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All of their planning had been made futile in an instant thanks to just a couple of storm clouds. All week had classmates been coming up to the Wanderer and asking for his input and opinions as if he somehow asked to be in charge of this event.
It was Nahida’s birthday celebration and while the Wanderer was impartial to the Dendro Archon as a being, he could acknowledge her significance in his life.
Despite his best attempts to not get involved, he ended up being something of an event planner.
He could attribute most of the blame to that desert man who recently made himself comfortable in his life. The Wanderer wasn’t exactly sure when he started considering Sethos a friend, though he was definitely reconsidering that label ever since his most recent transgression of getting the Wanderer involved in this whole ordeal.
Sethos had this uncanny ability to ignore most of what came out of the Wanderer’s mouth and parse through the insults thrown at him. The Wanderer assumed this was mostly due to the fact Sethos most likely did have rocks for brains. To a normal person “leave me alone,” would have meant exactly that. Somehow Sethos must have heard it to be “please keep bothering me.”
So when the Wanderer told Sethos he was looking forward to Nahida’s birthday celebration as a chance to read quietly in the library while everyone celebrated outside, Sethos took it upon himself to send an entourage directly to him that would insist on getting him involved in the very core of the Sabzeruz festival.
So he went along with it. For a week, he directed design decisions, sent students out to source fresh flowers, fruits, and herbs to make dyes. He worked with Sethos to find vendors and samples to be given out at the event. He assisted with making long braided ribbons that would later be adorned with flowers and draped along the street lamps.
The tasks were never ending, and borderline unbearable. Except for when Sethos was there, things always got lighter.
This was another strange thing about the man. At first, his mere appearance left the Wanderer scowling with distaste. But these days, he felt the muscles in his face relax whenever he spotted Sethos’s curly locks bouncing through the crowd. The way his hair moved reminded him of the way aranaras bounce when they walk.
Though he felt this change internally, the Wanderer continued to throw biting remarks at Sethos any chance he got.
“Your ribbon looks awful,” he would comment upon seeing Sethos’s attempt at making some decorations.
Sethos would just grin back at him, “This one’s just a practice.”
The Wanderer would most likely frown and walk away, unsure how to continue the conversation.
They had many interactions like this one. Sethos had this ability to make the Wanderer speechless.
Then came the long night before the celebration. The flowers they had sourced had sat out in the heat and were starting to wilt. If they were used in the festival decorations it would surely look like a funeral. As humorous as that was to the Wanderer, he refused to be blamed for ruining Nahida’s birthday again. He found Sethos, about to go to sleep and dragged him to go out into the rainforest with him. It would be faster if two of them were looking for flowers.
Most of the flowers were fine, it was just the kalpalata lotus. These were a rare flower that mostly grew in hard to reach places.
The Wanderer took Sethos with him mostly because a second pair of hands would be useful for carrying more flowers back to the workshop. However, Sethos proved to be more than useful because he used his bow to shoot the vines that the flowers were hanging off of. At first the Wanderer wanted to yell at him and warn him not to harm the precious few flowers that were left.
But the desert man’s precision proved to be near perfect. Sethos shot down vine after vine while the Wanderer used his vision to assist in picking even more kalpalata lotus blooms.
“You know…” Sethos said after some time, breaking the silence between the two. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say you actually care about the Dendro Archon.”
The Wanderer narrowed his eyes at this statement as he returned to Sethos with four more flowers.
“But you do know better?” the Wanderer asked in reply.
Sethos laughed. “Well, you’re the one who dragged me out here. And for what? To pick some slightly fresher flowers than the ones we already have?”
The Wanderer frowned at this. Sethos was doing that thing again. It was that thing where Sethos made it sound like he understood the Wanderer better than he understood himself. This should be impossible, though Sethos had proved him wrong once before already. That was the time he realized he and Sethos had become friends despite Wanderer thinking of him differently.
