Anticipation [Neph!]

[Draconian]

It had been... A Trip. The dewy morning with dawn lighting a familiar sight had a sigh of relief push through his lips.

Herostratus felt about fifty years older, even though it had only been a few weeks since he'd left, maybe longer - he wasn't fully sure yet. He hadn't been well enough to travel, after the gash he'd gotten from his latest hunt, was bed bound because every movement reopened the wound. That and he had to be drugged up barely coherent so even if he'd wanted to move, he could mostly only moan and sigh and imagine it.

An event he wasn't keen on repeating. No doubt the healing would have taken months if the village hadn't found a healer to knit his skin and muscles back together. Maybe even died. Or lost his whole arm.

Hero shivered at the idea of just existing while missing a chunk. Would he have been able to move his arm again if it had healed without help? The thoughts swam through his head once he was closer to home, in the stables removing his horses tack and brushing her down, though his movements were slower and careful when he moved his left arm. His breath hitched every now and then and he moved through the pain, knowing that despite it he would be fine.

At least as far as he knew nothing was permanently damaged.

The horse got comfy back in a familiar place after the brushing and Hero rolled his shoulder gently before returning to the barracks to remove his armor and throw his personal things in their designated place for the servants and the help to collect and remove. To clean. Hero sat on his bed and looked down at his hands, thumbs brushing over his finger tips.

How was Rhosiris?

One of the last times he was in his room was when he just flat out embarrassed himself with the elf. Hero flushed, thinking about it, squeezing his eyes shut and  turning his head like he was trying to shake the memory out. Were they all still here? Hero wasn't a guard, so he wasn't briefed on guests. He'd have to go seek them out himself.

It was a few hours, noon had long past and it was nearing supper time, when Hero finally felt like he was presentable. Hair washed and tucked back in a nice braid, face clean, though a little tired and bruised looking under his eyes and his cheeks. Hero closed his golden eyes and squared his shoulders, making sure his shirt was tucked into his pants and his boots were tied up. Probably looked far nicer than he had in a very, very long time. Why was he so nervous? Hero felt his insides tighten and his breath felt like it was a little lost.

He'd given the request to a servant. To find the tall golden elf Rhosiris - one of the Regents guests! - with a request to meet at the entrance of the hall. Of course, the instructions were to tell the elf who put in the request. Was that why Hero was so nervous? Because he could be turned down? They weren't a thing, but things had escalated so quickly there couldn't be nothing there. Maybe the elves didn't work like that and they'd never see one another again. At the very least Hero had been hoping for a friend perhaps.

Hero leaned against one of the pillars, rubbing his bicep and moving to squeeze his shoulder with a wince. The wound was gone, a soft ugly scar now, but it still hurt. In an effort to settle the speed his heart was beating at, he kept his head down and played with his hands, his fingers seemingly the most interesting things he'd seen in a long time, judging by the way he was examining them.

[nephero]

   Rhosiris was sick and tired of being sick and tired. If he ever in this lifetime ate anything with honey in it ever again, he was fairly sure he would go absolutely berserk and just start flipping tables. But the hard candy drops, packed with herbs and honeyed to help the taste, were the only damn thing that made it so he could eat anything else with regularity-- even if anything else tasted mildly sweet as a result.

   Honestly the worst of everything was the sheer fatigue. He'd never been so tired in all his life, and no amount of sleep or sitting down or doing nothing seemed to fix it. And after a while of feeling like he spent more time napping than actually being awake, he too resented the mere existence of things like beds and lounging chairs.

   If it weren't for the fact that these pieces of furniture were not his, he very well might have taken an axe to them in sheer frustration. Not that that would have helped anything in the slightest -- he would still be sick, and tired, and suddenly without a place to rest his uncomfortable feet to boot.

   And so it was with no small amount of high growling that Rhosiris moved to answer the messenger at the door, swallowing back every bit of nausea and annoyance and exhaustion in order to prevent himself from creating an entire incident within another monarch's halls. It took him a few moments to understand just what the servant was saying, with little bits of song proving to be extra chatty today and difficult to ignore when they had a direct line through his own torso. The servent's second attempt just left him flabbergasted and sure he hadn't heard right at all.

