Chapter Text
Agott came out the bathroom, the evidence of any tears were washed away and her hair had been brushed and smoothed back into place.
“You look wonderful Agott.”
“I know I do.”
Qifrey chuckled at her response, he was going to say more but was interrupted by Coco bursting through the door, followed by Tetia and Richeh.
“Oi, you lot! I know yer in! Stop hidin’!” All four apprentices flinched slightly as Olruggio called out.
“Now, why are you girls so nervous? It’s only Olruggio.”
They looked as if they were getting marched towards their execution.
“Master Olruggio is going to be so mad at us!” Coco squealed.
“So mad!” Tetia agreed
“Mad?” Qifrey blinked “Why would he be mad at you?”
The girls immediately started speaking over each other, listing reasons why Olruggio would be mad.
“Well when you list it out like that, it doesn’t sound great-“
“He’s gonna kill us!” Tetia shrieked dramatically.
Qifrey laughed softly “My dear girls, Olruggio won’t be mad at any of you.”
None of them believed him.
“You just said that it doesn’t sound great for us.” Richeh mumbled softly.
“I never said ‘for you’.” Qifrey smiled.
“He may be rightfully annoyed with me, but he wouldn’t be angry with you.”
“You say that now but-” Agott started.
The door suddenly swung open and Olruggio walked in, dripping wet from the recent downpour with a waterproof satchel overfilled with new books slung over his shoulder.
“There you girls are, I was starting to think you were off causing chaos again.” Olruggio sighed.
Tetia and Coco yelped as they both quickly took the role of hiding Qifrey by standing in front of the desk.
Agott sighed from the sidelines, knowing that wouldn’t work. Richeh didn’t say anything but her thoughts on the matter were similar to Agott’s.
Olruggio’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “What are you two hidin’ there.” It wasn’t really a question, he knew something was wrong.
None of them answered but all of them looked guilty.
His eyes went to Coco, who promptly looked away and then to Tetia, who was currently sweating buckets.
“Girls.”
Olruggio approached, suddenly looking much more intimidating than before.
“Move over.”
Tetia and Coco locked eyes with each other in a silent agreement before quietly moving apart.
Qifrey sat awkwardly so that his injured ankle would be in a more comfortable position. Despite the dread that seemed to fill the air, he seemed to have quite the positive attitude.
“Greeting, Olruggio!” He gave a wave.
…
“What-“ He could only stare, not truly believing what his eyes showed him.
Qifrey continued pleasantly.
“You’re late.”
“Aye. Very funny-“
“There was rain I assume?”
“Qifrey.”
“Olruggio.“
Olruggio was struggling for words.
“Ha ha, you got me. Now where are you really?”
Qifrey gave a confused look.
“What are you talking about Olly?”
“You know, I thought you said that you’d wait a while longer before teaching ‘em how to cast smoke sculptures.” Olruggio sighed.
Qifrey looked offended “I am waiting to teach them that!”
“Master, that’s really him.” Richeh confirmed quietly.
“We’ve been over this, stop calling me yer master, he’s your master. He’s also pulling a pretty unfunny stunt right now.” Olruggio glared at what he thought was a smoke sculpture.
“That is clearly him!” Coco exclaimed.
“Aye? Smoke sculptures can be convincing if you do ‘em properly.”
“You have got to be kidding me!” Agott was getting frustrated now.
Olruggio looked around at all the girls, they looked serious. There wasn’t a hint of deception on any of their expressions.
He looked back down at his friend and approached further.
“…No.”
He bent down slightly.
“…No”
He reached out and poked Qifrey square in the chest. Qifrey visibly recoiled “Ouch-“
Olruggio slowly withdrew his hand. The little idiot was warm and clearly not a smoke sculpture.
“Qifrey…?” His voice was softer than usual.
“In the flesh unfortunately.”
There wasn’t silence for a moment as Olruggio processed the information.
“Crap…”
His eyes immediately locked back onto Qifrey, looking him over to make sure he was alright.
Shrinking magic was often a double edged sword.
His proportions seemed alright, just smaller.
But it was clear that he wasn’t entirely healthy.
The awkward way he was sitting, the bandaged ankle wrapped up in his torn cloak, the exhaustion that was evident on his face.
“Just what the hell happened while I was gone?”
“You what!?” Olruggio was in disbelief.
