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"Are you in need of help, my Lord?"
Leo swears under his breath as he fumbles his gauntlet onto the floor. For all that Niles has left his thieving life behind there was nothing to cure him of his light, sneaking step. It is Leo's suspicion that he enjoys startling people, though, and that it's a habit he will hold on to.
It takes but a glance to confirm as much, the curl of Niles' mouth a cruel amusement as he stands in the doorway to Leo's private quarters as if he were called upon.
"Did I scare you?"
"Where is Odin?" Leo asks back testily.
"He told me you called on him, but got caught up in…well, I'm not sure. He's always been a little secretive. He asked me to take his place. So, here I am."
"Come here." Leo doesn't bother trying to hide his annoyance, brows drawing closer together when all Niles does is smile wider. The door had been open to receive Odin and Niles makes a show of closing it behind him, fingers hovering over the lock for a moment before deciding to leave it be.
Leo looks away and pretends his stomach doesn't drop momentarily.
"A favorite command of mine," Niles replies with his usual sultry tone. Under more public circumstances that tone would bring reprimand. Here, in privacy, Leo does nothing to deter it. Has never done anything to deter.
"Undoubtedly because of its simplicity." Niles approaches, gaze unabashed as he takes Leo in from head to toe. Even in his underclothes it has Leo feeling exposed, his hands clenching momentarily at his sides.
"As my retainer it was only a matter of time before you were to familiarize yourself with fitting me into my armor. In these troubling times I may need to suit up at a moment's notice, and were Odin to be amiss as he is now, the duty falls to you."
"Because you can't do it yourself," Niles says, smug. "You must rely on me. What would you have done if Odin hadn't happened upon me?" Without reverence Niles reaches out to touch the make of Leo's gambeson, rubbing his thumb along the material. Like he's just allowed to do that.
"Were both of you to be so indisposed your usefulness to me would be in question, and your duties potentially revoked." It's not quite true, such a minor thing wouldn't hasten such a drastic measure, but Leo is undeniably irate as he snatches his gauntlet off the polished floor. Even as he checks the armor for scratches Leo notices Niles quickly redirecting his gaze somewhere more proper as he straightens.
These games are going to kill him.
"A privilege, then, to have you rely on me."
"Start here," Leo gestures to where he has laid out his grieves as he carefully puts his gauntlet down with the rest of the set. Grieves he can manage easily enough on his own, but he wants Niles beneath him as literally as possible for thinking to touch him without permission.
A permission he fears to give. But now here Niles is, not Odin, to help him dress, a situation Leo had painstakingly managed to avoid for many moons. It didn't do to have Odin as the sole provider for the job as long as he has been, but.
Without protest or snark Niles sinks to his knees with the grace of a man who is used to being on them, a thought that has barely entered Leo's mind before Niles is settled momentarily with his face uncomfortably close to Leo's codpiece.
This. This is what Leo had been desperate to avoid, Niles so close it's easy to imagine the warmth of his breath against his skin, even through his layers of dress. That imagined heat takes up reality in his own face, desperately glad that Niles is too focused on his task now to look up and see it.
With just the deft movements of Niles hands against his calves the heat slowly spreads. Leo doesn't close his eyes, though he wants to, afraid that something so mild may rile him to embarrassing reaction, but knowing in the dark behind his eyelids his imaginations will spin something far worse than the realities of this situation. Like Niles hands working in reverse, to undress-- just as competent, skilled in more than working belts and buckles--
Leo takes a deep, quiet breath and claws for composure. His struggle is seemingly not as controlled as he hoped when Niles lets loose his own uncontrolled chuckle of amusement.
"It pains me to have missed the chance to have a go at this from a proper start. Where would you have me begin, usually? The boots, or the gambeson? Perhaps we should start over." It's too bold an implication. Even for Niles it's too bold, making Leo set his jaw.
He wants to consent, even knowing Niles only offers in jest.
"My underclothes are always well within my ability. You will never be needed for them."
But he could order it, and Niles would comply. Without complaint, even, of that Leo was certain. "Don’t dawdle, I may be late for training with Xander at this rate."
"Of course." Niles dips his head, putting Leo's leg down and cups his other calf in his palm to draw it closer. "Let me know if you ever want to train with me, my Lord. I am always up for a little one-on-one."
This time Niles puts more space between them as he settles Leo's foot into his lap, but it doesn't stop the touch of his hand through Leo's leggings from being any less scalding. From there Niles works in competent silence, expression falling into one of concentration now that he's abandoned his voice and his jokes, and the reprieve allows Leo to claw together some composure.
When Niles moves to stand Leo stops him with a sharp noise. "The top belt needs to be tighter. You shouldn't be able to push your fingers in." The second he says as much his face twists at the slip up, the potential to be taken as innuendo something Niles is always quick to pounce on. "In-between the belt and my leg," he clarifies with haste.
Niles hums, pushing his fingers under the belt and finding it to be loose, just as Leo had said. He takes to tightening it so when he tries again they only slip under with some difficulty.
