𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 - 𝐿.𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑏𝑦

5.

                                              {ONE MONTH LATER}

Lee, the Gyptians, Lyra and I just settled in a valley. Honestly, political boundary-wise, I had no idea where we were. I don't think any of us did. Lee, Lyra and I shared a tent, but I didn't sleep anywhere close to Lee. Lyra was always in the middle of us. She knows not to make things awkward for us.

I was the first one to get up that morning. I looked at Lee while I was walking out. His arm rested in front of his face as he lightly snored. He never slept with a shirt on, but he only allowed the blanket to show his shoulders. I smiled and went over to him. I took his hand and gave it a little kiss. Hester twitched next to him.

"Do you like him?" Magnus asked as I walked out of the tent.

"What? No." That was a lie.

"I think you do. Best friends don't kiss each other's hands when they're asleep."

"It's platonic love." I lied again. To Lee it might be...

"Yeah, right." Magnus replied. He loved being sarcastic to me, especially about other people I show an interest in. He just loved to be annoying. I sat down near the fire in the middle of our campsite. Someone forgot to put it out last night, so they're going to ask me to get materials later. I didn't feel like doing it now.

Magnus and I talked for a bit, when I saw Lee and Hester in the distance. Lee put on his light brown leather jacket with wolverine fur cushioning his neck. Along with that, he wore his red leather underneath, my personal favorite of his wardrobe.

"Good morning, Y/N," Lee said, sitting down next to me, "did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I guess." Now, that wasn't a lie.

"What made it so bad?" He asked, taking out another cigarette. When is he going to stop smoking?

"It wasn't so bad. It wasn't the best though."

"Sorry about that." He lit the cigarette and blew out another puff of smoke. It didn't disintegrate in the air. It just stayed there for a moment, then blew away, like when you exhale on a cold night. It looked majestic, even though it was just a puff of smoke coming from a cigarette.

"How was yours?" I asked, wanting to change the subject from me.

"It was good." Lee answered. He rested his arm on his bent knee and sighed, more smoke coming from his mouth.

"I'm going to have to get more fire supplies. Someone didn't put it out last night, so I want to be a good person and get more wood." I explained, standing up, wanting to escape from the awkward situation he always places me in when he's around.

His head perked up excitedly, "can I come with you? I might be of some use."

I sighed. I hate having to say no to him. "I mean, I can go by myself. I know what I need to get." Lee pouted at me. Okay, I can't say no to a face like that. "Fine, you can come. But... as long as you get rid of that cigarette."

"Alright." He took it out and threw it into the fire.

"Don't throw it in the fire!- and you did. Get up! Run, Lee!" I jogged towards the water buckets near Lord Faa's tent and tossed the water into the fire. It quickly trickled down into the ground. When it stopped, Lee was staring at it, licking his lips in guilt.

"Sorry about that, Y/N. I forgot they were," he stopped for a second, "flammable."

I shook my head in my hands. "That's stupid, Lee. How did you 'forget' that cigarettes were flammable? You literally light them and smoke comes out. And you should know that. You smoke multiple cigarettes daily! Now come on, help me get this firewood."

We walked into the small group of trees settled on the side of the thin valley.

"You go left and I'll go right. Meet me back at the fire when you've got a handful."

He decided to do something different, however. "How about the last one there has to actually put the firewood in!" And he started to run.

"Oh my god. Lee, are you serious?" I sighed and started to run. I laughed. He was such a fun guy, even though he may not look like it.

Pieces of wood, not the shape that I expected, laid on the ground near smaller trees. I grabbed them, Magnus helping me with some. I had a bit of an advantage because my daemon was able to fly and pick more up. I've never run this fast in my life. Maybe when I was playing with my friends in the fields when I was a little kid, but never for a competition.

Magnus and I collected up as much as we could and ran towards the fire pit. I looked to my right to see Lee with a pile of wood in his arms, also running to the fire pit. I took deeper strides, but he kept glancing at me, which put me off-track. Suddenly, the firewood flew from my hands and landed in front of my face, which had just hit the ground. My chin stung as I slid, my arms not being able to catch my fall.

"Y/N!" I heard my favorite raspy voice from behind me. His warm hand touched my back and tried to roll me over. I slowly obeyed and groaned. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I sat up and my arms were shaking.

"Oh god, your chin is bleeding. This is all my fault, I'm sorry." I rubbed my chin when he mentioned that. A small drop of blood grazed my fingertip. I whined.

"Lee, it's not your fault. It's mine. I was running too fast."

Then a voice emerged from inside one of the tents. "What happened here?" Lyra said.

"I tripped while carrying some wood for the fire."

"And it's my fault." Lee took my hand in his and lifted me up. When he let go, I immediately wished he didn't. I needed his hand in mine. I needed his warmth.

"Lee, you better stop saying that it's your fault. I just tripped, okay?"

"Well, I came up with the idea of having it be a race." Lyra walked up behind us as Lee made me face him. He took my chin in his hand and lifted it to look at him. For some reason, it didn't hurt when he touched it. He started to lean closer to me and he closed his eyes, but a voice came from the end of the valley.

"Mr. Scoresby!" they yelled. It was Farder Coram, "we need you immediately!" Lee looked at me in shock.

"I'll be right back, okay?" He was blushing.

"Okay." And he ran to the end of the valley. Lyra came up to my side and smiled, also looking at Lee.

"So, he tried to kiss you?" I swung my head towards her, blushing in embarrassment.

"Uhm, no." I replied. Why am I so bad at lying?

"I saw it with my own eyes," Lyra said, turning to me, "he leaned in and everything! He closed his eyes too!" Her arms started to flail like she thought I didn't believe her.

"You're making it seem like you're trying to convince me that he's an alien or something." I laughed, grabbed both piles of firewood and threw them in the old fire pit. I sighed and sat down next to it.

"You can light the fire right now, if you want to." Magnus said, grabbing a lighter off the ground. Lee's lighter.

"I'm not going to light it." I slid the lighter in my pocket. If he wants to smoke that bad, then he'll have to get past me. "I'll show Lee. If he wants me so badly," I got up and started walking to our tent, but turned around to face Lyra. Magnus flew up on my shoulder, "he'll have to earn it."