Parvill – Laugh – Chapter One
Parvis P.O.V.
I always loved his laugh.
It was pretty standard that I had grown accustomed to his usual voice – and after how long we'd been working together? His voice was one thing, rather deep and entrancing, but it was rare that a full-on guffaw erupted from his usually so emotionless (or aggravated, I could never really tell the difference between the two) expression. Even his small chuckles or giggles caused me to lose track of anything that might have been on my mind.
Sometimes I wondered if my actual goal working at Strife Solutions was to try and bring out Strife's true intention in using myself as his apprentice - not only that, but maybe why he even bothered with me in the first place. Not going to lie, but it was no big secret that Strife had actually come to take a liking to me- I mean, who hasn't? I was more useful than anyone had bothered to think! Another thing- I think it was clear that he also secretly appreciated how clever I was and how much I had helped in the philosophical moral building aspect of Strife Solutions.
Where would we be without my Setting-people's-houses-on-fire-and-saving-the-coincidentally-placed-babies-inside-of-them plan? That's right. Nowhere.
But enough of my ingenious. Back to the good part where we talk about him. About Strife.
Strife P.O.V.
I sat wearily up from my pillow, pushing the blankets sleepily off of me with a yawn. I ran a hand through my already messy hair, and scratched at itchy stubble. Before running anything else through my mind, I glanced to my left, where Parvis' usually occupied bed was, across the room. My heart jumped as I was met with a wide-eyed, creepily smiling Parvis sitting at the foot of my bed side.
"Morning, Strife." He greeted cheerily as I flinched back in surprise, now obviously more awake than before.
"Gah! Parvis, What in the world? Jeez!" I growled, grabbing my pillow and flinging it at him playfully with a not-so-angry frown. He giggled whilst regaining his balance, and threw it back at me. I rolled my eyes and peeled the blankets and pillow fully off of me, getting up with a lazy stretch.
" Well I was going to build the next tier for the Blood Altar but we're missing the minerals so I wanted to go down into the mines but I didn't want to go alone so I waited for you to wake up and so now i'm in the present explaining it all to you" He breathlessly ranted, and topped it with that same daunting smile. With a sigh, I slipped on my shoes and grabbed my vest.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's grab something to eat first." I murmured, rummaging through the chest for some raw pork and throwing it into the furnace. I decided to leave the pork plainly cooked, seeing as Parvis was in such a rush to go mining, or whatever is was he wanted to do. In my wait, I expected a loud, annoying speech to drain from his mouth to fill the silence occupying the room, I glanced behind me to see the exact opposite. Parvis stood in the same spot as he was a couple seconds ago, smile faded to match the distant, far-away look in his chocolate brown eyes. I turned to him completely while the pork was cooking away, and threw a waving hand at him as my eyebrow slowly raised. "…Parvis?" I called, slowly and cautiously, and he snapped out of his trance and whisked his head towards me.
"Hmm. What? What'd I miss?" He blurted, snapped out of whatever kind of trance he was in. I turned back to the furnace and took out the pork, tossing one behind me.
"Nothing," I reassured. That was weird. I thought, but quickly dismissed the thought. After a long pause, I turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "What are mining for again?"
"Uhhhh…" He trailed off and again silence entered the room for a long moment, and I gave him a strange look. "Right. We need to make a Sigil of Elemental Affinity and an Air Sigil." He finally said.
"…What on Earth are those?" I started, walking out the door and heading to the mine. "Sometimes I think you're just making stuff up to sound smart, Parvis." I muttered, getting out my pick and beginning to climb down the mine shaft.
"Oh, rubbish. You see, intelligent Parv here's gonna fill you in. The Sigil of Elemental Affinity does the thing where it lets us breathe under water, be invincible in lava, and make us not hurt as much when we fall from heights. Also, if we use that with the Air sigil, we can buzz around like drunk hummingbirds!" He exclaimed, and I turned to him with questioning eyes.
"What does this have to do with the next tier in the Blood Altar? Also, we already have Jetpacks. What's the use of flying around when we can already?" I challenged, fully prepared for him say oops and forget why he brought it up in the first place.
"I don't know! It sounds cool. Drunk hummingbirds!Who cares, just keep going!" He retaliated quickly, shrugging and shoving me forwards down the shaft. I nearly tripped, and cursed at him. It was one thing that I hit my face every time I tried to take a step down. Tch. Amateurs.
"Whatever." I muttered, and we got to work.
Minerals after minerals were mined, and soon our packs were piled up to the brim with ores, gems, and essences that hadn't been heard of until today. Luckily for us, the mobs weren't too aggressive and weren't too large in numbers, so there wasn't much of a struggle while we mined away. The hours went by, and we were finally starting to pack it up when Parvis began his well awaited complaining.