“I accidentally got caught in the girl’s spell.” Qifrey fiddled with his fingers.
“You walked in the middle of a glyph while the spell was being cast!” Olruggio shouted.
“It was reckless, I know-“
“Reckless!? Qifrey, you could’ve died! Every witch knows not to interrupt someone while casting, let alone step in the middle of their glyph!”
Qifrey tried to speak but Olruggio just went on and on, talking about how stupid and idiotic what he did was. There were a few choice words in there that the girls definitely shouldn’t be hearing an adult saying.
His rant about Qifrey’s recklessness was only stopped when Richeh grabbed his cloak, her look filled with worry.
This made him glance over at Qifrey, who was covering his ears from the noise. It was just too much at this size.
He sighed “Sorry. Didn’t mean to yell” His voice was considerably softer this time. “Qifrey, you just- I can’t believe you sometimes.“ He struggled to find the words to express the sheer ridiculousness of the current situation.
“It wasn’t his fault.” Richeh defended him.
“We were drawing a large glyph, near a closed door, where he physically couldn’t have seen it before he stepped on it.” Agott admitted.
“And it was my idea… Master Qifrey told us to be careful and we didn’t listen!” Coco chimed in.
“And I was the one who was supposed to be watching him when he was injured!” Tetia joined in.
Olruggio scanned the face of each of the girls. There, he saw genuine remorse and guilt.
“Girls…” Qifrey began quietly, his voice laced with disbelief as they stood up for him, forming a united front.
Olruggio deflated, rubbing a hand over his face.
“Right, none of you are takin’ all the blame for this.”
Five confused faces looked up at him.
“‘Cause from the sounds of things, every single one of yous has made a stupid decision.”
“Even me?” Qifrey asked with a newly found grin on his face, he was well aware that he was on thin ice but he also knew that Olruggio cared too much.
He glared at him.
“…Especially you.”
The girls seemed relieved at how things had turned out.
“Right, first things first.” Olruggio’s voice had shifted from exasperated to practical.
He fully crouched down in front of the desk, getting on Qifrey’s level. “Are youhurt anywhere besides your ankle?”
“My, you make me sound awfully fragile!”
“Qifrey” Came Olruggio’s warning tone.
“Just the sprained ankle, nothing else.” Qifrey confirmed.
Olruggio looked unconvinced. “…And?”
“Maybe a slight headache.”
“And that’s all?”
“A touch tired perhaps.”
Somehow, he still believed that the tiny witch was in a worse shape than he claimed. “Aye, right.”
Before Qifrey could start arguing again, he turned his attention towards the girls.
“I need each of you to give me a detailed account of what happened on your watch.”
Coco went first, detailing how she had gotten upset before calming down and doing some study with Qifrey.
Then came Tetia, she spoke about the incident with Qifrey. Olruggio kept shooting him looks during that one.
Richeh spoke about how Qifrey slept most of her turn and then they had a short chat before handing him over to Agott.
Agott found herself unable to speak. She struggled to come up with a lie on the spot. Luckily, Qifrey helped her out.
“Agott wanted some assistance with her primer so I helped her out for a bit before resting my ankle.” Qifrey looked over to her with a knowing smile. “Didn’t we, Agott?”
She was quick to nod in agreement “Yeah-“
Olruggio raised an eyebrow. “Aye. If you say so.”
Agott nodded again.
He looked around the chaos and sighed once more, he had a feeling he’d be doing that a lot.
“I leave for one day… I’m not gonna ‘ave enough wine to get through this.” He mumbled to himself.
“Right girls. Have you had any dinner?”
They shook their heads in unison.
“Go fix yourself some stew then. I bought some fresh bread while I was out, It’s on the table.”
“What about Master Qifrey-“ Coco asked.
“I’ll ‘andle him for now. You girls go eat.”
The girls looked around at each other with unsure eyes.
“Are you sure…?” Tetia asked, not really wanting to leave Qifrey.
“Aye, I’m sure. We’ve got work to do if Qifrey is to get back to normal, I need quiet for that.”
Reluctantly the girls left one by one, leaving the two adults alone.
Once they’re gone, the shift in the atmosphere is immediate.
There’s silence between them until they hear the door close.
“Right.” Olruggio glare returned to Qifrey.
“Oh dear.” Qifrey recognised that tone.
Olruggio puts his satchel down.
“Start talkin’.”
