Chapter Text
Mollymauk Tealeaf
Caleb Widogast was rather like a star, blinding and brilliant and just completely enrapturing. Molly felt a bit like a moon in his orbit, drawn in by the quiet magnetism and shy smiles and quiet laughs. Now, Molly wasn’t entirely sure if stars actually had moons, but he thought that’s what Caleb said. That one of the stars they were looking at was really a planet, or something like that.
It was hard to remember, especially since Molly was busy stealing looks at Caleb the entire time. How his bright blue eyes reflected the starlight, how happy he looked lying on his back on a bedroll with the rest of the Mighty Nein in the middle of nowhere, how much he’d grown, it was a sight to behold.
Could anyone blame him for looking?
The man’s whole face lit up when he got to teach them something new. And so Molly found himself asking about the constellations each night over the past months, especially the ones with myths attached to them.
Whenever Yasha was off doing her thing with the Stormlord, Molly made a point of staying on watch with Caleb and learning about a new constellation. Maybe, if he was a different person, he would have written down some of the stories so he could avoid his shitty memory mucking up all the details. But he could still barely look at a page for more than five minutes without going mad, and to be honest that was being generous.
And he might have been holding onto the hope that Caleb would always be around to correct him. Not condescendingly, or rudely, but with a quiet assurance in his own memory, and occasionally a few new details that Caleb neglected to mention the first time around.
The long and short of it, really, was that Molly was still just as enamored with the wizards as he had been when they finally broke Caleb out of the Sanatorium, if not more. He’d gotten shovel talks from Nott, and surprisingly Beau, who grew attached after the two of them bonded over being children of the Empire. They were a formidable duo, and Molly didn’t want to be on the sour side of either.
But he wasn’t going to push.
Caleb was still dealing with a lot, and Molly would likely still be enamored whenever he got around to being interested in that sort of thing.
Yes, maybe when Molly had one too many to drink he would lean a bit too much on Caleb’s shoulder. And whenever they fought anything, Molly found himself standing protectively in front of the wizard. And there was that embarrassing time he tried Skein while sitting next to Caleb on the couch and almost cried when he saw all of Caleb’s beautiful copper red and bright blue disappear under the monochromatic effects of the drug. He still refused to tell people why he was upset about that, claiming he didn’t remember.
But Caleb wasn’t ready yet.
Caleb laid on his back, not looking away from the stars as he spoke. It wasn’t the best way for him to take a watch, with or without dark vision, but Molly could see that sometimes his eyes slipped into Frumpkin’s, who was off somewhere on the perimeter. Not that he was watching Caleb’s eyes or anything. “Nott says you’re in love with me. It’s getting old.”
“I’m sorry, dear,” Molly said softly, trying not to feel too crushed.
Caleb shook his head. "I wish she would stop attempting to meddle in my love life. It's nonexistent, and it should stay that way."
"Like Cad?" Molly asked. He could accept that. That would be alright, even though it would be disheartening. They still had this. Whatever this was.
But Caleb shook his head. "No, no. Just. No one would be interested in me like that, not anymore. Not really. And I wouldn't be good for anyone, not now."
"Don't be so hard on yourself," Molly said, reflexively catching the self-deprecating comment as they'd all been trying to do. "It's fine if you don't want a relationship now, or don't quite feel healthy enough for one yet, but that doesn't mean no one's interested."
Caleb sighed softly, which was already an improvement from his usual deflection, but Molly could still see it in his face.
Swallowing sharply from his place on his bedroll, Molly looked into the fire, poking one log closer to the dying flames with a stick. With a wave of Caleb's hand it caught, crackling in the silence of the night.
It would probably kill him, not knowing. Not now. He rather thought Caleb already knew, before tonight.
"She's right, you know."
"What do you mean?" Caleb asked, still not looking up.
Molly stared into the flames. "Nott."
"I don't understand."
Molly chewed his lip for a moment. Straightforward was the way to go here. He knew that, but the urge to fall back on his bullshit was strong. Still, he tried his best to not do that with Caleb. Not at times like this, when Caleb would find out the truth anyways. This was really the only thing he’d been hiding from the man anymore, and he hadn’t been doing that deliberately either.
"I am actually in love with you. Doesn't have to mean anything," he added quickly, "but you're far from a lost cause."
He could feel eyes on him. Pretty, blue eyes that he loved to get lost in. Eyes he couldn’t meet, not now. Not while he was holding his breath.
Caleb was quiet for a long time. “After everything?”
“Yeah,” Molly said, poking the fire again though it didn’t need it. He hadn’t had to sit around a shoddy campfire ever since he started traveling with Caleb.
“Everything I’ve done?”
Molly could practically hear the gears turning, though he was still, resolutely, not looking at Caleb. “And everything we’ve done together? Yeah. Like I said, it doesn’t have to change anything, I don’t mind-”
He shut up as he heard Caleb stand, ready to deal with Caleb taking a minute, getting some space.
But Caleb sat down next to him by the fire instead.
It wasn’t that odd, the two of them sitting near each other. It wasn’t even that odd for it to be on one of their bedrolls, though Molly was usually the one to instigate that. Traveling was rough and the ground was rougher. Why not get cozy?
But this was new, with everyone sober and the rest of the party still asleep. If Molly had been smarter about things, he probably would have saved his confession until the end of their watch, so they didn’t have to sit in silence for an hour afterwards. As ever, Caleb would have to be the smart one, despite how he would insist Molly was bright and talented in ways that outshined all his book smarts. It was a twisted compliment, when Caleb praised others while admonishing himself, though Molly couldn’t say he didn’t like it when Caleb called him nice things.
Of course, they didn’t mean anything, especially when Caleb was putting himself down as he did it.
