Part I, Chapter Two: His Usual Chore

There was something on his stomach. The swordsman resisted the urge to stab the intruder and cracked an eye open, only to see another pair of scarlet ones staring back. "Hey! Get up, Mister Joshua!" Mister...? Since when was he a mister? Joshua blinked and shielded his eyes from the sun with his left hand, peering at Ewan. The boy was too energetic at any time of day, he decided.

"I'm getting, kid. If you'd get off of me, however, I'd get a whole lot faster." The mage-in-training scrambled onto the dirt and watched as Joshua pulled on his coat and belt, put his leather boots on, strapped his sword to his side, and ran a hand through his tangled hair.

Ewan cocked his head to the side. "Mister Joshua, why don't you have a brush? Why is your sword at an angle? Why did you leave camp last night? Why-"

"Ewan. I'm not a library." Joshua said dryly, popping his back. He didn't want to offend the kid however, so he began to answer the questions. "My comb was left behind a few camps ago, the sword is at an angle because if it wasn't I'd cut my stomach open when I drew it, and I left camp because it's fun to make you ask questions. Anything else?" The boy, satisfied with the answers he was given, nodded.

"Uh-huh. General Seth said we're staying here for another day and that you don't have guard duty. And Miss Natasha needs you in the healer's tent." Grinning, the red-haired child dug around in his pouch and pulled out a piece of cloth, which he unrolled to reveal an apple. "And I got you breakfast." Joshua smiled at the innocent antics.

"Thanks," He murmured as he took the deep red fruit into his hand. "You're a good kid, Ewan." As the boy beamed, Joshua dug around his own pouch until his fingers brushed the wooden whistle he won a while back. Pulling the toy out, he pressed it into Ewan's hand with a smile. "Here. Have fun with this."

Ewan closed his fingers around the whistle. "Thank you, Mister Joshua! I betcha' Master Saleh can make this shoot bubbles!" He ran out of the tent then, leaving a head-shaking myrmidon in his wake. That boy was too much. Taking a bite of the sweet fruit, Joshua pushed his tent flap open and walked into the busy camp. With another bite of his breakfast, the man watched as Forde and Kyle bickered before turning to the right and moving over towards the white healer's tent. Pausing at the tent flap, Joshua listened to the clink of glass and the slight rustle of Natasha's movement before raising a hand and tapping at the tent pole.

"Come in," The cleric answered with a smile, and he entered the spacious tent. She hadn't bothered to turn to face him from her perch on a stool, and with a armful of vials she hopped to the floor. "Good morning, Joshua." Natasha greeted him as she set the bottles down in a row. "I didn't want to wake you, but Ewan insisted that it was past nine already...Energetic little boy, isn't he?"

Joshua smirked and swallowed his mouthful of apple. "Has he ever waken you up, Natasha?" The woman shook her head. "Be glad." He tossed the fruit up into the air and caught it, setting it down on one of many crates. "He said you needed me."

"Ah. Yes," She said, climbing back onto her stool. "Since we have free time today, I was wondering if you could help me organize my medicines." Gathering ten more bottles into her hands, she stepped down and set them beside the fifty or so on the table. Joshua pushed red hair back behind his shoulder and ran his eyes over the vast number of containers.

"How many do you have...? A hundred?"

Natasha shook her head. "Oh, heavens no...closer to two hundred...one ninety-four was the last count, I believe." Scarlet eyes widened, and the cleric frowned slightly. "Will there be a problem?"

"No...Just why do you need so many?" He took the glass bottles she handed him and set them beside the others, and while they formed a sort of conveyor-belt system to get all of the medicines down from their shelves, Natasha calmly explained how the basic medicines alone were twenty. Then she elaborated, telling him about the brews she used to ward off tetanus and poison, and the ancient ones she scrounged up to battle the gaping, rotting wounds their otherworldly foes left. Combining that with L'Arachel and Tethys's allergies to a base root-which meant specialized potions for them-Joshua thought, the amount of bottles he had set on the wooden tabletop were more than understandable. Natasha left her perch and pointed him to a few baskets, which he brought over without complaint, and together they sorted through piles of herbs.

A bit of chatter later, Joshua decided to bring it up again. "So, you feeling any better?" The blonde cleric looked up then, and instead of the immense sorrow her cerulean eyes had shown last night, they softened and she let out a smile. She ran long, slender fingers through her rippling hair before replying.

"Yes...Thank you." Natasha smiled at him and stuck a new label-Streptohelia Kitanus, Summer Brush-onto the bottle of a deep green plant. Setting the Summer Brush down into the basket with the other poison-stopping mixtures, she turned her full attention to Joshua. "It's strange, really. It's been so long since I've cried...and I'm terribly sorry to have burdened you so much. With my sobbing and fainting on you, and you having to get L'Arachel to wake me, and I left your coat by the fire and it got to smelling like smoke, oh Joshua, I-"

He frowned and tapped his index finger onto her lips lightly. "Ah-ah-ah. I said that I wanted to help you last night, 'Tash. What makes you think it'll be any different today, or tomorrow, or three years from now?" Her confused expression wasn't enough of an answer for him. "And you know what? I don't care that my coat smells or that I had to carry you back to camp or that my shirt has never been so wet in my life. I care that you're still hurting. Talk to me."

