Chapter Text
“How come Caleb gets to leave and I’m stuck in here?” Kingsley grumbled, watching Essek be dragged from his cuddle pile away into the garden. Sure, the drow probably needed some fresh air, but so did he. Being cooped up was bad for the soul. Probably.
Fjord, the next one on watch, settled down in a small chair beside the bed. “You can go out, just with someone who can counterspell.”
Kingsley frowned. While he was enamored with wizards, he didn’t really understand all their magic mumbo jumbo. The mystery of it all was part of the allure.
Never quite a man of much mystery, Fjord just stood up again, clapped him on the shoulder and said, “I got this. C’mon.”
"Aye aye, cap'n," he quipped, eager to leave, even if it wasn't very far. So Kingsley followed him out to the little pond near the house, plopping down beside him.
Fjord dipped his bare toes in the water, looking all the part of a placid devotee to the Wildmother. There was something very serene and stoic about Fjord that Kingsley admired, though he much preferred the version of Fjord he got to see during a fight–strong, cocky, sure of himself and proud to be that way. From the stories that confidence was hard fought, and Kingsley respected that.
What he couldn’t quite respect was how introverted some of this group were. He was used to the noise and chatter of pirates and his crew, not the quiet babbling of brooks and crickets.
Silence hung between them for a bit before Kingsley couldn’t take it anymore. Unfortunately, that meant blurting out the first thing on his mind. “Sorry I stole the boat.”
“Ship,” Fjord corrected immediately, pulling a grin to both their faces. “And it wasn’t like I really needed two, Plank King.”
“Well, ‘The Vandran’ was a shitty name, for one thing. That old guy isn’t even dead!” Kingsley grumbled good naturedly. “And he sure as hell isn’t feminine enough to have a ship named after him.”
“I know, I know. He already chewed me out for it the last time Jester and I visited.”
Kingsley knocked his horn into Fjord’s shoulder. “Good. You should go visit him again, after all this shit. And take Jester home to Marion for a week or two.”
“You’re probably right. Definitely right about Jester’s mom. She was really torn up when she found you and Caleb all… like that.” Fjord’s foot paused in the water momentarily before returning to its nonchalant circles.
Just the thought made Kingsley wince. He probably wouldn't ever be able to forget the smell of Caleb’s blood, the way they shivered in that tower. He could still feel each snap of the delicate bones in his tail.
Said tail twitched a bit too hard, deepening Kingsley’s wince.
Before he could properly pull himself together and reassure his captain, Fjord spoke again. “Are you actually alright?”
“‘Course,” Kingsley said, too quickly.
Fjord was looking at him too sharply, yellow eyes glinting in the light of the moon. “Y’know, you’re a really shitty liar.”
“The truth doesn’t mean much, especially if someone already knows it,” he shrugged, trying to look at ease as he stared at his purple toes turning blue under the water.
But Fjord didn’t really press. “I know we try not to talk about the Iron Shepherds around you too much, but if you ever need someone to complain to, I know a bit about what it’s like.” Fjord’s eyes were far away, a little glassy, and Kingsley couldn't bear to look any longer. Still he went on, “I know what it’s like to take that pain, hoping it means someone else won’t. I know what it’s like trying to protect someone and… well, failing.”
Kingsley let his head fall on Fjord’s shoulder, just for a bit of warmth. He knew that whatever affection starved childhoods he (well, his body) and Fjord had shared affected them differently, but a cuddle was a cuddle. Every tiefling he'd met so far would agree to that, even if Jester took up a large percentage of that.
“Jester still gets nightmares sometimes,” Fjord mumbled, not pulling away. “I think it’ll get worse, after all this.”
Kingsley sighed softly. He hated to cause her any pain. “Sorry about that.”
“Did you just apologize for getting tortured?” Fjord snorted.
He chuckled and brightened his tone, hoping for something not too brittle.“Maybe. Regardless, she deserves a vacation. Take her to Marion and then to Vandran and forget about everything for a while.”
