#bro we can snuggle it’s literally our nature. don’t be weird about it

[unicyclehippo]

prompt: Fjord and Beau just being best bros

‘Dude, my head is killing me.’

Fjord nods drowsily, bent over his coffee. He slides his own cup over to her and stands slowly, exhaustedly, to pour another. Beau slams the last of his drink, passes it back to be filled again.

‘Shit’s fucked, man.’

‘You can say that again. But don’t. There’s a child over there.’ Fjord points. 

Beau follows the line of his finger to Luc, laying akimbo on an armchair, almost entirely upside down. It can not be a comfortable position. Beau heard somewhere that children aren’t, like, fully formed or they have a weird number of bones still. Maybe that’s why he can sleep through having basically contorted himself into a pretzel.

‘Should we. Carry him to a bed or something?’

‘I have no idea. Looks more comfortable than the beds in the orphanage. So...he’ll be fine.’

‘Monks sleep on a plank of wood.’

‘So do orphans.’

‘I didn’t even have a blanket.’

‘I had a rag I named Buddy for a blanket. He was also my best friend.’

‘I - no, yeah, that’s rough dude.’

Fjord grins, that stupidly charming grin of his, hint of a tusk flashing at the corner of his lips. ‘I’m gonna carry the kid to - I guess your bed? Caduceus snores.’

‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll carry your coffee. I’d carry the kid but like, you’re buff now.’

‘Maybe Yeza and N- Veth can use my miraculous transformation to get the kid to eat his seaweed wraps.’

‘Or to give him nightmares.’

‘Nightmares?’ Fjord asks, mostly a whisper as he walks to Luc, scoops him up off the seat. The halfling boy snorts, kicks out a foot, but doesn’t wake, snuggling into Fjord’s chest. 

‘Dude. You had a stranger talk to you in your dreams, walked out into a snowstorm, got all wrapped up in seaweed that had no way to get there - I mean the time it would take,’ she elaborates as they make their way up the spiralling staircase, ‘to get the seaweed to the mountain, you’d have to either transport it by ship to the far north, which is all ice so that’d add weeks more to the time frame, or you have to carry it north through either Xhorhas or the Savalirwood, and I don’t need to tell you how hard that would be, either one.’

‘Right, sure, uh,’

‘So either we’re thinking the seaweed was waiting for you and people came in the middle of the night to wrap you up extreme bondage style, or -’

‘Or the good goddess of nature and the wilderness, to whom I have dedicated myself, gave me a gift?’

‘Sure. Or that.’

Fjord snorts. ‘That’s not nightmare fuel. Is it?’

‘I mean.’

‘Is it?’

‘Is it for you?’

‘No?’

‘Then nah,’ Beau shrugs, drinks deeply from her cup. ‘It’s fine, dude.’

Fjord eyes her, nods toward the closed door. Beau juggles the cups she’s carrying into one hand, opens the door with her other and lets the boys inside. She drinks again, humming happily at the jolt of the caffeine in her veins.

‘Uh - ‘ 

Beau glances up at the note of confusion in Fjord’s voice. She looks into the room for anything strange but sees nothing.

‘What?’

‘There’s only one bed.’

Beau frowns over at him. ‘Yeah, it’s Jester’s room.’

‘You’re sharing with her?’

Heat rushes to her cheeks at the way Fjord looks at her, intrigued and curious and the smallest bit appraising. He says nothing, walking into the room and laying Luc down onto the bed - the boy immediately rolls away from him, snuggles into the blankets and pillows, and neither of the friends can fight looking adoringly at him for a second. 

‘We did good.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Didn’t drop him.’

‘Didn’t hit his head on the doorway.’

‘We’re like legit babysitters.’

‘We rocked that!’

‘Yeah!’ 

They high-five and the crack of sound echoes through the room. Beau and Fjord freeze, look toward the bed. Luc snores and does not wake.

‘We should,’ Fjord whispers, points to the door, ‘we should go.’

‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, lets go.’

Beau closes the door very, very quietly behind them and passes Fjord’s cup back to him. 

He drinks.

‘So. You two - share a bed?’

