Chapter Text
Molly had fucked up.
Molly had fucked up more than he usually fucked up. Which was saying something.
Of course Caleb would try to be more gentle with waking him up. Of course Caleb would figure out how to ease him out of sleep, even when Yasha still managed to startle him.
He was an idiot for thinking that he was dreaming of Caleb.
Even if he had been dreaming of the wizard quite a lot lately, Molly was still an idiot. Usually he was able to at least function around other people. Not let them know that he’d been having dreams about them, dreams that clearly went beyond whatever the two of them had out in the real world. Ever since Caleb had called his purring "cute," Molly had been dreaming of him. Infrequently, but enough.
And now he’d made the wizard so uncomfortable that Caleb couldn’t even look at him.
The expression about letting the earth rise up and swallow you whole started to sound more welcoming, even though it meant being buried alive. Maybe it wouldn’t be quite as awful the second time around.
In the beginning it had seemed so much like a dream. Caleb had just let Molly pull him down to stroke at his freckled cheek like it was any other nighttime vision. He had been a bit more enamored with the wizard than intended as of late, especially after finding out that Caleb would fall asleep in roughly thirty seconds if he was leaning on Molly while he purred.
It was adorable, and Molly might have taken advantage of his newfound powers to convince Caleb to sleep more. Seated beside Molly in the cart with Frumpkin in his lap usually got the wizard another well needed hour or two of sleep, instead of how he usually strung himself out by copying spells until he couldn’t keep his eyes open.
At first he earned his fair share of glares from Nott, but when it became clear what he was doing she backed off. Even she knew the wizard needed some goddamn rest.
And the dreams were nice.
They were nothing like the confusing flashes of hyper-realistic memories that filled him with dread. Dreaming of blood and rituals and unblinking red eyes wasn’t his idea of a restful night’s sleep. So when he dreamt of Caleb curling up with him and just snuggling closer than normal?
Vastly preferable.
But now Molly had ruined any chance of making his dreams a reality, of fostering anything between the two of them, all by being a dumbass. It wasn’t surprising exactly, just frustrating. Especially when he was really starting to like the scruffy wizard. Under all the hurt was a silly bastard that Molly was dying to have a drink with.
That was rather difficult when the man in question hadn’t made eye contact with him in over a week.
The best part of the whole ridiculous situation was that Caleb had avoided taking watches. By avoiding any possible interaction with Molly, he was accidentally getting an extra two hours of sleep each night. He’d been acting like that for almost two weeks, and the worst part was no one seemed to notice.
Caleb was just like that. He avoided people, he didn’t talk to anyone but Nott unless prompted, and he didn’t seem to be doing anything out of the ordinary. Not even Beau seemed to realize that Molly was being avoided, and it was eating him alive.
Molly resolved to do something nice for the wizard. Some kind of peace offering.
And as luck would have it, the proprietor of the local magic shop was quite grumpy. A downright asshole, really, but Molly wasn’t splitting hairs. He was too busy slipping a spell scroll up his sleeve and replacing it with a roll of regular parchment while the man wasn’t looking. With the man too busy catching Jester painting a dick on his sign, Molly snuck away from the shop, unnoticed.
Of course no one knew that this silent tension was happening at all, since Caleb wasn't actually acting out of the ordinary. Yasha knew something was wrong with Molly, but at this point he was also resolutely not looking at Caleb, so it was anyone’s guess as to what was irritating him. He’d probably break down and tell her eventually, but he wasn’t prepared to talk about it yet.
What was he supposed to say?
“I have weird dreams about cuddling our sad wizard and they’re nice because they’re not nightmares?”
“I upset Caleb by practically jumping him, totally on accident, and now he hates me?”
“I’m going insane because emotions are stupid and I just want Caleb to fucking stop pretending I don’t exist!”
He kept his mouth shut.
And the next night he got his chance, when Caleb quickly spoke up about taking the last watch so he could transcribe some spells in the light of the dawn. Molly raised a brow about the light, since the wizard could command fire better than anyone he’d ever met, but everyone else seemed too exhausted to care. Maybe they thought he was finally getting worried about straining his eyes, reading in the dark, as unlikely as that seemed. Maybe they were tired enough not to read into every motive of the wizard like Molly had been for the past few weeks.
Molly didn’t press in front of everyone, just managing to take the watch right before Caleb. This time, he’d wake up the wizard instead. He could give him the peace offering, and hopefully things could go back to normal. Maybe Caleb would joke with him again.
He missed that.
Caleb didn’t back out of taking the watch, and Molly could feel the blue eyes on him for the first time in weeks. They looked cautious, as they always did, and Caleb looked down quickly as Molly caught him staring. But there was a sliver of curiosity there. It was definitely a good start.
