Part 9
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The bare twigs and branches of late fall whipped against Gremio's face as he dashed through the forest, following Tir's trail. Not for the first time, he was grateful that after he'd left Gregminster with Tir the first time, he'd taken it upon himself to speak to vagrants and eccentrics and petty criminals, people who had always been beneath him before. From them, he had learned to move quickly and quietly, how to track and how to live off the land - and now he was tracking Tir effortlessly, even in the dark. It would have surprised even him, if he'd had the presence of mind to think about it; he'd not been the most apt pupil.
But now his mind was occupied with thoughts of Tir, and the letter he'd left behind. How could Tir possibly say that without him, he could have a family? The thought nearly infuriated Gremio - Tir was his family. And how many times had he told Tir that this quest was no longer just about him? If there was such a thing as fate, he would fail or he would succeed, and that would be that - but all signs seemed, to Gremio, to point to this being something only he could do. Even Rina's fortunetelling, nearly a year past, which the two of them had pondered and laughed over many times - it had seemed a strange thing, for him to pull the Wolf Card...
All of a sudden, Gremio came to a halt, finding that the trail had ended in the water at the bank of a river. Looking over the river, he caught his breath as he saw the figure lying on the other side. "Young Master!"
The small, wet figure froze as he heard Gremio's voice, and tried to lift himself from the ground, about to take off running into the woods before he could cross. Gremio breathed a little easier, almost letting out a sob of relief as he saw the movement, and waded into the river, ignoring the freezing cold water around his legs. "Young Master - please stay still! I'm coming for you... Please..."
Tir finally rolled himself to a sitting position and shook his head fervently. "No!"
At the outburst, Gremio stopped in the middle of the river, more out of habit than anything, and stared at him. "You're bleeding..." he gasped, getting a better look at the boy, and the dark blotches on the ground around his hand, for once free of the glove he normally wore. "What have I done? Please, Tir... Please... stay where you are, I just want to help!"
Tir was on his knees, preparing to try and stand and run. "No. No! It's not your fault. Just let me go, Gremio... I told you why. Just let me do this for you... please..." he pleaded, still on his knees, shivering and almost wheezing for air.
Gremio ignored the command and splashed the rest of the way through the river at a run, scrambling up the bank as quickly as he could manage. Finally stumbling to his feet, Tir turned to run, but his own rune seemed to get the better of him, and he clenched his fist to his heart, doubling over and holding up his other hand in a last effort to get Gremio to leave him alone. Gremio ignored that protest as well, and nearly fell to his knees himself as he sunk down next to Tir, pulling him into his arms and holding him tightly. "Young Master..."
Tir shook against Gremio, too tired to protest any further, or even to say anything at all. Feeling Tir's body shaking, and the slickness of blood on his arm, Gremio glanced back in the direction of the camp they'd made. "Young Master, you need warmth, you need healing... I'm taking you back - and don't even bother trying to order me to do otherwise, because I won't obey."
Tir pushed his hands against Gremio, trying to move away, shaking his head and finally croaking out between chattering teeth. "Why won't you let me go..."
Glancing around nervously, Gremio didn't answer right away. "I'm sorry, Tir... so very sorry..." With that, he picked up the glove Tir had dropped nearby, summoned up a surprising amount of strength to hoist Tir over his shoulder, and rose to his feet. "Please don't struggle, it will only make things more difficult..."
With a sigh that could have been resignation or relief to Gremio's ears, Tir wound his arms around him, actually making himself easier to carry. "Yes, Gremio....."
After one more glance back into the woods, Gremio took off running again, back across the river, being careful not to let any of the cold water splash high enough to touch Tir. "I'm so sorry..." he murmured.
Tir pressed his face into the curve of Gremio's shoulder, clinging to him tightly. "Why do you keep apologizing? I'm... I'm the one who...ran off. How is that your fault?"
Gremio was panting heavily already, definitely not accustomed to carrying the weight of another person, as he reached the opposite bank. "Because..." he breathed, before being cut off by a fit of coughing. "Oh, Tir..."
"Gremio... Gremio, are you okay?" Tir raised a somewhat bloody hand to Gremio's cheek in concern.
