Ja'far woke up with a warm feeling on his nose. The feeling moved slightly to the right. Then it moved once more. He finally realized that Sinbad was pressing kisses to his freckles. He tried to suppress a giggle at this ridiculous thought but failed miserably. Sinbad ceased his motions and pulled back to watch Ja'far open his eyes.
"Were you kissing my freckles?" Ja'far asked with a giggle.
"Yeah." Sinbad sighed.
"Why?" Ja'far asked, one pale eyebrow raised.
"Because they are adorable." Sinbad said still staring at them.
"Well as amusing as this is, we should probably get some breakfast." Ja'far said attempting to get out of bed.
"Nope." Sinbad giggled using his superior strength to maneuver Ja'far's head onto his broad chest, locking his head down and playing with his white gold hair.
"Sin, we have work to do today." Ja'far grumbled.
"I'm King so I say we can just stay here all day." Sinbad murmured continuing to play with Ja'far's hair.
"Are you going to hold being my King over my head forever?" Ja'far asked rolling his emerald eyes.
"I might, it's pretty fun." Sinbad laughed.
Ja'far relaxed into the touch and enjoyed the feeling. Sinbad continued to play with Ja'far's pale locks until they were inturrupted by a loud grumble.
"Was that your stomach?" Ja'far asked startled.
"Yeah, I think it was." Sinbad responded, glaring daggers at the offending appendage.
"Alright as your General, I say that the well being of my King is at stake. We need to go eat." Ja'far stated with an air of authority.
"Very well, your wish is my command." Sinbad said in mock supplication.
Ja'far got up and put on his proper attire for the day. He took extra time to make sure he carefully wrapped his weapons around his arms and tucking the dagger neatly into place.
"I forgot to ask. Did you choose them as weapons?" Sinbad asked curiously.
"Um...well these are what I was given to kill my parents. After that I used them as symbols to keep myself grounded, obviously it didn't quite work out as I thought." Ja'far replied meekly.
Sinbad sat up and grabbed Ja'far's arm, his eyes serious. "I'm happy with the way things turned out, and I hope you are too."
"I'm happy too Sin." Ja'far responded with a smile.
With that they both went to get breakfast. After breakfast it was all work and no play. No matter how much Sinbad wheedled Ja'far wasn't having any of it. The day finally ended with much drinking and revelry. Sinbad cut his celebration short so he could keep watch over his general's dreams. The pair fell asleep entwined in each others embrace.
Ja'far awoke with the need to relieve himself. He managed to extract himself from Sinbad's tight embrace, noticing that Sin had lost his shirt during the night. Ja'far just rolled his eyes. After Ja'far returned to bed he lay watching Sinbad, his tan torso was almost flawless except for a stray scar here or there. Ja'far noticed the small scratch like scars littering Sin's neck, undoubtedly from the slave collar Lady Maader made him wear. As Ja'far watched, Sinbad's breathing escalated and he started thrashing about.
"Sin. Sin wake up. It's just a dream." Ja'far called out to Sinbad. Sin's golden eyes popped open and his hands reflexively went for the slave collar, that is no longer there. Once Sin found it missing he relaxed then smiled at Ja'far as if nothing was wrong.
"Alright Sin, come on. I know your not okay." Ja'far stated staring straight at Sinbad's intoxicating golden eyes.
"But I'm fine." Sinbad said with a dismissive laugh.
"Sin don't try to wave this off. You carry everyone's burdens as well as your own, then pretend your not drowning under the weight." Ja'far said seriously. "Let me help lift it."
Sinbad sighed heavily, his cheerful mask fading away.
"Alright I was having a nightmare about Lady Maader. The treatment there was bad but the worst part was I lost sight of myself in the process. You know what I mean?" Sinbad asked, staring off into distant memories.
"I whole heartedly understand. I had the same problem when I became the Chief of Sham Lash. But you brought me back. I didn't even know there was anything left to come back to." Ja'far smiled somewhat shyly.
"Ja'far can I ask you something?" Sinbad asked seriously.
"Of course Sin. Please ask me anything." Ja'far immediately returned.
"Were you really going to kill me after Lady Maader's?" Sinbad questioned, a mischievous glint forming in the liquid gold of his eyes.
Ja'far flushed deeply. "Well yeah...if you hadn't come back to us as you. I figured it would have been more merciful. I'm not sure if I could now though." Ja'far admitted.
"Well if I ever become brain washed with no hope of redemption please put me out of that misery." Sinbad said maintaining his smile but with a hint of serious weight added to his tone. Ja'far said nothing but simply nodded.
"It's late. We should get to bed." Sinbad said pressing a light kiss to Ja'far's pale hair. "Good night my general."
"Good night my King."