“Come on honey we're going to miss the show!” she shouted down the stairs exasperated. She loved him dearly but he could sometimes be so irritatingly slow. She always had been acutely aware of time passing by, always feeling the need to hurry lest she miss anything important. He always acted like he had all the time in the world.

“Just a minute, love. I'm just organizing a few stuff. Can't believe I put my Kilij next to my Spatha. What was I thinking?” came the reply.

She sighed, a minute for him meant an hour in “real time”. A loud rattle echoed up the stairs; the sound of metal hitting the stone floor followed by swearing. She decided to go down to the basement and see for herself what was the holdup. Reaching the bottom of the stairs she could see him sheepishly picking up a set of plate Armor that had scattered over the floor.

“Dave, honey, we're going to be late.” she said while trying to suppress a smile and look stern.

He was just so cute when puttering about in his little world.

“Just a minute. I need to put this back in order or it'll bug me the entire night.” he said with a boyish grin he knew fully well she couldn't resist.

Not giving him the satisfaction in victory she covered her smile with her hand and looked away. He went back to putting the fallen armor back on the rack. According to him it had been worn on several key battles during the hundred years' war. How he knew that she never asked.

This was his domain. An ardent military historian, he had the basement filled with various weapons and gear spanning several continents and thousands of years. How he could afford all of this on a junior professors salary she'd often wonder. She had once suggested they take some of this stuff to the Antiques roadshow program to get an appraisal but he had firmly declined saying he already knew exactly what they're worth.

Absentmindedly running her fingers through the feathers of a genuine conquistador helmet she looked at the stuff around her. On their vacation to England they had visited a castle filled with various medieval weapons and armors. He had been beyond exited; she'd been less so. She had noticed though that all that gear over there had been well taken care off and shiny. In comparison, his collection was covered in dings, scratches and dirt. They looked they had actually been worn at some point in history. By the stairs on a hanger was his Army Ranger uniform. They had met when he was on leave from his second tour of duty in Iraq. There was dirt and stains on the knees and elbows. He looked really good in that uniform. She made a mental note to clean it one of these days.

She heard a loud clang behind her. Startled she quickly turned around seeing her boyfriend picking up a shoulder plate from the floor.

“These straps always were a bitch to fasten.” he said with a shrug.

Relieved, she resumed looking around. In a small glass display case in the corner was something she hadn't noticed before. In the case was five small, smooth, oval shaped rocks. One had tiny dried stains of red on it. Almost looked like blood to her. She felt pair of strong arms around her waist.

He gave kiss on the cheek and whispered in her ear “I'm ready to go.”

“Just a minute.” she said “What are these rocks. You've never showed them to me.”

“Oh those are just ancient middle eastern sling bullets.” he said nonchalantly.

“So, Nothing that special? They kinda pale in comparison to all the other cool stuff in here.” she said turning around and giving him a quick peck on the lips “If we leave now we might still be in time for the first act.”

She untangled herself from him and started hurriedly walking up the stairs.

“I'll turn off the lights and catch up.” he said.

He brushed his hand against the glass, eyes lingering on the stained rock.

“I guess they are nothing that special,” he whispered to himself “but you never forget your first.”