The Runaway Paladin and the Half Fae Duke

“Huh?”

 

Sien looked at Ritt as if he’d heard something hilariously ridiculous, and then slid himself down Ritt’s arm to place his cheek on his shoulder, speaking softly towards Ritt’s neck with a small wry smile.

 

“Hah, no, not at all. This forest is already mine. Besides, why go somewhere else where everyone’ll just hate me too? At least here I have some status and my own home to stay in.”

 

Ritt fisted his hands, both as a way to resist the urge to shiver from the small puffs of air he could feel landing against his neck as Sien spoke, and to fight back against the sad feeling that was growing inside of his heart.

 

“Why is it… that you think they would-”

 

“It’s obvious. The Fae hate me for being a dirty mixed breed, and the humans hate me for the exact same reason. Neither really wants to claim me as one of theirs. Well, I don’t really wanna be one of them, either; Both sides are disgusting. I’m the only one of my kind, or so I’m told, since apparently most other half breeds tend to die before they’re born. And the ones who survive are usually killed off by one side or the other. The only reason I'm still here is because mom was strong.”

 

He couldn’t see Sien’s face very well from the position he was in, but from what Ritt could see, even though Sien’s eyes were pointed towards his neck, it was clear that his gaze was unfocused, and that his expression looked grim. Ritt’s heart hurt all the more for seeing that look on the face that he’d grown so used to seeing smiling, even if most of the smiles weren’t always sincere. He moved slightly, reaching out to cup Sien’s face, and used his thumbs to gently try to bring Sien’s mouth into a smile. However, when all that achieved was to make Sien give him a confused and slightly annoyed look, Ritt gave up and hugged him instead, slightly lifting the smaller Sien up from his seat into his embrace, squeezing his one and only friend and family close against him.

 

Sien, who usually dodged any attempts to touch him, was caught unprepared, and desperately began to struggle against the hold. But, with him trying not to hurt Ritt, and with Ritt holding onto him like his life depended on it, Sien had to quickly give up, accepting that he wouldn’t be able to get away without using more force.

 

“Hey… What the heck is this?”

 

“This is a hug! They’re supposed to help people… I didn’t know what else I could do.”

 

Ritt squeezed himself harder into the hug, as if to accentuate his point. Sien looked puzzled for a moment, but as his mind slowly began to register how their chests were touching, and how the fabric of their clothes were slightly being crushed between them, he couldn’t help how his cheeks began to turn a little red.

 

“Uh… You really don’t have to do anything. I’m not used to getting hugged anyways, so-”

 

“This is my first hug, so I’m sorry if I’m doing it wrong, but please let me do it! If I can’t say something to console you, I’d at the very least like to do this!”

 

“...Urgh…”

 

The tingle in Sien’s heart came back when he heard that he’d gotten one of Ritt’s firsts. It was silly and stupid to be happy over something as simple as a ‘first hug’, but it still managed to put some ideas into Sien’s head, ones that began to expand and take up more and more space in his mind the more that he paid attention to them. He hated how frazzled he was starting to feel, and as his embarrassment and confusion at his thoughts grew, he eventually couldn’t take it anymore and forcefully pushed Ritt away. Ritt understandably looked confused, but not at all in the same frazzled way that Sien did, making Sien feel quite irritated. The feeling that he shouldn’t be the only one feeling like this, a feeling that often dominated him throughout his life, flared up. And the sadistic thought that he could make Ritt just as embarrassed as he’d been was enough to bring a mean smile to Sien’s lips.

 

“Hugs are nice, Ritt, but if you really want to help someone, there’s much better ways you could do it.”

 

“...Oh?”

 

The naive Ritt let go of his hold, backing away to get a better look at Sien so that he could pay proper attention. Seeing Ritt react so innocently and obediently to his words made an odd tingle go up Sien’s back, the twisted, mischievous feeling emboldening him.

 

“Yeah. There’s plenty of them. Want me to teach you some?”

 

Ritt nodded with a serious look on his face, eager to learn what he could do for Sien. Sien had to fight back against his growing smile as he continued on.

