Julia's Blunt and Forward Request

Reynold was up bright and early the next day, his body demanding to do something other than rest or start slowly. The young legionnaire headed to the sparring and training area and set up a wooden training dummy for himself and began to perform weaponless attacks on it, kicks and punches as the sun began to rise slowly and the legionnaires in training began emerging.

He spun and slammed his foot into the body of a reinforced dummy. The sound of wood cracking loudly made people turn to look at him as Reynold slammed his bare fist into the body of the sparring dummy and it cracked around his fist. Each rage driven fist created cracks and sent splinters into the air and onto the ground, "AHHH!" He spun and his fist decapitated the wooden figure as the rest collapsed into a heap from the abnormal, unarmed punishment it had just received. Reynold panted as sweat dripped from his forehead and he was called to attention by a familiar voice, "Legionnaire, attention!" He did as he was told, his fists bleeding and his body in pain. The recruits were lined up as Reynold waited at attention the entire time. He heard boots walking into place, why were they rounding up all the recruits? The eyepatch wearing legionnaire saluted the well dressed man who stood in front of him. It was the recruitment officer, "Stand down, legionnaire, face the rookies."

"Sir, yes, sir."

"Good morning, legionnaires to be," He began as they all stood in neat rows and in perfect attention, "The man you see in front of you, is a special legionnaire to the legion, legionnaire Iver," Reynold turned his head slightly and spotted Julia standing near the training area, he didn't understand what was going on, "You should seek to emulate such a brave young man, he even makes the dead fear him!" The older man declared as the rookies stood at attention, "And in front of you, today, you have a Hero of the Dawn Legion," Now he understood what was happening, "The pride of our legion and the pride of the lands touched by light," He looked slightly confused before turning to the recruitment officer and shaking his hand, "The Dawn Lady would like you to have this, a token of our appreciation for your sacrifices for our cause," He took the military medal and nodded.

"Thank you."

"No, we thank you," The rookies all applauded him as he looked at them nearly lost in his own mind. It was a big thing that he had completely forgotten about, Ilbert had even told him that it was a possibility but it had totally missed his memory. The rookies all moved towards him and began speaking together about how he inspired them to join, and how the story of the "man who death feared" was something that motivated them to train harder. Reynold took a step back, overwhelmed and shook hands as they returned to their training tasks that the instructors announced in their usual shouting tone. Legionnaire Iver had never heard of his own stories and they had grown to immense sizes if rookies had heard of them already, these were fresh rookies albeit, but it still stunned him of how fast things could spread by word of mouth.

After the crowd disbanded, he stood alone, looking at the training recruits as the recruitment officer walked away and Julia approached him, "So, Mr. Hero of the Dawn Legion, how are you feeling?"

"Confused, I feel like it was nearly random."

"We don't have the need to have grandiose ceremonies for medals, at the end of this war against darkness, that will be something you can cherish as a real show of valor."

"As if my eye wasn't enough, Lady Holi," He replied as she rolled her eyes and took his hand. Reynold looked down at his hand being held by hers before looking up at hers, "What?"

"Want to be my hero right now?" She asked with a devious, scheming look in her eyes. Reynold didn't know what she meant and nodded with visible hesitation as she then nearly dragged him by the hand towards an unknown destination.

"I can't do this."

"Huh?" She looked confused as she sat on her bed and expected him to be carried away by the moment. The legionnaire stood in front of her and looked nearly bothered, "Too fast?"

"I have never done it."

"I don't mind if you haven't, I haven't either."

"I don't want to go too fast."

"This is a very nice stepping stone."

"I doubt the Dawn Lady will want to hear about this happening," Everything he said, she had a smart response that made his concern seem reasonless or not sound like a real concern.

"She doesn't need to know."

"She will know."

"Who says so?" He pointed at himself as he stood awkwardly in front of her in her room, "I have invited you into my room, I thought you had something for me."

"You have something for me?" She nodded and his heart seemed to somehow beat faster, "This, this is a bit much, Julia," He inched towards the door, "I am very sorry, it is overwhelming."

"It's fine."

"I have something for you, too, but I don't think I can make this big of a step," He replied, trying to avoid her thinking she wasn't important to him, "Do you understand what I mean?"

"Yeah, yeah, I do," She crossed her arms and seemed upset. Reynold moved to sit on the bed next to her, not too close but a bit close. He didn't have any wise words to say, he wasn't knowledgeable in how to deal with emotions or how to talk to women. The young man was a soldier, not a sweet talker or a lady killer.

"I am sorry."

"Don't be, I rushed ahead, I thought you liked me more," He turned to look at her and took a deep breath.

"I don't know how much I like you, Julia, I don't know that yet," She nodded and looked down, "But I do like you, give it time and I might be your hero another day."

"Oh boy, that was a stupid thing to say," She rolled her eyes and giggled, "That sounds so bad as a pick up line."

"I can't say it was the best, I had no clue what you meant, I thought you needed to be actually saved from something."

"Well."

"Oh, yeah, that saved, okay, I wasn't thinking that," Reynold laughed awkwardly, "Well, should we leave it at that for now?" Julia nodded and the young man stood up, bowed his head and then headed to the door.

"Have a good day," Reynold stopped and turned towards her and smiled.

"You too, as much as I may have ruined it," She smiled back and he left.

"Idiot, Julia, idiot, idiot, you idiot," She facepalmed softly and shook her head, "Stupid decisions lead to bad outcomes."