It must have been well past midnight, the oil lamp burnt low in its glass bell jar, crafting long leaping shadows onto the lime washed walls. The room felt stuffy and stifling though this had nothing to do with the temperature; the fire in the grate had burnt out hours ago and all that remained was a few dimly glowing cinders and slate grey ash.

Fatigue clung to Bast like wet rags, threatening to drag him under. However the words he had spat so carelessly at his master still burnt like a brand, white hot on his tongue and nothing in this world or the Fae could bring him to submit to sleep. There had been no more story telling that evening. He had listened at the top of the stairs as Kvothe made some excuse to Chronicler about his voice hurting and perhaps retiring early to bed. He then returned to his quarters at once, having revealed nothing of their argument.

Bast rolled over onto his side, uncomfortable and dejected. He had ruined everything with his folly. His throat felt tight and constricted, as if in a chokehold. Feeling the familiar burn of fresh tears, he swallowed back his grief, unwilling to let himself cry twice in one evening. He was aware Kvothe could be quick to anger, but he also knew his teacher had a masterful control over his temper and could generally be relied on to bite back any truly aggressive retorts or reactions. From his response this time around, he had undoubtedly crossed some invisible line in his Reshi's iron-like forbearance.

Was he even his Reshi anymore?

At this last thought he curled tightly into the foetal position under the blankets, pressed his face hard against his pillow and choked back a sob.

He would do anything.

He shouldn't have jumped to conclusions so easily. He must have been mistaken about his feelings towards his Reshi. It would be wrong. He shouldn't have let misdirected envy sharpen his words into crude blades. He shouldn't have let petty jealousy compel him hurl those daggers at his sweet Reshi. Maybe he wasn't jealous at all, just protective. Perhaps he was merely concerned that his master was being taken for a fool.

But as he deliberated this he felt something spiteful and viscous in his belly awaken, writhe and then uncoil like a serpent. And when his thoughts manipulated the evening's argument once again like probing fingers and touched lightly once more on the subject of Denna, he felt the thing inside him rise aggressively; fangs poised and ready to strike.

He had to make things right again.

Before he could think things through and convince himself otherwise, he swung his legs out of bed and made for the door.

He shivered violently as he crept down the staircase to the second floor. The chilled granite flagstones of the landing were bitterly cold against his bare feet. Despite this he hesitated, uncertain outside Kvothe's door. Perhaps this had been a bad idea after all. Waking his already angry teacher when he was surely at present comfortably asleep would only make matters worse.

He dithered for seemed like a long minute outside the door, feeling his feet go from stinging cold to achingly numb. He found himself wishing he'd had the sense to put on some shoes.

Perchance his Reshi wasn't asleep at all? Maybe the dispute had kept him, like Bast himself, awake and thinking. He studied the minute gap underneath the door for any signs of flickering light.

Was that amber glow he glimpsed candlelight or just a figment of his imagination? Fear suddenly rose like bile in his abdomen and lanced up into his chest, causing his heart to leap like a fleeing rabbit.

He fought a short but violent internal battle with himself, took a sharp intake of breath and trembling now from not just the cold, pushed open the door slowly. The grain of the wood was rough under his fingertips.

His heart sank as he entered his master's room. It was cloaked in shadow, the muted light he had thought had been the glow of a candle came from the dying embers in the fire place.

'Reshi'. He whispered into the darkness, heart tight in his throat.

He heard the gentle shift of woollen blankets, the low creak of a body rolling over on a sprung mattress but no reply. Asleep. He hesitated, trying to penetrate with his tired eyes the solid membrane of darkness that prevented him seeing further into the room.

As his eyes began to adjust to the dim he thought he could make out the loose, hulking shape of the bed at the centre of the room. He stole towards it, feet light on the rush mats that covered the floor. He knew he should go back to his bed, Kvothe was unquestionably asleep and therefore it was pointless to hang around in his quarters waiting for nothing to happen. But through the gloom, the sight of the smooth curve of his Reshi's back under the covers and the soft even breathing was enough to keep him motionless and staring.

'Bast, I know you're there'

Bast started so forcefully he nearly toppled over into the bed.

'R-Reshi'

There was a cold, expectant silence.

'Reshi, I'm so sorry, you know I didn't mean those things I said. I don't think before I speak. I want things to be okay again. I want…' His softly spoken words tumbled over each other as if in a race to escape his lips then trailed off and died.

Silence stretched to a filament so long and fine it threatened to snap.

'R-reshi?' His voice shook.

'Go back to bed Bast, we'll talk in the morning,'

'I can't sleep,' he breathed.

There was another pause, so long Bast almost turned to leave.

'Get in then.'

