The Hunter's Trap Pt. 01

"Thanks!" Tawn said sincerely.

Tawn had tailored some deceptively large pouches into his shirt around the sides and began to pick and put the berries inside.

"So I never asked, what's life like in Mital?" Dennuuk walked over and began to pick and eat the berries.

"It's alright. Not a lot to say about it really."

"You said it was growing right? Nothing interesting there?"

"It is kind of interesting. New neighbors come in and they have some interesting stories about the cities. Things aren't going so well right now in Tetstoshi or Ura from what they say."

"That so?"

"Yep. It's a lot of crime inside the walls and a lot of fighting with the Flynn folk outside, they say." Tawn seemed to ease up and forget his worries while plucking at the maroon berries and going on about this and that. It made Dennuuk smile. Things felt easier like they did when they made love - or played the board game.

"Flynn folk? I thought they weren't the violent type."

"They weren't but then things got bad with them and the cities for some reason. I dunno why. No one in Mital does!" Tawn chuckled a bit. "Trien - the town bartender - asked about it and it might as well have been like he was raising the dead. One of the new folk tried to explain and then another started arguing. It got red hot in there until someone ordered a round to shut everyone up. All I got was it had a lot to do with land the Flynn folk bought or owned or something and the city taking it for some reason."

Dennuuk gave a curt laugh. "He probably don't ask any more then."

"Nope. Not Mital's business anyway. We're a bit too far away and it's a good thing we are. It's seriously dangerous now. You can't go near the mountains anymore."

"That's a shame." There was a brief silence Dennuuk quickly filled. "So you're the town tailor?"

"One of them. One of the better ones if you don't mind my rating myself and others." Tawn stood up, pockets full.

Dennuuk smiled at that. "Rate away. Do you have your own shop or a family shop or?"

"It's my own." Tawn smiled proudly. "Actually, I inherited it from my grandmother so it's a family shop in some ways."

"But you run it?" Dennuuk started to walk Tawn to the path.

"Mhm."

"How'd that work out? No one else was in line for it?" Dennuuk asked bluntly, then remembered not everyone talks as plainly as Grinlanders. "Er-if you don't me asking."

Tawn giggled at the cover, "I got it because my grandma and I were close and I was running her business while she was sick. It made the most sense to go to me - not that that stops some folk from being sore about it."

"Nothing doing about people's selfishness."

Tawn nodded heartily at that.

They reached the road. Tawn knew his way back from here. He wanted to get right on the way with a short goodbye but it didn't feel wholly right. He was gripped by the question of what this was. What did all this mean to him? To Dennuuk? He felt afraid to look Dennuuk in the eyes; afraid to look the situation in the eyes,

"I, um, I guess I should thank you."

Dennuuk nodded. "Of course. Thank you."

"For what?" Tawn said, immediately regretting the question.

The Grinlander inside Dennuuk balked at indulging in any more double speak. "For the fuck, Tawn." He said dryly, leveling a flat look at Tawn. Then he realized he wasn't being totally straight with himself or Tawn. "And for the board game. You're good company." He said it all with much more annoyance than he meant to, mixing up his message. He meant the words, meant the good feelings he had for Tawn but he also meant the annoyance he had for dancing around the matter and not calling a spade a spade or two gay men gay.

"R-right, I mean, thanks." Tawn felt a deep nervousness at everything laid bare like that. He felt an urge to run and hide.

It frustrated Dennuuk a little but the deep empathy he felt for Tawn - and for Tawn's reasonable fears - allayed the frustration. He reached a hand out to touch Tawn's shoulder but realized Tawn wasn't a Grinlander and the contact might not reassure him. He withdrew the hand.

"I hope I didn't come on too strong. Just how we talk here sometimes." Dennuuk looked straight at Tawn, which made the small man turn dodgy. Dennuuk went on anyways, casual, unworried, and a little warm. "I like your company. You seem interesting and sane and from what I've seen you usually only get to pick one of those. If you wanna do this again sometime, I'm game. I'm around midday and when the Sun goes down. Fine to go to your neck of the woods too but I'd imagine that's less discreet."

Tawn felt torn between the desire to make this as quick as possible and peel out down the road and the desire to look Dennuuk in the eyes and admit that this was the first time he'd openly and loudly enjoyed sex. There were discrete moments in Ura that were pleasurable - even romantic sometimes - but not like this. A part of him even felt bad not for his desires but for not expressing them. It was a rare thing to feel bad about and he realized it was because when he didn't express his own feelings it seemed to reach over to Dennuuk and hamper the man's own ability to convey emotion. It put them both in a standoff with each other and themselves.

"I, um, thanks." The Grinlands were close enough to Mital that Tawn knew how touchy Grinland folk were and some of their gestures. He knew the common one for thanks could double as romantic. Despite his worries, he reached out and tentatively put a hand flat over Dennuuk's heart - maybe to show thanks, maybe to show romantic interest. He wasn't entirely sure.

He could feel Dennuuk's heart beating - beating a lot faster than the man's calm demeanor suggested. Did I do that? He felt oddly powerful, then as it went on longer, powerfully awkward. "Thanks and sorry -"

Before he could go on Dennuuk placed a large hand over his and another one on his shoulder. They were warm and smooth in that calloused way. Dennuuk's eyes caught his and for a second there was no sound in the air but the rustle of leaves in the wind.

"Tawn, we didn't do anything wrong. There's nothing to be sorry about."

Before either of them knew how to process half of what they'd done, they were both in their homes while their minds wandered towards each other.