The best coffee in town was clearly at Oribucks and it had quickly become a favorite of ours. It was always hot and slightly bitter, but he liked it like that, and the longer we shared our time between operations like this the more it grew to my taste as well. I looked up and saw him wrapping up with the cafe owner and fixing our coffees to taste. When it was clear that I had caught his gaze, I waved him down and he smiled and came to sit next to me.
I began to quickly organize the various files and reports spread across the table, operational documents for the campaign we had both spent nearly every waking hour dedicated to. As I looked up I caught him giving me a strange look, a glowing golden eye staring right past my returning gaze until I watched him refocus and realize I’m staring back. The scars that were once hard not to notice have now just become another thing that is uniquely him, and instead I see the bags that he’s let accumulate under his eyes again. It worried me, but good thing coffee was part of our daily routine.
I smirk and cocked an eyebrow but he nods silently at the paperwork and I can’t help but roll my eyes as I finish skimming the details of the page I’m holding and add it to the pile before restacking the papers with a firm tap-tap. Placing them down and picking up the offered beverage, I take a big sip and savor it a moment before speaking. He’d made it perfectly again, as always.
“Sorry about that, work is work is work. You know how it goes.” I pursed my lips; of course he did, we’d been shoulder to shoulder on the lion’s share of our recent missions. I let out a gentle laugh at the statement and caught him staring again. This time he broke his gaze rapidly, resituating himself in his seat and making a point to look at everything but me until it came back around to find a coy smile reflected at him.
“Sooo… what’s on your mind? Clearly something, you haven’t said a word.” Teasing him came naturally, it was all but a core tenet of our friendship. Cutting wit had always been a well-used tool within my arsenal, but I’m always pleasantly surprised that he was quick enough to roll easily with it and sling a clever remark back every now and then.
“It’s nothing. I was just giving you time to finish up.” He cleared his throat nervously, fidgeting before letting out a breath. “How have you been? It feels like forever since we last spoke.”
It hadn’t been. It was yesterday. His mindlessness could be endearing sometimes but this was pushing it.
“Things are… good. Well, as good as they can be, considering everything” I tapped the thick stack of papers between us that represented no end to hard work in their future. “We’ve had a busy few… days? Weeks? I can’t keep track anymore… but it feels like we’re close to a breakthrough.” I batted the conversation back to him. “And you?”
“Oh you know, the usual. Helping with the Kyrian reformation, and the re-integration of the Forsworn. Even in the realms of death, my experience has come in handy.” The idle chit chat was nice, it felt normal. Until… “Any upcoming plans for the big day?”
I could feel my face flush and cursed myself for it. I knew exactly what he was talking about and I had been avoiding the topic on purpose, but I knew it was only a matter of time before he started bringing it up.
“Oh, uh… No, not really. Nothing yet, anyways…” Nothing at all since the first conversation about it, I had seen to that by taking a page from my poor working partner and escaping my problems through the nearest portal to some long-spanning disaster. The solution wasn’t long-lived, but in the short term it let me get away from the stress, the planning, the expectations. Let me focus on my work, alongside… Well, it mattered little at this point. Reality found its way across space and time to plant itself back in front of her face; the break was over.
The silence had gone on long enough, and he had the good grace to break it with a shift in topic. “So, that new assignment with the other covenants…”
Thank the Light, this I could run with. I rapidly filled the silence with details of the work I’d been doing alongside the other covenants while he had stayed behind as a liaison for the Kyrian. I’d been spending more and more time with the other factions, and I talked at length about contacts and operations that he could simply read about in the stack of papers, if he were so inclined. He wasn’t and I knew it, but this took us further and further from the previous topic.
After a while I could tell that I’d lost him, he was looking at the same time right at me and right through me and let out a sudden sigh. “What is it? Does that not sound like a good plan?” Another tease just to catch him off-guard, I hadn’t even mentioned a plan, but the way he took it this time was wildly different. Suddenly he was making excuses for himself and making to excuse himself, blurting something about suddenly needing to go meet up with…
Right. Her. I’m happy for him, of course, it’s fine. She’s perfectly pleasant and it’s fine. It’s not like I’m jealous or anything, I have my own… I just think it’s funny that he found time to start dating all the way out here…
“Oh… okay. Well, I certainly wouldn’t want to keep you!” It wasn’t entirely honest, but what else was I going to say? He stood quickly to leave, and before I knew it I was standing as well and leaning in to give him a hug. I was a hugger, and he had gotten used to it over the years, but it was different this time. Awkward. And very suddenly I realized that I had continued holding him for the duration of my inner monologue. He broke away, giving me a pat on the shoulder before bidding me farewell.
“Of course. Bye Cerr, see you soon…”
And then he was gone, and soon couldn’t come soon enough.