Chapter 331: Get To Know You.

Chapter 331: Chapter 331: Get To Know You.

But before he can breathe the words to life, there’s a loud bang from the adjacent room; the sound of a door being flung open.

​It may as well have been a bucket of icy water, because it has much the same effect.

​" –Hey, Khobi, are you in here?" Binny’s voice echos from the other room, nattering on and growing closer with every word, " –I just heard what happened, and I figured after getting your ass handed to you, you’d probably want a –"

​The rest of his sentence fades to black, and bleakly, Khobi turns to see Binny standing in the doorway, eyes terribly, dreadfully wide.

​"...Bath...?"

​Ah, shit.

​This has to look bad.

​"I...didn’t know how to heat the water...?" he offers pitifully. Stunned into silence, Binny continues to gape, and Khobi abruptly --belatedly --snatches his hand away.

A moment later Loac takes his lead and puts a respectable amount of distance between them. It still doesn’t feel like quite enough.

Brows apparently unsure whether they want to shoot up or pull down, Binny’s mouth opens to say something, and then immediately snaps shut again like he’s not entirely sure what he should say.

​Finally he finds his words. Sort of.

​"I can...show you?" he offers, and while it’s not the smooth recovery either of them were hoping for, he’s made an attempt, and Khobi appreciates that.

​"...That would be good," he says, just as weakly, suddenly overcome by the urge to take the dirty bucket of water sitting on the edge of the bath and drown himself in it.

And maybe Binny’s eyes can somehow see that because as he trades places with Loac, skirting around him in the doorway, he makes sure to tip it straight down the drain.

At least he waits until Loac’s out of earshot before he pounces on him.

​"Uh, Khobi...?" he queries, leaving the sentence hanging and letting his tone do the talking.

​" It was nothing ," Khobi hisses before he can say anything else, and earns himself an absolutely incredulous look from the guy surreptitiously gesturing towards the bed where Loac is just casually getting changed like Khobi’s telling the truth.

​"Didn’t look like nothing," he points out, and dimly, Khobi has to wonder if Binny has ears to match his eyes and if there’s any chance he can hear how loud his heart is beating.

​" Well , it was," he insists, even though honestly, at this point he’s not even sure of that himself.

...

Maybe Binny does have magic ears as well as magic eyes because he hears Khobi’s unspoken prayers to linger.

He doesn’t run a bath for him, on account of someone having already done a good enough job for the meantime, but he takes pains to walk him through how to heat the water and laments how heartbroken he is that Khobi would want to give up their special time together.

​Khobi flicks cold water at him for that, but it does a lot to keep his mind off the uncomfortable moment he’d inadvertently walked in on.

Or thought he’d walked in on.

Or almost walked in on. It doesn’t completely keep his mind off it though, and when the candles are out and Binny can finally linger no longer and the night has fallen to darkness once again, he finds himself lying as close to the edge of his side of the bed as he can without falling out, staring at the ceiling; mind reeling over what had just happened.

What might have happened, had Binny not walked in when he did.

​(He’s really not sure if he’s relieved that he did, or disappointed. And that’s troubling in and of itself.)

​A sigh escapes him, louder than he intended for it to be.

​What is wrong with him?

​"...What’s it like?" Loac suddenly asks, so out of nowhere that even though they’re alone, for a second Khobi wonders if he’s even talking to him.

But no, the blankets start to rustle, and in his periphery he catches a glimpse of Loac propping himself up on one elbow on the other side of the bed, peering at him through the gloom.

"Scargga," he clarifies casually, when Khobi looks at him like he’s insane.

That’s no less confusing, but Khobi’s getting pretty good these days at picking up on when he’s winding him up and it doesn’t sound like he is.

​"...I’ve never been," Loac adds, settling back into his pillow now that he knows he’s caught him attention, as if that explains just why he’s asking.

It doesn’t, but Khobi’s in desperate need of a distraction from his own thoughts so figures it can’t hurt to humour him, just a little.

​"It’s nice," he says, after a beat, expression softening as he thinks back; thinks how best to describe his homeland to someone who’s never been.

Because nice just doesn’t cut it. So he tells him about the mountains, because they’re his favourite, and what he remembers best, but the forests too, he adds, are really something.

He’s never known, and as a kid he always had the feeling that Khojin didn’t know either, why the trees in their mountains grew so tall.

And then he sighs again; a different kind of sigh than the one from earlier.

​"Ah man, I miss the mountains." He’s not sure why exactly he says it; it just spills out before he can help himself. But hearing it makes him realise just how true it is. "...It’s so flat here."

