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"Massster..." this came from a disembodied head floating in front of Raistlin's desk. The archmagus didn't look up immediately, busy scratching writing onto a piece of flattened parchment, the quill in his thin golden fingers practically vibrating with the speed of his notes.

Genessia was a land of fascinating marvels. He'd be sure not to forget a single one.

"Masssster pleasssse," the head tried a second time.

Finally, Raistlin glanced up, impatient at the interruption. "What?"

"Therrrre is an intruderrr in the Grrove."

That. That was interesting, and Raistlin's hand finally stilled. "In the Grove, you say?"

"Yesssss. The defenderrrssss have not been able to kill it..."

Extremely interesting. Something from Genessia, no doubt, nothing else would make sense. The blackrobe dabbed the last of the ink off the feather quill onto a pad and set the instrument aside, and then took the time to carefully close up the inkwell. This could take a while.

And so it was that whatever this stranger was doing, he suddenly wasn't the only living creature in the dark, ancient grove. Raistlin lurked in the deepest shadows, silently watching.

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"...Yes."

The nightmares were going to wreck him, Raistlin could feel it. Every time he'd almost dozed off while Wade was off getting the book, he'd felt them clawing up from behind his eyelids. Brushing up against death could do that to a person, when death was something they feared.

"You needn't feel obligated to stay." A reminder. He'd asked Wade to stick around, but it had been a request, not a demand.

Gods knew this wouldn't be his first rodeo handling his personal demons in the tower, alone.

"I said I'd stay, even if it does mean sitting here and watching you sleep." Well, it was pretty clear there was some hangup about sleep. He couldn't actually follow Raistlin into the land of dreams, but he could definitely hang out in this room and play flappy bird on mute until the other man woke up.

"I mean if you're cool with that, I'm cool with it too."

"Volunteering to guard my sleep, are you?"

"Yeah sure why not? Seems like a pretty solid thing to do, unless you don't want me to."

"I... would not mind. It is something my brother did, sometimes."

During the better years of the twins' lives, when their dynamic hadn't been so terrible.

"See? Solid. Brother solid. I'll camp out here and wait for you to wake up, no problems."

"Very well."

Saving him from certain death and now hanging out so that Raistlin can sleep properly? Definitely a big solid, good job Wade.

Raistlin didn't fight it any longer, letting his strange eyes slip shut. After only about a minute, his breathing leveled out with only the occasional wet nastiness, and the lines of his face eased.

Asleep. No snoring, no moving around. He actually looked his real age, when asleep, and the resemblance to Caramon was a great deal more obvious to those who knew them both.

It wasn't a solid eight hours, of course. But quite a few hours passed before the mage woke again, eyes re-opening. None of the nightmares threatening him had made it to the forefront, thanks to the subconscious knowledge that he wasn't alone in the room.

He... wasn't, right?

Edited 2019-08-08 06:44 (UTC)

Oh he'd still be there. Still awake, of course, still in the same place he'd been when he said he'd stay, no hint that he'd ever even gotten up. Just tooling around on his phone, nice and quiet with the sound fully muted.

A glance up, and he'd catch that the other man's eyes were open.

"G'morning, sugar snap." Yep.

Still fucking here.

"Why are you calling me that?"

Raistlin, why you gotta be pissy instantly after waking up?

"Do you need coffee?" That seems like the more pressing question here. Pissy.

"...What is coffee?"

Oh boy something new to teach the high fantasy wizard about!

"It's like tea, but better. Buuuut, I'm gonna have to go get some because, and I might be wrong here, I don't think you have any in the tower."

A drink, then. It didn't sound abhorrent, anyway, not like food.

"Very well." If Wade was going out to fetch something, it would give Raistlin a chance to finally get dressed again in private.

"Awesome, I'll be back in a bit. Hey, you like sweet stuff or more bitter? Coffee's got flavors."

"Between the two? Sweet." But keep in mind, Wade, the lack of sugar in high fantasy land. Go easy on it!

Okay so maybe not a unicorn frap but he'll bring back something sweet! He'll bear in mind the lack of sugar, really.

Seriously, not a bit. He'll remember.

It'd take a while of course, to go, get the actual drink, and come back. Distance and the line and the wait time, etc. Plenty of time for Raistlin to get all of his clothes back on and probably even get some decent reading done before the merc would return, clutching an iced coffee for Raistlin....

And a fucking unicorn frap for himself, shut up no one said he couldn't have one.

"Alright, so this shit comes hot and cold, I got you the cold one, seemed like the better choice of the two."

It was true! Raistlin had had plenty of time to get dressed, and was now sitting in the study again. Everything that had fallen from the desk during his own tumble had been stacked back up onto it, and he of course had a few books open.

The mage looked up at Wade's entrance, of course. "I will trust your judgement on such matters."

Wow that was a colorful thing in Wade's other hand. What the fuck.

The less colorful drink was set down in front of Raistlin, straw already in it, while Wade sat back in another seat to take a long, slow, indulgent slurp from the unicorn frap.

"You got full caf there by the way, so if you're still tired, you're about to be not tired anymore." Just gonna guess that's the case, he's pretty sure caffeine isn't actually a thing in high fantasy land either.

"Full... caf?" The hell is caf? Raistlin lifts the drink and turns it around in his hands, trying to puzzle out how to drink it between the lid and the unfamiliar object that was a straw.

"You suck the drink out through the straw. It's so you don't actually have to hold the cup and warm up the drink if you don't wanna." He'd taken his phone out again, scrolling through it as he took another slurp.

"Yeah, caf. Caffeine. It's like the exact opposite of alcohol."

...Huh.

"It feels like... ice. There is ice in here?" Wade had said he'd gotten the cold one, was that how they managed to make it as such? How were they storing ice in this season? Someone's cellar? He'd heard of that method, although it wasn't common practice in Ansalon.

Well.

May as well give it a try.

Cue a little sip and then he had to sit there and think about it for a minute.

"Yeah, it's iced coffee." Again, super casual, the rattling of his own drink betraying all the ice his own had too.

"I got it more subtle sweet, I figured medieval magic land doesn't have a whole lot of caramel and chocolate syrup pumps just laying around."

"You would be correct, there, considering I don't even know what those are."

Any of it, really. He hadn't spent much time at all in Genessia proper before opening the way to his tower and doing most of his studying of the world from afar.

"I'll get a sample later." Why not? Why not introduce his new best friend to some edible shit that's got a shelf life of fifty plus years? Looked like the man needed it.

"Coffee's probably the worlds most popular drink though. Drink enough of that, and you'll probably find out why."

"The caffeine?"

A drink that made one less tired? He could definitely see the appeal. Another cautious sip -- either the flavor was okay, or not bad enough to ward him off.