   Herostratus was requesting to meet him at the entrance hall?

   Herostratus was requesting to meet him at all?

   Rhosiris felt every inch of his soul cringe whenever he thought of the man, and how much Rhosiris had acted like a fool and an asshole to him. Truly, it had been a perfect display of idiocy and lack of any kind of decency, and Rhosiris had not even once questioned why he hadn't heard a word from the man in the time since their last meeting.

   Given, Rhosiris had been doing his best to hide, or was off hunting down younglings, or was napping himself into oblivion all that time as well. It wasn't like he had made any attempts to reach out, though he was sure an apology was WELL in order.

   It seemed like fate had decided that it would make sure he gave one.

   After agreeing to the request, and a rather embarrassing amount of time to get dressed -- an extra long set of tunics and no goddamn boots to bother his aching feet-- Rhosiris stepped out of the quarters he shared with his kindred and made his way down to the hall. Herostratus was easy enough to spot. There was no mistaking all that long, dark hair. Embarrassingly, Rhosiris still wanted to braid it. An impulse he decided to firmly blame on his present state because he certainly had no right to desire such an intimate thing of someone he had treated so badly.

   "Herostratus," he said upon his approach, stopping at the pillar and thinking that leaning against it did sound like an amazing idea. He blinked, head tilting some at the faint odor of herbs. Rather than immediately blurting things out like a fool again, Rhosiris worked to put his thoughts into what Ana had called polite conversation. "How are you?"

[Draconian]

It had taken a while.

Every second dragged on for an eternity and Hero stuck his thumb in his mouth after he'd picked just the littlest bit too much and caused some blood. Hero's nervousness  was slowly being replaced by disappointment, but he didn't move from his spot determined to stay here until it was very, very clearly obvious that Rhosiris wasn't going to come.

The voice had him still and Hero sucked in a breath, moved his hands to his sides and did his very best to look at casual as possible.

Instead he looked a little awkward before he turned towards the voice, re-leaned on the pillow and then hissed and moved off of it because it pressed on his freshly healed wound. How are you? A simple question, but he didn't really know how to answer it. Hero swallowed and took a breath, giving a sigh at the comforting scent of someone familiar - and while he wasn't actually familiar it was... Something. A scent like how a hug felt.

"I..." Hero started and moved to stand away from where he was leaning to take a step closer to Rhosiris, "I've been better, rough couple of weeks," He said truthfully, "I - uh " Hero rubbed his shoulder again, like touching it would make the pain go away. "I wanted to come see how you were doing," he said lamely, moving his hand to indicate Rhosiris - because who knows, maybe Hero meant someone else.

"Have you and yours settled in okay? I've been away - which is why I didn't... Come back and invite you to the field or to show you around Ketra or anything," Hero wished he could stop talking, but the words kept coming out and he felt like a flustered teen who'd never spoken to anyone of interest before. "That's not why I'm here, I just..." Hero took a deep breath, "Did you want to sit and have tea or food or something? Or just sit?" He put his hands on his hips and paused.

"I haven't actually had a conversation with anyone but my horse in... a long time," Hero sucked in a breath and ducked his head down, "I'm sorry, Rhosiris. I just got back and you were the only person I wanted to check in on, but," He finally gave a good look at the elf and he looked him up and down, took note of the outfit and the no boots, "I don't want to pull you away from your day."

[nephero]

Rhosiris couldn't help but notice the way Hero touched at his shoulder, that motion plus the scent of something lingering and medicinal in the air causing his stomach to twist quick and cold. Hero was rambling-- then again, he'd rambled before, but this was less endearingly flustering and more of a concern. Then again, again, Rhosiris had been a colossal jerk when they last parted. Of course he was nervous.

The thought didn't make Rho feel much better. But sitting, sitting definitely sounded good.

"You don't need to apologize to me, if anything, I... very much owe you an apology. If you don't mind, though, tea... sounds amazing right now."

[Draconian]

An apology?

