Chapter Text
I’m pretty sure that we can skip to the end of the day, can’t we? I’ll just give you a brief overview of what happened during classes: Mollymauk absolutely does not pay attention to the rest of his classes, Caleb absolutely does pay attention, and Fjord and Caduceus have botany together. It’s very cute watching them hide behind pothos plants and try not to blush at each other.
If you’re wondering where Yasha is (and I’m sure you are) she and Caduceus are walking towards the StormLord and discussing their days. Lorenzo pulls up in his Viper, because of course he has a Viper. He gives Yasha a once over and sneers, “The leather look is over, Yasha- haven’t you been reading your women idols?”
Yasha gives Lorenzo a very unimpressed look. “I saw your big KMart ad the other day. It is very sad that the only thing they featured was your elbow. It’s a… what is it called, Caduceus?”
“A touch break, Yasha.”
“Oh, right. A tough break, Lorenzo.”
Lorenzo looks like he is practically spitting in Yasha’s smiling face. “They’re going to run the rest of me next month,” he hisses as he peels away from them. Yasha continues towards the StormLord, unaffected. Caduceus ties a large silk scarf around his floppy straw hat and sits in the passenger seat.
“He is… not very nice,” Caduceus observes and Yasha laughs.
“I have discovered that most people here are not very nice, Cad.”
Yasha and Caduceus watch Lorenzo’s Viper slow as he passes by Mollymauk and Jester. A crease appears between Yasha’s eyebrows. Lorenzo leans towards Molly and grins greasily, “Need a ride, beautiful?” Molly gives Lorenzo a syrupy smile and cannot get in fast enough. Jester is slower to follow, but seems reluctant to leave Molly alone with the giant. Caduceus pushes the brim of his floppy hat back to watch the scene in front of him better, a small from playing at the edges of his mouth.
“This is a troubling development,” he comments. Yasha doesn’t say anything and instead, she leans over and removes a cassette tape from the glove box and inserts it into the radio. Loud punk rock music fills the car as she pulls away to drop Caduceus off at home.
Fjord is crossing the parking lot as Yasha peels out of her spot, and she almost hits him. She slams on the break and lays on her horn. Caduceus jolts forward in his seat, one hand on top of his hat and the other on the dashboard. Yasha leans out the window and yells at the half-ord, “Watch where you’re walking, please!” It comes out a lot more intimidating than she probably meant it. The background music doesn’t help. Fjord lifts his hands in a placating gesture and takes a couple steps backward. Yasha drives away and Caduceus swivels his head to watch Fjord disappear behind them.
Caleb approaches Fjord worriedly. “Are you alright, mein Fruend?”
Fjord sighs and rubs the back of his head ruefully, “Yeah, just a minor encounter with the barbarian herself.”
Caleb looks in the direction of where Yasha and her large car have disappeared in disbelief. “That is her? That is Mollymauk’s sister?”
“The large, opposing figure herself,” Fjord says with a wave and smile as he leaves.
Caleb is left alone in the parking lot of Zadash University, looking very thoughtful. He’s definitely not hatching a terrible plan, right?
Right?
Well… that’s a thought for another time, at least. Why don’t we look into the Tealeaf-Nydoorin household? It’s… well. It’s a circus, to say the least.
Desmond Moondrop, a bald man in his late 30’s, was sitting at his computer and sketching quickly. His is surrounded by several printed rough sketches of posters for The Fletching and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities. The left side of his face is severely scarred, as if it had been shredded at one point in his youth, and he has a sad and melancholy air about him. Yasha comes home and stands behind him, resting her hands on the older man’s shoulders and watches him work. Yasha tilts her head this way and that before leaning down and murmuring out loud, “I think maybe it should be brighter.” Desmond sighs heavily.
Gustav Fletching, a lanky half-elven man, enters through the front door of the household. He looks very harried as he asks, “Yasha, are you bothering Desmond again?” Molly tosses a grin at Gustav over his shoulder.
“Well, the twins are still at school and if I tried to bother Orna, she would hit me so… yes. Yes, I am bothering Desmond again. He does not mind.”
“Yes, he does,” Desmond pipes up quietly, still bent over his tablet. Gustav rolls his eyes.
“Dinner?”
“In the microwave,” Yasha and Desmond respond at the same time. Yasha laughs and moves to sit in the window seatette. She looks up at Gustav.
“Make anyone cry today,” Gustav asks idly as he flips through the mail. Yasha thinks for a moment before shaking her head.
“It is only four, though. There is probably still time.”
Mollymauk walks in as Yasha says this and Gustav looks up at him suspiciously. “And where have you been?”
Molly eyes Gustav warily before flashing him a winning smile, “Nowhere… Hi, Gustav.” He flounces over and presses a kiss to the older man’s cheek. Gustav rolls his eyes and pats Molly on the face fondly (and a bit exasperatedly).
“Hello, precious,” Molly chooses to ignore the sarcasm in Gustav’s voice and preens instead. Yasha snorts. Gustav, still going through the mail, holds up an envelope addressed to Yasha.
“What’s this? It says Mighty Nein?” Yasha’s face freezes. She reaches out and snatches the letter away from Gustav and rips it open. Her eyes scan the page and several emotions flash across her face. Surprise. Joy. Disappointment.
“Oh,” Yasha says, “It looks like I got in.”
Desmond looks up from his computer and smiles at Yasha, “Congratulations, Yasha, I knew you’d get in.” Gustav puffs up further at this.
“You knew about this? You knew she applied to be in some adventurer’s guild? Galatavinting off and getting herself killed? This could take you off to the other side of the country, Yasha.” Gustav is scowling between Desmond and Yasha.
Yasha shrugs casually, “I know.”
