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“Hey, Linhardt, do you dare me to eat this bug?”
“No, that sounds revolting.”
“Aw, come on!” Caspar whined, the action unbecoming of a general in Edelgard’s army. “You aren’t even looking at it!”
The light lunch Linhardt had remembered to eat recoiled at the idea of lifting his eyes from the book he was skimming. “I don’t care how juicy or sweet it appears to you, I’m not going to be the reason you eat it.” He waved a hand dismissively in the direction of Caspar’s voice, hoping that closed the matter.
It did not. “How about push ups? Do you dare me to do 50 push ups?”
“No.”
“100 push ups?”
“It’s not the amount of push ups that are the problem, it’s the presence of them.”
He heard Caspar huff in annoyance and couldn’t hold back a chuckle. Years of friendship made it easy for Linhardt to picture the exact pout on Caspar’s face right now. He turned a page, making a mental note to reread this section later when he didn’t have a conversation to carry out.
“There has to be something I can do to make you look at me.”
That was a strange tone. Linhardt’s amusement dried and he finally lifted his head.
Caspar was seated on the grass in front of Linhardt, disappointment clear on his face. Not the expression of someone whose challenges had been rebuffed– more like Linhardt was a puzzle he wanted nothing more than to solve, but just couldn’t see where to start.
Finger marking his place, Linhardt closed the book. Caspar perked up. “Why do you want me to look at you so badly?” Linhardt asked.
“This is the first time we’ve been able to spend time together since we returned to Garreg Mach,” Caspar explained, picking at the grass. “There’s so much to do around here– I wanted to enjoy hanging out again. But you’ve spent all afternoon reading.” He said the word the same way Linhardt might say “bleeding”.
It was a fair point, Linhardt realized, watching Caspar frown at the blades of grass in his fingers. Apart from sitting together at war meetings, they hadn’t seen much of each other lately. This was perhaps the longest they had spoken to one another without a solider or another Eagle interrupting.
Linhardt thought for a moment. “Caspar?” He waited for those cerulean eyes to focus on him before continuing. “I dare you to kiss me.”
Caspar sprang forward as if he had been waiting for that exact command. The kiss soothed away the rest of Linhardt’s leftover aggravation, and he found himself smiling into the kiss, surprised to find he had sincerely missed this contact. Caspar’s hands holding his face so carefully, that nose awkwardly bumping Linhardt’s cheek– how long had it been since their last kiss? It was a wonder they hadn’t had this conversation earlier.
After a long moment, Linhardt pulled back, smile returning to match Caspar’s. He cupped Caspar’s chin. “Let me finish this chapter, then we can do something together?” He offered.
Caspar’s smile became a full fledged grin. “I dare you to read super quick.”
Linhardt snorted. “ Well, how could I possibly pass up such a challenge?” He leaned back against his tree, opened the book, and began reading once again– though, admittedly, he only read every other word.