Gravis was no stranger to guarding these sorts of closed door meetings. He’d been the prized bodyguard of the late Lion King for several years — a king who’d been found out to have many secrets and, therefore, many reasons for holding these sorts of meetings. It had never been within Gravis’s purview to question the purpose of those meetings or even to pay much attention to them. In hindsight, perhaps he should have cared more. But it did mean that he was very practiced at standing at attention just outside a door. And General Animo Yudha was hardly Imperium Rex… which was comforting.

This evening, he shared the doorway with Tribe Leader Recht’s bodyguard, and for the first time in his adult life, Gravis wasn’t the biggest person in the room. The burly bear bodyguard only had an inch or two on Gravis’s six-foot-five, equally broad frame, but it was enough that Gravis noticed in the time it took for him to exit and take up his practiced stance.

And there they stood, two enormous men, sharing the same small space in strict silence…. Yup. This was so much less awkward when either he was by himself or he knew the guy he was on duty with, but even though he wasn’t technically a bodyguard anymore, Gravis’s professional pride prevented him from precluding protocol.

“Machtig? Who’s the new guy? I wasn’t aware that Seliga hired a new guard. I’m assuming she’s in there?” a woman’s voice asked from somewhere to his left. Gravis’s gaze remained fixed in front of him… because he was a professional.

“No, I’m guarding an empty room,” the bodyguard next to Gravis snarked. “And no idea who this is.”

“Huh. He’s not in uniform.” Gravis could smell her before he could see her — a decadent, musky perfume that reminded him of a summer flower garden, and he watched the woman approach in his peripherals. “Well, hello, handsome. What’s your name?” Now he looked (because he was being addressed directly)...

… and his brain stopped working.

She was tall, only a couple inches shorter than he was, and wearing a flirty smirk on an otherwise stern face. And she was stunning. Mature, curvy, perfectly made-up, not a hair out of place. She had the brightest, bluest eyes Gravis had ever seen framed by dark, almost black, silky brown hair. Even in the fading light he could tell that they weren’t your normal blue eyes. They were a rich, gem tone blue — deep and vibrant, and…

“... have to call you ‘handsome’ forever then,” she was saying, her smirk now a full, dazzling smile.

Gravis got lost in that smile. Her lips were a bright, glossy red, her teeth were clean and white and mostly straight, but imperfectly so and all the more charming for it, and… and…

“... meeting with someone,” the other guard was saying.

“Well, how important is it that they not be disturbed?” she asked.

“No idea. Maybe you should ask the mute. He came out of there just a few minutes ago. He probably knows more.”

She sighed, her sapphire eyes returning to Gravis’s muddy brown ones. “Well, handsome? Do you know whether or not I could poke my head in for a minute? I don’t want to disturb anything important, but I need to ask Seliga a quick question.” Gravis nodded dumbly, and her red lips quirked with the rise of a laugh. “Yes, I can go in, or yes, I would be disturbing her?”

“Yes… first one,” Gravis eventually managed clumsily.

“Excellent. Thank you!” she chirped and knocked lightly on the door.

“Come in!”

The woman disappeared through the door and exited a few minutes later, followed by the general and the Bear Tribe leader, the three of them chatting animatedly. “It’s so fun seeing you again,” sapphire-eyes was saying, her fingers running through the general’s wavy blonde hair. “You’ve learned to do your hair since the last time I saw you. Oh, I’d love to have you in my chair again sometime.”

“Callida is coming to our council meeting tomorrow morning,” the Bear Tribe leader said suggestively. “Perhaps beforehand–”

“Oh, I don’t want to impose,” Animo cut her off.

“No, it would be my absolute pleasure!” the lady cried emphatically. “I would love to get my hands in your hair again.”

“It’s settled then!” tribe leader Recht declared with sufficient finality that the general had no room to protest. “I will see you tomorrow, Callida. Thank you for the visit.”

“Thank you for your hospitality, Seliga.”

“And I will see you in the morning,” she said to the general. “By the way, is handsome here yours?”

“Gravis mine? My what?”

“So his name is Gravis.”

“Uh, yeah, Captain Gravis.”

“Mm, so he is a man in uniform,” she said, looking him over, that flirty smirk returning to her luscious lips. “I’m assuming ‘Captain’ is his rank and not his first name?”

“Uh,” General Yudha chuckled, “you are correct. Gravis, your first name is Cultor, isn’t it? Cultor Gravis?”

Gravis nodded, and the lady looked him over again. “Cultor Gravis. Will I be seeing you tomorrow morning too?”