Hero looked confused, eyebrows drawn together while he tried to remember if they'd parted on bad terms. Just a little bit awkward, right? Like a day-time one nightstand with two visible walks of shame at the end of it. Hero considered it a bonding moment, now. But nothing to apologize for, if that's what it was.

His mouth turned up on one side when his invitation to tea was accepted and he chewed on his lower lip. Hero wanted to offer Rhosiris an arm, but didn't know if that would be unwanted or too personal. "I hope the garden is okay? I dont think the roses are blooming, but it's nice afternoon." Instead he moved his hands from his hips down to his pockets and and started to move out the entrance towards the garden, letting a servant know to put down some snacks and tea. The very green garden, with so few flowers it was hardly a romantic hot spot.

Hero walked at a leisurely pace, head ducked down a little at a bit to watch for rocks or other pokey things Rhosiris might step on, so he could kick them aside. "I got hurt, which is why I was gone so long" Hero said when he finally saw the table, pulling a chair out for Rho and then seating himself and pouring them tea "What do you think you need to apologize for?"

[nephero]

"Thank the stars, I'm still not used to the flowers down here." Rhosiris said, and genuinely he was a bit relieved for how plain the gardens were. The rest of his kindred had learned very quickly how miserable the flowers that grew in the southlands could be, pretty as they were, and to his absolute chagrin the only cure seemed to be even more honey.

He appreciated the slower pace though -- while not as massive as he was going to get by a year's time, the fatigue kept him from moving at the brisk pace he was accustomed to. Nodding in thanks for the chair, Rho settled down easily enough with a soft breath of relief. Physical suffering somewhat abated, he was able to focus more on Hero's words, his brows knitting some.

"Your clop-clop thing didn't throw you again, did she?" Rhosiris still didn't trust the skittish creatures very much. Giant prey animals were rarely something to mess with. At Hero's question, Rho grimaced a bit, flushing in shame at the memory. "...I wasn't exactly very nice, was I, when I left your room. I'm sorry for how I acted."

[Draconian]

Well that was a surprise.

"You weren't nice?" Hero leaned back and brought the cup to his lips, trying his best not to grimace because he genuinely hated tea, he just wanted to look semi-refined and asking for an ale or something seemed... Impolite? For an afternoon chat. "Honestly I don't remember you being not nice. I just remember how very nice you were," and Hero couldn't help it when his eyes moved to Rhosiris and dragged up his seated image like a dog taking a long licking a sample of someones hand.

Right. Being polite. Hero cleared his throat and waved his right hand dismissively, "it wasn't my clop-clop" Hero said dismissing the topic, finding it uninteresting and unimportant "and nothing to apologize for, Rho. Oh. Unless you were apologizing for the hot sex, which, if you are then I'll apologize too. I think going off and having disappointing sex with an Adelan is hopefully not a common greeting and I'm sorry that it ended that way. The disappointing part." Hero winced slightly, unable to stop speaking. The words poured out of him and he told himself to stop but he looked off to the side and gave Rho a look, golden eyes narrowed.

"At least that means there's no where to go but up," Hero smiled slightly before sipping tea and frowning again. "I'm sorry, I'm trying really hard to be polite and you're looking kind of uncomfortable but it just... comes out of me."

[nephero]

This was all ridiculous. Everything about everything was absolutely ridiculous. Rhosiris couldn't help himself, letting out a sighing sort of laugh and shaking his head even as he took miniscule sips of tea.

"You're not the one making me uncomfortable, existing is making me uncomfortable." He shook his head a bit, humming in thought as he tried to find the words he wanted to say. "My people don't tend to run off and have sex, disappointing or otherwise, with people they barely know. I am apparently the outlier."

He attempted to try and nibble at some of the biscuits that had been offered with the tea, but that quickly became a mess of crumbs as he tried to get his teeth to work something that was decidedly not meat. Which just seemed par for the course in how messy and ridiculous everything was. Still... the fact that he wasn't the only one bumbling around trying to do Polite and Correct was comforting. Sighing and giving up on the biscuit, he gave a wry sort of smile to Hero.