His watch went by quickly after Fjord woke him up, the scroll twirling in his fingers as he wondered exactly what to say to Caleb. Telling the truth wasn’t his strong suit. Apologizing wasn’t really either.
Neither was figuring out exactly when his watch ended. He’d err on the side of caution tonight, to let Caleb sleep for a few more minutes. Totally not to avoid the confrontation. That would be ridiculous, since it was inevitable.
But soon he could see the sky start to lighten just a tad and he couldn’t put it off any longer.
“Hey, Caleb?” he said softly, bending not to touch the jumpy wizard but to give Frumpkin a little scratch. With the quiet voice and the cat stirring on his chest, Caleb’s eyes blinked open.
Bandaged arms rose up to hold the cat snug to his chest. “My turn?”
“Yup,” Molly nodded, wondering how to start this. His words caught in his mouth just like every time he tried to think this through. In the end he went with, “Here.”
Caleb was still sitting up, coming face to face with the scroll. The sleep flew from his eyes as they were blown wide. Molly tried not to think about how lovely the shade of blue was in this dark light, just illuminated by the fire. “Is that-”
“I nicked it for you. As an apology. I didn’t mean to make things weird.”
Dropping Frumpkin who collapsed on the bedroll with a pitiful meow, Caleb took the scroll and unfurled it quickly. His eyes flashed with some spell as he took in the symbols. “You… You stole this for me?”
“As an apology, yeah,” Molly said, rolling back on the balls of his feet and giving Frumpkin another scratch around the ears.
Blue eyes flew over the arcane glyphs, enraptured. “Do you have any idea how wonderful this is? How expensive this is?”
“I didn’t really ask as I was taking it, no. But it was in a locked box under the counter, so I thought it was worth it.” Molly was pleased. This was already a better conversation than he’d had with Caleb over the past few weeks.
And then Caleb caught his hand and squeezed it. “This is worth well over three hundred gold pieces. Perhaps even closer to five hundred.”
“Is… Is that good?” Molly asked, surprised at the sudden contact. He wasn’t used to this. Caleb never reached out to touch anyone but Nott, unless he was looking through Frumpkin’s senses and trying not to step in a hole or trip over a root.
The red hair shook wildly as Caleb nodded, shining in the golds of the firelight. “It’s a very powerful spell. A fire spell I’ve had my eye on for quite a while.”
Molly’s hand instinctively tensed. He had no idea what Caleb’s past was with fire, but he probably would have grabbed a different spell if he’d known what any of the gibberish sigils meant. Caleb seemed to realize he was still holding Molly’s hand then and quickly let go. “I…” Molly wasn’t sure what he was trying to ask. “Is… Is the fire okay? I know back in Alfield…”
It was when he’d gotten the first hint that there was much more to the scruffy wizard than met the eye. When he’d felt an urge to look out for him, to make sure he was okay.
Caleb looked away, down at the scroll, then into the campfire. He waved a hand over it, making the dwindling embers roar back to life.
“Fire… It can be dangerous. It can cause pain and destruction and death. But it can help too. It can cause comfort, and warmth, and provide a place to help sustain life. You can’t hate the flames, just how they’re used. Who they’re used by.”
His stare never left the campfire, but he looked a million miles away before he finally shook his head and turned back to Molly. “Thank you for this. It’s a very nice gesture, but you didn’t have to apologize.” Caleb stood and Molly stood with him, moving to go to his bedroll.
He didn’t argue. He didn’t really have any words.
Before he went to lie down, Caleb squeezed his shoulder once, and said softly, almost so that Molly couldn’t hear him over the crickets and the crackling campfire, “I think I understand. If I could dream of you instead of my nightmares, I would.”
Molly gave a stilted nod, taken aback by how well spoken the wizard was and still at a loss for his own words. The quiet one who hid in the back and never showed his face was hiding a silver tongue. No wonder people bought Caleb’s lies more than Molly’s bullshit. He could never really compete with a wordsmith.
His mind was racing as he slipped back into his bedroll, trying to sort out every strange feeling he had about the situation. He sighed and rolled over, realizing he’d never get to sleep this way. Exhaustion was waiting for him in the morning. An inevitable end to a vaguely stressful and very confusing night.
Until Frumpkin butted against his chin, startling his eyes open as the cat burrowed into the bedroll with him and curled up on his chest, beginning to purr. He almost felt bad for doing this to Caleb; it was like a sleep spell. Instead he was just grateful, letting sleep take him and hoping to dream of confusing wizards.