Left Hanging.

My world screeches to a halt in an instant. All I can feel is the warmth and weight of her body atop me and the softness of her lips against mine. The seconds stretch on, and I feel a hand lightly settle on my cheek, her thumb idly stroking in lazy circles. It's an oddly tender gesture of affection, but it's enough to jumpstart my frazzled mind.

‘This is so wrong!’ despite the feeble mental process, I do nothing to stop the kiss. A small part of me notes that Em's eyes are closed. I had sometimes fantasised about this very thing, in the deepest, darkest night, home alone in my bed back home. But that was it, a fantasy, ‘Wasn’t it..? Fuck it.’ Dismissing my doubts, I let horny brain take over. I do want this; I finally admit it to myself. My arm around her back tightens slightly, drawing her body even closer to mine as I prepare to deepen the kiss. That, naturally, is when she pulls away, looking down at me with a dreamy smile.

“I hope you enjoyed my thank you, Adam. Now, you’ve got first watch, and I need my beauty sleep, so I’m going to leave you to it.” Seeing my stunned look, Em treats me to a signature impish grin, before wriggling out from my grip and springing to her feet. Struck by emotional whiplash, I watch as she slowly walks towards the tents, before turning over her shoulder and saying, “Oh, and don’t wear your leather armour to bed, Lisa says it’s bad.” With a final wink, she ducks into the tent.

‘… That brat!’ I lick my lips, noting the lingering flavour of cherries. 'Her lip gloss?' The flurry of confused emotions whirling around my head is interrupted as a small prompt opens on its own. A glance at it, confused.

0----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------0

Lil Wingman: That person was flirting with you, chief!

0----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------0

‘YEAH? NO SHIT!?!’ I huffily close the message, staring at the tent flap in exasperated confusion. ‘She was just teasing me, right?’ I sigh, shaking my head. ‘As I thought, a fantasy.’ Despite the pessimism, I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my face. ‘I can lie to myself all I like, but that, that was real... I think.’ I settle into a chair for my watch, listening to the sounds of the forest with half an ear as the memory of the kiss plays itself repeatedly in my head.

My notification alert is blinking at me merrily, but I ignore it for the time being. Shaking my head to clear it, I focus on what I am supposed to be doing, keeping watch. Luckily, the two hours are uneventful, and soon enough I’m pushing into a tent in search of Ash. The tent is dark, but my phone works admirably as an impromptu torch.

The mild light illuminates the interior, and a soft smile forms on my lips as I see Ash and Mum sleeping peacefully. They have doubled up the sleeping bags again, and are both sleeping on their sides, Mum’s arm draped over Ash, holding her close. I feel bad for breaking up the scene. Frankly, it's adorable, but I’m tired after the stress of the day and someone needs to keep watch. Crouching down, I lightly shake Ash awake. She looks up at me groggily, mumbling mild obscenities. Hurriedly, I place a finger to her lips and shh her, saying, “Keep it down, you’ll wake Mum!” only to hear a muffled “Too late for that, I’m afraid.”

I get back to my feet and look down at the pair guiltily, then mumble a sorry, before pulling my clothes bag out of my inventory. Rummaging around, I pull out an old t-shirt and some pyjama bottoms, before bringing the clothes and the bag back into my inventory. The pair in the sleeping bag have yet to move much, and seem to be watching me, looks of mild confusion on their faces. Its Ash who asks, “Errrr, Adam, what are you doing?”

With a thought, I open the equipment tab before answering. “I never took my own advice yesterday to set up a sleepwear outfit, but I can just do that now. This inventory is so convenient, just drag-and-drop clothes, and you are changed in an instant!” I hover my finger over the t-shirt icon before dragging it to the chest slot just as Mum says, “Errr, sweetie? You might want to turn… the other… way…”

“Hmmm, why?” I reply, appreciating to comforting feel of the t-shirt on my skin after a full day clomping around in armour. ‘Thank god for whoever came up with that Mage’s Deodorant. It may not smell of anything, but at least it somehow gets rid of B-O. We’d all be pretty ripe otherwise.’ I frown slightly. The socially graceful squirrel from my inner menagerie is back, waving its arms frantically as it tries to gain my attention.

I pay it heed this time, and quickly realise that I’d yet to receive a reply to my question. Not only that, but somehow, the atmosphere in the tent feels… different. Confused, I move the inventory window off to the side, only to find that Ash and Mum are both extremely red in the face. ‘Huh?’ I glance from Mum, who is conspicuously not looking at me in such a way that tells me she absolutely is looking but is trying to be subtle about it, To Ash, who is unabashedly staring.

Their eyes are not on mine though, but lower? ‘What are they…?’ even more confused, I follow their gazes downward. ‘Oh. Oh no.’ I turn around in a rush, block and tackle flopping around merrily in their sudden and unexpected freedom. I glace back at the equipment screen. Sure enough, the only thing currently equipped is my t-shirt. Hurriedly, I drag my P-J bottoms to the trouser slot, then sigh in relief as things become much less…. Breezy.

