Prompt #2: Bargain
About FFXIV Write | Personal Entries | by @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast
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Bargain | noun
1. an agreement between two or more parties as to what each party will do for the other. 2. a thing bought or offered for sale more cheaply than is usual or expected.
Featuring @khaljakahkol
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“Whose turn is it to stand guard first tonight?”
You poke idly at the fire flickering softly in front of your eyes. It’s small, but enough to offer warmth both against your skin and within your heart. Especially as the evenings of the Azim Steppe grow colder with each moonrise, such a simple comfort is good to have--though it’s the company that makes it such.
Your traveling companion takes a seat just beside you, though your eyes remain on the fire and its dancing tendrils of orange and yellow. It doesn’t take a look to feel the thick warmth of the poncho around the Au Ra’s shoulders either; without missing a beat you let yourself leans against him, if only for the added and strong support for aching body.
“I took first watch last night,” you murmur gently, turning your face into the soft fabric wrapped around his shoulders. “Unless there’s a third member of our merry band I don’t know about, I think that means it’s your turn, Khalja.”
The Au Ra huffs in amusement.
“I hardly think it counts when you kept me up for the entirety of it.”
He reaches out with a stick within his grasp, poking softly at the diminutive fire. Remnants of what had been dinner sat just a few fulms away--just a few bones with scraps of roasted meat that will likely be picked at by scavengers tomorrow, long after the two of you have taken your leave from this place. It wasn’t a big game, but Khalja is patient in teaching you the finer points of the hunt.
And to tease, as it would seem he does rather often. It’s no wonder you’ve grown quite fond of him over the course of your traveling in the last few moons.
His words leave you with mirth twitching the corners of your lips, an emotion you don’t care enough to hide.
“You were the one who made the choice to do so.”
“Fair point,” Khalja says. You feel more than see his eyes turn to look at you--they still sometimes render you speechless, glowing like emeralds under the soft shade of his messy-swept hair. “But if I recall, much of that time was spent for your benefit,” He leans against you in kind, one of his hands moving to idly stroke against the center of your back. “And you were very enthusiastic about what I had to say.”
There’s a playfulness to Khalja’s voice, twisting with the ever-constant earnest nature of him as a person--it’s almost silly how such simple things can bring a soft heat across your cheeks, and yet they do.
Friend, lover, traveling companion--you didn’t quite have the right word to describe the Xaela anymore than you had a reason for even being a wanderer across the vast expanse of Orthard in the first place. For reasons yet revealed, the two of you had found an intimate companionship with one another--
It was like a trade. He taught you his skills while you taught him yours, the two of you nonetheless keeping eachother safe and busy in your journey across the vast landscape.
The soft strokes of clawed fingertips across your shoulders gently bring you back to the present, though with it the soft memories of the evening prior--if it was possible, your cheeks felt all the hotter for it.
“I’ll admit defeat on this one tonight then,” the words softly spill from between your lips; it’s hard to feel angry when you feel so warm right now. “But you’re not allowed to be grumpy when I wake you up to switch out.”
The fire, the feeling of Khalja’s poncho, the feeling of his hand on your back and his eyes settled on you like a blanket. The only thing better is the sweet embrace of his arms wrapped tight around you, tugging your body to his. Sleeping together, the weight of him as unyielding as it is a comfort in itself.
You’re not sure if Khalja knows the sorts of thoughts rolling through your mind, but he seems to know enough to assure you with a light touch of lips to your hair.
The night is still rather young.