Gods of Malcea ✔️

F O R T Y - T W O

"There is no decision that we can make that does not come with some sort of balance or sacrifice."

-Xamdú

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Karos felt hot lips pressing against the side of his neck before feeling them kiss on his cheek down to his jaw line. They settled there, for a moment, and in the next, they were gone. Ake's arm wrapped around his chest and his face nuzzled into his neck. Since pushing him to the ground, Ake would not look at him fully which made him smile. Ake embarrassed much more easily than he had first thought. He did not mind his hands or lips touching in intimate places. It was not him that he found issue with.

"Forgive me," Ake mumbled, "about this. Kissing you like that and in that way in front of such people." His arm grew tight around him. "I had missed you much."

"In truth, this has not been the first time you had pushed me to the ground," Karos said smiling.

Ake lifted his head up and looked at him, his face reddening again. He, himself, was growing hotter by the second just by the way he gazed at him.

"I do not mind your kisses or touches, Ake."

His red hair had leaves and dirt stuck between the strands. Smudges of dirt splotched his face and clothes as well causing Karos to stifle a laugh.

"Or the dirt smudged across this pretty face." Karos pressed his hand against his cheek just wanting an excuse to touch him without being blatant about it.

"Pretty?" Ake leaned in close. "Do not become beguiled by it... I can bite you."

"As I can bite you back."

Ake pursed his lips and tried to get from over him but Karos kept him there, wanting to find some other way of asking him for a kiss. Just another, just one more.

"Ake!"

Ake turned and got from over him as if he was cold water at the sound of the voice shouting his name.

"A-Appa." Father. Ake stumbled on the word and brushed away the hair falling in front of his face.

Karos looked from son to father, father to son noticing for the first time their stark resemblance. As soon as Ake stood, his father came and hugged him tight. They spoke in their language and, like the other time with Oraanu, he could not understand them. He rose from the ground as he saw his father brushing his hair back before kissing his forehead. Karos had forgotten, for a moment, all of what had happened and what would soon come to pass. He would give them their time together. His father would not have him in his presence and he would rather not have Ake see it.

The door shut quietly as he walked down the hallway looking for Fariel. He had not seen his dear friend in a long while and he needed to tell him all of what was happening with the dragons and with Analia. Crowds of soldiers and dragons alike speckled the hallway causing Karos to weave his way through. He stopped the moment his eyes landed on Demir and Bjor. The last time he had seen them he had been hanging from a cliff with broken ribs and a fractured ankle.

"We are not here for malice but to see our little brother," Demir said as if reading his mind.

"We are in your debt, after all. Taking us all in and giving us shelter," Bjor mumbled.

Karos did not trust him and would never trust him. His fear of men had dwindled but the distrust of them had not. It had only grown with time.

"Ake is fine," Karos said as he thumbed his bottom lip. He had bit it and the thought of it made him realize just how swollen it had become.