Chapter Text
After they spend the whole night talking, Laios expected change between him and Kabru.
Don’t get him wrong, they were friends before, sure… But not like he’s friends with Marcille.
They were friends, but Melini always came first.
They were friends, and they have been getting along just fine, but there was still something between them that didn’t feel quite right.
That thing disappeared when they met at the library. Laios thinks Kabru felt it disappearing too.
He thought it would bring something to their friendship that was missing and he prepared himself to offer an ear to Kabru when he decided to come talk to him about his nightmares, as he had implied he’d do. In the meanwhile, he’d wait and give him space.
It’s what would be fair for him to do, as his friend. Shuro taught him that.
Instead, it feels like they went a couple of steps back as, after that night, they went right back to their rushed daily lives as king and advisor — to long boring meetings that seemingly lasted the entire day and to tired talks about what the guy of the day said about the problem he’s decided to bring to their table.
Again, don’t get him wrong! Laios likes to work alongside Kabru. He's very capable and Laios has come to trust and rely on him a lot. He wouldn’t be able to do this king thing without Kabru by his side. No way!
But he can’t help the sigh that comes out when Kabru always follows his “good morning” with his schedule for the entire morning.
Nowadays, his eyes strain every time they talk, trying to find a way to steer the conversation into something — anything, really! — other than work, but it always slips right into whatever they are saying without him even realizing.
It’s frustrating! And, Laios realizes with some guilt, it angers him a little.
The worst of it, however, is that Laios has been meaning to seriously talk to him about something he’s been noticing and that’s been worrying him a lot lately.
The most confusing part is that it’s got to do with work — as in, it happens when they are at work, so Laios sees it happening in real time —, and he still somehow couldn’t ask Kabru about it.
Here's the thing: Laios noticed Kabru committing small mistakes, like organizing papers on the wrong order or picking up the wrong book from the library for their lessons. It wasn't really a problem, and it didn’t seem something to get overly concerned about. Since Laios is the last person to go over their work to give it his stamp of approval, he took extra care to read it thoroughly to fix any mistakes that might have passed under his team's attention.
But then, Laios caught him… distracted.
During a meeting with one dwarven retinue, Laios had leaned sideways on the throne (discreetly, like they’d practiced) to ask Kabru what the hell these people were talking about (why do they sound like they are talking in code?).
For the first time, however, he didn’t receive an answer.
“Kabru?” he whispered, covering his mouth, pretending to appear interested (again, like they’d practiced), but still, no answer.
He chanced a side look, seeing Kabru positioned as usual beside him, with one knee down on the ground, hands resting on the other, and eyes trained on the discussion happening a few steps away from them.
He looked like he was paying close attention, but the tension around his eyes hinted at something Laios had seen become more intense with the passing of days.
Laios’ stomach twisted on itself, feeling a line of questioning wanting to come out.
He called him again, a little louder this time.
Kabru blinked slowly, the gleam in his eyes diminished as the eyelids came up again.
His stomach turned into a knot. Electric energy ran through his limbs, willing his body to jump to action.
“Kabru—"
His head jerked towards Laios, and wide blue eyes locked into his.
Laios felt his own eyes widening in response as they came to a halt.
They stayed in silence for exactly two seconds before Kabru bat his eyelashes rapidly and whispered, “Wha— sorry, what did you say?”
“I asked,” Laios whispered back, breath coming in short, “what are these people talking about?”
Kabru pressed his lips together and looked back at the conversation at hand, eyes distressed in a way Laios had never seen before.
Shit, Laios straightened back on the throne to watch the argument between Yaad and the dwarves become increasingly strenuous for both parts.
Shit! Laios felt neck starting to sweat profusely, if not even Kabru knows what’s going on then I’m done for!
He could only hope no one asked for his opinion on the matter, but that’s not likely at all! I’m the king, after all!
Laios gulped, shoulders tensing up near his ears as he forsake his practice and looked away from the group.
Kabru’s voice brushed against his ear from the other side.
“They are asking for trading privileges across Melini’s territory, Yaad is trying to dissuade them. We can’t accept because we’ve already signed a contract with the half-foot trading company, but they don’t need to know that.”
The relief he felt then was so immense he almost broke character as he felt his body sink into the throne with a controlled sigh.
It was short-lived though, because the twist in his stomach returned with the sound of Kabru also letting out a deep wavering breath.
“Kabru,” he whispered again, turning his head to look at him this time — he felt tired, and would only understand the unusual look Kabru shot his way as alarmed later that evening —, “are you alr—”
Before he could finish, however, one of the dwarves addressed him and, very angrily, asked if the matter at hand was of no concern to his majesty.
The shock of the interruption jolted him back into his kingly persona. He stumbled through an answer (the correct one, as Yaad’s thumbs up indicated), and though this particular problem had been resolved, when Laios tried to go back to Kabru, he got scolded by him and told to turn back around to pay attention to what they were saying.
He didn’t get another chance to ask Kabru about his whatever-is-going-on even after the meeting was finished as he couldn’t find a breach in the work-related conversation to do it.
When he realized, Kabru had already retired to his room, and he was on the dining hall, eating alongside Marcille, Yaad, and some others after another long day. Falin's lack of presence took his mind off the day's happenings. By the time he fell onto his bed to sleep, he’d already completely forgotten the whole episode.
He realized something really must be wrong, however, when the same incident happened again, and again, and again in the span of one week.
Once during lunch, once during their sparring session, and once on their Human Relations lesson, which is so concerning because that’s literally Kabru’s thing!
Even if Kabru always managed to come back and quickly get a hold of what’s going on, four times is way more than Laios felt comfortable ignoring, and he’s, at the present moment, officially concerned for Kabru.
Not only as his friend, he realizes one evening, but as his king, too.