"It's like I'm thirteen again and he's my crush. All I'm aware of in this entire roomful of people is him. Where he is, what he's doing, who he's talking to."
-Sophie Kinsella
When All Is Forgotten
Chapter 2: Your Needn't Yearn
The walk through the forest was a quiet one, quiet footfalls and a few grunts being the only real source of noise.
It was slower than it usually would have because of the heavy pack on Eragon's back, but his excitement to return home gave him enough speed to make it a comfortable pace.
The silence gave Kagome plenty of time to nervously ponder how she'd give Eragon the flowers she'd so carefully gathered for him.
"Kagome." He replied lowly as the farm came into view.
"Yes?"
A small grin appeared on his face and he looked at her from the corner of his eye, "I've got something for you."
Kagome's eyes lit up and she smiled, "Really?"
"Yeah."
She squinted through the dark, trying to get a good look at his pack. "Where is it? What is it?"
"I'll show you later," he replied, "After we see Garrow."
Kagome huffed mockingly, "I have to wait? And you had me all excited too…"
Eragon snorted and walked through the door of the old farmhouse –which Kagome was holding open for him- but otherwise didn't comment on her words.
Garrow was waiting up for him, and he smiled when he saw his nephew step through the door –although he remained oblivious to their guest. "Eragon, how went your hunt?"
He huffed, "It wasn't fruitful; but I did see a large herd. Bigger than I've seen in months." A small smile came to his face when he noticed his uncle's eyes soften, "It brings hope for future hunts."
"It may have been just luck." He smiled as his nephew's face fell and continued teasingly, "Or perhaps food will be less scarce this year." Glancing at his nephew's pack, he could see it was almost bursting, "… Eragon, what have you found?"
Eragon looked to his uncle and then gestured to his pack. "Steaks… from Sloan's."
Garrow's usually intense eyes grew greedy and he reached for the steaks more quickly than Eragon could hand them out. "Where did you get the money?" He wheezed, amazed by the amount and quality of the meat.
The smile that had appeared on Eragon's face vanished as quickly as it had come, "…Horst helped me out." Garrow's eyes grew hard and he started to hand back the steaks and his mouth moved to start a lecture. Eragon gulped and started desperately, "I could have paid for them. Sloan wouldn't trade with me; he almost refused to sell to Horst as well."
"We don't accept charity-"
"It isn't charity. I'm working to pay off the debt; Horst offered me a few odd jobs." He saw Garrow's anger waning and finished strong, "Sloan is being more unreasonable lately."
And just like he had hoped, Garrow sighed and diverted his anger toward the butcher. "Yes, well, we can only hope he will be more open-minded when Roran asks for Katrina's hand." A smile danced on his lips and the same mischief that burned in his nephew's eyes appeared in his own, "We shouldn't have to worry when it comes time for you to ask for her hand. Hors-"
"Uncle!" Eragon's face was aflame as he glanced nervously toward the doorway. What if Kagome had heard such talk?! There was only one villager whose name started with Hors and he only had one daughter…
Maybe she wouldn't put it together.
"Eragon," his uncle chided, "you have to remember to accept your feelings. Don't be embarrassed." Taking a moment to observe the teenager's face, he clapped him on the back, "You look almost as tired as I feel; why don't you get some rest while I take care of this meat? I'll see you in the morn."
Eragon smiled gratefully and nodded, unpacking the rest of the steaks with his uncle's help. "Goodnight Uncle."
"Goodnight Eragon."
He backed out of the house and quietly closed the door, putting a finger to his lips to shush the curious girl that stared at him through the widest of blue eyes.
He smiled slightly and offered his hand, to which she responded by grinning and taking his hand firmly in her own. She looked away as he tugged her forward anxiously and led her into the barn.
…And as they walked, she had the feeling that he was leading her into more than just the barn. Her stomach flipped with butterflies and her heart sounded so loud that she could hear nothing over the hard Thump Thump!
Still, she paid the feeling no mind, preferring instead to think about who was with her. Eragon.
A blush dusted over her cheeks and she closed her eyes, setting her mouth into a grimace.
