I Will Always Have A Minute For You [Ereloy]

// 14 //

A few more minutes go by and they finally approach Meridian Village. Thankfully it's the smaller part of the town and it's a lot lonelier with a lot less people in it. That was the one thing Aloy was the most thankful for about it. Of course, she enjoyed the atmosphere of the area, but the lesser amount of people, the better. She doesn't do well with people, if you hadn't guessed.

"Well, we're here." Erend looks over at his friend, noticing her demeanor has once again changed, from tense to slightly more comfortable. "Seriously, Aloy, what's wrong?"

"They're talking about us." She can't take her eyes off her feet to look at him.
He crouches down and looks at her confusedly. "What do you mean?"

"The Carja people think we're a thing, Erend!" Her face lifts to meet his. "How does this not freak you out?..." Yeah. She's panicking a bit. But don't tell her that, 'cause she'd tell you otherwise.

"What am I supposed to do about that?" He responds.

"I don't know! I don't know what I could do either, but mostly because it'd make matters worse!"

"Because you'd be sparked about it. The way you would present it would make it seem otherwise, right?"
"That's exactly my thought process! You're supposed to be helping me out here, Erend!"

"What do you want me to do?" He speaks calmly, trying to make the situation less tense.

"That's what I want you to help me figure out," she shakes herself a little, trying to make herself less tense and panicked. "I haven't a clue where to begin with this that would continue to make us both happy."

"Aw, you actually care."

"Shut up," she slaps him playfully, but hard enough to still make it hurt him. "Now's definitely not the time for that."

He lifts his hands in surrender. "Sorry! Won't happen again!"

"Anyway..." She sighs. "Do you have any ideas?"

"We should probably figure out what we don't want to do."

"Right," she contemplates this. "Did you have anything? We'll bounce ideas."

"Hm... Well, what if, let's just say this as a very obvious idea - when returning, what if we took separate ways?"

"Well, that wouldn't really matter, since they'd still go on about it anyway. Like..." She changes her voice to mock the others, "Oh, where's the girl? Wait, why did he come back alone?" She goes back to her normal voice. "You get it?"
"I see. Okay, scratch that. Hm."

"I don't care that we're seen together, I just want the comments and the rumors to stop. None if it is obviously true."

"Well, it could've been."
"Yeah, yeah, I know that. But you know how I am."

"Which is why it didn't, and I was comfortable with it, and yes I'll stop there."

"Tch," she laughs, "thanks." She pauses. "Okay, back to square one."
"I still like my idea."
"I know. What else could we do to shut them down?"

"Without causing a scene?"
"Preferably!" She answers anxiously. "I'd like to keep my reputation, you know!"

"Okay, sorry, calm down..."

She takes a breath. "Sorry. Little spark went haywire," she says, with emphasis on the nickname Gera gave her. Erend laughs. "Who gave you that nickname? Haven't heard it before."
"Gera," she answers, "I'm sure you know her -- you're from the same tribe."

"Ah, yeah. I've heard of her. Never really talked to her, though."

Aloy nods. She wasn't going to ask any further.

"I have an idea, actually," she pipes up, "I don't know how smart it is rather than... silly, but it's worth a shot."
"I'm sure whatever you came up with was smart, Aloy. Whatcha got?"

"Well, what if we..." she pauses, this is so stupid... "What if we pretended to hate each other? Just for a few minutes on the way back to town?"
"Smart. How would we do it?"

"Well... What would you do if you didn't like somebody?"
"I don't know, I don't not like a lot of people."
"Not helpful," she retorts, thinking. "What if we just walked in complete silence, not making eye contact... maybe even walking a distance away from each other? More than what we usually do?" She looks at him.

"Okay, I can see that happening. I don't know if it'll work--"

She cuts him off mid-sentence "It better work, but yeah. We don't know if it will. Sadly."

"We'll try it. But let's hang around here for a little while."
"Well, obviously. We didn't come all the way here for nothing." They both laugh simultaneously.

"You're right, you're right." The laughter continues.