Chapter 361: Back.

Chapter 361: Chapter 361: Back.

Khobi’s not sure how they managed to get it through the door but when he comes out from his bath later that day the small table they’ve been making do with has been removed and a much larger one –big enough to sit six comfortably –is sitting there in its place.

​There are even a couple of much more plush, comfy chairs set up in the corner with a little parlour table set between them. And while the room has always been way more enormous than Khobi thought anyone could ever need a bedroom to be –rather than make it feel cluttered, it somehow makes it seem a little less...empty.

​...

​The life of captivity is not something that Khobi had been excited to return to, but he has to admit that compared to what it has been, this time around...it’s not quite so bad.

He misses training with his friends, but during the day the ones who have to suffer through guard duty pass the time playing cards or dice with him, and even though it makes the room cold he keeps the shutters open for as long as he can stand.

The fresh air helps a little, and if the sun’s out, even better. It’s not quite the routine he’s grown accustomed to, but it sure beats lying on his bed and staring at the ceiling all day while Loac and the others are down in the mess hall or at the training grounds.

A bit of that makes for a nice change of pace, but hours on end like that just leave him antsy.

​(No wonder he’s always got energy to burn when Loac gets back in the evenings.)

​Sometimes he even forgets he’s back to being a prisoner. But then when the cards get packed away and the table gets cleared and the door locks behind them it all comes back and he wishes like anything that he could be back out there with them all –with him.

Because while Montrel makes sure to keep him up to date on what’s been going on in his absence; catching him up on who is beating on who and how badly, it’s not quite the same as getting to see it himself.

​(Apparently Hasbar has been getting mouthy again and wound up paying for it by getting thrown over a fence. Khobi wishes he could’ve been there to see it. It’s always funny when someone gets tossed over a fence, but even more satisfying when it’s someone who’s got it coming.)

​Honestly, he kind of prefers when he talks about other things, like how his horse is doing and that his mom has started dropping hints about grandchildren, and how things are going with the princess.

He doesn’t seem to realise it but he talks about her a lot , and because there’s always someone else on guard with him it’s always two on when they make fun of him for it.

He always shoves or curses or throws things at them when they rib him for it, but it’s so obvious that he really likes her.

​Anyone can see that.

​And it’s not like he ever denies it.

​It’s during dinner over an entire week into the rest of Khobi’s life that Montrel finally broaches the topic of why exactly he’s stuck there in the first place.

By some unspoken agreement the guards have been joining him for meals from that very first day.

It doesn’t matter who’s on watch or in what combination; whenever mealtime rolls around the lock will click open and they’ll let themselves in.

The servants must know, because they always pack a basket for three –four, if it’s Binny, and five, if they know Loac’ll be there –and after the third night they’d brought up an extra chair.

​It’s more comfortable with the new table though, and with the hours spent on their feet in the corridor, the comfy chairs in the corner have become quite coveted.

Sometimes the servants even bring ale.

Never a lot, because the soldiers are meant to be on duty, but just enough to let them pretend for a little that they aren’t.

​"Y’know, that day...I knew you were gonna leave the castle," Montrel remarks suddenly, and Khobi looks at him strangely. Because if he’d known, why hadn’t he tried to stop him? Wasn’t that what the guards were meant to do ? And maybe his expression says as much because Montrel sighs.

​"I was on watch," he expands, looking down into his mug and frowning at what he finds, "Loac knew that and he...asked me to look away."

He swills the last mouthful and then downs it. "You only ask that sort of thing when you’re gonna do something you’re not meant to...Figured it’d have something to do with you."

​Khobi doesn’t know what to make of any of that. Particularly that last part.

​"And you did ?" he says incredulously, because it kind of sounds like Montrel is not only admitting that he was prepared to help him escape the castle, but to actually cooperating with Loac to do so.

​"Yep," Montrel states, and elaborates no further, "...But I gotta say... kinda thought we’d never see you again." There’s something in his voice that makes Khobi think that he’s relieved that he was wrong, in a way.

"Although if I’d known you’d wind up back like this I would have told Loac to go fuck himself," he adds gruffly, gesturing vaguely around the four walls enclosing him.

"I guess if you’d got caught sneaking out it would’ve been the same. At least this way you got to see what it was like out there."

​That’s true.

​Khobi feels a sudden, overwhelming surge of gratitude for Montrel. And despite the situation he’s found himself in as a result, the corners of Khobi’s lips start to curl up into a small, soft smile.

That always seems to happen when he thinks back to that day.

​"...Thanks," Khobi says quietly, fidgeting with the handle of his empty mug, and when he looks up across the table he catches the softness in his expression mirrored in Montrel’s.

"For lookin’ away," he feels the need to elaborate. He keeps it under his breath though, in case the walls are listening. Doing something like that seems like the sort of thing that would get him in a lot of trouble if the wrong people knew. "It was...really something."

​It hardly begins to describe exactly how it was, but Montrel seems to get it. And then his smile becomes more of a smirk, and he shoots a meaningful look over at the bed.

​" Clearly ," he snorts, and Khobi kicks him under the table. Hard.

​"Shut up !" he growls back hotly, and Montrel snickers, kicking him back.

​"...No problem," he adds on a mumble, that fond, warm expression making a triumphant comeback. It makes Khobi crack a grin, "...Thanks for comin’ back, I guess?"