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Chapter Text

Velite travels with the Astral Express to Washtopia, and then they ask him where they should drop him off.

Velite thinks about his dream again (hands gripping the steering wheel of the One and Only, squinting into the red sea that gives way into an explosion of light, hoarsely yelling into the vacuum that will not hear him). Of course he can’t, because Argenti took the One and Only with him, and even if he hadn’t, Velite wouldn’t even know how to pilot it. Wishful thinking. “Just drop me off at the nearest IPC base,” he says. He looks up and they’re all staring at him, expressions of varying pity. He swallows.

The older gentleman, Welt, sits him down and clasps his shoulder. “I’ve lost many companions throughout my life and travel,” he starts.

“I’ve barely known Argenti for two weeks,” Velite thinks about laughing, because there’s no reason he should grow so attached. It’s ridiculous. It must be the gratefulness for when Argenti saved him - yes, that must be the only reason. That Argenti saved him twice and Velite had not even managed to repay him once. He deals in transactions, the little numbers and equal signs. He’s been trained to check for little accounting errors like imbalances. No wonder the whole situation - Argenti’s selfless give give give , Velite’s callous take take take weighed so heavily on him. 

Mr Yang looked at him with one of those old-man smiles that made Velite simultaneously pity him and also wish he had a reason to smile like that in his life. He fell silent.

Velite bid them farewell with what he felt was uncharacteristic generosity he had summoned within himself. It was, if anything, to ease the guilt (he was not guilty, dammit!) in his heart. It didn’t feel right to leave them with nothing, even though he was the passing npc in the protagonist’s life, the type of ordinary person meant to play his simple role of a victim for the main character to save. In those games, the villager often offered cash or goods, right? 

“W-ell, if you all ever need a leg-in with the IPC, you can give me a call!” He says, although he’s in no position to make such an offer. He could send them a referral link, maybe. Or spam the relevant department’s internal inbox until he gets served a warning. 

“Oh, thanks!” March 7th says. “Now we have two IPC friends!”

“W-who’s the other one?” Velite asks. It could be anyone. The CEO of the IPC himself, even - after all, this was the renowned Astral Express. 

“Oh, you know Topaz?” March 7th says, and Velite thinks about retracting his earlier offer because was there anything useful he could even offer them as compared to one of the Ten Stonehearts. “Does he know Topaz-” of course he knows Topaz. She’s the head of his brother’s department, not his, granted, even if she was their paths would never cross, Miss Topaz probably wouldn’t even glance at him over the sea of pencil pushers that share his rank and badge, and-

He scratches the back of his head. “On second thought, maybe you should direct all your IPC related matters to her.”

March 7th laughs. “Don’t sell yourself short! Argenti held you in high regard!”

Velite thinks about Argenti professing his admiration for a houseplant. Then he thinks about Argenti’s large, warm hand bracketing his wrist as he hauls Velite out in one smooth motion. (Argenti gazed at him. “Beautiful.”

Velite had spluttered, “I b-beg your pardon?!” 

“Your profession to Idrila’s beauty! Truly magnificent!” He pumped his fist in the air. A nutjob, Velite thought, that replaced all his braincells with shiny artefacts. Much like many of Velite’s superiors.)

They dropped him off at an IPC outpost, and then he took a shuttle back to his apartment. He took a long shower and then he went to HR to stumble through an excuse about missing two weeks of work. He earned an unconvinced eyebrow raise, so he slapped Himeko’s letter - with her signature and the stamp of the Astral Express - onto the officer’s desk as proof of his unexpected expedition across the stars. They scrutinised it and then didn’t let him keep it, but luckily Velite had already made a photocopy. 

They didn’t fire him, which he wasn’t sure was entirely because of Miss Himeko’s endorsement, but more that - the small fry he was, his absence probably wasn’t noticeable enough to alter the books even down to the fifth decimal, and he could tell by the bored look in the officer’s eyes that they were probably reconsidering keeping him at all. But they signed his leave form.

“Don’t do it again,” Marble drawled.

“I’ll try my best,” Velite said, thinking about Argenti showing up at his workplace and whisking him away. He had to slap himself in the bathroom mirror after that. Perhaps he was having a delayed effect to the mass hallucinations that everyone else was experiencing. What was that? He was never a romantic.

His team members expectedly ribbed him for his extended break, but one by one they dropped their questioning when it was clear Velite was not in the mood.

“Did you like, get your heart broken?” Darwin chortled, and Ramon slapped him. Velite shook his head.

