A/N: Whatever terrible place was Jarlaxle rescued from? Who knows, I admit I was kinda inspired by another fic here, but it'll be simpler for everyone involved if you just make up the most awful nightmare place in your head to fill the hole on your own.

Jarlaxle was sitting on his bed with his back against the wall, one leg stretched out in front of him and the other one bent up with his arm around the knee. He was staring ahead without focusing on anything and thinking as little as possible; like he did almost all the time nowadays unless something caught his attention. Not many things did that anymore though.

His silk shirt was unbuttoned, he wasn't wearing any shoes and even his new hat was still on the night stand, untouched since yesterday. His once shiningly calvous head was now covered in white stubble that would very soon grow into a thick mane if the lack of shaving continued. The red eyes had dulled, or at least their mischievous shine seemed to be gone.

He hadn't sincerely smiled in days.

Artemis Entreri had his eyes fixed on the sight and felt his stomach twist. Or his chest. Or both. That didn't really matter, what did was that he felt some kind of unpleasant emotion that he didn't want to actually define even if he could have recognized the feeling had he wanted to. It had bothered him ever since their escape; when Jarlaxle hadn't bounced back to his usual self after all. As annoying as the drow was he was still somehow more tolerable as his own irritating self than... like this.

Hollow. Joyless. Disturbingly quiet.

Physically he was improving but his mental state seemed to be deteriorating more by the day. In the beginning the drow had at least pretended to be alright and had clearly been relieved to be free, but as the chase went on he had became more and more quiet and withdrawn. It was as if the lack of physical pain had made more room for the mental suffering.

Or maybe the fact that they still had to run for their lives, or even more than just their lives, had driven him into the state of hopelessness. Maybe the drow was just anticipating their capture and didn't even want to let himself believe that it wouldn't happen. After all, he had been imprisoned in such conditions for so long without having managed to escape on his own, and only an odd chance had brought Entreri to him.

Entreri was familiar with that kind of feeling. The hopelessness and constant running.

He sighed quietly and glanced at the small package he was carrying in his hands. He still couldn't believe that he was going to do this. That he had bought the product at all. That he had listened to the sales pitch of the vendor and decided to try this, as unbelievable as the whole thing sounded.

But he was grasping the package in his hands and the receiver of it was right in front of him so backing out now would have been ridiculous. Besides, he had nothing to lose with this.

"Jarlaxle", he said and properly stepped into the room, closing the door behind himself. The addressed drow lifted his gaze only enough to look in the general direction of the assassin, even if he wasn't exactly looking into his eyes. But he was listening at least.

Entreri walked up to the bed and held out the small package for the drow to take. The package was brown, made out of thick and rough paper, and an attempt had been made to make it look pretty with red paper string that had been tied around it with a bow on top. It looked rather plain but the gentle whiff coming from inside immediately let the receiver know that the gift was better than it looked like from the first glance.

Jarlaxle looked at the package blankly but accepted it and brought it closer to his face for a better look. Then a little spark of interest ignited into his eyes when his nose caught the scent. It was exotic and strange; sweet and intriguing.

As in everything Jarlaxle liked.

Entreri moved over to his own bed and took a seat on the edge, settling down to keep an eye on his partner. Everything was looking good so far. With any luck it would stay that way too.

Jarlaxle didn't even seem to notice Entreri any longer as all the attention he could muster was now directed at the package, and nowadays that wasn't a whole lot. He inspected his gift thoroughly with his gaze, then finally pulled the string off and carefully lifted the lid.

The smell was enticing and made his mouth water even though the dark elf had never even tasted the delicacy inside. But it was obvious that whatever it was, it was edible.

Inside the package were a dozen brown and powdery looking round things, each in their own colourful paper compartments. The powder on top of the round things was brown as well and it shifted lightly in the flow of air as Jarlaxle inhaled deeply. The drow even closed his eyes with relish.

"What are these?" he asked quietly, apparently aware of Entreri being present after all.

"Chocolate", the man answered, "Rather rare a treat in anywhere northern than Calimshan."

"Chocolate..." the drow repeated quietly, savoring the word. He opened his eyes and gave the round things another brief inspection, hesitated slightly, but then lifted one out of its compartment, which gave a small crunch at the removal of its contents. Jarlaxle touched the chocolate with the tip of his tongue and pulled the tongue back into his mouth for a little taste. Some of the cocoa powder gently fell down on his chest but that went completely unnoticed by him. He frowned lightly in bafflement and bit on the chocolate ball carefully, halving it with his teeth and causing more cocoa to waft on his lap.

Inside the chocolate shell revealed to be rich creamy filling that felt like melted silk on his tongue. And now the taste of the chocolate itself managed to fully make itself known in his mouth as well.

Entreri observed from the side as Jarlaxle's expression morphed from a slightly perplexed frown into an elated smile, and how his whole body language seemed to change from passive and depressed into the most delighted he'd ever been. The drow rolled the first piece of chocolate in his mouth for a good while and after finishing it he dug right into the next one.

And he smiled all the while.

Jarlaxle hadn't sincerely smiled in days.

Of course Entreri knew that this was likely a temporary fix and only a brief relief, but that failed to stop him from smiling secretly as well and feeling slightly more hopeful about tomorrow.

That, and he would go back to the market square to buy a dozen more of the brown packages.