"How sweet of you," Char said playfully. She squeezed Ethan's hand.
"I'd rather you didn't fall, is all," he grumbled as he stepped over a root.
Chartreuse laughed. "I just never thought you'd be the hand-holding type."
"I'm not."
Ethan glanced at Char and she smiled smugly.
"Oi, what's that face for?"
"Nothing."
He rolled his eyes and went back to concentrating on stepping through the mud and not falling down the steep incline. The Muyl had been very quiet on the walk down the cliff, and Ethan hoped that the leaders knew the way back to camp.
"How do you think we're going to do this?" Char said.
"No idea. If the 'all powerful' Muyl couldn't figure it out, I doubt we will."
"You are such a downer," Char mumbled.
"No, I'm not! Well, yes I am, but that's not the point. I just don't want to commit genocide."
Char nodded gravely. "I get it. I was planning on waiting until I was retired to defeat an alien race."
"Could you take this seriously?" he pleaded.
"Sorry." Chartreuse bit her lip. "The thing is...I'm kinda scared of the Muyl. We all saw what it did to Kenna. If we try to go back on our deal, I think it'll kill, us."
"That's exactly why I'm mad at the leaders," Ethan replied. "I don't know why they didn't just come back to camp and ask for our opinion."
"Maybe they couldn't."
"Maybe. But if that was the case, why didn't they just tell us after?"
Char thought for a moment. "They're our leaders. Maybe they didn't want to appear weak. I mean, how embarrassing would it be for you if you were being held hostage by a plant?"
"More embarrassing than being held hostage by clumsy blue aliens with fake guns."
"Exactly."
Char squeezed his hand lightly. Ethan could feel his pulse quicken.
"Char...."
"Yeah?" she asked as she hopped over a log. Mud squirted up onto her thighs as she landed on the ground.
Instead of speaking, Ethan steered them into some foliage away from the group. He took a deep breath and tried to figure out how to word what he wanted to say. Chartreuse waited patiently.
"The thing is..." he tried. "I'm not very good at saying things to people when I'm happy. If I'm mad, sure I have plenty of words, but then they just leave the second I need them."
A small smile creeped onto Char's face.
"And the thing is...." He ran his hand through his mohawk. "We might not have known each other very long...."
"Ethan."
"Yes?"
"Would you just like to kiss instead?"
He nodded. "That would be good."
Ethan was certain that there would never be a better kiss than the mud-splattered one they had in the bushes. He doubted he would every forget how Char's small body fit against his, or how sweet her breath was. He loved how her arms were thrown over his neck, and how he could wrap both his biceps around her small waist and pull her closer. Once, Ethan missed her mouth and kissed her nose instead. Char closed her eyes as the tiny thing scrunched up on her face.
