TW: Hurt/Comfort
Title: ~Loyalty~
“Rythian? Rythian!” The mage looks up from his workbench, smudges of ink on his cheeks and hands and quill held in his hand. The voice is Lalna’s; he’d recognise those tones anywhere, especially when they are laced with fear as they are now. Walking to his study window, feeling a slither of glee at the idea that he is prolonging Lalna’s supposed anguish. What he doesn’t expect to see is a terrified looking Lalna kneeling on the ground with what appears to be a body in his arms. The panic, Rythian is quick to realise, is not for Lalna’s own benefit but clearly for whoever it is lying in his arms. Rythian says nothing as he jogs away from the window and down the winding stairs of Blackrock castle, pausing only to snatch up his inventory.
“What is it?” Rythian’s concern in his voice is not for Lalna, though there is something very off in his mind about the way that Lalna is looking at him, as though Rythian is the only one who can help him. The mage reddens slightly over his mask when he realises he is staring at Lalna, and instead averts his gaze to the obviously wounded man in Lalna’s grasp. Rythian assumes from the man’s appearance and what he’d heard tell of the biscuit factory somewhere in the world that the man is Xephos, a friend of Lalna’s. There is a deep blood gash in the man’s stomach, changing the colour of his lightly striped shirt around it. In an instant Rythian is kneeling opposite Lalna, rolling up Xephos’ shirt to better inspect the wound.
“What caused this?” Rythian’s tone is sincere, not letting any emotion caused by Lalna’s sudden vulnerability seep through his stoic act. His fingers feel the static of magical residue before they even touch Xephos’ inflamed skin, the familiar bubbling under his skin a sure sign of something beyond science’s control. Rythian glances up at Lalna; no wonder he’d come to him for help.
Lalna swallows and Rythian has the sudden understanding that the scientist, for all his cruelty and torment in the past, is holding back tears. “He- I shouldn’t have been playing with the staff, really, you know I don’t really get magic…” Lalna trails off and Rythian squashes the annoyance that the man had been tinkering with things he didn’t really understand. Empathy overwhelms him for a brief second, feeling as though he had previously misjudged Lalna to be uncaring. The moment is lost when Xephos makes a sound in Lalna’s grip and his breathing becomes ragged. Lalna’s eyes are desperate as they meet Rythian’s and the mage hurriedly digs in his inventory for vials of the right essences and a water bottle, mixing them together swiftly to make a potion of healing.
As he gently pours the vermilion liquid onto Xephos wound the spaceman twists and yells in agony, but Lalna does not protest even as the cut gives off thin orange smoke the scent of cinnamon as he can see the incision slowly sealing itself. The grin that Lalna gives Rythian knocks the breath out of the mage, as does the unforeseen hug which the scientist throws around Rythian’s skinny shoulders. The mage’s stomach flips and his heart races in his chest, the smell of ash and oil thick in the folds of Lalna’s coat pressed into his face. The hug is over quicker than it appeared in Rythian’s life, leaving him lightheaded and blushing in a way that makes him furious with himself.
Lalna’s cheeks are pink too, but Rythian tells himself it’s because of happiness. Xephos’ breathing begins to normalise and the spaceman sits up, looking between the mage and the scientist with an understandable look of confusion on his handsome features.
“Lalna? And… Rythian?” his speech is slightly slurred thanks to the effect of the potion, and both Rythian and Lalna help the tall man stand, Lalna flashing Rythian another smile across his friend’s chest. As the two men stumble away, an odd sight due to the height differences, Rythian stares after them as he considers Lalna’s remarkable loyalty and the possibility that he and the scientist aren’t so different after all.
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Diggy Diggy One-Shots(Yogs and Hatfilms)
FanficA wide variety of one-shots found on the internet, all in one place! All credit goes to the people who wrote them. Request me one and I will do what I can to provide! There will be both SFW and NSFW, that along with the pairing will be in the title...
