#more moth writing weeee

[voidsteeth]

"I'll come for you."  

The first words between them in months.  Years?  I'll come for you.  And it was a stupid cryptic note that could have been just as much a threat as it was a promise.  

He would know that handwriting anywhere.  If he smelled it he knew he'd smell cinnamon and fresh ink on old parchment.  And the slightest scent of magic.  Of Weave.  The smell so distinctly *him* that.  That…  that he feared would make him break down again.  

And once was plenty enough.  Especially after getting caught by Caeden.  Sniveling like a child who had been told no.  Moth was older than that.  Better than that.  He shouldn't cry over some note left mysteriously to him.  He shouldn't cry over some man from his past.  

But here he was.  Watching the dwarf burn the room in holy fire.   Note clutched in his hand.  And he felt...  Small.  Hopeless.  Hopeful.  Like a great weight sunk down in his chest.  Like a lightness filled him.  He wanted to throw up.  Instead he changed.  Unconsciously.  Into his human guise.  The one he grew up wearing.  The one he spent his whole life as.  The one he knew him as.  

Memories flooded him with the scent of the fire burning away the room like he so wished he could his past.

"Careful, the ink hasn't dried yet."  He said as Morgan picked up the spell tome.  The ink could still run and it would ruin hours of work if he so much as lifted the page.  The mage's writing so precise and neat.  

"You know I won't hurt it."  Morgan smiled and rested his hip against the table.  "I just want to admire this for a little bit."

He sighed and stared at Morgan's jutting hip bone.  "You're being like this on purpose."  

"I am."

"How can I get my book back?" 

 Morgan traced the symbols and runes as he hummed.  Each line of writing.  His finger just barely dodging the drying ink.  "I'll give it back for a kiss."

He snorted and shook his head.  "You're a brat you know.  Come here."  

In one fluid movement Morgan put the book back down and slid onto his lap.  

"Are you going to go to bed?"  Caeden asked snapping Moth out of his memories.  

"No.  I.  I'm going to stay up a little longer."  

"Well, get some rest, okay?"  There was concern there.   But also a tiredness he couldn't cover.

"Yeah…"  He couldn't rest.  Not looking or feeling the way he was.  Not with the note clutched so firmly in his hand that his palm would bruise.  

He slumped on the floor there, back against Rezmir’s door and watched the room as the fires slowly pittered out.  When sleep did eventually find him, his dreams were a cacophony of jumbled memories. 

“What does this word say?”  He asked from his spot on his friend’s lap.  Somehow they had gotten into the habit of sitting on the floor, with books and parchment spread all around them.  Morgan sprawled out on his stomach on Argos’ lap reading, while Argos used his back as a makeshift table.  It was comfortable in its own unusual way.  For the most part Morgan was as still as possible to give Argos a good surface to write on.  But when he had a question about some word he didn’t understand he would shift and wiggle to get his attention.  Like he did now.

Argos looked over, scratching at Morgan’s lower back like he would a favoured pet.  Morgan was learning Common this day.  And Argos smiled at it.  After all, it was his idea for his lover to know it.  “Just in case.”  He would say.  Though Morgan never knew what “just in case” meant.  He had no plans of leaving Thay.  Not while Argos and his father were here.  Not when they could build a life together here.  Raise griffon kitlings.  

Except Morgan didn’t trust them after one cantankerous one tried biting off his hand once.  Maybe kitlings would be nicer.  Or at least less dangerous.  

