𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗼𝘄 ━━━━ roman kemp

━━━━ four

After the emotional outburst the previous evening, Mathilda finds herself sleeping much later than she has any other day in the jungle thus far. She doesn't remember much after her bout of tears, but she wakes up in her hammock with a jacket draped over her body for extra warmth. A quick glance at the label reveals that the article of clothing belongs to Roman; a definite surprise but not unpleasant by any means.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," greets James cheerfully.

With maximum effort, Mathilda pulls herself up into a sitting position, draping Roman's jacket across her shoulders despite the generally sunny weather. Having herself enveloped in his scent and his warmth makes her feel safe, if she's being honest with herself.

The thought is more than a little terrifying.

"G'morning," she answers blearily, blinking several times. "What time is it?"

James shrugs his shoulders."About eight, I think."

Being able to sleep later than five am is a win, Mathilda figures, even if she would still rather dive back under the covers and fall back into a blissful slumber. She doesn't; everybody else is awake at this point so it would be remiss of her to drift off again when she could easily be bonding with her fellow campmates.

"I think I'm going to go for a walk," she tells James, shrugging off Roman's jacket reluctantly and walking over to his belongings to place it atop his sleeping bag.

"Alright, darling," he says dismissively, fanning himself with his hat as he offers her a wave which she happily returns.

She treks out of camp, wandering past the showers and heading down towards one of the more secluded areas. Much to her surprise, Kate and Adele are both there and they appear to be meditating. When offered to join in, Mathilda obliges.

━━ IN THE BUSH TELEGRAPH ━━

"I like to meditate every now and then," confides Mathilda in the privacy (not really, but it feels that way to her; it's almost like a confessional, really) of the Bush Telegraph. "It's therapeutic, you know? I find that it helps with anxiety and helps to keep up my cool, calm, and collected facade that everybody adores," she jokes.

"Meditation with Kate Garraway and Adele Roberts," breathes Mathilda, still in disbelief. "If my brothers haven't taken a picture of this and made it a poster on my bedroom wall then I might disown them all."

━━ IN THE MAIN CAMP ━━

After a lengthy meditation session, Mathilda finds herself sitting on the log beside the camp leader's throne and thinking deeply. Everybody is busying themselves with showering or exploring - no doubt psyching themselves up for the upcoming live trial later on today - so the camp is disturbingly void of human life.

Until, that is, Roman Kemp comes and sits hesitantly beside her, leaving enough distance for her to jump up and run away if she so chooses to.

She doesn't. It's tempting, though.

"Hey..."

Roman smiles a little. "Hi."

"How are you?" she asks, uncharacteristically shy.

"Hungry," he says with a laugh, "and so bloody tired! Some of us didn't have the luxury of a lie in."

"Sucks for you," she teases lightly. Despite everything, it doesn't feel unnatural. More like conversing with an old friend. "I can't believe I think of eight am as a lie-in now..."

He chuckles deeply, the sound contagious and melodic. "Imagine hosting a breakfast show on the radio."

Mathilda feigns a shudder. "Sounds hellish, if you ask me. I respect your dedication to your career."

The conversation trails off after that, the two finding the following silence to be far more comforting than it previously would have been.

"Are you excited for the live trial?" she questions eventually.

He shrugs. "Bricking it, to be honest," he admits, leg bouncing up and down as if to emphasise his point. "Hopefully it'll be a laugh, though. There's just a lot of pressure with this one, you know? Usually we're playing to all eat the same food, but I can't imagine playing to win individual meals for people. If anybody doesn't get a roast dinner, I'll definitely blame myself."

Mathilda places a hand on his knee, refusing to think too much into her own movements. His leg ceasing its incessant jumping. "As long as you try your best, nobody will blame you if you can't quite manage it," she reassures him. "Don't doubt yourself, Ro."

The nickname just slips out as it does with everybody in the camp. Neither of them acknowledge the friendliness of their interaction. Surely it would be much more strange if they didn't get along; people would undoubtedly begin to suspect something.

"Thanks, Mathilda," he whispers, smiling.

"Please don't call me that." She grimaces at the formality. "Tilly is just fine, or even Matty is better..." The reminder of the familiar nickname makes Mathilda recall a memory from a lifetime ago, of her younger twin brothers wanting to be different and choosing to call her Matty, something that had exasperated her for years. She couldn't imagine them calling her anything else these days.

"Okay, Tilly," agrees Roman. "Are you excited for your outback expedition?"

"Not at all," she answers, laughing. "I have zero survival skills and I don't even know what I'm afraid of so I have a horrible feeling that this won't end well for anybody involved."

He wraps an arm around her shoulders before speaking again. "You'll have Kate, Nadine and Myles," he offers, "they'll take care of you. And the rest of us will be there in spirit."

"I hope so," she murmurs. It would be much easier to face the unknown if she had the comfort of everybody else by her side, but she knows that the three celebrities who will be accompanying her are more than capable of doing anything that they set their mind to.

With a burst of newfound confidence, she brushes Roman's arm off and stands up, extending a hand to pull him up with her. "Come on, I need to hit the gym before we leave. My guns need reloading."

She flexes her (lack of) muscles and Roman smiles toothily at her childish behaviour. The radiance from his happiness only serves as motivation to win this trial. For him. They all need their letters from home, after all.

"Ready to go?" Myles asks almost thirty minutes later. He walks down to the gym area to see Roman supporting Mathilda as they both laugh hysterically as she fails to do a simple pull-up on the bar.

Once she is back on solid ground, Mathilda nods. She holds her hand up to high-five Roman, but it is squashed between their bodies as he pulls her into a tight embrace.

"Good luck," he whispers, warm breath tickling her ear.

"Thanks, Roman," she replies and heads off with Myles to say her goodbyes. The brunette wiggles his eyebrows suggestively but Mathilda swats his arm. "Shut up, Mylo!"

If only he knew.