Reality Check

Chapter 6

We walked back to where we had seen the clockworks and crouched behind a boulder to gather our equipment for the attack. I was going through my backpack, handing Wilson a few spider glands and bandaging for his supplies while he was checking the endurance of our traps that we hoped to use on the clockworks to slow them down. "You remember the plan, Y/N?" I stopped rummaging in my backpack and looked up at him staring at me. I nodded in agreement as I finished repacking my bag. What we were about to do would be a huge risk, but we would have to take it if we wanted to get back to our homes. I slung my backpack onto my back and placed my hand firmly against the boulder we were hiding behind. "Let's get this over with, Wilson." He nodded as I stood up with the assistance of the boulder. Leaning on my spear, I tested my balance to see if I could handle being without the spear as a cane for a little while.
    Taking my cue from him, I held my spear tightly as I limped out from behind the rock and whistled at the clockworks. The eerie sound of mechanical gears that held the clockworks together became closer as they started charging towards me. Aiming behind myself, I threw my spear at the head of the clockwork and continued to limp away. Once I had gotten far enough, I stopped and leaned on my good leg so I could turn and look back. Wilson was still fighting the clockworks who had stopped chasing me and went for him. Huffing out, I strained to limp back into the fight so I could take the attention off him and back onto me so he could attack without any problems. The fight lasted all day and into the night a bit so Wilson and I had to put on our headlights in order to run around still.
    With the final blow from his spear, the last clockwork fell and I collapsed on the ground. "That took way too long. It is almost morning    !" I exclaimed as he started lighting a fire for us to sit by. Plopping down on the grass around the fire, I pulled up my pant leg to see how my wound was doing after all that excitement. I let out a sigh of relief after seeing that my wound wasn't too aggravated by the fighting and took out a morsel to cook over the open flames. While it was cooking, I absentmindedly rubbed my leg injury while thinking about how long it would take us to journey back to our original campsite. "Wilson? Was there anything else we needed to collect before we head back?" With the sun beginning to rise, I wanted to get back to our camp with little to no stopping if possible.
    He shook his head as he gathered up his bag and put out the fire that we had used to keep warm and awake through the night. "How is your leg doing? We don't have to travel back within one day if it's bothering you." I stood up from my seat using my spear as a cane and glanced at him before picking up my own bag and throwing it onto my back. "Wilson, please. Can we just go home, to our camp that is." He put his hand on my shoulder comfortingly before we started our walk back together. As we walked, the silence between us was peaceful as the different creatures started waking up around us. Pulling out berries from my bag, I handed him a small bunch as I held my own to snack on as we walked.
    Seeing our camp in the distance, I nudged Wilson happily and limped a bit faster towards the familiar tents and walls. "We're home! And look! Our crops are grown and my rabbits have multiplied. We can have a feast!" He laughed at my excitement and helped me get to the fire pit where we had set up a few logs to sit on before dropping his bag off his shoulder. "Looks like nothing tried to attack or go through our supplies while we were gone. That's good. It is amazing to be home again, though." I leaned against the sitting log I had plopped down in front of and blocked the sun from my vision before Wilson was leaning over me watching. I reached up and moved his face out of my view with a roll of my eyes.
    He laughed before he took a seat next to me. "Y/N, I thought you were too tired to do anything other than sleep before we got back?" he questioned suspiciously. I shrugged and watched our surroundings inside our camp walls. "How about a short nap before you try cooking or anything? That way you are rested, your leg is given time to recover from the long trek home and I can put everything away," Wilson suggested while standing up from our log and holding his hand out towards me. I nodded and took his hand so he could help me stand up and started limping towards our shared tent.
    Glancing over at his old tent that we abandoned during winter, I bit the inside of my cheek at the suggestion I wanted to voice. "Wilson... nevermind, it's nothing," I said disheartenedly at knowing that he would try his best to get the both of us back to our homes. I pushed past the tent entrance and crawled to my side and faced the wall. 'Why do I not want to leave him now? I should want to go back to my time and at least back to my life...' Curling into the blankets more as I thought about the gate to getting home being closer to completion than before, I held in my desire to be with Wilson.
    At some point I had fallen asleep curled up against the blankets, but I had woken up facing the other tent side and against a stronger warmth than before. I opened my eyes slowly and noticed there was still sunlight shining through the fabric of the tent so I had not been asleep for long. "You're awake, Y/N. How are you feeling?" Wilson whispered into my hair which made me look up at him from my position snuggled into his embrace. 'He must have crawled in at some point to sleep a bit as well. I hope I didn't wake him up when I woke up.'
    I shifted my weight a bit so I could see him better than where I was laying on his chest and smiled at his messy hair being even messier than normal. "I'm good... how are you, Wilson? Tired still?" I ran my fingers through his hair as I whispered back my response to him. He hummed a bit as my fingers untangled his hair and closed his eyes as he seemed to think of how to respond. Once I was done playing with his hair, I rested my hand against his cheek to see if he was still awake or if he had fallen back asleep on me. "Wilson?"
    Slowly sitting up in our shared tent, I watched him stretch out his joints and fully wake up from the short nap. "What were you going to say before you came in here, Y/N? You sounded concerned about something." He sat up as well and rubbed the rest of the sleep out of his eyes before he stared right at me worried. I averted my eyes away from his and pouted at my own thoughts that consumed me. "I don't want to lose you either, Wilson. Not to the wilderness or from possibly forgetting you and everything we've been through if we go back to our homes...What if I don't want to return to my time and just want to stay here with you?" I looked back at him and took his hands in my own and held onto him tightly as tears started to blur my vision.
    My grip on his hands weakened and my head lowered as the tears overflooded my vision and spilled out onto our blankets below. Wiping my tears away with my sleeve, I listened to the silence between us in our tent. "Y/N, we could stay here... together. We have a very nice camp set up, rabbits aplenty, a quaint little farm going, but is this truly the life you want? To have to always watch our backs from possible attacks?" His voice of reason was strong against the wants of the heart. He gently wiped away the last of my tears and placed his forehead against mine with his eyes closed as I watched him. "I want to stay here with you as well, but I don't want to put you in any kind of danger," he whispered softly before he embraced him like we had done several times before, but the feelings involved were different.
    I took a deep breath before I leaned closer into his embrace and placed a kiss upon his cheek. Pulling away from him saddened at knowing we would eventually have to part ways to go back to our respective times and homes, I tried smiling at him as I started crawling out of our tent to prepare our evening meal. I heard him right behind me as I exited the tent and saw him stand up holding his hand out so he could help me back onto my feet. Grabbing his hand, I pushed myself away from the ground and back to standing, but this time, he did not let go of me once my balance returned.
    He leaned in close once more but did not place his forehead against mine. "May I kiss you, Y/N?" Wilson asked for permission to which I nodded and leaned up to meet his lips with my own. He held onto my form firmly as if I would disappear from him and deepened the kiss before pulling away from me slowly. "I'll figure out how to get us both out of here, together still," he promised before kissing my cheek and rubbing his palms into my back to get me to relax more. 'How will he pull that off though?' I thought before my stomach growled from hunger. "I better get started on our meal, but I trust you will find a way, Wilson."