“It’s nothing like that,” he insisted, and, unconvincingly, sighed for the upteenth time. They glanced at each other and then back at him. 

For the week after that he slowly cleaned out his room. He framed up the photocopy of Himeko’s letter and put it on his desk, next to the rows of light novels about dashing male heroic leads saving third-rate background characters. He flipped the spines around so he wouldn’t have to look at them. He pulled out his old books on piloting and found the page that laid out the diagrams and schematics of the common control systems of ships, and he tried to remember what Argenti’s ship was like. There were two seats in the cockpit and Argenti took the one on the right. Whenever they took off he told Velite to sit on the left. 

He was useless even if he went with Argenti, Velite thought. He couldn’t fly the ship.

Maybe if he could, things would have been different. 

He buries his head in his hands.

Another uneventful workday. It’s strange, returning to routine in the four walls of his little office cubicle after glimpsing the vastness of the universe. He had just wanted to take a day off, and rented a little automatic buggy (a poor man’s substitute for an interstellar explorer) and then gotten himself trapped in a Swarm, and then met a fantasy Knight with a lance and shining armour. And now he was back here punching numbers into his calculator.

Chase looked over the little divider between their desks. He kicked Velite under the table. “Are you, like, depressed?”

“No,” Velite says.

A long stretch of silence. The click, click, click of the mechanical keyboard punctuating the pauses between them.

“Must have been some vacation,” Chase said.

Ramon stood up. “I’ll get you some coffee. It’d wake you up.”

“Do you guys ever,” Velite said, and sighed, shaking his head.

“Finish that thought,” Darwin said. “I want to hear it.”

“Fine,” Velite says. He takes a deep breath. “Do you guys ever feel like you’re meant to do something else? Instead of…” He gestures weakly to his desk. “This?”

“No way man, I’ve always dreamed of being a low paying wage slave- of fucking course,” Darwin says. 

“Are you having an existential crisis?” Chase squints at him. 

Was he? Velite didn’t know. He wished he could ask his brother, but Wilder liked his job - of course he did, he had somehow found himself in the Aetherium Wars department, who didn’t like playing video games as their nine to five? 

The automatic doors slid open. Ramon stood there with a tray of drinks, and a perplexed expression on his face. “Hey, uh,” Ramon nods at Velite, and then towards the direction of the hallway behind him. “There’s a hands- a guy looking for you at the Visitor’s Lobby. Tall, redhead, dressed in fantasy armour…?”

“Oh my aeons.” Velite scrambles out of his chair and races to the door.

Argenti, Argenti, Argenti. The stupid man, a glittering beacon of light in intricate armour standing stock-still, out of place by the sleek minimalist visitor’s desk. There are fellow employees gawking - Velite didn’t care about them. He didn’t know their names and they didn’t know his. He only knew-

Argenti. Argenti. “Argenti!!!”

“Velite!” The man opened his arms like he’s preparing another one of his eloquent speeches. “I am gladdened to see you safe and sound-”

“You’re alright!” Velite ran to him - grabbed him by the shiny shoulder pauldrons (he could barely swing his arms around him) and then by the face. Argenti blinked at him in surprise. Then Velite remembered they were standing in the middle of the IPC visitor’s lobby and dropped his hands, embarrassed, but just as quickly Argenti grasped them and put them over his firm metallic chest. 

“Velite,” Argenti said in his familiar, stupid himbo voice. He smiled brilliantly. “I am glad to have found you. Our friends at the Astral Express guided me to where they had dropped you off, but I was told there was no man with your name working there.”

“Err… yeah, I just told them to- I took a shuttle from where they dropped me off. It’s all IPC anyways.”

Argenti nods. “I had recruited their help in searching for you. Miss March 7th requested the assistance of one of her contacts in the IPC. A… miss Topaz, was it?”

Miss Topaz searched up Velite’s location. He was going to die.

He continues, “I did not have your number.”

“Oh aeons,” Velite says. Of course. Velite did not think to exchange numbers - what was the point when they were already stuck together? He fumbles for his phone. “I- here. Please.”

Argenti smiles, his eyes curving into little crescents, crinkling at the corners. He reaches for his own. Their phone cases clang together, and Velite feels shy for some reason. 

“I’ll text you,” Argenti says.

“A-are you leaving?” Velite says, and cringes at the crack in his own voice. “I mean- not that you can’t leave, I’m sure you’re busy, spreading the word of the peerless beauty of Idrila or something-”

Argenti beams at him. “You remembered their name.” 