Gremio nodded, and drew to a halt as he heard someone crashing through the brush ahead of them. "Viktor!" he called, before looking down to Tir. "It's just the cold air, and... the exercise..."
Tir closed his eyes, taking his hand away. "You know I don't believe that."
After a moment, Viktor appeared through the brush, and stared at the two of them. "Damn... what happened?" he asked in confusion, but recovered quickly. "Never mind - I'll take him, Gremio. You're soaked and exhausted, that's pretty easy to see."
Gremio tightened his grip on Tir defensively, but realizing that Viktor's words were true, reluctantly let Viktor take him. "Tir... please, Viktor, be careful with him. Get him to a fire. Tir... I... I'll catch up in a moment."
"No!" Tir exclaimed, immediately struggling against Viktor's grip. "Put me down... I don't...want to be carried." He wheezed again, but continued to fight. "And I don't want to leave Gremio... by himself."
"Viktor? Gremio?!" Flik finally caught up to them, hacking away the last few fallen tree limbs in his path with his sword.
"Don't be ridiculous - you're shaking and you're injured," Viktor told Tir, then turned to nod a greeting to Flik. "Hope you didn't put the fire out before you followed me - we've got two guys here that need to get warmed up."
Gremio caught his breath more easily now that he wasn't carrying Tir, and shook his head. "I-I can keep up now..." he panted, trying to reassure Tir. "I think... just hurry."
Tir was angry now, and pounded his fists against Viktor repeatedly. "Put me down! Put me down, Viktor, right now!"
Flik eyed both Tir and Gremio with a grimace. "I did leave the fire burning slightly," he told Viktor. "I was in a hurry to catch up. I just moved our stuff a distance away so nothing might catch while we were gone. I can get it back up again with a little bit of magic, so don't worry."
"Good, great." Viktor obliged Tir, somewhat, and set him on his feet. "Can you walk? Cause if you can't, you've got no case."
Quite shakily, Tir took a defiant step, then another, and turned to look over his shoulder and give Viktor a sharp reply. Instead, he lifted a hand to his head as his eyes rolled backwards and he toppled over in a faint.
Crying out, Gremio leapt forward, but it was Viktor who caught Tir, and he gave Flik a serious look. "You're faster than I am - go get that fire burning hotter," he told him, then glanced at Gremio, who gave him a tired but steady nod. "We'll be right behind you."
Flik sighed, glancing at Tir unconscious in Viktor's arms. "At least he'll be less trouble that way. Do hurry... I've hacked a pretty clear path from camp to here, and I'm sure the trees will forgive me just this once." With that, he took off quickly towards their camp, further clearing their path as he went.
Viktor nodded and took off running after him, as fast as he could manage while carrying Tir. Gremio, however, turned to look back over the river for just a moment. In the darkness, two pairs of eyes could be seen very faintly, shining from beneath the cover of some bushes at the edge of the wood, almost where Tir had collapsed.
Gremio froze, but met the beast's gaze steadily, his own eyes narrowing as he began to reach for the axe in his belt.
"Gremio!"
The sudden faint shout from some distance behind him caused his concentration to waver - Tir needed him. He might have been undecided, if the shining eyes hadn't vanished into the darkness at the sound. After a short hesitation, Gremio turned to follow the others.
Flik reached their fire first, and ignited a few more sticks with a wave of his hand, gathering much of the dry wood they had stacked to the side to get the fire burning bigger and warmer. Gremio arrived just after Viktor burst into the clearing, and he dashed to their packs immediately, pulling out both his blankets and Tir's. Laying them down near the fire, he arranged them to make a softer bed than usual. Before Viktor had even finished setting Tir down amongst the blankets, Gremio had already dashed back to the packs, and was digging through them frantically. "Where is it, where is it...?" he muttered to himself, his hands shaking so badly that he dropped several of the pack's contents around him while searching.
Having finished with the fire, Flik stood up, brushed his hands off, and set a pot of water to boil, should they need it to tend Tir or to make something warm to drink. Tir opened his eyes briefly to watch, but everything was spinning, and he closed them again with a sigh, almost hoping this was the end of him.
