Levi had moved slowly on their walk to the pond. Paige had offered to help him, but he'd refused, saying that doing it on his own would help him recover faster. Paige had kept a wary eye on him, though, concerned he might fall or that he was pushing himself too hard.

But Levi made the entire walk, if at a very slow and deliberate pace.

When he finally eased himself down onto the fallen long Paige had led him to, he breathed out a sigh of relief. The journey had been more taxing than he'd let Paige know.

"Sorry for moving like an old man all the way here," Levi joked.

Paige leaned into him and lightly bumped her shoulder into his. "That's okay, I like my men older."

"Haha, you're funny."

"No, no, I'm serious. Do you think the system has some form of AARP discount on those rations? You could hook me up. I need a restock before I leave."

"You're leaving? Where are you going?"

"I want to see my parents and my little brother. The system marked their safezone on my map. After everything that happened...it just made me realize that I should at least check on them. And let them know I'm okay."

"I get it. I was going to head out soon, too. After I'd recovered, I was going to check out the portal, and then after that..."

"Where are you headed?" Paige asked.

"Don't know. I've already been here way too long, though. Adventuring was always part of my long-term plan. I think I panicked a little about my class at first. And then, all the sparring we did, plus my own practice and meditation, kept my debuff reset.

But that doesn't mean my long-term plan was wrong. My class doesn't do well sitting around safezones, and the challenges it brings are something that's about to really start catching up with me."

"Maybe you could come with me."

Levi turned and raised an eyebrow at Paige.

"What? I'm serious. I'm not trying to drag you to meet my family or anything stupid like that. It would be nice to have some backup and not be completely alone out there, for one. For you, too. And it isn't like where you go actually matters. I doubt you even have a direction in mind." Paige shrugged. "So why don't we just head out together?"

"I mean, I'm not opposed to it." Levi grabbed a 'cane pole', made from the bamboo native to the southeastern US, and began rigging his line. "I still need a few more days to recover, though. And I really do want to check out that portal. Are you okay with that?"

Paige followed Levi's lead and started rigging her own pole. "Yeah, that's fine with me. I kind of wanted to see what we could find in the portal, too. I need to befriend new beasts. It's kind of my biggest way to get stronger. Plus, it's fun."

"Ah, yeah. You never really explained everything that happened with the bobcat. But you still have the bobcat traits. How does that even work?"

Paige's hands stopped rigging her pole for a moment. "Well, me and Mama-cat are still friends, or at least something like that. Maybe I would have lost the ability to share traits if things had ended on bad terms. I think they would have. But..." She didn't look up at Levi as she spoke and tried to keep the emotion from her voice. "It's just the nature of bobcats to be solitary. So... our time together had to end."

Levi considered teasing her about calling the bobcat 'Mama-cat,' but his gut told him that it was a sensitive subject. "It sounds like you miss her."

Paige nodded but didn't look up from rigging her fishing line.

"Want to talk about it?" Levi asked. Part of him really hoped she didn't. He'd offered, and he would listen, but he really didn't know how to handle emotional support.

"It's stupid," Paige said.

Knowing that was his chance to avoid the subject, Levi didn't take it. "Try me."

Paige exploded into an explanation of the entire situation with the bobcat and the time she spent with Mama-cat. By the end of it, she was a puddle of tears and an alarming amount of snot for what could be considered a first date.

"In the end, she called me her daughter and told me she was proud of me and I hate that she just had to leave like that, but I get it you know, because she is a bobcat and nothing will change that, but it sucks so bad, and I wish it didn't have to be like that..." Paige finished in a blubbering ramble.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Levi, at a complete loss on what he should say, gave the only response that made sense. "Do you want a hug?"

Paige threw her arms around him and squeezed.

Levi felt the hook he'd just tied to his line dig into his thigh as she'd went in for the hug, but put the pain at the back of his mind and hugged her back.

At least Paige had been apologetic about the hook in his thigh.

For a while after the hug--and Levi digging the hook out--they'd quietly focused on fishing.

As Levi pulled his third fish in without Paige catching anything, she got a little frustrated.

"How? Our lines are rigged the same, we're fishing side by side, and we're both using the same cheese for bait. How have you caught three, and I haven't even gotten a bite?"

"Want to trade poles?" Levi offered.

"Yes!"

When Levi pulled in his forth fish, Paige nearly threw her pole into the pond.

"Trade me spots," Paige demanded.

Levi chuckled and swapped spots with Paige.

Then Levi caught his fifth fish.

"What the shit! How are you catching all these fish and I'm not?"

Levi shrugged, grin plastered on his face. "You're probably just not holding your mouth right."

"What?" Paige gave Levi an incredulous look. "What does that even mean? That makes no sense."

