A Hero's Song
Of course, Addam and Minoth were a somewhat unusual pair. One carried himself through life and its constituent interactions with only the necessary amount of gravity, while the other maintained a stormy mood nigh-constantly. It was only when you got them alone, and not with each other, that Addam strayed grave, and Minoth gregarious.
Minoth put off an air of "don't touch me" but secretly wanted - needed - quite badly to be touched. Addam was the most affable soul you'd meet, but he concealed a great deal of neuroticism and worry, which he'd passed on, to a certain extent, to Mythra.
When you put the two of them together, they either squabbled like old souls, got drunk on ridiculous company, or stared miserably at each other.
Rarely were Addam and Minoth actually happy together.
Well, not happy. Joyful.
Some may say contentment is a very secure state. Others may find it quite vulnerable. Whatever the case, apprehension split it down the middle.
What set of circumstances, what grand event, would lead to a true jubilation - men made boys again, beside themselves with the sheer joy of being together (being beside each other) in that moment?
Perhaps nothing. Perhaps, as old souls, Addam and Minoth both had reserved themselves far too much to ever exit the shell again. And there is no moral impetus for happiness to look, sound, feel any certain way. Each individual determines that aspect for himself.
And, too, Addam had thought to himself on more than one occasion that he'd like it not to only be unwilling weakness that let and led Minoth to collapse into his prince's arms. Ideally, they would be together because they wanted to be. Not just because it happened.
How to broach such a topic? Surely not just opening up with, "You know, Minoth, I wish we could find some joy for you. Would be a nice-to-have. I'll add it to the itinerary: 'find Minoth's key to future and present happiness, in acceptance of the lessons the past has taught us'."
Not that Addam hadn't ham-footed his way into worse with his old friend.
Old friend, indeed. Some six, eight years?
They weren't that old, regardless of Blade age and royal responsibilities or the accompanying trauma requisite to each.
Why couldn't they be young friends?
Young men, clinging to each other because something unimaginably good had happened.
So, Addam decided, he'd have to make something unimaginably good happen for his friend. Trouble was, he couldn't exactly imagine what that might be.
Minoth would be happy if they defeated Malos, right? They all would be.
They all would be, so Minoth would just smile, maybe laugh a little bit more openly than his usual.
But with Alrest restored to relative peace, what would become of Minoth?
Why, he'd become a playwright, of course. He'd own his own theater.
That was it. Addam would be the benefactor, and on the opening night of the first production, or perhaps the night before, they'd celebrate.
Was that too self-centered? To assume that Minoth would even want his help, his charity?
(Ignoring, of course, their preexisting money-based mores.)
But it didn't matter, did it? This was all Addam could, in his small-minded and selfish (but attemptedly generous) princely estimation, give.
Didn't Minoth deserve at least that much?