I close the window and tun back to the pair, truly mortified. Mum blushes furiously, her eyes refusing to meet mine. Ash, however, takes one look at me before bursting out in peals of laughter. Mum and I look at her, startled, before Mum chuckles too. I sigh, holding my face in my hands. ‘I’m never going to live this down.’ Eventually the laughter mostly tails off, and I hear the sleeping bag unzipping before Ash scrambles to her feet next to me.

Light engulfs her form for a moment as she changes outfits, her night clothes replaced by her armour. She grins at me, then says, “When I mocked you for changing privately yesterday, I didn’t expect you to take it as a personal challenge. Bold, Adam. Very bold.” She brushes past me, and I yelp as she swats me on the ass playfully before ducking out of the tent, chucking to herself. I watch her go, a complicated look on my face. Em and she had always enjoyed teasing me, but it had taken on an unfamiliar edge as of late.

A small cough catches my attention, and I turn back around, smiling sheepishly at Mum. She snorts, then says, “What I was trying to tell you, before you went and gave us an eyeful, was replacing a single piece of an outfit with anything stores the whole outfit.” I chuckle nervously, then reply, “noted.” An awkward silence returns for a few moments before Mum sighs, then holds up the open end of the sleeping bag. “Come on, get in before you let all the heat out.” I do so, settling in on my back and zipping up the bag.

We lie in silence for a time, both of us staring at the fabric of the tent's ceiling. I feel a slight movement beside me before a small hand clasps my own. I turn to Mum, surprised, and see her smiling at me warmly. “Thank you for what you did for Emily. The last couple of days have been more than tough, and with that on top of everything else…” Her smile turns strained as she continues, “I was… I was barely keeping things together.”

I squeeze her hand. “Honestly, its fine. Anyway, don’t think for a second that you guys couldn’t have figured something out. Y’all are a resourceful bunch, you would have thought of something. As for you, I know for a fact you’re tough as nails. So, no badmouthing yourself missy, I mean it!” She raises an eyebrow, and levels ‘the look™’ at me. I simply grin back.

She huffs, but I can see the amusement in her eyes clear as day. I remember then that I was planning on having a talk about her self-image. She had been putting herself down much more than usual recently, but I decide to postpone that talk for the morning. Instead, the silence lingers for a while. Again, it's Mum who pipes up with, “It’s been a while since we shared a bed, well, a sleeping bag, like this.” I chuckle, then reply, “Yeah, what’s it been? 4 or 5 years?”

“Something like that. If I recall, someone grew too embarrassed to snuggle with their mummy.” I roll my eyes in response to her teasing, then change the subject. “You and Ash looked pretty cosy earlier.” She smiles happily, then replies, “We were! It’s been nice camping out with everyone again. You kids have been so busy with exams, uni, and the like that we never really had time to get away since leaving London.” Her sunny smile turns melancholy as she adds, “that’s all behind us now.”

At her comment, my smile falters. Before I can wallow, Mum tentatively asks, “Adam?” “Hmmmm?” “Are you still too embarrassed?” I look over at her, confused. “Too embarrassed for what?” “To snuggle with your Mummy?” My cheeks redden slightly at the question, but I don’t dismiss it out of hand. Softly, I reply, “I could go for some snuggling, if you wanted.”

She smiles radiantly at me, then says “Good. Roll onto your side for me, sweetie.” Doing just that, I roll to face her, only for her to grin, and say, “nope, other way, Mummy’s big spoon tonight.” I blush slightly, but comply. She shuffles towards me, then I feel the heat of her body as she presses herself against my back, wrapping an arm around me and drawing me even closer. “That’s better.” I feel her warm breath against my ear as she speaks and am suddenly hyper aware of the softness pressed into my upper back.

I swallow, suddenly nervous. A shiver runs through me as I feel as much as hear a breathy giggle in my ear, before mum whispers, “Relax, sweety, Mummy’s got you.” The comment has the opposite effect, especially as things stir down south. I swallow, my mouth suddenly dry, before stammering, “G-g-g-g-goodnight mum.” I hear the smile in her voice as she replies, “Goodnight sweetie.”

Thirty minutes later, and inevitably, I’m still awake. For some reason (or two big squishy ones) I can’t seem to drift off, despite how tired I am. I can hear the steady breathing of sleep from behind me, but try not to focus on the steady rise and fall of that prodigious chest too much.

I sigh, glancing at my notification alert. After getting settled in, I had previously put off reading through my prompts until tomorrow; I needed rest, and had a feeling that there would be many, many notifications to sort through, not to mention at least one level, if not two, worth of Attribute points to assign. That was then, however. I had the irritating feeling that I wouldn’t be getting to sleep anytime soon.

Resigned, I bring up the list, eyes widening as the flood of notifications begins.