"I don't know. It was just something my stepdad used to say when we went fishing. It's just a joke. I swear."

Paige grew quiet after that. Levi couldn't keep the smirk off his face when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Paige trying to subtlety study his mouth.

After Levi had caught another three fish and Paige had caught an overhanging limb, a submerged branch, and Levi's fishing line--twice, they finally called it a day.

"That should be enough for everyone," Levi said.

Paige sighed. "Yeah, I guess it will be dark soon. I just wanted to catch something, you know. You swear you don't have any skills for fishing?"

Levi laughed, deciding to finally come clean. "Alright, alright. My class does give me the basic skills for most professions, so yes, I have a skill for fishing."

Paige lightly smacked Levi in the arm. "Asshole. You know I sat out here for the last few hours trying to figure out what I did wrong."

"And now you know. You believed me when I said I didn't have any skills." Levi grinned and bumped Paige's shoulder with his own.

He stood and started pulling up the stringer of fish. Paige started pulling in her own line.

"Hey. Hey! I think I've got something!" she said as she pulled up her line.

After a moment of tugging, something popped to the surface of the water with Paige's line wrapped around it.

"Is that a bottle? Are you serious? I haven't so much as seen any thrown out trash since the system, yet I somehow manage to snag the one piece of litter in the world while fishing?"

"Wait," Levi said, stopping her rant. "Pull it in... I think there may be something to it."

Once Paige got it to shore, they saw it was a corked glass bottle with a rolled up piece of parchment inside.

Paige grabbed the bottle and quickly got the message out. As she read, a smile spread wide across her face. After a moment, she let out a squeal and jumped up and down in a little circle laughing.

"What is it?"

Paige thrust the parchment to Levi. "Read it and weep. Who's the loser now, huh?"

Levi took the paper and read it.

----

HIDDEN TREASURE QUEST

To catch fish, you must have bait. But for the treasure, wait half a turn. Good things come to those who wait.But the early bird gets the worm.

REWARD: Coffee Beans

----

"What in the episode of Survivor is this? I didn't even know the system offered stuff like this." Levi said. "Grace is going to love this. Let's go back and show everyone while we make food and eat."

"You don't want to try to figure it out now?" Paige asked.

"And waste the fish we just caught? No. It didn't say anything about a time limit. But I think I have it figured out anyway." Levi handed the paper back to Paige. "Let's get going. Don't forget I can't walk very fast right now."

"Yeah, yeah, old man... I'll make sure you get to the dinner table so you can have your fish plate with fries, don't worry. I know soft foods are a real treat with those dentures."

"You know I'm the one cooking your food, right? I will totally spit on yours."

"Wooo. If you want your saliva in my mouth, there are ways that are a whole lot more fun," Paige said with an eyebrow waggle.

"You know there are also lot better ways for a lady to ask for a kiss, right?" Levi quipped.

"Is that what you thought I meant? Not nearly as dirty as what I had in mind... mine involved a lot more choking and spitting... If I wanted a kiss, I wouldn't even ask."

"Oh, shut up. All talk. You'd have already done it if that were true." As Levi looked up at Paige with a grin, suddenly her arms were around his neck, and her lips pressed to his.

And then, after a second, Levi was kissing her back.

After a moment, she pulled her head back, her arms still around his neck. "What was that you were saying?"

----

The walk back was quiet, but it wasn't awkward. Both Levi and Paige kept supressing the sudden smile that came from the thought of their kiss. They both knew it, but there wasn't anything to say.

Paige had a harder time than Levi, if truth be told. She could smell Levi's happiness and arousal. She could hear his heart speed up just before he'd suddenly let a small grin slip, and then she would smell it on him even more. It was torture to do nothing about it.

Not that Levi wanted Paige any less than she did him, but a stroll through the woods felt like an obstacle course at that point. If anything else between them, she'd be disappointed, and he'd probably be crippled for life. But that didn't keep him from thinking about it.

When they got back to Grace's cabin, everyone turned to look at them.

Maddy smiled. "Looks like you two hand fun."

Joe just busied himself, suddenly concerned with a blood stain on his shield.

"Oh, please tell me you caught enough fish for us to have a good fish fry. Grace made me peel and cut the potatoes already," David said.

Grace gave them a long look. "You fucked, didn't you."

"No!" Both Levi and Paige said at the same time.

"It was just a kiss," Levi said defensively.

"What's it to you?" Paige challenged, hand on her hip and eyebrow raised.

"Well, if that's how you want to be..." Grace started.

Paige tossed Grace the rolled up parchment.

Grace quickly scanned it before continuing. "...then it is none of my damned business. I do really need to learn not to meddle."