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A part of Harvey could tell that Munny felt guilty, and he had to remind her (more than once) that it had been his decision to wander onto her property in the middle of the night to check on her. The fact that a couple of slimes had caught him off-guard was his fault, and to be honest, Harvey still felt embarrassed about how the entire thing had played out—how Munny had rushed to his aid with her rusty sword in hand after he’d tripped over his own feet and gotten swarmed.
It was far from one of his finest moments…
Even now, Harvey still felt rather embarrassed when he allowed himself to dwell on the thought. So, he focused on Munny instead, eyed her from his place at the dining table as she flitted across the kitchen to dump a plethora of ingredients into the boiling pot of “stew.”
“Munny,” Harvey called out. “Are you sure you don’t need any help—”
“No working, remember? You’re supposed to rest!” Munny hollered from the kitchen, before he was immediately met with a pointed look that clearly said ‘no ifs or buts.’ Harvey swallowed down his words with a nervous gulp, rubbed at his cheek as she continued to move like a blur.
Munny had invited him to stay at the farmhouse until he recovered, and while the last thing Harvey wanted was to impose, her insistence chipped away at his hesitance. That was the reason why he was sitting at her dining table at 11 in the morning in a green shirt and sweatpants.
Even after Munny returned her full attention to the stew, it felt like he was being watched…
Harvey wondered if this was some sort of ominous sign from Yoba.
“Um, so…” He tried to make idle chitchat again. “Is this a new recipe?”
“You betcha!” And Harvey could tell she was wearing that proud little grin on her face, even though she had her back to him. “I saw this new Queen of Sauce recipe for curry the other day and—”
“Potholders!” Harvey interrupted.
“Oh! Right!” Munny had nearly grabbed onto the sides of the boiling pot, but thanks to Harvey’s reminder, at least put on some oven mitts before she grabbed onto the edges of the pot and returned to the dining room with her mysterious stew. It smelled appetizing enough, but was still bubbling like some sort of potion within a witch’s cauldron as Munny set it down on the table.
“Since you’re hurt and need to be resting, I wanted to make you lunch,” she explained. However, the sweetness quickly dissipated when she pointed her wooden spoon at him in a vaguely threatening manner, narrowed her eyes as she scolded him. “And I mean it Harvey, you should be resting.”
Oh, how the tables had turned.
“I know, I know.” The doctor raised his uninjured hand to his chest in a placating gesture. “I won’t be opening the clinic today. I promise.”
“Good.”
And if Harvey were being honest, he couldn’t help but find her insistence oddly adorable. Really, Munny herself was a bit of an enigma. Harvey was never sure what to make of her. They were friends, but there was something else simmering beneath the surface too—something the doctor wanted to explore. But he wasn’t too keen on overstepping his bounds either. Especially if she was simply being nice. Munny was a little strange, but she seemed the type to be nice to everyone.
“I promised to stay here and rest,” he reassured. “But I do want something from you too, Munny.”
“Oh?” She tilted her head to the side, stared at him like a perplexed puppy.
“I want you to promise me you’ll be more careful as well.” Harvey looked surprisingly serious for a moment, but it didn’t take long for his look to soften. “With the clinic closed, there won’t be anyone available to tend to you in case you get hurt—”
“Oh!” Munny looked at him with those wide eyes of hers, like she had just realized the point he was trying to make. She looked away, momentarily guilty because she knew she’d worried her friend more than once. “Okay, yeah, you have a good point. I’ll be more careful, I promise. But you have to eat your food and take it easy until you get better!”
“Deal.”
“Um, so are you going to try the curry?”
Harvey honestly didn’t feel very hungry, but with Munny staring at him so intently, it would have been rude not to oblige. Slowly, he filled his bowl to the brim with the red stew, smiling just a little awkwardly as Munny just continued to stare at him so intensely.
Harvey took one bite out of the stew and immediately—
Salty. It was so salty.
He chewed once, twice, before—after failing to find any redeeming qualities in the dish—he swallowed down the mouthful of ‘ocean water’ and gave Munny a strained smile.
“It’s, uh,” Harvey stammered. “It’s very… unique.”
“I thought so too! It’s my first time seeing a recipe like this on Queen of Sauce. Um, I realized I had some leftovers and wanted to put them to use. I’m so glad you like it.”
Like was an overstatement. A part of Harvey wanted to be honest and let Munny know the dish wasn’t very good, that it had been salted like the ocean (in a polite manner of course), but when she was smiling like that—as bright as the midday sun—it did something to him, and Harvey couldn’t find it in himself to say anything negative about her curry.
So, he smiled back. This time it was softer, the corners of his eyes crinkling in amusement.
“Have a good day today, Munny. I’ll make something for dinner so I’m not a bur—”
“Nuh-uh, the only thing you're making for dinner is room in your tummy!"
Harvey wanted to laugh, but the ‘evil eye’ she gave him as she slowly backed away toward the front door silenced him in a heartbeat. Only after the door clicked shut did Harvey allow himself to chuckle. His arm had hurt terribly, but Munny did a stellar job of keeping his mind of it.
