The Laghuls of Avredia

Lionel did spend the night at Isaak’s place even if the younger man wasn’t thrilled about it, it was still quite embarrassing for him in context but he knew his tall companion was only doing so to make sure he was okay and in case any poison effect manifested during the night. The first thing Lio did in the morning was come down to the twins’ infirmary to give them update on Isaak. It seemed that everything would be fine and the berry mix wasn’t deadly if quickly purged out of the body. Additionally Vee and Kennedy did discover that the berries’ juices color changed from dark purple from a lighter pink when mixed with fish making them conclude that the chemical reaction only occurred in that particular scenario. They still thought not eating the berry at all was a better way to deal with the issue as they still didn't know what would happen any time before or after eating those fruits with fish already in their belly or vice versa. Both of the twins hadn’t eaten anything the previous night in fear of that since they had Garenberry jam earlier that day.

Lionel considered going over to Kenny and asking him if anything happened between him and Isaak but he felt like if the latter didn’t want to talk about it then it was best for him not to poke his nose in his business. It didn’t seem to be anything major for now so he’d let it be, but if any sign of escalation showed then he’d look further into it and try to sort things out if he could. At least he’d have the whole day to see how things would develop as the meat of yesterday's hunt was enough to last a day or two. Before he could make his way back to Isaak’s room the tan man was stopped by Kennedy. By the grin on his face he knew he was planning something.

“Lio~. How you doin’?”

“I'm doing fine, thanks. What about you?”

“I'm great, thanks for asking.” Kenny put his arm around Lionel’s shoulder “can I ask you a few questions?”

“Sure?” he said with a hint of distrust

“Well~... Actually now, nevermind” he snickered “forget about it”

Lionel squinted his eyes. He could tell his friend was up to something but he wasn’t sure if he should say anything. He wanted to know what he was up to but at the same time asking anything was probably what Kenny wanted him to do.

“How about we go see how Isaak’s doing ay? You ate breakfast already?” The redhead asked as he started walking toward the ladders that went to the recovering man’s quarters.

“We haven’t. As a matter of fact, he was still asleep when I left to visit the twins”

“Perfect~! There’s nothing better than chit-chatting over a nice meal!”

The dark skinned man wasn’t quite sure if it was a good idea. Kennedy was clearly up to something and he worried that he might do something that would upset Isaak further that he was last night. But maybe, just maybe, Kenny’s plan was just to surprise Isaak with something nice as a sort of apology? He thought about it and about what he could do as the other man was making his way up. Lionel reluctantly followed him up the stairs and ladders without saying a word.

Isaak was unceremoniously woken up but Kennedy’s loud greetings. Upon seeing the scar-faced giant’s face he let out the most exasperated sigh. Next he saw Lionel in the doorway. He rolled over expecting to be dragged in the worst and most awkward conversation of his life. He prayed Kenny wouldn’t do anything stupid, but he knew him well. Something was going to happen whether he liked it or not.

“What should I cook you for breakfast boys?” Ken chimed “Or maybe just some lard with some bread will suffice?”

“I'm not really hungry to be honest” said Isaak while Kenny was going through his food provisions

“I'm fine too” added Lionel

“Aw come on! What’s the matter? You usually never decline my cooking!” He crossed his arms and pretended to pout. “Fine then, let’s just chat, no eating, just chat. Is that alright?”

Isaak groaned quietly, he just wanted Kenny to get to the point and then leave. Lionel on the other had stayed quiet, but not without a bit of apprehension.

“Unleeesss~” teased Kennedy, Isaak winced. “Unless you’d prefer it if I left you two alone~ hmmmm~”

The tallest man was grinning ear to ear, looking at Isaak getting redder and redder. The other tall guy wasn’t entirely sure what his kinsman was implying but he felt a tad embarrassed regardless.

“Can you not!” screamed the short guy

“Not do what? I just asked a simple question~.”

“I don’t think Isaak is comfortable with you teasing him like that today. Could you tone it down a little?” ask Lionel. He was firm with his request, but not too much, not in a way that could have been interpreted as being angry.