“Our whole lives are a vacation,” Fjord said, sounding more satisfied than usual. “Well, they will be soon enough. Uk’otoa’s sealed again, Yasha’s wings are fixed and Obann is rotting in hell or the abyss or something, the flesh city was released or saved or whatever, the Blooming Grove is safe, Jester successfully parent trapped her folks, Veth’s curse is gone, and with this, hopefully all of Caleb’s bullshit will be over too. This was kinda it.”
“Oh, I’m sure something else awful will happen to us. People don’t just get to be rich, satisfied and happy.” Kingsley hummed and watched as a small minnow nibbled at his toe under water, darting away when he didn’t prove tasty enough. Bitch.
“But I don’t think we’d ever be satisfied with anything less than a little mayhem,” Fjord said. "Especially you."
Kingsley sighed. “True, true.”
He could sense Fjord’s grin more than anything before the water welled up in a huge wave of divine magic and swept him into the little lake.
Coming up spluttering and wearing a water lily as a hat, Kingsley glared. “This is how you treat a recovering torture victim?”
Fjord’s infuriating grin was more visible now. “Yup. You know as well as I do what you really need is some fucking fun. Especially since you’re not ready to talk about it yet.”
Kingsley’s hand clamped down around Fjord’s ankle before the man could even properly yelp.
Eventually Caduceus coaxed Kingsley and Caleb back to resting in the small bedroom of the Blooming Grove. Kingsley was lured with the promise of food, and Caleb was already fed and half dozing listening to Jester read some romance novel by the time he got back. Essek was very pointedly reading something else, though the blush in his cheeks betrayed what he was really paying attention to.
Calmness overtook the room and Kingsley happily snuggled in between Jester and Caleb on the small bed.
Napping with narrated porn was quite nice, but Kingsley was a restless soul at heart. Particularly after Jester got bored with reading and turned it into just regular napping.
"Let's go to the hot springs." Kingsley said to the two remaining in the bedroom. "I need a bath." Partially he wanted one to get off whatever pond muck prestidigitation had missed from his earlier dip, but also he wanted to get out of this house. And there was something else motivating everything, as usual. There were no shortages of attractive people for Kingsley to stare at, and if they were all more relaxed and in less clothing? Sounded perfect to him. Not to mention the two in immediate proximity were both cute wizards.
Essek made a face, but Caleb mumbled first, "A bath sounds nice."
Something in Essek faltered and Kingsley was pretty sure Caleb could ask to raise a family of feral kittens with the drow right now and he would say yes. "Are you sure? I can cast prestidigitation again if you don't feel clean."
"Hot water is good for aches." Caleb sat up on his own, only wincing a bit.
Kingsley grinned. "You can keep watch from there, right?"
"I suppose," Essek sighed, standing up and casting the spell to make Caleb weightless.
The whole idea was worth it before they even got in the water, just to see the bright pink blush Caleb grew as Essek began to carry him. Even Essek was flushed, worse than earlier with Tusk Love.
Kingsley was a genius, and they weren't even naked yet.
He stripped off his pants without too much trouble, despite his tail still aching something terrible. His shirt was another story. His back felt a bit like he'd been thrown off a mountain and landed face up. Every time he tried to twist to pull it off, it felt a bit like he was going to tear apart his aching muscles.
"Would you like some assistance?"
"Why, Mr. Essek, I thought you'd never ask."
Blushing a lovely plum, Essek just waved his mage hand over to help, apparently having done similarly for Caleb.
One thing Kingsley loved about Caleb was his comfort with nudity.
Both of them made quite a pair on a good day, but this was still a bit out of the norm. Healing magic had helped, but there were still some new scars on the two of them. They probably had more scars than anyone in the party. Hells, together they probably had more scars than anyone else in Wildemount.
Those thoughts were pulled away from Kingsley like the tension in his spine as the hot water melted away all earthly worries. Caleb was drifting, almost falling asleep and leaning on his shoulder for support. Essek had even deigned to start taking his boots off, seemingly with the intent of dipping a toe in. Not the nudity Kingsley had recommended, but still more than he’d expected.
