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During winters in Faerghus, rainy days were rare.
While most found them a hassle—it made the already muddy soil even muddier, and it didn’t look as pretty as snow—Sylvain believed they were blessings straight from the goddess.
Not only did water falling from the sky give him an excuse to stay inside, it also let him remain cozily in bed until breakfast.
Even better, that meant Felix also had to stay. Since his beloved training grounds were ruined, he couldn’t leave at dawn like he always did to practice his swordsmanship.
Sylvain woke to the gentle pattering of rain on the roof, and he grinned to himself as he stretched in his warm covers. Despite the chill of the wintry air, he didn’t feel very cold. He couldn’t feel cold, not with two cozy blankets draped over him. One of these blankets was Felix, who was positively unconscious as he lay asleep on Sylvain’s chest.
Felix didn’t snore. He didn’t move much when he slept, either. As Professor Hanneman had once told them, “opposites attract;” if Felix hadn’t been lying on top of him, Sylvain would probably be underneath the bed when he woke up, somehow. He tossed and turned like half a worm.
This, of course, was not the only matter that made Felix and Sylvain polar opposites. Sylvain loved to flirt, even with Felix on his arm—his partner, however, kept only to himself, if he did not keep to Sylvain. Felix also didn’t like getting cuddly in public, which was one of Sylvain’s favorite pastimes.
Today, there was no going into public, at least while it was raining so heavily. The nearby village Sylvain had often cantered off to in pursuit of ladies was many a mile away. Sylvain slipped his arms under Felix’s and hugged him absentmindedly, closing his eyes.
Then, his head was knocked upwards and the bridge of his nose hit the headboard as Felix jerked awake, the top of his head having just collided with Sylvain’s chin.
“Ow!” Sylvain cried, clutching his nose, and Felix looked around, dazed. He was also a light sleeper, unlike Sylvain, so his partner’s embrace must have shocked him awake.
“Huh…? What...Sylvain! What happened?”
“You nearly sent me to the healers’ tent is what happened,” Sylvain grumbled, and he squinted through heavy eyelids to see Felix rubbing his amber eyes as he sat up, his sleepwear loose on his lithe frame. Sylvain couldn’t look at him without proper clothing for too long, or else he would start to feel silly.
Felix’s tired gaze landed on Sylvain’s face, and he gasped and whispered, “What did I do?”
“I hugged you, and then you decided to break my nose,” Sylvain replied through his palm. His nose was fine, but Felix didn’t know that.
Felix’s eyes widened with horror, and he slipped his fingers between Sylvain’s, pulling his hand away. “Oh, curse me…!”
Sylvain knew that whenever Felix said this, it meant he was immediately blaming himself for something that had happened.
“Okay, you didn’t actually break it,” Sylvain told him quickly, shaking his head. “I was just messing around. But it did hurt. Not that that matters.”
Felix sat up, and his concerned expression turned into an annoyed glare.
“Don’t pull that stuff with me this early in the morning,” he muttered.
“I can’t breathe!” spluttered Sylvain.
“What did I just say?”
“You’re sitting on top of me!” Felix flinched and scrambled off of Sylvain’s chest, and he hid his face in humiliation as his partner coughed and gasped, catching his breath.
Sylvain sat up a little when his lungs were once again functioning as they should, his back leaning against his pillows, and he saw Felix turn to look out the window. The dark-haired young man cursed when he saw it was pouring.
When he was nervous, Felix went to the training grounds. Now, he had nowhere to go. Though, the way Sylvain saw it, he didn’t have a reason to be nervous, either. It was simply an accident, and those happened every day.
Felix blamed himself for small things, when there were no big things to blame himself for. Thus, reassurance was something he desired often.
“It’s pouring out,” Felix murmured, half to himself. From the way he sat half-facing the window, Sylvain only had a limited view of him; but this was enough. The sleek navy hair that fell to Felix’s shoulders shone in the dim morning light, like a sheet of dark steel, and his lustrous amber eyes glistened like troubled suns. He was too beautiful.
“Yep, and that means you’re stuck here with me!” Sylvain wrapped his arms around Felix’s waist and pulled his partner against him, and Felix gasped and tried to wriggle away before falling prey to Sylvain’s affectionate kisses.
Before long, Felix relented, and Sylvain laughed and smiled into his lips, letting his fingers run through his partner’s dark hair. When they parted, Felix was blushing, and failing to suppress his own smile.
“I love you,” Sylvain told him softly, and Felix tried to look indifferent. But his flushed cheeks were giving him away, and he pulled the collar of his shirt over his face to save what was left of his dignity. Sylvain snickered and kissed the top of his head.
“Want to stay in bed with me until breakfast?”
Felix, thoroughly embarrassed, nodded. Sylvain tucked himself back into the blankets, watching his partner with interest and affection.
“Stop looking at me!” Felix protested, and Sylvain grinned again before leaping at his partner like a spring loaded trap. Felix gave an uncharacteristic yelp and tumbled into the blankets in Sylvain’s arms, unable to break free.
Felix was faster, and Sylvain was stronger. But today, in their cozy heap of blankets and pillows, Felix lost the ensuing wrestling match.
Sylvain stared at the ceiling as he lay on his back, with Felix wrapped up helplessly in his arms like a fly in spider’s silk.
“You know, if you won’t cooperate, I’m going to have to punish you.”
Felix lifted his head, resting his chin on Sylvain’s collarbone. “How so?”
“I’m going to breakfast without you.”
Felix gasped dramatically. “Oh, woe is me! To think! My lover hath abandoned me for a boiled egg!” Sylvain burst out laughing.
“I’m your lover? I’m honored.”
“Do you prefer ‘candy-sweet?’”
Sylvain blinked in surprise; Felix never liked pet names. “Oh, totally.”
Felix replied, “That’s too bad.”
Sylvain frowned, and Felix stretched his neck and pecked his partner’s cheek. “I might call you that someday. But not right now, because you’re suffocating me.”
“Oh.” Sylvain let go, and Felix sat up, rubbing his sternum with the heel of his palm. “Uh...sorry.”
Felix stretched, his arms over his head as he yawned. The hem of his shirt lifted over his navel when he did this, and Sylvain looked pointedly away, blushing. He winced when he heard a plop, which had came from Felix leaning slowly backwards and falling against his pillow, his legs flung into the air for an instant before landing back in the blankets.
Sylvain crossed his legs when he sat upright, and Felix was staring at the ceiling with his hands folded over his middle. Smiling, his partner crawled over to him and lay down at his side, letting his cheek brush against Felix’s.
“When is breakfast?” Felix asked after a while. Sylvain wrinkled his nose as he thought. The sun was rising now in the gray sky, and the incessant downpour outside had become a soft drizzle. This meant that they couldn’t stay here forever.
Sylvain’s heart sank. He wanted to lay in bed with Felix beside him for the rest of his life. But they both had duties, duties that could not be ignored—at least, not forever.
“Well, breakfast is now,” the ruddy-haired young man replied, to Felix’s horror, “but I’m sure we can stay here a little longer.”
Felix nodded without a word, and Sylvain felt his partner’s little finger twine around his own. When Sylvain looked, Felix was blushing faintly.
Sylvain couldn’t wipe the smile off his face, even when Felix told him to.