(Author's note: I wrote this is for my dear friends of our Discord server who were always listening to my rambles when my insecurites took over. Enjoy!

Also, I am pretty sure the word panty didn't exist in medieval times, but I am taken this artistic liberty cause I really like this word.)

As usual, Ornstein was the first one to be awake.

Sighing, he buried his face deeper into the master's chest. He didn't want to get up. He would like to lie here forever, cuddled against his lover, but he knew that couldn't be. He had to get ready before anyone else would get up, so that he could exit the room of the prince unsighted. He allowed himself a few more moments to take in the smell of his boyfriend before carefully slipping out of his hug and staggering over to his clothes and armour.

With a wistful glance at the sleeping form of the master, Ornstein first tied his long hair into a ponytail before bowing down to pick up his underwear. He quickly realized, that the large panty he had in his hands couldn't be his. A faint memory told him that the master had thrown his underwear off yesterday and it seemed to have landed on Ornstein's pile of clothes. Ornstein could feel the blood rush in his face, but he wasn't really sure why. He had seen the master naked plenty of times by now. There shouldn't be any reason for him to be embarrassed only by holding his panties.

Ornstein slowly turned to the bed. The still form and the regular heaving of the blankets told him, that his boyfriend was still asleep. Ornstein's lip split into a grin. He moved the panties closer to his face to take in the smell. The beautiful smell he missed so much whenever the two of them were separated. A smell he felt like he could drown in. After he was satisfied, he was about to just lay the panties back down, but hesitated.

Surely, the master wouldn't miss one pair of panties...

After Ornstein got dressed, he went over to the bed and leaned down to give a soft kiss to his boyfriend. The larger man shifted in his sleep and then slowly opened the eyes. "...is it morning already?", he asked.

Ornstein nodded. "I need to go.", he said.

"Let me at least come to the door with you.", the master said. As usual, any excuse for them to be together a bit longer, was taken. Ornstein didn't mind. He put on his helmet and took his spear and waited for the master to get dressed. Who paced around in the room, looking left and right and then stopping, scratching his head.

"Ornstein, have you seen my underwear?", he asked.

Ornstein's inside automatically tensed at this question, he could feel the blood rush into his face again, but he shook his head, feeling the panty he had stuffed into the pocket of the woolen clothes he liked to wear under his armour.

"Whatever, I guess I threw it too far, it probably lies on cupboard or such.", the master mumbled and opened a drawer to put on another piece of underwear. Then he led Ornstein to the door. The master had told the silver knights that they didn't need to patrol in front of his room this night, so the coast was clear. The two lovers shared a last hug.

"We see each other at the usual time?", the master asked and Ornstein nodded before departing from the master's room. He slowly walked along the hallway, waving to his boyfriend and the moment he heard the click of the door, Ornstein was running off.

He arrived at his room slightly out of breath and managed to pull out the stolen panties out of his pocket. He took off his helmet and grinned. Now he had the master's smell whenever he wanted. The dragon slayer quickly indulged a bit more into this personal drug, before opening a drawer and putting the underwear there. It was time to start his duties.

A few days later, the beautiful smell wasn't there anymore. Of course, when the master wasn't wearing his underwear, the scent had to vanish eventually. Ornstein just stood there with the panty in hands, frustration rising up in him. Sniffing the underwear had helped him a lot with the lonely times in his room and it had been perfect to calm him down whenever another jealousy fit hit. Sighing, he contemplated what to do with it.

He couldn't just give it back to the master, how embarrassing, then he had to admit why he did had it in the first place. And he couldn't just give it to the servants who made the laundry, clearly a panty that was far too large for him in a basket with his name on it would provoke questions. And the royal family had their own personal servants, so he couldn't just sneak it back. He decided to just leave it in the drawer. But what should he do now? After a short time, his face split back into a grin. Surely, the master wouldn't miss two of his panties...

About two weeks later Ornstein had invited Artorias into his room for the paper work. The two knights were provided with some cookies and a can of tea to easy their work. Ornstein was busy reading through a paper and taking a sip of his tea, when Artorias asked: "Do you miss some of your underwear, Ornstein?"

Ornstein nearly choked on the tea, but managed to swallow it and just looked at Artorias astounded: "What kind of question is this?"

"Oh, let me explain.", Artorias started. "Earlier I was talking with Prince Gwynfor. He told me that his underwear kept vanishing. He had the assumption that maybe one of the servants who does the laundry could be the thief. He wanted to know if I was missing underwear too. I didn't, but I promised him to ask any other person I knew about it.", he finished.

Ornstein shook his head. "No, I don't miss any underwear.", he said and shortly after realization hit. The master had figured out that his underwear was missing. He glanced over to the drawer where he had stored now three of them, but quickly put his attention to the papers again.

"The royal family has personal servants anyway, they couldn't have taken our stuff.", he said and hoped that the subject was done with this.

"I guess...", Artorias said and dunked his quill into the inkwell. After he wrote a few words, he dunked it in again, but... "Ornstein, your inkwell is empty."

"Just look in the usual drawer, I should have a spare one.", Ornstein said without looking up. He then remembered that Artorias often had some trouble remembering where he put his stuff and looked up only to see that Artorias was in the process of opening "that" drawer.

"Artorias, no, not that one!", he shouted, but it was too late. Artorias just stood there dumbfounded, mouth agape. Ornstein felt like hiding from the whole world, his face felt hot and was surely super red. After what felt like an eternity, Artorias turned around.

"So you have been the underwear thief.", he calmly stated. "You know that I have to report this to the prince."

"Please, no, Artorias!", Ornstein begged. "How should I explain this to him?"

"Hmmm... then I won't.", Artorias said and Ornstein released the breath he had hold in. "But you have to tell me why you had them in the first place."

Of all things. But it was that or Artorias would straight up run to the master and tell him about this thievery. Which was a very unknightly thing to do. He sighed. "I wanted to have his scent with me...", he whispered, barely audible.

"What, I can't hear you.", Artorias said but from his amused smile Ornstein was sure the wolf knight already knew, he just wanted him to admit it.

Ornstein swallowed down the hard dry lump that had formed into his throat, took a deep breath and said: "I wanted to have his scent with me when we couldn't be together."

"You tell me you were sniffing this?", Artorias now widely grinned. "I won't tell him about this, but you should give him his underwear back." Artorias sat down back on the table like that incident had never happened.

"I guess...", Ornstein said and scolded himself mentally for not hiding the panties better.

The next day, Ornstein was standing in front of the master's door. He took a deep breath, straightened himself up and waited for him to open the door. Now only one question remained. How in the world should he explain that he was the panty thief to him?

(Author's note: I have left this open ended on purpose. How about you, dear reader, fill in how that conversation went?