Work Text:
Molly lay on his slightly damp bedroll underneath the cart, grateful that he had managed to grab it before the rain had started to come down in earnest. Over in the farthest corner away from Molly, Nott was curled in on herself, asleep, or pretending to be so. Molly left her to it, it had been a long day for everyone. He sighed and stared up at the wooden bottom of the cart, thankful that he hadn’t been buried alive in a coffin. Sleeping under the cart wasn’t ideal, but he didn’t feel so closed in that he was likely to panic. He wondered how much gold a proper traveling wagon would cost, especially for a group as large as theirs. It was something to keep in mind, especially if they kept taking on jobs that paid as well as they had been so far.
Molly turned over on his side, feeling out of sorts and mildly annoyed at himself for feeling that way. He knew logically that he himself hadn’t been rejected, everyone had, well, not good reasons to be out in the rain, but reasons nonetheless. Yasha was on watch for starters, which meant of course Beau was out there with her. Jester was sleeping outside because Fjord was, and if having a crush on someone meant sleeping out in the rain with them, Molly would prefer to not have irrational feelings and stay nice and dry, thank you.
Molly’s thoughts turned to Caleb suddenly. Now that he thought about it, not everyone had a reason to be out in the rain. In fact, it was downright odd that Caleb wasn’t underneath the cart, curled up against Nott. Molly looked out into the darkness, wondering just where Caleb was, anyway. Everyone who wasn’t under the cart was leaning against it, but not Caleb.
A pair of eyes, low to the ground, shone in the dark for a moment, and then Frumpkin was under the cart with Molly, looking soaked and forlorn as only a wet cat could. “Mraaaaaah,” Frumpkin complained loudly, and butted his head against Molly’s chest.
“You’re going to wake everyone up,” Molly said, reaching out to pet the familiar and then making a face because petting a wet cat was not pleasant. “You have more sense than Caleb does. Any idea why he won’t come in out of the rain?”
“Mrrrrrrrrr,” Frumpkin grumbled, his tail lashing.
Molly sighed, rolling onto his back and closing his eyes. Caleb was a grown man and capable of making his own stupid choices. So what if out of all of them, Caleb was the one who looked like a stiff breeze would knock him over? A little rain wouldn’t hurt him. Though it was early fall and it was chilly in the mornings, and Caleb totally seemed like the type who would catch cold easily…
Molly felt Frumpkin leap up on his chest and when he opened his eyes it was to Frumpkin’s face just inches from his own.
“Mraaaaaaaah!”
Molly swore as he half sat up in surprise and almost hit his head on the bottom of the cart. “Gods you’re loud. Don’t tell me you want me to go fetch him?”
Frumpkin just stared at Molly, not blinking, tail thumping against Molly’s chest.
Molly sighed again. “I’m getting bossed around by a cat now. I see how it is. All right, all right, I’m going.” He took off his coat so at least one article of clothing he owned wouldn’t get wet, then crawled out into the rain which was, indeed, just as cold and unpleasant as he had thought it would be.
Molly looked around. To his right, Fjord and Jester were sleeping, Fjord sitting up against one of the wagon’s wheels and Jester leaning against him, snoring faintly. She seemed perfectly comfortable, not shivering at all, and Molly wondered about that a little. She seemed to run cold while he himself ran hot, was that normal for tieflings? Had he known the answer to that question, once upon a time?
Molly distracted himself from following that train of thought by glancing over at Yasha, who was sitting on his left, of course not bothered by the rain. Back when they were still with the carnival, Yasha had once fallen asleep outside before a surprise snowstorm and Molly had woken up just in time to see her rise up out of a snowdrift as if the snow had been nothing more than a blanket. She never seemed to get sick from sleeping outside in all weathers either. Molly wondered if that was a barbarian thing or an aasimar thing or just a Yasha thing.
Beau was tucked in close to Yasha’s side, part of Yasha’s shawl covering her. Molly gave Yasha a look of quiet amusement and Yasha looked down at Beau and then gave him a look back. Her expression reminded him of earlier, when Caleb had poofed Frumpkin up onto her shoulder. It was very much a I’m not sure what to do about this look.
“I just… didn’t want her to be cold,” Yasha said softly. “I tried to suggest that she’d sleep better if she was out of the rain and under the cart with you and Nott and she just looked so….” Yasha trailed off, but Molly knew of several words that could probably fill in the blanks. Lonely, probably, or sad, or hurt.
“You are such a soft touch,” Molly gently teased. Who was he to judge though? After all, he was the one who let a cat yell at him until he went out in the rain. “Have you seen Caleb?”
“I’m the soft touch?” Yasha said with just the tiniest quirk of her lips into a smile. She nodded off to her left. “He’s over there.”
