?"
"Wh- No-" It was all Cam could do to avoid an amused smile at the way Nairi stumbled in an attempt to answer without giving himself away. "Don't know what you're talking about, kid, you've got it wrong. I..."
"Aw, don't lie to me..." Cam folded his arms. "I'm not stupid, you know. You stare at him the same way my friends stare at the girls they like. And you were willing to die for him even though he doesn't die permanently, right? Dunno anything but love that'd make someone do something that stupid."
Nairi was just staring at him, utterly speechless, and Cam grinned. "Betcha thought you were being subtle, right?"
The werecat groaned again, but instead of frustrated, he sounded almost despairing. Cam's grin turned to a frown. "He's probably known the entire time, hasn't he? I'm such an-"
"Actually..." Cameron interrupted. "I dunno about that." He'd noticed that Robin wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed in some matters, and was almost as socially clumsy as Nairi, albeit he made up for it more with enthusiasm. "He seems kind of ..."
"An idiot?" Nairi proffered dryly. Cam snorted, nodding.
"Yeah, kinda. I don't think he's noticed." He shrugged. It wasn't certain, but given how oblivious the older of the two acted, Cam wouldn't have been surprised if Nairi's attachment had gone entirely over his head.
"Probably because it's something that'd never occur to him." Nairi muttered, shaking his head. "It doesn't matter anyway. Better that he doesn't know."
"Why?" Cam tilted his head, frowning. He'd picked up enough from last night's argument before Robin stormed off to guess at the answer. The werecat didn't like letting people close, because he was afraid of losing them. But given what Robin had been saying during that same argument, Cam could hardly see him abandoning his friend just because of some misplaced romantic feelings.
"Would only make things weird, at best." Nairi stared off at the horizon wistfully. "Whatever."
"I think you're being stupid," Cam stated matter-of-factly. "You take loads of risks with everything else, but you're not willing to risk making things kinda weird for a little bit? C'mon, I asked one of my best friends out, and she was so not into me... like, she turned out to be into girls, but anyway... it was awkward for a while, but not because of her. I just took a while to get over her. And I could only do that 'cause I actually told her. It wasn't so bad, in the end."
"Can't believe I'm getting love advice from a ..." Nairi glanced at him, hesitating for a moment in what Cam figured was an attempt to guess his age.
"Fourteen year old," he interjected helpfully. Nairi'd probably have been off the mark without help. He looked fairly young for his age.
"...yeah."
"I mean, at a guess, I've probably had more-" He started, wondering just how innocent in this regard Nairi actually was.
"Don't want to hear about it!" Nairi interrupted, his grimace making Cam snicker. He supposed that was fair. He probably wouldn't want to either, if their roles were reversed.
"Anyway, I think you should just tell him." If for no other reason that otherwise the blatant romantic tension was going to drive him up the wall for the next however many days they were together. He supposed it was at least distracting.
There was a loud bang from inside the barn, followed by a groan of discomfort.
Robin had fallen into one of the many cans lined up against the walls in his sleepy stupor. He rolled onto his feet and looked around, rubbing his eyes.
Nairi's eyes flicked down towards the window, and Cameron sighed. "Well, whatever. He's gonna find out sooner or later. " He leaned back onto the rooftop, watching the sunrise in the distance. The werecat said nothing, but his brow was furrowed in thought.
Ambling towards the open spot on the ceiling, Robin pursed his lips and furrowed his brow crankily.
"Hello?" he called. "Why're you guys up there?"
Cam shuffled down into view of the window, looking down at the older boy. "Just watching the sunrise. And talking," he said, shrugging.
"Going to go see if Charlie is awake," Nairi said, drawing Cam's attention back to him as he rose to his feet. "Need to ask her some things about the next town, and when she wants us gone by."
Without waiting for a reply, the werecat had stepped down to the edge of the roof and nimbly hopped off. Cam's heart skipped a beat, before he remembered how acrobatic Nairi was. The saying about cats landing on their feet probably applied to him too.
"Wait, hold on-" Robin called, trying to climb up onto the roof. He saw the werecat depart as he landed. "Darnit," he grumbled. "He didn't even say good morning."
He looked toward Cam and sleepily grinned. "But you're here! Good morning."
"Morning," Cam replied with a little less enthusiasm, though he managed to muster a smile. He paused, biting his lip and frowning. Should he ask Robin about what had happened? Nairi wouldn't want him to, but Nairi had all the social maneuvering skills of ... well, a cat.
