On The Way Home

by Erkhyan

The storm caught them still on their way, drenching them to the bones before they could reach the shelter they were aiming for. The thick canopy of trees above them didn't even really help, dumping rainwater onto them in sudden bucketfuls instead of a continuous downpour.

Hae'yan looked over his shoulder at Aen'jaar. He knew his companion was more used to this kind of travel than he was, but he still checked all the same.

The smaller An'gaat saw him looking and grinned. “My Lord ordered a shower to go?"

Hae'yan chuckled and flickered his ears to get the water out of them. “Joke all you will, I actually can't remember if I thought to provision the shelter with dry wood last time."

Aen'jaar's tail flicked in amusement. “My Lord is getting forgetful."

This time, Hae'yan couldn't restrain a laugh. “Will you stop that already?" Aen'jaar had started calling him 'My Lord' when the villagers in their last stop wouldn't stop doing so despite his insistence to the contrary.

“What will you do if I don't, my Lord? Force me to sleep alone in my corner tonight?"

“I'm thinking of it, you annoying creature."

“I'll bet you anything you wish that I'll find you sleeping in my bedroll before morning comes."

“Getting pretty sure of yourself there, Sir Shroud."

This time, it was Aen'jaar's turn to laugh. “Okay, that sounded ridiculous. It's 'Shroud', not 'Sir' anything."

“If you say so, Sir Whitefur."

Aen'jaar raised his hands in mock surrender. “Okay, I give up. So, are we there yet?"

“It's just a little bit farther, Sir Prettybum."

“Now you're just asking for it."

They reached the shelter a dozen minutes later: a small cave in a rock face, just deep enough to protect them against any kind of bad weather, but not so deep as to feel all gloomy and sinister. Travelers using this forest path would use it as a night camp once in a while, though Hae'yan had probably used it more than everyone else taken together. It wasn't large enough to accomodate their mounts though, so they secured the two brangons in a more or less sheltered grove before entering the cave.

“Well, lucky for us, there's no lack of dry wood," Aen'jaar remarked.

Indeed, a pile of it stood in a corner, larger than Hae'yan had remembered. Someone had obviously used the cave in the last weeks and thought of restocking.

Aen'jaar dropped his bag on the ground and pointed at the cave's entry. “I'll go get the rest of our stuff. You okay with taking care of the fire?"

Hae'yan flicked his tail in mock impatience. “I'm not about to set fire to the entire place, Aen. We're in a rock cave."

“Well, I wouldn't put it past you…" Aen'jaar had to duck to avoid the stick Hae'yan threw at him. “Okay, okay, going!"

Hae'yan let out an amused snort and set out to ready the fireplace. Within a couple of minutes, he'd placed enough tinder and wood to start a nice fire. He then turned to his travel bag to get the firestone. While searching around, his hand met a pair of objects that had been stashed with the firestone. He frowned and withdrew the intruders from the bag.

They were a pair of solid silver bracelets with matching etched markings.

Hae'yan froze. What…?

“I didn't know how to broach the subject…" Aen'jaar quietly said behind him.

Hae'yan almost jumped. He hadn't heard the white-furred An'gaat come back. “Aen, those are…"

Aen smiled, looking unusually bashful and uncertain. “Yeah, I had the blacksmith at the last village make them for me the last time we visited a few months ago. I told him I'd come back to fetch them, and I made him promise not to let you know." His ears flattened behind his head betraying his uneasiness, he dropped the bags he'd been holding, then put a knee to the ground in front of Hae'yan. “I got these for the two of us. I… I don't even know what I'm supposed to say now…"

Hae'yan stared at the bracelets, then at Aen, kneeling before him. Of all the things he had expected… In his confusion, the first words he could find were: “My father's going to really hate you for this…"

Aen let out a nervous chuckle. “I'd take that as one more good reason to do this, don't you think? Everyone but ourselves already assumed…"

Hae'yan didn't answer. Thoughts were running wild in his mind. He'd known Aen'jaar for close to five years now, and had gotten close enough to him to have been his occasional, then regular bedmate in the last three years, on top of being each other's confidants. They'd been traveling together for little more than two years, officially with Aen'jaar as Hae'yan's personal guard, but now that he looked back, things were indeed pretty evident.

He knew what Aen meant, and, deep down, he realized he didn't mind one bit.

Hae'yan finally smiled and put a knee to the ground in turn, mirroring Aen's posture. He reached for the white-furred An'gaat's hand and carefully slid it through one of the bracelets. He then handed the other bracelet to Aen so he could do the same to him. “I hope you remember this was your idea, Aen. And I sure hope you'll make sure neither of us will regret this."

Aen'jaar smiled, took the bracelet, and slid it around Hae'yan's wrist.

Once they were done with those traditional gestures, they didn't move, didn't say a thing for a long moment.

Exchanging those bracelets hadn't made them husbands—not officially, not until they got a proper ceremony with witnesses—, but it didn't matter for now.

Hae'yan finally broke the silence with a long sigh. “I can't believe we just did this."

Aen smiled, his ears pointing back up. “Regrets, already?"

Hae'yan laughed. “Nope. Not a single one. Come here, you…" He rose and helped Aen'jaar rise. He then took a step forward and took the smaller An'gaat in his arms, gently nuzzling the top of his head. After a few seconds, he let out another amused snort. “You smell like wet fur…"

Aen nuzzled the side of his neck. “You don't smell like flowers yourself, husband mine. How about we get that fire going so we can get dry and eat a bit?"

Hae'yan smiled brightly. Husband mine. He liked the sound of that, after all. “Okay, you've got a deal."

Aen'jaar and Hae'yan slept in the same bedroll that night. They didn't even think of having sex, as usually happened in this kind of situation. They only figured without a word that they would have plenty of occasions to do just that in the future, so they could as well enjoy something different and just cuddle to sleep for once.