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"Oooh, a trip with Lady Aphmau?" Laurance teased. "Just the two of you? How romantic."
"Shut up," Garroth snapped, no real anger behind his words. Laurance snickered to himself and Garroth rolled his eyes before changing the subject. "By the way, do you like the room as it is? I'm sure there's something I could try to find for you while we're out."
Laurance shook his head and sighed. "Not anything I can use anymore. I'd rather not bother Zoey too much to do things for me, either, especially since she has Levin and Alexis to worry about still."
"You must be bored," Garroth blurted and Laurance laughed again. Garroth's face went red with embarrassment. He hadn't meant to say that out loud.
"I don't have time to be bored, with Cadenza visiting all the time and Aphmau constantly checking up on me, as well as listening in on whatever goes on in the room next door, there's more to do than I thought." He smiled slightly, eyes staring, unseeing at the floor. "Besides, I have you I can make fun of, too."
"Wh- Hey!" Laurance laughed yet again. He really did enjoy pushing Garroth's buttons sometimes. "Well, then, since you have so much to do-"
"Oh, w-wait Garroth!" Laurance called while Garroth had one foot out the door. Phoenix sniffed at his leg. "Can I, um, ask you something kind of weird?" Garroth raised an eyebrow at him before stepping back into the room, being careful not to kick Phoenix in the chin.
"What is it?" He asked. Laurance started to become nervous, he shifted slightly in his chair and darted his eyes to the side.
“Can I, um, touch your face?”
“Huh?” Garroth jumped. “Why would you want to do that?”
“You could just say no,” Laurance huffed, “I know it's weird. It's not like I'm gonna poke your eyes out, though, I mean-“ He waved a hand in front of his face, his cloudy eyes not registering it at all. Garroth gaped at him, dumbfounded. How was he supposed to even respond to that?
“Okay, um,” Garroth stepped farther into the room, “I-I guess it's fine.” Laurance stood up from his chair, the legs scraping the floor. He was grinning.
“Really? You'll let me do it?”
“It's not that big of a deal,” Garroth mumbled, his face dusted pink. He was standing about half a foot away from Laurance now. “Go ahead.”
Laurance’s grin softened as he reached out, hands gently coming in contact with Garroth’s chest, then sliding up to his shoulders. They carefully trailed up his neck, one hand pausing on his jaw and the other dragging a thumb up his cheek. Garroth stood frozen while Laurance's hands cupped his cheeks, one of his thumbs ran softly under his eye and the other brushed his lips.
Garroth felt like he was burning from the inside out. This situation felt oddly romantic, but he shouldn't be feeling like this with anyone but Aphmau, let alone another man. Laurance's face was really close to his, too, lips slightly parted and cheeks red while his eyes...
Laurance’s eyes slowly went up and seemed to catch Garroth’s. Garroth gasped quietly and Laurance pulled a nervous smile.
“A-Am I doing it...?” He asked quietly. Garroth realized that even though Laurance’s eyes were aimed at his own, they were still clouded, still unseeing.
“Wow, you’ve been back for how long now and this is the first time you even look at me?” Garroth tried at a joke. Laurance laughed at it, so he guessed he did pretty good. One of Laurance’s hands left its spot to trace over Garroth’s smile and then return to his cheek. It confused him, and caused his face to flush a little more red, but he didn't say anything.
“Your face is hot, are you blushing?” Laurance teased, falling into laughter again while Garroth tried to protest.
They went on like that for a bit longer, Laurance’s fingers trying to map out Garroth’s face while they teased each other. Laurance occasionally pointed out small blemishes he remembered on Garroth’s face, causing him to get even more flustered and wonder why Laurance knew that in the first place. Garroth was almost glad Laurance couldn't see at the moment, since he was staring at him a lot. If Laurance somehow knew so much about his face then he wanted to know about Laurance’s face. That's what he told himself at least.
The more he stared the more he came to understand why all the girls were staring at him that day he came to Phoenix Drop. Laurance was pretty attractive. Objectively, of course. It wasn't like Garroth was actually attracted to Laurance in any way but platonic. Yep. Garroth was attracted to girls. Even when Laurance’s hair was long and his eyes were a very pretty green. It was such a shame his eyes turned grey and cloudy, though...
“I miss your eyes,” Garroth blurted, causing one of Laurance’s fingers that was tracing over a small scar on the bridge of his nose to freeze.
“What...? My eyes are right here.” Laurance did a few exaggerated blinks and Garroth tried to stammer out an excuse before giving up and sighing. Laurance chuckled. “I know you didn't mean to say that.”
Now it was Garroth’s turn to blink. “Y-You do? How?”
“You do this sigh breath thing whenever you say something on accident.” Laurance smiled. “It's kind of cute.” Garroth huffed.
“I'm not cute.”
Laurance scoffed. “Oh, don't whine, you big baby, that's what Levin’s for.” Laurance pinched his cheeks and he groaned. "But seriously, what does that even mean? You miss my eyes?”
"They used to be green," Garroth stated, staring into Laurance's eyes which stared vacantly back at him. "But now they're just... blank." Garroth raised a hand, fingers brushing gently underneath one of Laurance's eyes. He tensed briefly at the contact before leaning into it slightly. "Maybe if I look hard enough the green will just... be there." Garroth got carried away tracing Laurance's cheekbone for a few moments while Laurance remained frozen, eyes wide and face becoming more and more red.
When Garroth seemed to finally realize what he was doing, he pulled his hand back, struggling to get out a quick apology. Laurance quickly cut him off. "Close your eyes."
"I, um, I'm sorry?" His hand was still an inch away from Laurance's face.
"I want you to try it, too," Laurance murmured, "close your eyes."