“Fine, fine! I'll leave him alone.” Kennedy raised his arms as he made his way toward the door. “I didn’t think he’d take it that bad! I'm sorry. I thought it was fair game, you know? He asked me about my relationship with the twins was, so I wanted to poke at his relationship with you. I meant no harm! Heck I’d have even helped setting you two up if he wanted!”

“I… Okay. um..” Lionel had a hard time deciding what to respond to first. Before he could decide, Isaak spoke up.

“It’s not really an apology if you focus on how you didn’t mean it. I mean I can tell you’re sorry but by putting the emphasis on your intention rather than the damage done you’re shooting yourself in the foot..”

“Sorry bud…” He stood there silently for a bit “I'm.. I'm gonna hang out with Vadim for a bit, He said he was gonna go fetch some plants in the forest and could use the extra reach and extra pair of hands… It wouldn’t hurt spending some time with him without his brother around too I guess…”

Isaak was tempted to comment on Kennedy’s last statement but he knew he’d be a hypocrite if he did. He just complained about Kenny teasing him about his relationship, he was in no place to do the same. Once the redhead left Lionel sat down, he was a little confused. As much as he wanted to talk about it he thought changing the subject was best.

“So what are your plans for today? I don’t have any duties lined up so if you wanna do anything with me I have plenty of free time.”

“I don’t have anything to do.. Like almost everyday…”

“Is it a bad thing?”

“Kind of? I like the free time, don't get me wrong.. I just… I know I could be more useful, but I don’t know with what…”

“I heard you were kinda good at fishing, why not join the fishing crew?”

“Thought about it.. I get tired of walking kinda fast, and when you’re carrying a ton of fish on the way back it’s not helping.”

Lionel thought for a while. What could Isaak do? He probably already considered anything book or story related he thought to himself. What is Latopa lacking? They had a seamstress, two doctors, a ‘culinary engineer’, a hunting team, a fishing team, a gathering team, two bonesmith, a family of leather workers… They even had a sort of shaman even though none of his practices seemed to yield any results.

“What about pottery? We get most of our cups and bowls from Manekeanh trades, so maybe you take care of that?”

“Do we even have access to clay?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you could ask the fishing team if there’s any in the river they fish at, and if there’s any maybe you could work a deal with them so they’d bring you the clay without you needing to walk all the way there?”

“That... that could work! Yeah” He jumped up “I have no idea how to make proper bowls or cups or whatever but I could give it a try!”

Lionel stood up as well “We should check on them now. They didn’t go fishing yesterday so they might go today. If we catch them before they leave you could have your first batch of clay tonight!”

Isaak agreed, nodding his head with great excitement. The both of them went down the ladders and met with Margareth the leader of the fishing team. She was a strong woman, her muscles could rival Kennedy’s wasn’t as tall as he was tho. When the duo arrived at her living space she was lounging around making it seem like she and her team were probably not going to go on an expedition in the near future. She looked at them up and down before asking:

“Whaddya want?”

“Um…” The blue haired man hesitated “I was wondering if you could check if there was clay in the river bed and if so if you could bring me some…”

“I don’t need ta check kiddo! I can tell ya right now that the Akevna river got nothing but mud and rocks!”

“O-oh…”

“I mean, if we got clay we wouldn’t be trading so much of our catch to them bloody Manekeanhs for bowls and cups!” She picked at her nose then added “What would ya do with clay anyway? Got a hole in your den you need to patch up? I could ask the Maney’s to give us some raw clay next time we go trading. That is if they have some of course. They get theirs from another settlement further away.”

“We thought we could make the bowls ourselves…” Lionel said a bit defeated “I guess we didn’t think it through…”

“Why? I think we have more than enough bowls right now, and if you need a few extra well just get some next time we visit the Manekeanhs.”

“No it’s fine! Don’t” worry about it!” Reassured Isaak. And with that they were back to square one. The trans man tried not to show his disappointment as he silently shuffled out of Margareth’s quarters. His friend followed after him, not making a peep either. They slowly made their way to the center pond. The odd-eyed guy sat on the edge of the pool for a moment before letting himself sink into the water. He didn’t stay submerged for long deciding to just float there for a while. Lionel swam toward him, he clearly needed to be comforted.

