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The sun barely peeked through scattered clouds, and right now, Karel found himself in mid-afternoon hazy shade of a passing high cirrus. No coat, just pants and barefoot, as he sunned on a smooth boulder. It was a ways from the orphanage, down a game trail, where he'd been practicing a while, but then rested, taking care of the lightness his skin had taken being clothed so often and its finally coming out of the chill of early spring. He stretched almost luxuriously in the still quiet of straggling woods, underbrush coming back to life, and the soft essence of wildflowers in bloom. Traces of sweat had begun to dry on him. His sword, cleaner than he was, leaned near enough to be reached, but sheathed.
It wasn't quite a doze, but it was enough that he didn't immediately hear approaching footsteps until the crack of a branch underfoot. Karel sat abruptly, eyes darting to land on Lucius, and they relaxed somewhat.
"You- out here.. didn't suppose you'd venture so far," he mumbled, looking away, then back.
Lucius drew closer, though almost torn between averting his eyes, or attempting to act naturally. "Chad saw you'd left this way earlier, I had wondered."
"Wanted some time without lessons," he answered, not tersely, but distantly. There had been some interruptions to his normal training, involving teaching footwork to a pair of mop-headed mage boys.
"Do you mind other company?"
At the question, Lucius couldn't help but notice how Karel faced away before answering.
"I do not."
He slid over a bit on the rock, but did lay back down. Wide and flat, there was room for both, and Lucius sat, back to Karel.
Karel rolled his head so that he was speaking towards Lucius, voice more relaxed, but with almost a teasing note. "The air, it does one good."
Lucius hazarded to turn, eyes alighting on the crisscross of faint scars, mars on skin that was even since that morning, taking on slightly more color. His gaze fell to one in particular, and his hand moved almost unbidden, stopping just short of touching the shockingly pale one that snaked up Karel's left hip, dipping into his abdomen. The flesh was sunken in there slightly, and had the stretched, fragile look as though it were far more fresh than it was.
"I do not- I don't recall this-" he said.
"You've done work higher.. it was much less important than putting others back together." Karel didn't move to cover it. If anything, he stretched a bit, showing more as pants crept down his hips from the motion.
"When did you get such a wound?" Lucius still drew short of touching it.
"A foolish dalliance.." Karel muttered darkly. "I have few losses, but a squadron of Bern's finest.. or perhaps just their numbers."
"Wyvern riders?" Lucius asked. His voice betrayed his shock. "You tried to- how many?"
Gold eyes fixed him with a wild look, as though reliving it. "Too many. You've seen.. what my blade can do in war. But perhaps one against many. Fortune favored that they grew bored with a dead body and drew on to other exercies."
Lucius brought his other hand to his mouth. He didn't realize the one coming to rest against the too-smooth flesh of the scar until the warmth sunk in. "You didn't come," he said, withdrawing quickly.
Karel caught his wrist. "You can, if you like. I won't deny your fascination."
Still frozen, Lucius murmured it again. You didn't come.
Karel released. "I hadn't the life left in me. I managed to a village.. After, it is only scattered memories."
Lucius was silent for several long beats, until he did cautiously press his fingers into the dip in skin that slid across the bone and dipped between firm abs, swept up with such a driving force that he could only imagine, with great pain, the original state of the injury.
Karel's eyes slipped closed and lips parted in exhale. He didn't see the motion as fingers were replaced with lips.