A: Get out, or things will get weird
B: Don’t threaten me with a good time -- Anon Guest
Sap had screamed for five solid minutes because he thought he had lost Lachasse forever. The fact that there were babies and children screaming at the same time was almost lost to him. The instant he saw his favourite Cleric, he had almost collapsed from relief. Thereafter, he hadn't left Lachasse's side. Desperately helping more desperate souls than his own debatable one.
It took weeks for everything to be sorted to a point of stability. Lachasse took residence in the nearest temple, making it her own. Sap tagged along and stayed close. In those few first weeks, she was too exhausted to make note of where he slept. On the floor, at her feet, like any loyal pet.
They were both too exhausted to change anything during that first month after the Unwanted's Exile. It was the second month, when things were achieving a state of normalcy that she noticed. They had done everything for the day and she was changing for bed behind the screen Sap had made for her modesty. She came out in her night shift, and noticed the lack of his bedding.
"You have a place of your own?" she asked. "You should probably get home before things get weird."
Sap automatically said, "Don't threaten me with a good time," and then instantly regretted it. He never said those words in Lachasse's presence before. It was his usual joke in other mixed companies. Lachasse didn't like it when he said horrible things about himself.
There was a moment in which Lachasse's eyes got that look where she was close to tears on his behalf. Sap hung his head.
"It's warm enough outside," he offered. "I could sleep in the field?"
"No," she said. "I can get you a cot. The builders can make you a room. A proper room. Nothing like that leaky corner in the attic of that hovel you used to have."
I liked it there because it was close to you. "Want to get rid of me already?" he said, half a joke. A regrettable half it was. Limp and mouldy with it.
Lachasse sighed and wrapped him up in her arms. "I want you to be in a better place. Body and spirit."
It was her kindness that broke him. He had faced a thousand threats to his life. He had suffered an infinite number of cruelties since the beginning of his memory. Sap had not encountered very much in the way of caring attention and it was this soft acceptance that laid him bare.
"Don't send me away, don't send me away," he babbled, "I thought I lost you once, please don't send me away, it hurt too much, please..." He had, could, and would do anything at all for Lachasse except go away, please don't make him go away, he would rather die...
Once again, he was in her arms and sobbing strings of nonsense he may regret at a later date and bury under bluster and falsehoods of bravado. Once again, he thought of how the only place that felt safe in this harsh world was within Lachasse's arms. Then, for the first time in his life, he thought... We're in a new land, with new people. Who in all this land even cares if a Tiefling shacks up with a Human Cleric?
Weak from swimming through his flood of emotions, leaning against her and regaining his stability, Sap gave into temptation. Instead of begging, "Don't make me leave," he said, "May I stay with you?"
She gently brushed his shoulders. "Of course. As I said, you can have your own room. Your own space."
"I don't want my own room." He could say it. He could. Three very small words, but with a world's worth of impact. "I want you." Instinct made him clamp one hand over his mouth and shield his head with the other arm.
There was no violence, no hard blows. No repercussions for daring to confess loving a Cleric. Just gentle hands coaxing him back out of his defensive huddle.
Her eyes, as always, were warm and welcoming. "Thank you for telling me," she said. She was smiling. "Be not afraid. This is a new land. We make our own rules." Lachasse leaned in, carefully, and blessed his cheek with a kiss.
They never did get a second bed. Just a bigger one. Though Sap never got his own room, he did gain a workshop. As it turned out, he was quite the skillful toymaker.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / ondrej83]
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