 

“Well, I’d think a kiss on the cheek is a nice starter. If anything, you’d have to do that, for sure.”

 

Ritt’s face immediately turned reluctant and unsure. He didn’t want to doubt what Sien was saying, but for some reason he just didn’t think that what he was hearing was correct. The only time he’d heard mention of kisses on the cheek was between people who were related to each other and lovers.

 

“...Are you sure that’s something you do to console someone?”

 

“What, do you think I’m wrong? I don’t know, maybe they do things differently wherever you come from, but that’s definitely something we do here.”

 

Ritt looked away for a moment, thinking everything over. Sien was right, it could just be that it was a difference in customs that he was experiencing. There were a dozen different kingdoms on the continent, and each was supposedly different enough in their own ways of life to warrant the divides, or at least that’s what he’d been taught. It made sense that such silly little differences in customs might arise. Perhaps Ritt felt a bit embarrassed by the thought of the act, but what mattered most was that Sien was his one and only friend, someone who said they would become family to him, had asked him to do it. Would he let himself fail Sien just because of a little bit of discomfort?

 

His eyes slowly trailed back to Sien’s face, landing on his youthful, smiling cheek. Even though his fists clenched against his pants and his eyebrows came together in apprehension, Ritt still dutifully leaned forward, shakily bringing himself closer and closer to Sien, until his lips finally landed softly onto Sien’s cheek. And as soon as the request had been fulfilled, Ritt snapped back into his spot on his seat, his back straight but his shoulders hunched, and his head turned and bowed with embarrassment.

 

Sien didn’t miss the reddening of Ritt’s cheeks and ears.

It was hard for him to contain the extremely twisted expression that was desperately trying to blossom on his face.

 

“...Wow. You’re really cute, Ritt. Really cute. I feel better already.”

 

Ritt was unable to look over towards Sien and see his wickedly squinting eyes, his embarrassment simply not letting him. All he could do was mutter towards his arm defensively, as his mouth squirmed with confusion and discomfort.

 

“I’m glad you’re okay now... But I don’t think I’m cute like you said.”

 

Sien leaned closer, getting a better view as he engraved Ritt’s current look into his mind with sadistic glee, adding it into his catalog of collected expressions he’d managed to get Ritt to make.

 

“No, you definitely are. I really like you, Ritt.”

 

Ritt glanced over towards Sien for a moment at those words, but his eyes quickly fled before he could even fully make it to Sien’s face.

 

“...Yeah, I really like you too, Sien, a lot.”

 

Of course, Ritt’s ‘like’ was much more innocent and pure than Sien’s.

 

~~~

 

Once again, later that day, Ritt stood in front of his mirror, poking and prodding at his face and hair.

 

“...I still don’t understand what about me he thinks is so cute…”

 

He did his best to replicate the expression that he’d been making at the time, but all he really succeeded in was making a confused grimace. He didn’t have enough experience paying attention to his facial expressions to truly know which one he’d been making, and his guesses all felt completely wrong. He turned his head in what he thought was the same way it had been then, and peered at himself through the corner of his eye at the mirror, but most of what he could see was just his hair cascading past his cheek.

 

“Is it my hair after all…?”

 

He tugged at the swath of hair, pulling it in all different directions to see if there was some magical angle that looked more cute than the others, but it all just looked the same to him. Perhaps unlike what Ritt could see with his gray human eyes, Sien’s auburn half-Fae eyes could somehow see something different than him? It wouldn’t be that odd if that was the case.

 

There was, of course, the obvious solution of simply asking Sien what part of him he saw as cute. Ritt had been given permission to ask things, after all, and Sien had already told him so many secrets about himself. Still, the thought of asking something so embarrassing and learning which part of him exactly was ‘cute’... Perhaps Ritt would rather just not know. It’s not that he felt bad being called cute; After all, from what he’d learned by listening to others, it seemed that people preferred their pets to be cute. Still, as a man, he would rather not have such cuteness pointed out to him. Knowing Sien’s mischievous side, it was highly likely that he’d be teased for even asking, anyway.

 

Yes, perhaps it was best to leave it as a pleasant mystery.