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"So what's up with you two?" Beauregard asks. The stress of these last few days has her keyed up, unable to fall asleep. This seems like a good enough moment to try to make Caleb have a conversation with her.
"Nothing," Caleb answers, automatically, still looking at Essek instead of Beauregard.
"Dude, you can ask me to shut up, but don't just lie. You're awful at it."
He frowns, his lips purse. "It's not easy." It goes straight into her brain. She's not finding it as easy as him to get used to the telepathy, but she'll humor him this time.
“When is it?” She asks. He sighs, turning around so she’s looking at her. It must be obvious for everyone else that they are having a conversation, even if they are not saying a word, but she has the right to tease Caleb about his wizard crush. She has earned it. “Do you like him?”
Caleb nods, once. Slowly, like he is afraid to actually admit it. “I think so, at least.”
"I could have sworn, around the time when I thought I was crushing on Jester, that you..."
"Ja," he thinks at her, interrupts her before she can even finish. It hit him hard, then. "We were on the same boat, a bit. I never had any hopes, but..."
"In my case―" she tells him, a little weirded out by both his vulnerability and hers. "I mean, I definitely liked her a little, but a lot of it was that she was safe. She was safe because I was convinced that she would never like me back, and so I could have romantic feelings for her without any danger. Without ever having to be responsible for her feelings. Plus, you know, I was definitely in love with Yasha and trying to get over it. Do you think a similar thing happened to you?"
"Maybe," Caleb whispers, speaking out loud. "It's not the same now, though."
"Of course not," Beau says, also out loud, and then to Caleb's mind, "he's head over heels in love with you, dude."
"I don't think—" Caleb starts, then stops. "I won't deny I'm his favorite of the group. That much I have noticed. But I do not think it's as simple as that, either."
"Does it matter?" Beau asks. "I mean, I don't wanna be the friend in a relationship who immediately thinks all her single friends should date someone to be happier. But dude, you smile so much when you're around him. And you're so horny for his magic."
He chuckles, at that, drawing the attention of the members of the group who are still awake ― definitely Essek’s, too.
"His magic is really impressive." Back to telepathy, now. He is a coward.
"God, see? That was so horny. I never want you to use that tone of voice ever again."
Caleb shakes his head, amused. "I have been considering talking to him if we manage in this last battle. He keeps — he keeps mentioning that he wants to come back to Aeor with me if we survive."
"Like, as a date?"
"I guess it's what he's implying."
"Well, maybe you should. You two are — I'm not his biggest fan, but he's been good to you. If you trust him, I trust him."
"I trust him," Caleb's voice says on her mind, almost surprised. "I think he has showed us he can be trusted with us, at the very least."
Beau thinks of the way he has supported them in battle. "I agree. And it's good that you're planning on talking to him after this is all over, anyway, because he kept sneaking peeks at you when we were checking for new eyes the other day."
"He did not," Caleb immediately denies. She was talking out of her ass, good for him for recognising that. "He's too embarrassed of seeing someone naked, or of being naked himself.”
Beau cackles. "Such a tragedy for you.” She says, a little above a whisper to communicate to everyone else that they are not making evil plans, because she knows the possible corruption of the eyes is something a few of her friends are nervous about.
“Good night, Beauregard,” Caleb says. He lies down with his back turned towards Beau, and it would be hilarious if not for the part where Essek uses his magic to gently move a rock that ends up close to Caleb’s knee, that he could have hit during the night. Caleb’s voice is too soft, when he says, “Thank you, Essek.”
“That was disgusting,” Beau informs him mentally. He doesn’t answer, but she can see him twitch anyway.
*
The eyes disappear right after the battle, when Beau is too tired and too bloodied to care about anything but the feel of Yasha’s thigh under her head, her hand on her shoulder. She’s laying on the floor, legs shaking too much to stand up, and Yasha just pointed out that the eye on her hand is disappearing. She sees, right out of the corner of her eye, Caleb also laying on the floor, only he is looking at his palm.
“Are they fading?” Essek asks, sitting down on the floor. It’s not in a dignified “oh, look at me, I don’t need to touch the floor when I walk because I am just that fancy, my toes aren’t freezing from the cold” way. He plops down. He grabs Caleb’s hand immediately, looking at the eye as ― and she can see it on herself, too ― the last remnants disappear.
Beau raises her head for a second, kisses Yasha’s cheek before returning to where she was a second ago. “Fuck yeah,” she tells her, and Yasha’s relieved laugh lets her know she agrees.
“We’ll have to check the others later, but ― it seems so,” Caleb says after a second.
Essek is still grabbing Caleb’s hand ― not holding, but grabbing, desperately clutching it like the weight of the world on his shoulders just got transferred to someone else. “That’s good,” he mutters, barely audible.
He says something else ― Beau doesn’t hear it, this time, now that Caduceus has come closer to be able to heal all of them at the same time, and is having a conversation with Yasha. Still, she sees Caleb smile, just a little, and she decides to check if the powers have disappeared by calling him a sap of a wizard fucker. He either doesn’t hear or is ignoring her, but she would bet it’s the former, by the lack of a frown on his face.
“I think we have officially survived,” Caleb informs Essek, so whatever Essek said was either not important or incredibly pessimistic.
“It would seem that way.”
What they are doing right now definitely falls in the category of hand-holding, fingers interlaced and all.
“Do you think we can start making plans for a trip together now?” Caleb asks. It’s brave of him to ask a man out on a date right after an incredibly bloody battle. Or maybe it’s not bravery, maybe it’s just the amount of blood he has lost ― seconds after, Caduceus casts the healing spell, but the color doesn’t return to Caleb’s face.
Essek seems to be seriously considering his answer ― Beau might punch him, later, for trying to act dignified about something he very obviously and very desperately wants ― but he only lasts a few seconds before a stupid smile spreads across his face. “Maybe not right now,” Essek says, his thumb brushing Caleb’s cheek as he uses a spell to clean the blood off his face. Beau is pretty sure prestidigitation doesn’t require touch ― she actually thinks he just made it harder on himself by not letting himself cast it the correct way. “But we should be able to find a minute to plan. Tomorrow morning at the latest.”
Caleb nods, a solemn look on his face. Beau turns around to look at Yasha, both to let them have their intimate moment and because she is much prettier than the wizards. “I think we need a bath,” she tells her, because seeing Essek clean Caleb up made her remember the state they must be in.
“I don’t think we’ll get one ‘till we’re back in our plane, babe.”
“Mhm, that’s fine.” She snuggles herself closer to Yasha. She’s sure they’ll have to start getting up soon, but ― not right now. This place is still creeping her the fuck out, but this might be the safest she has felt in weeks.