Put back together

28. Second shift

The moon stood high in the sky when Patton woke Logan up.
The backer then wished him a good night and curled up to a ball on the other side of the clearing.

Logan rubbed his face.
He had dreamt something but with every second he remembered it less until he wasn't even sure whether it had been a good dream or a bad one.

The air was chilly and he kept his blanket over his shoulders. Patton had given him the knife and he absentmindedly played with the handle.

The light of the lantern was blue now, which was in a way surprising. He had begun to assume that it would stay green until Virgil woke up and the mage was still asleep in the same spot he had been in when Logan had gone to sleep.

Roman was asleep as well which was good, he supposed. Sleep was the best medicine, according to some of the few medical books he had read.
He wished he had read more of them. Then, maybe, he could actually do something to help, either by speeding up the healing process or by relieving some of the pain that would come with the cut.

With a sigh he leaned back against the tree he was sitting under.

He had approximately six hours until dawn.

The feelings that thought woke in his stomach were irrational.

He had known this would be the case. It had been his suggestion.
He shouldn't feel dread and whatever else this was.
Sadness? Why?
Loneliness? He wasn't alone!

Feelings were a science of their own. One he would never understand in the slightest.
Which again made feel frustration.
Also irrational. No human being could possibly hope to master everything.
And he was very good at a lot of other subjects.
He never had had a problem with his inability to understand feelings before either.

This was Roman's fault.

For dragging him into this and being absolutely infuriating and at the same time nice and charming and stupid with his longish red hair and intense deep green eyes and strong built and broad shoulders and -

Logan stopped himself.
He wasn't supposed to think this way. Not about someone he had met four days ago.

His gaze landed on Patton again.

Virgil had called the baker 'pretty' but Logan disagreed.

Calling Patton 'pretty' was an insult.

Beautiful was more accurate, though Logan still thought that it wasn't quite adequate.
He racked his brain for a truly fitting word but couldn't seem to find one. Gorgeous, mesmerizing, divine, enchanting; they all weren't enough.

Logan wasn't a religious man but Patton could easily be referred to as 'a gift of the Gods' or a miracle in his opinion.

Logan felt his cheeks heat up.

He hated emotions.
He hated the feeling in his stomach when Patton smiled and Roman grinned.
He loved it.
He absolutely loathed it.

He needed something to distract himself from feelings.

Just preferably nothing that would potentially kill him, he thought glaring into the darkness of the forest.
He was not planning on dying tonight.

A small crack sounded from across the clearing and Logan instantly sat up straight.

Another crack.

It was quiet but close.

A bigger crack like something had been broken.

Logan strained to hear anything else and tried to see anything in the soft light.
At least some kind of movement.

Another small noise and Logan realised that it was too close to come from the forest behind Patton.