“Yes! Ornithology.” Levi nodded eagerly. “I’ve gotten out of it recently, but I used to write these essays on the birds that I admired on my rides around the lake.” He took a moment to glance at the tree branches as if searching for birds. As if it wasn’t the middle of the night. “I lent Mikhail some of my books about it in library. Sometimes we go birdwatching together, but other than that he usually just reads alone.”
Fi smiled as Levi brightened up, glad to have asked the right question. "That sounds like fun." He could imagine it, Levi and Mikhail—who he assumed must look like a tiny Johan— side by side on horses, laughing together as they looked up at the trees. "You should go out with him, when you have the time. I am sure that he misses being around you, it would be good for you two to catch up."
“He was so happy when I went to see him this morning,” Levi remembered with a fond smile. “He’d heard I’d gotten back last night, but I wasn’t able to visit him until today. I should have some time to spend with him tomorrow, hopefully.” He also planned on spending time with Mordecai too, making the most of his day of rest. That should also give Fiori some time to get to know Mikhail too.
Seeing Levi so happy brought a smile to his own lips as he nodded. "I am glad. It will do you well to reconnect with the people you love here. You are wise to make time with him now, while things are settling again." He was a little jealous of Levi, despite the warmth he felt seeing his friend back home. His whole life had been given back to him: his love, his position, his family. It was unfair, he knew. Levi had struggled through so much to get here, but he couldn't help it. "And speaking of those you love, how is Mordecai?"
Levi nodded along. “Yes, I count myself lucky that I only had to be away for a month. Other than the changes Johannan managed to make in my absence, nothing really changed too much.” Even within that month Mikhail seemed to have grown a year, older than more mature than he remembered. “Mordecai is doing well. I think he’s still in shock, coming to terms with the fact that I‘m not dead.”
Fi nodded and tried not to let himself think about the changes his uncle was making back home. He'd always been restrained with Fiori there in the background, but with the only person who could oppose him gone… it was a bit worrying to think about what he might do. "You cannot say the shock is unwarranted. It is not every day that your lovers rides home after being dead and buried for a full month."
“Oh, no doubt, he has every right to be in shock. If anything, he’s processing this better than expected.” Either that or Mordecai was keeping his true feelings from Levi. The thought hurt, but to be completely fair Levi was keeping things from him too. It hadn’t even been full two days since he returned home, and Mordecai had been grieving for a month. A small rift in the relationship would be expected, right?
Fiori snorted softly. "Yes. He seems very… sturdy. And he loves you. That is enough to keep him together through this, I think." Mordecai was lucky, was the thing, because he got his lover back from the dead. His life snapped back to normal in a way that Fiori's couldn't. Jealousy wasn't an emotion he was familiar with but it ate at him now, when he thought about all the things he'd lost. The things he'd left behind.
Levi leaned forward to gently pat his horse’s neck. He couldn’t help but wonder what was going on inside Mordecai’s head now that he seemed more closed off, less open to talking even to Levi. “I have faith in him. I’m sure he’s glad to be my advisor again instead of Johannan’s,” he snickered. “I can hardly imagine what working with him would be like. You probably have a better idea of it than I do at this point.”
Fi laughed with him, shaking off the feelings he'd been letting himself wallow in. "It really is not so bad as you made it sound. He is… agreeable, sometimes. Charming." He shrugged. Was that giving too much away? Levi didn't want him to like Johan but he couldn't help feeling attracted to him somehow, like iron slowly creeping towards a magnet. "Of course, I doubt he will stay this way after his injuries heal, but for now he is docile and I can talk to him civilly."
Levi couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Charming? Johannan?” From what he could remember the only people he’d ever heard call his brother charming were the girls he danced and socialized with during parties. That was when they were both still simple princes, when their father was alive and all they had to worry about was keeping up appearances. He’d thought Johan was the one who always had it easy. He changed a lot after their father past. They both had. Johan’s charm was probably just manipulation. “After he heals I wouldn’t put it past him to revert back to his violent tactics. All he has now are words.”
Fi shrugged, glad the low light hid the color on his cheeks. It was silly to like Johan, he knew that. Silly to think that what little rapport they'd managed to build together would last past an opportunity for him to escape. It was just that Johan was so transparent with his hatred, so easy to understand and so honest about what he wanted. Fi could depend on him, in some backward way, to always push back and always argue and always talk to Fi candidly in a way that was so close to Usige. "Of course not, Leviticus. I am no fool, I know what he is trying to do, but… I am a simple man. And right now, he is one of the few things I know to be dependable."
