Chapter Text
It was the end of Caleb’s watch over the Mighty Nein, and he had to wake Mollymauk to take the last one before morning. He enjoyed long watches in the evening, taking the time to transcribe spells and research things for himself or for the group. But this was always his least favorite part, mostly because each of his traveling companions were on edge and tended to jolt awake at the lightest disturbance in their direction. That could be very useful when something was wrong. When it wasn’t it just succeeded in making Caleb’s anxiety spike.
Mollymauk was always the worst too. He was a deeper sleeper than the rest and the volume needed to jolt him awake usually succeeded in waking some of the others as well. Caleb had tried whispering, but it never broke through. When he tapped him on the shoulder, he almost got sliced open with how quickly Molly grabbed his scimitars, looking for the threat. Shaking his arm had a similar effect.
He really didn't want to feel so nervous around the tiefling.
Lately Molly had found out that purring put Caleb to sleep, after an unfortunate incident with Frumpkin getting killed and leaving Caleb without his purring sleep aid. The nearest place to get any incense had been miles away, and his insomnia was worse than ever. Molly had taken a watch with him and the purring had Caleb sleeping through the entire thing.
Now Molly had been taking advantage and lulling Caleb to sleep as they rode along in the cart. It was doing wonders for his normally sleep deprived state, but it was significantly cutting back on his time for research and copying spells. The fact that Molly could purr was a bit unsettling in theory, but in practice lulled him to sleep in a matter of seconds.
It was nice though, dozing off and waking up leaning on the purring chest of the purple tiefling. Frumpkin would usually purr away in his lap too, surrounding him with the grounding sensations. His familiar only purred when they were safe together, so it helped him relax. If Frumpkin could sense no danger, it was probably okay to rest.
If Mollymauk was watching over him, it was probably safe to close his eyes for a moment.
It was the safest he’d felt since he was about fifteen years old.
However, Caleb could not purr. And therefore continued to startle Molly every time he woke him for a shift change in watches. There was no clear way to ease him out of it, to make it clear that he was safe.
But Caleb was always willing to go the extra mile in pursuit of research. So tonight he was planning on just squeezing Mollymauk’s shoulder. The tiefling had done it to Caleb just this morning as he'd passed him some breakfast. He stood up from his seat by the campfire and stretched his back, Frumpkin going over to his empty bedroll and starting to warm up his pillow before he laid back down to sleep.
The answer to the question of how anxious he would be as he tried to sleep remained to be seen.
Caleb executed his plan, carefully staying away from the side of Molly’s bedroll where the swords rested as he gave the shoulder a light squeeze and whispered, "It's time for your watch, Mr. Mollymauk."
The tiefling groaned, but woke up slower at the touch. "Caleb?"
"Ja," he said, relieved at this gentler awakening. This was much better. Already a success.
A lazy grin spread across Molly's face as he answered, "Good, good… thought you might be a nightmare. Dreaming of you is always good."
Caleb didn't know where to begin with that. Probably the fact that Molly wasn't dreaming, though he got cut off just after saying, "Mollymauk, you're not dr-"
But Molly had taken the hand on his shoulder and pulled Caleb off balance so that he tumbled down and was lying beside the tiefling on the bedroll, trapped in his grip. He started rubbing Caleb’s cheek, ridiculously tender, a soft look in his eyes, illuminated by the dim firelight. His red eyes seemed to glow in the dark. The darkvision probably helped him see Caleb’s shock in vivid detail. Molly said softly, “I don’t mind the realistic dreams when it’s you.”
Caleb’s mind was racing. This was a step further than getting close to make sure their caster didn’t get sluggish from exhaustion. This was different from when Mollymauk pinned him to a wall to make sure he wasn’t stealing funds from the group.
This was something else entirely.
This was closer to how Molly had kissed him on the forehead in Alfield.
This was… unfamiliar.
“Are all your dreams very real?” Caleb asked, unable to help himself. If Molly was messing with him, he could play along. He could take a joke instead of watching the tiefling jolt awake. He was used to being the butt of a joke. Or perhaps he could get a straight answer out of the strange tiefling. Molly had been teasing more lately, and pushing to spend more time near Caleb, though he was pretty sure it was just a trick to get him to sleep more. It wasn’t good for the group if one of their strongest casters was sleep deprived.
“Too much so. Just like memories. Memories I don’t want. Hard to remember what was down from up once I wake up, but they’re always terrible. But when you’re here, that’s nice.” His voice was husky with sleep and his tone kept to almost conspiratorial whispers. Molly didn’t stop running his fingers over Caleb’s cheek, tracing over freckles and worrying at a small scar near his ear for a moment.
Remembering the bolt that had made the grazing mark with perfect clarity, Caleb shuddered a moment. But Molly’s movements were gentle, methodical, almost soothing.
Caleb swallowed, feeling the flush on his face grow deeper as the purple fingers continued to run over the side of his face, tingling. It felt… nice. Everything about it felt nice. Too nice. “Do you… Do you dream of me often?”
“More recently. But shouldn’t you know that?" Molly cocked his head as well as he could while lying on his side, an innocent curiosity painted across his face. His tattoos caught the firelight, a riot of beautiful color in comparison to Caleb’s pale skin, washed out to a stark white in the dim light.
Caleb felt insidious guilt curl inside his stomach. He shouldn't be indulging this, even if it started under the guise of not wanting to startle the tiefling. Even if he had been hoping it was just some strange joke. Perhaps it was. Whatever it might be, he didn’t deserve it. He didn’t deserve anything that felt this good. "I'm afraid I'm all too real, Mr. Mollymauk. And therefore much closer to a nightmare than you hoped."
The hand trailing gently over his cheek froze halfway through one of its movements. Before Molly could say anything, Caleb loosened himself from Molly’s grip and turned away. "Sorry," he murmured, "it's your turn for a watch. I should go."
Curling up on his bedroll, consumed with guilt and still feeling his ears burning with embarrassment and shame, Caleb could hear a few mutterings in Infernal as Molly rose to take his watch. He curled into a tighter ball around Frumpkin who had pushed his way into Caleb’s arms to purr against his chest.
As far as research went, this was definitely a failure.