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An ember from the hearth landed on Olruggio’s corner of the desk, pulling his attention from the sprawl of half-finished seals on hundreds of scraps paper, and crude wood cuttings with metal hammered into the tips that sat in charred heaps. He watched the ember smoke, with his head held in his hand, as the whisp turned white and crumbled.
The fire had nearly burnt out, the remaining log that still held a tiny flicker shifted, sending bright red cinders skittering across the stone floor. Olruggio’s eyelids felt heavy, tired, and so dry they stuck when he blinked. It must be late if the fire was nearly out- or rather, it must be early.
“Aye Qif- Oh.” Olruggio looked at his companion across from him. He was barely in his chair, one arm flung across the desk, wrist dangling off the edge, the other arm was curled, still somehow holding his pen upright. The right side of his face -the side that was aways hidden- was smashed against the desk, sticking to his papers, his white hair spilling every which-way, and mouth slightly open.
Olruggio smiled as he got up and stretched. This was becoming somewhat of a habit of theirs as of late. If they weren’t sneaking out and adventuring, they were pulling study-all nighters. Beldaruit had offered the pair of them the study room they were currently in earlier in the week. Qifrey figured while even though they broke curfew nearly every night, both his and Olruggio’s master found some solace in knowing where they were and what they were up to, at least some of the time. They had tried doing study sessions in Olruggio’s room a few times, but after the third night in a row, his room-mate’s plea to teir master with blood-shot eyes promptly resulted in Qifrey ban from their side of the atelier.
For the next several weeks, adventuring was semi-on-hold. Qifrey wanted to complete his third test soon so they could challenge the Tower of Tomes, Olruggio had already passed his test some months ago, so he used the study time to work out a new wand contraption that had been eating away at the back of his mind.
“Qifrey.” He rounded the table and shook his friend’s shoulder gently, making sure to wake him from the left, so when his eye opened, Olruggio could be in his line of sight. Qifreys eye fluttered, and his eyebrows scrunched, then he stilled again. “Qifrey, wake up.” He shook him a little more insistently.
Qifrey bolted upright.
“I’m up. I- I wasn’t sleeping.” He rubbed at his good eye before turning and facing Olruggio, “I really wasn’t, I just nodded off- resting my eye for a second, that’s it.” He peered up at him, all honesty in the look of his bold-faced lie. Olruggio stared at him wide-eyed for several seconds.
Then he doubled over in laughter.
“W…….what?” Qifrey asked, taken aback, before a more irritated and demanding “What!?” followed.
“You! Yer! Your face!!!” He pointed at Qifrey with one hand, the other grasping around himself, trying to contain his ribs lest his lungs burst.
Qifrey looked at him puzzled before walking across the room to pick up a silver tea tray from the nearby tea-cart, Beldaruit had expensive taste. Olruggio put a hand over his mouth, trying to stop the laughing fit as he lowered himself to the floor, planting his rear.
Olruggio held his breath, arms on his knees, as Qifrey raised the tray up to his face.
…
….
“…Ugh!”
Olruggio nearly spat, roaring with laughter again. Qifrey stared at his reflection, bringing a hand up to touch the half-smudged partial imprint of a casting seal on his now burning red cheek.
“Ju-jus’ noddin’ off, w-were you?!” Olruggio could barely get the sentence out between his heaving breath and fits of laughter. “Just- just restin’ your eye, were ye?” There were tears at the corners of his now, as he dodged the tea tray that was hastily flung at him- which only made him laugh harder.
“Shut it!” Qifrey stomped. “I’ve gotta get this off!” He rubbed at it with his sleeve aggressively, causing the ink to smudge more.
“You’re normally so-so-so-!!” Olruggio fell over, laughter still bubbling up, and suddenly Qifrey flung himself at him. Olruggio caught him halfway before being slammed into the stone floor with an “Oof!” that sent them rolling one over the other as they tussled.
It ended just as quickly with Olruggio flat on his back, his hands up in defense.
His laughter died instantly as he stared up at Qifrey, whose fists were balled in the front of Olruggio’s tunic, face red, and eye wide with panic. “Woah, woah woah, Qifrey, it’s not tha’ serious…What’s wrong?”
Qifrey’s mouth was turned down in a hard line as he stared at his hands, still clutching the front of Olruggio’s tunic. He shifted slightly, sighing, and then quietly, “Sometimes you just don’t get it, Olly.”
Olruggio waited. Qifrey sighed again.
“There are already so many rumors. What do you think is going to happen if I can’t get this ink off? You think Easthies isn’t going to jump at the chance to have me pulled into an interrogation to accuse me of attempting forbidden magic? Especially with it being on this side of my face?” Qifrey gestured, his eye finally met Olruggio’s, searching.
