Mirage - Shall We Date Wizardess Heart' Fic

Chapter 71: A gift from a friend

Randolph woke up in the middle of the night.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at Aurora's sleeping face. After the incident in the East Forest, when she had asked him to spend the night with him in his office and he wasn't able to say no to her. He brushed off the hair of her face with his index finger and admired her beauty in utter silence.

She snuggled into his chest further, unconsciously holding him tighter to herself as if seeking out his warmth was all she needed to survive.

Her peaceful expression made him smile, but the reality of the situation dawned on him. He didn't want to move and yet, he sat up. He got out of bed as quietly as he could so, he would not wake up his sweetheart. Randolph went to fetch himself a glass of the strongest drink he had in his cabinet for he needed to clear out his thoughts.

He chugged down the liquid inside the glass all at once, his jaw tensed as it slid down his throat and burned his chest.

The future worried him; and, for the first time, he questioned if being together was indeed the right path. He knew what Aurora would say if he were to share his thoughts with her: 'no one knows what the future holds, but if we face everything together, surely we will overcome every obstacle and grow together.'

He poured himself another drink, gazed into the glass for a moment, then guzzled the contents and refilled it.

He knew she was the right choice for him, there was no doubt there - as well as the fact that he wanted to be with her until the end of his days. But the question still remained, would he be prepared to see her perish over the years and not be able to do much about it? To eventually have her dying in his arms? How was he going to have himself letting her go?

Those were some tough questions, and he engaged in another drink. Maybe it wasn't the best time to be thinking about it, and more so, at 3 AM in the morning. Good decisions were never made at such a late hour.

"I didn't take you for a heavy drinker, Randolph." Suddenly he heard a familiar voice mocking his drinking habits.

Upon hearing those words, Randolph turned around. He stared wide-eyed at Hugo, who sat cross-legged on the brown leather armchair across his desk with his characteristic smirk. He opened his mouth to speak but did not utter a word, the fact that he was seeing the Dragon of Time sitting in his office left him to wonder if the alcohol was already clouding his senses.

"Won't you offer me one?" he asked, pointing at the rank glass bottle in the tray.

Randolph blinked himself out of his stupor enough to form a coherent sentence. "Aren't you supposed to be dead? Tired of hiding much?"

His face assumed a subtle expression, he shrugged one shoulder with a detached air. "I'm many things, patient is not among them."

"I thought that much. Whisky?" After acknowledging the head nod as a 'yes', he poured his companion a drink and made it slide across the table.

Hugo caught it before it reached the edge, "Drink with me?"

Randolph agreed to join him and so, he held his glass in the air as in a 'cheers' motion. Hugo mimicked the gesture, "To Gendolune, cheers," he voiced, and both downed themselves into the drink. They almost immediately grimaced as the liquor stung their throats. "I haven't had a strong drink for quite some time," he admitted, chuckling. Shaken, not stirred, is arguably the best way to serve this drink.