The Hermit's Retreat

Chapter 5

Xisuma woke up at three to the sound of his phone going off. Groggily, he picked it up off of the bedside table, but any lingering traces of exhaustion vanished when he saw he had a text from False. He unlocked his phone to see a picture of her, sitting in the driver's seat of a car, smiling at the camera with Stress and Cleo passed out behind her. He smiled too, because even after a thirteen hour flight, her bright blue eyes carried the glint that they always had; the one that made it look as though she could see into your soul. Looking at the picture, he couldn't help but smile too. Xisuma yawned, and had the violent revelation that it was still three in the morning, so he turned off his phone, rolled over, and went back to sleep.

When he woke up for good, it was half past six and the sun was just beginning to rise. Most of the other hermits were already awake, ready to welcome the girls when they arrived. He dressed quickly, then headed downstairs. After a few minutes, all the hermits were scattered about the first floor of the house. The house didn't have a kettle, so Mumbo was educating some of the others on how to make tea in the coffee machine. Everyone else generally loitered around.

At a quarter to seven, they heard a car come up the driveway, and then after a pause, a knock on the door. Ren opened it, and Stress, Cleo and False stepped inside. False set down her bags and immediately became the center of a massive group hug. She greeted everyone excitedly, while Cleo and Stress looked like they'd just woken up. Judging by what he knew, they probably had. Once everyone had calmed down and returned to normal, False spotted Xisuma where he was leaning against a wall. Leaving her things by the door, she made her way over to him.
"You're here." He said, for lack of anything better.

"Yup. Seems like you needed something to break up all the testosterone." Then she pulled him into a bear hug.

Xisuma was too shocked to speak, so he blinked once.

"You didn't think you were gonna get off just like that, did you?"

He was saved from having to respond by her asking, "So where am I staying?"

For the sake of being chivalrous, he picked up both of her bags and led her upstairs to her room, which was coincidentally across the hall from his own.

"My room is right across the hall if you need anything."

"Great. What are we doing now?"

"Well we need a group to go out and get food. The three of you will have to get your stuff set up. Once that's done everything should be fine, and then we can start the season and keep going like normal."

"Okay."

"How's the jet lag?"

"Not bad, I think Cleo and Stress have it worse than I do. Did you see the picture I sent?"

Xisuma nodded.

"They fell asleep as soon as we got in the car. I drove the whole way here without them waking up."

"How was that? The driving, I mean."

"It took some getting used to, but it was actually nice. Especially once we got into the mountains."

He nodded again. "We should probably head back down and decide who's going out."

"Okay."

They walked back downstairs, with Xisuma cursing himself for ending the conversation there. Cleo and Stress had been shown their rooms as well, which was apparent from their bags no longer being by the front door. After a short conversation, they came to the consensus that Joe, Cleo, Mumbo, and Iskall would be the ones to make the hour-long drive to the nearest grocery store. They wrote everything on a list and headed out to one of the cars. Once they were gone, the remaining hermits scattered to the winds, leaving him alone with False again.

"Do you need help setting up your computer?" He asked.

"No, but I could do with some company." She said, turning towards the stairs.

He followed her to her room, where she started taking her equipment out of one of her bags. She stuck the other one in the closet, muttering something about unpacking the rest later. It only took her a few minutes to get everything set up and plugged in.

Xisuma pointed at the bare mattress and pillows. "Sheets are in the closet."

They made the bed, and False chatted a bit about her plans for season seven. After they finished, Xisuma started towards the door.

"I'll let you finish packing." He said.

"Okay." False replied.

As he was almost out of the room, he heard her say, "You know, it's really nice to see you somewhere other than a Discord call."

When he turned around, she was smiling brightly at him, and he felt his heart go so far into his throat that it was a wonder he didn't choke. He smiled back. As soon as he stepped out of the room, he had the overwhelming urge to go back, to sit on her bed for hours and listen to her talk about anything. But he told himself there would be time for that later, and he made his way back across the hall to his own room that suddenly felt an awful lot like it was missing something.