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Baptiste is slouched over the balustrade overlooking the adventurer’s guild main hall when Sylvia finds him. A big sigh escapes his lips as Xid’s vocals fills the room and the potion maker can’t help but pat him on his back. He winces a bit at the contact but offers a warm smile nonetheless.
“What’s got you so down big man?” teased the redhead
And that got a good chuckle out of him. He winced again and took out the bramble-rose he had tucked away in his front pocket.
“Come on Sylvia, a man like me is never feeling down, I’m just resting my face muscles” he winked
And that gets a nice laugh from her too, but there’s a hint of worry in her eyes and Baptiste can see it, so hr stands away from the balustrade and asks
“Do you have a few minutes to spare actually? I’m… I’m not doing too great and I think I need to talk”
Sylvia pulls him into a soft hug and he shudders at the touch, silencing a small yelp
“Of course Baptiste, always, wanna go to your room? I think you need to take your binder off” she continues, ignoring his pouting “Come on… you’re in visible pain at the slightest touch, how long have you had it on?”
He looked away, keeping silent.
“Baptiste! You know you shouldn’t sleep with it! You’re going to destroy your body if you keep doing this”
“I know, I know, but”
“I get it” Sylvia stopped him “Quinn does it too sometimes, when they think I’m not looking, but you should still take it off for a bit, at least while we talk”
Baptiste nodded and let himself get dragged to his room
“...And I don’t know, I guess I’m just...exhausted all the time, and I just want the guild to thrive and I feel useless as I am and…”
“Hey, hey, Baptiste” Sylvia interrupted, grabbing gently at his shoulders “Look at me, and try to breath with me for a bit. In” She breaths in exaggeratedly, looking in his eyes “Out” she huffs out, loudly breathing out, checking the blue haired man is following her rhythm “In...Out”
They both settled in each other’s breathing, keeping their eyes locked to each other.
“Better?” The guild master nodded “Good, now, you’re doing great okay? The guild’s never been better, adventurers are coming back from maven’s castle unscathed every single day, moral’s at an all time high.” Sylvia exhaled “Look, Baptiste, can I be honest with you?”
Baptiste nodded again slowly
“I think you’re projecting a lot of feelings onto the guild instead of talking about them, so my advice” Baptiste pouted slightly “Take a nap, rest your back, your torso and then go talk to Saffron. How does that sound?”
“You’re… it’s worth a try I suppose” he sighed, laying down “Can we cuddle for a bit?”
Making grabby motions towards his friend, he noticed a smile ghosting her face and her shoulders relaxing a bit. She moved towards him and embraced him onto the bed, slowly drifting to sleep under the caress of the blue haired man.