Arilano felt their chest cave in the longer Carmon went on. He was very moody that day, and everything Arilano had worried about for him seemed to have bubbled up into a raging storm of emotions- and they were caught in the midst of it. Or, more precisely, they were the reason for it, it seemed. As venomous words spilled from Carmon's mouth, the jealousy showed itself to Arilano from Carmon's face. Arilano didn't speak up until a few certain words hit him in the face.

"And I will never- never understand how the child of Mannimarco himself got to be mentored by a great mage, and have a family who supports him, or even an actual life of choices that I never got to make. Hell, just to be cast out by my wretched relatives, I had to get beyond wasted for them to hate me. It's like-"

"Stop," Arilano interrupted. The tears stung their eyes. Ever since they had found out about their father, everyone treated them differently. Either with shock, surprise, hatred, worry, pity- anything similar, really- it bothered the hell out of them. "I never asked for this."

Carmon's face softened for a moment before scrunching back up again. "What do you mean? Your life is so…perfect compared to mine."

"No, it's not. I never asked to be Mannimarco's son. I-I never asked to be mentored by someone who rivaled my father and how I give him the memories of battle, o-of pain, just by looking at my face. I never asked to have people look at me with a double-take to make sure that the man who has probably rose their families to fight in…in…in an ungodly war wasn't back again. I don't ask for my own person to be a living-breathing trigger for potential friends," Arilano rambled, choking on their words. Carmon stopped for a second, looking down. He hadn't thought of it that way. He rubbed his temples and looked back up to the teary-eyed man.

"I'm sorry. That was wrong of me. It… It always seemed like you got the best of everything despite your father. I never truly understood how you with a perfect life wanted to be around me- the man who got so high and dunk at the same time, I puked on my bride," Carmon sighed, "Even now, I still don't get why you enjoy my company."

Arilano's heart jumped. They looked the man across from them in the eyes, taking a step forward to close the space between them. Their movements were fluid, instead of hesitant as usual, as they cupped Carmon's face as it twisted into confusion. Arilano leaned forward and kissed him. The room fell silent. No more jealous screaming filled the room. Arilano twitched as he felt Carmon put his hands on their shoulders. When they broke the kiss, Carmon looked in Arilano's face for an answer.

"What… What was that for?" He asked. Arilano felt their usual self race up to catch him in that moment. Their shy, timidness returned as they spoke their answer.

"I-I, um… I lo- like! Like, like….you," they stammered, sheepishly smiling up at Carmon. Carmon's lips twitched a little as a smile formed on his face.

"What happened, lose your confidence or something?" He asked. Arilano tried to ramble some sort of answer before it was Carmon's turn to return the favor. He silenced Arilano's jumbled mess of a sentence as he kissed him tenderly. It felt like freedom to finally be able to return feelings he once thought were one-sided. It was much more of an escape than the drugs or drinks he took- and one less harmful at that. One thing he realized was this was going to be hard. He never had the chance to form a real relationship with someone without his stubbornness and anger getting in the way. Or his bad habit in using his addictions to avoid problems. Arilano had taken care of him shortly after he was removed from his prestigious "throne" (if that was a name to even call it). Arilano was nice to him. They were gentle and kind and made sure he was the opposite of who his father was. It really was a dick-move to attach them to such an ugly figure in history.

"Carmon?" Arilano asked, snapping him out of his thoughts. He realized the kiss was broken and Carmon had been staring at Arilano for a few moments. His cheeks flushed and he cleared his throat.

"Er, sorry…" he said with a small laugh. Arilano chuckled and shook their head.

"By the way… you puked on your bride?" They asked.

"Oh, shit- uh, yeah. I did," Carmon said, embarrassed. He forgot he spewed that information about in his rage-filled state.

"Don't puke on me, okay?" Arilano teased as they turned and began to walk out of the room. Before Carmon could begin to ponder over what he meant by that sentence, Arilano turned at the last second and waved goodbye. "Make sure you take a bath. It might help relax your nerves, okay?"

Gods, they sounded like they did when Carmon was first recovering from withdrawals. Carmon felt his heart melt as Arilano left the room. The kiss might have done what a bath would, but he listened anyway and ran the water for one, gladly watching the water fall as he was left alone with his adoring thoughts.

...

A/N: Carmon is my friend's OC! Follow them at COvinius on Twitter!