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"Oh, and who's this little bloke?" Will murmured seemingly to himself. He picked the pigeon up gently out of its nest in the wall. He could feel the cooing in its throat against his fingers.
"Lardner's mate," Djaq's voice was right beside Will's ear. He jumped a little at her voice, and he heard a muffled giggle. He had thought he was quite alone.
"Ah," he continued in a whisper, thinking it was best around an animal. "So my bloke's a bird, is she?"
"Correct," Djaq said, sounding almost too pleased as she ruffled his hair with her hand. He felt his face beginning to grow red.
"I've only been here for—awhile!" he muttered feebly. "I haven't quite remembered the difference yet."
"Yes, yes," Djaq agreed comfortably, leaning over and kissing him softly on the cheek before standing up to retrieve a pigeon of her own.
Will still hadn't gotten used to it. It was strange to have a clean bed every night, to have decent slumbers. It was bizarre to wake up to food and drink and know that he would have a meal that day. That he could even snack if he wished. That he didn't have to be afraid of being caught and hanged at the gallows anymore. It was odd.
But strangest of all was Djaq.
To have Djaq all to himself was new. It made him nervous. Would she still love him if she didn't have all the other mates to compare him to? You know, Little John and his gruffness and Much and his frightened nature? Would he seem all that great anymore now that they were alone? Djaq was the thing that threw him off the most. Their affection was natural with each other, but after each kiss, each sweet little moment, he would remember it vividly with that secretive smile on his face. Would try to relive it.
Will wasn't going to lie. That bit was bliss.
He watched Djaq silently as she spoke to the bird in her hands, whispering to it in a language he didn't understand. She was so beautiful, standing there. She seemed so at home. Relaxed.
Will shifted slightly, seating himself completely on the floor, still holding Lardner's mate. He watched the bird's head twitch back and forth as he grew lost in thought.
It was suffocating. This roof. He missed the stars, the fresh air. Here he had to try and find a job. He missed the adventure of Sherwood Forest. Most of all, Will missed his mates. He hadn't realized it would be this hard to walk away from the life he had lived for the last two years. With Djaq at his side, he thought it would've been easy. He wondered about Luke. Would the others tell his brother where Will had gone?
"Will? Will?" Djaq's demanding tone snapped Will back into the present.
"Mhn?" he muttered incomprehensibly. Djaq gave him a funny smile.
"Are you feeling well?" she asked, almost distractedly as she put the bird back into its nest. Will nodded.
"Mm. Quite well, thank you." He stroked the pigeon's feathers; she ruffled in awkward protest and Will hastily slid her back into her nest in the wall. Djaq was smiling.
"You will figure it out," she reassured him, kneeling down beside him and watching all of the birds. "Soon it will become beautiful to you."
Will was watching her, not paying the slightest bit of attention. "Right. Beautiful." Djaq caught his eye and hit his arm lightly.
"You said you understand the flight," she argued, but rather cheerfully.
Will thought of his flee from Nottingham into Sherwood. About the freedom. About its own form of suffocation. And now here. Would he ever truly feel he was out of the trap? Truly free? "Trust me, I do understand," he said, standing up and grabbing hold of her hand. She looked back at him with a serious face.
"If you did not, I am sure you would be dead by now." She patted their intertwined hands with her other. "You are brave, Will Scarlet."
Will followed her outside without much protest. Was he brave? All he seemed to be doing was running from one safe place to the next, waiting for the moment he'd break free of all things holding him back.
Was that really being brave?