​"Mountains, huh?" Loac echoes, and there’s something far-off and oddly wistful in his expression. "...Sounds cold."

​"It gets pretty cold," Khobi has to admit, offhandedly adding, "Snows almost all winter, which sucks." At that, Loac glances his way.

​"Don’t you hate the cold?" he queries, and Khobi finds himself caught off guard by the question.

​"Uh, yeah?" he frowns, "...Who doesn’t?"

​Huh ? When did he notice that ?

​"...But it’s not always cold," he assures him, shaking off the stray thought, "It gets real hot in summer, too." So hot . He squints up at the ceiling, and when his gaze blurs he can just about glimpse it; the thick forests rising up to the sky and the grassy hills rolling down to rocky valleys.

And if he listens close he can hear cicadas and laughter, set against the roar of running water.

"But there were these huge waterfalls my aunt and uncle used to take us to swim in near the castle...made everything real... green, I guess ?"

It comes out sounding kind of lame, but Loac doesn’t make fun of him for it so he continues, feeling the nostalgia washing over him and loosening his tongue,

"And even in winter it’s really not so bad; there’s these..." he trails off again for a moment to swallow. "...There’s these hot springs all over the mountains --"

​"Hot springs?" Loac inquires, like the phrase doesn’t mean anything to him.

​"Springs...that are hot?" Khobi expands flatly, because what else could he possibly mean. Loac gives him a wry look, "Seriously, like, hotter than a bath. And they’re great to go soak in when it snows...except that there’s these–"

He laughs before he even finishes his sentence, warmth bleeding into his every word; he’d forgotten all about that until just now, "These monkeys that hog them though, so you gotta be careful not to mess with them. There was this one time when Khojin tried to get in with one and got chased down the mountain by like twelve –"

​"You’re fucking with me," Loac scoffs, turning to glower at him in disbelief,

"Monkeys that have baths?"

​"They do," Khobi insists, and can’t quite resist flashing him a small smirk, "...You’d fit right in."

​For a second there it clearly doesn’t register what he’s said.

But then it does and Loac immediately yanks his pillow out from behind his head and swats him with it.

He probably deserved it. It’s the only reason he doesn’t hit him back.

​"...Mountains and waterfalls, huh," Loac comments absent-mindedly once Khobi has snatched his pillow back and he’s safely settled back on his own side again,

"...Does sound nice." And then, slightly quieter, he adds, "...I like the mountains, too."

​"I didn’t know Crade had mountains," Khobi remarks in surprise, because while he’s always been able to see the shadows on the horizon, he just always assumed they were part of some other, far-off kingdom.

​"Crade’s a big kingdom," he informs him with a small scoff, "’Course we got mountains."

He turns and gives Khobi one of those half-smirks; the kind that warns Khobi he’s about to say something that’s going to piss him off, "We even got forests and lakes, too."

​This time Khobi does throw a pillow at him.

​"... And rivers ," Loac patronises with a grin, catching the pillow before it hits him.

​"Ugh, shut up ," Khobi grumbles, but it comes out a lot more good-natured than he meant it to. Or possibly exactly as good-natured as he meant it to.

Although maybe he’s read things a little wrong this time because as Loac tosses his pillow back, his grin starts to fade; dimming into something softer, and infinitely stranger.

​"...Gurdet’ll find them, y’know," he drawls, and suddenly there’s something soft and strange about his voice, too.

"Your family," he expands, when Khobi shoots him a quizzical look, "...He’s a bastard, but he’s the best at doing what people hate. So if your uncle doesn’t wanna be found, he’ll find him."

​He says it so easily; like it’s the truth.

For some reason Khobi finds it...oddly reassuring, and as strange as the notion is, has to wonder if maybe, for whatever reason, that’s what Loac was going for.

The thought makes something in his chest tighten, and as he rolls over his stomach feels oddly unsettled.

And as the silence settles over them once more; that insistent little voice in the back of his mind that’s been keep him sane concerningly absent, he finds himself drawn back to that moment just before, when Loac was dipped so close he could see his own eyes reflected back at him, the reverent way his hands had swept across his body, and the gentle press of his thumb against his lips.

​Swallowing, he glances back across the bed, only to find that Loac’s already turned away.

​You don’t know anything about me .

​That’s what he’d said once. And he’d been right.

But ever since then Khobi’s been gleaning more and more, and the more he learns, the more he starts to think that just maybe, he’s gotten Loac Trent all wrong.