callum public perception: brave good knight who will one day save a princess from a tower and no doubt become a prince. long blond hair billowing in the wind, big blue eyes and heroic jawline. kind and patient and willing to do anything to help.
callum inner monologue: if they figure out im incapable of good, they'll kill me and i'll deserve it. oh i have to help this old lady cross the street hold on.
top ten things to do to make you realize just how many flags are red white and blue.
(in order: callum and dragon are both american, dolly is british, danesly is australian, aya is sri lankan, jeynu is costa rican, and iumenata is thai and russian. in the second image: delmonico is costa rican, sandra is australian, the douleys are aboriginal, katamagi is thai, and shank is polish.)
The first time Callum saw Delmonico smile (as in, a real smile- not the self satisfied, aloof smirk he would wear when people were angry with him) they were at a bar.
Actually, calling it a bar wasn't quite grasping the scale of it. It was like a palace, a mansion full of party-goers and drunk people of all walks of life. Bars lined the walls of the huge hall that made up the majority of it, and a band played lively tunes on the stage.
It was unlike anything Callum had ever seen.
He wasn't sure whether he loved it or hated it.
They'd chained the giant up putside, leaving a very irritated Aya to watch it, with the agreement that they'd bring out some drinks for him.
It only took ten minutes for Dragon to vanish.
Callum wasn't surprised, this was like paradise for a teenager who wanted to be a man. He stuck his head out, told Aya it might be a little longer, and delivered a bottle of wine. Fortunately, the good doctor agreed to wait a bit longer before abandoning his watch position, on the condition that they also get him a bottle of whiskey.
Callum was learning quickly what kinds of people his companions were.
For all her confidence and aloof airs, Dolly had one small glass of who-knows-what and started staring at the lights like a moth to flame- wide eyed and dizzy.
"It's so beautiful here," She said, her voice small and soft. "I didn't even know that light could be so kind…"
Callum left her with Jeynu, who had downed four shots of some dark sludge and seemed ready to settle in for a night. If anyone could handle their drink here, Callum reasoned, it was the man with the hip flask that smelled like it could be used to instantly sterilize wounds.
Danesly was at the edge of the dance floor, watching the people swirl by and nursing a small mixed drink. When Callum came up to him, his eyes only flickered to him briefly. "You find your brother yet?"
"Not yet," Callum said, following his gaze to a beautiful woman who twirled past in a long periwinkle gown. "Hopefully he turns up sooner rather than later."
Danesly licked his lips, looked away. "Hopefully."
Callum left him to it.
Dragon was lounging against the wall, talking to a woman who seemed a little too tipsy to be standing upright and had instead taken to leaning on his shoulder, leaning in to giggle into his face a little too closely as he talked to her, a sly smile on his face.
Callum hesitated, trying to figure out how to approach this, but his path was cut off by a familiar figure sliding across the floor to the teen and his admirer. Dragon's face dropped the second Delmonico opened his mouth, a scowl settling across his face. The woman, embarrassed, pushed off of Dragon's shoulder, held up her hands and stumbled away.
Callum jogged closer, just in time to hear Dragon spit a swear at Delmonico and stalk away.
"We need to get back on the road." He said, kind of pointlessly.
"Probably," Delmonico said, lifting his own glass to his lips. His dark eyes looked less dull than usual, a spark in them lit by the whiskey. "I see you have my brother on babysitting duty."
Callum couldn't see Jeynu across the crowd, but Delmonico was much taller and cleverer. "And I see you're babysitting mine."
Delmonico's lips twitched, the first glimpse of mirth of the night. "I was seventeen once, I remember how it is."
"I was too," Callum said, but Delmonico laughed. They both knew Callum was never the same kind of seventeen year old as the other two. While they were boys who went to bars and pretended to be men, he was a man who went to the stables and pretended to be a child. "Thanks for watching him."
Delmonico's expression was hard to read, but it wasn't an unpleasant one. A little surprised, a little pleased. He tilted his head, looking at Callum. He was exactly the kind of tall, dark and handsome man that people would call beautiful, the kind of man the women back in Callum's village would swoon over. Callum wondered faintly if he was meant to be swooning.
"I never thanked you properly." Delmonico said, and his tone of voice was exactly right to carry in the noisy room without being anything anyone else would ever hear. A special secret between them.
"Thanked me?" Callum asked, now sure he was meant to be swooning. "For what? Arresting you?"
"I thought you said I wasn't under arrest," Delmonico teased. "No, I mean for-"
He cut himself off, a flash of hesitation crossing over his face. Callum tried very hard to look encouraging, but it didn't matter much: the man's eyes were entertained with the floor.
The band finished the song, and briefly, the bar bustled with cheers and noise. Delmonico closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, tossing the rest of his drink down his throat carelessly and looking at Callum with determination.
"Thank you for getting me out of that house," He said. "I've never been saved by a brave knight in shining armor before, but I finally get the appeal."
Callum paused, surprised. He hadn't considered it saving him- he'd known he hadn't been particularly eager to stay with the shepherd, but it hadn't seemed like rescuing so much as an ultimatum. Callum had thought he had came with them because the alternative was prison, not because he wanted to leave so bad.
He failed to stop his eyes from darting at the man's low neckline, where the top of the twisted, gnarly scar that rose straight up his sternum was only barely visible. Dragon had whispered once that it looked like an autopsy scar, and it really truly did.
For the first time, Callum stopped to make a mental checklist of what he knew about Delmonico.
First, he was pardoned of his crimes, but he was still convicted of them. Kidnapping, rape, burglary, murder, torture, dark magic. Anything awful and evil. Just because he wasn't arrested for them, just because he was walking free, didn't mean he hadn't done them.
