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Teo had been dreaming, dreaming of… something. He can’t remember now, it doesn’t matter. There’s ruffling by him, something, or someone, rifling through one of their bags on the ground. He sits up slightly, immediately on guard and squints against the darkness of the forest, their fire having long gone out.
With his eyes eventually adjusting to the dark of the forest and allowing him to see marginally better, he can make out that the thing seems to be looking through one of their bags. As the thing moves its arm to dig deeper into the bag, he can see the moonlight reflect of off something seemingly… golden?
Aurelio’s armband.
“Hey,” Teo says quietly upon realizing what the thing , someone, is. Trying to get his attention, he whispers “ Hey” once again. Gaining this, Aurelio looks up quickly from where he is, crouched in front of what is now apparent to be his bag.
His head snaps up harshly from where he was looking through the bag, his eyes widening in surprise when he sees Teo.
“Hey, go back to sleep,” He says in return, the same volume as Teo, as to not wake the deep asleep, snoring Niya. His voice is different though, strained.
“Nah, I’m awake now. What’s up?” He says, pulling his sleeping bag off and sitting up, squinting again to try and get a better view of the other boy, who is still crouched in front of, what is now apparent to be, his bag. Instead of answering, though, Aurelio opens and closes his mouth a few times, seeming like a deer caught in headlights. Teo, unaware of his pause, says “I can’t see a thing, can you start a light or something?”
“Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry.” Aurelio mumbles, his voice still strained as he slightly stumbles over his words. It wasn’t like Aurelio to mumble, let alone stutter.
“Hey, you okay?” Teo says, trying to throw a concerned glance at where he thinks Aurelio is.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He replies, no longer sounding unsure, but his voice still tight, controlled.
Light suddenly surrounds them as Aurelio reignites the fire, enlightening the forest surrounding them. Upon the sudden light, Teo can now see the details of Aurelios face as he continues to crouch just behind the fire.
As Teo studies Aurelio’s face as he watches the fire, his face blank, he can begin to process the features of his face. He can make out the usual, his sharp jawline, his dark brown eyes, the slight eye bags accompanying his face ever since the trials. Along with the dirt caked on his face that only comes from sleeping on forest floors and not having access to a shower for the past few days. But what seems to be new, are the clear trails that seem to have been paved down his face. Tear tracks?
After noticing this, and observing the blank look on Aurelio’s face, Teo decides to give up on being this far away (not even more than 6 feet) from the Gold, and decides to move closer to him. Saying nothing, he just simply walks over to Aurelio and sits down right next to him. The taller boy doesn’t even seem to register movement until Teo is sat down right next to him, and is making contact with him.
“What are you doing?” He asks, not rudely, just curious.
“Sitting next to you. It’s cold.”
“It’s 40 degrees.” Aurelio states flatly. He’s right, the forest they’re in really isn’t that cold, despite it being the middle of the night.
“Well, maybe I just wanted to be near you.” He says, and Aurelio doesn’t reply, simply staring at the fire once again. After a few moments, Teo realizes it really isn’t cold, almost the opposite actually. It’s extremely hot, almost scorching. After ruling out the small fire in front of them as the source of this sudden heat, he looks to Aurelio. “You’re hot.”
“Ha ha.” He replies flatly once again, barely a hint of amusement in his tone. He sounds tired.
“No, like actually,” He says, his face contorting in concern, and he reaches out to Aurelio, touching him lightly on his armband. He quickly recedes back, though, hissing at the burning sensation of touching the piece of gold. “What the fuck, Relio?”
At the sudden contact of his arm, Aurelio simultaneously winces, though subdued, and draws back just as quickly as Teo did.
“Are you okay?” He says concernedly, reaching his, marginally less hot, hand to cradle Teo’s in his own, inspecting the skin.
Teo doesn’t reply, merely staring at Aurelio intensely. What the fuck was going on?
“Why are your arms basically on fire?” Teo asks, still just staring at Aurelio as he continues to inspect his, completely unharmed, hand.
“Children of Lumbre tend to run hot.” Aurelio replied dryly, holding Teo’s hand up to the small fire he had previously conjured to examine closer.
Teo, gently ripping his hand out of Aurelios, continues to look at him questioningly.
“Relio” he says quietly, but forcefully. Aurelio finally looks at him, his eyes tired and distant. It doesn’t seem he’s even seeing Teo. “What happened?”
He doesn’t reply immediately, instead tearing his eyes away from Teo’s and looking down at the ground in front of the two.
“I was training with the circlet, it just, got out of control.” He replies eventually, quietly, brinking on mumbling, but children of Lumbre don’t mumble. His eyes though, are still trained harshly on the ground, not being able to meet Teo’s gaze.
Teo, seeing this, gently raises his chin up with his previously burnt hand. He looks into his eyes gently, before saying quietly, “Can I see?”
