Chapter Text
The happy hour was long done in the busiest bar of Alicegrad. Voices still rose, but the late night crowd was already dissipated in the streets and on their way home. One bartender started to clean the empty tables, where wine stains remained, spilled by careless and drunk customers.
“You know how to fish? Such a…Multifaceted man.” The soldier snorted, mouth inside his half empty glass.
“Ah… what can I say? I do have more than one string to my bow.” The scientist replied as he put his own glass on the table. “Knowing how to fish is important.”
“I survived that long without needing to fish.”
“Life has been easy on you.”
“Ha. I’m not sure…”
Gammon Loop Octopus, that was the name of the soldier, closed his eyes as he replied. His cheeks were red, and his hand slopped slightly as he went to put his glass onto their shared table. His arm remained still for a second before he crossed them over his chest and leaned back in his chair in a small creak. Adam Solntse, as the scientist had been named, looked at his clumsy gestures with an interested (and probably tipsy) grin.
“Not sure?” Adam attempted to pry. “What? Got some family secret you’d like to share?”
“…nothing I haven’t told y’already.”
“This whole stuff with your father?” Gammon nodded with a hum. “That’s small potatoes.”
If he had been sober, the soldier might have taken offense to that bold statement. But as of now? He shook his head with a smile. Adam was the best to assume things that he didn’t know anything about.
“If I can even call ‘im a father.”
“Awh. Come on. The man raised you.”
“Barely.” Gammon shrugged. “…feeling’s mutual.”
“Yeah, it seems like it.” The scientist looked at the door as the last two other customers left the bar. They were now alone, with the two bartenders. “So… only some father issues? Nothing else? No heavy background?”
“Wh’ else do y’wanna hear?” Gammon slurred.
“I don’t know. Is there anything else? Give me some more details. Mother issues?”
“She did her best.”
“Siblings? You have a brother.”
“He is alright.”
“No arguments with him?”
The soldier hummed. “I visit him and his wife every year. They’re both nice people.”
“C’mon, you got to have something else! You always act like a tough shell, something must be in that shell of yours!” Adam grinned as he leaned forward. He was taking that like a challenge, and oh boy, Adam loved challenges. Little did he know Gammon outperformed him in that regard.
“There might b’something…” Gammon’s faint smirk fused with the brim of his wine glass as he swallowed the remains of the liquid. That alone caught Adam’s attention immediately.
“Oh?” His eyebrows perked up. “Pray tell. Don’t say that and leave me hanging!”
“Mh.” Gammon shrugged.
“Oh no, not again!”
“That’s a story for another time.”
Adam groaned as the soldier in front of him pushed his chair back and stood up, his balance a bit shaky.
“Not fair! You won’t even tell me next time!”
“A man has to deserve wha’ he learns.”
“You say that every time!” The scientist stood up too, his motions quicker.
“Wise up, then.” Gammon smiled at Adam, the smaller man frowned.
He left some money on the table to pay for their last drinks and turned to catch a glimpse of Gammon walking (wobbling?) through the exit. Adam rolled his eyes and strolled towards him, holding the door open.
“Here.”
“Thank’you.”
“… Does that make you want to spill the secret?”
Gammon laughed. “No.”
“Fine. You’re walking me back home then, I’ll make you talk.” Adam grumbled more into his beard, as he grabbed the soldier’s arm and linked it with his own, dragging him along.
“You can try.”
As they walked side by side, Adam and Gammon caught themselves in a game of guessing and trying to make the other give up.
“An event with a friend?”
“No.”
“A lover?”
Gammon snorted. “No.”
“Am I getting closer?”
“Still no.” The scientist groaned. They were approaching his house and nothing came out of this conversation. Adam wasn’t about to cry off.
“Can I have a clue?”
“Mh…” Gammon considered. “It shouldn’t be th’ hard. It’s right in front of y’ face.”
Adam frowned. Right in front of his face? What was in front of his face? A street..? A Lamp? The moon? His house that was slowly appearing clearer before them? What kind of clue was that, Adam was way too drunk to understand it.
“Even your clues are always cryptic…” He grumbled, annoyed.
“Ha… ‘M.. uh.. surprised you don’t notice it anymore…” Gammon chuckled as they got a few steps away from Adam’s house gate.
“Pft… yeah, as if. I’m very observant, for your information! Observing’s my job.”
“Observe better.”
Adam rolled his eyes as he stopped in front of his door. He turned towards Gammon and looked at him, straight. He leaned back against one of the pillars of the porch, while Gammon stood there, in silence and with the faintest satisfied smile on his face.
That dumb smile. It annoyed Adam even more at every second he couldn’t guess what the soldier had to tell. He exhaled through his nose and ran his eyes all over Gammon’s figure. After a good minute, he sighed.
“You’re stuck here until I guess. That’s your issue, not mine.”
“T’is late. Your eyes will drop close soon enough.”
…
Adam’s gaze flickered back to Gammon’s face. To his eyes, or eye moreso. His right eye had still hidden behind this huge strand of hair the soldier always kept there. Come to think of it… Adam had never seen what was underneath.
He might have stared a bit too much, Gammon noticed it and shrugged.
“Somethin’ caught y’attention?”
“… Your hair. What is it hiding?”
A beat of silence. Gammon stood there, not dumbfounded, but almost amused and reassured Adam noticed. That reaction told loads, and the scientist knew he had aimed accurately.
“You wanna see?”
He almost huffed. “Of course I want to see. I didn’t spend all this time trying to guess for you to brush it off like it’s nothing. Show me.”
Gammon hummed, and raised his hand to his right cheek. He seemed to ponder for a second. Then… he closed his eyes and slowly pushed the strand of hair out of his face, clearly aware of how much Adam’s attention was locked on him. A part of him liked that, longed to be seen and vulnerable.
The soldier kept his left eye closed, as Adam watched his silence.
Adam… watched. He definitely didn’t expect something that huge. He had thought of a small injury, a little harmless scar. But now that he was faced with that… he wondered how Gammon’s hair was able to hide it in its entirety.
The soldier’s right cheek was ripped, the rough skin felt scratchy to look at and it was paler than the rest of his face. The biggest scar went from his low cheekbone to the top of his eyebrow, covering his entire eyelid. And oh. Speaking of the eye. The eyelid had been closed and the crevice Adam could observe meant that the eyeball there was … inexistent. It had been removed, probably too damaged by the injury to be useful anymore.
Adam watched, not daring to blink. Slowly, Gammon’s left (and only…) eye opened again, locking with the scientist’s focused gaze.
“… Didn’t expect that?”
He almost had to wait a whole minute to reply, too stunned to speak. “That’s a huge scar.”
“You could say tha’, yes.” Gammon shrugged.
“… How…”
“How did it happen?” The soldier continued, Adam nodded silently. “Mh. I said I was gonna show you tonight. Not tell you the ‘ntire story.”
“Seriously? You’ll leave me hanging there with questions?” Adam frowned, now more intrigued than annoyed at Gammon’s mysterious attitude.
“Your curiosity’s sated for tonigh’… Ponder on… that… and maybe next time…”
The soldier put a clammy and yet firm hand on Adam’s shoulder, snapping him out of his thoughts. Just with that, Gammon placed his hair back into place (Adam did notice that yes, it covered all of … that.) and walked away, surprisingly steady.
Upon noticing the other’s smile as he did, Adam came to the realization that Gammon absolutely loved being all mysterious. And gosh… if Adam wasn’t totally hooked already.