Confrontation

"Soleil."

The blue-haired Viera paused where he had been about to open the door to his room. It had been a long day for the monk, a new batch of hopefuls had just come to the guild and with V'khir holed up in the infirmary, there was nothing else to distract him from the antics some students can get into. He had been quite ready to retire early and head to the clinic to visit his beloved when his name was called. Violet eyes met startling crystal blue as Soleil turned around to face the source of the voice.

A figure he'd really only met once stood leaning against the hallway, arms casually crossed and looking like he'd been waiting to catch Soleil alone. Before their first meeting, he'd only heard of the older Viera in passing, the stories mainly coming from V'khir and word of mouth. Venase Phyr seemed like a curious character, all smug bravado that hid the soldier that lurked just below the surface. While he himself was what could be considered a 'city rabbit', even he could recognize a seasoned fighter.

"...Venase."

"Call me Ven," the red-headed Viera said, almost automatically as he pushed himself off the wall. Soleil watched him come closer, keeping his expression neutral even as he nodded. Wordlessly Soleil would turn and open his door, stepping into his room knowing that Ven would follow. Closing and locking the door behind him, Soleil paused to steel himself before turning around. Violet once again met blue as they silently stared at each other, both expressions neutral. A silent conversation. An agreement.

Soleil's fist was a blur of movement as it flew towards Ven's face, crystal blue eyes closing with nary a protest or flinch.

.

.

.

“I deserved that.”

“You did.”

“Feel better now?”

“Not really, but that's fine. Need ice for that?”

“Nah, I'm good. I'll just say I got into a scrap.”

“Well... You kinda did.”

"Ah but they don't- Ah! They don't need to know with who."

Soleil sighed as he watched Ven press a bloodied cloth to his temple, stemming the bleeding from where he'd hit the floor. Out of the two, Ven was worse for wear. While he didn't actually go all out in beating the man, Ven didn't even try fighting him back. Or at least didn't try hard enough.

The two were silently sitting on the floor of his room as Ven patched himself up, patches of skin already starting to bruise from where Soleil hit him. Soleil watched the man expertly bind sprains or scrapes. Most of them could easily be hidden under that coat of his. The most prominent one was the bruise just under his eye. The first punch. So occupied he was in his thoughts that he didn't realize Ven was speaking to him until the soldier was waving a hand in front of his face. Flinching, Soleil apologized before asking him to repeat himself.

Ven chuckled, leaning back against the bed with a slight wince. "I asked how he was doing."

"Khir?" At Ven's nod, Soleil sighs. "Doing as well as someone could be given the circumstances. He's still feeling too weak for his liking even if he's doing much better than he did before." He paused again. "...What happened between you two is especially weighing on him."

A long deep sigh. "I was afraid of such..." Ven muttered, leaning his head back with his eyes closed.

"For the record, I'm not mad. I don't think either of you expected things to go that way that night." Soleil trained his eyes on the ceiling, ear twitching as he heard the minute shifts of his companion. "But it happened and all we can do is deal with the aftermath."

"Too right you are," Ven muttered beside him before both of them fell silent. Soleil wasn't sure what else they could talk about. Whatever anger or hurt that might have been there was gone the moment he threw the first punch. Now he just wanted to go back to the clinic and curl around V'khir and maybe take a long nap.

"...So what do you plan now?" Soleil finally broke the silence, turning his head to look at Ven. The soldier still had his eyes closed and if didn't know any better, he'd had thought he'd fallen asleep. Finally, blue eyes opened and stared up at the ceiling.

"I won't make decisions for Khir. You already know my feelings on the matter, I suspect it's pretty obvious my attraction towards him." At that Soleil nodded. "I'll treat him the same as I always had. And if there's more he wants then I suppose we'll tackle that as it comes."

"Right," Soleil muttered, already making peace with the matter. After the whole thing with Raih'a, this he found was somewhat easier in comparison. At least he knew that underneath all that confident bravado, Ven truly did genuinely care for V'khir. The two fell silent once more both lost in their own thoughts. Ven was a hard man to read and Soleil barely really knew anything about him. Maybe he'd know more later. Maybe he wouldn't. The future isn't set in stone after all and with things the way they are, there's a lot more to deal with that navigating a relationship.

Ven's sigh brought him out of his thoughts as the soldier got up, groaning and wincing as he stretched out his most likely very sore body. "Heading out?"

"Yeah, still got things to do before the day's over."

"Gonna visit Khir before you go home?"

"....No." At Soleil's startled look, Ven chuckled lowly. "I think I'm gonna make myself scarce for a couple weeks or so. Not sure if my presence would be any benefit for Khir judging from the state he was when he left that day. He looked like he was kicking himself and there wasn't a word I could say that would've made him feel any better."

"So you're leaving? Just like that?"

"Well not immediately, no. Still have things to deal with first and it's only for a couple weeks. There's a few people I've been meaning to visit in Thavnair and well... I suppose now's the best time."

Before he could get a word out, Ven grabbed his coat off the floor and slung it over his shoulder as he headed towards the window. The Viera would pause as he sat on the windowsill then look at Soleil who was still staring after him. "...You're a good guy, Soleil. Khir's already in great hands."

And with that, Ven would give him a lazy two-fingered salute goodbye. Soleil could only stare as his battered form disappeared out the window.