Renfaire Fantasy 3: Campfire Toast pt 1 (Patreon)

/// Will organize teasers into proper chapters soon so things aren't such a mess, I promise.

    Brian made a short trip out through the adjoining woods to help Emily find more sticks for the morning campfire, Rebecca made a trip down to the car to collect the food, and Christine was left to her own devices at the fire pit. She felt distinctly uncomfortable being without supervision for even a moment, all of the sudden hyper aware that right now no one was minding her even though she wasn’t in her restraints. That restless feeling began with a fidgeting leg that she forced herself to still, and then she stood up and fought the compulsion to pace back and forth.

    She wanted to follow Rebecca down to the car where Stephanie and Kelly were, but after a few steps in that direction, she balked and returned to the fire. Then, she started in the direction of Brian and Emily out amidst the trees—they were distant but still somewhat in sight. Christine stopped at the periphery of the cabin clearing, unable to head that way, either. After all, who was she to intrude on them, when maybe they needed a moment alone to talk?

    I just—they shouldn’t trust me to be alone, Christine tried to rationalize the dreadful feeling. No one can see what I’m up to. I don’t like it. Don’t like it at all—what if something happened? What if there was still a bit of, I don’t know, CRAZY? Lingering on in me. Someone should be watching me.

    Rubbing absentmindedly at her bare wrists, she found herself wishing they had thought to restrain her before they wandered off.

    Stop it. I’m being overdramatic, Christine told herself. This is going to happen more and more. They’re going to spool out more and more trust for me, to I guess see what I do with it. To see if I hang myself with it. I just, I wish they wouldn’t. It’s a lot more comfortable just being tied up and secure. I don’t want them to have to worry or wonder when I’m going to fuck all of this up and hurt everyone again.

    She started to pace back and forth.

    Don’t like being alone with my thoughts, either. Nothing good to think about. Would rather have something to focus on. Anything.

    Christine needed something to do, so she began to search out sticks for the fire. There weren’t any nearby, not after a month of Rebecca regularly cooking here, but all the same Christine picked her way through the brush along the edge of the clearing and managed to fill one hand with some little twigs. She needed to feel productive—she wanted to prove that she was useful and trustworthy. Idling by with only her thoughts for company wasn’t going to send her spiraling towards a panic attack, because she found something to do.

    Without realizing it, her frantic fingertips had snapped the little sticks she found into halves, and then into quarters. By the time Christine noticed what she was doing, rather than twigs she was holding a loose handful of chaff. She told herself it just made for better tinder for the fire.

* * *

    “I think… we had better head back up, now,” Stephanie sighed. “They left Christine alone for a minute.”

    “Is that a problem?” Kelly asked.

    “It might be for her,” Stephanie closed the car door. “She’s—I don’t know how to describe it. Working herself up into a panic? I think she’d feel better if someone could keep an eye on her.”

    “Okay,” Kelly nodded slowly. “I guess we can indulge her? Rebecca, hey! Need us to grab anything?”

    “I’ve got it!” Rebecca called over from her vehicle. “I think this is everything. I hope you like french toast?”

    “Rebecca,” Kelly stared. “I fucking love french toast.”

    “I do, too!” Stephanie agreed.

    They hadn’t had much to eat yesterday evening, and she was feeling a little famished. She really hoped she would be able to eat. As they marched back up the steep incline, Kelly’s hand at the small of her back to help steady her amidst the clods of gravel and scraggly weeds that dotted the tire ruts… Stephanie wasn’t sure she’d be able to keep her appetite. Having Christine plugged into the invisible network of emotions she was tapped into was going to be a challenge.

    It’s like just a subtle undertone of STRESS, Stephanie frowned. Like, when I was passing by the power station on my bike over the summer, and there was that faint something in the air. Like my ears were ringing from a sound I couldn’t quite hear.

    As they reached the summit of the little hill and Christine made eye contact with them however, the strange pitch stopped. Or perhaps then the notes of shame and relief whirling off of the young woman made the subtle keening beneath too difficult to detect. Stephanie smiled at Christine, and the relief in the air grew, but then chasing after it a moment later the shame also expanded, as if not to be outdone.

    Hmm. I guess things would be a little too simple if just a smile and some kind words could mend everything that’s going on with her.

    Kelly followed Stephanie up and they stepped over to share a seat on one of the logs, while Rebecca coming up after them held a paper bag against herself with one hand and carried a half-dozen long, thin metal implements in the other. On closer inspection the tools had handles on one end and forked into two prongs on the other—they were campfire skewers. Brian and Emily tromped out of the trees to join them, and everyone was gathered.

    Okay. That’s a lot.