Beau’s eyes cut sideways. ‘Just when we’re here in Nicodranas. Jester likes having a roommate.’

‘You were a monk. You’ve slept on the floor before.’

‘You want me to sleep on the floor?’

‘No, no, I’m not saying you have to, I’m just asking,’ he insists. Everything about him screams sincerity - and awkwardness - and Beau forces herself to relax. ‘I guess - we don’t have to talk about this,’ he decides. ‘Let’s - not.’

‘It’s fine.’

‘I’m not sure I want to know.’

‘Okay.’

‘Okay.’

They both drink. Beau slurps obnoxiously loud, making Fjord snort a laugh into his own cup, drink splashing onto his face and shirt. He splutters, wipes at his face and chest. 

‘This explains a lot,’ Fjord says after a minute of silence. ‘Like, a lot.’

‘Huh?’

‘You and Jes are - uh - ‘

‘We’re not -’

‘I just said I didn’t need to ask, I don’t know why I’m talking about this-’

‘No, you have a right to know!’

‘I don’t think I do,’ Fjord insists, voice going strangled and high-pitched with the hope to avoid this whole conversation that he started. ‘Let’s not. Let’s not. Anytime I think about talking about it, just hit me. In the head. Maybe I’ll get short term memory loss or something-’

‘That’s not funny. I’m not gonna hurt you, dude,’

‘That’s not,’ Fjord sighs. ‘I know you won’t.’

‘Okay.’

‘Okay.’

They re-situate themselves at the bar at the base of the Chateau. Re-fill their mugs and sit in companionable, if somewhat strained, silence.

‘Last night was wild,’ Fjord says after a bit. ‘You seemed like you had fun though.’

‘I don’t know if what I had was fun or if it was something else entirely.’

‘A trip. You had a trip.’

‘I could see and hear everything and for a minute it was the most amazing thing, I really was my best self just like Caduceus promised. But it was like when you’re walking on a railing or something and you can fall off it and dude, I fell way off.’

‘Yeah, you were grabbing at shit in the air - ‘

‘There were fish in the air, dude! I could see them! I bet they’re all around us right now.’

‘Nice fish?’

‘Some of them. Some of them were fu-u-ucked though. That deep sea shit I’ve read about in books. Eels. Massive sea snakes.’

‘Snea snakes, I think they’re called.’

‘You’re right, you’re right. And hey, sorry I fucked up our interrogation last night.’

‘Eh.’ Fjord shrugs. ‘I really believe him when he says he was just there for a good time.’ He ignores her sound of disagreement. ‘Besides, there’s no one I’d rather have my back. Even high off your fucking ass, you’re my first mate. Can you imagine if I’d been stuck with anyone else?’

‘You and Nott would’ve caused a riot. Veth.’

‘Veth. One hundred per cent. I wouldn’t have a clue what to say to Yasha.’

‘She’s good, though, she can read people, that would’ve been fine.’

‘Maybe! But if another guy came up to her I would’ve pulled my sword.’

‘Oh for sure. Caduceus?’

‘That would’ve been fine.’

Beau arches a brow. She lets the comment pass. ‘You and Jester, then?’

‘I’m going to say this just once. What we - you and me - did last night was so fucking stupid. We got lost, we lost our mark, I thought I got a contact high from having out with you, I forgot literally everything Caleb and Jester said in their messages,’

‘We’ve had better nights, for sure.’

‘But if I had been with Jester,’ he says, ‘things would only have gone wrong. I’m thinking instant unicorns, I’m thinking I would have thunder stepped with her and broken a pillar or something.’

‘Destruction. Mayhem.’

‘Definitely. She has this way about her,’

‘You wanna help her out, you wanna get her what she wants, like, straight away.’

‘Yeah! And it’s like, you’re not thinking with your right mind anymore!’ he hisses, almost distraught with it. Beau nods a few times very quickly in agreement. 

‘That’s it! Your brain just goes fucking wild and you go with the first idea that comes to mind and that’s always the stupidest one!’

‘Every time!’

They shake their heads in unison. Sigh. Drink their drink and stare out the bay window to the seaside.