“It’s really not that fucking bad.”

   What followed Aetos’s insistence that his injury wasn’t “that fucking bad” was a series of curses, drawn together to sound like some sort of ancient language as Vivian dropped his hand from where the now blood-soaked cloth had been staunching the open wound. Perhaps it wasn’t wise to try and brush his companion off now, when he was trying to potentially save his life. Situated on a chair in their inn room, Aetos leaned back and closed his eyes, doing his best to shrug of and ignore the pain in his lower abdomen. 

“I can’t believe you asked her to do this.”

   Had Aetos not been in so much pain, he might have recognized the genuine hurt in Vivian’s voice as he began helping to patch him up. Adriana had been gone for a while, so old fashioned medicine was the only real way to take care of the newfound injury Aetos had incurred during an otherwise uneventful day. 

   “Hey, I needed a new scar to replace the one I lost,” he said, sounding only a little drowsy from the blood loss. Aetos swallowed thickly, wincing as Vivian had begun to clean up the, thankfully, pretty clean stab wound from their resident new rogue friend. He grimaced, glancing down for a moment as he met Vivian’s angry gaze.

   “What?”

“’What’?” Vivian’s tone was dangerously low, as he snapped back, repeating Aetos’s words. 

         He didn’t normally share his desserts.

  Perhaps there was something in the way that Vivian had sighed with a hint of disdain for the forty seventh time that afternoon, or maybe it was simply because Aetos was feeling like a genuinely nice guy (as he, in his mind, always was). Without much thought put into his actions (again, like most days), Aetos found himself striding over to the sorcerer and sat himself down next to him. In his hand, a small box not unlike the ones carrying goodies from the local bakery.

  A few days ago, they had stopped in this small city in order to rest and restock before hitting the road again. Aetos had been lucky enough to locate a bakery which carried sweet and savoury pastries, ones worthy of a connoisseur of desserts such as himself. It had been an exciting discovery and quite frankly, he found himself wondering often how many cakes he could fit in the carriage before they would have to lose a member. While the question weighed heavily on his mind, Aetos at least had enough common sense not to bring the question to Alden or ask Saza if she wouldn’t mind riding on the roof of the carriage itself to make room for all of the cakes he could fit on board.

  Now as stated, Aetos never really considered sharing his desserts. The man had quite the sweet tooth and honestly, no one ever really asked to try the copious amounts of sugary delights he took part in. And truthfully, he never questioned why. But after hearing Vivian sigh so loudly, over and over, Aetos could only draw one conclusion. His friend (boyfriend? labels were confusing) was depressed.

  “Hey,” he said in his usual passive, too cool voice. Aetos sat down beside Vivian, brushing close to him as he leaned a little closer, eyes gazing over the book he had situated in his lap. If Vivian looked up to meet his gaze, he would see liquid flames reflected in the fire genasi’s eyes as he processed the words written in the book. A small click of the tongue followed as Aetos settled down next to him with one last comment of, “ew. Homework.”

  It was no secret that a member of their traveling group had a particular fondness towards enriching and shaping young minds. Apparently, that also applied to the minds of his companions. While Aetos was a fan of his newfound friend’s commitment to his profession, he himself didn’t appreciate being forced into constant lessons when he’d much rather spend his time sharpening his blade or perhaps... well, staring after Vivian was always a preferred pastime.

  He could feel Vivian stiffen beside him, a bristle creeping through the other male’s body and Aetos could taste the chide coming from Vivian’s lips before he even spoke. So when Vivian did quip back rather quickly, with something about minding his own business that usually (roughly) translated to 'I’m trying to learn how to read common properly excuse me for not having a royal education’, Aetos was already letting out an amused chuckle.

  His laughter rumbled and sizzled like coals on a dying campfire as he opened up the bakery box in his hand. Aetos set the box in his lap, revealing to Vivian the small, yet beautifully decorated cake. He reached for his fancy mess kit, pulling out a fork and he dug into the cake. Just as Vivian started turning back to his book with a roll of his eyes (now both present, thanks to some troll’s blood and a creepy mindfucker), Aetos cleared his throat and offered the fork to Vivian.

  Gold met amber as Aetos stared down at Vivian, a light smile curling its way onto his face. Holding the fork with the cake on it to Vivian’s lips, he watched as the sorcerer started to panic, his cheeks turning colour slightly while he started to laugh nervously. It was because he’d spent so much time in the other’s company that Aetos predicted this sort of outcome, despite his usual lack of foresight. Generally speaking, Vivian was very easy to read when he wasn’t trying to lie outright.

  Aetos’s smile widened a little, as he leaned closer in an almost taunting, yet reassuring way. He chuckled again, “c’mon, take a bite. It’s good, I promise. Then I’ll let you study or whatever.”