Aurelio returns his gaze as well, looking into his eyes for a moment, before quickly looking back down and nodding minutely. He moves his stare to the jewelry surrounding his wrist, and slowly unclasps the one, dropping it onto the floor gently, then undoing the next.
Once his bare wrists are revealed to Teo, he can see the enraged red skin. Old burns, now scars, also take up the skin of his forearms, telling of pain of the past. But at the current moment, Teo’s only focus is on the angered skin of recent events. He can see the markings of where the fire got out of control, enveloping Aurelio’s wrists and causing unimaginable pain. He’s surprised he didn’t wake to his screams.
After examining the burns on his upper arms, Teo looks back into Aurelio’s eyes, which are now trained on where his eyes just previously were.
“Hey,” He says softly, causing Aurelio's eyes to flicker up to his once again. He looks exhausted. “You're okay, okay?”
Aurelio nods jerkily, though it seems as if he doesn’t even process the words meeting his ears.
“Can I help?” Teo asks again gently, waiting for Aurelio's response. After a moment, where Aurelio seems to have not even processed any sounds, he nods smally again, indicating his assent. Teo nods again after him, and moves to get the first aid kit from one of their bags. He returns not even a minute later to find Aurelio in the same exact position, his eyes staring tiredly at the forest ground.
Teo sits back down across from him, setting his first aid kit gently on the ground. He begins to pull out a burn salve, along with bandages.
He looks up at Aurelio once more, receiving a small nod, not even looking at what Teo has in his hands.
“I could be completely poisoning you right now, and you wouldn’t even realize.” Teo says lightly, just trying to get his Aurelio back.
“You wouldn’t do that.” Aurelio says immediately, as if that's a complete foreign concept, his eyebrows furrowing slightly in confusion. But Teo’s plan works a bit, and Aurelio’s eyes follow Teo’s hands to the small tub of balm in his hand. “Where’d you get that?”
“It was in my first aid kit.” Teo replies. Aurelio simply nods once in response again, and silently observes Teo gently spreading the solution over the burns spanning across the end of his arm. A few moments of silence continue to pass between them, until Teo asks, “So what happened?”
Aurelio’s brow furrows slightly in confusion. “You already asked me that.”
“Well yeah but like, what actually happened? Why were you practicing this late anyway?” Teo continues to question.
“I just wanted to get it down in case I needed it.”
“But why right now? While we were both asleep?”
“I don’t need supervision.” Aurelio replies, a hint of defensiveness creeping into his tone.
“I know you’re capable on your own, Relio. But you don’t have to be all the time.” Teo says softly, finishing spreading the balm over his right arm and gently setting it down before beginning on the left. Aurelio doesn’t answer to that, just simply watches Teo as he mends the burns on his arms. The rest of the process passes in silence, the only sounds being Niya’s snoring and crickets chirping every now and then.
“I need to make these tight, so this might hurt a bit.” Teo says to him, gaining another miniscule nod from Aurelio before he begins the wrapping process, barely eliciting a wince from him throughout the entire process.
Once Teo completely finishes healing and wrapping Aurelio’s burns, he looks back up at him, finding him completely dissociated.
“Hey, I’m finished.” He says, getting the attention of the other boy. He looks up from his previous spot on the ground, overlooking Teo’s handiwork of his healing before nodding again, seeming completely out of it. He reaches out to where his armbands rest on the ground, about to pick them up again before Teo stops him, gently pushing his hand out of the way and resting it in his.
“Let them breathe for a sec, yeah?” He says. Upon processing his words, Aurelio seems confused, but too tired to argue. He just nodded once again.
“You okay?” Teo asks again, and as Aurelio begins to nod again, he interrupts “I’m gonna need you to answer with words this time, okay?” He says, though not harshly.
Aurelio pauses for a moment, and continues to stare at the shorter boy in front of him.
“I’m okay.”
Teo doesn’t believe him for a second, he looks exhausted. “You don’t have to lie, Relio.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you?”
“I’m just tired, Teo.” Aurelio says, sincerely.
Teo decides to believe him after observing him for a few moments, and pulls him up gently by the hand, leading him over to their sleeping bags. He doesn’t fight it, just following Teo where he leads him, practically collapsing onto the sleeping bags that are practically already combined
Teo lays down on his own sleeping bag on his back, never letting go of Aurelio’s hand, and Aurelio follows his lead, laying on his back, half off the ground, but closer to the other boy.
After a few seconds of silence, Teo begins pointing out the constellations in the sky, only he doesn’t seem to know any of the real ones. He points out what he calls “The Great Ice Cream Scooper” and begins to paint a story of how it came to be and what it means. Listening to the quiet drawl of Teo’s voice, Aurelio’s eyes begin to close, his exhaustion overtaking him.
After finishing his 3rd story, “The Big Bad Bear”, Teo looks over to find Aurelio’s eyes fully closed. He smiles softly, laughing to himself, before slowly drifting off himself.
And that's how they fell asleep, under the stars that will burn for eternity. If Niya found them in the morning? Then so be it. The forest was cold anyways.