Caleb settled himself beside Molly and carefully put a hand over Molly’s scarred, tattooed one. Turning their fingers over, Molly wound their hands together, thankful at least for the contact in the awkward silence he’d created. Squeezing Molly’s hand gently, Caleb leaned back and looked up at the night sky.
“I think instead of asking how, or why, or the thousands of other questions I could come up with right now,” Caleb said, taking a deep slow breath, “I’ll be just grateful.”
Molly looked over, now unable to tear his eyes away, as Caleb looked up at the stars, reflecting the whole world in his eyes.
“I’ll be grateful, because I love you too.”
Feeling the breath punched out of him, less like a relief and more like a sucker punch, Molly just stared a moment. “Oh.”
“Ja,” Caleb whispered, his hand a steady pressure on Molly’s.
Molly looked up at the stars too. “Well that’s something, isn’t it?” he asked, a grin spreading across his face as he heard Caleb’s breathy chuckle. “We don’t have to do anything before you’re ready, or anything at all. This is nice too.”
“Do you want more?” Caleb asked softly.
Molly turned back, finding Caleb, blushing darkly enough that he could see it fully in the dim light of the fire. “If you’d have me.”
“I’d be a fool not to,” he said, barely a whisper.
He leaned forward, just a few inches, just to see that blush a little better.
Caleb gently cupped Molly’s cheek, asking, “You’re sure?”
~
Caleb Widogast
Caleb ran his hand over Molly’s tattooed, scarred cheek, trying to read some emotion in the dim light and those red eyes, bright like the embers of the fire. He was almost afraid to ask.
“You’re sure?”
He had spent months learning all the tells of their little group. Molly, under the flourishes and color, was actually the easiest to read. Caleb had memorized the way his tail flicked in annoyance, occasionally knocking things over like an irate cat, or how the amount he narrowed his eyes was almost exactly correlated to how fed up he was getting and about to use Infernal to blind whoever was bothering him.
He’d taken time to memorize the way his eyes crinkled around the edges when he smiled a real, no bullshit smile, and how his tail would sway lazily in low little sweeps when he was very pleased. Molly was doing that now, leaning into Caleb’s touch and inching even closer.
“Want me to show you how sure I am?” he asked, a smile dancing on his lips, one that matched his eyes and was more mirthful and genuine than Caleb ever expected with that flirting tone.
Caleb hadn’t really allowed himself to look, to stare, just at Molly’s lips until that moment. Sometimes the thought had sprung, unbidden, into his head, usually late at night, but now he allowed himself to look fully. The tiefling put some moisturizing balm on them each night, something he’d bought with Jester along the road somewhere, and occasionally offered to share it with Caleb when it got particularly windy. He always declined, no matter how chapped his lips were, knowing it would only add to the curiosity.
A curiosity that seemed to be on its way to being fulfilled.
He felt frozen, staring at full, purple lips, watching them part just slightly and spread into a wide grin, “I’m not a mind reader, Caleb, as much as I think I can guess what’s on your mind.”
Caleb’s eyes flicked back up to Molly’s, crinkled even more around the edges and even closer than before. “And what’s your guess?”
The grin widened even more, and Molly moved close enough to almost brush their noses together. “May I kiss you, and show you how sure I am that I’ve been in love with you ever since we shared that little bed in Port Damali?”
Eyes wide, but trying not to deny himself this good thing, this beautiful, wonderful, amazing thing, Caleb just nodded.
The balm Molly used on his lips tasted like cinnamon.
Molly always smelled a bit like sandalwood and other incense, and somehow it was even better this close. But Molly started to pull away after a moment, too quickly, keeping things a bit too sweet. Caleb’s hand remained firm and kept him in place.
The soft, surprised sound Molly made as Caleb kissed him back, deeper, was one he was very grateful to be able to hold for the rest of his life.
He only released him when he began to feel a bit lightheaded, almost euphoric from everything that was happening. It was better than he ever could have dreamed, because this was real. This was real, Molly wanted this, and Caleb could allow himself to have this.
Molly rested his forehead against Caleb’s, still grinning. “Believe me yet?”
Caleb couldn’t help but smile back just a bit. “I might need more convincing.”
The hands that threaded in his hair then made Caleb let out a frankly embarrassing sound as he was once again overwhelmed by soft touches, cinnamon, and incense. Molly pulled back with a more tender smile, hand still tangled in Caleb’s hair, “Careful, love. Unless you want to go public with this by waking everyone up at three in the morning.”
“Four fifteen,” Caleb corrected, moving to lean into the crook of Molly’s neck. Without even pausing to think about it, Molly wrapped his arms around Caleb. He melted into the embrace, still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he could just do this, presumably, whenever he wanted.
Molly smothered a yawn and hugged him a little tighter as he mumbled into the crown of Caleb's head, “High time for bed then, I think. You go lie down, I’ll wake Nott and Beau.”
He failed to hold back a yawn himself, calling back Frumpkin to curl up with in his bedroll and absolutely not tugging it a bit closer to Molly’s. Just adjusting. If he ended up a bit closer to Molly, it was just incidental.
Lying back in the sleeping bag as Nott and Beau took over the watch for the evening, Caleb saw Nott wink at him. Beau was grumbling and fishing out a small pouch of coin and handing it to Nott.
He rolled his eyes and turned over, facing Mollymauk as the tiefling snuggled back down into his own bedroll.
How had he ever managed to get so lucky?
Gently bridging the gap between them, he reached across and linked their hands in the dark. Molly smiled, another soft private smile just for him, and gently squeezed his hand. His eyes grew heavy and he fell under the spell of the crackling flames and the warm, steady pressure on his hand.
This.
Caleb could get used to this.