Natasha lowered her gaze and stood, moving over to a cot and motioning for him to join her. After the Jehannan had settled onto the thing, she sighed and turned her head to look out the open tent flap. "It was late at night...eleven?twelve?...when the troops came in. There were only four of them, but seeing as none of them were wounded it was odd to see them in the Imperial Temple. My mentor, Liam, told me to go fetch drinks as he spoke to the men, and I came back early enough to hear the last part of what they said."

"'High Priest Liam, you are charged with treason against his Imperial Majesty. You do not deny this?'

'No. You deny the truth! Can you not see-'

'Silence! You are to be executed...now.' They...they ran him through then, with a lance. Then they left, leaving him bleeding on the floor, and I ran over to him. Master Liam told me not to waste the energy healing him and to go and inform somebody about the Demon King's return. He instructed me with such desperation I could only nod and run out the door..."

"And, well Joshua, you were in Searafew. What you said to me was the first bit of human contact, the first polite words anybody said to me in three weeks." Natasha sighed and locked her gaze onto his, placing her pale hand onto his shoulder.

He smirked. "Even though I was trying to pick you up?" Chuckling at her blush, Joshua patted her hand and rose, carefully pulling her to her feet. "Just kidding. I did think you were beautiful, though. Still do." The man looped his arm around hers and led her out of the tent. "C'mon, we've been sorting for three hours. Let's take a break."

As usual, she protested. "But, Joshua...! Surely you're tired? You don't need to be dragging me about trying to cheer me up, you need to be resting. Please, why don't we just..." She faltered, watching him heave a small sigh.

"Natasha." He emphasized every syllable of her name with such feeling it sent a wave of euphoria through her nerves. "I said I was going to help you. Now come with me, m'lady, you and I are going to take a stroll around the forest and have a chat. A nice, long chat, and we'll be back in time for dinner, hmm?"

The woman smiled and let out a faint laugh. "Of course. You know, Joshua, I do think that you enjoy making me smile." Joshua grinned and led her past the last row of tents, stepping lightly over a fallen tree branch.

"'Tash, you smile often enough. I'm just trying to make you happy." Natasha smiled brilliantly at this and pulled her torrent of gold hair over her shoulder.

"Oh? And since when do you have the right to call me 'Tash?"

"Since I thought we were close enough to do so. You can call me Joshie. Or maybe Wah. Or maybe Josh. Or Jo." Like the sun on a spring day, beams of laughter poured out of his beautiful companion, and he looked to her. "Oh? You don't like Jo?"

"No, it's...I think..." She let out a few more giggles and composed herself. "I apologize. I think I like Joshua better. I don't mind you calling me 'Tash, though." Joshua nodded.

"Good. Now that we're at an agreement on what to call each other, let's get back to the serious stuff. Are you sure you're okay with Joshua therapy?" Natasha let out a noise of approval. "Even better! Well, where shall we begin...? Ah. What's your most embarrassing moment?"

"Joshua, are you trying to heal me through laughter or humiliation?"

"Neither, 'Tash! I told you it's Joshua therapy. It has exercises that will make you open up to me so that I can get to know you, feel with you, and visa versa." The cleric smiled again and stopped, looking up into his garnet eyes.

Joshua stopped walking, too. He waited for her to speak. "Joshua...why? You're more cynical than you are a listener...why do you treat me so well?" The swordsman paused.

"I...you're more to me than the rest of them are." He could feel his pulse quicken, and desperately wished that he had listened to his mother's courting advice more. All of it that he could recall now were the symptoms of falling head over heels, and according to that he was already dead. "Uh, I mean that you're so nice to me, why shouldn't I be nice to you? After all, Fate's tricky, y'know?" Cursing at himself, he turned away from Natasha, who gently closed her fingers around his wrist.

"Joshua, calm down. I won't judge your speech-giving powers. Just tell me what's wrong." He turned to look at her again, and saw such pain for him in her eyes. All thoughts of Liam were forgotten, any concern for the wounded and battered and down-and-out were pushed aside just for him. Only because he was flustered and he was in pain. How could she be so forgiving and kind towards him, a runaway killer? A man who had tried to take her life? And Natasha knew that he had every intention of killing her, too, but she forgave him, helped him, laughed with him...She helped him sharpen his blade and sewed up a tear in his old hat, cared for him the three days he was out due to a nasty arrow wound, and when he awoke from that she was there beside him-tired as hell, but she smiled and told him she was glad he was awake. All he did was help stock some bottles, move patients, and try to keep the angel among mortals happy. Now she was still worried, still concerned, and she still felt bad about unloading her problems onto him.

"Damnit, Natasha! Why...why do you have to do this? Treat me so well and everything, even give me extra turnips...and you never even think you need compensation for this? How could I not care for you so much?"

"My light, my beautiful pained angel...how could I not love you so?"

End Part I, Chapter Two.

The final chapter in the JxN saga is up next! A few explanations before I leave you...

Streptohelia Kitanus, Summer Brush. This, to my knowledge, does not exist, and is an entirely made-up plant whose name I derived from fancy-sounding words out of my science textbook. The common name (Summer Brush) was added as an afterthought; after all, the practical Natasha wouldn't just rely on scientific names alone.

And as for Master Liam? I played the 'Mash the hand on the keyboard and make words out of letters' game with that. And it sounds priest-y.

A BIG THANK YOU TO MY REVIEWERS! Your comments meant the world to me.