Gremio was already returning to his side, on the way nearly dropping the bandages and medicines he'd wrapped up in some fresh clothes - all Tir's, of course - and he shoved past Viktor, much to Viktor's surprise. "Young Master - Young Master, please..." he murmured, "please wake up... just for a moment, Tir..."
Hearing Gremio's voice, Tir opened his eyes again, trying with great effort to focus on him. "G...Gremio... ss... sorry..."
Gremio wasted no time, and held a small bottle of medicine to his lips. "T-to slow the b-bleeding..." he stammered, still breathing heavily, and almost choking in his grief. "Tir..."
Tir tried to push it away with a sigh. "Stop, Gremio...I just...I just need to go to sleep for awhile."
He closed his eyes again, but Gremio saw how he clenched the hand at his side, and shook his head as firmly as he could manage, when he was already trembling so completely. "How dare you, Tir?" he exclaimed.
Tir opened his eyes again, surprised at the tone of Gremio's voice, and finally nodded solemnly, feeling like a little boy again. "I... I'll do as you say, Gremio..."
Realizing what he'd said, Gremio drew back momentarily in surprise as well. After a moment, he leaned forward again, taking Tir's injured hand and holding it tightly as he offered the medicine to Tir again. "Tir... oh, Tir... w-what have I done...? What have I done, where did I go wrong...? Tir..."
Viktor, having been shoved aside some time ago, glanced over to meet Flik's eyes, then gestured off a little ways into the woods. "I think maybe we better leave them alone for a while," he muttered, audible only to Flik.
Flik nodded and checked the fire one last time, then rose to join Viktor. "But still in sight. I'm worried."
Viktor nodded back in agreement, and slipped an arm around Flik's waist gently as he headed them off into the woods. "Within earshot, if nothing else. Can't forget where we are, or what might be out here." Flik nodded in agreement and looped his own arm around Viktor as they left the two alone.
Tir swallowed the medicine Gremio offered, and squeezed his hand. "Stop... stop blaming yourself." As the fire warmed him, he seemed to return to his senses just a little. "It was my decision."
Gremio shook his head again, squeezing back just for a moment before he took a small bowl and dipped it into the pot Flik had put on the fire. Waiting for the medicine to do its work, and the water to cool, he began to unravel the bandages. "Tir..." he murmured again, still almost frantic; now that he'd seen Tir's hands in better lighting, he felt all that much more guilty. "Tir... I-I tried to give you happiness - I know what it's like to have a father so frequently away... I tried to give you all the good things my parents gave me, and all the good things they didn't... but Tir..."
Tir looked up at him with a tired expression. "Gremio, you gave me almost everything... I could... never ask you for anything more. I only wish I had... I had been able to do something more for you...all these years." He blinked back tears. "But I don't have much of anything to offer you. I never have. Maybe that's why you... I..." He trailed off and sighed again.
Gremio tested the water with his finger, then dipped a small cloth into it and began to clean the blood from Tir's wrist and palm. "You gave me a life, Tir... you..." He almost choked again, thinking of the letter Tir had left him. "Your father gave me a home, a real home, where I felt I belonged, for the first time in my life. I never believed my life could be so happy... and you... you were like my very own family... Master Teo and Cleo and Pahn also, but you..."
Tir started to pull his hand away, somewhat defensively, withdrawing it into his blankets. "Gremio... do you... really mean that?" he asked. "Cause I've never felt like I belonged anywhere... unless you were there too. And then it..." He paused for a moment, thinking. "Then it felt like it didn't matter where we were. Home was... wherever we were, together..."
Knowing what Tir was trying to hide, and recognizing the cause, Gremio took his hand back firmly, though he could hardly see through the tears he was trying to hold back. "Then why... why all of this? Why run away, why do this to yourself?" He broke down for a moment as his fingers touched the scars, old and new, that he'd found encircling Tir's wrist when he'd taken his hand. His shoulders heaved in quiet sobs as he brushed his hands over his eyes, then stubbornly returned to his task, trying to remain steady.
Tir was crying now too, and he looked up at Gremio through a blur of tears and the haze of exhaustion. "....Because I love you. And I didn't want to hurt you. The closer I am to you, the more likely you are to be hurt again. Even now what you're doing..." His voice trailed off into a sob, and he rubbed the other hand across his eyes.
