𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁... 𝗽𝘂𝗽𝗽𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲. [roman kemp]

𝑽𝑰

"𝑰'𝒎 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒈𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒈𝒂𝒔," 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝑳𝒂𝒏𝒂, 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒖𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒘𝒃𝒐𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅. "Does anyone wanna come help?"

It was early in the morning, and Lana was feeling strangely energised. She supposed her luxury item had really lifted her spirits, and now she finally felt ready to take on the jungle properly. Kate and Myles were up and about; Nadine was still asleep, and Roman was lying in his bed, tired but awake.

"I'll come," Roman said, rubbing his eyes groggily and climbing out of his bed with a great effort. "Wait just a second."

"It's okay, Roman," said Kate quickly. "I'll go, Lana."

Roman stretched his limbs, raking a hand through his fluffy hair. "Nah, don't worry, Kate. Don't offer because you feel you have to. I'll just go-"

"No," said Kate, "seriously. I want to do it!"

Lana smiled at Roman's sleepy expression. "Don't trouble yourself, Ro," she assured him. "I'll go with Kate, and then you can have a rest."

Roman pouted, but seemed to accept that arguing would not get him anywhere. Lana lead Kate down the path through the trees to a small clearing. There was a sort of two-person pump with a handle at each end for pumping gas. Somewhere high up, birds chattered from the tops of the trees that were tall as cathedrals.

"Are you enjoying Main Camp, Kate?" asked Lana, as the two began to push the handles up and down firmly.

"Oh, it's great," said Kate. "I think it's great that I can bond with you guys a bit more. And hopefully the others'll be able to join us soon, too. I found it hard enough in Snake Rock and I was only there for a day."

Already Lana's arms were aching from the relentless pumping motion, but they could not stop or the gas would start to drop away. "I hope so, too. I want to get to know everybody better."

"It's nice at least that you seemed to have formed such strong bonds already with the other three in camp," said Kate, wiping the back of her hand on her forehead. "You and Roman particularly."

Lana grinned, thinking of the other campmates. "Yeah," she said. "Roman's great. We get on so well." She looked up at the yellow bar that indicated how much gas they'd collected, noticing it was full.

Kate saw too, but she looked like she wanted to say something, so Lana stayed put.

"Actually, I wanted to ask you something. I don't mean to- you know, intrude or anything," Kate began cautiously, her brown eyes studying Lana's face. "But there isn't anything - er - going on between you and Roman, is there? I just-"

"What do you mean?" asked Lana, confused.

"Well," said Kate, looking nervous. "You guys are just really close. That's all. I wondered if maybe you... liked him or something."

Lana stared at Kate for a couple of seconds, wondering how to react. "If I- if I liked him?" she said finally, with a nervous laugh. "No. No, we're just friends. I only met him two days ago. That thought hadn't even occurred to me."

And in part, she was telling the truth. It hadn't occurred to her, because she hadn't questioned her feelings about Roman at all. All she knew was that they got on better than anyone else in the camp, and she loved to spend time with him. But now... now she felt unsure. Now that Kate mentioned it, she remembered the way her heart always beat particularly hard around him, the way she felt completely calm and content at his touch. The way she thought she could look into his blue eyes forever whenever he caught her gaze. What if...