“After you yelling it my ear over and over for two weeks…” Velite mutters.

“I had missed your humor, Velite,” Argenti says, sounding earnest enough that Velite feels his cheeks warm. 

“Erm…”

“And I must apologize once again for breaking my promise to you. I vowed to see you safely home, and yet I left you prematurely.”

“Are you a nutjob!” Velite yells at him. “You saved our lives! I’m here because of you!”

Argenti laughed. “Our friends at the Astral Express scolded me for worrying you.”

Damn them! They were set on ruining Velite’s dignity! “I wasn’t worried!”

“I have an apology gift for you.”

“I already told you, you have nothing to apologize for-” Velite starts, and then bites down on his tongue, because Argenti pulls out - from fucking nowhere - a bouquet. Of roses. Which he pushes into Velite’s arms.

“I will have to leave now,” Argenti nods at him. “But I will return to see you before the last rose wilts.”

“This isn’t a gag about one of the roses being plastic, right?” Velite says weakly.

“You are so silly,” Argenti says, and reaches over to pluck one of the roses from the side of the bouquet. On the way his fingers find their way to tuck Velite’s hair behind his burning ears. 

Argenti tucks the flower in his own pocket and pats it, looking satisfied with himself. “I shall bid you farewell now. Will you text me back?”

“I- yeah!” 

Argenti waves as he leaves, and Velite retreats back into his office with his head hidden in his flowers.

“Dude,” Roman elbowed him so hard the roses jostled, “Who the hell was that?” 

“It-it was a friend!” Velite shrieked.

“Some friend!” Darwin said, and yanked the bouquet from him. Velite made a grab for it, and tripped over a chair. Chase kicked into his knees. 

“There’s a card!” Darwin exclaimed. “To Velite, my unique and noble soul- pah! I’m gagging!”

“Unique and noble!” Chase cackled. “That motherfucker must be blind! Well, you know what they say about love-”

Velite was the color of the roses. “It’s not love! We’ve barely know each other for two weeks-”

“Is that why you’ve been absent?” Roman scolded. “We covered for you! We thought you were sick. No shame in a whirlwind romance, but a heads up would have been nice!”

“It was not-”

“Hottest gossip of the Amber Era,” Chase says. “It’s already on the forums.”

Velite pauses in attempting to strangle Darwin and whipped around to gape at him. “No.”

In his pants, his phone buzzed. Face flaming at their shouts, he ducks away to retrieve it - oh, it’s not Argenti.

[Wilder] DUDE???

[Wilder] (link)

[Wilder] ???

Velite replies.

[Velite] Go away.

He’s typing.

[Wilder] ???

[Wilder] WHO IS THAT

[Wilder] IS THAT YOUR BOYFRIEND

“Is that your boyfriend~?” Chase sang, looking over his shoulder. “Oh, nevermind, it’s just your brother.”

Velite elbows him in the gut. 

When Argenti visits next week (Velite had told him to stop by after his working hours), he decides to cut his losses with public embarrassment and drags Argenti into his room. (It will probably make the rumors worse, but that, Velite decides, is a problem for future-Velite.)

“Is this where you live?” Argenti says, looking like a sore thumb in his living room. “Your personality shines through. It is very beautiful.”

“Ugh, stop it,” Velite says. “Now you’re just lying.” He digs out the good silverware. “So what have you been up to in the past week? Rescue any more hapless IPC agents with the good word of Idrila?”

“I returned to the location of the Swarm to ensure there were no more of those grotesque creatures.” Argenti explains. He sips from the little cartoon mug Velite passed to him. “If there were any survivors, they had moved on by the time I returned.”

“Did you go alone?” Velite says, even though he knows Argenti did. “You are so reckless. You should have called the Astral Express. I’m sure they have a bone to pick with that thing, too. They’d probably help you kick it’s ass.”

Argenti smiles over the rim of the cup. “Thank you for your consideration. I had full belief in my victory, and the light of Beauty was protecting me at every turn.”

“You’re impossible…” Velite shakes his head. “At least you have this armour to protect this big meaty head of yours. You go on and on about beauty this, beauty that… there’s nothing beautiful about being covered with insect guts!” Cleaning the Express had been gruelling, and only reinforced that Velite was not suited for any sort of manual work.

Argenti made a funny little squinting face, his nose scrunching up. “That, I have to agree. I spent a long time polishing my armour.”