“I’m-I- er, sorry. I didn’t think about any of that…” Olruggio scratched at his cheek sheepishly. “It was jus’ unlike you to be, y’know, disheveled and out-of-sorts.” He hesitated for half a second before reaching up, clapping a hand on Qifreys shoulder, and declaring, “But! Good news; One: Easthies is a reight berk, and Two: Conjuring ink’s real easy to get off!” He squeezed the shoulder as he sat up, scooting Qifrey off his lap and onto the floor. “Stay there.”
Olruggio dashed across the room to his cloak, which was haphazardly balled-up and thrown over one of the elegantly carved and alabaster-inlaid corner tables. He pulled out his palm quire and a small clear vial of liquid before skidding back over to Qifrey, who sat quietly on his knees, hands in his lap, watching Olruggio intently.
“Now, hold out yer hand.” Olruggio commanded and Qifrey unquestioningly followed. He ripped a page from his quire before tossing it over his shoulder and dropped a spell in Qifreys waiting palm. Then, he smeared the circle closed.
A small pyreball formed, illuminating Qifreys face and the smudged ink lines. Olruggio landed himself back on the floor in much the same position as Qifrey, knees down, and scooted in close enough that their thighs touched. He felt Qifrey shiver as his fingers gently brushed his hair away from his face, exposing his hidden eye.
“Is this okay?” He asked in a low voice while Qifrey’s one blue eye searched his face- scared, vulnerable, trusting. Then, the smallest of nods before closing his eye.
Olruggio rarely got to see this side of Qifreys face, he was so protective of it, and he’d certainly never gotten to touch. Qifrey’s eyelid was shut tightly over the empty socket. Scars starred outward in all directions catching the light from the pyreball in an odd way, and Olruggio swept the back of a finger lightly across the eyelashes and scars that branched down towards his cheek.
Qifrey shivered again.
Olruggio redirected his attention to the task at hand, gripping Qifrey lightly by the chin and turning his face this way and that to seejust how much ink he was dealing with.
“Not too bad then.” He concluded with a nod, while he leaned in closer and uncapped the vial, tipping it between his fingers.
Qifreys nose wrinkled as he began dabbing away the ink with his finger tips and sleeve.
“Yuck... What is that?” Qifreys face scrunched again.
“Highly concentrated alcohol. Master gave it to me for this very reason. Clean up before company when I get ink all over me hands. Be presentable.”
“Mmm.”
“Don’t uh… don’t drink it.”
“Who would?”
“Aye! Who would indeed?”
“You didn’t?” Finally, a small smile cracked the façade, which made Olruggio smirk in turn.
“I… might’ve taken a nip. Or Two. On accident!”
“Olly!” A small laugh escaped Qifrey, his breath a whisper that hugged Olruggio’s mouth, making his wipe pause halfway through the stroke on Qifreys cheek. Olruggio glanced up to find that blue eye focused on him again, there was a fond look that caught his attention and red painted high across Qifrey’s nose and cheekbones and-
Hold on a moment…
Looked up. Looked up? Olruggio pulled completely away and scrutinized Qifrey up and down.
“Is something the matter?” Qifrey asked, concern bleeding into his voice.
“I should think so! What? When did this happen?”
“When did-did what happen?” Nervous now, Qifrey’s ears were beginning to colour.
“This! You’re taller!” Olruggio waved a hand over his head, then leaned to wave the other over Qifrey’s.
“Oh!” Qifrey sighed and sagged. “That. I don’t know, I guess I noticed a few weeks ago.”
“I hate it.”
“I rather like it.”
“Aye, you would.” Olruggio pouted.
“…Is my face clean yet?” Qifrey rolled his eye and glanced away. “I’m knackered and would actually really like to get to bed proper.”
“Sure, sure, Mr. Proper. Shut your gob so’s I can finish, then you can take your pretty face, and your stupid height, and go get your beauty rest.”
“Will you just do the thing?!” Qifrey’s eye was closed again, but his entire face and neck were flushed as Olruggio took several minutes to delicately polish away the last few inked lines with his sleeve. He corked the vial and stood up while reaching out to curl Qifrey’s hand to crumple the pyreball. As he did, Qifreys fingers hooked his, holding him in place.
“Olly… Can I ask you something?”
“Mmm. Sure?”
“Have you… heard any weird rumors lately?”
“Rumors again? I thought you didn’t care much about’em.” Olruggio slid his hand further down to grasp Qifrey by the wrist and haul him up to his feet. “Ugh! I can’t believe you’re really taller!” He pitched up to his tip toes, clearing the top of Qifreys head by a tick. “Hah! Much better! But what’re you so bugged about? Theres always rumors in this place, about me, about you, about me an’ you.”
“But any weird ones?”
“I thought you were tired. Now you wanna chelp?”
Qifrey shrugged. Olruggio shook his head.
