What are men to rocks and mountains

The fields

As William stepped outside, the cold wind greeted him instantly. He fumbled the heavy blue leather-bound book in his hands, being careful not to damage it. Eileen had given it to him to study- not that he really needed a copy of The language of flowers; he knew most of them by heart- but he supposed it couldn't hurt to catch up. He'd had a copy of it once upon a time; back at Button house, but he'd smuggled it home on one of his leaves to show his nephew, and never returned it.

He shot a glance at his destroyed bike- sighing in defeat as he realised he wasn't going anywhere on it. He hesitated for a moment, considering going back and asking to use Eileen's telephone to call Alison, but he realised he had no idea what her number was. As he was contemplating his options, he heard a voice from behind him.

"Already done then?" Dave's voice rang out. William looked up in the direction of the sound, and found Dave hanging out of his window, looking down on him. He must have looked quite silly, staring at his broken bike like he was.

"Yes, we had a lovely talk. It would seem I will be around more starting Monday." Havers replied, a grin spreading across his face at the thought of finally being productive. Dave smiled back, giving him a happy thumbs up.

"That's great! We'll be colleagues then! I run the shop for my nan Mondays through Thursdays. I didn't even need to put in a good word for you, respect mate." He said.
William's mouth fell open. "Eileen's your nan?" He asked. He hadn't seen that coming at all- a fact that in hindsight, had been glaringly obvious.

"Sure is! I get my dashing looks from her, hadn't you noticed?" Dave replied, shooting him a little wink. William gave a little laugh as he felt the back of his neck heat up. He was lucky it was cold out and his cheeks were already red.

Dave was silent for a moment, taking a long look at the bike, and then at William.

"I suppose you need a ride home then?" He asked. William grimaced and followed Dave's gaze to the bike.
"Yes it would rather seem so. I don't think that's going anywhere soon." He replied. Dave gave a short laugh as he sat up.
"Give me a second then, I'll get my keys." Before William could say anything else, he had slammed the window shut and disappeared inside. A few seconds later a side door in the building opened and Dave popped out with a sly smile, jingling his keys happily.

"Let's get going then."

---

The ride home was nice. They'd talked the entire ride there about everything and nothing all at once. He found Dave to be an incredibly interesting person. A person whom- despite the early stages of their acquaintance, he found it easy to share his stories with. Dave just had this calm and relaxed air to him, like he didn't have a care in the world. Havers envied him, it was a way of life he'd often wished for himself- but despite the various relaxing activities he'd tried over the years, he never seemed to be able to shake the tension on his mind. Living in the middle of a war will do that for you. He'd snapped back to reality when Dave spoke up.

"Geez I forgot how beautiful it is over here. I don't usually come over to this side of the country." He said, looking around as the sun set over the seemingly endless fields, painting the skies with a mix of blue, orange and pink hues, add to that the puffy clouds, and the entire thing looked like a delicate oil painting. It was breath-taking.

"You know, there's quite a few beautiful paths through the fields around here, maybe we can take a walk down them sometime." William, suggested. He waited with baited breath for the other man's reply. He didn't want to scare the guy off from a potential friendship by coming off too strong. He really liked Dave, and having a friend outside of Button house might do him some good. But his worries were unnecessary, because Dave smiled brightly and nodded a second later.