“Thank you,” Molly said. “If I don’t get him out of the rain, Frumpkin won’t let me hear the end of it.”
“And that’s the only reason you’re out here?” Yasha said with knowing amusement in her tone, but Molly was already walking off in the direction she had indicated and pretended that he hadn’t heard her and hadn’t been thinking of going out to look for the wizard before his cat had shown up. Instead he squinted into the darkness until he found Caleb, not far away from the wagon at all, curled up among the roots of a tree, in the mud, shivering.
“Oh hells,” Molly whispered as he knelt beside Caleb and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Caleb, you’re just asking to get struck by lightning or something. Do you have a death wish?”
Caleb’s eyes opened slightly, not meeting Molly’s own. “Not anymore, no.”
The answer was so soft that Molly could completely pretend he didn’t hear it over the sound of the rain. He was doing an awful lot of selective listening tonight. “Why on earth are you out here anyway? I figured you would have joined Nott under the cart. Even your cat had the good sense to come in out of the rain.”
“I was talking to Nott,” Caleb said, sitting up but making no move to stand. He was still shivering, and his teeth chattered when he spoke. “And then I wanted to be alone for a little while. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” He blinked slowly. “Did Frumpkin wake you? I am sorry.”
“I wasn’t asleep yet, so no apology needed,” Molly replied, standing back up and offering Caleb his hand. “C’mon back to the cart with me, you’re freezing.”
He expected Caleb to protest and was actually surprised when the wizard took his hand and let Molly pull him to his feet. His fingers were like ice.
“Is there enough room for both of us, underneath the cart?” Caleb asked as he transferred his grip from Molly’ hand to the wet sleeve of Molly’s shirt as they walked back to camp. Molly had to remind himself again that Caleb’s eyes were useless in the dark.
“There is,” Molly said. “Since no one else besides Nott cared to join me. There’s only the one bedroll though, which I insist you take, because I refuse to let you sleep on the cold ground in your wet clothes.”
“What if I refuse to let you sleep on the cold ground in your wet clothes?” Caleb retorted. “I’m not going to kick you out of your own bed, Mollymauk.”
Molly smiled, knowing that Caleb couldn’t see it in the dark. “It’s settled then. We’ll snuggle.”
Caleb’s steps faltered for a moment and Molly paused, turning his head to look at Caleb. His eyes had a hard time distinguishing color in the darkness, but he could swear the human was blushing.
“I suppose that is… practical,” Caleb said as they reached the cart.
“Oh completely,” Molly said, taking off his shirt, because it was easier to do that outside, and because he would be miserable sleeping in it. “You know, skin to skin contact is the best way to keep warm, I’ve heard.”
“You are not getting me out of all my clothes that easily,” Caleb said, but he was taking off his soaking wet coat as he said it, folding it neatly and efficiently before stowing it under the cart. His shirt soon joined it. Molly was glad to see that the wizard didn’t look nearly as thin as he had weeks ago when they had first gone to the bath house in Zadash. Molly found his eyes tracing the new scars on Caleb’s torso, made from arrows mostly. The poor wizard seemed to be a magnet for arrows.
“I guess I’ll just have to try harder,” Molly said with a grin, defaulting to flirting, something that he could completely write off as not being serious.
“Ha,” said Caleb, completely deadpan as he crawled under the cart.
“Good luck,” Molly heard Yasha say softly.
Molly looked over his shoulder. “Just trying to keep the wizard from freezing, Yasha, I don’t need luck for that.”
“Maybe I wasn’t saying it to you.” Yasha turned her attention away from him and back to the storm, but Molly saw a muscle twitch in her jaw like she was holding back a smile.
The sound of Frumpkin meowing greeted Molly as he ducked under the cart. The familiar was standing in front of Caleb, his tail lashing furiously, sounding for all the world like he was scolding the wizard. Caleb, still on his hands and knees, was petting his familiar and murmuring apologies.
“Nice to see I’m not the only one he yells at,” Molly said.
Frumpkin turned away from Caleb, hitting the wizard in the face with his tail as he did so. On his way past Molly, Frumpkin stopped to rub up against Molly’s leg and purr loudly before curling up on Molly’s coat. Oh well, the coat had seen worse things than a wet cat sleeping on it.
“It seems I am in disgrace,” Caleb said with a sigh as he pulled off his boots.
“I’m sure he’ll forgive you once he’s dried out,” Molly said. “Couldn’t you just poof him away when it rains so he doesn’t get wet?”
“Yes,” Caleb said flatly. “But I am selfish and I wished for him to stay with me. He is…. comforting.”