"I suppose we're both very out of practice with how to be polite. Should we stop trying? Live in the mess?"

[Draconian]

It was a sigh of relief at the offer to not be controlled and polite. He didn't turn into someone else, but his posture relaxed and he pushed the drink aside before taking one of those biscuits and eating it to get the taste of tea out of his mouth. Hero gave a wry smile and tilted his head, pushing his bangs from his eyes.

Then, with the guise of polite gone, Hero reached out on the table with his right hand, laying it flat closer to Rhosiris. "Why is existing uncomfortable?" There was concern in his eyes, and he shifted carefully so his left wasn't leaning on anything. "They're treating you fine, right?"

Assuming it was uncomfortable because of exterior forces, Hero looked over towards the building full of knights and servants and people. "I'm as much a social outcast as you can get here, but I still have some weight to throw around, if you need me to."

[nephero]

As tension left Hero's posture, so too did it feel like Rhosiris had had some undue pressure lifted. He relaxed back in his own seat, turning his head this way and that until he felt his neck pop, breathing out after. Motion caught his gaze though, and he looked down at Hero's hand. It was a small gesture, and certainly not the most intense bit of contact that they had shared, but for a moment something in his chest swelled and he had the wild notion that taking Hero's hand would be the best thing in the world.

But then, he also very much almost wept at seeing a particularly pretty bit of tapestry the previous day. So who even knew what that had meant?

Still, he reached back and laid his fingers over Hero's, tapping lightly with his forefinger as he did.

"I haven't been mistreated, no need." He chewed on the inside of his cheek, debating with himself for a moment before remembering they weren't being polite. Besides, what did it matter? "You, uh, just happen to be particularly potent. Or I'm potent. Or fate had it so we both were."

Rhosiris took another sip of tea and tried to crack his neck again. "What happened to your shoulder?"

[Draconian]

It was a simple movement, when he felt Rhosiris tap his fingers on the back of his hand. Hero turned his hand over so their finger tips touched and he felt comforted by the content. Soothing like dipping a foot into a cold river on a hot day. Hero closed his eyes briefly to take it in, listening while Rho spoke and let the words wash over him.

He was pleased to hear that Rho hadn't been mistreated, but the potency comment was quick and subtle and the topic change made him twinge his shoulder. Hero rolled it slightly and he thought about it, the blood, how deep the gash was. How close to infection he knew he'd been. How tired and drained and sick he'd gotten.

Then, like two magnets hovering close to one another, the connection was made and Hero froze. "A Dragon bit me," he said quickly which wasn't actually what happened but it got the point across, looking at Rho now, eyes wide and a little worried. "What... what do you mean by potent?" His voice was a little higher and he sounded worried, "like... You... hurt your hip? From... potent movement?"

Because surely that wasn't what he was thinking it could be. Cultural differences. Hero looked a cross between worried and scared and a little full of panic, his heart was thumping wildly in his chest and he curled his fingers a little bit more to have a better grip on Rhos. "I... Rho... I wasn't even that good and now..." Hero took a deep breath at a loss for words. "So... what... Is your peoples culture about... this?"

[nephero]

   Rhosiris had desperately hoped that the topic would be brushed aside in the same way he had tried to introduce it, but that had been wishful thinking beyond any kind of measurement. He was only temporarily distracted by the dragon comment -- he had been ON one of those things, what did Hero mean he'd been BITTEN, what was with this kingdom and riding on volatile animals?!-- before Hero's grip on his hand brought him back to what was clearly the more important matter to an Adelan human.

   He took a deep breath and sighed it out, setting his teacup down and using his free hand to rub at his face before leaning on the table some, cheek resting in his palm. He was tired, he was so tired, and the flurry of panic around him was just adding to that level of tired.

   "I'm sorry, I don't know how these things are usually discussed here. With where I'm from, we just know, we can hear it, and so I don't..." He sighed again, twice as deep, and looked up at Hero properly. Even if he couldn't hear how hard Hero's heart was beating, he certainly could feel it in how much the man was clinging to his hand.