Second, his own brother volunteered to join the mission to hunt him down and either arrest him, kill him, or make him bring his former compatriots to justice. His own brother, who then proceeded to not say a word to him in the three days they've been traveling together.
Third, he didn't look how the posters made it seem like he would. They weren't unfaithful to his appearance- maybe he had been clean shaven once- but the cruel, cold, cocky snarl on his face was absent, replaced by a deep tired look. He didn't look like an evil mastermind, nor did he look like a handsome con-man. He looked older than he was, and tired, and sad.
Callum still hadn't spoken, he realized, and the silence was stretching into a deep hole that bored through his ribcage.
"That's what I'm supposed to do," He said, and it didn't come out funny or lighthearted, just soft and earnest. "I help people who need to be helped."
Delmonico's eyebrows shot up at that, like he hadn't expected something so gentle. His lips twitched and he quickly took a deep sip of his whiskey, draining the glass.
"Do you have a drink?" He asked.
"No," Callum said. "I was too busy hunting down Dragon."
"Come on," Delmonico said. "It's on me."
Callum paused, trying very hard to decide if he was willing to let this happen or not. He wasn't a fan of drinking, of feeling out of control, but he had to admit that the idea of sharing a drink with Delmonico wasn't a terrible one.
Luckily, Delmonico waved a hand. "If you're not a drinker, that's fine. Save me a coin."
Callum grinned despite himself. "Thanks."
Delmonico raised an eyebrow. "You're a very genuine man, has anyone ever told you that?"
"I think it's important to say what you mean," Callum said, feeling a little silly. "Like, I don't understand why people always have to be cool."
Delmonico's lips twisted, the closest to a genuine smile that he'd gotten in days. "Tell me the most uncool thing about yourself, then. What's something embarrassing you've never told anyone?"
"… You'll have to tell me something in return," Callum said, unsure if he was losing his mind or if the smell of alcohol on Delmonico's breath was somehow getting into his bloodstream. "Something you've never told anyone."
Delmonico's eyes glittered. "Deal."
Callum was suddenly aware that he was standing in a poorly lit corner of a bar with a very tall, very handsome man leaning down into his personal space. Anything could happen, and everyone around them knew it. And he realized without any room for doubt that he didn't want anything to happen. He didn't want anything at all.
"I don't think I'm capable of love," He said, which was more honest than it was supposed to be. He couldn't look at Delmonico, and he couldn't stop talking. "I don't think I ever want a wife- or a husband, even. I don't want kids or anything, I don't want to be kissed, even. I don't want anything that's supposed to make me happy. Even Dragon wants love, or at least sex, and that's two things that I don't care about. Hell, I'm not even really sure I love Dragon, even though he's my baby brother and I'd do anything for him. And every time anyone talks about sex or dating they make it sound like it saved their lives, and maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about, maybe I do actually just need to get laid or meet the right person, and I'll stop feeling awful and broken and evil, but-"
He stopped talking. Delmonico had leaned back, just a bit. He couldn't look at his face, afraid of what he'd find there.
"But I don't care," He said weakly. "Maybe it'll fix me, but I don't want it."
Delmonico shifted, just a bit, from one foot to the other, and Callum squeezed his eyes shut.
"Alright." Delmonico said, evenly.
"Don't tell anyone."
"I won't."
Callum looked up at him, ready to accept whatever disgust lay on that face, but all there was that he could see was warmth.
"What?" He asked, stupidly, feeling like he'd missed something very very important and obvious. "What's with that look?"
"I don't know," Delmonico laughed, and there was the smile: a real, genuine smile that crinkled his eyes and made his canines press against his lower lip. "I just… it's nice to hear it?"
"Hear what?" Callum said, baffled. "What?"
Delmonico shook his head, kind of incredulously. "It's not… I don't know if I get it completely. Like, I don't but-"
"But you get it." Relief rushed over Callum, so hard that he made a sound like a sob, despite the smile spreading over his face.
"I mean… sex sucks. I have had so much sex- oh god, so much- and let me promise you, it is never going to fix you," Delmonico said this with a weird edge, like he was saying it past Callum, saying it to someone who would never hear it. "It's not worth it usually. Genuinely. Fuck the wrong person, and your life is ruined, fuck the right person and you never see them again. And with romance- oh fuck, don't get me started!"
Callum was staring at him with a huge dumb grin, practically lightheaded with delight. He was finally hearing everything he could have ever wanted to hear, and all of it came from the one man who he would consider an expert on the subject.
Delmonico ran a hand through his hair, a chunk falling in front of his eyes, laughing again, and Callum realized with horror and amazement that despite all of that, all he wanted was to know Delmonico. All he wanted to was to understand him like how lovers did, and he felt like an idiot for it.
"I'm sorry," He said, trying very hard to figure out what he was trying to say, what he was about to say, even as it rushed out of his lips. "I'm really sorry, I just realized I literally don't know anything about you as a person. I'd like to change that."
Delmonico's smile faltered, his eyes going wide.
He looked like a person, with a half smile and messy hair and a little bit of sweat on his brow, and Callum felt hysterically lonely for the first time in his life. He needed someone. Not in the way everyone said he did, he just needed to know someone better than he knew himself.
Delmonico didn't like people knowing him, he could tell from the doubt on his face, but his gaze softened after a second, and he huffed.
[image description: two pages, each is a panel of a comic. it shows callum and delmonico, seemingly in a modern au. callum is saying "yeah im also ace, which means i don't have sex" while delmonico looks at him with a neutral bored expression. in the second panel, delmonico says "damn. jealous." while callum looks at him in surprise. end id]
