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Someone was opening the room. He couldn’t… Qifrey couldn’t let that happen. What if he had to wipe Coco’s memory? What if… but there was nothing he could do. He was still drowning, and with his luck, someone had noticed all the powerful magic and reported it to the Knights Moralis.
Oh god, what if they wiped Coco’s memory? What if he never got his memories back? What if…
“Qifray.” That was Olruggio’s voice. It wasn’t… it wasn’t angry per se. Frustrated? Concerned? Qifrey screwed his eye shut as another wave of painful spasms passed through his body.
“Qifray… you’re, you’re all wet.” He watched as his best friend writhed in pain. “And you’re hurt.” Qifrey didn’t even hear footsteps before he was being pulled into the man’s lap. He continued to tremble in pain and fear.
“Qifray, I… I can’t ask you what happened. Don’t tell me.” Qifrey barely managed to shake his head, even that small movement making him feel like he was about to fly apart. “But Qifrey… I… this is your atelier. These are your students. I can’t teach them the way you do. And while you may want… so many things back, the brimmed caps aren’t worth it.” He was passing his hand through Qifrey’s hair, holding him on the earth while twisting some of the locks around his fingers. “Qifrey, this place, these girls…” (he tried to turn the unvoiced “I” into a deep breath) “they need to be your priority.”
Qifrey tried to speak, he really did. But it’s like when he opened his mouth, his vocal cords weren’t working. And when he tried to open his eye, the whole world was spinning except for Olruggio’s pleading look. He rolled back over and clung to his best friend, shaking worse than ever.
“I… see. You know, you’re really lucky that I wasn’t asleep yet. I… I heard the sound of rushing water, and I thought—well that’s not important.” There was a terrible silence. “I think it’s time for you to get some sleep. And before you ask, I know you’re scared to be alo—well, I know you. So we’re going to my room.”
He picked up Qifrey. It was almost… sad, how thin and fragile he felt, clinging to Olruggio’s chest. He was twitching so badly. Olruggio managed to carry him up the stairs, through his own door (quietly kicking it shut and praying that the girls would actually respect his do not disturb sign for once), and up the curved staircase before trying to gently lay him on the mattress. He even kept his composure despite his best friend’s uneven breaths right against his pulse point.
Olruggio tried to get Qifrey to lay down, because the same man that could carry two of their students at once naturally had a very strong grip.
“Qifray…” he tried a gentle voice. “I need the rings to dry you off. You’re going to get everything wet.” No dice.
“Qifray, please just hold this snugstone for a second. If I don’t dry you off, you’re going to wake up wet and cold.” If anything, Qifrey was holding tighter, clearly afraid of whatever limited memories that brought up.
“Qifray,” he knew he’d lost this argument before it even left his mouth, “if you get my bed all wet, I’m going to have to sleep somewhere else.” Qifrey shook his head.
Olruggio admitted that, in some sense, his heart broke. He couldn’t make it safe for Qifrey to sleep alone. And he couldn’t fix that he was reliving one of his greatest fears. So he did what he could do and laid down. He did try to at least get some of the wet clothes off, but… that was a little difficult without the use of his arms. He ended up just holding Qifrey to him, hoping that at least some of his fire mastery would translate into body heat. He had his chin on top of the other man’s hair, stoking his back, and he felt as Qifrey’s shaking slowly abated as he fell asleep.
“Hey, idiot.” He whispered into the night air. “Next time you want to do this, you don’t need to almost let yourself be killed.”
—-
Naturally, Qifrey was up and out of bed long before him. He watched as he dropped the kettle. They would have to talk about this later.
But in his heart of hearts, Olruggio knew he couldn’t report him. Qifrey was a good man and a good witch.
He’d just made a terrible mistake.