uncrossed (alver x og cale)

Part 5

Golden leaves.

Cale stared absently at the falling leaves as he continued his walk.

Summer would soon end and the sight of golden leaves falling gently in the wind heralded that change.

Time was a weird thing like that.

Fast and slow.

Cale had visited the capital at least five different times over the past couple months. The past three times he'd been given formal permission from the palace to teleport there and received the scrolls necessary to do so.

Expensive magic that was normally restricted to only the highest ranking families to be utilized under urgent, formal, or otherwise necessary circumstances.

Cale used it to come when the crown prince called.

That was another thing. The communication orbs that resided within the Henituse estate and were maintained by a few trusted mage's that the family had on retainer were normally rarely ever used. Count Deruth Henituse used them when he had pressing matters to attend to that couldn't wait for mail or messenger, but that was quite rare.

It wasn't that they went unused but they were normally quite neglected.

Now one had been moved to reside inside of Cale's room and he'd been given a bell specifically to summon one of the mage's to answer it for him or make calls.

Cale sometimes thought about the symmetry between worlds.

They had communication orbs, the other world had cell phones. He remembered the first time he'd talked to Alver on a cell phone, he'd been quite proud of himself because he'd already used a communication orb before and he hardly blinked at the strange technology. Mostly, he'd just been secretly pleased to be able to call Alver even when he was away and he hid behind pride to mask those feelings.

That prideful disgust for his own feelings had made a lot of sense at the time.

Cale watched the leaves fall and wondered why it felt like such a silly thing now.

Why wouldn't he be happy to call Alver? Even ignoring his complicated feelings and their complicated relationship, it was a nice and convenient tool that enabled him to speak with a person he liked.

It hardly made any sense to be so contrary about it. Illogical and embarrassing.

It was of some relief to Cale that there was no one in this world to have witnessed that embarrassing foolishness but that relief paled in comparison to the years Cale had spent on much the same sort of nonsense.

Building walls not just between himself and others, but also between himself and his own emotions.

Silly to the extreme.

Still, it had begun to get a bit funny.

When Cale used an orb to call Eric, he'd actually bore witness to his dumbass hyung dropping his glasses in shock. At least he could enjoy the embarrassment of others.

He wasn't the only person who was a hot mess.

He stopped his stroll and rested against a tree, closing his eyes and still seeing the golden leaves flutter about behind his lids.

There was a sense of futility to it.

In so many ways, Cale had become like the leaves. Helpless against the wind and time and falling without his own consent in the matter.