"Uuugh… Striiife I need to get out! I'm like those people who have claustrophobia in underground or small and tightly packed places and start freaking out. I need to get out, I need to GET OUT!" He chanted, louder and louder until I groaned and decided to say something in an attempt to shut him up.
"Fine, alright, just shut up. We'll be out of here in no time. Let me just grab this last bit of osmium- it always comes in handy for advanced energy cubes and other circuitry, even though you're probably not that interested in science of that sort…" I murmured, paying special attention to a bit of lava that was precariously sitting next to me. I reached out and picked the osmium quickly, noticing gratefully how large of a vain it was. I turned back around to face the idiot who was just standing there, that blank face from that morning copied and pasted onto his face again. I tried to ignore it by saying, "Alright, Parv, I think we can finally start to- Gah! ALEX!"
Parivs suddenly snapped back into wide-eyed-reality as a hiss sounded from behind, and an explosion sent the two of us flying backwards as our ear-splitting screeches filled the cold, dense air. I stumbled as the harsh recoil flung us back, and I immediately shut my eyes, waiting for the sharp, intense feeling of bubbling lava to surrounding my soon-to-be corpse.
Parvis P.O.V.
I don't know how I could've lost track of thought in such an eerie place. I was such an idiot! The explosion hit my back, and I could feel sharp debris from the violent combustion scald my unarmored backside. My screams synced with Strife, we both flew in the direction of the lava, and I wondered why the blast hadn't killed me. Even better, before I knew what I was doing, my arms stretched out in a lone thought to try and save the one man who'd I'd actually taken any sort of liking to (certain individuals got fed up with me and tried to get rid of me *cough Lewis cough*). I yelled his name as we screwed our eyes shut. My hands found his waist in a moment of panic. He was a much heavier and stronger man than I, and in a shot of pure adrenaline, I miraculously held him up one block from falling into the pit of fire and inevitable death below.
The radiation of the discharged explosion slowly faded as we stood frozen, Strife tense in my arms, both pairs of eyes held shut in terrified anticipation. Slowly, we both opened our eyes, wondering why the sharp instantaneous feeling of death hadn't rained upon us. I felt the familiar feeling of being lost in nothing but my own thoughts as everything faded - the trigger was his eyes.
They were a perfect shade of green - not emerald green, as we had seen so many times previously in the mines, but not a spruce leaf green either. It was such a rare color, unlike my un-life-like and dead brown ones. His sparkled in waves fear, surprise… but most of all, confusion. As the seconds passed, his facial expression went through phases of fear, dismay, discomposure, realization, gratitude, and then, of course, awkwardness. He waited a while for me to recover while I slowly shook myself of my trance.
"…P-Parvis? Thanks and all, but you...can let me up now." He murmured, and his voice was barely a whisper. I quickly felt my cheeks be powdered with embarrassment, and I hauled him up.
"Right, sorry Will." I murmured briskly, and knelt down to dust off my pants when I felt the reoccurring sensation of pain and blistered skin touch rags of torn shirt. "O-Ow…" I mumbled, and sank to my knees instead of dusting them off. Curses trailed my grunts of pain, and I reached back to feel my back, when raw flesh met my dirty fingers. I gasped in disgusted surprise, and cursed loudly. "He got me good, Strife..." I murmured, with an weak laugh at the end.
Strife looked at me with alarm as I sunk to the ground, and he rushed to inspect my wounds. "Crap, Parv. This does not look good." He informed, and I cloud tell he was hiding the fear in his voice. "Come on. Let's get you back to the surface." He murmured, and I tried to rise to my feet. "No, no, no. You're not going to try to climb all of those stairs by yourself." He gave me the 'you're an idiot' look, and lifted me into his arms bridal style. I was about to protest, but I was so tired…
"But Striiife, we're going too fast, I'm not reeeaady…" I whimpered, and a broken giggle trailed after. He rolled his eyes at the lame innuendo and let out a chuckle himself.
"Oh, shut up, you." His worried laugh was the last thing I heard before I slipped into unconsciousness.
Strife P.O.V.
He was actually quite heavier than I thought he would be- he looks all skin and bones, but perhaps he'd actually taken the initiative to start working out-none the less, none of that really mattered at the moment. I carefully held him in my arms; avoiding the area of his back where the raw flesh probably stung from the creeper explosion. I marched tirelessly up the mine shaft's stairs, a little too worried about Parv's well-being- I mean, he wasn't supposed to mean that much to me, right…?
