Keeping Him Loved

Chapter 1

        The hunter turned his crossbow at the boy. Six contraptions shot out of the forest from behind the boy and attacked the hunter before he could even shoot. As the man's body thumped against the ground, (y/n) and the boy simply stood there in the rain clutching their wounds. With a sigh of relief, the half elf dropped to her knees to take a proper break. Her legs were sore from all the running she had done to get away from the initial chase of twelve hunters now narrowed down to three. Her arm stung, but she assumed that she would be fine as long as she got it treated when she reached any nearby establishment. She heard a light gasp come from the boy standing next to her. She looked up to see that he had pulled the arrow out of his shoulder and tossed it aside. The six pieces of technology that had taken down the last hunter floated around him in unison.

        "Thank you," (y/n) finally spoke up.

        "Don't. I didn't do that to save you," he immediately said. He still held his bleeding shoulder. The red was spreading across his white and black accented clothes, making the injury seem worse than what it was. "You got me shot," he mumbled. He turned towards the forest and stepped back into the bushes.

        "Wait!" (Y/n) got to her feet and pulled back the branches that he had stepped behind to find him sitting on the six contraptions just a little further into the woods. He was putting what she assumed to be his things into a bag that matched his white clothes. The boy spared her a glance before continuing to carefully place herbs and other strange looking plants into their proper pouches. "I'm sorry. I didn't know you were here. I wouldn't have stopped to fight them there in that spot if I had known."

        "I didn't ask for an apology." The boy stood and slipped the bag over his unharmed shoulder. He looked at her again and sighed. "Come here." He sat back down on the floating objects again and unzipped his bag. (Y/n) watched him pull out medical supplies from a section of it. She didn't trust strangers, but he didn't seem like he would harm her despite his bad attitude. Not only that, but he was ignoring his own wound with the intention of treating hers first. "You'll get an infection if you don't take the proper precautions," he said to her as she entered the forest and sat across from him. "It'll take another hour to reach the nearest city or village, and the rain increases the chances of you catching another form of sickness along the way."

        (Y/n) held her arm out to him allowing him to clean her wound as best as he could. She took the time to get a good look at him. Though hidden in his hair, she could see that the tips of his ears were pointed. Not enough to be elven, but it didn't make her wonder if he was fully human. A magenta colored line ran down his cheek from beneath the eye patch that he wore. "Are you a doctor? Maybe a doctor's apprentice?"

        "No, I'm no one. Forget you saw me." He continued on in silence, now wrapping her arm in a fresh layer of bandages around the cleansed injury.

        "Thank you." He didn't offer any words in response to her gratitude. "Will you be alright?"

        "That's none of your concern." He began to put his supplies away.

        "But what about your shoulder? Aren't you going to take care of that?" She eyed the blood still staining his clothes. "Won't you get an infection? Or sick? You just told me that would happen."

        The boy stood up. "Mind your own business. I'm not out here to play nice with some runaway." He walked past her without another word. She watched him pull his hood over his head and almost smiled at the cat ears sticking up from the top of it. Almost. She was distracted by his foul mouth and her urge to punch him in the face. "Don't follow me," he ordered when he noticed her behind him.

        "There's only one road, and I don't know how to get to any cities or villages in this area. Whether you like it or not, I'm going this way and you just happen to be walking here."

        "How do you not know where anything is? No wonder you almost got yourself killed," he scoffed.

        That struck a nerve. "I almost got killed because I was escaping a group of kidnappers!" she growled. "And it wasn't my fault that you got shot! You could have come out to help sooner or gotten away from the area, but you chose to stay right where you were, didn't you?" There was no way he hadn't heard the lighting strike down the two men. Seeing how he acted now, (y/n) believed that he had entirely ignored it even after hearing what was going on.

        "Hmph." He nearly stopped in his tracks. "You seemed to be doing just fine on your own. There was no need for me to-" he stopped himself. "Ah, nevermind. It doesn't matter," he spoke in a softer tone. There were no traces of his earlier rudeness. It startled her. "Call me Add. I won't tell you again if you forget."

        (Y/n) instead forgot how to speak for a moment. His attitude had changed so quickly that she had to actually process what was happening. "I'm (y/n). Don't worry, I won't forget." She quickened her pace so that she walked next to him instead of behind him. They had an hour long walk ahead of them. With the rain dying down into a sprinkle, it would likely be spent in silence for a majority of the trip. (Y/n) didn't know if she was about to make a friend or an enemy, but only time would tell.
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Just a reminder that this story follows Add's fourth job path. Until next time you awesome readers!

Thank you for reading this during pre-release (if you did), I appreciate your time and support!