People who were strangers or acquaintances didn’t go out of their way to say hi. They didn’t bring each other food or small gifts when they reunited. They certainly didn’t buy things because it made me think of you .
“The flowers we have wilted,” the Wanderer said.
“ Only the kalpalata lotuses wilted?” Sethos asked with a raised eyebrow.
The Wanderer sighed. “Fine, they're only slightly wilted. It doesn’t matter now, we’ve gathered enough fresh ones so we should just use these.”
“Why did we bother picking all of these if the old ones are still usable,” Sethos pressed. There was no malice in his voice. He wasn’t upset at the Wanderer.
“They’re the Dendro Archon’s favorite flowers,” the Wanderer admitted. While the kalpalata lotuses they had back in the workshop weren’t useless, they were browning around the edges. The Sabzeruz festival lasted several days with the Dance of Sabzeruz being on the last day. This dance was based on the Goddess of Flowers’ dance. If the flowers decorating the stage for this dance were brown and wilted, it would surely be a travesty.
“I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you definitely care about Nahida,” Sethos said with a shit-eating grin on his face.
This made emotions stir inside of the Wanderer. Most prominent of all, was anger. He couldn’t understand how Sethos could say such a thing to him.
“No I don’t,” the Wanderer bit back.
“Of course you do,” Sethos said, doubling down.
“Stop saying that!” the Wanderer shouted, throwing his lotuses on the ground.
“It’s okay if you do! She’s helped you in a lot of ways, so it’s only natural,” Sethos explained. He set his flowers on the ground, and went to grab the Wanderer by his elbows.
“How could you of all people say that?” the Wanderer asked, fighting back tears for some reason. He didn’t understand why his eyes would produce tears at a time like this.
“What do you mean?”
“I thought I was supposed to care about you . How can you be the one telling me to care about Nahida?”
“You can care about both of us,” Sethos said gently, not understanding.
The Wanderer shook his head. “I may not know everything there is about being human, but I know most of you think that’s against the rules. You can’t have more than one important person.”
Sethos’s expression dropped and his eyes widened as if a lightbulb just went off in his head. “Hold on… what do you think ‘care about’ means?”
The Wanderer crossed his arms over his chest to guard himself. “You know. Every person has a person who you stick by no matter what. The one you think about all day long. There’s hundreds of books on the topic. I’ve read a few of them.”
“Oh… I think you’re confused,” Sethos said barely above a whisper.
“No I’m not. I know you’re that person, Sethos. Not Nahida.”
Sethos’s mouth dropped open, but he quickly closed it again. “Do you really mean that?”
“Yeah,” the Wanderer snapped. “I don’t say things I don’t mean.”
“Okay. Please listen to me, but first there’s something I need to do,” Sethos said.
The Wanderer stared at Sethos, waiting for him to do whatever it was he was planning. The Wanderer couldn’t imagine what the desert man could possibly be planning. But then Sethos took a step closer. He was still holding the Wanderer’s elbows so he had nowhere else to look but forward. The Wanderer felt something stir inside as he made eye contact with Sethos. The intense green appeared to glow even though it was night time.
Sethos moved closer still. The Wanderer could feel Sethos’s exhale on his lips. Sethos closed his eyes. The Wanderer admired the other man’s eyelashes. Sethos hovered a centimeter away. It was only in that second that the Wanderer realized what Sethos wanted.
Just as he had read in those books, he too closed his eyes and leaned forward ever so slightly. He felt something bump into his nose, but then he found his target. His lips met Sethos’s. The Wanderer barely moved, but felt every nerve in his non-human body. It lasted only a second, until Sethos pulled back. When the Wanderer opened his eyes again, he saw Sethos staring back at him.
“I’ve been wanting to do that,” Sethos whispered.
The Wanderer frowned, “Why didn’t you then?”
“Love is rarely such a simple thing,” Sethos replied with half a laugh.
