Flower Amongst Thorns [Boy x Boy]

Chapter 11

What the hell was that?! What were they about to do?!

The swordsman snatched a glance at Ivy.

He was surprised to see that the other was also looking pretty flustered, avoiding eye contact with a deep blush.

So cute- WAIT NO!

Artios cleared his throat in a failed attempt to diffuse the awkwardness, "W-we should, we should get going."

"Y-yeah." Ivy responded, skipping ahead.

"W-wait for me."

They walked together for a little while in silence until the younger couldn't stay quiet anymore and started babbling about random things again.

He looked towards the swordsman as he grumbled and absentmindedly nodded to everything with an irritated scowl.

It made the eighteen-year-old smile because his plan had worked. Art didn't have that gloomy atmosphere around him anymore.

He was back to normal.

If Ivy couldn't help him, the next best thing was to just distract him. He didn't like seeing Art sad, it felt wrong...

Art was supposed to be the grumpy guy who was secretly a softie on the inside, not the melancholy guy with a helpless expression. It was scary to see him like that.

One day the teen wished he could know what was bothering Art to that extent so that he could help him work through it.

One day he wanted to let the man know that he didn't always have to suffer alone all the time, but until then, this was enough.

"Hey, catch." The older randomly threw a piece of paper towards Ivy.

The smaller barely managed to catch it as it hit him in the face and slid off his shirt into his hands.

"Hey! Just because you're salty about loosing doesn't mean you should throw things at me!" The boy complained.

However it didn't take him long to get over his annoyance, and divert his attention towards what the swordsman had not-so-gracefully given him.

When he looked closely he realized that it was not just a piece of paper, and in fact a folded booklet of some sort with weird little shapes on it. It looked like it was pretty old with its yellowing pages.

"What's this Art?" Ivy asked, brows scrunched up in curiosity.

"The World Map." The thief scratched the back of his head nervously, "Found it in one of the hidden zips of the bag. Thought you should keep it since you keep going on about traveling for some reason."

"Don't think too much into it. I was gonna throw it anyway so..." The man continued when he was met with silence.

"Art..." Ivy started, "This is so cool! This is the best present I've ever received!"

"Thank you so much! I'll treasure it for life!" He beamed with brightest smile as he clutched the map to his chest.

"You don't have to. It's just an old map." Artios grumbled as he looked away.