Harvey looked like he was going to pass out at any moment: clammy skin, shaky hands, and even a faraway look in his eyes that Munny didn’t like. The doctor was gripping at his sweats, clenching the fabric between his fingers so tightly that both his knuckles had turned a ghostly white.
Munny could tell (without staring too hard) that he was trying his best to downplay his worry.
The power had gone out unexpectedly roughly an hour ago, and now, the two of them were sitting shoulder to shoulder on the living room couch as the sound of ominous shuffling filled the tiny wilderness cabin that Munny had come to call home.
It didn’t help that, even with the curtains drawn shut, they could see the shadowy figures shuffling around the porch. It was a shadow golem that had wandered onto the property, and Munny tried to explain that the cabin itself was protected by a seal—magic even Rasmodius approved of.
But that did little to stop Harvey from looking physically ill.
“You know,” Munny whispered encouragingly. “They can’t actually get to us—”
“I’m… I’m fine, Munny.”
But clearly, he looked like he was a stone’s throw away from running into the toilet to empty his stomach, and she wished there was something she could do to alleviate his fears.
“I suppose…” Harvey’s shoulders slumped forward as he took in a shaky breath. “It just feels like we’re being watched.” It was a feeling he’d been unable to shake off ever since he stepped foot onto Munny’s farm; it felt like there were a pair of beady little eyes following his every move.
“They are,” Munny didn’t even skip a beat. “But trust me, they kind of do this every night—”
“You deal with this every night?” Harvey was the epitome of horrified.
“Well, more like every other night.”
“That isn’t much better!” He jolted upright, stared at her with eyes as wide as saucers.
And realizing that she was worsening Harvey’s anxieties instead of helping him calm down like she wanted, Munny placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and offered him a little smile.
“I know what will help!” She sprung up out of her seat and momentarily disappeared into the kitchen to return with a radio. “You like jazz, right? I’ll put on some music.”
Harvey doubted that would work, but he instantly softened at the offer. He’d always appreciated Munny’s thoughtfulness. There was never a time where he didn’t. Even if initially, he’d found it a little strange whenever she’d poke her head into his office like a watchful racoon waiting to strike—she always seemed to tiptoe in bearing gifts: coffee, dandelions, little trinkets from the mines…
It was endearing; she was endearing.
“See!” Munny declared as the soft sounds of jazz filled the room. “Much better, right?”
No, not at all.
It didn’t take long to notice that, now, Harvey was shaking in his seat while jazz music filled the little cabin. The golem that had been shuffling out on the porch had heard the music too, and now, it was pressed up against the glass and trying its hardest to peer into the window.
“Harvey?” Munny reached for his hand. “Um, your hand is really cold. If it’s bothering you, I can always go outside and—”
“No!” It was the first time in the evening that the doctor had lost his cool. Instantly, he wrapped his fingers tightly around Munny’s smaller and warmer hand. “It’s not safe, I won’t let you go—”
“I do it every other night,” Munny interrupted.
And that was how Harvey ended up watching Munny dispatch a golem from the farm living room, all while the supposedly soothing sounds of jazz music filled the cabin.
Thwack.
Thwack.
It sounded like Munny was dealing with some very stubborn weeds, and Harvey eyed her shadow through the curtains as the sound of fighting continued before—
Silence.
Munny returned through the front door covered in leaves, twigs and grass tangled in her brown hair as she tried to offer Harvey a reassuring smile… as if he were the one who’d had to wander out and fight a strange creature in the dark.
Harvey couldn’t help but feel as if he were being a burden.
“See! All in a day’s work for adventurer, Munny!” She dropped her sword on the living room floor and placed both hands on her hips as if striking a pose.
Munny had a smile that could light up any room, and Harvey wished he were half as brave.
“You really are something, huh?” He whispered, like the thought had just dawned on him too.
Munny really was amazing.
Later that evening, Munny woke up to an ear-shattering scream.
It sounded like a banshee was being skewered alive, and a part of her almost thought it was a dream. She was about to close her bleary eyes once more, when it finally hit her, the supposed banshee sounded a lot like Harvey.
The realization made her spring into action without a second thought, and Munny tossed off her sheets (ducking down to grab her rusty sword from under her bed) before she padded down the hall in her PJs and made a beeline for the guest room where Harvey was staying.
“Munny! Munny, stay back!” Harvey was blind as a bat without his glasses, and he pawed frantically at the air as he yelled. He could barely see, but could make out enough to know that one of the creatures from outside had broken in, that a skeleton was pinning him down to the bed.
It was over, it was going to devour him—
And Munny could only stare at the ridiculous scene she’d walked into: Moscú in his skeleton mask, standing atop Harvey’s chest and leaning in to give the doctor a menacing glare.
“Moscú, come.”