“Love?” the Wanderer reeled at the word. It was written in some of the books he read, though rarely so explicitly.
Sethos nodded, “Yes. I love you.”
“I see,” the Wanderer answered. He sat with the revelation, but didn’t feel the need to run away from it.
“Also,” Sethos continued. “You should know there’s different types of love.”
“Different types?” the Wanderer repeated.
“That’s why it’s perfectly okay if you say you care about Nahida. The love you may feel for someone you want to have as a partner might be different from the love you feel for your brother or sister.”
“So… Nahida can be like my sister?” the Wanderer asked.
Sethos nodded again, “Yes! I’m sure she would love to acknowledge you as her family.” The Wanderer was quiet for quite some time as he sorted this new information internally. Sethos prodded him after a minute. “So… what are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking… I want you to kiss me again,” the Wanderer revealed. Sethos grinned, but complied and did just that.
The two of them returned in the early morning to the city. Sethos, having spent all night with the Wanderer, returned to his room and took a nap before joining the festival later in the day. The Wanderer managed to replace all of the wilted flowers and put up the final decorations just in time for the Haft-Mewa Feast to begin.
The Wanderer found Nahida a few days later in between all of the festivities.
“Hat Guy!” she exclaimed. After a moment she added. “Thank you so much for your hard work!”
The Wanderer rolled his eyes, not bothering to tell her off for reading his mind once again.
“I’m just repaying the mistakes I made last year,” the Wanderer replied.
“Oh? I didn’t believe it was typical for family members to be concerned about that kind of thing,” Nahida said.
The Wanderer opened his mouth to argue with her, but he already knew it would be of no use. She probably already knew what happened between him and Sethos in the forest that night, and if not she could almost definitely sense a shift in the way the Wanderer viewed her.
“Happy Birthday, Dendro Archon,” the Wanderer mumbled.
“Sethos is approaching,” Nahida said. The Wanderer cringed. The Wanderer himself could sometimes shield his thoughts from the Dendro Archon, but Sethos was a mere mortal.
“Happy Birthday, Lesser Lord Kusanali!” Sethos called as he got closer. He reached out and offered her some sweets that she graciously took.
Nahida thanked him and then Sethos turned his full attention to the Wanderer. He hadn’t really seen Sethos since that night in the forest.
“The Dance of Sabzeruz is about to start,” Sethos said. The Wanderer wasn’t sure what Sethos wanted him to say.
“I’m… busy,” the Wanderer made up a lie.
Sethos grinned and looked at Nahida again, “Oh, great Dendro Archon, may I please have your blessing to steal this hat-wearing man for a dance?”
The Wanderer felt his face grow red at Sethos’s theatrics.
“Okay! Okay!” the Wanderer exclaimed. “I’m not busy, I’ll come.”
Nahida laughed from behind the Wanderer, but he didn’t dare turn back. He held out his hand for Sethos, who took it graciously in his own. He laced their fingers together and led him to watch the performance. Sethos held his hand throughout and when it was finished he led him to join in with the others, dancing together.
“Where exactly did a desert boy learn the Dance of Sabzeruz?” the Wanderer asked.
Sethos grinned, “I may have begged Nilou to teach me. If I’m going to date the relative of the Dendro Archon, I need to learn all the traditions.”
“We’re dating?” the Wanderer asked.
Sethos grinned, “Ah… I suppose. If you'd like that, that is.”
The Wanderer pretended to think for a second, but he already knew his answer.
“I would like that.”
Sethos learned down and placed a kiss swiftly on the Wanderer’s cheek, laughing at how he turned red. The Wanderer ignored the feeling of eyes on him as Sethos did this. Some of them were bound to be his classmates.
The Wanderer inhaled and decided to abandon care. If Sethos were to become part of his family one day, he would have to look past the judgment of others. The Wanderer leaned up and connected their lips in a lingering kiss. Pulling apart he smiled.
Let them judge
, he thought.