But I know I'd miss you baby, if I left right now.

Chapter 2

Aster sighed in contentment as his back hits the plush mattress in his bedroom. Balthazar was readying a healing spell. With a wave of his arm, lime green mist glittered around Aster's body, seeping into his skin. Balthazar watched in earnest, eyeing the nasty cut on Aster's lip. "How does it feel?" He asked, swallowing hard. "Like I got hit by a train. Mind getting me a drink? Water is fine." Balthazar hurried out the doorway and into the kitchen. Balthazar waved his arm again and the mist came back.

"You're making progress on your earth-moving spell, Aster. This time you didn't disrupt pipes or stone. You didn't leave any trace except a scratch on the wall where Horvath's cane hit." Aster sighed and took the cup Balthazar returned with. "Thanks," he said, and took a gentle sip. "And I know, right? Gotta give me a medal for that."

"Not a medal, but definitely more training."

Aster groaned at the the mention of training. He really didn't like that. The internal pain slowly vanished, but the marks remained. "Those will heal by tomorrow morning, just a heads up. And did you really have to lick his cane? It couldn't have tasted nice."

"It tasted like a cane. Don't know what else to tell you. Ugh- fuck! Bit my lip." Balthazar chuckles and sits back on the bed. He takes a look around the room. Cream colored walls, hanging potted plants overflowing with vines and leaves, a chair by the door and a dresser. A basket of dirty clothes sit by said dresser. To the right of the bed, which sat parallel to the door, another door lead into the bathroom. Beyond the bedroom door lay the living room and the kitchen, and then the front door.

Each cream colored room in the apartment had plants, or at least something plant-ish. Hanging lights dangle over the bed, turned off. Rolled up, bright blue tarps sit beside the bed. In the living room was a couch and a coffee table with a shelf. Both the shelf and the coffee table top had books about plants and archaeology. A bookshelf holding college books, vinyls and more plants sits parallel to the door. Lights were hung up on the ceiling, and when they were plugged in, it'd give a soft gold hue to the room.

A vinyl player sits on the kitchen counter, cord wound up and ready to be plugged into the outlet right below it. Balthazar found it nice to be here sometimes, even when it got messy. Aster liked plants, and always had. Hanging plants, potted plants, flower beds, gardens, herbs, all of it. It was no surprise his particular skill in magic was earth-related. Like his soul was engraved with earth.

He couldn't do anything without his catalyst, except hand grow a plump salad tomato that was as big as a newborn's head. "Did Horvath do anything else to you?"

"Mm, no. He was supposed to tell me that coffee shop he went too, but not much else."

"A coffee shop? In the middle of fighting?"

"In hindsight, we weren't fighting yet. Just talking. Man, I'll never get that name now. Ughhhhh." A loud groan rumbled up from Aster's chest as his head dropped back.

"I'll never understand your ability to not care ever. At all."

Aster shrugged. He found it hard to care for somethinf that didn't directly involve him. I mean, c'mon. In all their 1,400+ years on this planet, ten served together in a vase, nothing could've been resolved. Nothing could've been sat down and talked about like the adults they say they are.

His running into Horvath was just the cherry on the ice cream. In the five months Aster's known Balthazar, he's been swept left and right, up and down. Trained to the limit and then that limit was shattered, rebuilt and then shattered again. Searching, researching, failing and retrying again. Not a bad gig, honestly because, ya know. Magic and a positive-ish father figure. But being jumped in the bathroom by a 6'3 British guy with a bitchin' cane and coat is not at all in Aster's itinerary.