Arcain

Groaning inwardly at the decidedly icy reaction his appearance had gotten out of Markus, Marius nevertheless put on a smirk and waved at his new-found and entirely reluctant companion. Not that he’d been expecting a warm welcome or anything, not where Markus was concerned, but–still. So far even the screaming faces made for better company than the kid.

Briefly he debated just turning back around and leaving the kid to be unhappy on his own, but then again – with Denian lost in here, Marius couldn’t well justify leaving behind his only chance of finding his grandkid. So. Unhappy Arcain kid it was, because no way in all the world was he going to leave Denian stranded in here. If the builder of the house had been insane enough to decorate the walls like this, there was no telling what might await them further inside the house, after all.

Mirroring the kid’s pose, Marius cocked his head and said, “Well then. Don’t think I’m not passing silent judgement here, love, because I most definitely am – but this really ain’t the greatest place to get lost in, y’know?” He pointed at the faces lining the walls, which were still refusing to shut up. Case in point. “Where exactly did you lose him, kid?”

“Trust me Marius. I’m aware.” Markus quipped with a long suffering sigh trying not to look at where the Captain was pointing. The faces had been talking non stop since both he and Denian got in here and it was making him so overwhelmed. Not to mention seeing Marius on top of everything else only made him that more irritable. And you know while he usually could stomach it all enough to be cordial the events of of today just had him on edge. 

He made his way to where the shouting was coming from, making a point on the way there to sneer at the faces lining the walls whispering things Marius didn’t care to pay too much attention to. Real gaudy decoration, there; he wasn’t quite sure what exactly but clearly the Demon General who’d built the twindamned house had been compensating for something. Or the guy’d simply had real lousy taste, but then again: there was a line between that and malicious intent, and it’d been crossed about twenty faces in.

As he stepped into the room, Marius was only slightly surprised to see the Arcain kid. He waved at Markus in greeting and laughed, finally figuring out just what the kid had been yelling. “Off by about two generations, love, but–you’re almost right. You and my grandkid get lost in here, did you?” Because of course, of all the places for the two of them to end up it’d have to be the overly homely ghost house – not that Marius had any idea how to get out of there, either, but at least he hadn’t actively lost anyone in the house.

Turning at the sound of footsteps coming into the room Markus’ hopeful smile fell and fell hard upon the sight of the man striding into the man before him. It had been practically forever since Markus had seen Marius, an eternity since he sat across from him begging for a miracle that would never come and even longer since he’d felt the sting of the other mans knuckles against his cheek. 

But even then with the rush of emotions flooding over the young boy Markus was to tired to muster up any sort of real resentment towards him at this point in time, all his energy going into trying to recover the right Thesus. Because it was his fault Denian had strayed and gotten lost and he was sure of it. Although he’d die in here before he’d let Marius figure that one out. 

“I will bring you glory. I vow it”.

“You don’t know fuck all about me, little lordling,” he said quietly, and the smile that graced his features now hadn’t even a trace of camaraderie. “Don’t think you quite ‘get’ the feeling of having your fucking arm burned off, and your whole usefulness as a Being with it.” He pushed himself to his feet, staring icily down at the younger man. “Best keep your sage tough love speech for the next time you or one of Garkouw’s other preschoolers need to be told the way the world is. Come back when you’ve actually lost something.” He turned with a hoarse laugh and wandered out into the night, hoping darkly that Markus would follow and take a swing at him just so he’d have an excuse to hurt someone else.

Listening to the other Markus could tell the other boy had not absorbed a single word he said, and he wondered if that was by choice, or if by some stupid reason Juvion was really unable to see how this behavior was going to drive everyone away. How it was already warping him into a bitter despicable mancer, who thought his only worth was in one fucking arm. But then again you can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved, and Markus knew that feeling all too well sometimes. 

