FRAGMENTS ; Simon Riley

Chapter 5.

ROSALIE.

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"If I know what love is,
it is because of you."

It didn't take long for night to fall on the forest, each of us wandering through the trees with night visors on, weapons ready in our arms in case of unexpected encounters. I walked in silence beside him, occasionally kicking a twig out from under my feet. Every now and then, a joke would fly over the intercoms, relieving some of the tension of the mission.

Eventually, we stopped somewhere, intending to camp there for the night, until the first rays of the sun would appear. And so it happened. Each pair set up a tent, each circulating a fire placed in the center to warm us.

I wanted to help him, but he flat out refused. Instead, he told me to get his stuff out of his backpack. It didn't take him long to set up the tent, and I certainly wasn't going to spend the night in it with him. So, I did the only thing I could and offered to guard for the night.

I sat there, in front of the fire, while the others rested and I cleaned my weapon in silence, occasionally casting a careful glance around.

There was a soothing silence, coupled with the flames of the campfire that sparkled and crackled in the darkness. I was lost in my thoughts, as the rag slid over the dirty pieces of my weapon. The lucky charm also glistened in the warm reflection of the flames; a beautiful rose, it had been there forever.

My throat tightened unexpectedly, my eyes burned. Seeing that rose brought me strange sensations, which I never asked myself questions about, maybe in this moment I would've tried harder to r-- "You shouldn't be guarding right now." Ghost's voice broke the silence, catching my attention.

I quietly cleared my throat, kicking away the tears that threatened to fall in a moment of vulnerability and weakness. "Lieutenant, the captain said I will be fine." I responded to his words, laying the heavy weapon on my legs carefully.

And without even asking, he sat down beside me in silence, his great stature dwarfing me even when sitting. He was tall, very muscular, with a deep, mature voice. I almost would've called him 'giant' for fun, but knowing his brusque nature, he would've at the very least hung me from a tree.

"Go to rest, I'll take your turn." His tone seemed to command me, he didn't want an answer. If I were him, I would have taken advantage of the sleep. Apparently he seemed to care a little about me, all of a sudden.

I looked at him with wide, questioning eyes, the mask still covering his face, even in the dead of night when it was just me and him. "Why do you wear the mask?" I asked, almost distrustfully, as if I had approached him the wrong way. His dark eyes closed and he rested his head on the large tree trunk behind us. I watched his chest move regularly with each calm breath, under that blue uniform.

"To hide my face."

"Yes, but it's just us. Why?"

"To hide my face."

He seemed unserious for a moment; what kind of answers was he giving me?

I plunged back into silence, completely unsure what to say to him, how to start a conversation with a strange guy like him. But right in that intimacy, he unexpectedly broke the silence. It was a banal question, I would not have expected it, especially from him.

"What's your favourite colour?"

If I wanted to answer him in all honesty: all the shades of orange and red, maybe I would have seemed a bit crazy. So I limited myself into a simple murmur, "Red. Can you guess what shade?"

He, with a mysterious manner, opened his eyes and turned towards me. He looked into my eyes and for a moment it seemed that his gaze softened, "Dark red. That one shade as dark as blood." How the hell did he guess? Was it that easy? I looked at him with incredulous eyes, eyebrows raised, before a small smile formed on my lips.

"Can you guess mine?" He asked back.

I parted my lips and hummed, looking up at the starry sky. My hands automatically went to my gear, fiddling a little with the straps. I thought about it seriously, before turning back to him, "Green."

He approved with a nod, a little of hesitation hung around him, "What shade?"

Had I guessed right? Which shade of green would he like best? I looked at him more closely, noticed how his pupils dilated slightly, waiting for my answer.

"Sage green?" I attempted, my face contorting into an unsure expression.

Nothing changed from his gaze, not even from his body or his breathing. I couldn't notice anything, I couldn't know if I had guessed his colour at first attempt. There it is. Like a shooting star, it passed for a fleeting moment across his brown irises; hope.

"How did you know?"