Instead of doing as he was told, the feline leaned in close, let out a gravelly little hiss against Harvey’s cheek. He had been stalking the doctor for days, and had finally chosen a time to strike.
“Moscú!”
It was the final call from Munny that had the cat leaping off the bed, had him circling around his owner’s legs before he decided that Harvey wasn’t worth his time and sauntered out the door.
That was also when Harvey finally managed to slip on his glasses, just in time to notice the cat in the skeleton mask exiting his room. Shame burned hotly in his ribcage, and the doctor prayed to Yoba above that the darkness of the guest room would be enough to hide the fierce blush that was surely creeping up his neck and face.
“So, uh, that was Moscú,” Munny explained. “He’s a bit of an asshole.”
“I didn’t even know you had a cat…”
Munny could tell that Harvey was trying to hide how much the whole thing had affected him. The doctor looked a little… worse for wear, the same look he’d worn earlier when she’d put on jazz music to try and distract him. But even now, Harvey sporting his crooked glasses as he tried to act a little brave, Munny couldn’t help but think about how adorably handsome—
Ahhhh! Now wasn’t the time for that.
The bed dipped under their shared weight as Munny sat down beside him, as she gently (and hesitantly) reached for his cold and clammy hand so she could hold it in hers.
Harvey could have sworn he felt his face burning just a little hotter, but he’d be lying if he denied finding comfort in the way their fingers intertwined, in the way they simply shared the silence.
“Uhm, I’ve been curious for a while now,” Munny mumbled. “What made you move to the valley?”
People rarely gave her credit for being the most observant person in a room, but she’d noticed how Harvey practically resembled a coiled spring, and was trying to distract him from his worries. Did she know where the conversation was heading? Not really. She just wanted to help.
“Oh.” Harvey paused for a moment, and clearly her idea was working. He took some time to think, to wrack his brain for some kind of answer. “Well, you see, some of my colleagues mentioned there was a shortage of medical practitioners in the area, and everyone deserves access to readily available medical care. The city doesn’t really need more doctors, but places like the valley…” Harvey spoke so softly, but there was clear conviction in every word. “They’re in dire need of more doctors, and I suppose, I just wanted to be of use and help.”
Cute. He was too cute.
Munny simply stared at him through the darkness, realizing that Harvey was most handsome when he talked freely about the things he was passionate about: coffee beans and their distinct flavors, radio frequencies and aviation, his profession. She could listen to him talk all evening.
“Munny? Do I… do I have something on my face—”
Realizing she’d been staring for far too long, Munny leapt to her feet (and it was her turn to look a little panicked, to feel heat rising up her cheeks). “Tea! I’m going to go make us some tea!”
“Let me help you—”
“It’s fine, it’s fine! Just stay there and rest.”
Munny knew from day one that she was doomed to fall for him, and even as she made a beeline for the kitchen, she couldn’t get Harvey’s smiling face out of her head.
She was doomed, completely and utterly doomed.
The following day, the two of them sat awkwardly across from each other at the dining table: Harvey because he was utterly embarrassed by how everything the night before had played out, Munny because she felt self-conscious about her budding feelings for the handsome doctor.
Harvey knew none of that though, and if anything, thought she was being weird (she was always a little endearingly weird though) because of how he had acted.
“Munny,” Harvey tried gently, eyes never leaving her as she got up to boil a kettle of coffee. “Um, do you maybe want us to talk about what happened last night—”
“What’s there to talk about?” She said it so plainly, but Harvey could tell she was trying to avoid eye contact, was focusing extra hard on heating up the kettle when she didn’t have to.
“I wanted to apologize.” Harvey continued. After all, she’d let him into her home like a good friend, and here he was, being a constant burden. “Last night when we were talking—”
“No, no,” Munny interrupted quickly. “There’s nothing to talk about. Why would we need to talk about that?” She squeaked out the last part, and Harvey honestly wasn’t sure if they were talking about the same thing anymore.
“Um? Okay…”
Awkward silence.
“At least let me make dinner for you tonight,” Harvey tried again, finally locking eyes with Munny as she returned to the table with the kettle of coffee. “My arm is feeling a lot better. I can at least manage that. Really, it’s the least I can do after all the hospitality you’ve shown me—”
“Okay.” Munny still looked a little tense, but it was certainly better than the two of them sitting in strange silence together all morning. Then again, neither of them were new to a little awkwardness between them… a particular appointment where Munny had rattled on about how she and her first boyfriend ‘hadn’t done anything yet’ immediately came to mind.
“But no overworking yourself! Got it?”
“I understand,” Harvey chuckled. “What would you like to eat for dinner?”
“Oh! Something like spaghetti might be nice.”
“Then I’ll see you tonight.” Harvey smiled. “We’ll have spaghetti and watch a movie.”
“Yeah!”
“You have a good day today, Munny.”
And seeing her smile again made Harvey smile too. If he were being honest, even though he was starting to miss work, he wasn’t really looking forward to when his hand healed and he had to leave. As embarrassing as yesterday had been, he felt better when he was with her.