“Oh, Fiori.” A warm smile spread across Levi’s face. He hadn’t realized Fiori didn’t understood his implication from earlier. “I was talking about you. Ever since I met you, you’ve given me nothing but good advice. You would be very valuable with making decisions regarding the war and your country. You know your uncle and his tactics better than anyone here. Mordecai is a great advisor, but he knows very little about Usige. I would benefit greatly receiving opinions based on different perspectives.”
Fi blinked at him, slowly putting the pieces together until it clicked in his head and he blushed. "Oh. I… I apologize for not understanding, I would be honored to advise you, my friend." A smile spread across his face. He'd been dreading the empty days that had spread before him but now he would have a job, a place in this castle. It reassured him, even as he worried about how Levi's other advisor would feel about the development. "I simply hope that your Mordecai will accept me as you have."
“Wonderful!” Levi’s smile grew wider at Fiori’s acceptance. “Oh, He’ll get used to you, especially as you get to spend more time together. He’s only cold to the people he doesn’t know very well, but I’m sure he’ll warm up to you eventually. I promise he’s not as bigoted as my brother.” Mordecai certainly had his assumptions of what Usigens were like, just as Levi once had, but it stemmed from rumors and misinformation.
Fiori nodded and for the most part he seemed content. He was a bit nervous, sure, but Levi was a good person and if he trusted Mordecai then Fi would have to trust him too. He laughed quietly, eyes flicking over to Johan. "Your brother seems to hate me in specific above all else. It's… amusing. Better than the way other people look at me, I think."
Levi followed his gaze to Johan, who had attempted to shift into his side and failed. “Hah, That seems like a valid conclusion. From what I’ve gathered he thinks himself superior of everyone individually rather than entire races. If he truly hated Usigens themselves I’m sure he would have just killed me, himself, instead of cooperating with them.”
Fiori nodded, carefully tucking Johan back in. "He thinks me a beast, but he would think the same of everyone if given the chance." His gaze lingered as he pulled away, snapping to Levi at the last possible second. "He is very strange to me. I have no idea how a man could become so proud, let alone a man raised the same way you were."
“He thinks you a beast because he knows you can overpower him. He’s one of the most skilled fighters in all of Nord Widona, but you’ve bested him in a fight before. Essentially, if I didn’t know any better, I would think he’s terrified of you.” He met Fiori’s gaze when it snapped back to him. “I wonder that same thing, myself. He wasn’t trained as heavily to be king as I was—am. But I have a theory.” He glanced back to his brother again. “If it weren’t for his war fame and battle skills he wouldn’t be as popular. He wouldn’t be known as anything except the second prince and maybe the surrogate father of the next heir, but only if his older brother somehow managed to get married to another man,” he murmured.
Fiori laughed and gave Johan another curious glance. "I do not think Johan is the sort to let himself be terrified of anything, but then again I do not know him the way you do." He turned back to Levi, looked him up and down, and then sighed. "I suppose your theory had merit. He was not… ignored, was he? By your parents or the court or anyone around him? Sometimes people are proud because they have nobody to be proud of them. It could be… a defense. Something to cover up the fact that he could easily become unremarkable without his skills and his power."
“He might not think he is afraid, or he might be lying to himself,” Levi echoed the soft laughter for a moment, and finished with a sigh. “He certainly has never been the most ‘important’ prince in the palace. And after Mikhail was born and I really started my studies to be the future king, my parents spent the least amount of their time with him. He spent a lot of the time in the kitchens, and talked to me about his conversations with Cora, one of the cooks, when we used to share a bedroom.”
Fi perked up at the mention of Cora, nodding excitedly. He adored the cook already. She felt like a breath of fresh air in this unfamiliar place, a little piece of home. "Yes! She's a most remarkable lady, very sweet. Very much like my own mother." He smiled fondly. "I told her I would bring Johan to visit her tomorrow. She says she misses him."
“Excellent!” Levi grinned, sitting up a little straighter, “I’ve only met her a few times, and I never got very close with her. She is most definitely a remarkable woman. I wonder how she’ll react to seeing Johan so…” he hesitated, searching for the right word. Eventually he settled on “Different.”