'What?'

'Get in you stubborn ass.'

Bast heard the smile in his master's voice and it was all he could do to keep from grinning stupidly into the dark. He had never been in his master's bed before and the mere thought of it thrilled him in ways he couldn't explain.

He felt his way, half blind to the edge of the bed, hearing his Reshi shift over on the mattress to make space for him.

'This doesn't mean you're forgiven you know,'

'I know,' Bast whispered as he slid between the wonderfully warm sheets.

In the dark the close proximity to his Reshi's body felt tenfold closer. He could practically feel the rise of his ribs, with each exhalation, shifting the covers, the sweet heat radiating off his body. If there was any possibility of sleep in his own room tonight that chance seemed the dwarf to beyond semblance when compared the miniscule prospect of dropping off in his current circumstances.

He was painfully hard, pre-come dampening the front of his pants. And in the back of his mind danced the nagging fear that if his Reshi was to shift backwards, just a few inches, he would feel against his thigh just exactly what that close proximity of their bodies was doing to him.

It was all he could do not to reach out and touch his master in the gloom.

The stillness was heavy in the air. The silence pressed firm into his eardrums like a song. He held his breath for a long moment.

'Do you love her?'

The silence was severed, diminished and then swelled once more like a ripe fruit, though considerably more astringent, when there was no reply from the other side of the bed.

After a long while he felt the tug and slide of the covers over his warm skin as Kvothe turned to face him.

Still nothing. His heart pounded in his eardrums.

Finally, when Bast had just begun to think his Reshi had fallen asleep;

'What sort of question is that?'

He thought for a second. 'An innocent one?'

He almost felt his master suppress a laugh in the darkness.

'Do you really think it's a good idea to broach this subject with me again after what happened mere hours ago, Bast?' His tone was hard to make out.

'I guess not…'

'Then why?'

It was his turn to pause, letting the absence of light conceal the flush creeping into his cheeks.

He rolled closer to his Reshi, so close he could feel the warmth his body was emanating. He ached; he wanted to be touched so badly. His breath sounded too loud, too rapid even to his own ears. The flush crept down his neck.

'Bast? Are you all right?' He felt his master's soft breath tickle his face. His breathing hitched in his chest.

'You're not crying are you?'

'No, I'm fine Reshi,' He breathed.

'So answer my question,'

Silence.

'I guess…. I guess I'm jealous Reshi.'

'Jealous.' The word was not quite a question.

'Of me?' Kvothe asked.

'Why would I be jealous of you, Reshi?'

'Well it might be that I had someone I was close to… she was very beautiful, we shared something… ' He faltered.

'Hang on a second, I'm the one asking the questions here. Don't turn this on me Bast!'

Bast smiled wickedly into the blackness despite himself.

'No, I'm not jealous of you.' he breathed.

'Then who?'

By now his heart was thudding so hard against his chest he was surprised his master couldn't hear it's pounding through the gloom.

'Her.'

The next silence that took root in the darkness was so loud it hurt to hear it.

'I don't understand…'

Before he could think, before he could justify just what the hell he was doing Bast broke the last few inches of space left between them in the bed. In the dark he somehow found his Reshi's mouth with his own, tongue fluent against the other's. His hands tangled in the soft hair at the nape of his neck pulling the warm body flush against his own.

'Merciful Tehlu,' He gasped against the sweet mouth.

CRASH.

The floor was painfully cold. Darkness, confusion. Bast couldn't work out up from down. His chest ached where rough hands had shoved him hard.

The oil lamp sputtered into life somewhere to the right of him. Even this soft luminescence, after hours of near total darkness stung his eyes like salt water.

Through his narrowed eyes he caught site of his Reshi. He was sat up in bed, expression confused, unreadable. No not unreadable; angry. He was furious.

'Just what the hell did you think you were doing?'

Bast blinked on the floor, still at a loss to what had just happened.

'Reshi, I, I don't know… it just….felt right.'

'What?'

'Well you didn't exactly stop me….'

The look that Kvothe gave him was enough to silence him in a second.

'I think pushing you out of bed counts as stopping you Bast.' His voice cut like a blunt knife.

'I'm sorry Reshi… but….'

'But. What?'

'Well I could feel you were enjoying it….'

'You what?' He practically spat the words, his face a mask of fury.

'You were…. Well you were… getting hard' His voice trailed off to a whisper as if he couldn't quite bare to finish the sentence.

There was a long pause where Kvothe's face seemed to blanch, then redden.

'I could feel it Reshi.'

It was a long time before anybody spoke again.

'I think you should go back to bed Bast, forget this ever happened.'

'But…'

'That wasn't a suggestion. That was a command'.