Chapter 366: Beauty And The Captain.

Chapter 366: Chapter 366: Beauty And The Captain.

When Loac wakes there’s already sunlight trickling in through the gaps in the shutters.

That’d usually be a bad sign but it doesn’t feel particularly late. Spring must be coming. Soon, probably.

​Good . He’s getting sick of winter. Summer is way better. Nothing beats a nap on a warm summer afternoon and he’s always liked when the days are long and his favourite spots up in the forest are green.

Summer at least is full of sound. In the cold, dark depths of winter it’s too quiet; easy to feel alone.

​But...as he casts a glance across the bed, he has to admit that this winter hasn’t been so bad.

​Khobi’s right there where he left him; fast asleep with with half his face buried in his pillow with drool pooling in the corner of his mouth and his hair a mess from where Loac twisted his hands in it the night before.

For someone who used to wake to the slightest sound or movement in the night –and then bitch him out for it –Khobi sure sleeps like the dead these days, and while the light disturbs him and makes him shift in his sleep, it doesn’t wake him.

Briefly, Loac toys with the idea of prodding him awake, just because he can, but without training to get to there’s no real point in getting him up apart from making him cranky.

And while testing out new ways to make Khobi bite has become somewhat of a hobby, it feels like so much of a shame to disturb him that he decides against it. Just this once.

​(He thinks it’s pretty gracious of him, actually.)

​As he watches, a lock of red hair falls out of place and makes Khobi’s nose twitch.

Unthinkingly, Loac reaches out a hand to brush it back into place, but manages to stop himself short just before his fingertips brush against the skin of his cheek.

​What am I doing?

​"...Hmm?" Khobi mumbles blearily, and Loac hurriedly retracts his hand, swallowing down a flash of panic at what he’d been about to do, "... Loac ?"

​Loac likes the desperate, heady way Khobi says his name in the throes of passion, but there’s certainly something to be said for hearing it breathed all soft and sleepy like this.

​Dammit. He kinda wants to stay in bed today.

But Rogard wanted a rematch, and he’ll never hear the end of it if he ditches him. So that means he has to extract himself from the bedclothes and find where his clothes have gone.

​"...Go back to sleep," Loac tells him quietly, shifting to the edge of the bed to fish around for the clothes he’d been wearing the night before.

And whether intentional or not Khobi does as he’s bid for once in his life, and Loac snickers to himself as he lets out a low, contented huff and burrows his face just a little deeper into his pillow; trying to escape the light.

Only a few seconds later he starts snoring.

It’s funny; once upon a time just moving about the room would have been enough to have Khobi up and grizzling and probably whinging at him to have a bath before getting in bed, but these days when Loac wakes before him he barely even stirs.

​When he’s presentable, he pads across the room, fist stuffed against his mouth to stifle a yawn, and lightly raps his knuckles on the wood of the door.

A moment later the key turns in the lock and the door cracks ajar.

​"Ah, mornin’ Captain," Jaga greets amicably, and then abruptly lowers his voice as Loac presses a finger to his lips to shush him.

"Oh, Khobi not up yet?"

​"Nah, he’s still asleep," Loac replies quietly, glancing back over his shoulder to where Khobi’s face is buried in his pillow; gaze lingering on the way the blankets pool around his lower back.

Maybe he should’ve woken him up after all...

​"Big night, huh?" Gandy remarks with a snicker, yawning as he leans heavily into the doorframe.

​Loac smirks, because he has no idea. "You could say that."

​Gandy makes an obligatory gagging noise.

​"...I’ll make sure Binny doesn’t wake him," Jaga promises, making the mature decision to ignore the exchange and ensuring that he closes the door gently so that it doesn’t rattle in its hinges.

"See you at training."

​"Yeah, see ya later," Loac waves dismissively, wondering when exactly it became normal for the soldiers to say that sort of thing to him, and when it became normal for him to say that sort of thing back.

He’s spent so many years avoiding training, because it was boring, and the men were boring, and why would he bother with getting fired up when no one else even cared to try burn with him?

​But it’s... different these days. He’s started kinda liking it again. The other soldiers aren’t nearly as good as Khobi, and they’ll never be as good as him, but for the first time in a long time, that doesn’t seem to matter to them.

​And they call him Captain .

​It’s still kinda weird to hear them call him that, but Loac could get used to it.

​(Maybe it’s going to his head, just a little.)

After last night he’s worked up quite the appetite so he goes to the kitchens first.

Rogard will whinge about him being late, but he can wait. The servants are quick to make up some breakfast for him, having long since grown used to his presence here after all these years.

And it’s weird because while he’d grown accustomed to sitting alone at these very benches while the servants milled around him, it somehow doesn’t quite feel the same without Khobi on the other side of the bench.

Loac’s always liked watching him at work --especially when he doesn’t have to help --seeing him frowning in concentration with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and sweat beading on his brow from the heat of the furnaces.

He always looks really good like that; focused, like he gets in the ring, but in a different kind of way. And whether he’s working away, eating in silence, or bitching him out for trying to take his food, it doesn’t matter --the fact remains that he’s gotten used to him being there, and it kind of sucks that he’s not.