Chapter 294 - 292: What A Night.

Chapter 294: Chapter 292: What A Night.

There’s also a fresh mug of water sitting by his side of the bed, and even though he’s just ingested enough water through dinner to sink a small ship, he goes straight for it. He’s just finished gulping it down when Binny himself appears at in the bathroom doorway, dramatically dusting off his hands like he’s been hard at work.

​"Oh good, you’re back," Binny remarks conversationally, even though Khobi’s sure that the weird, semi-magical servant network no doubt informed him that he was on his way. He takes in Khobi’s somewhat sickly, haggard and generally dishevelled appearance in a single sweep, and raises an eyebrow, "Good night then, I take it?"

​Khobi doesn’t even bother asking how it is he knew what they’d planned on getting up to. The servants know everything, and all that.

​"It was," he says instead, offering him a weak grin. A grin that rapidly fades when he sees the small, knowing smirk plastered all over Binny’s face.

​" I bet ."

​Instinctively, Khobi slaps a hand over the exposed skin of his throat, cursing himself for being so careless.

​Of course he’d seen. Binny’s eyes see everything ; there’s absolutely no way he missed the marks mottling the skin there. The fact that that’s all he has to say is honestly kind of astounding.

​"...I’m gonna have a bath now," he declares stonily, stropping towards the bathroom. Binny obligingly steps aside to let him through; grin unwavering. It’s all a front though, obviously it is; the moment he’s within reach of the bath Binny’s hands are on him like they always are, deft and light and peeling him out of his clothes with practiced ease.

​"Hey, you don’t –I can undress myself –" As usual, Khobi’s protests fall on deaf ears, and no sooner is his shirt falling away, exposing the rest of the marks –a stark deep, angry purple against tawny skin –than Binny lets out a low whistle.

​He’s used to seeing Khobi covered in bruises, but never anything quite like this.

​"Oho, a good night indeed ," he snickers impishly as he takes in the full extent of the damage, and even though he’s never been shy about his body and Binny’s seen him naked probably more than anyone else in his life , Khobi suddenly feels the overwhelming urge to cover himself.

​" Give me that ," he grumbles, snatching the shirt clean out of his hands and clutching it in front of him like a shield. Like it’ll do any good.

Especially as he’s about to get in the bath.

​As anticipated, Binny just raises an eyebrow at him as if to say, really? But to Khobi’s relief, he lets him handle his pants himself.

And while he deliberately turns his body away from him as he sinks down into the water, the heavy way Binny’s eyes bore into his back completely gives away that he’s seen the marks Khobi had most wanted to hide from him; the ones darkening his hips and the skin below his navel.

​Of course, Binny –the sly asshole–waits until he’s naked and trapped in the bath to corner him.

​"... So , who were they?" he asks as he works the soap in his hair into a thick lather for him; all conversational as though he’s asking what Khobi had for dinner and not who he (presumably) got naked with the night before.

​Khobi groans, despondent.

​"That bad huh?" Binny remarks sympathetically.

​You have no idea.

​"...Would you believe it was no one?" Khobi offers, inching down into the bath just a little deeper and getting his hair tugged as a reminder to sit up straight while he’s getting his hair washed.

​"I would not," Binny replies matter-of-factly. The nice try is implied.

​It was worth a shot. Khobi stubbornly keeps his mouth shut.

​"Fine, fine, keep your secrets," Binny chimes airily, when it becomes obvious that Khobi is sulking, and has no intentions of letting anything be needled out of him. "...I’m sure Rogard will tell me tomorrow anyways."

Oh, he should’ve known it wasn’t like Binny to let something rest like that.

​And he raises a concerning point.

​" Rogard doesn’t know what he’s talking about," he shoots back quickly. Possibly too quickly, because when he turns to give him a warning look, Binny’s grin is wide and mischievous. It’s not a good combination.

​"Oh, this should be good," he snickers, entirely unaffected, and promptly dumps a warm bucket of water over Khobi’s head.

It washes away the soap but the glare remains.

​"...Can we not do this?" Khobi huffs defensively, snatching away the soap so that he can finish cleaning himself off while Binny fetches him some fresh clothes.

​"...Is that an order?" Binny inquires cheekily from the other side of the door, and Khobi rolls his eyes.

​"Tsk, you know it’s not," he scoffs, rubbing agitatedly at one of the most prominent marks just above his collarbone as if that’ll help wash away the lingering feeling of Loac’s lips on his skin.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard he scrubs, it stubbornly refuses to fade. The same goes for the colour. In fact, Khobi’s mildly horrified to find that some of the marks look like they’ve gotten darker ; they’re going to be positively black by tomorrow.

​Oblivious to Khobi’s distress –or perhaps in an attempt to distract him from it, Binny plonks himself down on the edge of the bath with the legs of his pants rolled to his knees and his feet dangling in the water, and asks if he enjoyed himself; if he had a good time, and if anything interesting happened.

​Y’know , apart from the obvious , he makes sure to add, unnecessarily.

​These questions Khobi is more than happy to answer, and the play by play has Binny kicking water all over the floor and laughing himself silly as recounts Gandy’s abysmal attempts to best a bard and how he beat Loac at a dumb drinking game (Binny doesn’t need to know he didn’t), and the pies and the gross, too-sweet ale, and how seriously dreadful Rogard is at dancing when he’s been drinking.

​He doesn’t tell him how exactly he got out of the castle in the first place, and quite pointedly leaves out how the night ended, and with whom.

​" Ah ~ What a night," Binny sighs with a wistful grin, sounding oddly nostalgic over a night he wasn’t even a part of.