Normally, Vigarde´s way to his private rooms – from the throne room left, up two flights of stairs, through one long corridor, turn around one corner – was quite solitary. His rooms were in a rather remote area of the castle and he very much liked that. In fact, the previous emperors had all resided in rooms situated directly over the throne room, but Vigarde had never liked the "crowdedness" of the corridors there. He could find no peace there.
Vigarde liked those solitary walks because they gave him time to switch his brain from working mode to sleeping mode, which he sorely needed – especially lately. Only rarely he was accompanied by someone; sometimes guests who stayed in the same wing, Lyon because his room was close to his and (much more often lately) his doctors. They were not particularly loud as well, so it wasn't that different from the other days.
But every now and then the silence was filled.
Vigarde peeked over his shoulder; Fado was talking animatedly, patted him on the arm every now and then and looked around the whole time. While Vigarde would by no means call Fado chatty, in contrast to Vigarde he seemed like it. Vigarde liked listening to people much better than talking.
While Fado´s (moderate) chattiness was a nice change, Vigarde noticed that he soon grew tired of listening. He had to listen and talk so much during the day that he needed some silence in the evening. But he knew a fool-proof way to shut Fado up.
As soon as they entered the first of Vigarde´s rooms, he walked over to the schnapps cabinet. Fado chuckled behind him as he opened the glass door. "Am I too loud again?" Vigarde smirked and fetched two low glasses.
"Of course not." He grabbed a strong whiskey and turned; Fado had already taken a seat on a plushy armchair. He grinned crookedly at Vigarde. Wordlessly, Vigarde poured both of them half a glass – Fado chuckled at that – and sat down on another armchair with a tiny sigh. Fado took his glass, inspected the whiskey for a moment, sniffed at it and finally took a little sip. He made a happy "Hm" sound.
Vigarde saw Fado recline in his chair, closing his eyes and slowly sipping the strong alcohol. He turned his gaze towards the window in front of him and cleared his mind. He was already completely sunken in a relaxed trance when Fado suddenly disturbed him; he had stood up and sauntered over to the window Vigarde was looking out of. Vigarde noticed that only one gulp of whiskey was left in Fado´s glass; he chided himself for being unobservant.
"Why is your room here," Fado asked, slowly and thoughtfully, "if the other side of the castle has a much nicer view?" He leaned forward; from Vigarde´s position it looked like he was pressing his nose against the glass. The thought amused Vigarde. He pushed himself up, placed his only half empty glass on the ground next to his chair and walked over to Fado.
"It's too animated. It reminds me of work." His mouth twitched downwards for a second. He shrugged it away. "And I like the mountains." He let his eyes once again roam over the tall Mt Karas in the distance; the gentle blue that played around it every night was so very soothing.
"Heh, I like liveliness." Fado grinned up at him. Vigarde gave him a tiny nod and a small smile.
"I would have never guessed." Fado´s eyes seemed to glint. He turned his gaze away, then, and looked out at the green again. Vigarde quite happily joined him and the silence returned for a few minutes.
Vigarde quickly found his inner calm again and his muscles slackened. Lately, he sometimes had difficulties to reach this state of relaxation and it concerned him, which caused him to become even more tense and therefore unable to refresh his energy. In the corner of his eyes, he saw Fado downing the last of his alcohol, so he was just in time.
Fado released a happy sigh through his nose, paused for a second and then looked at Vigarde. "Do you want to?"
Vigarde hesitated for a second – he had lost weight lately because of his sickness and Fado might notice – but he would very much like to... – but Fado was perceptive and he might not have energy for everything. Such and other thoughts flickered through his brain, but in the end his instincts won.
"Yes." And he leaned down and pressed his lips against Fado´s. This would relax him even more, Vigarde told himself and let Fado roam free.