"O-Okay..." Garroth let his eyelids flutter closed and he reached for Laurance's face again.
"Can you see?" Laurance whispered.
"No, my eyes are closed." Garroth whispered back, his brow furrowed.
"Welcome to my world." Garroth could almost hear the smirk in Laurance's voice. He huffed and raised his other hand, letting it settle carefully on Laurance's shoulder. This felt weird, two guys, one blind and one with his eyes closed just reaching for each other. Garroth liked it in a way. This was the closest he ever felt to Laurance in... well, ever. They didn't exactly have a lot of time to bond.
"You have freckles," Garroth said bluntly, voice hushed, "right here." His fingers traced over the bridge of Laurance's nose. "They're not very visible."
"Are you sure your eyes are closed?"
"Are you sure you're blind?" Garroth countered, one hand coming along his jaw and trailing along a small line he had pretty much memorized from how long he stared at it. "You have a scar right here, and another tiny one in your eyebrow." His thumb ran over the spot he was talking about, easy to find since some of the hair that used to be there was now unable to grow. "It looks..." He paused a little, trying to find the right word. "...cool." Laurance chuckled.
"I'm still hot?" His eyebrows raised and Garroth guessed he must be smiling.
"Yeah..." It wasn't what Garroth meant to say but there was such a finality in it he didn't really want to correct himself. They stood there in silence for a moment. "Your face is hot, are you blushing?"
Laurance huffed. "Shut up."
"Oh, you are? How cute."
"Stoooop," Laurance whined. "I'm not cute, I'm cool. You said so yourself."
"I can take it back you know," Garroth warned with a smirk. Laurance groaned and pinched his cheeks again. "Ow! Wait, Okay, I won't take it back!" Laurance let out a laugh and Garroth pouted. Once they settled back into standing their with their faces in each other's hands, Laurance slid his hands back and let his fingers tangle into Garroth's hair.
Something so simple made Garroth's pulse start to race. He was tempted to open his eyes back up but decided to keep them closed. Laurance didn't tell him he could open them back up. Laurance simply played with his hair for a bit and Garroth was able to relax and breathe, brushing some of Laurance's own hair away from his face, even though he couldn't see it.
Laurance's hands were moving again, but much subtler this time, his thumbs tracing back and forth along Garroth's jaw. Garroth didn't even realized Laurance was slowly pulling him in until he could feel his breath fanning across his face. The world was sent into slow motion and Garroth felt like he needed to make a lot of decisions very quickly.
Was Laurance going to kiss him? Garroth's heart was pounding again and he wondered if Laurance could hear it. He could feel it beating, could feel it vibrating his bones like a drum. Was Laurance going to kiss him?! Should he let it happen? Should he move away? Should he kiss back?
Did Garroth even want to kiss Laurance? He was in love with Aphmau after all. Actually as far as Garroth knew, Laurance also had feelings for Aphmau, what was this strange turn of events? Garroth was burning from the inside out again, Laurance's hands were still gentle on his face as they brought him closer and closer, but Garroth didn't feel that way about Laurance, right? Laurance was a guy, Garroth wasn't into guys. Something about this was nagging at him so much and he was holding his breath in anticipation and he swore that his face and Laurance's were just inches apart when suddenly Laurance seemed to change tracks.
Instead of Garroth's lips coming in contact with Laurance's lips, their foreheads pressed together. Garroth's eyes flew open in surprise, immediately flying down to catch a glimpse at Laurance's face. His eyes were closed and he was frowning, but his face was the most red Garroth had seen it all day.
Their faces were still really close together, Garroth could easily lean down just a bit and slot their lips together. He wondered what would happen if he did. How Laurance would react, what he would say, what it would feel like. The room started to spin while Garroth imagined the small smirk that would be painted on Laurance's face when they pulled apart, teasing and slowly forming into a grin before they leaned back in for more-
"Garroth," Laurance murmured, almost making Garroth jump.
"L-Laurance...?"
"I think you should go now." His voice stayed small and hushed. "You don't want to keep Lord Aphmau waiting for her guard." Garroth blinked a few times and shook his head once. Oh yeah, he was totally supposed to be going to Bright Port with Aphmau for some reason he really couldn't remember because he was too busy going back to memorizing those faint freckles on Laurance's nose.
"Um, yeah, I guess so." His voice barely sounded like it was coming from him, his head was too far up in the clouds. Laurance smiled up at him, his hands retracting from Garroth's hair and sliding from his shoulders and chest before falling back at his sides. Weird, Garroth hadn't noticed how warm Laurance's hands were until they were gone. Garroth removed his hands from Laurance's face and took a small step back. Laurance opened his mouth like he was going to say something but closed it again with a small shake of his head, so Garroth took another sightly larger step back. Then another. Then a few more before he could turn around and walk quietly out of the room, closing the door softly behind him.
He took a step to the side and slumped against the wall. Phoenix and Jiggy sniffed at him curiously while he stood there, trying to process whatever the hell just happened. Who knew how long he had been in Laurance's room today? Hell, who knew how long he spent in there just thinking about kissing Laurance?
Kissing Laurance...
Garroth's face flushed once again as his mind wandered. He had come so close to kissing Laurance in there, just barely missing the opportunity. He couldn't help but feel disappointed for some reason, which was weird to him since he was not into guys and most definitely in love with Aphmau. Maybe it was just plain curiosity, or maybe it was him wanting to be closer to Laurance, certainly not in that way, but still. Either way, it was something he decided he would have to think about later. He stood up and grabbed his helm from on top of one of Aphmau's storage chests and made his way up the stairs and out of the house.
Laurance listened from inside the room, face planted into his desk.
"I miss your face."