Remnant Stars

Chapter 7: Love At First Sight

Something about doing her part in helping rebuild the village.

Gil's throat went dry at the image of a bunch of kids resembling him running around. He was a twenty-year-old university student for god's sake! He had a whole decade or two ahead of him before he even started thinking about kids or marriage.

In the end, he had snuck out before she could corner him and had come knocking on Medea's door in the middle of the night.

He was about to leave the room when he heard the soft thud of footsteps approach and much to his relief, Medea showed up, looking as perfect as always. She must have spent hours getting ready because nobody looked that good in the mornings.

Medea spotted him lounging on the chair like a half-dead fish. She froze for a quick second before recovering and waved Brigit out of the room.

"I hope your accommodations are adequate? I would not want my guest to experience anything less than the best hospitality I can offer," she said, definitely not in a sarcastic tone.

"Well, it's not bad. Better than sleeping under the trees while the mosquitoes eat you alive, I can tell you that much," Gil said. He stretched his arms while trying to stifle another yawn.

Medea watched him for a moment, probably trying to figure out how to voice the thoughts that had been eating her alive. But, Gil wasn't about to give her a chance.

"What's wrong? Do I have something on my face?" he asked with half-lidded eyes.

He still couldn't believe how brazen he was behaving in someone's home. Even though he had changed, it still felt wrong to act like this on an instinctual level. He from a few weeks ago would have been horrified and second-guessing himself about what kind of awful impression he was leaving on other people.

"I am wondering if we have met before," she said. "I would like to apologize if my assumptions are wrong, but from the very first moment, you have been behaving a little too, intimate. Like an acquaintance."

"What?! Medea, how could you forget me? We've known each other for hundreds of lifetimes! But, just to make it clear, we weren't lovers or anything, alright? I just had high standards," Gil said. He realized that boredom could make one do a lot of stupid things.

Medea stared at him with impassive eyes and Gil, not wanting to back down, stared back at her. He did his best to mimic her usual blank expression, but he didn't have years of practice like Medea. Several seconds passed in their silent showdown, but Gil's mask finally cracked. He couldn't restrain a smirk from breaking out, ending their small confrontation.

"I was joking, no need to get all riled up. Jeez," Gil said.

But, his words drew no response from Medea and she carried on staring at him in silence.

'Is she mad? Maybe, I took the joke a little too far.'

"Alright, fine. You win," he sighed. Some people had no sense of humour. "And no, we've never met before. Our meeting five days ago was also the first for me. But, when I first laid my eyes on you, I had this feeling like two pieces of a puzzle had just clicked together."

Some incredible crap spewed out his mouth like it was the most natural thing ever. But, the real reason his behaviour towards her had changed was due to two reasons. First, he had interacted with her a lot more than she could remember, especially that one iteration where he had revealed himself as an Outsider.

He had hidden his identity again was so no complications could arise when the group of travellers showed up.

And second, he just wanted to get back at Medea for all the mean things she had done. She had poisoned his tea, led him on before dashing his hopes and just generally being very unhelpful. He deserved to at least this much in compensation.