A Change of Fate

Taking his pack from Hadrian he found the vile of potion he needed, popping the cork he drank it down wincing at the bitter taste “vile stuff” seeing Hadrian’s confused gaze on Kishi he answered the unasked question “no I don’t have animal training, Kishi found me a year and a half ago, we didn’t really like each other at the time in fact he tried to kill me, and I’m to blame for that notch on his ear. By the time we stopped fighting neither one of us had the energy to kill the other so I guess you could call it a draw we both left to heal our wounds, a few weeks later a job went bad and I found myself in a lot of trouble, out of nowhere I hear this growl and out runs Kishi fangs bared. He’s been showing up whenever he likes ever since.

 Hadrian listened quietly to Keba’s story while glancing over at his six bone horrors as they wondered around blindly in campsite looking for the next target, Hadrian was brought out of his daze at the sound of the squeals and screams of the dyeing bone horrors as they bubbled and melted into plumes of black and green thick smoke. Feeling his heart break a little Hadrian frowned at the sight before him.

“I hate when this happens . . . They are like my friends in a way, most days they are all I have” closing his eyes tightly he looked away as the last horror cried out at its demise.

Reaching out with still mostly numb fingers Keba griped Hadrian’s wrist “death always hurts, but their not all you have any more” he nodded to Basil the tiger was rubbing his head against Hadrian’s thigh “you have basil” Keba looked down not sure if he should continue “…and you have …me”

“wh-what you don’t mean that” Hadrian blushed at the sweet words and started to turn away “besides that’s probably just the toxins talking” he said as started to push away from Keba.

Struggling to his feet Keba grabbed Hadrian’s shoulder only to have his body give out, thrown off balance Keba cursed as they both fell to the ground, struggling up to his elbows Keba looked down at Hadrian “sorry I-” he trailed off at the flushed, surprised look on Hadrian’s face, he didn’t realize that he was lowering his head until soft lips met his and Hadrian gasped, tilting his head Keba raised one hand to caress Hadrian’s cheek, the feel of hands at his chest made him raise up to see the stunned expression on Hadrian’s face, Keba felt his cheeks heat, what had he just done the thin man was people shy and didn’t seem to like being touched and Keba had knocked the man to the ground and kissed him, rolling onto his back and off of Hadrian Keba raised a hand to cover his eyes “I’m sorry I..” he sighed what could he say he wouldn’t blame Hadrian if the necromancer wanted to hit him.

Hadrian was stunned all he could do was lay on the ground and try to sort through his thoughts, ‘wh-what just happened, did he just kiss me? No NO! this is not good I can’t get attached to anyone, not if I’m still going to-…’ still lying on his back Hadrian sat straight up “I …I need…I mean…” his brain tried to wrap its self around what had just happened, it suddenly felt like his skin was burning all over and the need to rip it off was killing him. Without thinking about it his clawed hands started to move on their own, as his right hand reached up and started to scratch at his chest so hard it was cutting the thin armor. “Keba I...” taking a deep breath and trying to calm himself down long enough to finally say what he has wanted to say ever since Keba first spoke his name…

“I…I like it when you say my name”

And with that Hadrian bolted for the trees and so did basil. He didn’t make it more than four steps before his knees gave out his mind still to shocked to sort out everything

Keba pushed himself to a setting position he breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of Hadrian kneeling nearby, but Hadrian’s quick breathing was worrying him “Hadrian” the thin man jumped “I didn’t mean to upset you”

Basil was at his side in a second grabbing Hadrian carefully by his arm and nudged the pale man over to where Keba was sitting. Hadrian was breathing heavily and couldn’t stop blushing “pl-please just” he gasped again this was a whole new kind of fear. Basil had managed to get Hadrian close to arm’s length to Keba.

‘just forget what I said, It doesn’t matter anyway and I shouldn’t be getting close to you” he shouted as he curled into a ball and hid in Basils fur.

