Freud awoke to red, in the most literal of ways staring him down. Even the renownededly calm scholar was human, and had a very human reaction in the form of being startled. He jerked upwards, feeling his head collide with another solid head.
"Good morning to you, too," Freud murmured dryly, backed up against the wall behind his pillow with his fingers curling against his pained head.
Lux simply blinked. His hand mirrored Freud's in its location, but he didn't seem to be bothered at all by the rough impact with the other man's forehead.
A unwillingly affectionate grin curved up the hero's lips, a sharp hint of laughing white, as it occurred to him just how utterly awkward Lux was. Watching him sleep... Really. With how many polite, loquacious royals with a penchant for niceties Freud had met, it was oddly refreshing to meet someone who had about as much social skills as a young child. There was a certain charm about it... Or perhaps Freud was simply as nutty as Phantom often teased him about being, for finding it charming that someone was gauchely watching him sleep.
With a strange sense of detachment, Freud remembered the kiss from the previous day.
It wasn't that the mage wanted to love Lux. It wasn't that he was unaware that this could only end in pain, nor was it that it was too difficult to hold back his emotions. No; Freud could claim none of these things.
The truth was that Freud was only allowing himself to fall because it could be an advantage. Bitter, was it not? Then again, that was how it was, in the end. Their love was a biting kind, one where neither of them would hesitate to kill each other in order to gain a political foothold.
And perhaps there was some part of Freud, buried miles under, that had the naïve notion that he could have a positive influence on the Black Mage, maybe change his mind.
And if not... I'll be your saving grace, my dear Lux. And in the bitter end, I'll drag you down with me.
Lux's nigh emaciated fingers reached forward to tangle in Freud's hair, and the dragon master idly wondered if the way the Black Mage was practically skin stretched over bones was some sort of strange side-effect of the black magic he practiced. Freud knew that there were effects caused by that sort of magic, yet there weren't very many recorded incidences of practitioners of that sort. Many foolhardy magic-users experimented with dark forces during their younger years, but all of that was kept hush.
Freud blinked in sleepy pleasure as the other man's fingers ran through the strands of his auburn hair, even as he knew that the Black Mage was discovering the same thing that he had been noticing for a while now- how oily his hair was becoming.
"You need a bath," Lux casually spoke the first words that had come out of his mouth that morning. "Stay here."
It went as an unspoken joke that Freud had no choice to do anything but.
It disturbed Freud, as the door slipped shut, (In a deliberately quiet way, Freud noticed, which was a rare thing- he had only ever noticed Phantom doing that. Most people simply let the door fall shut carelessly. Perhaps it was a trait closely related to cautiousness) that as every day passed he found himself missing Lux more and more when the man left. Dependency could be a terrifying thing.
What was perhaps even more disturbing was that Freud had begun to think of freedom less often.
Lux returned with a circular basin full of water, as well as some shampoo, conditioner and a sponge. He set it down on the floor and then sat, cross-legged, his eyes sliding shut calmly.
Freud stripped. The mage had never felt ashamed of his body, and besides which, Lux was not sexually attracted to anyone anyways. The unassuming white robes fell to the floor in a pile of cloth, and the dragon master took the sponge.
"Why not just let me shower?" Freud asked curiously.
"I don't trust you not to drown yourself."
Freud's eyebrows arched. "Don't you profess to know me well? You should be aware of the fact that I wouldn't care to do that."
"You seem to underestimate how much of an enigma you can be."
Freud shrugged his shoulders noncommittal as he washed up, enjoying the feeling of cleanliness. Lux's eyes peered open and he observed Freud innocently- with nothing but an artist's eyes, observing loveliness where he found it.
A minute or two passed in comfortable silence, before Lux spoke again, at the same time as he shifted forward and placed the basin between his crossed legs. "Come here."
Lux tugged Freud down, guiding his head to the warm water to soak through. Next, he popped open the top of the shampoo and used a liberal amount on the mage's hair.
Freud hummed, pleased by the pleasant feeling of Lux's fingers massaging at his scalp, the slightest hint of nails tracing idle patterns by his ears. Having his hair washed by another person was actually quite relaxing.
The time passed quickly and soon enough Lux was towelling off the damp reddish strands, letting his cheek rest against the top of Freud's head.
"What are your commanders going to think?" Freud murmured drowsily, boneless against Lux's chest.
"My business is none of theirs," Lux's hand cupped Freud's cheek.
"They're going to find out one of these days, you know," Freud commented with amusement dancing in his voice. "you spend quite the odd amount of time with your captive."
"I do, do I?" Lux smiled. "Well, my captive is worth my time."
Freud blinked. "I love you." The words rolled from his lips like a breath, strangely easy to say. He felt Lux tense behind him, previously stroking fingers freezing against his warm cheek. A mumbled excuse and he was gone, leaving Freud to curl up in bed with a smirk, knowing he'd startled the other man. He had the upper hand.
No one's ever told you that, have they, Lux?
A fond thought briefly crossed Freud's mind. You're going to hear it all the time, from now on.
(Disconcertion crashed over him like a tidal wave when he realized that he was assuming that he'd be Lux's captive, from then on.)
Freud fell victim to an uneasy sleep, seeing as he was awoken early, and he dreamt of two toppled kings and a knight coming to his rescue.
