Gaius is an enigma, a reminder of how beautiful mortality can be. Beauty with an elongated lifespan, the fire and fervor of inspiration and fortitude coursing hot beneath thick skin and course threaded muscle. A bright light, rivaling the sun, putting it to shame, eclipsing whatever splendor might be found. Forever had been whispered to him between hurried embrace and frantic kisses, but Gale knew deep within the pit where his heart should be that their definitions of forever were two drastically different things.
Like the wind he was there one day and gone the next, a prophecy foretold only by his own lips and believed by few until it happenedā forgoing what might have been his only chance at happiness. A fork in the road where he could choose to forfeit his destiny in favor of a life more simple and filled with happiness.
Heād made his choice. He saw his regrets and his pleasures in the depths of black in the eyes of his newest lover, of his newest protegee. Having gone farther than any before him, where others had perished long before communication with demonic forces even beganā whom couldnāt bear the world on their shoulders while it burnedā
Oh, but what a simple and happy life they could have had together.
Indulge me in such fantasies for tonight I wish to play the part of the fool.
"You mock me so relentlessly⦠Iād have never thought you capable of tarnishing your own memories of meā¦ā
Full of life? With Gaius by his side he had felt like the harbinger of all life manifest.
.
Dark hands do breach the ravine between them, cradling half a changed face with the same tender touch heād thought long forgotten, tracing idly over the blue tattoo that paraded an injured eye. āYouāve changed.ā
Immensely, yet at the same time, not at all.
āLiquid fire is kept behind the counterā lest we have⦠an accident.āDeadly venom and cursed objects? Those were something only a complete moron would disturb, but fire had a will of its own, something both the lowliest peasant and most educated scholar both knew well.
āDo the flames of your forge grow dim in these new lands, or⦠perhaps youāve grander plans in store for this essence of flame, hm?ā
It feels like he's looking at something he's not supposed to, as if he should turn his face away in shame under the mesmerizing burn of heterochromic eyes. Perhaps he should keep himself from inching toward the cookie jar, but just a taste is all he wants, letting every word soak in his mouth lest he try to swallow the whole thing.Ā
It's true. Gaius was incapable of spoiling the fond assortment of memories between them, which was a curse inside its blessing. Maybe if he was capable of hate, it wouldn't have hurt as much as it did. The past romanticized itself, as if he were viewing him through a screen that made everything so much softer than it really was, but it's hard to be anything but soft in the presence of someone he gave so many pieces of himself to.Ā
"I'd have never thought you'd think of me as old."Ā
Gaius feels lively now, of course-- just shy of 250 years and his appearance is still youthful, personality somewhat childish at times-- but there's experience under his belt now when compared to the fresh-faced dwarf he was 200 years prior, wrapped up in a first love and willfully ignorant to the truths of life about to bear down on him. There are scratches on his paint, which was to be expected in such a brutal world.Ā
One of those scratches being the scar that cascades across the right side of his face. The corners of his lips settle into a more polite smile, but there's a sense of sadness in his facial expression as Gale caresses his injured cheek.Ā
It's nice that he didn't turn away out of repulsion, or recoil from the damaged tissue that crosses directly over his eyelid. It makes him feel a little more real as his thumb grazes softly over the tattoo he placed there, a valiant effort to make his blindness look a little less heartbreaking.
What makes him sad is the prospect of feeling him, so tender and thoughtful as he touches his face. It's the hand of a lover cradling someone they care so much for, while knowing it's not true.Ā
It's been a long time, but even time could never erase the memory of a good thing. They might've shared a moment like this at one point, a long time ago, but now they're only strangers sharing a tender moment in a quiet apothecary.
"Inspiration has been pretty hard to find these days, so I guess my forge is growing pretty dim in a metaphoric kinda way." If this were a different place, a different time, Gaius would've grabbed his face and kissed him a thousand times already.Ā
"I'm looking to enchant a Battle Axe. Platinum base, silver handle. What better way to make a killing machine than to make it flaming?"