   Suddenly nauseated once more, Rho took another few breaths through his nose to power through the sensation. He just couldn't stop making mistakes, could he?

   "I'm not trying to be an asshole. I'm not telling you because I expect something from you, whatever it is that your people do when this happens. I don't even know what I'm doing half the time and everything is so... different here. But I mean, fuck, I haven't understood half of what I've seen since leaving the mountains, what's one more thing?"

[Draconian]

Hero's heart hurt to see Rho so tired and lost. That the hand wasn't pulled away felt like a good sign and Hero leaned in, looking at the sunshine elf through his dark hair. It was comforting to know that Rhosiris was just as at a loss as he was.

"I think traditionally, at least here in Ketra-ish in some families, marriage is a common thing when..." It was hard to say the word 'babies'. Baby made it... official. A thing to anticipate and maybe even be excited about. A thing he's never considered could happen to him and least of all with... Hero  moved then, standing up and walked to stand beside the seated Rhosiris. 

"I'm sorry. For what it's worth," Hero chewed on his lower lip, he'd taken Rhos hand with him on his journey of moving and standing, now having laced their fingers together. "I wasn't thinking of any of that, and I didn't even check in on you before I left, which looking back now, being a possibility makes sense considering everything." Hero got down on his knees, taking Rhosiris's hand between both of his and ducked his head to press his forehead to the elfs knuckles.

He had so much to say. So much to ask. He couldn't voice the thing that was plaguing him though, the thing that suddenly became a very serious issue. "You said you weren't expecting anything from me but I kind of expect things from myself," he lifted his head back up and tried to smile, "I wanted to invite you to a picnic today. To see if there was... I don't know. A spark of interest besides the thing that happened. Um..." Hero licked his lips, his mouth dry and feeling a little dizzy. A change of topic.

"What do you mean you can hear it?" His voice was soft and he remained kneeled, turning his head slightly to maybe catch the sound of something small, too.

[nephero]

"It isn't your fault." Rho said, exhausted but absolutely honest. None of this mess was Hero's fault, he just happened to be the one human who flirted with him at the precise moment he was most capable of making bad decisions. Still, Rho couldn't help but watch him move, feel his hand still closed around Rho's, see him so close it almost felt tender.

Rhosiris took it all in, this man who said a million different things all at once and could never seem to tame his hair and had only ever been sweet. Rhosiris had no idea what marriage was, but even that had a nice sound to it when Herostratus said it.

Feeling incredibly silly, Rho took a breath and turned in his seat to place his other hand over Hero's own.

"What's a picnic?" he asked, giving their joined hands a squeeze. "It sounds nice."

[Draconian]

Hero perked up, attention sufficiently diverted and he smiled up at Rho before he stood up, hands still clasped together. He still felt panic-y and fluttery, his guts were twisting with the news of significant importance and he wasn't sure what his life was going to look like now.

Currently though, Hero stood up and gave their hands another squeeze. "You've never has a picnic? It's what fancy city people do for fun." Hero tossed his braid over his shoulder and then glanced at the table of biscuits and tea that had gone cold. Nasty stuff.

"First, we go find a really nice place close to the treeline to sit or lay down. So you can gaze at clouds and find some that look like bunnies," he looked up at the sky, giving a sigh to shoo away his butterflies and then looked at Rhosiris again, "then you unpack the food you brought so you can snack or have lunch while cloud gazing."

"I know you're not wearing shoes, but are you up for a little bit of a walk? We can turn around as soon as you're not feeling well," he glanced out past the garden, the field was fairly big, but not far past the barracks was the tree line and while it wasn't completely private, there were less people than near the garden.

[nephero]

"Bunnies." Rhosiris repeated, standing after a moment with more energy than he'd felt he'd had in weeks. "Roast rabbit does sound good."

Honestly, laying in the grass away from all the noise of the city, where he could just exist without worrying about this or that or being worried over... that had some serious appeal. He had no idea what he was going to do, what any of this would lead to, but for a single moment he had a chance to put it aside and hold still. Rho squeezed Hero's hand again, head tilted as he regarded the man.