Qifrey bats his eyes innocently. “I believe I already did!”
“No, ye gave me the sanitised version meant for the girls.”
Olruggio knew him too damn well.
“I suppose everything has just become a bit… overwhelming.” Qifrey’s smile faltered. He sounded vulnerable, honest… it wasn’t like him at all.
“How bad is it?” Olruggio glanced at his ankle.
Qifrey’s opened his mouth but got interrupted before he could even begin.
“-I swear if ye say yer ‘fine’…”
Qifrey laughed a little before dropping the act completely.
“I don’t know the severity, but I didn’t want to burden the girls with that information.”
Olruggio instantly softened.
He carefully placed his hand on the table.
“Come ‘ere. Let’s get ye sorted out.”
Qifrey hesitated, he had been wary of being carried around on hand…
…But this was Olly. His Olly
He made the decision to put his trust in his watchful eye.
He limped onto his hand and tried to get into a somewhat comfortable position, which was certainly harder than it looked.
No words were exchanged as Olruggio stood to his full height and grabbed his satchel with his free hand.
It was getting dark out… the various candles around the atelier had been lit, likely by Olruggio when he first entered.
They made their way over to Olruggio’s room, the noise blocking glyphs drawn around the room certainly helped with the sheer sensory overload that Qifrey had been experiencing all day.
He approached his work desk and cleared the loose notes off it before setting Qifrey down next to a pincushion.
“You must be cold at that size.” Olruggio noted.
“Maybe slightly…” Qifrey admitted.
The larger witch drew a pyreball glyph to warm the place up a bit.
“That should help.”
Qifrey made sure not to look directly at it due to how bright it was. He really wasn’t a fan of the light.
The warmth spread through the room slowly, taking the bite out of the evening air. Qifrey let out a breath that he hadn’t realised he had been holding.
“Yer exhausted.”
“I’ve been a touch busier than usual.”
“A touch?” Olruggio snorted “ye look half dead.”
“I do not!” Qifrey looked offended.
“Yer basically falling asleep on a pincushion, Qifrey! Look at ye!”
Qifrey looked surprised “This is a pincushion?”
Olruggio covered his mouth and looked away while trying not to laugh.
He was failing miserably.
“Don’t you laugh at me!”
Olruggio couldn’t hold it in anymore, he burst out laughing.
“I absolutely will laugh at ye!”
Qifrey crossed his arms “You’re just feeling superior because you’re finally taller than me!”
Olruggio’s amusement calmed for a moment.
“…How long have ye been pushing yerself?”
“Shortly after you left this morning.”
“Have ye had any rest?”
“I managed to nap for a couple hours earlier, but that was about it.”
“‘S that all…?”
“Unfortunately.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose “damnit.”
“Can I see yer foot?”
Qifrey seemed reluctant.
“Qifrey… I need to check the injury.”
Qifrey reached down and began to unwind the smoky fabric.
His ankle was looking a lot worse for wear now. It was swollen, bruised and clearly incredibly painful.
Qifrey looked slightly embarrassed whilst Olruggio’s expression darkened.
“I hate to break it to ye, but that is not a minor sprain!”
“I didn’t want the girls to panic, I told you.”
“We’ll need to get ye to Kahln for treatment once yer back to normal.”
“Well let’s focus on getting back to normal then. It’s not like I’m enjoying this either.”
“Aye, well, yer gonna enjoy what I’m about even less.”
“Oh?”
“Ye are not walkin’ on that foot anymore.”
…
“I beg your pardon.” Qifrey sat up slightly, glaring at the man above him.
“No walkin’, no climbin’, no jumpin’ and no nonsense.”
“Olly I am perfectly capable of-“
“Qifrey.”
Olruggio forced him to pause.
“Ye’ve spent all day running yerself into the ground all with an injured ankle.”
“Technically I wasn’t running-“
“Ye nearly died, Qifrey!”
Qifrey stopped, he suddenly found the ribbon on his hat and twisted it around his fingers.
He couldn’t respond.
“Just let me take care of ye for now. I’ll work on a spell to reverse this, alright?”
“He doesn’t even remember, yet he still speaks like this.” His grip on the ribbon tightened as Qifrey’s thoughts raced.
He was so tired.
“Alright.”
“Well that was suspiciously easy… should I be worried?”