“Er, Sure, lots. There’s one going around that I’ve been secretly hired by the King himself to burn the Brim-Hat stronghold to the ground. Why the king would secretly hire a fourteen-year old? Beyond me. Oh! The one that you’ve been dissecting or maybe sacrificing brushbuddies or something? That one is very strange, considering brushbuddies don’t live at the bottom of the ocean for one, and B- you’d probably cry if you ever even saw a hurt brushbuddy. Oh- there’s also the one-“
“What about the one… about you and Lietti?”
Olruggio set back down fully on his feet. He steadied himself using Qifrey’s shoulder, who fiddled with his fingers and stared down at the floor.
“Huh? Me an’ who now?”
“Lietti. She’s a year older than us. Studies levitation.”
“Oh! Her! Oh bloomin’ heck!”
“The rumor is that… you kissed.” Qifrey glanced up just as Olruggio did a dramatic pitch backwards, hand still on Qifreys shoulder to keep from falling.
“Ugh!” Olruggio felt his face get hot. “I guess that one’s a little true…”
“O-oh..?”
“But not like that!” Olruggio flailed his arms. “Look! She kissed me. But! All I did was help her in the library! She was working on some contraption for Silver Eve, and called me as I passed by to help ‘er. I gave her a few thoughts, she drew it, it worked, and she jumped up and kissed me! Right here!” He furiously pointed to his cheek. “It was so embarrassin’! Ugh!”
“I-I see.” Qifrey picked at his sleeve. “Did you, um, you know. Like it?”
“Did I-?” Olruggio pulled both hands down his face as he groaned. “Did I like getting kissed by a girl I don’t know? No, Qifrey. Not really.”
“…Really?”
“Really! Who would?”
“I’m sure a lot of people, actually. Lietti is very smart, and quite pretty.”
“I hadn’t noticed. I didn’t even know ‘er name. But what’s the problem? You like her or something?”
Qifrey shook his head rapidly. “Oh no, I…”
“I dunno, I feel-“ Olruggio gulped. “Like I’m… missin’ something. Like everyone around us lately is tittering about crushes, an’ dancing at Silver Eve. Several people ‘whooped’ in the library when she kissed me- like I wasn’t already mortified enough…” He clutched the front of his tunic as he toed the ground. “I just don’… think about that kind of stuff.”
“You don’t think about kissing?” Qifrey asked softly.
Olruggio shook his head.
“Ah.”
“Do… you? Y’know. Think about… that?” Olruggio peered up at Qifrey.
“Mmm.” Qifrey gave him a soft, half-hearted smile. “Sometimes, yeah.”
“With who!?”
“Secret.” Qifrey put a finger to his lips.
“Not fair!”
“Unlike you, my dear Olruggio, I don’t kiss and tell.”
“You! You know me, and Alaira! Is it Alaira?! No, she’d definitely tell me…”
“Who said it’s someone you know?”
“That’s just weird!” Olruggio shook his head again as he pulled a face.
Qifrey stared at him for a few seconds, then asked,
“Is it kissing that’s weird, or the someone unknown part that’s weird?”
“Hmm.” Olruggio tapped his chin in thought, “I guess it’s….. hmm. It’s the not knowing.”
“So, hypothetically, if it were someone you know, like Alaira, or… me?”
“I guess,” Olruggio nodded, “I think that’d be fine. Like I’d still be surprised, but I don’t think I’d be bothered by it.”
Qifrey hummed.
“Anyway!” Olruggio clapped both his hands, moving to pick up his tossed aside palm quire, and discarded robe. “You’re tired, I’m tired. I’m going to my room and going to bed!” He hastily fastened the clasp as he faced the door to leave. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then. ‘Night Qifrey.”
“Oh Olly, one last thing.” Qifrey’s voice was right behind him.
“Er, yes?” Olruggio turned just as Qifrey’s hand reached out to cup his face, and his thumb brushed over the bridge of his nose.
“You forgot something.” Qifrey said cheekily, but in a near whisper, his face was flushed a deep pink that reached his ears. Olruggio realized what was about to happen as it was happening, and shut his eyes tight, bracing himself by putting a hand on Qifrey’s shoulder.
He felt Qifrey’s weight lean forward, an exhaled breath swept delicately against his cheek, before lips pressed and lingered for a few heartbeats. Then Qifrey leaned further forward to whisper against his ear,
“Now we’re even for earlier.” Olruggio could hear and feel Qifrey’s smirk and jerked away, smacking a hand against his ear. Heat rose all the way into his hairline and down his neck.
“Ugh! I said I was sorry!”
Qifrey laughed lightly, his face looked as red as Olruggio’s felt, it was such a pretty wash of colour against his pale face.
“G-Goodnight Qifrey!” Olruggio squeaked as he threw himself out of the door, slamming it behind him.
He barely heard Qifrey’s “Goodnight Olly.” Through the door as he raced down the corridor, clutching his robe above his heart, ears still painfully hot.