"I'll be fine. Show me these clouds."

[Draconian]

With a strange unfamiliar excitement, Hero took Rhos hands and led him along the more traveled path. Not an official footpath but one favored so much by people it became it's own, cut through manicured grass and tamped down dirt. Hero still kicked aside sharper looking rocks when he spotted them.

It wasnt a terribly long walk, but the distance from everything and the trees sounding like the ocean when the breeze rustled their branches made it seem so much farther away. Hero didn't say much on the trip, giving the silence a time for them to both digest. Between the two of them, currently he felt more in shock.

Hero didn't want to put pressure on Rhosiris, but the Adelan was almost positive that the plan for the elf hadn't been 'get to new country, get knocked up.' What was the future going to look like now? There was a brief moment an image of the three of them - a tiny baby that looked like rho, of course - but Hero quickly stamped it down. It would be foolish to daydream about that when they barely knew one another.

"Here it is," Hero said, arms wide, they were close to the trees for optimal tree-ocean sound and the sky was clear, though the sun was on it's way down and not at peak brightness. Made it easier to cloud gaze. And then maybe stargaze?

"The nicest patch of grass this side of the field," Hero let go of Rho's hand to sit down, tossing his braid over his shoulder before he unbraided it carefully to let the wind have at it. "Stargazing is my preferred thing to do here when I can't sleep," Hero confessed, patting the grass beside him, "but cloud gaze is fun too." Hero turned to finger combing his hair slowly, his range of motion limited but functional.

[nephero]

Despite his earlier insistence that he would be fine, Rhosiris was certainly pleased to arrive at the picnic spot Hero had described. He slowly eased himself to the ground, sighing softly as he stretched out his long legs before him. The breeze was pleasant in comparison to the stillness that came with city walls, and the distance between them and the main thoroughfares meant infinitely less noise.

"You have trouble sleeping, much?" He asked, turning to look over at Hero and watch him deal with his hair. Rhosiris hesitated for a moment, fingers itching before he again remembered that they were doing away with politeness. It couldn't hurt to ask, now could it?

"May I... Can I braid that?"

[Draconian]

"You want to braid my hair?" Hero voiced softly, confused and pleased and he turned slightly to present his back and long hair to Rhosiris. The pleasure turned into entertainment because while Hero had been braiding his hair forever, he could never quite get the hang of it and it always ended up wispy and a little too fluffy for his liking. Did it irritate Rho? Was that why he wanted to do it himself?

With optimal braiding angle achieved, Hero smiled and played with the grass while he pondered on his sleeping problems. "Not all the time, but sometimes. The little voices that crawl out of dark spaces get to be too much inside, so I lay out here until dawn, usually. Watch the stars." Hero plucked a blade of grass and rolled it between his finger tips, "I tend to choose to suffer during winter. Too cold to lay out here and watch stars." Hero cleared his throat and tossed the blade of grass up and into the breeze. "How's your sleeping? Don't take this the wrong way, but you look... Tired."

[nephero]

Satisfied that he had not caused some great insult, Rhosiris moved his legs so he could scoot a little closer, immediately reaching to finger-comb the full weight of Hero's hair. It was fascinating how much light would catch in such a dark color, and for a moment Rhosiris was just lost in moving his hands over and under the length to get it to play in the sunlight that made its way through the trees. Eventually he began to braid, gently pushing Hero's head to the side to work from his temples back in small, quick movements, catching the whisps and taming them in the braid as he went.

"I miss the winter. It gets so hot here, and I am much more accustomed to snow." He found himself relaxing the longer they sat in the peace of the wind in the trees and the warmth of the sun that felt just that much less oppressive in this little patch of grass. At Hero's question, he even felt at ease enough to laugh.

"I am always tired, these days. Our healer, she says this is normal. I feel like I've slept most of these weeks, and it's starting to get very, very old." Rhosiris coiled the end of the little braid to prevent it from immediately coming undone, before shifting to attend to the other temple and repeat the same motions. "Anything softer than brick, it seems, and I am destined to fall asleep in it."