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"General Strohl!" Will heard an unfamiliar voice call out from beyond rows of shifting bodies in the market, struck by their Eht Rian accent. Through the rows of vendors, a helmeted man, the source of that call, approached Strohl ardently.
Will turned forward to the items that had occupied him until a moment ago. The fruit vendor ahead of him merely looked disinterested with the exchange, eyeing him to speed along a purchase. His cover to eavesdrop, fleeting.
"Onco, you really recognized me?" He could hear Leon answering as he focused carefully through the chatter of hawking and bartering.
"As though I'd forget the face of a favored customer when I see him in the papers promoted to State Army General? I thought I'd never get to congratulate you!" Onco answered with his arms raised wide, Will could see through the corner of his eye.
"I'm flattered," Leon said, more quietly this time, such that Will worried he wouldn't be able to understand if he continued in that cadence, "I'd think myself a terribly unremarkable customer. How fares the shop, my friend?"
"Business is fine as ever," Onco continued, "but I've yet to serve a customer so lovestruck as you were that day."
Tossing the vendor a few reeve for the persimmon already in his hand, Will rushed from the stall to catch the context. Best to hear this talk of Leon being lovestruck without the object of his affections there to embarrass him.
"Tell me," was the next thing he heard Onco say as he meandered closer through the rabble of the market, "how fares your wife, if I may ask?"
His what?
"Pardon, my what?" Leon echoed his thoughts precisely.
"Ah, not so fortunate, then? A right waste, that is. She'd be a fool not to fall for a man who gave her a gift as fine as that before an important journey."
Was he mistaken? Could this have been some past lover (or beloved) of Leon's prior to himself? Perhaps it would have been better to make himself known, or even to allow him the privacy of a conversation unheard.
Odd, though, as he swore the two of them once spoke at length about he dreaded the prospect of noble courtship, that he'd never seen any woman that way…
"No! I—how do I put this…" Leon stammered frantically, "please don't take this the wrong way, but… are you sure you haven't me mistaken for another customer?"
Will couldn't help but keep listening, intrigued by the source of this disconnect.
"On my life, General. That bracelet was one of a kind. I could never forget the way you held it in the sunbeam, waxing poetic about your friend's eyes. How the left matched the deepest blues in the luster of the mother-of-pearl, and her right eye shimmered like the gold cuff. Why, when I told you seashell jeweler is given to sailors by their spouses, you lit up! You told me all about your coming journey together, how it was fate itself that brought you to that bracelet."
Will pressed his lips sealed, covering his mouth with a hand to hold back the outrageous laughter he was on the brink of. It sounded just like him and yet, he'd so rarely gotten to see that side of him when they first traveled together years ago.
"Oh! Erm, yes, but I… may have missed when you mentioned the part about spouses."
Was that it, Leon? That was the part you missed?
Even from behind a well-stocked market stall, he could see the jeweler's eye raising practically to his hairline through the vents of his helmet.
"Is that so?" Even his third eye appeared to squint. "Well, I wish you two the utmost happiness, however long that may take."
Leon's shoulders had tensed enough to sign a document on by the time Onco bid him farewell and returned to the streets beyond the market. Even he must have found this too peculiar to bear for much longer.
Will passed the obstacles between them, light on his feet and determined to catch Leon off-guard.
"So," he spoke in a low voice against Leon's rigid back, "you brought a bracelet for some long lost sweetheart, back in the day?"
"Will!" he shouted in return, flailing his arms as he bolted around. "It wasn't how it sounded, I promise! The bracelet we discussed—"
"Is mine," he interrupted with his his wrist raised, the nacre bracelet peeking over fabric pulled at the bend of his elbow. "It matched my eyes, did it? You were quite the poet, then, weren't you? Has the army beaten all the romance out of you?"
"I—" Leon could only stammer incoherently in response. A perfect opportunity to strike again.
"I'm only kidding," Will offered, placating him with a honeyed voice. "You're every bit as romantic now as you were then. And…" he smiled, the corners of his mouth drawn just slightly too wide, "your face is the same shade of red it was that day, too."
Leon had ceased to attempt an answer at all, his mouth drawn into a thin line. "Are you done, yet?"
"Almost," Will answered, actively formulating his next attack, "but you can have a break."
Leon sighed, a sign of an answer already prepared. "I hadn't intended it like that at the time, honest. Even I could recognize that a gift of that sort was far beyond the limits of propriety given the bond we had at the time… overbearing as I was, regardless."
Will kept his mouth still, aware of the disappointment that must have crept across is features. "Is that so," he intonated as a statement, rather than a question, though there was more yet to add. "Is that why you had to hold onto it for so much of our trip, too?"
Leon turned slightly in defiance. "Go on," he offered, blood finding its way back to his face, "continue your assault on my dignity."
Will allowed the his lips to pull wide and taut once more, softened just enough to show his lover he meant no harm. But, he wasn't about to back away from the challenge, either. "You really had me confused back then, do you know that?"
"Forgive me, darling," he answered almost instantly, voice low and gentle so as to not be overheard in the bustle of the market.
"You were so red, the only explanation I could come up with was that the wind was getting to you." A low rumble of amusement dusted Will's voice as he reminisced. "And then, you said something that had me second-guessing your feelings for ages."
Leon's eyes had shot wide open. He remembered perfectly, it seemed.