"Over here, Kagome." Eragon said and his voice brought her out of the state she'd entered; that and the sharp, but gentle, jerk on her hand. Even in the dark, taking in his face she could see the playful smile, the excited eyes.
So she followed after him; like she always had when they were younger and he wanted to go on some adventure.
She could clearly recall following him into the Spine with the promise of riches and food; against Horst's orders. In the end, all she earned was a scar and a broken arm –courtesy of taking a nasty fall off the side of a waterfall. She had been angry with Eragon at first, she'd wanted to rage and throw a fit.
That is, until she saw him; teary brown eyes, his hands and knees bloody from the full sprint he'd taken to get back to the village, and that smile he was always putting on when he felt sad.
That was the moment she realized she liked him.
…Not very romantic and a little too early in life, but it was as genuine as love in itself. Messy, painful, but worth it.
A smile started onto her lips as she watched Eragon duck down in front of her and considered how little he'd changed.
He let go of her hand and slipped the pack from his shoulders, sitting down as he began to pull something out. He stopped and looked back up at her standing form and smirked, "Well come on then, we haven't got all day." He joked and she rolled her eyes, sitting with a small blow of her bangs. "A-and close your eyes!" Shaking her head, she did as told.
"What are you getting all worked up over?" Her voice was exasperated, but he ignored her lack of excitement by doubling his own. A soft ruffling was all that was given away to indicate the identity of her surprise; even as she strained her ears to find more.
"Alright open up." He whispered and she did so with exaggerated hesitance. What she saw next took her breath away.
In his hands was a large, oval stone; flawlessly honed in a fashion that nature could not achieve. Like the pale, misty white clouds it shone white with the slightest tinge of blue; black vein like lines spider webbed across its surface gracefully.
Never, in fifteen years, had she seen – or even heard of such a stone. Looking at it, she felt that she couldn't turn away; something about it tugged at her.
"Do you like it?" Eragon asked, becoming more anxious with each passing moment of silence.
She tore her eyes to him, to the stone, and back. "It's unreal… Eragon, I can't… you know I could never take this right?" her eyebrows furrowed when he raised his own, "I'm serious Eragon! This is… it's too much."
"No it isn't." he insisted, "I want you to have it." He grinned and nudged her arm with the stone, "Remember that deal we made when we were kids; we said we would always split whatever we found in the Spine exactly in half."
She remembered; they had made it right before she'd fallen off the waterfall. And it was good luck too, after she'd fallen, she was awake enough to notice a flash in the corner of her vision. A few days after she woke up in Gertrude's house she told Eragon about it. He came back with a handful of jewels; all of which helped to feed their families over two harsh winters.
She smiled slightly, "That was when we were children."
"It still stands," Eragon replied stubbornly and he gently laid the stone down on the floor.
Kagome paid no attention as he began to ruffle through his bag, "There's only one stone though- what on earth are you doing?" her eyes widened as he pulled out – no. "You have another one?!"
This stone was slightly smaller and was colored a vibrant blue with white veins spread throughout, but it was just as flawless and beautiful.
Looking back at the white, she couldn't help but think that as beautiful as the blue stone was, she didn't get the same feeling as she did with the white.
"S-Sorry." Eragon replied, a small blush on his cheeks. "I thought you would like the white better. You can choose-"
"No. It's perfect." Kagome said back and a smile finally came to her face as she picked up the white stone and marveled at its smooth feel. It was slightly warmer than she would have imagined, but that was probably because Eragon had it inside his bag for so long.
And as she lost herself to the stone, Eragon lost himself to her eyes.
His discovery of girls had been uncovered only a few years before. Nearing his tenth summer to be exact. They had been messing around in the Spine –as they always did at that age- and as he helped her down a large ridge, he grabbed her hand. Like the air had suddenly caught fire, he'd noticed how beautiful her hair looked.
He didn't understand why; maybe it was the braid Elain had spent so much extra time on that morn, maybe he finally noticed that her hair took on a bluish shade when light touched it, or maybe he'd just hit puberty early.
Whatever the reason, he dropped her hand like he'd noticed a snake crawling on it and she had, none too gracefully, fallen on her face; taking him with her after grabbing his pants leg.