“I'm sure a lot of people wouldn’t mind taking you as an apprentice… and If not, I think what you provide is already enough. A lot of people enjoy your stories.. I enjoy them a lot”

“I know people like it but.. It’s not anything essential”

“Does it have to be? What you do doesn’t need to be essential to be appreciated. If you stopped reading and writing stories people would be sad and miss it!”

“They wouldn’t be put into a tight spot though!”

“They wouldn’t be in a tight spot if I stopped hunting. You were all fine before I joined and you’d be fine if I were to leave. I can easily be replaced.”

“I… You’re right but..”

“But what? Do you need to be an irreplaceable part? If so, you already are. At least to me you are, and I think Kennedy and the twins would agree. You’re our friend and if you were to leave or die we’d be devastated and our lives just wouldn’t be the same anymore.” Lionel swam a bit closer to Isaak “I think you’re doing more than enough already, but I'm still ready to help you find another occupation if it would make you feel better.”

Isaak stared off into the distance. Maybe Lionel was right, maybe he was overthinking everything and he already had a good enough role to hold. And maybe he was being a little too self-focused for wanting to be oh-so-important. Talk about being an entitled dickhead who wants to be so essential he’d hope his entire hometown would be in trouble if he was gone!

“Do you think I'm a prick?” he asked, ashamed of himself

“Wha? No!” Lionel pulled him into a hug. “It’s okay to feel sad about not feeling needed. I can understand that. You just wanted to provide people with something you felt was more useful than your stories, and that's okay.”

“Thanks for the nice words Lio... I really needed that”

“I'm glad I helped” The cis man maintained the embrace as the two over them gently drifted from the shore. “And if you want my input on anything else, just ask.”

Isaak simply gave a non-committal “hmm” as a response. He was still thinking about not only his whole ‘essential-role’ ordeal, but also about the relationship ‘drama’ he got in with Kennedy. Lionel was so sweet to him, it wouldn’t be too surprising if he did have feeling for him and maybe those feeling might be reciprocated. But what if they weren’t. Isaak didn’t want to mention only for it to blow up in his face the same way it did to Vadim. Well it did look bad at first but it seemed both the twin and Kenny had already made up so even if things don’t initially pan out between him and Lio things would still be fine afterward. Vads seem to actually have a chance with Ken. He wondered what both of them were up to on their expedition to find medicinal plants. Could they possibly be on a secret date?

“Since neither of us have anything set to do today let’s think of some fun activities to do.” proposed Lionel, taking Isaak out of his thought bubble “We could go back to your place and try to come up with some new story ideas. We could also try to draw some interesting scene from your favorite books. It would be something new!... Or I don’t mind relaxing here for a while longer, I quite like it”

The younger man just now realized how long his older friend had been holding him close making him spiral back into his thoughts. What if he did like him back? And why would it matter so much. Did Lionel’s potential feelings mattering so much to him a sign that he indeed loves him? He wouldn’t be so preoccupied and flustered if he wasn’t would he?

The tan guy could see that his pale companion was getting nervous so without saying anything he carried the both of them back to shore. Next he lifted himself up the ledge of the pool and bent down to help Isaak out as well. Now out of the water they sat down on the rocky edge of the lake.

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about anything else? You still look bothered…” He said softly, putting a hand on the shorter fellow. “You can tell me anything…”

“I don’t know if I like you, I mean I know I like you I don’t know to what degree? I never really put much thoughts into it but then yesterday Kennedy started saying I have a crush on you and that the bracelet I gave you was somehow subconsciously a romantic gift and now I'm doubting myself because what he said made sense, but I literally didn’t think of any of it that way until he said it so I can’t tell if he’s right or I'm just being tricked by him because he just enjoy teasing people and making them all flustered! But If I'm getting so flustered then there must be some truth to his claims right? Otherwise I just would care?!”

“Isaak! Calm down! Breathe!”

“I-I'm sorry…” He took a deep breath “What..What do you think?”

“Well, I can’t truly know nor tell you how you feel… Kennedy can’t either.”

“But I'm not sure myself so what do I do?”

“I'm sure you’ll figure out eventually.”

“What about you? How do you feel about me?”

“I care a lot about you… I guess maybe you could say I'm interested in you. I'm not entirely sure either. I just know you matter a lot to me.”