"I find some looseness lends to more…flexibility." Leo says nothing, which Niles takes as permission to forge on. "Mages aren't usually so covered up. Look at Odin. There's an outfit you should try."
"What added benefits could this flexibility offer me, Niles?" He means to ask calmly, but a coldness creeps into his words even as heat once again threatens his face.
"A bad suggestion then, my Lord?" Niles checks the other belts, suddenly seeming less amused with himself. It creates a moment where Leo wavers; caught between how he wants to act and how he has to.
Properly. With dignity.
"It suggests less protection on the battlefield," Leo hedges, choosing to take Niles at a literal meaning. It's all he can handle without getting caught tongue-tied.
"And off the battlefield?"
"I would not be wearing armor otherwise!" He's lost his patience for this game he's not allowed to play.
"But you do, Lord Leo." Niles finally matches his serious tone. "Metaphorically. I have been your retainer for many moons now--"
"And, what? Your devotion is not in question, but do not claim to know more than my acquaintance." Holding eye contact is becoming increasingly embarrassing as Leo realizes he's throwing what could accurately be described as a tantrum. His words, too, are blatantly unfair. Niles doesn't know him well because he doesn't want to be known.
"I think I'm very good at learning about a person, if I want. What I meant was this is the first time I've been allowed a more legitimate way to preserve your life as a retainer, and is has happened by mere accident."
Leo tactfully looks away, choosing instead to focus on the rest of the armor he still needs to don before heading out for the morning. He waits for Niles to speak up, and shifts uncomfortably when he does not.
"This isn't what you were talking about," Leo says at last, hating the silence and its uncertainties.
"No," Niles consents with a slight incline of his head. "But it is what I say now, and it is true." Niles has always been so bold. To hear him speak with such slow hesitance fills Leo with guilt.
"I suppose it is. Your closeness has always guaranteed my safety. I do trust you with my life, you know." Niles says nothing more for an unbearably long time. He stands slowly, waiting to be stayed, before he takes the proper steps in plating the rest of Leo's legs, then moving on to the breastplate.
"Were my way with words to be the cause of this distance, you would tell me?" Niles asks, slipping behind Leo to work on the breastplate's fastenings.
The first time Niles had ever spoken so out of hand toward Leo had been after a short romp in the woods to round up an insurgent. The rush of the chase and subsequent kill had made Niles loose in his tongue, which led to him turning to Leo and speak of a bed to celebrate. It had caused the entire entourage to freeze, and rightly so.
Even though they had all heard his foul speech before it had never been directed at anyone above his station. The offer was a damnable offense. His life could have easily been the next to end among those trees.
Leo doesn't know if Niles next opened his mouth to apologize, but Leo had smoothly interrupted him with a roll of his eyes and rallying his men to him to return home; pointedly ignoring him, like it had only been an ill-conceived joke. He convinced himself that's all it was even though he had felt Niles eyes on him their entire way back. Though Niles had never been so bold again he had not ceased his more tame flirting or teasing.
"Your words do not push me away. It's a game, isn't it?"
Leo likes the attention of it. He had shown exasperation at the remarks Niles made, but that reaction was the same if they were directed elsewhere, too. They were crude, and not terribly clever, but Leo had always been careful not to directly reprimand Niles if he didn't have to because he didn't want him to stop.
To see Niles give the same attention to others-- as much as they always hated it-- has been a well acquainted sore spot. Just another instance of Leo being looked over in favor of someone else. He puts a stop to it because of their discomfort, he tells himself. Because he needs to look to be at least somewhat in control of the man.
He did not find discomfort in the pursuit, so it is in this he indulged. He would not ask Niles to cease.
"You have my permission to play the game when in private with me. I would not have you change yourself overmuch just for my sake."
"This is high praise indeed. More than anything, I am glad we could grow closer." Niles leans over to snag Leo's cape from the table where it had been neatly folded, going about setting the clasps in place. "It is an honor to know you thrive under my attention."
Leo says nothing, refusing to deny the truth. Is it so bad, to want attention? As a Prince he's entitled to it.
Isn't he?
Without a fuss Niles checks over his armor. Every piece perfectly placed without much direction despite not wearing plate himself into battle.
"Find me when you need to be relieved." Niles delivers the words close enough to the back of Leo's neck it raises uncontrollable goosebumps along his spine. Leo half turns, face hot, only for Niles to grab his cape and give it a playful tug. "Of your armor, of course."
Ever the menace.
Leo offers a mindless swat of his hand in a show of annoyance. A halfhearted gesture to distract how genuinely flustered this entire situation has gotten him. Made all the worse when-- rather than dance away from the attack-- Niles catches the hand in his own, and grins before placing a kiss onto the cold, black metal.
Taken off guard by the gesture Leo searches the face of his retainer, finding only a hypocrite who hides behind a mask after asking for Leo's own vulnerability.
"Be at my call," Leo says, slowly collecting his hand back when Niles straightens once more. "If Odin has not returned from his secrecy I'll need help from my armor at noon."
"Gods keep Odin from us, then." Leo shakes his head, at a loss, before ushering Niles from his private chambers, and moving at a rushed walk to not keep Xander waiting.