Chapter Text
The instant they step foot into the store, Fjord gets bored.
Their party had split up to go shopping. He, Beau, and Jester were in the general store, buying more supplies for the next leg of their journey. Molly, Caleb, and Nott were off searching the consignment stores for any interesting items that might be there.
He wanders away from Beau and Jester, heading further into the shop. Amongst the usual mess of food, booze, healing supplies, clothing, spare parts, weak weapons, and jars filled with dubious items, he finds a small, two-shelf bookcase tucked away in the back corner. It was crammed full of books.
He tilts his head briefly to listen. Jester and Beau were seriously debating the merits of salt pork versus salt beef. If he recalls correctly, the first item on their shopping list, scratched in by Nott, was “meat.” He supposes he has more than enough time to peruse the shelves. As he kneels down, tilting his head to the side to examine the spines, he takes a moment to wonder what he’s doing. While he does like to read, he’s never gone actively shopping for a book.
Most of the books on the shelves were thin, simple manuals--books on identifying herbs, on brewing ales, on combating pests in the field. He ignores all the thinner ones and pulls out the three thickest tomes in the shelves. One purported to be the “factual account of one man’s journey through savage territory.” He flips through, and it’s filled with droning descriptions of scenery and the author’s musings on the nature of Man. He grimaces and puts it back on the shelf.
The next book is a history and examination of some sort of druid clan called the Ashari. It had some descriptions of their ritual and magics. He sets it aside for a price check.
The third book is heavy and gilt-edged. He flips it open and feels a twinge of disappointment--it’s written in a language unknown to him. Upon further inspection, however, the book contains sketches that look like the ritual spells Caleb used sometimes, so he decides to take a gamble and snatch it up.
A quick glance-through of the shelves reveal nothing else interesting, so he takes the two books and heads to the counter, passing Jester, fiddling with some items, and Beau, staring intently at a shelf of hardtack. They both look up at him as he passes, watching with puzzled stares as he drops the books on the counter. “Pardon me, how much are these?”
The shopkeeper looks down at the books. “Ten and one,” she says, gesturing to the golden one and then the Ashari one. Despite the lightness of his purse and the lack of yellow glint, Fjord doesn’t bat an eyelash as he pulls out eleven gold and drops them into the shopkeeper’s palm.
All of the sudden, Jester appears by his side. “Hey, Fjord, what are you doing with those?”
Beau appears on his other side, leaning in to read the book titles. “You’re not much of a reader, usually--and since when could you read...whatever that language is?”
Looking down at the books, Fjord blinks. What was he doing with these? He picks them up slowly, looking down at them in his hands. Then he is hit with a sudden, complete understanding of why he bought them. “Well...they’re gifts,” he tells the girls, who exchange looks.
Before they could badger him more on the books, he walks out the door, calling over his shoulder, “I’m heading back to the inn. Have fun shopping!” He at least tries to make it seem like he’s not fleeing.
Back at the inn, he burns the time waiting for his friends by speaking to the bored-looking innkeeper. This small waypoint town had very little news of interest, so he pretends to listen intently to the innkeeper’s gossip about mister so-and-so’s cows while jumping every time the door opens.
He peels away from the innkeeper when his friends finally walk in. Apparently the five of them had met up on the way over. He grins and gives a wave, standing up from the barstool he was sitting at and walking back to the big table they had claimed as their own.
Watching Caleb and Beau showing each other their purchases and discussing which things should go where and who should carry what, he’s reminded of the two books sitting under his chair. He bends down, scoops them up and walks over to Caleb, hiding them behind his back. “Hey, I found some things in the general store.”
Caleb turns around with a chuckle. “You, shopping? You’ll forgive me if I doubt that, I hope.”
Fjord laughs as well, pointing at him with one hand. “I resent that. But, no, seriously, I was at the general store and I found some things that I thought you might like…” He pulls out the books and presents them, suddenly feeling a twinge of anxiety.
Caleb...stares at the books. And stares. And stares some more. Fjord’s starting to feel more than a little bit awkward. He coughs and stutters, “I mean, I wasn’t really sure what you would like, so I just grabbed the ones that caught my attention, and I don’t even know what the golden one’s about, since it’s in a different language, but I know you’re like, a savant, and…”
“You bought me books.”
His soft voice, filled with something precariously close to wonder, stops Fjord’s babbling immediately. “Well...yeah.”
Suddenly, the books are snatched out of his hands, and Caleb is looking as though Fjord had brought him the moon on a silver platter, looking back and forth between the books, turning them this way, flipping them open and shut as he glances them over. “You bought me a book on the Ashari and a ritual spell book. This one should be at least twenty gold total! And you bought me two! ”
“D-do you like them?” Fjord asks, still uncertain, rubbing the back of his neck. It’s starting to heat up a little.
“Do I like them? Do I like them? ” Caleb is nearly shouting with glee--this is the most animated he’s ever seen the usually quiet wizard. “Fjord--” Caleb shakes his head, looking exasperated.
Then he abruptly stands up on his tiptoes and plants a firm kiss onto Fjord’s cheek.
While Fjord is still reeling from the unexpected contact, Caleb leans back to look him in the eye. “Fjord, thank you, thank you, thank you,” he effuses, then goes dancing--literally dancing--off. He manages to reach the chair closest to the corner before plopping down, opening up the Ashari book, and disappearing behind it.
Fjord can’t do anything but stare. The heat that started in his neck had flared up to engulf the rest of his face. He’s sure he’s blushing that unattractive shade of dark green he turns. Without thinking, his hand drifts up and gently touches the cheek Caleb kissed. The ghostly sensation of his lips linger in the edge of his mind as he tries to process what just happened.
A slow clap starts up behind him. Molly and Beau were looking at him, strangely identical shit-eating grins on their faces, while Jester and Nott were staring at him with wide eyes--one with glee, one with shock. Jester cups her hand around her mouth and stage-whispers, “He kissed you!” pointing at Caleb with her other hand.
Fjord whispers back the first thing that popped into his head. “Did--did he just actually...or was I hallucinating….?”
Beau gives him a slow nod. “It happened. Four witnesses, right here.”
Molly snorts. “Maybe I should go shopping as well if that’s all it takes to get a smooch from him.”
A white-hot jolt of jealousy pierces his gut. He opens his mouth even though he’s utterly uncertain what he wants to say, but Nott pipes up. “I’ve given him books plenty of times, and he doesn’t kiss me. Well, sometimes he does. Well, loads of times.”
All right. He can already tell this conversation was going to get out of hand. He shakes his head, filing away the memory to take out and examine later, and holds up a hand to fend off any further discussion. “I’m...gonna go get drinks. What do y’all want?”
As he walks away with their drink orders in mind, he realizes that he made a bad decision. The instant he turns his back furious whispering starts up. They were definitely gossiping behind him.
But as he waits for the barkeep to serve the drinks, he takes the moment of relative privacy to drift his hand back up to his face and smile. Maybe he should buy Caleb some more books.