A crackle of teleportation magic split the air and Caleb froze beside him. Every hair on Kingsley’s body began to stand up as he smelled the arcane energy. Essek was suddenly standing between them and the newcomers, holding a jagged chunk of onyx across his thumb so tightly it began to bleed.
"Stand down, Thelyss. If we wanted you dead, you would be." Astrid’s voice emerged from the treeline.
Caleb’s shoulders slumped again as he frowned at her from his spot in the water. "Play nice, bitte."
Her attention was drawn to him, and the new scars along his back, and the fresher ones on his arms. The anger in her expression remained, twisting until she and Eadwulf awkwardly arrived at the edge of the pool.
She took a long, deep breath. "Wagner's in custody?"
“Beau stunned her and they took her to the Cobalt Soul. She won’t see the light of day any time soon, not if they have anything to say about it. She'll help bring down Da'leth and rot alongside him in your empire dungeons.” Essek’s eyes flickered to Caleb’s arms, with more anger and hurt than Kingsley had ever seen in him.
Kingsley slowly looked from wizard to wizard, measuring the tension.
Maybe…
Maybe Caleb got around more than he thought.
Maybe Kingsley could join next time.
Maybe it would be awkward, but maybe he was already naked with Caleb practically in his lap and that felt fine.
Caleb suddenly cocked his head. “Hallo, Veth. I’m safe, with folks at the hot springs.”
Essek groaned softly, which proved to be an adequate response since soon both Jester and Veth were butt naked and jumping into the hotspring with seemingly not a care in the world. The Mighty Nein were good for that, relaxation in the face of strife and disaster.
The visitors were eventually done collecting information and debriefing everyone with their own to a satisfactory point, apparently very confused when Beau suddenly stopped talking with them and cannonballed into the spring.
“Astrid, Eadwulf, don’t you want to join us?” Jester asked, pouting at the side of the spring.
Veth joined in, “Yeah, get naked; we’re all friends here.”
“No, we’re not,” Astrid said, turning up her nose a bit.
Kingsley laughed, “Oh, you wound me, dearheart.”
“Who are you?” Eadwulf asked, raising a brow.
Kingsley only waggled his eyebrows, asking, “Who are you?”
While doing some intense calculations to figure out how many wizards he could make blush this evening alone, Kingsley realized Caleb was up to something. He had that mischievous look in his eye that happened whenever something fun and magical was about to happen. Caleb’s hands suddenly twisted under the water and he whispered a spell under his breath.
Eyes wide from across the spring, Astrid quickly countered the spell. But Eadwulf was even quicker, countering his partner with a matching spark of mischief in her eye as she was lifted off the ground and dunked into the water.
While Astrid was still spluttering and cursing in Zemnian, Wulf grinned. “Wirf mich hoch, Bren.”
With that, Wulf ran, still fully dressed and aided with Caleb’s magic, to make the most impressive looking cannonball Kingsley had ever seen, which was saying something. He was a goddamned pirate, after all.
~
Caleb sunk deeper into the water with Kingsley’s arm around his shoulders. Wulf was currently playing some sort of game with Fjord about holding their breath underwater, which he would inevitably lose. Despite Fjord having the ability to breathe underwater, Veth and Jester were trying to make him laugh and break regardless. Yasha was rubbing some of the tension away from Beau’s shoulders away from most of the chaos. And Essek was primly helping Astrid out of the pool with the full knowledge that any spell would be countered. Instead he offered her a folded up towel to sit nearby, settled with a mage hand and taken gratefully by the wizard who’d still never learned prestidigitation. Essek’s foot was still just inches away from Caleb’s side, disturbing the water without invading space.
The motion was a gentle reminder that he was there, that Caleb was safe. The warm water became infused with a calming, healing sense as Caduceus fully settled down beside the pool with a tray of lemonade and cookies.
The laughter of Caleb’s friends surrounded him as Kingsley leaned down and kissed him on the top of the head.
He was finally warm again.