(Beginning of Part 3)
Dru mentions the time soon thereafter and they stand to depart. As he did a few nights before, he offers to keep her company on her walk home. He never saw her home, and he doesn't expect to, but somehow being around someone, speaking with them consistently and in a way that makes him feel new things seemed more enticing to his slowly more and more active mind than working the fields.
At some point Stitches motions a loosely held point to the cloak he handed her, "Oh, you can keep that, by the way. It folds nicely so it's good for travel. besides then if you even go somewhere far off, you've something to remember me by."
Dru crosses her arms and raises a skeptic eyebrow. "You think I'd need a cloak to remember you, huh?" She shakes her head, "There are many good reasons why someone would remember you if you were not with them."
He may not be the best at taking or even picking up on compliments, but this one he understands, "Thank you, but I could say the same for you."
She herself hums thoughtfully. "I know many remember me after I am no longer there. However, mine is mostly due only to a pretty face. They do not care enough to know more than that."
He tilts his head and chuckles sheepishly as they tread the stone pathways, holding his hands mostly folded together behind his back in an attempt to keep himself from slouching. He glances to her sidelong as he remarks on this, "Well that's one of them...but only just one."
Curiously, she glances at him, "Oh?"
He nods, speaking very casually of this as though he had prepared for it and thought not of it, his face neutral, "Yes. Like the way I enjoy your face. Truthfully, I like your face in it's pieces, like your nose. I think it's charming and has it's own...grace in it's structure. As does most of your face." He realizes what he's doing and stops himself before he becomes too embarrassed, "I uh, I could go on but..." He turns his eyes to the sky to move on with a tone a tad more in depth, "As for the other reasons, well...I feel for one like...you're like me. In a way, a different way, you're damaged, and hurt.. and maybe you're looking for someone to turn to too."
Her face had gone red at his first few phrases, "I appreciate your kind words." However, she listens to his second sentence thoughtfully, saying nothing in response. She merely ponders his words with a thoughtful frown.
He looks to her and shares her expression with am attempt at a soothing batch of words, "Hey...er, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to assume.." He stands up straight after she reassures him, and comments further, "I suppose I could be wrong. But in a way, I hope I'm not. At least on the last bit."
"The last bit?" She asks with a thoughtful frown, "Searching for someone to turn to? Why?"
"Well, because..." His cheeks turn redder, already pink from the air. He hopes he doesn't sound too childish or naive when he speaks this, "I'd like to be that person for you...a good friend you can turn to for anything."
Dru thanked him for this, and afterwards they spent the vast majority of the remainder of the walk back in silence. They banter a bit about sleep, and Stitches' inability to do so. There is a slight, generally understood and serious agreement that they would both take the day off that morning so that they could make up for the lack of rest. Quickly this all comes to a halt.
Dru stops at the edge of the Chetwood, as before. She turns and faces him. "Well, this is where I disappear into the night. Or dawn if you prefer."
Stitches nods, his gaze had been at his feet for a while then. Yet he finally looks up when they stop, holding his hands together in front of him, proper like as he tilts his head up to keep his face in full view of her, "Well, it was fun. Sleep well and I'll see you tomorrow, eh?" He asks with his lips curving into a bright and happy smile, it nearly dwarfs his tattoo in personality, seeming not only at peace, but energetic with a total lack of sleep or health in his profession and lifestyle. Nothing can get him down in this moment of farewell, not even the farewell itself.
Dru takes a moment to pause before approaching him and standing on her toes to kiss his cheek suddenly. Just over his scar and tattoo. She pauses a moment before settling back down on her feet. "Yeah, thank you for walking me home, and for being my friend." She turns to walk away quickly and disappear.
Stitches watches her walk away with a tilted head and a confused face, his fingers reach gently up to touch the scar on his face, a wound self inflicted out of hatred for himself years ago. It felt so silly now to him that he had done that, when someone else might enjoy his company so. Ciruthdyl had done so before as well, kissed his cheek that is, but this felt strangely different somehow. Like perhaps it meant something this time, not just a hollow gesture to show appreciation to any old Todd or Sam that may help. He is Dru's friend, and that's what makes it special, like he belongs anywhere, even if it's only in someone's social circle. Stitches lifts his chin and smiles, albeit with a pinkish face. He pivots on his heel to walk away. As he passes by his hill once again on his way back to the farm, his eyes glance up to the lady in the stars, or where she normally is. The dawn light veils the stars but he can still see her face there. It's strange, she has changed, and remained the same all at once.
Within a few days after these peaceful days follows the change in setting, Stitches separation from his best friend, and his return to Bree from the River.