So Markus let him go without another word. Just let him walk out of the bar of his own accord taking his cold darkness with him. And while it didn’t feel good, part of him knew it was all going to be ok in the end. Or at least he hope it would. “You tried your best love” She the waitress murmured soothingly as she came round the bar a pint of ale placed into his empty hand. “Yea well apparently that wasn’t good enough” he sighed into his new drink, the taste of ale washing the bitterness from his tongue. 

Juvion sighed deeply. He pulled his thoughts together slightly before answering. “Not a fight with her, so much as… I just don’t know what I’m going to do with my life any more. Yeah, I can learn to fight with my other hand, and with my Magic I might not die right away.” He looked over at Markus. “I thought I’d have… decades at least, maybe a century or two, before something like this happened. I used to focus on getting better, and now I’m only thinking ‘how can I get by at all’.”

He glumly checked around for the barkeeper. “You’re not going to let me drink more, are you?” he asked flatly, then stood on shaky legs. “I shouldn’t drink more, anyway, I know that,” he mumbled.

Looking at the Magician Markus took a deep breath, knowing there was a lot more going on here than was going to be fixed in a night. But that didn’t mean he shouldn’t at least try to help, even if Juvion threw it back in his face.

 “I can see why she’d be mad at you.” He said quietly absentmindedly picking at the label on a beer bottle. “I mean hell I’m sitting here right now fighting the urge to fucking roll my eyes at this pity party you’ve been throwing yourself” He paused trying to figure out how to phrase the rest of his statement “But the thing about it it I know how it feels like wondering how you’re going to get by. Maybe not with a useless hand, but with other things. And i know it fucking hard, especially when you have others telling you to man up, or get over it.” He shook his head thinking of some of the similar situations he’d been in the previous year. And sure he hadn’t had to figure out how to live with a new handicap, but some days, without Borus, yea it had felt like he was going to have to. 

“Well it still does look like you!” Dany tried to insist. “I mean you have the same eyes, cheek bones….lips…” Dany trailed off for a second staring at Markus. He blushed again.”and well the real life version is much hotter than the paper version.” He gave the other a cheeky grin. “Though I could do another though you’re going to have to visit me again to get it.” Dany gave Markus a quick wink.

Dany held up his hands.”Oh no you don’t have to give me anything!” He insisted, Markus had already saved his life. Although there was one thing that Dany wanted. “Though if you did want to give me something…a goodbye kiss would..”

“You do?” Markus questioned quietly glancing toward the other man. It was safe to say they were both being bumbling idiots about everything right now, but Markus couldn’t help it. He’d screwed people thats for sure, but he’d never really been in this sort of romantic situation before, or at least he’d never been in one that wasn’t one sided. 

Though by the way Dany kept flattering him this new situation was obviously not one sided. No he got the feeling that they were both skirting around the subject like school girls with a crush, neither of them really knowing what to say or do to advance the situation. Well, that is until...

Dany nodded when Markus broke the news that he wouldn’t be able to come up and visit him. “Oh I have something for you.” Dany said getting up and going in to the living room to grab his small sketch book. He strode back in to the bed room and flicked through a few of the pages. He finally found the one he wanted, a drawing of Markus that Dany had done when they’d first met on the beach. He tore it out and handed it to Markus. “I’ll have to draw an updated version anyway because you know you cut your hair. It looks good on you by the way. Very good.”

“Its not that i’m not used to seeing peoples legs. It just” Makrus bit his lip. Yea seeing Borus’ legs (though if he was being honest he wished he could burn that memory out of his mind) was very very different than seeing the person you happen to have a very large crush on’s legs. 

Looking at Dany though, it hurt Markus to see him so still as he broke the news that he might no be able to see him again, with no discernible expression on his face. Because tis wasn’t that he didn’t want to after all. And he almost told him that but he kept his mouth shut, allowing the other to walk out of the room. 