    Stephanie furrowed her brow as she tried to differentiate the four different streams of emotion which began to pool together into noise. Brian, Kelly, Emily, and Christine. Each of them had their own unique flavor, but focusing on them made it a little overwhelming and hard to distinguish what her own personal feelings were. Last night this had been easier, but then again last night Stephanie had started to feel the strain and just lock in on feeling one thing at a time. Anger. Worry. Affection.

    Her empathy had dropped in range and instead started to funnel certain things at greater strength, whereas this morning she was once again picking up nuance from each of them in a way that was disorienting.

    “You okay?” Kelly gave her shoulder a nudge with her own.

    “Yeah. Yeah,” Stephanie said, rubbing her temples. “Um. It’s distracting?”

    “What is?” Brian asked, dropping an armful of branches into the fire pit. “Emily’s legs?”

    “Thank you,” Emily gave him a little kick as she dropped her own bundle of sticks in.

    She still wasn’t wearing pants.

    “Steph?” Rebecca asked, looking concerned.

    “Brian feels better,” Stephanie said, pointing. “It’s like the ground is back beneath his feet and, um, and he can see a way forward again. It’s much better. Emily’s… a big sloshy mess of feelings? I have no idea.”

    “Same,” Emily said.

    “Christine, she’s uh, it feels like licking a battery,” Stephanie reported. “Can someone please hug her. Then, Kelly… is bored. Bored and hungry?”

    “I coulda told you that,” Kelly teased. “Uhh. I mean, sorry? I dunno. I feel like we did what we could, now let’s move on?”

    “Here,” Rebecca set down the bag and the skewers on top of the big cooler chest, and then opened her arms towards Christine. “Hug, hug.”

    “I—you don’t have to,” Christine grimaced, walking forward with her shoulders raised.

    “Then, I don’t read anything from Rebecca,” Stephanie finished. “Sorry, I—just, when it’s all together and it doesn’t… blend? It’s so hard to concentrate.”

    They watched as Rebecca took Christine by the shoulders and then helped them downwards, until the girl’s posture was more relaxed. The tangle of silver was especially beautiful here in the daylight, and Rebecca carefully combed Christine’s hair out a bit before moving in for an actual hug.

    “Mmmmh-mmhhhh!!” Rebecca gave her a big squeeze. “Any better?”

    “Um,” Stephanie closed her eyes, trying to zero in on Christine. “Now she’s just embarrassed…”

    “Savage,” Emily remarked. “So, uh. What’s for breakfast?”

    “Campfire toast!” Rebecca announced, releasing Christine and giving the girl a comforting pat. “I make really good campfire toast. Even Chloe couldn’t resist, and she was on hunger strike.”

    The squirming sensation of Christine’s embarrassment in her gut made Stephanie blanch and want to wriggle in her seat. It was—uncomfortable, in a way that tickled shame and prodded self-awareness but didn’t exactly engage with either in a direct way. In a rare moment of clarity Stephanie was able to see that Emily recognized the awkward situation and had actually been trying to help by immediately changing the subject to breakfast. Brian just felt awkward at the exchange, and Kelly’s emotional representation might as well have been pointedly tucking in a napkin and raising silverware as if urging them to hurry up.

    Stephanie let a giggle slip out.

    “Oh?” Kelly laughed. “You felt that? I was trying to like, broadcast that one at ya.”

    “Yeah, I just—wait, wait!” Stephanie held up her hands. “Christine, we’re not laughing at you. Kelly just… went all get on with it, I’m hungry, at me, and it was… jarring. Um. Emily, can you try hugging? It’s weird when Rebecca does it, because she’s a blind spot for me.”

    “Uh—” Emily opened her mouth.

    “I can do it?” Brian offered.

    Everyone seemed to pause and look over at him.

    “You really don’t have to,” Christine put on a bitter smile. “I’m okay.”

    While Christine’s body language only stiffened a bit and her expression gave little away, the emotions beneath that mirror surface spiked, acrid with terror and also vibrating with raw need. The need wasn’t sexual this time, it was a desperate plea for affection, a deep-seated and overpowering desire for the safety and comfort of simply being held in Brian’s arms. It was so strong that it jolted Stephanie up off her butt and to her feet, so powerful that now Stephanie also felt the need for that hug.

    “Yes,” Stephanie insisted, pointing at them again. “You do have to. Brian; hug. Please.”

    “You don’t have to,” Christine said again, still frozen in place.

    It wasn’t as convincing that time.

    “Okay. Well,” Rebecca clapped her hands. “Maybe yeah they should hug, but I guess they probably don’t need us all gawking? This time. Hah. Emily; eggs in the cooler, big mixing bowl is, too. I think for six of us, if you can crack open… let’s do ten? And stir them up, please.”

    “On it, boss,” Emily saluted.

