Fiori shrugged. "You may have been, at one time, but family is… competitive. Especially between siblings. There's only so much parental affection to go around, only so much praise. Jealousy festers easily but snuffing it out is difficult." He turned to Levi with an apologetic look. "Your brother… he probably wanted you out of the way. So that he could take your place."
Levi’d eyes widened ever so slightly. Of course—his brother wanted to be the prince, the heir, the next king. It made sense, but it still stung like a sword buried in his chest. “I don’t like jumping to conclusions but…I’m sure that’s what happened. Nothing else makes sense. Unless he was bribed by another part of the family, but that seems too complicated.”
Fiori frowned when he saw the surprise on Levi's face, nodding along to his suspicious as his mind whirled with a way to comfort him. "Brothers are not always who we need them to be. Power is… corruptive. Especially when you're the one watching from the sidelines as someone else bears the weight of it."
Levi nodded along, gradually seeming more able to grasp the concept. “That does make sense. A lot of sense, actually. I remember that recently he did seem a lot more distant to me, especially as we grew older. I guess I just didn’t think much of it at the time…Thank you.” He looked up and forward again with his eyebrows furrowed with curiosity. “Where are we going now?”
Fiori was glad that he could help Levi come to the realization, even if it wasn't a pleasant one. "Of course, Leviticus. I'm your friend, am I not? What kind would I be if I weren't here for you to lean on." He turned another corner. "And we're going to the baths. I need to tidy up, and Tharis needs a place to deliver a few of your new clothes."
Levi’s expression melted into a warm smile. He simply, sincerely nodded. He liked them being friends.
He turned the corner with him. “The baths…It feels like I haven’t been there in forever.” He brought a hand to the back of his head, marveling at how such short time could feel like so long.
Fiori grinned back at him. "Time's funny like that, Leviticus. It stretches like shadows in the evening." They came to a large pair of wooden doors. Fi led Levi through without a second thought, revealing the massive hot spring under the castle. The walls were covered in mosaics, warriors and gods of the Usige homeland, half obscured by clouds of steam.
Levi marveled at the walls they same way he marveled at the bath when he first arrived that morning, admiring it even more this time now that his head was clear and his stomach was full. They had hot baths in his own kingdom, yes, but the style here was so completely different and foreign to him, but breathtaking nonetheless.
Fiori reached back to undo his shirt and then sighed, wandering over to Levi as he fiddled with the back halfheartedly. Normally he didn't bother with a shirt- it was too hot here to stay fully clothed all the time- but he'd dressed up a bit to see Cadmus and make Levi think he wasn't a complete savage and now he couldn't get it undone. "Could you get the button for me?"
“Oh,” he blinked and nodded, “Sure, yeah I can do that. It’s in the back?” He walked around him to locate the button and deftly undo it. “Is that the only one?” He wasn’t as used to the shirt with buttons in the back. The shirts he wore at home were either buttoned in the front, or had a long v-neck collar that tied shut.
Fiori nodded, stepping away so he could strip out of it and toss it carelessly into the corner. His pants soon followed, but he kept on his underthings for Levi's sake. "Yes. it's more convenient to take off that way. Or… it would be, if I could ever reach it."
“It’s an interesting, but clever concept.” He glanced over at the recently tossed shirt. “I’m going to have to get used to that.” He glanced around for a place to sit. His feet still aches, but at least they weren’t as painful as before.
"Why?" Fiori stretched and then slipped into the baths with a happy sigh patting the rim of the pool to get Levi to sit beside him. "I would not do anything without your permission. And I'm quite happy with my Cadmus, I do not want you in any non-platonic way."
Levi pulled up the hems of his pants to above his knees, and sank down to sit on the rim beside him. He let his feet dip into the warm water. “Oh, oh I just meant I’ll have to get used to the buttons on the back of the shirts. But… I… appreciate the assurance, I suppose. I’m quite happy with my Mordecai too,” he let a breathy chuckle escape him.
"Oh!" Fiori blushed, sinking a little lower into the water. "I apologize, I thought you were referring to…" he gestured vaguely to his chest, trying his best to indicate his nudity without being weird about it. "But you don't have to worry about the buttons either! Shirts are annoying, mine are old. I'm sure they're different now."
“No harm done,” Levi shook his head to dismiss the misunderstanding. “And the shirts at my home are annoying too.” He crossed his arms and rested them leisurely on his knees. “Especially the ones with close to twenty buttons keeping the front closed. Those are our old shirts.”
Fiori wrinkled up his nose at just the though. Nowadays shirts had lacing up the back so you could untie at the bottom and slip out of them. Having to do and undo twenty buttons just sounded like a special kind of hell "That sounds horrible; do you really have to wear them all the time?"
“Thankfully, no. Only on special occasions when we have to dress formally and our outfit calls for it.” He stared down, mesmerized by the water while he talked. “For everyday wear we have shirts with a long neck collar that come down to about this far,” he pointed to about the middle of his abdomen “with lacing that we tie to keep it closed. When undressing with just loosen the string and pull the shirt easily over our heads.”
"You know you could hop into the bath," Fiori offered when he caught Levi looking at the water, scooting to the side so he could have a place to sit. "And our shirts are similar, but we have the lacing up the back. They're rarely worn, though. Many of our citizens find them unnecessary, and I tend to agree."
“I suppose I could,” he debated this, eventually deciding to take the offer. “Lacing up the back does seem very unnecessary.” He agreed, and managed to convince himself to wriggle out of his shirt and pants, casting them to the side. He still wore his underthings, though. He sank into the water, and with it exhaled a long, relaxed sigh. Communal bathing wasn’t particularly uncommon in his culture, especially with friends and family, he told himself. And besides, Fiori was a friend now.
Fiori gave Levi an encouraging smile as he sank into the water, scooting over a little more so he had enough space to sit by himself. The hot spring was the perfect temperature, balmy without starting to burn. "It is, but it's the best we've got come winter. I don't suppose you'll be too bothered though, Usige winters are nothing like your killers up north."
“Your winters are probably our autumns,” he softly laughed. “It’s a bit nippy, but nothing a hot bath can’t fix.” He settled against the edge to get more comfortable. He briefly closed his eyes for a few seconds, relishing the familiar comfort of a hot bath.
Fiori nodded, closing his eyes with a long sigh. He could practically feel the tension being worked out of his back as he sat, leeching away all the worry and stress until he had nothing left but contentment. "Just about. Tell me more about your kingdom, would you?"
He pressed his lips together; where should he start? “Well… I don’t know how important this is, but the first thing that comes to mind is that we have fluffy horses,” he chuckled. “They had long fur in order to endure the cold, especially in the winter. They’re used as leisure horses, but they’re also sturdy enough to use as crop horses as well. We plant grain like buckwheat, which is our biggest crop.”
Fiori nodded. "We have horses too, but they're big. Sleek. We train them for war." He'd had his own horse once, a thoroughbred named dragon who he'd raised from a foal. She was a good horse. She'd died three weeks before he came home. "And we grow many things, out in vast fields to the south of the capital, but we use oxen. They're more sturdy creatures, and sweeter too."