It was after a few hours that Naib started to feel better. As he headed up to the office, Jack gave him a final pat on the back before heading back to his office. Entering the office, he felt the soft carpet muffle his footsteps. Aesop was reading a rather thick book at his desk, but closed it as he heard Naib's footsteps.
"Mr Subedar. Are you feeling much better now?"
Naib silently nodded as he looked down at his boots, which shone with polish. Aesop smiled and got up from his chair. He guided Naib over to the huge window and pointed up at the sky, which was darkening with thick, black clouds. Soon, heavy drops pelted at the roof and streaked down the windows. Aesop pointed up at the thick clouds.
"They're looking down from there, Mr Subedar."
Naib felt a lump rise to his throat, but he refused to cry. It was his fault and he should be responsible for it and accept any punishment. Furiously blinking, he stared at the clouds ahead. Aesop proceeded to point at the busy roads down below.
"And they are thanking you for putting criminals like them, down there."
This took Naib by surprise. He'd expected a punishment, a warning, a threat, anything but this. Aesop put his hands back behind his back as his amber eyes followed the movement of a small bus down below.
"You knew it was against orders, but it was between living or dying. I'm sure that if you managed to survive so many wars, there was no way you would allow yourself to just die because of a mistake. I don't blame you. I'm not angry."
This left the mercenary speechless. As the rain streaked down the windows, so did the tears in Naib's eyes. It suddenly felt hard to breathe, like someone had wrapped their hands around his neck. He felt the carpet rubbing against his knees as he slid down. Aesop did not ask him to leave, or ask him to man up. He knew the man needed some time to himself, so he allowed it. As he exited his office, he quickly typed out a message on his phone and sent it.
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Eli Clark looked up at his office door. He didn't need to wait for a knock to know somebody was outside. He was sorting out the photos taken from the armoury and the small scraps of evidence gathered by the twin guards.
"Come in!"
His desk was a mess - papers were scattered everywhere as his laptop was placed dangerously near the edge of the surface. The large shadow cast upon a certain area was created by the owl Eli had taken care of since it was an owlet. It turned it head and gave a loud hoot as Aesop Carl stepped into the office. Eli looked up and was startled to see Aesop.
"Mr Carl! I-I didn't expect to see you here. Give me a moment, I'll clear this up."
Aesop watched as Eli pushed everything into a messy pile, trying to clear a space on his desk. Carefully making his way over, he gently pushed aside Eli's hands and put everything into a small empty box neatly. As he reached over to get a file, he felt Eli flinch as his arm brushed past him.
Aesop felt a small smirk form on his face, but he couldn't do anything to stop himself from doing that. Eli seemed to notice and asked him what was wrong. Aesop shook his head and sat down on the worn sofa.
"Mr Subedar needed some time to himself, so I left the office. I don't think the man would even be able to make it out the door in his current state."
His sub-ordinate could only nod slowly as he took small sips of coffee. Aesop stared at the coffee cup as if it was a huge diamond, wishing he had some as well.
"Coffee? I can make some for you if you want."
Aesop shook his head at the offer, but gestured for Eli to give him the cup. Confused, Eli handed the small porcelain cup over. Then, shocking him, Aesop took a huge gulp from it and sighed with pleasure as he swallowed the warm coffee. Giving the cup back to Eli, he started looking through the files in the boxes.
"S-sir?"
"Yes, Eli?"
"I-I drank from that!"
"So?"
"What do you mean 'so?' I could've made you another cup!"
Aesop fought the urge to laugh as he watched Eli panic and rant on about how two people using the same cup was unsanitary. After a few minutes, Eli finally sat down with a huff and stared at the cup. He got up again and sat down, as if he forgot what he wanted to do. Aesop smiles, satisfied, and continued shuffling through the notes.
Silence...
"Eli?"
"Yes, sir."
"Have you had your first kiss before?"
Eli was startled at the question and almost dropped the pile of notes in his hands.
"No?"
"You know what they say when people share food?"
"No, sir."
"If your lips touched where the other person's lips touched, that's like a kiss."
As he said that, he tapped the side of the cup and smirked. It took a while, but Eli's face started turning bright red. A chuckle escaped from Aesop, which soon became loud laughter as Eli joined in despite being extremely embarrassed.
———————————————————————————————————————
Naib sat on the same spot where he was since Aesop left. There was only silence as tears poured out of his eyes. Soft footsteps padded over to him. He didn't look up from where he was looking, but quickly wiped away his tears. Jack looked down at the torn mercenary and sat down next to him.
"There's nothing to cry about. You didn't do anything wrong. Why are you still so upset?"
Naib only glared up at him with a face full of tears.
"You don't understand! You don't know that feeling when you let someone down! You don't know what it's like to see people you know and care for suffer because of your mistakes! You don't know any of that!"
With that, he broke down again. He wasn't upset, he was angry. He was angry that he wasn't punished for the mistake that he made. He was angry because people kept saying it was all okay when clearly it wasn't.
He was just angry at himself.
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