 

Keba shook his head and muttered “I don’t want to forget because it matters to me” forcing his body into motion Keba stood “there should be a small cave near here, we’ll rest there for a bit” Keba took a step and swayed his body still unbalanced grimacing he asked “I hate to ask after I just invaded your personal space but, could you um give me a hand I don’t think I can walk very well”

 

Pushing to his feet Hadrian pulled Keba’s arm over his shoulders and wrapped an arm around the assassin’s waist.

A few minutes of stumbling and they managed to reach the cave Keba had mentioned, making their way inside, wary of beasts, Hadrian settled Keba against the wall and moved away.

Settling down against the opposite cave wall Hadrian took a moment to look around. Smooth almost square shaped chunks of rock jutting from the walls and ceiling, the intricate carvings and what looked like ancient writing covered everything it looked like it was once an underground shrine or maybe even a temple of some kind, looking further down the, what looked like an old hallway that they were currently sitting in, was the remains of an old shrine there was even long faded and dusty red banners the seemed to have been the victim of a huge swarm of moths as the long strands of greyish red thread floated in the slow barely there breeze.

Hadrian watched as Basil wondered off most likely scouting out for danger, which left Keba and himself to the cold silence of the hidden ruins. Running his nails through the grout in the old worn tiles, that paved the hallway, Hadrian finally for the strength to speak up.

“…why did you kiss me?” he didn’t want to look the other in the eye for fear of…’of what? What am I so afraid for?’ his mind was still spinning.

Keba flinched he’d had a feeling that question was coming the problem was he wasn’t sure how to answer some how he didn’t think ‘because I wanted to’ would cut it taking a deep breath he told the truth “I…” Keba drew his knee up and rested his head against it “you’re beautiful” he could feel Hadrian’s protests about to start “I know you don’t believe me but I really do think you’re beautiful”

With eyes wide Hadrian slowly got up and crossed the distance to be beside Keba. Hadrian stared at Keba for a few moments with a blank expression then reached out slowly with his right hand and touched Keba’s forehead….

“You must still be sick, maybe you should get some sleep before it gets worse” lowering his hand he started to stand up.

Keba forced himself not to catch Hadrian’s arm and pull the thin back down beside him “the poison numbs the body’s nerve system not the mind Hadrian”

Said necromancer flinched at his name being called, thankfully he had his back to Keba so he wouldn’t see the bright blush on his face, “i-if you say so” he hoped with all his heart that Keba had forgotten what he had said earlier and he just happened to say his name, still with he back to the other “are you sure you didn’t hit your head or anything?”

“Quite sure” Sighing Keba spread out a blanket and lay down, his head on his pack “are you okay to keep an eye on the entrance Hadrian?”

Another flinch ran down his spine, he straightened up just a bit and without turning around he nodded and spoke “yeah …I think I’m gunna go find basil but I will be close by if you …need anything” as the already bright blush turned a shade brighter Hadrian started to walk off in search of basil.

Watching Hadrian leave Keba struggled to relax he was half afraid Hadrian would run while he was asleep but he had little choice sleep would help the antidote work faster, closing his eyes he willed himself to sleep

Rounding the corner Hadrian spotted a fresh corpus, “Basil must have done this well waste not” and with that he animated the fresh kill into a headless bone fiend, as it wiggled and twitched into being, Hadrian reached out his hand a bit and the minion happily trotted to it master. Smiling faintly and petting its blood covered spine Hadrian cooed at it “aww you’re so cute” then hiding his smile with a slightly stern look he let his hand drop to his side “go scout around the entrance and take down anyone who tries to enter” the boney minion gave a small shriek that it understood and it turned quickly and trotted off to do its masters bidding.

After the bone horror was out of sight Hadrian turned and started to climb up a large stone stair that looked a lot like Yoko’s house. At the top was a nice place to see both entryways of the cave.

Opening his eyes Keba noted the light at the caves entrance had moved, he guessed about an two hours had gone by, standing he was glad to find his body was back to normal, gathering up his and Hadrian’s

Packs Keba went in search of the thin man, catching a glimpse of a human shape at the top of a flight of old stairs Keba began to climb, at the top he smiled and moved to set beside Hadrian “thank you”

Hadrian stretched his sore limbs out, “what for?” he twisted to the right away from Keba and felt more than heard he whole spine pop all the way to his neck. “ahh~” was the satisfied sound he made as he turned back around, looking up at Keba he smiled faintly “how do you feel? No more crazy thoughts?” he joked lightly.

