Work Text:
Orym flops down next to Fearne instead of in his usual spot by her legs just in case he has THAT dream again. The faun shoots him a knowing look but luckily doesn’t say anything sparing Orym the embarrassment of explaining that he apparently has regressed back to puberty. “Night,” he manages to squeak out before turning his back to his companion and slipping into sleep.
Orym takes in a deep breath of the air that feels like home; cool , right, pure from the smog that sometimes covers the larger cities, and somehow free of the taste of tears he’s more recently connected with Zephra.
“ I can see why y’all love it here,” a familiar voice chimes out just a bit ahead of Orym on the path. “It’s beautiful…”
“You’re beautiful,” an even more familiar voice cuts them off. Orym can hear Will’s smirk in his voice telling the halfling he probably succeeded in making their companion blush.
“Shut it!” Ashton is definitely embarrassed. “I bet you talk to him like that.”
“Wouldn’t you?” Yep, Will is taking too much pleasure in teasing Ash. Orym better catch up before it turns sour. “Ah there he is! Hello Beautiful!”
Despite a lifetime of Will’s type of affection Orym still can’t help but blush. “Hey Love. You’re not chasing Ash away, are you?”
“Me? Never!” Will bends down to complete his greeting with a kiss. “Ash knows I love them.”
The genasi snorts a quick interruption. “Yeah sure.”
Will pauses making their whole trio stop so he can demand eye contact with Ashton. “Ash, Hon I DO love you!” He gently places his hand on the other’s cheek surprising Orym when Ashton doesn’t pull away. “Please tell me you know that.”
“Why?” Ashton can’t keep the shaking out of their voice. “Why would you ever…”
Orym jumps in for his husband already knowing Will’s answer. “Because I love you Ash. I can’t put into words how much I love you.”
“Exactly!” Will beams at Orym before turning his attention back to Ashton and stealing a quick kiss on their lips. “Come on Ash. Why don’t we show you how much we love you.”
Orym slides to Ashton’s other side placing the genasi in the middle as he and Will guide them to a house Orym knows wasn’t there a few minutes ago.
Orym woke with a start, a broken sob slipping from his lips. That was new. The dream always ended the same way, he and Will showering Ashton with affection, but it had never had the beginning bit. It was one thing to hear Will declare his love for Ashton while the three of them were a heated tangle of limbs but to hear it before they lost themselves, to hear it stated as a fact with none of the usual teasing tone Will carried in his voice. And to be able to say it. Orym never thought he would ever be able to hear himself share how he was feeling so openly and without any guilt or hesitation. Another sob wracked through Orym as he curled in on himself.
“This one not as good?” Fearne cut through the silence reminding Orym he wasn’t alone. “I mean it smells like it was but…”
“Fearne!” Orym pleas hoping for once his tone was enough to get his point across.
“Okay,” Fearne doesn’t sound the least bit embarrassed. “Sorry. Do you wanna talk about it?”
Orym hesitated before turning and seeing the loving look in Fearne’s eyes. “I think…that’s not a bad idea. Let me clean up.”
“Kay,” Fearne shuffles slightly preparing to make room for his return. “Love you Best Friend.”
Orym can’t help but smile as he makes his way to the door. Even with all his conflicting emotions there’s one thing he knows to his core to be true. “Love you too Fearnie.”
“Fuck!” Ashton curls in on himself knowing he’ll have to leave the bed soon. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!” They somehow manage to keep their voice down enough to not shake Letters out of stasis. Luckily the previous renditions of the dream taught Ashton to sleep down to their undershorts avoiding soaking their few pairs of clean pants left for this trip. All but throwing himself out of bed Ashton replays the new part of the dream in his head as he makes his way to the washroom.
“I can’t put into words how much I love you.” They can still hear Orym’s declaration in their head, can still see the affection on his face while he said it as if it was a well known fact. That look was way too familiar for Ashton’s comfort. “Fuck,” he let out again slipping back out of the washroom realizing he was too caught up in his thoughts to process wiping up between his legs.
“It’s not fair,” Ashton pauses by their door realizing the broken voice they hear is Orym.
“It was like everything thing I could want Fearne. I didn’t have to choose one over the other. I didn’t have to replace Will with Ash.”
“But you don’t,” Fearne’s whisper could barely be heard past her and Orym’s door. “Who says you can’t love them both? Ashton would never want to replace Will.”
Ashton can’t help but smile at Fearne’s uncanny ability to understand everything while acting like she knows nothing.
“I doubt Ash would ever feel that way about me,” Orym sounded so broken and small it almost had Ashton charging through the door to hold the halfling. Luckily he remembered last minute that he had to remove his shorts during clean up and barreling in bare ass to assure Orym that wasn’t true probably wasn’t the best idea. Not that Fearne would mind she’d probably enjoy the show.
Still…
“Tomorrow,” Ashton promises themselves. Tomorrow they will swallow all of their pride and take the leap to talk to Orym. Orym broke down Ashton’s barriers that almost prevented their friendship, it’s their turn to make the move and hopefully create something even more. “Tomorrow!” Reaffirming their determination Ashton’s made their way back to their room.
“You’re a stronger man than me,” outside the inn watching through the windows two half-elves sat in a tree. “I could never bring myself to help her move on.”
Will smiled at his companion. “To my understanding she never met someone she wanted to move on with.”
“Still,” the masked half-elf stood his feathered cloak expanding creating a path in the darkness. “Your mischief is managed. It’s time to go back.”
Will smiles even brighter at the champion knowing it was with his push the Raven Queen even allowed this. “I know. And thank you.” Will accepted the hand up followed its owner down the darken path back to the other side.
“They’ll be okay,” the mask vanished from Vax’ildan’s face, his features seemingly becoming more alive as they got farther into his queen’s realm.
“I know.” Will simply said again his voice sounding smaller this time. “And thank you.”