“You really wear that everywhere, huh,” Velite says. Argenti had scarcely taken it off, even when they were travelling together in the One and Only. Danger lurked at every corner, he said - he must always be battle ready. He came out of the shower in his leathers and sat in the cockpit with his pauldrons. Frankly speaking, it was exhausting just watching the man snap the chrome bits and bobs onto himself every day. 

“It is a symbol of who I am,” Argenti says. “Do you not take pride in your beliefs?”

Velite shrugs, picking at the IPC logo embroidered into his jacket. “I mean, I’m not exactly leading a life of glory…”

“Every story is a beautiful one worth telling.”

Velite scoffed. “Now you’re just trying to make me feel better.”

“Hardly,” Argenti says. “I meant what I said about you. That you have a noble and brave soul that you yourself do not even realize. When I shared my plans about facing the Swarm alone, you immediately jumped in and volunteered to accompany me.”

“Y-you can’t hold that against me!” Velite exclaims. “I said that in the heat of the moment! The adrenaline of the situation… clouded my judgement! Yes, that’s it! I would never… ahem, I would never do something like that normally…”

Argenti laughs, softly. “I wish you can see the beauty that I can see within you.”

Argenti finds compliments to endow upon a houseplant. Velite refuses to be flattered. “A-ahem, well… not everyone can be extraordinary. Some people are supporting characters…”

“Your humility is beautiful as well.”

“Oh, shut up!” Velite says. “Hmph! No more of your… riddles. Are you staying for dinner or what!”

“I would enjoy that very much.”

Chapter Text

Argenti stays the night. In the two weeks they were travelling together, every night Velite took the sleeping bag on the floor, because Argenti only had his sleeping quarters set up for one and Velite refused to kick the heroic protagonist out of his own goddamn bed, dammit. 

“You saved my life, it’s the least I could do,” he would always insist. When that didn’t work, because Argenti stuck to his stupid values of chivalry, he said, “you need to be rested to defend me from any danger because I’m not the one fighting.”

There wasn’t that excuse now, but Velite tried his luck anyway. “I can take the couch,” he offers.

Argenti just smiles at him and said nothing. Velite sat at the kitchen table and watched Argenti strip his armour (his gauntlets clinked together on Velite’s coffee table) until he was down to padded trousers and undershirt. It was normally what he went to sleep in. Velite had thought it was excessive, until one day he watched Argenti jump out in them to fend off a passing swarm of Wingweavers and got off with barely a scratch. It made Velite wonder why he bothered with the armour at all, but he supposed that did make him look cool.

“You’ll probably wake before me,” Velite says, from experience, knowing that Argenti gets less sleep than he does. “Feel free to… um…” He gestures lamely to his living room. There is a television and a bookshelf. “Whatever entertainment you desire.”

“Thank you,” Argenti says. “Good night. May you have the sweetest of dreams.”

“Yep!” Velite says, and scurries into his room.

Argenti (expectedly) is already awake when Velite’s morning alarm rings. He’s seated on the couch, flipping through - oh aeons, of all the possible books.

“Velite,” he greets, looking up. “I hope you do not mind that I perused your reading material.”

“I, er- yeah. I mean no! I don’t mind,” he lies. He minds very much. Argenti doesn’t seem - well, he doesn’t seem to think anything of it, not with the same placid smile on his face. Or maybe he’s just being polite.

“I, er, like… adventure… stories,” Velite says. Which is the most reductive way to explain light novels.

“You have a very adventurous spirit,” Argenti says, like he’s praising him. Velite feels embarrassed, despite himself. It’s too early in the morning to properly rationalize Argenti’s usual manner of speech as his usual brand of overt flattery as opposed to a genuine compliment. Adventurous spirit was a way to put it. Velite thinks he’s had enough adventure for a lifetime. He opens his mouth to say something, but his front doorknob jiggles. Click. Whoever it is on the other side has a key. That means it can only be one person.

“Oh my aeons, it’s my brother,” Velite says. He shouldn't have ignored his text.

Argenti perks up. “You have a sibling? What are they like?”

“Er-”

The door swings open. Wilder stands in the doorway with a befuddled expression on his face. He looks between Argenti, to Velite, then to Argenti again. “You…” He makes a frantic grab for the nearest thing by the doorway - the handle of an umbrella. “Are you the bastard that’s conning my brother?!”

“Wait, no!” Velite yelled, diving to shield Argenti before Wilder clocks him on the head. “He didn’t con me- put that down! He’s a Knight of Beauty!”