“Nothing wrong with a little bit of selfishness,” Molly said brightly. “There are worse things. Now enough talking. Time for bed.”
“Okay.” Caleb’s voice was soft as he climbed into the bedroll, his back to Molly. When Molly made to join him however, his shoulders tensed slightly, the movement only noticeable because Molly had been alert for any sign that Caleb was uncomfortable with the situation.
“Caleb, if you’re not okay with me sleeping next to you, I understand. You don’t have to do this just because you don’t want to deprive me of my bed. Honestly, it’s fine.” It was the truth. Molly wouldn’t be comfortable, and he’d have to steal his coat back from Frumpkin, but he’d rather that then cause Caleb any anxiety.
There was a long pause. “It has just… been awhile since anyone has slept this close to me. I will be fine. I will tell you if I am not.”
“All right then.” Molly climbed into the bedroll next to Caleb and it wasn’t nearly as cramped as he had feared it might be. It was downright cozy, honestly, except for the fact that the wizard he was curled up against was wet and freezing. “Is it all right if I put my arms around you? Strictly for warmth giving purposes I assure you.” As if Molly hadn’t imagined a scenario similar to this, minus being soaking wet, and in a proper bed, and many other things besides. He immediately cut off that train of thought, because otherwise the situation would go from mildly uncomfortable to downright embarrassing.
“That is fine,” Caleb said softly.
Molly slowly put his arms around Caleb, feeling him shiver against him. “You’ll be warm in no time,” Molly assured him.
“I thank you,” Caleb said, his voice nearly a whisper in the dark.
“You’re very welcome,” Molly said as he closed his eyes. He felt Caleb slowly relax against him and Molly smiled in the dark. This close, Caleb smelled like woodsmoke, which was interesting. Jester said Fjord always smelled like the ocean, and Molly had thought she was simply being poetic, but now he wondered if magic had a smell that was unique to the user. Molly drifted off to sleep, wondering what the scent of his own magic would smell like, mixed with Caleb’s.
**********
“You are beautiful.”
Molly was still dreaming, he had to be. He couldn’t possibly be hearing Caleb whispering endearments to him in Celestial. He had an interesting accent, the words sounded as if they were being rung out by bells made of flame, or like they were being sung by a phoenix, and oh gods he really did have a crush on Caleb, and it was turning him into a poet.
“You are beautiful and if I was not a coward I would kiss you.”
Molly felt his heart speed up as he imagined Caleb leaning over him. Caleb didn’t know that Molly spoke Celestial, that he could understand him. Molly could pretend to still be asleep or that he didn’t understand Caleb and everything could go on as it had and nothing would be complicated. But what was life, if not complicated, and you only lived once, as the saying went.
Molly opened his eyes. Caleb was indeed leaning over him, blue eyes the color of the sky at dawn, which was what time it was if Molly had to guess, though that was the furthest thing from his mind.
“I could be brave enough for the both of us, if you like.” Molly said to Caleb, the sound of his words in Celestial like the tone left behind by a bell just after it’s been rung.
Caleb blushed so fast that for a moment it was if the man had caught fire. “You— you know Celestial?”
“Yasha taught me,” Molly said with a smile. “I liked the idea of the contrast of it.”
“Of course you would,” Caleb said. “So umm— does that mean, you wouldn’t mind if I kissed you?”
“I would very much not mind if you kissed me,” Molly said, and no sooner had the words left his mouth than Caleb’s lips were on his.
When Molly had thought about Caleb kissing him, because he had thought about it, he had imagined that the wizard would be shy, that the first kiss itself would be trembling, chaste. This was heated and passionate, just the tiniest bit clumsy, as if Caleb hadn’t kissed anyone in a very long time. Molly had never been more glad to be wrong about something in his life.
“Oh it’s about time!”
Both Caleb and Molly froze and then looked over at Nott, who they had completely forgotten was under the wagon with them. Her yellow eyes were wide and she looked fondly exasperated.
“About time for what?” That was Fjord, sounding like he had just woken up.
“Caleb finally kissed Molly!” Nott called out.
Caleb groaned and hid his head in Molly’s neck.
“Fucking finally,” Beau grumbled.
Molly could hear Yasha laughing softly, a rare sound.
“Awwww, I missed it!” Jester peered under the cart. “Nott, was it cute? I bet it was cute.”
“Mraaaaaah!” Frumpkin meowed from his place on Molly’s coat, tail twitching lazily in amusement. Molly was sure he was imagining it, but the cat looked smug.
Molly started to laugh, unable to help himself. After a moment, he felt Caleb’s shoulders shake with laughter as well. Eventually they would both have to get out from under the cart and continue onward down the road, but Molly contented himself with snuggling Caleb for a few more precious moments.