Dany quickly got up and pulled out a pair of pants from his dresser and began to pull them on. “Oh shit I’m so sorry I mean I don’t really get guests and then you just showed up. I’m so sorry I forgot.” Dany felt himself flushing red in the cheeks. He sat back down when he’d pulled them back on. 

“Okay no tea! So uh when do you come back?” Dany asked curiously. “I don’t know if you’re even allowed but when you get back can you visit again sometime. Like I said it’s kinda lonely up here but I don’t want you to get in to trouble so like you know you don’t have to if you can’t.” Dany cursed mentally for being so awkward.

“Ok, umm sure” Markus replied figuring agreeing to a dinner that both of them knew they were probably never going to have was harmless as any. Even though it made him feel like a blushing besotted school girl finally being noticed by her crush. 

Trying not to look at the other’s nice, stong, muscular thighs though Markus turned away biting at his lip. Fuck he was in so deep. “Its fine.” He stated trying to bush it off, when clearly to his brain IT WAS SO NOT FINE. “I mean I have brothers so I know how it is when no one else is around. It’s just um distracting sometimes.” He said quietly if only to fill that awkward, ‘Im trying really hard to give you privacy without being a total prude’ kinda silence. 

“Nah it’s just the other mancers they kind of look like they want to kill me but fair enough I am a knight after all.” Dany dropped the subject deciding that it wasn’t a story that could be told in the short amount of time that Markus was going to be here. Dany moved his legs up and sat cross legged for a little bit or warmth. “Do you want tea or something? I Mean i dunno if you have time for tea but I could put a pot on.”  

“Trust me, getting court marshaled would be the least of the problems i’ve faced this year” Markus replied with a long sigh and a shake of his head. “But its cool, you don’t have to do anything other than you know keep on keeping on and such” He said blushing slightly at the other man. It was cheesy. So cheesy and the worst part about it was he knew it was cheesy, and he’d still said it. God he was hopeless. But then again what can you do when the man you might possibly love is just sitting in front of you in his underwear spouting thinks like ‘thank you isn’t enough’.

“Hey…uh…about….I just wanna….I mean…thank you.” Dany finally spat out. “I mean I dunno why you’d try and save me but my mam will probably want to adopt you.” Dany smiled thinking about his mother but getting a pang of sadness knowing that he wouldn’t be seeing her for a long time. He hadn’t gotten a chance to send a letter to his mother yet but he’d hoped they’d let him send on to her.

“Listen you shouldn’t like waste your time here you should pack or something.” Dany said sitting down on his bed. “It’s nice that you’re here though. It’s kind of lonely up here you know. Not as lonely as it is back with the knights but its still pretty lonely.” He said with a nod. Dany gave Markus a grin. “Nice that you don’t have that i would so murder you if I was allowed look in my eyes like everyone else has.”

Still just kinda standing there Markus immediately blushed when Dany went about thanking him, hand going tangle itself in towards locks of hair that didn’t exist anymore.  “Um its no problem. I didn’t want-” He paused not really knowing what to say. “The man that healed you-” He started again before finally just deciding on “I come from a medical family” with a shrug as he looked down at his shoes. As if saving Dany had just been that simple.

Dany went to investigate, setting his tea down on the coffee table. When he pushed open the door Markus was the last person he expected to see. He was actually expecting a squirrel or his cousin Chris who was quite skilled in the arts of climbing, breaking and entering and having no regard for authority be it Knight or Mancer. He looked to the window and then to Markus, then to Markus’ hair, then back to the window.

“Did you just? Up the side of the building? By yourself? I’m very touched no ones done that for me in like ten years.” Dany said hand on his chest looking genuinely touched and flattered. “Hey Aren’t you supposed to be you know going on some kind of thing?”

Standing there Markus didn’t realize how awkward this would be. Just kind a showing up, scaling the side of a building and braking into the house of a dude he met once who got imprisoned in an enemy city because Markus was too selfish to let him die. Oh and there was the fact that he kinda liked him. So there was that too.