Gremio shook his head again, gazing down at Tir earnestly. "I will take the Beast Rune," he said quietly. "I can't turn back... I will do it with or without you. So..." his voice broke again. "If I cause you so much pain... you can go elsewhere, once you've healed, but I will see this through."
"No... it's not that you hurt me..." Tir began, "I... I am afraid of hurting you. It used to be fear of this rune of mine... and I never stopped to think, how your life would be, with the same kind of burden..." He took a deep breath. "It was a selfish thing, when I agreed that we should do this... but now... if you truly mean to do it with or without me..."
Gremio sighed shakily, wondering if he should come out with a secret he'd kept for a long time - since he'd first met Tir's father. He'd had his own demons before coming to live at the McDohl residence, and seeing Tir's hands tonight made it all that much more frustrating that Tir thought he was hurting him, when obviously he'd been ignorant of Tir's pain all along. "...Young Master..."
Starting to struggle to a sitting position, Tir reached out for Gremio, both for assistance and comfort. "Yes...Gremio... what is it?"
After an indecisive pause, Gremio shook his head again. "Please lie back and rest... I... I still need to wrap your wound..."
Tir stared at Gremio, then shook his head slowly. "No... there's... there's something you're not telling me."
Gremio looked down at Tir's wounded hand, and began to bandage it carefully. "I've failed..." he murmured. "After all of this, I am a complete failure. I wanted to keep you from... unhappiness..."
"And you think I didn't want to keep you from the same...?" Tir shook his head. "Gremio..." he began anxiously, "if... if we... survive this.... do you think we'd be happy then? Both of us?"
"I couldn't say..." Gremio replied, uneasy. "I don't know what it will mean, what changes will come... but I would certainly be happier with you than I would be left to myself. As for your happiness... I-I couldn't guess," he said quietly. "I never imagined..."
Tir reached up his newly bandaged hand to brush a stray tear away from Gremio's cheek. "Never imagined.... what?"
"This," Gremio told him, catching hold of his hand, and indicating the scars. "I never guessed that you would... that you would feel so badly..."
Tir squeezed Gremio's hand lightly. "But...what do you mean? How could I not feel badly if you were hurt? Oh, Gremio... I truly do want nothing more than to always be with you. But I'm not sure if I could live with myself if that selfishness caused you pain."
He didn't understand, upset as he was - Gremio wasn't talking about the quest at all. "Tir... my dear Young Master..." Gremio raised Tir's bandaged hand to his mouth and kissed the palm tenderly. "As I've said so many times before, you have brought me more happiness and contentment than I would ever have expected..."
Tir gazed at him, whispering only one word. "Truly?"
Gremio nodded, and made his decision, releasing Tir's hand to reach for his own sleeve, slightly long and covering the bottom part of his hand. "My life before I met Master Teo was... ah... at the time I thought ordinary..." he began awkwardly. "But I... ah..."
Tir watched him curiously, but said nothing. Cringing inwardly, Gremio pulled up his sleeve nearly to the elbow, revealing several scars much like most of Tir's were, smooth and straight, across his wrist and forearm. "...I never knew what happiness meant until I was assigned to care for you..." he finished, lowering his head to avoid Tir's look of shock.
"...So."
"...Yeah."
True to their word, Viktor and Flik hadn't gone far, but had settled down just a little ways off into the forest. Given the events they'd just witnessed, however, they weren't sure what to say to each other. The whole situation was awkward.
"I'd like to know what this is about," Viktor said suddenly. "And what you and Tir were talking about earlier, that you should have known he was going to take off."
"I bet you would," Flik muttered. "But even if it wasn't Tir's personal business, I didn't even really think about it enough to remember exactly what was said - I was preoccupied. Call me an idiot if you will..."
"You know me," Viktor said with a casual shrug and grin, "one big guilt trip."
Flik nodded thoughtfully without saying much, seeming lost in thought. Seeing this, Viktor stopped grinning, his face settling into a softer smile, and he reached out to Flik, putting an arm around his waist and squeezing him a little. He was always so spiky, but Viktor knew what was behind the spikiness.
Almost as if surprised, Flik looked up at Viktor before leaning against him with a sigh. "Thanks..."