“Which one?”  “This one.”  “You’re still getting caught up on this?”  Argos laughed but it was soft and kind. “I know, I know I’m hopeless.  But you still love me right?”  “Of course.  Always.”

~~~ “I don’t know about this…”  Morgan started, looking through the open slit in the door.  The room beyond was full of people.  Idling and milling.  Talking in small groups and laughing.   Some of them had shorn hair, some of them did not.  All of them wearing bright and vibrant red.

“Morgan, trust me, they’ll love you.”  Argos leaned down and kissed the tip of his pointed ear.  Pointed still from the reveal that he wasn’t human.

“They’ll think I’m a favoured pet you mean.”  The smaller of the two said, venom in his voice, his body stiff and leaning back against the solid chest of the wizard.  “They won’t.  They won’t.”  He put his hands on Morgan’s upper arms and stroked them up and down trying to comfort his lover.  “They’ll just see me with the most beautiful man in all of Thay and they’ll be jealous.  Especially if you wear these.”  He let go of Morgan briefly to fiddle with something in his robes.  Morgan turned to look at him and watch as he took out a small box and lift the lid.  

Delicate laced metal sat in the box.  Decorated by little flowers and moths, that almost looked like they were alive.  Gold, of course, to match the earring Morgan gave Argos not too long ago.  “Ear cuffs?”  He asked quizzically.

“Yes.  They’ll hide your ears so you just look like a human, and no one will give you a second look.  Well they might.  But that’s because you’re very handsome.”  

Morgan bit his lower lip as he stared at the cuffs like they were a noose.  Like a collar that was already wrapped too tightly around his neck.  A commitment he was afraid to make.  Not to Argos.  But to the whole of Thay.  This was his coming out party.  And soon everyone would know that the mad hermit had a son.  “They’re beautiful…” “They’ll look even more beautiful on you - here, let me help you put them on.”  Argos took them from the box, and delicately wrapped each one around Morgan’s ears.  Though his hair was long enough to hide them, they still poked through the dark locks.  Argos smiled despite this, and kissed Morgan slowly, as if nothing in the world mattered but him.  As if they were the only two people in the world and there wasn’t a gathering of Red Wizards and Argos’ other friends in the other room just beyond this door.  

Morgan whined and reached up to pull lightly on Argos’ hair.  Something which he knew his wizard liked.  And something to hopefully get out of this party Argos had planned for him.  Argos groaned and leaned in, pushing Morgan against the wall.  Bracing his arm next to Morgan’s head so they could stand chest to chest.  

“You’re not getting out of this that easily.”  Argos mumbled against his lips.  “Come on.  The sooner we get this started, the sooner it’ll be over.  And how much happier you’ll be for it.  Come on, they don’t bite.” “You said that about the griffons”  Morgan muttered following him through the open door.

~~~

Morgan laughed, reaching up to touch Argos’ scalp.  His head was freshly shaved and the beginnings of tattoos were starting to decorate it.  Thick dark lines and delicate small runes.  “What have they done to you, my love!”  

Argos smiled.  Beamed.  He was proud of what had happened earlier that day.  “You know Red Wizards don’t keep their hair like the black cavalry does.” “But that was your best feature!”  Morgan bemoaned, tracing the ink along his head.  Each and every line was a new mark to map on his skin.  “I thought I was going to marry a handsome man!  Now what am I to do?” “You want to marry me?”  Argos spluttered and pulled away.  Golden eyes wide with surprise. “Well of course I do.  Unless there’s someone else that you’ve kept from me?”  Morgan arched an eyebrow looking suddenly serious and very upset.  It had always been them.  Them together since boyhood and nothing would come between them.  Nothing *could* come between them.  

“No!  No it’s not that I just-”  Argos hid his face behind his hands and Morgan burst out laughing.  Pulling his hands away and leaning up for a kiss.  

“I’ll still love you, even if you have no hair.”

~~~

Argos paced the small living space while Morgan dusted and organized his father’s bookshelf.  They were frustrated with each other.  This was the only point of real contention between them.  

“Join the Red Wizards with me.”  Argos said after a lifetime of pacing. “You know I haven’t the mind for magic.”  Morgan replied cooly.  This was not the reason Argos said he wanted to visit.  And it grated on him that he had been caught like this unawares.  So he focused on his chores and making sure the library was as neat as possible.

“I can teach you though!  You can be my apprentice!”  Morgan looked over finally and glowered.  This had been going on for the better part of half an hour.  

“If my father can’t teach me, then what makes you think you can?”

“I got you to learn common.”

“And he taught me infernal.  What’s your point?” “My point is that I’ll miss you and you should be by my side.”  Argos was exasperated.

Morgan put the book he was holding down and leaned his weight on his hip.  Arms folded.  “Do you really think your lich would allow an elf into his ranks as a Red Wizard?  I’ve seen how the military treats non-humans, Argos.  It’s not good.” “You’re not - he’s our lich, Morgan.  And he’s not that bad.”  Argos went to run his hands through his hair, but scratched his scalp instead.  The tattoos that covered his head had long since been finished.  “Listen, you're sneaky.  You could be a spy.  It’d be fine.” “And still not a human.  Open your eyes, Argos.  The best place I can be is here in my father’s lab.  Or do you want me treated like a slave?” “You’re already his slave!”  Morgan sucked in a sharp breath and looked away.  It was a sore spot for him that his father used him as a tool as much as he treated him like his son.  But the blow wasn’t softened any coming out of his lover’s mouth.  Argos realized his mistake immediately and stumbled over his words.  “I- Morgan I’m-” “Get out.”

Argos took a step closer, arms open and hands spread.  If Morgan allowed it, he would wrap his arms around him, and hold him tightly.  Kiss his hair and stroke his back.  But Morgan was in no mood for niceties.  Even from Argos.  “Morgan, please I’m sorry I-” “Get.  Out.”

The wizard ceded ground then, and nodded despite Morgan still looking furiously away.  He lingered in the doorway of the cottage, words hanging off his lips if only he dared to speak them.  And left.

#drabble #angst #more moth writing weeee #also known as a collection of memories half remembered