you speak as if you expect no one to understand, but i do. i always will.

Chapter 01: intimate stabbing
Chapter 02: outright obsession
Chapter 03: confused pining
Chapter 04: "no one knows me like you do"
Chapter 05: lifelong promises that always sound suspiciously like wedding vows

For all Addam hates war, he'll take to sparring at the slightest opportunity - all boys have excess energy to expend at one time or another, so this outlet is certainly as good as any. "No holding back, you understand?" he shouts, grin covering his face and sweat ghosting his forehead.

So Minoth shows Addam exactly how deadly he is, even if the prince himself won't ever rise to that challenge.

Knife under chin, blade scraping prominence, eyes locked on eyes.

"Awfully close there, aren't you?"

"You want me to move?"

"Mm-mm."

No holding back. You can't. Because I want you.

There's an inherent impatience in the way Addam shakes Carnelian off to get to Minoth - to get Minoth alone - whenever he alights at the Praetorium.

"Why didn't you ditch him back in Torna?"

Addam doesn't even look ashamed as he offers his explanation: "I wasn't thinking."

"No?" Minoth crosses his arms and studies the other man.

"Only thinking about you."

"Charming." He crosses them tighter to hide any tells of the same.

"I have been for weeks." Now the pleading has crept into Addam's eyes, and he cups a hand to Minoth's cheek, heedless of onlookers.

"You're shameless."

"I'm smitten."

They haven't seen each other in over a year, by now. Addam's missing Flora; Minoth's missing sleeping in the same bed every night. And yet, in the dark, when those idylls are what they should be thinking of, they think of each other. Warmth, constance, confidence and the knowledge that someone else is yours to care for.

Will I ever see you again? Do I want to? Should I want to? Why do I want to?

What is it, to be with you? What is it, to be without you? Probably, I'd be just as lonely either way.

Wouldn't I?

"No one knows me like you do," Minoth says, voice damnably soft and face uncharacteristically open. To himself, he says it, because Addam isn't listening. Addam is busy explaining to Lora why Amalthus is not an inconvenience to be taken lightly, and it's not just a cursory repayment for Minoth calling down against jokes about the Lord of Aletta up on his highest of horses but for the fact that he hasn't got one.

Not one other soul in this world. I can speak for myself, they'll both say. But the other's words are always, always, always as good as.

"I promise to always take care of you."

It's something a Blade says to a Driver, something a husband says to a wife. It's something Addam says to Minoth, of course, and though he raises a jagged eyebrow so as to distend both his disbelief and the causal scar, he thinks the same. Of course he does. Even after Addam dies, he'll be steward of his memory - there's no one else fit to take up that role, but even if there were Minoth would be at least a little bit possessive. After all, bonding vows nearly always come in pairs.