Viktor nodded, and wrapped the other arm around him tightly without a word. Flik wound his own arms around Viktor and whispered, almost inaudibly, as if more to himself than actually to Viktor. "You know how much I love you, don't you...?"
They didn't really say it aloud normally, but Viktor nodded again, barely moving as he just held Flik. "...Heh. Seeing all that back there, it got me thinking, I guess."
Flik hummed softly, resting his head against Viktor and closing his eyes. "Thinking about anything in particular...?"
Viktor lowered his head slightly, pressing a kiss into Flik's hair before he answered. "Gremio's so messed up over Tir... It's been awhile since I had to deal with something like that, with someone close to me..."
Flik nodded slowly and turned his face to look up at Viktor. "I think Tir's equally as messed up over Gremio," he suggested. "I pray they sort things out... but at the same time, it makes me so very appreciative of... of you and me."
Looking down at him seriously, Viktor nodded back. "Uh... I don't know what I'd do if... well, you know..."
Fortunately, Flik was a braver man than he was when it came to talk like this. Continuing to gaze at him, Flik let go with one arm only to bring his fingers up to trace over Viktor's lips. "If something happened to me? If I ran off? If one of us was immortal and the other wasn't? Any and all of the above?" He paused and closed his eyes for a moment. "I have never considered myself to be a very lucky man, Viktor, not with the life I've lived... but now, every time I look at you and what we have... I can sincerely say there may not be a luckier man out there than me..."
Viktor smiled faintly, and lifted a hand to slowly run his fingers through Flik's hair. "I guess we've seen each other in a pretty bad way before... but I don't know if I could deal with it now."
"I've been wanting to go home..." Flik stated suddenly. Viktor looked at him, confused, and he continued. "I see it as home now, that place in Coronet. Our room, the beach, the boat, even the lake and the sky... Is it completely strange to see that as home, as a place to belong, more than our own hometowns? I never thought I'd say a thing like that."
Viktor shook his head. "You know how people talk about how you can't pick your family, but you can pick your friends? I think maybe for some people, homes are more like friends than family - it's not something that's decided for you from the moment you were born. Some people just have to find it."
Before responding, Flik pondered that thought for a moment. "Do you think, after all our traveling, we've finally found it?"
Viktor thought about it himself for a moment, and shrugged. "I had a home once, by birth and by choice... Can't exactly go back there now, though."
Flik said nothing in response, and closed his eyes again with a sigh. Wondering if Flik thought he was upset by the reminder, Viktor lowered his hand again, holding Flik close. "...You okay?"
Flik nodded and hugged Viktor tightly, debating over whether he should say more about the situation with Gremio and Tir, or the strange dreams he'd been having about the place he once called home. "Just keep holding me like this and I'm sure I will be..."
Viktor chuckled and squeezed him tighter for a moment. "Whatever you say, Lightning... but I didn't plan on stopping anytime soon anyhow."
Tir was silent a long time, disbelieving, at the sight of Gremio's scarred arm. Reaching for it carefully, he traced one finger lightly along the scars before looking up in surprise, his eyes still very teary. "These are... very old scars, yes...? Did you...do this to yourself, Gremio? Why?"
"...Not since I was brought into Master Teo's household..." Gremio replied with a self-conscious nod.
Touched yet confused at Gremio revealing this to him, Tir rested his bandaged hand over Gremio's arm. "Why were you so unhappy...?" Without waiting for a response, he let his thoughts tumble out. "I believe you, that serving under my father made you happy, I saw it... I..." Realizing why Gremio had showed him now, he paused and looked down at his hand again. "Then you... you see my hand and you know what I've been doing..."
Gremio nodded again, not meeting his eyes. "I... I wanted, so much, to make you happier than I was... To... to keep you from feeling such things..." He pulled his arm away to rest a hand over his eyes in shame. "And I've failed..."
His friend had misinterpreted the wounds, Tir realized, and he shook his head, reaching out first to touch Gremio's shoulder, and then to tug at the glove on his other hand. "It's not your fault. I didn't do this to myself out of pain... I did it..." He succeeded in yanking his glove off, and held out his faintly glowing hand as Gremio stared in uneasy disbelief. "This... I was feeding it, with my own life. I did it to keep this... thing... from hurting anyone else. It's not the same... it's not... but I fear... I fear you may end up doing the same as I, if you take the Beast Rune. That's why I tried so hard to stop you, once I realized..."