He could remember wondering if all girls smelled as pretty as she did; and not two seconds later had shoved himself off her –pressing her face further into the fallen leaves and sharp twigs as he did so- and stormed off.
For the rest of the day he'd avoided her –due to the disturbing things his mind would conjure up whenever she was near- and eventually he faced the biggest problem of his nine and a half summers.
She'd come out of nowhere, running faster than if she'd been on horseback and hugged him. Proceeding to burst into tears; she asked why he didn't like her anymore. He hadn't a clue how to comfort a crying girl; being from a family of all men. So he did what he would have done with Roran.
He slapped her on the back, ignored her whine, and told her –in a grown up voice- to man up.
… His methods didn't work. In fact, she cried harder.
Eventually, called by the noise, Garrow came to calm her down and Eragon found himself on the wrong end of a stern lecture. – And a lesson in soothing a hysterical, crying girl. Later, the two kids made up after Eragon apologized and, in an attempt to show her that they were indeed friends, put poison oak in her hair.
The next day, they found out that the reason Elain had spent so much extra time on Kagome's hair was to sweeten her up before the big reveal. Elain's father, Gilbert, had passed on. The two had been close – She had affectionately dubbed him Grandpa Gills- and Eragon had once again found himself comforting a distraught girl.
Thankfully, he knew what he was doing the second time around.
A grim smile came to Eragon's face as the memories passed through his head. Everything had changed after that, at least for him.
He stopped trying to push her into things she didn't want to do –though at that point she didn't have much of a limit- and stopped picking on her. The everyday hugs she gave made his heart skip a beat and he found himself missing it when she grew out of the habit at thirteen.
He was knocked from his thoughts as his arm was softly tugged, blinking, his eyes focused on blue eyes and a little button nose. "Come again?" he asked, smiling with no small amount of embarrassment. These were things he should be thinking about when he was alone, not with her sitting beside him.
She bit her lip, "Which do you like better?"
"The blue," he admitted and she smiled, relieved. She hadn't wanted to take the one he preferred; he found them after all.
But she could have sworn she heard him add, "Matches your eyes." Under his breath.
That was just her imagination being overactive right?
…Right?
Regardless of the comment's validity, her face was quick to turn tomato red and she coughed lightly into her arm to hide her face, "That's nice; I would hate to take your favorite." She replied awkwardly, even giving a little nervous laugh.
The smirk he sent her seemed to show he knew what she was doing. "Yeah."
Her face burned even more red, if that was possible, "Aren't we going to go to bed… or something?! You have to be tired."
Eragon agreed without a fight, a smug smile on his face as he readied a bed of hay for her and one for himself. The two settled down for the night and Kagome turned off the dim lantern that sat near her grass bed.
Smiling wide now that her back was to Eragon, she could barely cover the urge to laugh uncontrollably. A burst of bubbly giggles fought their way up her throat and she tried her hardest to suppress them, even stooping to snuggling her stone tighter to her chest to stop the hysterical, ridiculous noises.
Still, despite her efforts, one made its way passed her lips, and that was enough to catch Eragon's attention.
"What is it Gnome?" he mumbled quietly, though his words were slurred for he was so tired he'd nearly fallen asleep as his head touched the straw.
'Gnome' was the nickname he had given her when he was too young to pronounce 'Kagome'. Horst had tried to teach him to call her 'Gome' instead, but somehow Eragon had convinced himself her name was Gnome.
The old nickname only made her laughter more uncontrollable and tears rolled down her cheeks as she silently sniggered.
"Gnome?" he sleepily asked, waking up a little because he hadn't gotten an answer.
Stifling her amusement, but not her grin, she shook her head and said, "Nothing, I'm just… happy."
His own lips twitched into a bit of a smile, "S'good. Night."
"Goodnight, Eragon." She replied softly, lying down. Throughout all of it, she hadn't put down the white stone once; in fact, she would not for the rest of the night. She held it tightly to her chest all night, humming to it before she fell asleep and she felt that, with her, was where it had always belonged.
Her last coherent thought before she fell into sleep was that she was glad Eragon had chosen the barn to hunker down in.
It was the only place his uncle could never find them.
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