To
"So... all five of us, aru."
Muhammad glanced over toward Yao, then up from the table as they were joined by the other three. Marcus still had a big grin on his face, Ludovicus looked as unphased as he ever did these days, and Sadiq as if he had quite a few drinks already.
"Wasn't today wonderful?" Marcus said cheerfully. "It was! Tell them how wonderful it was, Luddy!" He nudged the other man with his elbow.
"Neither of them bolted from the altar," Ludovicus commented, making a pointed effort not to look at Yao, who bristled.
"That was a one time event. She was not the one and she knew it. We both agreed it was for the best we did not go through with it, aru."
"We know... stop teasin' him," Sadiq responded, waving Ludovicus off. Ludovicus stayed where he was, but did not say any more. "If there is anythin' to argue about, it's Maddox, no offense Yao. The boy is t'rrible."
"Kong is certainly spirited... now," Yao retorted firmly. "But he is not terrible."
"He makes the parts of mundane life seem miraculous!" Muhammad grinned, leaning back in his chair. Sadiq glared at him. Then again, Sadiq had always made a point to glare at him lately. Just as Marcus never met him squarely in the eye anymore.
Not that it was a mystery as to why, for Muhammad knew. They were both sore because Nefertiti had named her son Gupta Muhammad Hassan. Marcus from his own sense of fatherhood and Sadiq from a sense where he actually tried to know the child as a child. But none of that was Muhammad's fault.
"He needs a reign put on him before he does something too outrageous," Ludovicus commented. Marcus looked confused.
"Too outrageous? I hear he gets put away often enough, but that's not as much because he does anything criminal as much as it is he likes to tease his jailer!"
Muhammad laughed, sipping at his drink. "You would know about that, wouldn't you Marcus?" Marcus still looked confused before Muhammad cast a look toward Ludovicus. Catching on, Marcus shrugged.
"My people might have been jailers, but I never took specific part in that. Especially not in Ludovicus' case."
"You mean ye got outta that," Sadiq snorted into his cup.
"Do we have to talk about the past?" Ludovicus questioned calmly.
"Did anyone ever think we would have gotten here?" Yao asked, voice nearly silent. How the four of them heard it was beyond Muhammad, but it struck a chord with the other three. The four of them did not move, seeming to consider what had brought them to this point in life. Muhammad took another drink. It was not as profound to him.
He had accepted this, the good and the bad. He might miss some things that were, but he did not regret his own decisions.
"To Lovino and Antonio, aru," Yao raised his glass. All of them followed in suit, taking in long swallows afterward.
Muhammad stared at the bottom of his glass at the little that remained.
"To a vase from Alexandria." To what has drawn us all together.
Everyone but Sadiq rose their glasses, albeit slower than they had before. Sadiq looked absolutely wretched and Muhammad almost wondered if he should not have said anything around the man who had loved Nefertiti so terribly much that when she became pregnant by Marcus he had broke.
Then again, he had gone out a year later and fathered a child by Nefertiti's best friend. Not a very smart decision, not a very nice one, however unintentional. Still, they had all made stupid decisions. Just like anyone else they had enough time to make them in. One only needed a minute to change their life for the better, for the worse. Muhammad did occasionally wonder why he was the only one of them to truly accept how life was.
"Ah, I see Lovino~" Marcus wiped off his mouth, getting to his feet. "I want to make sure I can talk to him for a bit before he and Antonio vanish on me!" With a grin to them all, he left the table. Sadiq downed his glass and Yao traded cups with him soon after so Sadiq could down that one as well.
"I see that Kiku is leaving... Just a moment, aru," Yao said, also rising and leaving them.
"He still adopts every Asian who comes to Hearth?" Ludovicus rose an eyebrow.
"Homesick, I think," Muhammad offered his opinion. "Still, not too many Chinese people, let alone from 華北平原. Anything close to home helps."
"Who c'res what ye think?" Sadiq grumbled. Ludovicus shook his head as he stood up.
"Thank you, Muhammad."
"Any time, any time."
This left Muhammad with Sadiq. He watched the man who was likely to either stay where he was and drink more of leave before he made a fool of himself. The latter being more likely, Muhammad decided to say what he had to say.
"You were so adamant to leave Hearth. Now look at you, Sadiq. Do you really think remaining here has made me unhappy?"
Sadiq snorted. "Ye'd be happy with any st'pid thing in life. Mind yer own business."
Muhammad grinned. "You forget, my friend. None of us, none at all, can possible have business that no longer involves all five of us. We have past that point."
Sadiq looked up at him. Looked up at him so that his hat was no longer obscuring those brown eyes. It was almost funny, in a sick way, that despite the fact the scar Yao had given him, his punishment for taking what was not his (which had once spanned from one side of his face to the other), now long since gone, Sadiq could not stand anyone looking at his face. For a salesman, hiding one's face away had to be unheard of.
Then again, Sadiq was the type of man no one could ever hear of twice.
"Shuddup."
"To you, my friend," Muhammad raised his glass for a third time. He finished his drink. Sadiq bowed his head once more as if he had not heard him.
"Issit strange that I feel s'much older th'n I pretend t' be?" Sadiq asked him. Muhammad patted him on the shoulder.
"It'll pass, it'll pass."
Whether by mood, or eventually by death... it would pass.
Notes:
華北平原= North China Plain.
I do not write Muhammad too much, but I have to say he is one of my favourites. Especially when he talks. He was so nice in this chapter... and usually I think of him as such an ass.
Delurk: It was meant to be said aloud. If there are quotation marks and everything within it is italicized, there are two things it can be. The entire thing is stressed out loud, or someone is remembering something someone said previously. As saying "Toris!" would not make as much sense in being remembered, it was said aloud. I hope all of that makes sense?