Gustav crosses his arms across his chest, “I thought we had decided you were going to stay here, in Zadash. With the circus.”
Yasha puffs out her cheeks, frustrated, “You had decided that, Gustav.”
Mollymauk is lounging across Desmond’s work desk, tail swishing lazily back and forth as he watches the exchange between Gustav and Yasha. There’s a little frown on his handsome face. “Is there really a question of whether or not we want to stay?”
Yasha’s eyes flicker over to Molly and then back to Gustav.
“Gustav, do you know who dove Molly home today?”
Molly sits straight up, tail rigid behind him. Desmond sighs heavily. “Must we do this now? On top of my desk, no less?”
Gustav looks visibly upset as he asks Molly, “Who drove you home?”
Molly simpers and stands up from Desmond’s desk, much to the man’s relief, and minces over to Gustav. He grabs Gustav’s hand and looks up at Gustav with large scarlet eyes, pleading. He sticks his tongue out at Yasha quickly over his shoulder before turning back to Gustav. “Now, Gustav… please don’t be upset, but there’s this guy… and I think he might ask…” Gustav immediately pulls away from Molly and crosses his arms over his chest.
“No! Absolutely not, Mollymauk Tealeaf. You know you cannot date until your sister does.” Molly turns away from Gustav and throws his hands up in the air dramatically.
“What if Yasha never starts dating?” Yasha gives Molly a tiny smirk and Molly winks at Yasha. They both know how much Molly loves to perform for anyone who will watch him, and Gustav is very easy to wind up. Gustav does not disappoint, as he turns a little red in the face and spins away from Molly.
“Then you’ll never date! And I’ll get some damn sleep at night. You, Mollymauk Tealeaf, are trouble in lavender skin.”
Molly clings to Gustav’s arm and pouts at Yasha, “That’s not fair! She’s a mutant.” Gustav isn’t looking at Molly, so the tiefling winks at Yasha. Yasha rolls her eyes at Molly.
“This is coming from the person who has devoted his diary to horn grooming tips?”
Molly gasps at Yasha, scandalized, “You read my diary? You barbarian!” He launches himself at Yasha, failing his limbs in a poor attempt at a grapple.
Yasha bats him around a little, until they both dissolve into giggles. Molly leans down and kisses Yasha on the forehead. Gustav, desperately wishing he had liquor, walks away towards the kitchen and his dinner. He tosses over his shoulder, “I am serious, Mollymauk- you cannot date until Yasha does.”
Molly looks at Yasha, who suddenly looks sad. “But she doesn’t want to date,” he murmurs. He tucks a stray hair behind her ear.
“Exactly my point,” Gustav’s voice filters from the kitchen.
Yasha leans down and rubs her nose with Molly’s, “And you’re telling me that you’re interested in Lorenzo for the romance he can offer you?”
Molly laughs.
Mollymauk and Yasha obviously pretend to butt heads a lot, but what pair of siblings don’t? There’s clearly a lot of love there. We’ll probably explore it more later. For now, why don’t we skip ahead to Caleb and Mollymauk actually meeting for the first time? I’m sure it’ll go swimmingly, and nothing will go wrong at all. Mollymauk is absolutely going to be enamoured with Caleb at first glance, and Caleb is a natural Cassanova, right?
Right?
The tutoring room at Zadash University was rather small. Caleb is sitting with an empty chair next to him and he’s wiping his sweaty palms on his worn jeans. He’s glancing at the clock on his old flip phone every couple of minutes, even though he doesn’t need to. Caleb has a perfect sense of time. Mollymauk arrives ten minutes late in a flurry of purple curls and colorful clothing. Caleb is immediately tongue tied.
Molly plops himself down in the seat next to Caleb and gives him a wide smile, “Could we perhaps hurry this along, darling? Pike Trickfoot and Scanlan Shorthalt are having their second horrendous breakup on the quad and I would absolutely love to be there for all the messy bits.” Caleb blinks twice at Molly.
“Ah, I think we could start with… pronunciation, if that is alright with you, Mister Mollymauk.” Molly rolls his head back dramatically, mostly to hide the little shive that works its way up his spine at Caleb’s accent and formal tone.
“Not the hissing and spitting and gagging part, please Mister Caleb,” Molly turns pleading scarlet eyes onto Caleb, who flushes bright red.
“Ah, well… How about Zemnian cuisine? Saturday? … Night?” Molly’s face slowly breaks out into a predatory grin at Caleb’s halting question.
“You’re asking me out. That is adorable, Mister Caleb.”
Caleb turns an even brighter shade of red, “Forget it, Scheiße, nevermind-”
Molly puts a manicured hand on Caleb’s shoulder, who jolts under the touch, “No no, it’s just that… I am at the whim and mercy of a particularly stubborn breed of barbarian- my sister. I can’t date until she does, Mister Caleb.”
Caleb cocks his head to the side, contemplative, “She looks as if she could easily get a date…”
Molly shrugs and fingers a lock of his hair. Caleb watches him do so, rather mesmerized. “Yasha is… antisocial.”
“Why?”
Molly shrugs again, but this time he won’t meet Caleb’s eyes as he says, “That’s a bit of an unsolved mystery, darling. She didn’t used to be quite so antisocial in high school, but then…” Molly makes a helpless gesture with his hands, “She seemed to just get sick of it all, I guess.”
Caleb hums an acknowledgement, “That is a shame, Mister Mollymauk.”
Molly looks at Caleb from underneath very long eyelashes and reaches out to play with the wizard’s scarf, “If only we could get her a date…” Caleb blushes again.
“I will- I will see what I can do, Mister Mollymauk.”
Molly beams at Caleb. Caleb has no idea how stupid he is.
It’s always the smart ones, isn’t it?