Wilder does not put down the umbrella. “What is that, one of those dating website scams…?”

Velite is offended. “Do you think I’ll fall for a dating website scam?”

There’s no discernible change in Wilder’s expression. “Yes.” 

Velite throws a cushion in his face.

Argenti clears his throat lightly. “Perhaps I shall explain who the Knights of Beauty are…?”

Velite isn’t sure if that would help his case or make him look even more ridiculous. “You don’t have to explain anything to him, Argenti.”

Wilder folds his arms. “No, I want to hear it.”

Argenti clears his throat. “The Knights of Beauty worship the Aeon Idrila the Beauty. We travel from planet to planet, spreading the Beauty's glorious reputation across the universe so that every being may know of their existence.”

“Uh huh,” Wilder says, eyes narrowing. “And the IPC are followers of Qilipoth, so…why are you interested in Velite?!”

“W-we’re just friends!” Velite starts, the same time Argenti says, “your brother is very beautiful.” 

A long pause. They stare at each other.

“...I’m telling mom and dad,” Wilder says, and shuts the door on them.

Velite awkwardly clears his throat. “Y-you shouldn’t say things like that,” he mumbles. “People might get the wrong idea.”

“The wrong idea about what?” Argenti says. 

Velite coughs again. “About. You know.” He gestures weakly into the air. “O-our relationship. As friends. Our… when… friendship.” 

Argenti gives him a firm nod. “I see. I will be mindful of that, then.”

Velite swallows. “Y-yeah.”

Argenti stands up. “Thank you for your hospitality. I must get going.”

“R-right!” Velite says. “I bet you’re very busy, with tons of heroic - er, saving to do, I shouldn’t keep you.”

Wilder returns a little bit later, and looks surprised to see Velite sitting alone. “Did your man go?”

“Huh?”

“Your man,” Wilder repeats, brows furrowed. “Did he go?”

“He had to leave,” Velite says lamely. “To do… hero… things. A-and he’s not my anything.”

Wilder stares at him. “Vee.”

“Yeah?”

“I heard you met the Astral Express.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

“I met them too,” Wilder says. “Two of the trailblazers came to Belobog to play Aetherium Wars. I saw Miss Himeko, too.”

“Of course,” Velite says. His brother was cooler than him and better at his job. Of course he would also meet the Astral Express. 

“I didn’t get Miss Himeko’s signature, though,” Wilder says, and sits down next to Velite on the couch. “How did you meet Argenti?”

“I…” Velite fumbles. “It’s kind of a boring story.” 

“Tell me anyways,” Wilder says.

“Well… I … was on vacation. And I fell into a cave,” Velite says, which is the lamest start to a story ever. “And Argenti saw me and pulled me out. We, uh, travelled together for a couple of - two. Two weeks. And then we got eaten by a giant bug. And then we rear-ended the Astral Express.”

“That’s not boring,” Wilder says. 

“Argenti saved us. He left the Astral Express to fight the Swarm alone, and we got out because of him. I didn’t hear from him for… a while. I thought… maybe…”

“Oh, Vee,” Wilder says.

“He wouldn’t even let me come with him,” Velite laughs. He still remembers watching Argenti leaping out into the endless abyss of space. “I mean, of course he wouldn’t… It’s not like I would have helped… everyone in the Express was doing their part and fighting the giant bugs and steering the train and I just stood there like a houseplant.” Maybe that’s why Argenti called him beautiful - he was just as useful as one.

Wilder looks at him. He looks away. “When’s he coming back?”

“Who?”

“Your… that Argenti fellow.”

Velite shrugs weakly. “Dunno.”

“I think you’re… burnt out, or something,” Wilder says.

Velite shrugs again. “Maybe.”

Wilder sighs. He pulls out his phone and leans back on the couch to ignore him, so Velite did the same. There were no new messages from Argenti - of course not, they just saw each other, Velite was being ridiculous to expect any - and there was a missed one from Wilder, last night, who said he was coming by this morning, and finally a few more notifications for unread emails that he’ll have to acknowledge soon before Jade came down on his ass.

“I have to go to work,” Velite says.

“I took the day off to visit your depressed ass,” Wilder waves him away. “See ya.”

After work Velite returns to his apartment and opens his front door. He expects Wilder to be here. He does not expect-

“I thought you left.”

Argenti and Wilder are seated at his dining table, two cups of coffee between them. Argenti is using the stupid cartoon mug. They seem to be enjoying their conversation. Velite feels weird standing in his doorway. 