“Perhaps.” Qifrey responded sarcastically, it quickly turned into a yawn.
“Let’s get you some sleep.”
Olruggio stood up, and walked to the other side of the room where he stored his clothing and some of his smaller inventions.
“Olly? What are you doing?”
He returned with two things, a snug stone and a scarf made of a soft material that Qifrey loved.
He proceeded to wrap the scarf around the snug stone to form some sort of bed that Qifrey could use.
“Sleep.”
Qifrey stared.
The scarf was one of Olruggio’s older ones, dark and incredibly snug from years of use, and like all things in this atelier, it smelled of ink. But there was also a hint of something more unique to his dear Olly. Wrapped around a snug stone, it formed a nest of sorts.
“You made me a bed…”
Olruggio looked confused.
“Aye? I did.”
“It’s very small”
Olruggio chuckled “Well so are ye at the moment.”
“Olly…”
“Qifrey.”
Against his better judgment, a laugh escaped him. “And people say you’re bitter!”
Olruggio went red “What-“
Slowly, Qifrey forced himself up before limping towards the makeshift bed. He lowered himself onto the scarf, it was comfortable.
“Well?”
“A great invention as always, Olly.” He knew he could rely on him for kinder magic.
Olruggio snorted “Get some sleep and ‘opefully we can sort this by the time ye wake up.”
Qifrey smiled before digging deeper into the scarf for warmth.
“I sure hope so.”
He didn’t bother waiting for a response before dozing off.
“Most infuriatin’ man I’ve ever met.” Olruggio chuckled to himself.
Qifrey was already fast asleep, it was clear he had been running on fumes. The girls were hard enough to handle while at full size, let alone at his.
But he had managed it.
Confident enough that Qifrey was safe, Olruggio left to speak with the girls.
The four apprentices were sitting around the dining table in a hushed discussion. Most of them had finished eating, except Richeh but he had an inkling of suspicion that she had taken seconds.
None of them had noticed his arrival so he listened in.
“-Well we have to help somehow” Coco sounded exasperated.
“Well Master Qifrey said to let Master Olruggio handle it! If we even wanted to help, how would we do it?” Tetia whined.
Agott was about to speak when Olruggio decided to cut in.
“Ye could start by showing me where the original reduction glyph is.”
All of them jumped at the appearance of the adult.
Coco nearly dropped a slice of bread she had picked up.
“Master Olruggio!?” She squeaked.
“When did you get here?” Tetia demanded.
Olruggio folded his arms.
“Long enough to know that you girls are trying to help after being told to leave it to the adults.”
They looked mildly guilty.
“…Sorry.” Coco mumbled.
“Aye, well. Apology accepted.” He pulled out the chair that Qifrey usually used and sat down. “Now, where’s the glyph.”
Agott was the first to recover. “It’s still in Tetia’s room.”
“So ye ‘aven’t moved it?”
“We didn’t want to risk anyone else getting shrunk so we stayed away from it.” Richeh explained as she grabbed another slice of bread, just how much was she eating?
“Are ye really telling me that none of yous at least tried to break the glyph?” Olruggio was shocked. “If it’s still active then of course Qifrey is still tiny!”
“Master Qifrey told us to stay away from it!” Coco claimed immediately.
“None of us knew what would happen if we damaged it.” Agott added. “It already behaved unpredictably once and that’s how we got into this mess.”
“We didn’t want to make things worse…” Tetia admitted.
Richeh nodded, she had food in her mouth so she didn’t say anything. Olruggio was starting to see now why Qifrey tried to pace her eating.
“Aye. Fair points.” Well at least they listened for once.
He stood from the table. “Right then show me.”
The girls exchanged glances before getting to their feet.
“Are… are we in trouble?” Tetia asked.
“I’m saving any lectures until yer master is back to normal.”
The four girls began leading the way.
The atelier was quieter during the night. The rain had finally stopped, leaving only a soft patter of water dripping from the leaves.
Candlelight painted long shadows across the walls as they made their way to Tetia’s bedroom.
The door had a warning sign stuck to it, one of the girls had obviously drawn it.
“Be careful when stepping inside-“ Coco seemed worried.
“Right, step back girls. And don’t touch anything.”
He opened the door to the scene of the crime.
The glyph still sat at the foot of the door, it had been moved back a bit but it was obvious how the incident had happened. He could see how Qifrey missed it when stepping in.
