Crow walked carefully as he guided Penelope over to the tree, finding it much more difficult to stay balanced with her extra weight leaning against him. Despite the added difficulty, he was glad that she was using him for support instead of her former suitor now. He hadn’t thought much of Gavin’s offer to help her until he’d caught that strange look in the man’s eye. Now, a protective instinct inside of him didn’t want the knight to come anywhere near her.

Fortunately, he managed to make it to the tree without falling and let go of Penelope when she was close enough to use the tree for support instead. He waited for her to sit down first and then followed her lead, dropping haphazardly to the ground by her side. Once he had settled down, he rested his back against the trunk and let himself lean sideways so that his shoulder was pressed against the knight’s. Finding the position to be quite comfortable, he let out a content sigh and closed his eyes, resting his head on hers as they reclined beneath the tree. Now that they had stopped walking, his exhaustion was catching up with him even more, and it wasn’t long before he felt himself begin to drift off.

Before he could fall asleep, Penelope’s voice roused him from his half-conscious state. He blinked his eyes open and stretched out his legs, trying to wake up a little more so he could pay attention to what she was saying. As he listened to her tell him that she enjoyed the night, he nodded in agreement. He had also found their time in the tavern to be fun. Even though he hadn’t intended to let himself get drunk, he supposed it was alright since he’d had her by his side the whole time.

As she went on to talk about how she was glad that Gavin had stayed sober, Crow frowned slightly, reminded of his annoyance with the knight. “I s’pose so,” he shrugged noncommittally, averting his gaze to glance at the other man, who had set up a pot over the firepit to cook. While he was still frustrated with Gavin, he was pleased to see that the knight seemed to have given up on getting close to Penelope for now. Deciding to forget about the incident for now, he turned back to her with a mischievous smirk, quickly distracted yet again by his attraction to her.

In the next moment, he leaned most of his weight into the knight’s side, forcing her to the ground so that he was laying partially on top of her in the grass. He propped himself up on one arm and used his free hand to explore her waistline as he kissed her passionately, savoring the feeling of their lips moving against each other. Just like before, he didn’t care who saw them at the moment. All of his attention was focused on his affection for her.