"What exactly happened last night? After you guys argued."
Robin scratched his cheek and rolled his eyes to the top of his head in thought. "Last night? I remember I fell asleep... then... Nairi..." The boy seemed genuinely confused about the events that had passed.
He did remember that there was a rock in his gut that he hadn't been able to get rid of. The young immortal frowned. "I tried to talk to him, and let him know that I wasn't leaving. I don't think he believes me."
Cam looked down at his lap. It didn't make much sense to him. Why would Nairi think that way? "Did you say anything else?" He looked up, hesitating. "He seemed pretty upset about something. After you both got back, and you'd gone to sleep."
"Um... he said... that I couldn't be happy with..." He narrowed his eyes and wrinkled his forehead. "With... just surviving long enough to be his friend. I think he was saying that I didn't need to bother about being useless."
"Kind of a weird thing to say," Cam tilted his head. "Sorta ... I dunno, self-centred, out of context. Like you don't need to be anything else and should just be his friend, and that's it. Is he normally that... controlling?"
"Mmm. I don't... think so. Is that bad?" Robin asked Cam. "I'm using you as reference. Haven't really had a normal life with someone else, you know?"
The teenager sighed, drooping his forehead onto his knees. "Gods, you're both as bad as each other..." he muttered under his breath, before looking up again. "Sort of. But that's only if you didn't misinterpret him. He seems like, super protective, but not like he wouldn't want you to do your own thing. I dunno." He'd only known these guys for a few days. What was he doing trying to give them advice?
Keeping his head busy, he supposed. Better than the alternative.
"I don't know. I actually don't know Nairi as much as I'd like to. We've been together forever but I only know that he's grumpy most of the time and he never had a friend that stuck around. This trip has been a bit... eye opening for us."
Maybe he would be seeing sides of Nairi that he never expected to see. Last night was certainly a surprise.
Cam drummed his fingers on the rooftop. "Eye opening how?" he prompted.
"Well, we've been friends for months. Saved each other's lives. I died to help him and... I can't remember ever staying behind for someone else like that before. And after all that, when we were walking here, we find out we don't even know each other. Not really."
"Don't you?" Cam frowned. "You don't need to know every little thing about someone to know them, y'know. I couldn't tell you anything about most of my friends' childhoods, except the like ... two who I know from elementary. Some things just never really come up, I guess."
"But you're a teenager," Robin pointed out. "There's really not a lot of important things by that time. Well, for a normal teenager. It's... different when you're older."
"Don't see how," Cam answered, shrugging. "Sure, knowing more about someone helps you understand them, but the person you know is just... them, isn't it? How they are now. You know that, right?"
Robin took off his cap and scratched the top of his head. "Hmm. I guess I haven't had much time to think of it. Maybe I did, at some point." He frowned. "Nairi was right. I have the maturity of a twelve year old!"
"Well I'm not gonna disagree with you..." Cameron snorted. "Look, uhm. We got a little sidetracked there. What I was trying to get at is... maybe if you don't understand why he would be upset about what you think he is, try thinking of other things he could be upset about..?" He almost winced. That hadn't made much sense, and it'd been clumsy at that.
"I..." Robin paused. There was any amount of things that could upset Nairi. He was naturally grumpy. That wasn't grumpy, though. Last night was... difficult for the werecat for a different reason. "I... can't imagine why."
Cameron sighed. "Well, I dunno. Think about it, some. Maybe you'll have a revelation eventually." Unlikely, he thought. If he'd known the pair of them better, he'd have just spilled the beans already. But that probably wasn't the best idea, since he didn't really know how it would go. "Think we should go see if there's breakfast?"
Robin's chin sunk into his knees. None of it was sitting right with him, but nothing was sitting right in his stomach, either, and that was important for milling over serious matters.
"Of course," he mumbled.
"Cool!" Cam pushed himself forwards to slide down the roof until he was level with the window, stopping himself precariously close to the edge before shuffling across to climb back past Robin through the window. "I hope there are sausages... and eggs." The thought of a proper breakfast, after several days of travel food, was making Cam's mouth water already.
"Probably demon goat sausages..." Robin remarked. "Or hellchickens. I hope you like spicy food!"
"Anything's gotta be better than more jerky or packet food," Cam wrinkled his nose. "Come on, they're probably waiting for us already."
With that, he started down the ladder, and the two made their way towards the farmhouse itself.