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Kabru noticed the presence of the notebook some time ago, it was leatherbound and fit in Laios' hands, who always carried it when they went to meetings with the royal council, and sometimes when these started to get too long, he discreetly opened it and began to move his pencil across the paper.
Kabru initially thought that perhaps Laios was taking notes, but his hand movements did not appear as if he were writing, with the pencil being moved up and down the pages in irregular movements.
He is drawing , it took him much longer than Kabru was proud to realize this, That’s not so strange, many people doodle during meetings or classes.
But Laios' reactions were somewhat peculiar every time someone came close and he closed the notebook automatically. What had piqued Kabru’s curiosity.
His seat at the end of the table was too far away for Kabru to see what he was always drawing, a few times Kabru had found excuses to get closer and try to spy on the notebook, but so far his attempts had not been successful.
Until that day when Laios left the room and the notebook remained on the table.
And Kabru noticed, but said nothing, and began to organize the papers he had brought to the meeting much more slowly than before.
And then when he was alone in the room, he moved to Laios' seat and opened the notebook.
There were drawings of monsters, which Kabru was already expecting, some of his sister and their friends. And there were even some notes about the meetings.
But there were many drawings that really took him by surprise, because they were him, except not really him, it was Kabru with a centaur body, or like some kind of wolfman, one of him like an orc, one of him with butterfly wings coming out of his back, insect eyes and his hands turned into claws, there was one of him on two pages like some kind of mermaid with a lot of detail being put to the gills on his neck.
And it was this drawing that he was looking at when Laios returned to the council room.
Kabru was usually quite perceptive, but he didn't notice the other man's presence until he was literally right next to him.
Laios was looking at him and at the drawing on the notebook, and he was very pale, with his eyes huge and an expression of panic on his face.
It looked as if Laios was about to say something when Kabru interrupted him:
"I'm very sorry. I shouldn't have looked at your notebook without permission, I was just curious to see what you were drawing, but that doesn't justify it.”
Or at least I should have locked the door, or taken it with me and examined the contents in a private place.
Laios said nothing.
Will I be fired? Does looking at a king's personal notes without permission count as treason? Maybe not, but it's definitely an invasion of privacy. Will I be banished from the kingdom?? And why does he only find me interesting to draw as a monster???
“I'll go now.” Kabru said and started walking away, but before he reached the door, Laios walked up to him and grabbed his arm.
“I'm the one who is sorry. I know you don’t like monsters and it must be really uncomfortable to see a drawing of you as one.”
“I-it’s okay. They're not bad drawings. The one with me as a mermaid was really cool.”
“The right name for a male mermaid is a merman or a triton, actually.”
For a second Kabru wanted to slap him. But seeing Laios' still somewhat fearful look it passed.
“Why am I a monster in all of them? I saw some that you drew of the others and they looked like they do in real life, but the ones of me are always of me mixed with something.”
Kabru knew he shouldn't ask, but he was curious, and there was probably no way to make the situation any more awkward than it already was.
“Well, I just really like monsters, as you know, and also - I really like you, so I thought it would be fun to merge those two interests, and sometimes I don't even have the intention of drawing you, I just start doodling a centaur and then I notice it's you again.”
Kabru realized he was wrong, it was even more awkward now, but not in a completely bad way. Laios liked him, and he was well aware that later he would be replaying his words in his mind trying to analyze them for meaning and implications, but now it just felt nice.
After a few seconds of silence he said:
“Can I keep the one of me as a merman?”
“I really like that one.” Laios said seeming a bit hesitant.
“Oh, okay.”
“No, I mean, you can keep it! I want you to have it.” Laios said tearing up the page from the notebook and handing it to Kabru.
“Thank you.” he said taking the drawing, his fingers touching Laios’ for a moment that lasted a bit longer that was necessary.
"You’re welcome. And I can always make another one, that is if you don’t mind.”
If someone had just asked some hours ago if Kabru was okay with the king drawing him as a series of monsters his answer to that question would have been an emphatic no. And yet he found himself saying:
“It doesn’t bother me if you keep drawing me.”
And to his own surprise, he was telling the truth.