This night’s moon was a bright orange, only a few shades more red than yellow really, but it’s light put the whole forest in a comfortable homey glow.

Dave and Mira were walking one of their usual routes around the camp. Since there wasn’t that much space on their clearing, they doubled down on tracks pretty often. Still what mattered for Dave was the company rather than the scenery.

“You did not!” Mira said laughing wildly.

Dave couldn’t help but smile at seeing her reaction. “Yeah that was the last time I went to a costume party,” he said, slightly embarrassed.

“Man, that’s so you.” Mira said, shaking her head and smiling.

Feeling his embarrassment fading a bit, Dave relaxed a little. Their conversation dulled into comfortable silence for a few steps, before Dave picked it up again.

“What about you? Any funny college stories?” Dave asked her out of genuine interest.

Usually Dave didn’t care too much about small talk, nor did he excel at it, but with Mira he found he was honestly looking forward to learning a bit about her. What a strange feeling.

“Well not really,” Mira said, looking at the ground. “My parents send me to London to study law, their precious daughter was too fine for the universities Budapest provided at the time. Both of them studied medicine in Germany, so they were pretty snubbed that way.” She kicked a stone, sending it into the dark depths of the forest. “They didn’t care that I had no interest in law, nor that I didn’t really fit in with all those spoiled private school brats. My parents sent me over there thinking they knew what was best for me. What I really wanted didn’t matter to them.”

Dave nodded. He knew all about parents disregarding their child’s wishes. “Yeah, I know how it feels to be pressured into something by your parents.”

“Still, I wish I could see them right now. No matter how much I cursed them at times…” Mira’s voice trailed off weakly.

Dave fell into uncomfortable silence, unsure what to say. After a few moments, he tried picking up the conversation with a safe topic again. “What was it that you really wanted to do?” He asked tentatively.

“Gardening,” she said, looking up at him with a faint smile on her lips. “As a kid I always loved playing in our garden. I loved the smell of dirt, the feeling of moving things with you hands and seeing life get born through your work.” Her faint smile turned into a broad grin. “Our gardener, Mirco, always said I was harder to keep away from our flowers than the weeds.”

“Well, looks like you’ve found your meaning.” Dave said with a warm feeling in his stomach from hearing her story.

“Haha yes! Not in the way I expected it, but I take what I get.” Mira’s expression turned more serious as she looked directly at Dave. “Honestly though. I think this is the first time I’m truly happy in my life. As strange as it sounds, but with my parents and all, it’s the first time I feel like I can truly be myself. And have an impact with what I do. Is it bad that I think that way?”

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“Not at all,” Dave said. “It sort of feels like things finally clicked into place doesn’t it?” Seeing Mira nod, he continued. “For me it was like I was only a passenger in my life before, I felt as if life passed me by. Now I feel like I’m sitting in the pilot seat, like I can take directions myself. It’s sort of scary, but it feels good.”

Mira raised an eyebrow at Dave. “That’s surprisingly well put. And here I was thinking you were all beauty and muscles, but it seems you also have a brain.” She laughed.

Dave was grateful for the dark spot of the forest they currently walked through, as it hopefully hid his blushing.

“Well I have my moments,” he said awkwardly, hoping his voice stayed calm.

They fell into comfortable silence again, walking side by side through the moonlight. Dave had gotten so used to the beauty that the nature around them provided, that he found himself taking it for granted too much lately. That’s why he tried focusing on being more present during their walks, trying to enjoy what nature offered them.

Unsuccessfully so. It was hard with his thoughts getting distracted again and again, not just through his usual stress and worries about survival, but now also from thinking about Mira.

So far he had avoided thinking too much about her, not wanting to interpret too much into them spending time together. However he found it increasingly difficult, especially while feeling her so close by.

They had never talked about anything explicitly, nor had any situation ever arisen that felt like they were about to step out of the zone of friendship. There was no talk about feelings, no admitted feelings and no almost kisses. But even Dave could only be so blind.

The rest of the group had been teasing him about Mira for a while now, and it was doubtless the same for Mira. At first he wasn’t sure how he felt for her, and he still wasn’t.

Dave felt deep comfort when being with her, he felt like he could be himself and let go. Small talk felt easy with her, but so did opening up about his deepest fears. A few of the things he had told her had only ever made their way to a selected few ears. Mostly Max’s.

Not just that but he found himself being interested in her, caring for her in a way. The better he got to know her, the more beautiful she became to him.

Almost two weeks ago he had noticed the warm feeling in chest when seeing her smile for the first time. It had been there longer than that, but he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it..

Still even now he wasn’t sure. Wasn’t sure if she actually thought the same way about him. Wasn’t sure if it was the right time. They were in a goddamn apocalypse. What if Mira only wanted some company?

Dave knew he should speak up. Talk to her about it. But he was confused and unsure. He needed to talk it through with Max again, that would help. Surely. He could always talk to Mira next time, wait until she might send him a signal, so that he didn’t have to shoot his shot into the dark.

Soon they reached the point where they started their nightly walk together.

“Seems we’re at the end again,” Mira said looking at him.

Caught a bit off guard Dave clasped his hand to his neck. “Yeah seems so.”

Mira waited a bit but after Dave didn’t say anything she simply smiled at him.

“Well I’m tired, I’ll head back to the camp,” she said. “What about you?”

Judging by the moon, it was still a little earlier than Dave would usually go to bed, so there was only one thing for him to do. “I will train a bit,” he said.

He could almost hear Mira rolling her eyes before wishing him good night.

He had a lot of feelings to work through in this training session. So in the comfortable orange gloom of their forest at night, Dave made his way over to his training spot, hoping to catch Max somewhere on his way.