The room that they’d come from was, unsurprisingly, empty. Arwin hadn’t really expected anyone to be there. That hadn’t stopped him from coming prepared for a fight if need be.
He let himself relax slightly and turned to Reya as he stepped in behind him.
“Looks pretty empty,” Reya said. “Should we head back? Or are we going to stand guard?”
“I actually called you here as an excuse to speak privately. I don’t really think that we’re going to get someone walking up behind us. It looks like the guards at the entrance were pretty good at regulating who went into what path.”
Reya grinned. “Ah. You want to see my new ability, huh?”
“Well, yes,” Arwin admitted. “But that isn’t it either.”
Confusion replaced the smile on Reya’s face and she sent him a blank stare. “Oh. What is it, then?”
“Olive,” Arwin said, nodding over his shoulder. “It seems like something’s going on. You’ve been pretty hostile to her in general, and I was wondering if it was because you knew something. Are you familiar with her?”
“What?” Reya blinked, then shook her head. “No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Reya blinked. “Why would she think that?”
“You do realize you’ve done nothing but glare or look away from her this whole time, right?”
Reya scratched the back of her neck. “Well, yeah. I guess. I don’t really have much experience with this. I’m not sure what else I’m meant to do. We didn’t really have the opportunity to do that kind of thing where I grew up.”
I don’t think living on the streets gives you much room to do much of anything, but there’s no way they flirted by glaring at each other. How would you know if someone liked you or wanted to put a dagger between your ribs? Then again, maybe that was the fun part.
“I think you could probably start by speaking to her,” Arwin suggested. “I might not be the best person to give advice for this, but I’m sure that’s a good spot to start.”
“Wouldn’t it be weird now though?” Reya asked. “I haven’t even said anything until now! It would be even odder for me to just randomly start talking to her.”
“Better to fix a mistake halfway through than carry it to completion and live with the full results.”
Reya scrunched her nose in annoyance. “I – okay, that’s a good point I guess.”
Arwin nodded in satisfaction. This definitely hadn’t been anywhere near the problem that he’d been worried it would be. It kind of felt like he’d stuck his nose somewhere where it didn’t belong. Granted, now that he had, he couldn’t exactly pull it back without making Reya feel like he was leaving her to hang.
“Good. Besides, having a better relationship will be good for the health of the team. We don’t want to be wondering if we don’t like each other while we’re in the dungeon.”
“Whoa, who said anything about a relationship?” Reya protested quickly, holding her hands up. “I just said she was pretty! I wasn’t thinking about anything else. I really don’t care all that much either way.”
Arwin resisted the urge to look at her out of the corners of his eyes. She was certainly protesting an awful lot for someone who didn’t care too much.
“I meant your relationship as fellow adventurers on the same team,” Arwin said. “Not a romantic one.”
Reya blinked. She cleared her throat. “Uh. Right. Yeah.”
Arwin nodded sagely. They stood in awkward silence for a second. Reya hadn’t tried to actually escape yet, but he couldn’t tell if that was because she was so embarrassed that she couldn’t move or if it was because she wanted advice.
He couldn’t be bothered figuring out which, so he chose the direct route.
“Did you want advice?” Arwin asked.
“What? No,” Reya said. “Definitely not.”
“Fair enough. I’ll drop it then,” Arwin said. “Let’s head back to the others.”
Reya started to nod but paused and caught his eye as he turned to leave. She cleared her throat again. “Uh… if you were going to give advice, what would it be?”
“Oh. I was mostly asking if you wanted it,” Arwin said with a sheepish laugh. “I haven’t the faintest idea. Maybe give her a gift? Or just try to get to know her? I mean, what if you can’t stand her personality?”
“She’s a badass,” Reya muttered. “Have you ever seen someone fight like that with just one arm? And she cut the Mimipede like it was nothing. I’m sure you and Lillia could probably do something like that, but who else?”
I think there might be more to personality than how good you are at killing things, but who am I to point that out?
“Then maybe tell her how cool it was,” Arwin suggested, thinking back to when he’d taught some techniques to warriors that had been part of his personal guard. “Or ask her for advice on fighting since you like her style so much. Most people like teaching small things. It makes them feel appreciated.”
Reya tilted her head to the side in thought, then slowly nodded. “I – huh. I think that makes sense. I guess it could work.”
“It’s a way to at least try to talk to her,” Arwin said with a shrug. “You can both figure things out from there as they come. Who knows what you’ll think of each other, but it’s better than just glaring from a distance. I probably still wouldn’t tell her about your new ability though. Not until we decide if she’s going to stick around or not.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Reya said. She shook her head and drew in a short breath, letting it out through her mouth. “Okay. Godspit, I can’t realize I was this obvious. I’m really embarrassed. Do you think the others noticed?”