@eynsavalow continued from here.
❝ Hurts. ❞ He says dismissively. His head hurts. Not much more to say on that front. It still stings a little from the salve but he is doing his best to put up a BRAVE FRONT. It is the least he can do for Galahad. He feels a bit more lucid now. Nothing else has returned to him but the world and its complexities seem to come into focus, even if the face of his LOVER will not. He cannot see HIM but he can see Galahad in front of him, note his embarrassed blush and the nervousness of his manner, feel the instinct to engage in pleasant chatter.
❝ Why not? You’re a bonny man. ❞ Caerwyn attempts an impression of his father’s Alt Clud accent on that compliment, for Galahad’s amusement. His new friend has seemed so solemn since they became acquainted, or reacquainted. He’d like to make him smile, if he could. ❝ There is no such thing as TOO clever in a woman, perhaps I’m biased towards them, not being very clever myself. Are you not a man of means, is that why she laughed at you? ❞
Galahad DESERVES someone. He can say that for certain. He has been so DUTIFUL and so GENTLE and so CARING. He would make a good husband, a good father. The sort of man Caerwyn could see himself falling in love with, if he didn’t already have a man like that. He knows that about his lover, that he’s like Galahad, SO GENTLE and PATIENT with him when others have not been. A precious and rare sort. Yes, Galahad is like HIS LOVER and Elaine is a FOOL for laughing at him, he decides.
Caerwyn realizes he has started crying again and he is not sure why. He remembers being a fairly steady person before all of this and now everything fills him with such grief and fear. It’s longing, he thinks. He misses the one he loves. It should be HIM beside him now and not poor unfortunate Galahad. He’d want to be with HIM if the roles were reversed. They’re each other’s to look after, aren’t they?