He crouched down next to the glyph to get a better look at it.
The problem wasn’t that it was drawn poorly, no. Quite the opposite.
The lines had been drawn properly. There were no obvious errors. Everything was symmetrical. Not even any shaky lines!
“Damnit…” He pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Did we draw something wrong?” Agott asked.
“No… no, ye didn’t.”
The girls looked confused.
“Do ye really draw this?” He asked in quiet disbelief.
“Yes?” Coco responded.
“You drew it remarkably well.”
None of the girls seemed to understand.
“So well in fact, that the spell is too stable to break on it‘s own. Normally it woulda burned itself out ages ago.”
Agott felt a pang of guilt, she remembered how she had led the others to make the glyph absolutely perfect. She was regretting that now.
“Right, well, nothing to be done about that.” Olruggio sighed. “Simple solution first.”
Olruggio started by ripping the paper, breaking the outer ring of the glyph.
“Did that work?” Coco asked.
“Can someone run to my room and check?”
Richeh was closest to the door so she quietly left in the direction of Olruggio’s workroom.
“What happens if this doesn’t work…?” Tetia asked unusually quietly.
“I ‘ave some more ideas if this one fails.” Olruggio reassured her.
Richeh came running back, she put her arms in a cross and shook her head. “Still tiny.”
Olruggio stared at the broken glyph.
“Of course he is.”
He stood up and the girls looked up at him anxiously.
He exhaled, trying to keep his composure.
“Right. It’s gettin’ late, off to bed with ye lot.”
“But-“ Tetia began
“I’ll keep workin’.”
“Will master Qifrey be alright…?” Coco asked hesitantly.
He looked down at the damaged glyph once more.
“Aye. He will.” But after a brief pause, he added “Might just take me a while.”
None of them moved at first.
Eventually, Richeh nodded and left first.
Agott didn’t look pleased but she turned and began to walk away. She stopped, looking back at Coco who seemed unsure.
Their rooms were right next to each other’s so Agott called out her name, gesturing for her to come. She followed after Agott as they both left together.
Olruggio picked up the paper with the glyph on it, and rolled it up to take with him.
“Can… Can you wake us up if something happens?” Tetia mumbled.
“Will do.” With that, Olruggio left Tetia in her room to return to his own.
Qifrey had somehow curled himself into the folds of the scarf. One hand was tucked under his cheek while the other still loosely held the ribbon of his hat.
He looked small.
Far too small for his liking.
Olruggio had known the man for years. They’d seen each other at their highs and lows. He’d seen Qifrey injured, exhausted and unconscious.
But this felt different.
It was deeply unsettling seeing someone who was normally so capable, even in the worst situations, reduced to this.
He’d been gone for one bloody day and Qifrey had gotten himself shrunk to a few inches tall, injured his ankle and ran himself ragged while claiming that everything was just peachy!
He looked over at Qifrey, expecting himself to get mad all over again. But he deflated when he truly looked at him.
His friend, stuck like this.
He looked as though he could fit in one of his pockets.
The very idea made his stomach twist.
No.
They were fixing this tonight.
“Right then, suppose I should find a way to fix ye then.” Olruggio grunted as he sat himself down at his work desk.
He rolled the glyph out on his desk and weighted each corner down with some books.
He began to examine it.
Normally, reduction spells were relatively simple. You shrink something, then you break the glyph to return it to normal.
But that wasn’t what happened this time.
Breaking the outer circle should’ve returned Qifrey to his original state, but it hadn’t.
His current theory was that magic cast on a human body acted differently. He obviously didn’t know enough about forbidden magic to know for sure, but it’s all he had.
His mind went to the obvious solution. “Well, if you’re small, I make you bigger.“
He grabbed a fresh sheet of paper and began drawing.
Expansion magic was annoying but it wasn’t particularly difficult. He’d done it plenty of times when something needed adjusting.
His main issue was how strong to make the spell, casting it was the easy part.
Qifrey’s normal height was around five foot ten. Five foot eleven on days when he was feeling particularly self important and decided to wear boots to give himself an edge up.
Now he was… three? Maybe four inches.
If he undershot it, Qifrey would still be tiny. Or at least considerably shorter than preferred.
If he overshot it…?
Olruggio shuddered at the thought of a massive Qifrey apologising for breaking the roof.
No that wouldn’t do either. He was already enough trouble while tiny.