"...I-I see..." Gremio's face held a look of understanding, but he looked no less concerned. "I don't know what to say... Young Master, I wish I had known - perhaps I could have helped you somehow."
Tir shook his head and started to struggle to put the glove back on, but could not quite manage with his bandaged hand and threw it down in frustration. "I appreciate the thought... but... how could you have? Gremio... I do understand, and I... if you really mean to do this... I will not abandon you, for you have never abandoned me when I needed you."
Gremio picked up the fallen glove carefully and held it out for him. As Tir slid his hand in, then Gremio reached for its mate, both remembered with bitter fondness a time when Tir was still very little, and needed this sort of assistance normally. "Thank you..." Gremio murmured. "I appreciate it, truly..."
Tir studied Gremio silently for a moment. "I'm sorry, Gremio... "
Looking back at him, Gremio couldn't help but smile as he pulled Tir into his arms, hugging him tightly. "So long as you are safe and sound, you are forgiven... though you still need to change into some drier clothes," he noted.
With a sigh, Tir clung tightly to Gremio. "Yes, you are right, as always... and I'm tired now, and sleepy... but I don't wish to leave you alone until Viktor and Flik return."
Gremio laughed softly. "How many times have I seen you dress and undress, and now you are self-conscious? But very well - I'll look away. I suppose I should change as well," he observed, with a glance down at his own soaked clothing, "though it's not so bad near the fire."
Tir blushed, sifting through the clothes Gremio had brought to his side. "Gremio! ...It... it isn't that at all, I don't care if you want to watch..." He paused and blushed again. "And that came out wrong... I meant... I... I meant I don't wish to go to sleep and leave you alone to keep watch... until they return..."
Gremio smiled in amusement and turned away, going to look through his own things for dry clothing as Tir pulled off his wet pants and shirt, dropping them in a messy heap, and began to pull on dry pants. "...I believe we are safe, Young Master. Though I understand your concern, and after I have changed, I will go find Viktor and Flik - from what I remember through a blind haze of panic, and simply from knowing the two of them, I don't expect that they've gone far."
Tir looked at Gremio's back with a somewhat panicked expression, as out of his own stubborn mood, he suddenly realized how idiotic it was to run off alone at the point they were at in their journey. "Gremio, I... I don't want you to..." He paused, knowing how childish it would sound to admit to not wanting to be left alone, at all.
Luckily, Gremio knew him too well, and glanced back at him after pulling off his cloak. "You would prefer I stay?"
Tir nodded quickly. "Now that I've realized...how foolish I've been, I..." He smiled slightly, worry evident in his eyes. "I just want to stay as close to you as possible, for both our benefits..." As the wind blew, he shivered and pulled his dry shirt on, searching the pile of clothing for something warmer to add, seeing that his cloak was soaked.
Even from across the clearing, Gremio saw the shiver and shook his head, returning to his side without having changed yet himself. "Here, Young Master - lie down now," he suggested, taking up a few of the blankets he'd gathered earlier. "I'll tuck you in, nice and warm..."
Tir followed his instructions, yawning and rubbing at one eye. "But you'll join me soon, Gremio...? I don't want to fall asleep before they return... I..."
Gremio nodded as he pulled the blankets up to Tir's chin, tucking the edges beneath to seal in his warmth. "We can stay awake and talk until then, if you like..."
"Yes... I would like that..." Already Tir was being lulled by the flickering of the fire and the growing warmth of the blankets, and he blinked several times.
"Good, so would I. As soon as I get out of these soaking wet pants," Gremio muttered to himself, returning to his pack, which was left in disarray after he'd rifled through it earlier. "The chill is beginning to get to me."
Tir rolled onto his side, watching Gremio, but trying not to seem like he was. "I am glad you came after me, you know, even if I had made up my mind otherwise at that point..."
Gremio unbuckled his belt, shivering, and slipped out of his pants to put on a dry pair. "And I'm very glad that you're glad, Young Master... I haven't the slightest idea what I would have done if you would not have let me care for you." Smiling slightly, he looked over his shoulder as he fastened his pants. "I suppose there is always the option of suicide."
