The Prince's Captain (Garroth X Laurance)

[Reminiscent]

[Laurance >>> Garroth]
Monday, October 2nd, 5:45 am.

Laurance: Hey

Laurance: Wanna walk to school together?

Laurance: I was thinking we could work on our assignment if we got to school early enough.

Garroth: Would it have killed you to not text me at 5:45 in the morning?

Laurance: My bad, forgot it was so early.

Garroth: How do you even manage that?

Garroth: But sure, I'm down.

Laurance: Great! I'll see you at 7?

Garroth: ...

Garroth: I'm going back to sleep

——

Garroth does meet up with him at half past seven, despite his displeasure of being awoken so early. Laurance awkwardly lurks by the letterbox, not quite meeting the other's eyes as he approaches.

"Morning."

"Yeah, morning."

"How are you holding up after everything that happened last week?"

"Good."

The blonde forced out a chuckle in response, but there was no humour in it. Just pure unshakable awkwardness. Laurance shifted from foot to foot, frantically trying to think of something to say. Anything that wouldn't just make things worse. Garroth eventually let out a low groan.

"This is awkward, isn't it?" He says, looking at his former rival with a somewhat guilty expression.

Laurance winced quietly, looking away with a hue of embarrassment.

"A little."

Silence sat between them for another unbearably long moment.

"Let's just go to school." Laurance sighed, tugging on his backpack handle and setting off for the walk to school. Garroth nodded, realising that the rift between them wasn't just going to mend itself immediately after they apologised.

They used to take this route to school together each morning. The peace had lasted until the middle of last year. After that, Laurance stopped showing up at Garroth's place early in the morning, opting to catch a ride with Cadenza instead. Garroth found a new group to walk with. They just moved on seemingly effortlessly.

Garroth is beginning to realise it's much easier to tear a friendship apart than it is to fix one that's already bruised.

They walk in silence for a while. A long while. It only made their thoughts scream louder.

Suddenly, Laurance received a notification from his phone. He pulled the device from his pocket as his eyes analysed the screen easily. His breath danced with uncertainty as he read the text, causing the Ro'meave to pick up on his disturbance.

"You alright there?" Garroth asked, concerned by the other's reaction.

"Yeah, fine."

"What's going on?"

Laurance groaned, putting his phone away.

"It's Cadenza."

"Did something happen?"

"..."

He hesitated, unsure it was the right time to bring this up with Garroth.

"Kinda." Laurance sighed, running a hand through his light brown hair that felt much drier than usual. "The other night she went out with Blaze. You know, the werewolf guy?"