It had to be exact. Even if Olruggio managed to get Qifrey to a reasonable height for an adult man, if it was different than usual, people would notice.
Even the difference of a few inches could mean a whole new wardrobe, it would raise scarlet red flags which the knights would not hesitate to investigate.
The knights…
Even the thought of them at the moment sent an uneasy chill down Olruggio’s spine.
He’d been trying not to think about them, Qifrey had been trying not to let the girls think about them. However, they realistically only had a few days to return Qifrey to his usual self before they started asking questions.
He was supposed to be getting assigned duties on the weekend and if Qifrey didn’t respond, they’d all be in a lot of trouble.
They could easily come knocking, find a tiny Qifrey and choose to punish every witch in the atelier. But they weren’t going to find a tiny Qifrey, because he was going to fix this.
They had already crossed the boundary into forbidden magic.
Ordinary, Olruggio would’ve walked the other direction, to turn the temptations down.
Tonight, he’d cross it again without hesitation.
Because Qifrey was injured, exhausted and only a few inches tall and that simply wasn’t acceptable for him.
He grabbed a small notebook that Qifrey had bought him awhile back. It was used as a diary for whatever project he was working on at that point in time.
He began scribbling down equations and estimates. Ratios that he hoped would come in useful later littered each page.
One twentieth the size…
He knew the numbers, but it was hard to put math into magic. Too many variables just waiting to mess it all up and probably explode.
He tried drawing a few glyphs and growing random small objects, but nothing was ever just right.
As time went on, everything in the notebook turned illegible.
This was all just a gamble and he certainly wasn’t willing to gamble on Qifrey’s life.
He was normally a patient man but…
“Damnit!” He curses out to nobody in particular. God he needed a drink, clear his head a bit.
He grabbed a bottle of wine from a small compartment in the wall, it was the only place in his side of the atelier that wasn’t warmed by spells, purely to keep the wine chilled.
He didn’t bother getting a glass to drink from, the bottle would suffice.
All the ruckus had stirred Qifrey from his sleep, Olruggio hadn’t noticed just yet.
He turned to a new page and wrote down a couple sentences. “Normal expansion magic deemed unsafe to be used on client. Find other methods.”
“Mm… What are you writing?” Qifrey mumbled sleepily.
“Qifrey- you’re awake?” Olruggio was slightly surprised.
“Don’t blame me, blame the giant that’s shouting and drinking.” Qifrey complained, finally coming out from the scarf.
Olruggio sighed “Well, if you must know. I’m just writing down my conclusion for what I’ve done so far.”
Qifrey lit up “Oh, marvellous! Can I hear?” He enjoyed hearing about Olruggio’s work and he enjoyed hearing about magic.
Since this did technically concern him, Olruggio read out the short conclusion he had written about the unsafe expansion magic.
He looked down at Qifrey and waited for a reaction.
“…So I’m a ‘client’ now?” Qifrey’s eyes narrowed at the label.
“Oh- right, sorry. Force of habit.” Olruggio crossed out the word and replaced it with Qifrey’s name.
“That’s better.” Qifrey grinned, causing Olruggio to roll his eyes.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“I may be small but I still have my standards!”
“Aye, I can see that much.”
Qifrey realised he had gotten off-topic. “Why is the expansion magic deemed unsafe exactly?”
“Hm? Too exact. Difficult to get you back to exactly the right size with it and I’m not willing to do experiments on you to figure this out.”
Qifrey stilled at the word. “Experiments…?”
Olruggio raised an eyebrow “calm down, I just told you that I wasn’t gonna do that.”
“Right, of course. Just the thought of it, you know?”
“I s’pose.”
They sat in silence for a moment.
“Why not draw a small glyph and use it over and over until I’m just right.” Qifrey suggested in passing.
“Thought about that already. Too risky. Any small mistakes would compile up after too many uses and who knows what could happen. I’m not subjecting you to that much magic.”
“Fair enough.”
Olruggio took another swig of wine.
Despite sleeping for so long, Qifrey still looked deeply exhausted. “You ‘right?”
“Those girls are always… so energetic.” Qifrey smiled weakly.
The larger man snorted before bringing the bottle back to his lips “ya think?”
“Energetic but…” Qifrey paused “I am proud of them. This has all been a lot to manage.”