Keba felt a bit of mischief stir at Hadrian’s question and the cute ahh sound he made spired him on leaning over Keba placed a hand under Hadrian’s chin so that he couldn’t look away “for keeping watch” leaning forward he placed a soft kiss on Hadrian’s lips, he couldn’t help but smile at the stunned expression on Hadrian’s face “I feel fine”

Gasping in surprise, Hadrian jerked back away from Keba almost falling off his high perch “what? Why? Why would you do that?” of course Hadrian would never admit it aloud that he liked the feeling of Keba’s kiss, or kisses, “why do I feel so tingly, am I going numb as well” not meaning to voice that last bit he brought his fingertips up to his lips, he could feel the heat from his blush.

Keba couldn’t help but grin at Hadrian “you’re cute when you blush” Hadrian frowned and Keba brushed his fingers against his cheek, moving his hand to cup the back of Hadrian’s head Keba pulled him closer and gave him another kiss the soft whimper encouraged him to deepen the kiss, licking at Hadrian’s bottom lip he encouraged the thin man to open his mouth. Giving a soft moan Hadrian complied and Keba brushed his tongue against Hadrian’s.  brushing his fingers down Keba worked on Hadrian’s shirt, breaking the kiss he kissed down Hadrian’s neck as he slipped his hands into Hadrian’s opened shirt, the feel of bandages pulled Keba from the heat that had been fogging his mind, pulling back Keba sighed and began to refasten Hadrian’s shirt.

Hadrian felt like a fog had filled up the room or maybe just his mind, he didn’t even noticed that Keba had gotten his shirt open till after he had started putting it back on him, trying to shake the hazy feeling out of his mind he reached out to Keba carefully placing a sharp claw like hand on the others to halt his movement “wh-what are you doing” he asked breathlessly trying to get up to speed with the events that just happened.

Keba bowed his head “you’re injured, I don’t want to reopen the cut” he blushed “and here’s probably not the best place for what I had in mind”

“EH!!! And wh-wh-what di- no NO no no no!” Hadrian pushed away from Keba and jumped up his face blood red from the hard blush, without saying a word Hadrian jumped off the high lookout as fast as he could just about falling on his face from that last step, finding his footing Hadrian flattened himself against the cave wall holding his half opened shirt tightly in his claws, his breathing was very rushed and he felt dizzy ‘oh no this, this is really bad’ he thought to himself his breathing picking up speed “he…he really is dangerous” starting to calm down he looked down to where the cut was that Keba had giving him, remembering that day left mixed emotions in his head and heart all of the sudden.

Keba sighed as Hadrian ran away he was starting to notice a pattern any time the necromancer felt shy or embarrassed he ran, Keba newest challenge was to figure out how to stop Hadrian from running, standing Keba headed after the shy man. After climbing down from the rocky ledge, he could hear the fast paced breathing of one shy necromancer, rounding the corner he spoke in a in a smooth, cool voice

“Hadrian must you always run from me?” he smiled lightly

“what?” Hadrian shivered at the way Keba said his name, pressing even closer to the wall he did his best to hide. Keba reached out and caught the shy necromancer by his thin wrists and pinned them to the wall, seeing the deep blush still coloring Hadrian’s cheeks made that bit of mischief feeling bubble up to the surface again.

“Keba!” a touch of panic colored Hadrian’s voice at the fact he could no longer get away.

“you can’t run forever Hadrian” he bent until they were a breath apart “I won’t let you” giving him a hard kiss Keba eased back and caressed Hadrian’s cheek “we should get going”

With his mind spinning and his face heating up even more all Hadrian could do was mutely nod his head in agreement and follow Keba as they started walking toward the cave entrance, meeting up with Basil who was waiting for them on a rocky ledge. Basil jumped down and quickly made his way to Hadrian, rubbing his head against his thigh but when Hadrian kept walking, Basil tilted his head in confusion but trotted along anyway.