Warning: Again, heavy spoilers for vol. 11 - vol. 14. If you don't want to know what happens, please don't read this (as tasty as it is).
That said, please enjoy.
Resting on his bed, unable to sleep, Tetheus quickly turned his head at the soft knock on the door. Getting up, he made his away there unarmed; no demon would knock that politely and very few castle residents either for that matter. All this in mind, the Black Dragon officer was not surprised to see Ruwalk standing there, looking lost in a yellow kimono and his brown hair hanging loose around him.
"Yes?" Tetheus asked shortly though his body language betrayed his cool tone. It was clear that his fellow officer and friend was taking the deaths of their comrades hard.
"I…Tetheus…Can…Can I stay with you tonight?" It wasn't often that the secretary of state was at a loss for words but tonight, the past few days and weeks really, had been the hardest of his long life. The normally stoic Black officer remained that way but nodded and moved from the door to let the Yellow in. Ruwalk, while seeming unfocused and detached, bee lined towards the bed and crawled onto the surprisingly plush and cozy surface. Settling in, he pulled a pillow to his chest and hugged tightly, curling himself around it. Tetheus joined him, stretching out a platonic distance from the other. Feeling the bed sink that little bit, Ruwalk looked up, golden eyes shimmering with tears.
"They're gone….Alfeegi, Kaistern…we're the only ones left…" the dragon whimpered, digging his nails into the pillow to keep from bursting into tears again.
"That's what happens in war." The other replied, reaching out to stroke the long hair that was obscuring his friend's face, his fingers getting caught in a few kinky strands.
"I could have stopped them….I could have saved them…if I'd only arrived moments earlier, Alfeegi wouldn't have died waiting on me…he'd still be here…" Ruwalk trailed off, mumbling to himself about their last comrades. Tetheus lifted an eyebrow as he listened. There was a lot of talk about Alfeegi going on, particularly surprising since it had been Kaistern who'd perished earlier that day. Perhaps the years of castle gossip about Ruwalk and Alfeegi being closer than they publicly appeared had some merit. Tetheus decided to question it with as much tact as he could muster.
"You seem to have a great deal of concern for Alfeegi when Kaistern just passed away." It couldn't be said that the former demon had a lot of tact. The Yellow officer looked up with surprised eyes and the faintest blush on his cheeks.
"I…feel that…I could have done more for Alfeegi…Kaistern had already been poisoned had he not? My chances of saving Alfeegi were much higher…" Ruwalk tired to explain, curling a few strands of hair around a finger as he spoke.
"Again you speak mostly about our White Dragon officer. Was he really that much more important to you than Kaistern?" Tetheus continued with his questioning. This time, Ruwalk didn't have an answer. This time, he looked down to the pillow he was hugging. This time, the tears couldn't be held back any longer. The Black officer sat up and awkwardly held his friend while he sobbed into the pillow, stroking his hair again and offering soothing noises into his pointed ear.
Once he'd gotten his sobs out of his system and his shoulders had stopped shaking, Ruwalk's surprisingly strong grip grasped the collar of Tetheus' nightshirt, his other hand pushing away the material of his own kimono away from his chest.
"I can't forget him…please…Tetheus….help me forget him." He pleaded, slowly raising his eyes to the other's jade green pair. Tetheus was taken aback by this; it was perhaps one of the last things he expected to come out of the other's mouth. He started at the other for quite some time, keeping his fingers at play in his hair to keep him from feeling rejected and running away. He too had lost a companion in the recent deaths of the other officers. Perhaps not a romantic partner but a good lay nonetheless and that was a void that would need to be filled. Forgetting however, was not an option he was going to let either of them have.
"I won't help you forget…but I will distract you until you're ready to handle it." He decided, explaining it to the other as he ran his fingers along his jaw and drew him in.
"That'll do…"