Olruggio considered this for a moment before setting his drink down. “Well I know it wasn’t me they got that from.” He smiled fondly before continuing “I’m always the example of how not to manage things, you’re a different story. ‘Like master, like apprentice’ as they say.”
“Don’t be silly, Olly. It was my clumsiness that caused all this. If I had remembered to knock, this all would’ve been avoided.” Qifrey struggled to stay cheerful now. “I don’t think I’ve been the best example as of late.”
Olruggio didn’t like that look on Qifrey. He struggled to describe it, self pity perhaps. Or maybe shame.
“Now, come on. Don’t speak like that!” Olruggio gave an exasperated sigh before leaning forward onto his elbows and staring at the tiny witch.
“Those girls respect you, you know.”
Qifrey was quiet for a moment, he bit his lip. “I’m their professor, that’s to be expected.” He excused it away.
“That’s no what I mean and you know it.”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly, my ass! Those girls have spent all day fussing over you!”
Qifrey avoided eye contact so Olruggio continued.
“Didn’t you see how they defended you earlier- Do you really think they’d do that for someone they don’t respect and care for…?”
“They care for you, Qifrey.”
…
“I know they do.” Qifrey paused for a beat “I just wish that today had given them a better reason to.”
“Those girls have spent years with you, you’ve taught ‘em magic, cooked for ‘em, listened to all their problems and looked after them day after day! Frankly, I’d be concerned if they didn’t care.”
“Really?” Qifrey asked far too innocently.
“Och, You really are impossible aren’t you?”
“People say that quite often.” Qifrey chuckled.
“Those gossiping assholes are wrong about you in every way but one, you really are confusing.”
Qifrey smirked “Now, when did you get so wise, Olly? Maybe you should take your fifth test and help me out sometimes.
“I’m not wise, you’re just blind to how much people care about you sometimes.”
“Technically I’m only half blind.” He laughed at his own dry humour.
“Oh shut up, not funny.”
“It’s pretty funny.”
Olruggio shook his head fondly “Aye, keep joking’.”
“I intend to, my dear friend.”
They both yawned at the same time, interrupting their conversation.
“You should get some more sleep, Qifrey.” Olruggio suggested.
“Yes, I suppose getting sleep would do us both some good.”
“No can do, I need to stay up and keep working in this.”
Qifrey frowned “Olly…”
“Don’t give me that look.”
“Only if you get some sleep.”
“I need to get you back to normal as soon as possible.”
“You won’t be able to think of anything if you don’t get some rest.”
Olruggio softened slightly. “Look… I promise that I’ll sleep eventually. I just need to try a few more things before I give up for the night.”
“You’ll need to get up early to prepare a nutritious breakfast for the girls-“
“Aye, I can handle that. I cook tired all the time.”
There was a quiet between them “Go back to sleep Qifrey.”
“…Only if you promise not to drink the entire bottle.”
“No promises there.”
“Olly-“
“Fine, half the bottle.”
Qifrey couldn’t win here could he? He resigned himself back to the blanket.
“Good night, Olly.”
“Night, Qifrey.”
The first thing that he processed while he woke was the warmth enveloping him. A familiar warmth which he’d never tire of.
“…Olly?” Came Qifrey’s groggy grumble.
The scarf had shifted in the night, cocooning him in soft folds of fabric. He stayed there for a moment, staring up at the ceiling as his mind caught up with him.
Then he remembered.
Tiny…
Still tiny.
He was still tired but not as bad as he was last night. He began his morning ritual of braiding up his collar, a small part of his routine that always seemed to wake him up.
His ankle throbbed as he carefully sat himself up and peered onto the workbench of his best friend.
Olruggio was still at the desk, but he was fast asleep. Somehow, Qifrey wasn’t surprised. It wasn’t the first time he had found Olruggio like this and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.
The man had slumped forward at some point during the night, one arm folded beneath his head while the other was limp at his side. His neck would be painful later, that was a certain.
The bottle of wine was empty and pages upon pages had been discarded across the desk. The older ones looked neater and the more recent ones had been scratched aggressively with a pen and no longer made any sense.
Several things had been crossed out and regarded as a failure or unsafe.
Olruggio’s notebook also sat open, many entries detailed how last night went.
Judging by the state of things, Olruggio had gotten absolutely nowhere. He had stayed up all night to try fix him and nothing came out of it.
“…You really do care far too much.”