“Would you like to?” Animo Yudha asked when Gravis still couldn’t find a response.

“Bring him along,” the lady said, and then turned on her heel to leave with a small wink directed at him. Gravis nearly fell over. General Yudha and the Bear Tribe leader exchanged parting salutations while he watched her leave.

“Gravis!”

“Huh?”

Animo Yudha snorted. “Come along, then.”

“Right.” Sadly, they left in the opposite direction from the one the lady had gone. Gravis distractedly made up for his brain failure, processing the last few minutes retroactively. Oh, man. He’d looked like an utter fool back there! He cringed. And then he remembered her eyes and her smell and…. And the general knew her? “General, who was that?”

“Who?”

He felt irrationally angry at such an innocuous, clarifying question. “Her! That… that woman… that you knew.”

“Seliga? The Bear Tribe leader?”

“The Bear Tribe leader?! You think I’m asking about–?!” He cut himself off as the general started laughing. “You’re teasing me.”

“And you are painfully obvious.”

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Gravis spent the next moment trying not to despair. ‘Painfully’ obvious? Primordials, she probably thinks I’m pathetic!

“Not all is lost,” Animo General Yudha seemed to read his mind. “I think she likes you too.”

“You do?!”

“Yeah. She was trying to flirt with you. Too bad your jaw was by your toes.”

“Primordials. Do you… do you think I have a chance?!”

She merely chuckled. “Her name is Belle, by the way.”

“Belle.”

“Yeah. She’s Seliga’s beautician. I met her back when I was… I guess I’d have been eighteen? So nearly ten years ago? I’ve seen her around since then, but very rarely. I didn’t realize that she still remembered me.”

“Belle.”

“Yeah, Belle. My advice? She is probably about your age, Gravis. Late thirties? Early Forties? She doesn’t have time to pussyfoot with relationships. Make a move, make it quick, and then let her set the pace.”

Under normal circumstances, Gravis would have appreciated this tip, but he was gone, consumed by thoughts of blue eyes and red lips. Belle.

***

“Primordials, Cultor! You’re such a gentleman,” Belle praised from somewhere behind Callida.

“It’s nothing,” Gravis replied bashfully.

“Oh, don’t say that. Take the compliment,” Belle laughed, and Callida slouched further into her seat as she waited irritably once again for Gravis to “help” Belle grab some unnecessary product from off a top shelf that the very tall female bear was perfectly capable of reaching herself.

Callida was the third wheel of this stylist appointment — her appointment. Honestly, she really wasn’t sure why she was there. Her makeup was only half done, her hair had been brushed, and that was about it. Belle’s tools and brushes lay abandoned on the table. Callida sighed, found a mirror in one corner of the stuffy room, and completed her makeup herself.

It was hard to be truly upset though. Callida had literally never, in all the time she’d known him, seen Gravis this happy and excited about anything. He was glowing, and he certainly deserved happiness, even if his timing was inconvenient.

“I’m sorry, I’ve practically abandoned you!” Belle chirped, though Callida could tell that she was significantly less than sorry. “Goodness! You’ve learned to do your own makeup since I last did it for you. Here, let me help you with your hair.”

“Don’t mind me. I have access to all of your products. I can manage on my own,” Callida offered her a generous pardon. “Hey, Gravis, would you mind finding me a flower? Maybe take Belle with you. I’m sure she knows where all the prettiest flowers are.”

“What do you need a flower for,” Belle asked.

“Oh… erm… tradition?” Callida placated. “Yeah. It’s tradition… when entering negotiations. For luck.”

“Oh. Well, is there a particular type of flower that you need?”

“Just… a pretty one? What’s your favorite flower, Belle?”

“Oh! Well, this time of year, I like–”

“Maybe just show Gravis. I don’t need an explanation,” Callida cut her off and shooed the twitterpated pair out the door before Belle could find another question to ask. The door closed with a hurried bang! as Callida shut it behind them. “The way those two are going….” Well, I think I just lost Gravis for the rest of the day. If they get together, they are going to make the most enormous babies, she mused to herself on her way back to the mirror.

***

Negotiations had gone perfectly, and Callida was walking away with a formal letter permitting the caravan passage through the Bear Tribe to the newly claimed colony lands west of the Bear Tribe and north of, though inaccessible to, the Wolf Tribe. Spahen had found her afterwards to give her a quick hug and say that they’d be in touch, whatever that meant, and then she’d waited… and waited… for hours… until Gravis remembered that he’d been sent to find her a flower.