Fi's own smile brightened at Levi's reaction, though it dimmed when Levi brought up the obvious issues with his plan. Johan wasn't a little kid anymore. "She really loves him," he finally answered. "She talked about him like he was her own kid, I think… even if he's different now, she will still think fondly of him. And I think he will think fondly about her too."
Levi nodded. Silently, he wished he could witness their reunion, out of pure curiosity to see how Cora would react seeing Johan and his short hair. He wouldn’t ask, however. He had enough to worry about tomorrow. “He hasn’t mentioned her for a long time. I’m sure it would be good for Johan to see her.”
"He mentioned her to me." He wondered if Cora had taught Johan how to make fried bread or hand pies. He wondered if Johan knew she was giving him bits of knowledge from her home, recipes everyone picked up as children. "We were eating. He wanted to know how I liked her. She's a lovely woman, you should talk to her some times."
“He did? That surprises me,” he hummed glancing off to the side. He felt himself getting drowsy, and made a mental note he would have to leave soon before he fell asleep here. “I’ll definitely make time to visit her,” he promised whole heartedly. If not for Johan’s sake, he would for Fiori’s.
"Really? It seems like he has a good memory for these kinds of things." Fi watched Levi start to drift off, nudging his shoulder gently. "I am glad you will visit Cora with me, but for now I believe the only thing you should be visiting is your bed. We can talk more in the morning, go get some sleep."
Levi parted just lips in a yawn, nodding an answer for the short time he couldn’t speak. “I suppose I will be off to bed, then. I don’t want to keep Mordecai waiting too long,” he chuckled tiredly. Even though he’d taken longer trips away from Mordecai before, the reunion now was just as sweet.
Fiori laughed and slipped out of bed, pulling Levi up to his feet and escorting him out into the hall half because he was a gentleman and half because he feared Levi would fall asleep standing up if he didn't keep him moving. "Of course. Don't keep your lover waiting, gods know you've been away from each other long enough. Have a good night, Leviticus."
“Oh, that’s for certain. You have a good night as well,” Levi hummed once again as he shuffled out into the hallway. “Again, Thank you for taking care of Johan.” He turned to offered his friend one more smile before began making his way towards his own bedroom. Luckily it was only a few doors down, and he could brush his hand against the wall to keep himself upright.
Fi laughed softly, waving at him when he turned back to smile. "Of course, my friend. It is a pleasure to be able to help you." He hoovered out in the hall for a few seconds, making sure Levi got all the way back to his rooms, and then he slipped back inside. Everything was quiet as he crawled back into bed, pulling the blankets up around his shoulders.
Johan slept peacefully for the amount of pain he was in. His face, colorful with bruises, twitched every so often into an uncomfortable frown. Sometime in the middle of the night, whether he shifted in his sleep or had woken up for a fraction of a moment, he had wrapped his arms loosely around his torso.
Fiori slept like a dead thing. He'd always been a heavy sleeper but not like this, when his body practically shut down just to give it the chance to process everything. His body never moved a muscle, never tossed with discomfort and twitched with emotion even as nightmares tore through his mind. He woke up at the crack of dawn, panting and covered in a thin sheen of sweat. His hands, clean though they were, felt thick with blood.
Johan flickered his eyes open moments later, and for a moment he believed everything was normal. He usually woke up at around dawn to get have an early breakfast and spar with one of the soldiers who seemed to always wake up the same time he did. Staring up at the ceiling, at at the rude reminder from the ache in his ribs, returned back to reality. He turned his gaze towards Fiori, letting out a disgruntled sigh upon seeing him there.
Fi didn't seem to see him at all, looking down at his hands with glossy eyes. He blinked and he could see them caked with Cadmus' blood and he blinked again and they were clean and when he rubbed them together with shaky fingers all he could feel were the rough callouses he'd worked so hard to build up. He wasn't shaking, not really, but there was something fragile about him as he stared down at his hands, something in the catch of his breath or the wet gleam of his eyes.
Johan clasped his hands over his stomach, blinking away the rest of sleep from his eyes. He furrowed his eyebrows with confusion. Was Fiori…bothered by something? He couldn’t imagine what he would be upset about. Fiori wasn’t the one who had lost all of his titles and became a slave. He wasn’t necessarily worried about him, just curious. “Fiori,” he murmured tiredly.
