Chapter 265 - 263: Stupid Brain.

Chapter 265: Chapter 263: Stupid Brain.

Khobi has never been so relieved to wake to an empty bed.

For a long moment he just lays there in the darkness staring blankly at the ceiling, fending off the steaming fantasies his stupid, traitorous brain had conjured, and desperately willing the whole shameful experience to have been just one enormously bad dream.

And when that doesn’t work he groans long and loud, and presses his fists into his face in an attempt to scrub the images out of his brain.

​It doesn’t help.

Not even a little.

​The residual, ever-intertwined threads of embarrassment and arousal still hanging over him, he sighs and drags himself to the bathroom in the hopes that some icy water on his face will bring him to his senses.

It also doesn’t help, and to make matters worse when he catches sight of his face in the mirror he looks about as good as he feels about himself.

​That is to say, shit .

​What the fuck was he doing dreaming about things like that in the first place?? He’s had dreams of that nature before sure –who hasn’t –but never on that scale, and never so vivid , and certainly never about goddamned Loac.

​Honestly, he thought he had more self-control than this.

Even now, waking, he’s finding it harder than he should to shake the feeling of his hands on his body; of his mouth and teeth pressing into his skin...

​Stop it , he scolds himself, fingers curling into the sink until his knuckles turn white as he forces away the images for the umpteenth time before the heat stirring in his belly can take hold again.

It’s ready and waiting and wants to burn so, so badly, but Khobi refuses to let it. Not like this.

Not for him.

​At least he’s already gone. Khobi has the sneaking suspicion that if he’d woken up to Loac next to him, he would’ve found some way to quickly ruin his day.

In fact, for someone who usually takes such great delight in making his day taxing, Khobi is surprised to find him oddly nowhere to be found.

Not that he was looking for him or anything.

​He just...noticed, is all.

​There’s been a storm brewing for days now and today is the day it finally makes land.

Khobi likes training as much as the next guy –more, probably –but even he isn’t game to be willingly out in this level of madness.

The wind out there is utterly dire, and with the rain battering the walls from seemingly all angles, visibility outside is damn near zero.

He can’t imagine how gruelling being out there would be; the soldiers have been telling him stories of what the rest of the kingdom is like and apparently it storms even worse on the outskirts, and they lament for their friends who’ve been sent afield whilst at the same time being glad it’s not them.

​So today Khobi has the luxury of taking things at his own pace.

He dresses himself to spare Binny the trouble, and has a long, hot breakfast and then a long hot lunch down at the mess hall where a travelling bard from somewhere far off has taken shelter from the storm and is offering songs in exchange for bread and gold.

His style leans more to tales of love and adventure and woe than the raucous tavern ballads that had been playing around the campfires at the fair but he’s got a good voice and plays the lute well enough to keep them all entertained.

A lot of the men linger long after their meals are finished, and Khobi is one of them.

​" –Hey, hey, Khobi you should ask if he knows any about your uncle," Gandy urges as the bard winds down his most recent offering, giving Khobi a nudge with his elbow to send him forward.

​As it turns out, he doesn’t have any in his repertoire about Khojin Frost exactly, but what he does know is one about his aunt Mozry –the one where as a young lady she was kidnapped from her father’s home by bandits, and upon learning how much they’d ransomed her for she demanded they up their price.

And then got tired of waiting to be rescued so fought the bandits off herself.

​(It was one of Khojin Frost’s favourite tales. The moment she’d stormed back into her father’s home covered in blood was the moment he knew she was the woman for him, apparently.)

​Khobi hasn’t heard this song since he was a kid but he’s pleased to find that he still remembers most of the words.

​The last notes of the song fade off the stone, and Khobi finds the men at his table looking at him with mild horror.

​"...Your aunt sounds scary ," Gandy states, and grudgingly tosses a couple of coins towards the bard since Khobi literally doesn’t have a gold to his name.

​"She is," Khobi assures him.

​" – Honestly , we gotta get you an allowance or something, you’re startin’ to get expensive."

​But eventually the bard eats his fill and makes himself a tidy profit on the day, and as the day wears on, Khobi becomes increasingly aware of Loac’s absence.

It’s...actually kind of weird , being able to go about his day without being constantly prodded or antagonised or having someone hanging off him or to antagonise right back.

It feels like the first time in ages that he’s actually had the entire day to himself.

​It’s...oddly quiet.

​(Khobi’s not all that sure he likes it.)

​It’s not until much later that he even comes across him again.

By then it’s going on dinner time and he and his usual compatriots are back milling in the mess hall making the most of the burning hearths and watching the rain slowly turn into sleet from the comfort of indoors.

Khobi’s so busy enjoying his food that he doesn’t even notice until he’s right on him, leaning into him and reaching over his shoulder to grab a piece of meat right out of his stew.

​"Hey, get off –" Khobi immediately fires out, automatically latching onto the wrist as it cross his vision, because he’d been saving that piece, dammit! "That’s mine –"

​The words die on his lips as quickly as they’d risen.