    “Kelly, Stephie?” Rebecca took sticks from the pile and began to arrange them together at an angle in the pit. “Have you ever used flint and steel, before?”

    * * *

    Brian tried to think back to the last time he and Chloe had hugged, and he was drawing a blank. Crossed arms and frowns came to mind, and he remembered reading her body language on so many different occasions and deciding she was telling him to give her some space. She had never been one for touching or being too close, she hadn’t been one for public displays of affection.

    Or, maybe ANY displays of affection, Brian tried not to frown as he considered it. Fuck. When WAS the last time we hugged?

    It was possible they had exchanged one of those one-armed half hugs in greeting or parting, way back when they had very first started dating. It was a very distant memory now. By contrast, it was easier to remember that before Chloe, his first girlfriend Alyssa had been downright grabby. She had leaned on him, she loved putting her arms around his shoulders or simply pressing up against him.

    Things seemed similar to that with his girls, now. Emily and him were pretty comfortable getting into each other’s personal space, and Stephanie seemed to adore hugging him. He remembered embracing Kelly and feeling her tears back in the vendor’s hall of the convention, even. But when was the last time he and Chloe had shared a proper hug? They had been together for two years, they had been cohabitating already.

    Really stupid thought, but— Brian looked into Christine’s eyes. But, what if ALL of this craziness with her could’ve been avoided? Maybe she just needed a hug.

    He took another step closer, and opened his arms in invitation. Christine stared at him in a daze, and he watched as her lips parted slightly. She seemed ready to shrink back into herself, she was hunching up, holding both arms near her stomach as if unsure whether she should cross them and be defensive or use them to close the distance between them. Her red eyes were filled with fear, and she seemed unable to make a move either way.

    So, he took a deep breath and made a motion himself, wrapping his arms around her. She let out a small, startled squeak, and for several seconds Christine’s body seemed rigid with surprise. Then, small, cautious hands were felt on his sides as she held him in return. It was still a bit like having a stranger in his arms, however, so Brian’s hand slid up her back to cup the back of her head and he pulled her even closer, until her face was nestled in beside his neck.

    Only then did she finally begin to relax against him, and though he felt her inhale deeply as though she might cry, no sob seemed to come out. Her breathing sped up and then slowed down and Christine melted into his embrace. In turn, he felt a strong surge of relief—validation of some sort, a silver-speckled warm rush as if he was confirming things between them she wouldn’t have dared to ask. It was strange but also fulfilling as their magic presence brushed against one another and overlapped this tiniest bit along the edges.

    Usually it’s checking the mirror to see if you’re okay, Brian thought, slowly rubbing up and down Christine’s back with his free hand. This time, it’s like the reflection on the other side is what needed to check—but couldn’t until I stepped up to the mirror.

    Over Christine’s shoulder where the girls were crouched over the firepit, he saw Stephanie’s shoulders droop, and then the pink-haired girl wore a smile of contentment and simply let herself sag against Kelly. Kelly slipped an arm around her to help bear her weight, and the sticks she had been helping feed into the firepit were abandoned. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but a glance flicking over at Brian and Christine closed it again.

    Rolling her eyes, Kelly put on a smirk and hugged Stephanie tight.

    “Aw, fuck,” Emily swore from where she was off to his side by the cooler. “Alright, I’m gonna level with you guys. There’s gonna be some eggshell fragments in here.”

    “Emily!” Rebecca hissed. “Sshh! They were having a moment!”

    “Yeah I know,” Emily said. “S’what got me all distracted, fuck.”

    “Emily,” Brian sighed. “Just pick out the pieces.”

    “I’m trying,” Emily protested. “I’m like, chasing this little bit around the bowl with my finger here tryin’ to get it out of the goop. It’s a slippery fucker.”

    “You um,” Christine lifted her head and then nuzzled in closer against Brian. “It’s because there’s a little bit of invisible egg white around it. You can’t use your finger, you have to scoop it out with another bit of shell. It works.”

    “Yeah, and get your finger out of our food!” Kelly griped. “Seriously.”

    “I washed my hands, duh.”

    “That doesn’t give you carte blanche to poke your grubby fingers into what we’re gonna eat.”

    “Actually? It kinda does,” Emily said. “Oh, hey. It worked? Good call on the shell, Christine.”

    “You—” Christine tensed in Brian’s arms. “You’re welcome.”

( Previous: Making Plans pt 1 | Renfaire Fantasy | Next: Campfire Toast pt 2 )

/// Faster POV rotation for a bit as we cycle through things. All of the drama from AnimeCon Harem could have been avoided if Brian had just hugged Chloe more often. Doctors recommend four hugs a day at minimum. Kelly can emotionally prank Stephanie. Emily is not an accomplished cook. Christine taking baby steps towards becoming part of the group. More Rebecca focus soon.