Bonding moment?

He didn’t care to lock the door behind him anymore, at least not every time. There wasn’t particularly anything in the house he cared about being stolen, most of it never really belonged to him anyway.

It had been a few months since Tarranel had accepted his new life of crime. There had been a few close calls, but people were starting to catch on to his apparent change of heart, and the rumours had finally made their way up to his parents.

This is why he left the house so quickly, in hope that no one would notice and call attention to him. He just needed some fresh air and space to think, and for this reason he headed away from town, to the more secluded, rural areas. He hadn’t got far when, to his dismay, he recognised footsteps behind him, followed by an arm being thrown over his shoulders.

“Get off.” Bosco had recently made it a habit to hang around his house, and Tarranel had been harassed by him every time he had gone out on his own. Over the past few weeks he had actually grown to enjoy Bosco’s company, despite whatever intentions the other party had, but today he just wanted to be left alone.

Bosco seemed unfazed by the rejection. “Wrong side of the bed, eh?” He gave Tarranel a friendly punch, which wasn’t appreciated in the slightest. “Where you off to anyway, there’s nothin’ up this way.”

Tarranel ignored him in desperate hopes that he would go away, but this had never worked in the past, and it was no different now. At least the physical contact had stopped, but Bosco was still looking down at him in confusion as they walked together.

He was still trying to talk to him as Tarranel approached a tree, pulled out a dagger, and used it to climb up, stopping on the lowest branch, a little above Bosco’s head. This shut him up for about a minute, before letting out a half-hearted “You good?”, more out of obligation than anything genuine. This was met with an angry grunt and a dagger almost being dropped directly on him.

Over the months he had gotten to know Tarranel, Bosco had grown used to his attitude, mostly due to his own apathy towards it, but today something about it rubbed him the wrong way. He picked up the dropped dagger and threw it back up, landing it in the tree trunk just above Tarranel’s head, pacing around underneath, muttering to himself just loud enough for Tarranel to hear. “Entitled little shit, the fuck do you have to be upset about?” He looked back up at the somewhat terrified looking elf. “Too much money? Life too secure?” The dagger came back down with slightly more force than the first time.

He picked it up, ready to throw it again, but hesitated when he saw how withdrawn Tarranel was. The guy almost looked like he was about to cry, but that didn’t stop him shouting back down at Bosco.

“You have no idea how much pressure is on me right now!” Tarranel almost surprised himself, he had never used this kind of volume or tone with anyone before. “I’m expected to join the guard any day now, something I’ve been working towards my entire life, and then you show up and get me into this shit, and now everyone is watching me more than ever! I can’t sit comfortably in my own home, and now I can’t even get some alone time away from everything, because you’re always here!” He sat back again, emotionally exhausted from his outburst. “I’m not homeless, sure, but that doesn’t mean I have it good.” His voice started to trail off. “Maybe I’d be better off if I left to be on my own.”

“Don’t.” That came out more desperate than Bosco had intended. “I mean, you won’t be better off. I’ve been there, it’s not fun. I guess it wasn’t out of choice though, so maybe there’s a difference there.” Tarranel looked back down at him with an unreadable expression, and Bosco became very aware of how much he was sharing. “Y’know, I don’t even have family!” It was something he was more or less used to by now, so he announced it as an attempt to lighten the mood, but he realised his mistake immediately when a glimmer of concern appeared on Tarranel’s face.

He gave a frustrated sigh, and leaned on the tree. Too late to back out now. “My parents died when I was fifteen. They didn’t leave me with anything, so I was kinda on my own for a while.” It felt weird to tell anyone, let alone this kid in particular, something so personal, but at the same time it was almost a relief that more than one person in his life knew about it.

“I can give you money?” Tarranel leaned back over the branch. “Or food? Whatever you need.” Of course, he had guessed that Bosco’s whole life situation was less than ideal, but the details had never really crossed his mind. Bosco was the closest thing he had to a friend, he didn’t want to see him struggle like that when he could so easily help. His offer was cut off by a snort from the other elf.

“Nah, I don’t need your charity, seriously,” He made a second attempt to lighten the mood, hopefully more successful this time. “I’m not homeless, we got enough to get by.”

We? “I thought you said your family died?” The thought that this wouldn’t be an acceptable thing to ask didn’t cross Tarranel’s mind in the slightest. Normally, something like this would’ve earned him a few harsh looks and at least one person leaving the room, but Bosco didn’t seem to care all that much.

“This guy, Holden, kinda took me in. I dunno if I’d call him my Dad, but uh,” He paused for a second, trying to find the right words. “Y’know, he’s kept me alive this long, so uh…”

Tarranel sat back against the tree, processing what he’d been told. He had always assumed Bosco had fallen into that life due to his own mistakes somehow, but now he almost felt bad for trying to push him away so much. He had no idea how to respond, but luckily for him, Bosco wasn’t expecting him to.

“Hey, uh,” He stood back up straight, and turned round to get a good view of Tarranel, his energy back up to normal. “Wanna go do something to get your mind off all this?”

The offer was tempting, but Tarranel shook his head. Doing anything like that would just make him stress more about ruining his future. 

“What about…” Bosco thought for a second, contemplating whether it would be a good idea to suggest. “I’ve seen where you live. Only fair you see my place too.”