By the time we reached the surface, a worried pang struck me. Night had just begun, and since we weren't in the area as darkness had settled, millions of mobs were out and about. I sprinted as fast and carefully as I could back to the castle's complex, and I briefly noticed that Parvis' unconscious face had twisted around in waves of pain and peace. I marched down the stairs to the large room and into the bedroom and laid him down as gently as possible, back facing up towards me.
Alright Strife, I thought to myself, as I ran to rummage through the chests in the sorting system for the med kit (praying that Parvis had been smart enough to keep one of those around), It's not that hard. Just sterilize the wound, rap it safely and securely, and make sure he's comfortable. Not that hard. I finally found it with a relieved smile, and ran back to Mr. Sleeping-Ugly. I set the med kit on the nightstand next to his individual bed, and gently peeled up the lower half of his shirt. I flinched at the raw, exposed skin. How hard, I thought, how hard is it to find armor? And with that I noticed the small cuts and gashes that littered his back and sides.
And, when I thought about it, all of that cutting over the Blood Altar probably didn't help his health condition. I think it was obvious to the both of how unhealthy the blood magic was to be fooling around with. Had to be Blood magic, of all things...
With a sigh, I began to sterilize his wounds with gauze and some medical ointment. Most of the blood was cleaned up, but I couldn't help noticing with a guilty feeling that Parvis' expression was in pain. A lot of pain. I refused to look, directing my attention back to his injuries. Most of it looked cleaned, so I grabbed the medical wrap and oh-so-carefully and began to wrap it around his lower torso.
I've got to admit it was difficult trying to lift Parvis every time I need the wrap underneath him, but as I made it midway through, I groaned at the thought of Parvis would say as I peeled the rest of his filthy shirt off of him.
Before long, though, Parv was all fixed up. I turned behind me to grab one of the only fresh shirt from a nearby chest, and slipped it back over him. And, turning him face up, and admired my work. Good Job, Strife, I congratulated myself; this is what the company's all about. Always about the company…
A yawn escaped my lips, and in realizing how late it was, I climbed into my own bed. I took off my vest, slipped off my shoes, and pulled the covers over me after punching out the main torch.
At least an hour went by, and I still couldn't sleep. I tossed, turned and flipped over an insanely large amount of times, but the feeling of sleep only made me sick to think about. The thought of Parvis not being okay haunted me with realization, and I hastily glanced over to his side of the room. He seemed to be sleeping quite peacefully, no sign of pain… Oh, screw it.
I got up from my bed with a sigh, and heaved to push my bed across the room. It fit surprisingly well next to his (like a puzzle piece, almost), and with a small smile, I felt like this had to be the correct solution to my insomnia. I climbed underneath the covers for the second time, and near immediately felt my eyes droop with sleep. I could clearly see his face now, and his peaceful smile sent a wave of calmness washing over me.
The dark room seemed to slowly fade away from my conscious as I fell asleep peacefully next to him, next to Parvis… further, further away…
Until I felt something. My eyes slowly opened to see what it was, but darkness obscured my vision. It was my hand. Something was touching my hand… It was… another hand? I felt a blush creep across my cheeks as my eyes to a swerving trip to Parvis. His eyes were closed. Was he sleeping? Why- why-
"P-Parvis?" I whispered hoarsely. My embarrassing voice tore through the silent darkness. There was no answer. I apprehensively attempted to move my hand away, but I felt his grip mine harder than before. My blush intensified, and I turned my head away from his. "Par-Parvis!" My whisper was harsher, and frustration bubbled inside me.
Again no response, but I didn't try to fight against it this time. I just laid there; inspecting the ceiling like my life depended on it. Then suddenly, a mumble of incoherent words stumbled from the idiot next to me, and I half turned to him with a questioning grunt. He hummed something, and although I couldn't understand it, I most definitely understood that it was a complaint.
He tossed around a little, as if trying to get comfortable and I gave him a doubting glare (even though I know he couldn't see it). He scooted a little closer to me, and moved his hand on mine - searching for something. I opened my mouth, a silent sentence of protest never making its way out of my throat. I nervously twitched my hand, and glanced away, the sentence now long lost. But, as his fingers finally found what they were looking for, mine, I tensed. He wrapped his fingers tightly around mine, and a wide smile settled on his lips.
I was flustered and confused, but heaven knows why I began to grip his hand back. He obviously needed the comfort—that's probably why. Right?
A soft, satisfied hum left his lips, and I subconsciously smiled. It's not that bad. I sighed with resignation, and closed my eyes as our hands stayed wound around each other.
This time, sleep came much easier.