Leviticus looked down while he listened, deep in thought. He’d never been able to depend on Johan, at least not how Fiori was describing. His brother could be different things to different people, he supposed, that was clear in his relationship with Cora. But that still didn’t make him honorable. “I’ll take your word for it, my friend.” He managed a smile. “I’m just glad he’s not completely intolerable for you.”
"And I am glad that I can deal with him so you do not have to." He gave Leviticus a small smile. "If there is anything you deserve, it is to be happy here. It is a blessing to take a problem off your hands, especially when you have already done so much for me." As much as he wanted to like Johan, he would always put Leviticus first in any context between the two. Because Levi was a good person through and through, and, more importantly, Levi was his friend.
Leviticus glanced over just in time to see Fiori’s small smile, and he returned it. More genuine than his previous one. “I must have said it a hundred times by now, but it’s never enough. Thank you, Fiori. I am happy here.” He wished he could help his friend be happy here, but he knew there was nothing more he could do. All he could do was wait until Fi could return home. “If it hadn’t been for you I wouldn’t even be here.” He didn’t even want to think about what might have happened alternatively.
"It is enough for me, my friend." Fi gave Levi one last smile before he steered his horse over to the bank of the lake. He'd never seen this much water before. Usige touched the Western Ocean, but only barely, and he'd never make time to visit no matter how much Cadmus begged. When we get older, he'd always said. Later. "Would it be alright for me to dismount here? I… I've never been to… a place like this."
Levi swiveled his head towards Fi, and then seeing him steer towards the lake, tugged on the reins to follow. “Oh, yes, of course.” He stopped beside Fiori’s horse, looking over the water. “My brothers and I used to swim in here during the summers. On the days that were actually warm enough. Those were few and far between, though.”
Fi smiled. "That sounds like a nice way to spend the summer. Will you swim with me now?" He looked over at Levi as he dismounted, awaiting an answer. It would be foolish to say yes. It was cold, they'd be wet for the ride back, and Fiori barely knew how to swim in the first place, but he was in a foolish mood tonight.
Leviticus blinked, then started to laugh. “It’s a bit cold for that, isn’t it?” It had been years since he even dipped his feet into the lake. The last time might have been with Johannan. It might be nice to make a new memory with his friend. “I mean…better than if it was autumn, but still.”
"It is warm in the castle, and we can go back soon." He lead the horse over to a tree and tied the reigns to a branch so it wouldn't run off. It didn't take him long to start striping, boots first, then Mordecai's jacket, then his shirt, until he was smiling, shivering as he made his way to the lake's edge. "It will be fun Leviticus, do you not want to have some fun tonight?"
He laughed again, apprehensive. “Alright, alright. You’ve convinced me.” Levi slipped out of the saddle and hitched up his horse beside Fi’s. Hesitantly, he began piling his outer clothes into the saddlebag. “You know Cora wouldn’t be wanting us to do this. She told us to go to bed.”
Fi lit up when Levi slipped off his horse too. He laughed when Cora was brought up, taking a few tiny steps closer to the dark, moonlit water. It was obviously icy, just being close to it made him feel cold, but something drew him in anyways. "We are still young, she can forgive us for making bad decisions. How cold do you think it will be?"
Now barefoot and shivering, Leviticus approached his friend’s side. He stopped in his tracks just before his toes touched the water. This was something he might have expected his brother to do when they were kids. And yet Johannan wasn’t here. “Uh, cold,” he snickered. “It’s already chilly out here and there’s no sun to warm it up. If she gets mad at us I’ll just blame it on you.”
Fi's face scrunched up but he took another step forward, hissing out a breath as his foot sank into the water. "That's not fair, Leviticus." There was a slight whine to his voice, which had gone a bit tight with surprise. He was going to swim in this. He was going to put his whole body into this pond. "You are just as much at fault here as I am, now come suffer with me."
“It was your idea.” Levi took a ginger step forward, dipping his toe into the water first, then his whole foot. And then the other. He nearly cursed at the jarring temperature. “Gh—this. This is freezing. And to think my brother used to just…jump in. I have no idea how he did it,” he snorted. It could have been the fact that it matched his personality. Icy and lacking any feeling.