"Do you remember what you said I was to you, Leon?" Will's grin had grown sardonically wide.
No answer came as Leon braced himself, closing his eyes.
"You do remember, don't you," Will crowed, "saying I was like a little brother to you."
Before Will could even finish, Leon dropped to his knees, head held low. "Please, Will, my love, I wasn't ready, then, I've told you! I couldn't burden you with my feelings yet, I couldn't even handle them, myself. You know how hasty, how unprepared I was, then. Forgive me, darling." He spoke his monologue in a single breath, panting as his finished and still not looking Will the eye.
A gentle push on his shoulders beckoned him upwards as Will knelt to his level. "Come now, he said in a comforting hush, "you know I'd never ask this of you." Guilt seeped through his voice, the rush of teasing his most dearly beloved fading.
Leon refused to budge, stubborn as ever in his shows of deference and loyalty.
"Besides," Will huffed, rising back to his feet, "if you don't mean to be misunderstood, let's reconsider declaring your undying affections for me for the whole market to witness."
He gestured down at Leon's position, who tilted his head downward to follow Will's gaze. Propped up on a single knee, he knelt before Will. And just as quickly, Leon bolted upright to the sound of his lover's cackle.
Nothing had come from that moment of embarrassment, indeed. They remained unrecognized, the market moving too fast and the people too busy to have noticed a quarreling couple with a suspicious resemblance to the king and head of the state army. No rumors would spread, for once. They could fall back into their comfortable routine of hands held below tables and kisses stolen behind corners. For as long as they needed, their love would be theirs alone.
Still, the jeweler intrigued Will, and having skipped the opportunity to introduce himself, it seemed only fair to visit the shop of the man who crafted one of his most treasured belongings.
And as he'd return to their shared suite that evening, a formality nominally meant for "security" which for their sake left one room cold and empty, he'd greet Leon with a gift of his own in hand.
"Sweetheart?" Will called into the dim entryway of their needlessly lavish accommodations.
The igniters illuminating the room brightened just to the level that Will liked, before he could even pass the threshold fully. Leon followed soon after to greet him at the door, a habit that always made Will smile when he returned home after him.
"Did you enjoy your little adventure?" Leon asked, following Will to the suite's main bedroom. "I wonder how much the places we saw on our first visit have changed over the years."
"Only for the better, I'd say." Will shrugged off his coat, eyeing the book that his lover had lazily placed aside on a nightstand. "I did get the chance to pay a visit to your jeweler friend."
Moving to conceal the unkept covers behind him, a clear sign of a rapid shift from carefree lounging to alertness at the sound of Will's footsteps beyond the door, Leon stood attentively as he waited for Will to elaborate.
"Apparently, he's had quite the success in his business since you visited him. You told me you bought my bracelet from an open-air booth, right?"
"That's right," Leon answered, his smile bright.
"Well, he has a rather spacious storefront now, so I'd say things are looking up for him." His hands folded over the little box in his grasp. "And, he's made some beautiful items. I hope you don't mind me returning the favor from all those years ago."
In a smooth motion, perhaps a rushed one, Will coaxed open the velvet box to reveal a cylinder of nacre plated against a gold cuff. Too long and tapered to be a ring, too narrow to be a bracelet. But to those who spent time amongst clemar of high standing, it's purpose was clear.
Leon's eyes widened, his lips parted and moving to speak several times before words could form. "Will, I— are you sure you want me to have this?"
"Do you not like it?" He asked with a toying sheepishness.
"No—Yes, I do! It's beautiful, I've never seen one like it. But… it must have cost a fortune."
"What, are these always that expensive? And here I was thinking it was because he caught onto me being the king."
In a sudden departure from his prior demeanor, Leon grinned. "Outrageously expensive as, say, three month's of an ordinary man's salary?"
Will paused in thought, considering the accuracy and yet the specificity. He didn't have the figures in his head to know for certain that was the case, but considering daily expenses, it seemed right. What truly puzzled him was where Leon got such a number—oh.
"Well, your majesty," Leon continued, "if only you'd told me you intended to ensure the whole country knows my heart belongs to you alone, I'd not have been so fast to correct my positioning earlier today."
Will stared at him, eyes widened at the precision of his lover's teasing. "Where did you learn to be so ruthless?"
"Only from the best, darling," Leon answered as he moved closer, wrapping his arms around Will's waist.
Will settled into his embrace, raising his hands to Leon's shoulders as the taller man gently brushed a kiss against his forehead. In another breath, Leon's grip tightened, lifting Will above his head.
The cuff still in his hands, he moved to slide it over Leon's left horn. The metal glided over the rigid keratin grooves, settling flush over the curves. Will hadn't had the chance to get it fitted, and yet, by pure luck, it sat perfectly over an unsightly notch Leon had brought home from a grizzly encounter with a melancholized beast.
As Leon lowered him back to his feet, Will managed to plant a kiss on the newly placed cuff. Settling his arms on his lover's shoulder while he touched his toes to the floor, he moved the next to his forehead, then his cheek, and finally his lips, the two of them giggling in between each.
Arms tightened around one another as they deepened their kiss. Will raised his bracelet-adorned hand to the cuffed horn, feeling the warp of the nacre and cool metal of the clasp against his fingertips. In the corner of his eye, white and gold and sapphire tones danced and shimmered in the light, bathing them in color as they embraced.