Personal Duties

13

"Don't touch that," Leonan grumbled, turning over onto his back while the doors to his room opened. Glancing over his shoulder, Leonan's eyes worked strenuously to focus on the face beyond the burning torch.
"Are you on fire?" he murmured, a groggy smile curling over the side of his face. "I promise - I'm not... sedated, that wasn't enough to sedate me; I just didn't inject any yesterday." Rubbing his palm and the back of his left wrist against his eyes, Leonan started slurring his words.
"I hate it." Grasping a pole at the corner of his bed frame, Leonan pulled himself from under the covers; imbalanced, but standing with the support of the furniture. Though his chest was bare, whatever he possessed below the waist was still masked by a pair of white, soft lounge-pants. Albeit with greater composure than before, Leonan stumbled several paces forward, before dropping himself into one of the well-cushioned chairs beside the fire.
Putting his elbow onto the chair's arm, and resting his chin upon the palm of his hand, Leonan turned his darkened, tired eyes upwards.
"You can march a colossal army through hundreds of miles of frozen tundra; did you really get lost in this place?" Lifting his knee with both hands, Leonan crossed it over his lap, before sitting upright and brushing the bangs of his hair away from his face. "- If there's something on your mind; speak freely."

After fiddling with the logs in the fire, slightly burning his fingertips, it began to give a steady flame, building and licking over the wood. Mateo's chest shook with laughter as he heard the comment, warmly he began, "Xavier and Aaron have always had better senses of direction than me," He leaned back on his heels and sat down steadily into the lush carpet, looking up over his shoulder at Aaron with kind smile on his face, "I couldn't live without them," He directed at Leonan before speaking to Aaron, "He didn't give you too much trouble did he?"

The court official gave a shook of his head, his hair swaying slightly. A relieved smile spread on Mateo's lips, all he ever did was smile and be kind, but there was depth to the many upward tilts his lips gave. He continued on in a joking mood, "And, what is that smell? You smell like a rotting flower my brother." A hearty chuckle fell from his lips as he turned his attention back to Leonan.

Taking up his offer to get to know the man better, "Well there is one thing-" He leaned forward towards the chair the old king had collapsed in, a serious look on his face as he got closer, his voice spoke out slow and steady, "What is your favorite color?" He held the serious look before it broke out into smile and he laughed, "I'm curious, and of course I got lost in here, there are so many twisting hallways, how do you expect anyone to know where they're going. I should make a map of where I've been so I know where I'm going." He chuckled softly, actually liking the idea and filing it away for later.