Tir opened his mouth in an o as his eyes went wide. "You... you're kidding, I hope... you... I... I mean that much to you?"
"...I-I was joking..." Gremio said quickly, flustered at the realization that Tir had taken the statement as entirely serious, "but I, ah..." He tossed his shirt aside and grabbed a new one before going to sit down beside the fire with Tir again, his expression open and earnest. "I should hope you realize by now that you mean... nearly everything to me."
Tir nodded slowly. He did realize - he just had trouble trusting it sometimes. "Gremio... Gremio, I should hope you realize the very same thing. When I said that no matter where we go, if you are there... as long as I have you, I am always safe, I am always home... you are home to me... you..." He trailed off and shook his head with a smile, rubbing at his again tearful eyes.
Gremio nodded, reaching out to touch Tir's shoulder. "Relax, Young Master... as long as I live, you have no need to worry about me leaving you."
Tir reached out to grab Gremio's hand, tugging to draw him closer. "I want, I need... to promise you the same thing. After tonight, I... Gremio, I won't ever leave you again. Not unless you ask me to..."
Gremio took Tir's hands firmly, squeezing the good hand a little. "Tir... thank you," he murmured, looking genuinely touched. "I... I d-don't know what to say..."
"I think, really... that you don't need to say anything at all." Tir pulled his hands away, but only to wrap his arms around Gremio's neck, pulling him closer and hugging him tightly.
Gremio just smiled, hugging him back. "...I considered many things when I read your letter..." he began.
"I knew you would..." Tir acknowledged. "I considered many things while writing it..."
Gremio pulled back a little, placing his hands on Tir's shoulders. "I... I think if necessary... I could live without you... if my presence had hurt you so badly. But..." He looked down at his bare arms, covered with old scars he'd kept hidden for so long, and Tir nearly shivered at the implications of his next words. "I can't imagine that it would be a happy existence."
Tir nodded in agreement. "Mine would be empty without you... I only left because I thought it would spare you more pain," he explained once more, "but if we both are so much happier when together... it would seem that our truth is staring us in the face. I am glad you found me before anything worse had befallen me." He yawned again, gazing at Gremio with a tired smile. "I am afraid, however, that I will fall asleep on you before long."
Gremio let go of Tir gently and sat back, shivering slightly at the wind on his bare skin after Tir's warmth. "I know that is not the way you would have it, Young Master, but I would not be offended. You need to rest, and heal..." He paused, eyes full of worry. "And Tir...? If your rune ever begins to act up again... please tell me."
Debating silently for a moment, Tir looks down at his gloved hand. "I will..." he agreed. Settling down again in the blankets, he reached out the same hand to Gremio. "Come and stay close to me, at least until they return? I will heed your advice, and get some rest, if you promise you will do the same."
Gremio nodded, scooting a little closer and taking Tir's hand. "Of course, I'll rest as soon as they've come back."
"Good... yes..." Tir closed his eyes, mumbling mostly to himself. "Goodnight, my Gremio..."
Gremio thought for a moment, still shivering a bit, and let go for a second to finally put his shirt on. "Actually, Young Master... if you don't mind...?"
Realizing what Gremio was asking, Tir opened his eyes to smile at him and laugh softly. "Gremio... get under the blankets with me, where it is warm..." he agreed happily. "I will be forever guilty if you catch your death of cold while I am asleep...."
Gremio laughed as well and crawled under the covers, wrapping an arm around him protectively as he lay down. "Thank you... I promise, I will stay awake until they've come back, if I must..." He considered for a moment. "If I must mentally reinvent one of my stews for the next several hours."
Laughing again, Tir wrapped an arm around Gremio as well. "Do tell me about it... I love to hear about your recipies..."
"Oh... ah... well..." Gremio began, "I was thinking I might adjust the ratio of potatoes to meat... and add a bit more spice... the proportions might be a bit tricky, but with some experimentation..."
Between the warmth of the fire, his fatigue, the comfort of Gremio's closeness, and the suggestion of an even more delicious special stew in the future, Tir drifted off to sleep despite his intention to stay awake.