The wilted white blossoms were delivered sheepishly, and Callida accepted them with a smirk. “How was your date with Belle?” Gravis’s grin became flushed and bashful. “Mn. I thought so.”

“We–”

“It’s time to go…. Sorry. I didn’t mean to cut you off.”

His face had fallen and was rearranging into something more stoic and bodyguard-esque. “Yes, General.”

Callida took a breath with which to protest, but Gravis was already walking away, heading to the guest room to pack up his things. Callida swallowed that protest and followed him pensively. The ex-soldiers took less than three minutes to pack up, and soon they were on the road.

“Cultor! You… you’re leaving?” Callida turned in time to watch Gravis nod at Belle, his jaw set and face blank, a far cry from the honey-glow he’d worn that morning. “Well. It was nice meeting you, Cultor. If ever you’re in the Bear Tribe again….” Belle trailed off as Gravis took her hand and squeezed it gently, his rough thumb stroking the meat of her soft one. “Goodbye.” She stiffened and walked away briskly, obviously upset.

And Gravis walked away with a sudden sadness making each step sluggish. Callida allowed him to follow her out of the Leader’s Lodge and most of the way to the trading post before she stopped, and a distracted Gravis nearly crashed into her. “You’re an idiot, Gravis.”

“I’m… sorry?”

“You know you’re not my bodyguard, right. You’re not my bodyguard, and I’m not your commanding officer anymore. You owe me nothing.”

“Look, Animo, like Rapax said in that meeting, you’re the closest thing I’ve got to family.”

“Animo? You haven’t called me that in a long time.”

“I… sorry.”

“No. I don’t mind,” she said with a soft smile. “You know, Arum still calls me that.”

Gravis snorted affectionately. “Yeah. You were a kid when we met you.”

“I’m not a kid anymore.”

“No.”

She gave him a hug that was readily reciprocated, and Gravis seemed to relax, the tension in his beefy back and shoulders releasing incrementally. “Are you really going to walk away from a gorgeous woman who is clearly into you? You know, it’s natural for a man to leave his family in order to start a new one. And it’s not as though we wouldn’t take you back. And, if things worked out, we’d welcome her too if that’s what you both wanted, but I think you owe it to yourself and to her to find out what her answer is.”

“What do I even say?”

“Just tell her how you feel.”

He stared blankly at her. “How I…?”

“How you feel. Gravis, how do you feel about Belle? What do you think of her?”

“I… she-she’s incredible. She’s beautiful and smart and…”

“Do you like her?”

“Yeah. I’ve never met anyone like her.”

“And how does that make you feel?”

Sitting on that thought for a moment, Gravis broke into a beaming smile. Callida had never seen him smile so much before. Ever.

“Thinking about her makes you smile, Gravis.”

“Primordials, Animo, am I crazy?”

“No. I think you’re just in love.”

“I barely know her, but I can’t help but feel like….”

“When you know, you know,” Callida offered.

“Yeah.”

She smacked his shoulder in a friendly, rallying way. “Now go tell her that, and don’t come back until you’ve figured things out.”

“Thank you, General.”

“I’m happy for you.” He grinned and yanked her into another hug that Callida allowed for a couple seconds before she shoved him away. “Quit stalling and go get the girl!”

He left at a run.

Callida smiled.

***

Belle opened the door, surprised, confused, and then delighted to find a heavily-breathing Cultor on the other side of it. “I thought you’d left.”

He opened his mouth as if to speak, but Belle wasn’t surprised when no words came out. She found his inarticulateness adorable and couldn’t help but grin. She turned her head, trying to tame a sudden giddiness, and the next moment she was swept up and tipped off-balance between a pair of very strong arms and sighing into the most romantic kiss she could imagine. “General sent me back,” he whispered, still the only thing keeping her from falling over backwards.

Belle’s arms wrapped around his neck. “Mn. I like that woman.”

~Outtake~

“Wait. Gravis…. What?!” Arum balked.

Callida grinned and repeated herself for the disbelieving commanders. “Gravis found a girlfriend.”

“You were gone for four days, and in that time, Gravis found a girlfriend?”

“That sums it up nicely, Arum. Thank you,” Callida said with a laugh.

“And he’s serious enough about her that he bailed on us to court her?” Moro sought further clarification.

“Yup. He was all blushy and bashful about her. It was honestly adorable.”

“Gravis?! Blushy and bashful?! No…” Arum was obviously reeling. “Never in a million years did I expect him to find a girlfriend before me.”

“Well, damn,” Rapax rocked back onto his heels. “I call dibs as your escort for the next time you need to go on some solo mission, General.”