“Oh, you’re back,” Wilder says. “Argenti and I were talking.”

“About what?” Velite says. “Did you convince him to play Aetherium Wars? Or are you a follower of Idrila, now?”

Wilder smiles at him. “Remember, as a kid, you wanted to become a pilot?”

“Er,” Velite says. “What about it?” He looks at Argenti. “Did he share my embarrassing childhood stories with you? I’m not serious about it. I know it's unrealistic. I’d probably crash a ship minutes after taking off, anyway.”

“I don’t think it is an embarrassing ambition,” Argenti says. “I think it is a beautiful wish.”

“Ugh,” Velite says, blushing.

Wilder leans over the table to whisper something into Argenti’s ear. Before Velite can think about it, Wilder polishes off his mug and waves goodbye to him. “See you next week.”

“See you?” Velite says, and Wilder claps him on the back before heading out the door.

He and Argenti are left facing each other in the room. “I thought you left,” Velite repeats lamely, for the lack of anything else to say.

“I apologize,” Argenti says. “I had departed from you prematurely again.”

“What is there to apologize for?” Velite says. “Do whatever. I don’t care.”

“Do you mind that I have returned to see you?” Argenti asks.

“You’re just making me anxious!” Velite says. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to offer you a recurring questline or something… I have no new voicelines - I mean, nothing new to say! Do you want to play Aetherium Wars or something?”

“I do not,” Argenti says. “But I want to listen to your…voicelines. Will you tell me about your dream again, to become a pilot?”

“I don’t understand you,” Velite sighs, but he supposes protagonists were allowed to be eccentric. If Argenti was caught up about his dream… well, Velite supposes he can help him settle whatever it was that he was hung up about. “Well, I told the Trailblazers… when we were on the Astral Express, I had one of those illusions, too, only it was… well, weird. I saw myself piloting the One and Only - except of course I actually knew how to fly the thing, in my dream, just like how you do it. I was searching for you. Which is even stranger, because I had the dream before you went on your suicide mission - unless, of course, I was psychic… but I’m obviously not…” Velite scratches his head. “Just a coincidence, I guess…”

“For many years, I have been the sole pilot of the One and Only,” Argenti says. “But I do not think I mind the vision of your dream, for you to be the one to fly it.”

“I can’t,” Velite says.

“What if you learn how to fly?”

“I don’t have enough money for lessons.”

“I can teach you,” Argenti offers, a little bit too earnestly that Velite wonders if he means it. Of course not. That was the sort of thing you say just to be polite, like, we’ll catch up! Or, I’m sure you’ll do fine! 

Velite was not fine. He shook his head to clear his thoughts about Argenti and his earnest eyes. It doesn’t work because he looks up and they’re right there again. “Aren’t the Knights of Beauty solo travelers?” Velite says weakly.

“It is true that I have travelled alone for many years,” Argenti said softly, and of course, there was nothing Velite could ever do that could even hold a candle to Argenti’s burning blaze, he was not a suitable travelling companion.

“But I would be honoured should you wish to join me.” Argenti brought Velite’s left hand to his lips and kissed the back of his knuckles. 

Velite swallows. “T-thanks for the… offer. You’re a great… great…” Velite struggled for the words. “Friend,” he settles on, painfully.

“Are friends what you wish to be?” Argenti says. ”Friendship is beautiful as well.”

For a brief flicker of indignation, Velite thought that friendship wasn’t quite enough. He surged forward, but as always, he was a coward. Like a third rate NPC could ever get so close to a main character. Yeah, right! His lips met Argenti’s cheeks. They are burning like he’s gone too far. Velite draws back. “I-”

Argenti grabs the side of his face and wordlessly pulls him back in. Their noses bump - Argenti lets out a cute little laugh - and then, his palm still over Velite’s pulse, tilts his head so their lips slot together.

Velite kisses back fervently. Argenti pulls him onto his lap and latches onto the soft part of his neck with his teeth and sucks a blooming rose onto it. He tugs one of Velite’s sleeves off his shoulders and surfaces with a red mouth and says, “how are you feeling?”

“A-am I hallucinating?”

“Do you wish to be?” Argenti says, smiling, as he strokes Velite's cheek. “My noble and brave soul, please hold on to your doubt no longer.”

“Noble and brave,” Velite says, still a little giddy. “My friends made fun of me for that one.”

“Hm,” Argenti says, and nips his bottom lip. “Shall we sleep in the same bed tonight?”