Sweet as the Plum Juice on your Lips

Canon Divergent Shadowgast Fic // Currently Unfinished

There’s plum juice running down Caleb's hand and staining his fingers. Every so often Caleb lifts the offending fruit up towards his lips and takes a bite between conversing with Caduceus to his right and Essek can see the juice from the fruit rolling down his wrists and lingering on his lips.

He is absolutely not paying attention to the plum juice that's somehow made its way down Caleb's neck, before the man himself lifts his other hand free from Frumpkin’s exposed stomach and wipes it away with his thumb. Essek takes a deep breath and wills himself to look at something else. Anything else, because if he keeps stealing glances at Caleb he might just throw all caution to the wind and act on impulses he really shouldn’t.

They’re currently in the parlour of the Tower, having successfully defeated Lucien and gaining the allegiance of Cree, who is sat off to the side of the table, picking at a few scraps of fish and chicken on her plate with her fork, she’d ditched Lucien shortly into her fray with the Nein, when he made it obvious that her well-being wasn’t worth caring about, the message they all heard through the telepathic connection of the eyes being the breaking point. He wasn’t completely trustworthy of the Tabaxi, but he was a traitor in his own regard, and it would be hypocritical of him to not try to understand and be sympathetic of her situation.

His eyes flick to the rest of the Nein who are happily digging into their own meals too, Caduceus has a small bowl of couscous in front of him, and he’s occasionally dipping ripped pieces of sweet flat bread into mango chutney. Beauregard has a bowl of coconut rice and sweetened chicken in front of her, though she hasn’t touched most of it because she’s been stealing a few of the salted bugs and roasted pork off of Yasha’s plate, eating some herself, and popping the rest into her girlfriends mouth, who gives her a thumbs up after each small little piece, and Essek has to look away when she leans down to give Beauregard a quick kiss on the lips, the action reminding him too much of Caleb, who seems content to let the juice from the plum linger on his lips.

Mollymauk, is sat next to Yasha, he had been having a hard time eating any of the food put in front of him, the textures being wrong or the flavour making his head hurt, even the blander breads from the Dynasty Essek had offered up had caused issues, so Caduceus had left halfway through the meal, only to return 10 minutes later with a bowl that was steaming and smelt strongly of cinnamon, honey, and some strange yellow fruit Essek only saw once or twice in his brief visit to Nicodranas. It took a while, but eventually Caduceus had managed to convince Molly to try a bite, and then the tiefling had quickly eaten the whole thing, and had quietly signed in a language Essek didn’t know, but seemed to convey “more” as he’d eaten 5 bowls since it was first placed in front of him.

Fjord and Veth also haven’t touched their meals, Veth’s Shepherd's Pie (? He wasn’t sure if he caught the name right truly) sitting untouched with a small boat of onion gravy next to it, and Fjords fried fish going slightly soggy from the amount of mushed peas resting on it. Caleb had re-assured him that his and Caduceus’ food was automatically softer than the rest of the Nein's, but Fjord made a small comment about enjoying the routine of letting it soak up and soften before eating it. The pair of them seemed to be having an arm wrestling competition, that Veth had been winning for the last 3 rounds. Jester, herself next to Essek, cheered both of them on though he did see her casting a small silent guidance on Veth last match. She had a small plate of crepes and, what she had informed him was “cloudberry” jam smothered upon each crepe, with a dollop of whipped cream that suspiciously looked like a dick the longer he looked at it.

In front of Essek himself is a bread bowl of his own, though slightly abandoned, a cream of tomato and herb soup sitting in the vaguely cat shaped bowl, Essek’s spoon next to him has a cat paw on the end, and after a longer than necessary glance around the table, the rest of the cutlery is the same, Caleb's own bowl of honeyed chicken and pasta empty next to him, a few stray pieces of cat shaped garlic bread are on a small placemat next to the discarded bowl, and a small plate piled high with rich purple plums sit in front of Caleb himself.

Really he was trying to distract himself from watching the path Caleb's throat followed whenever he swallowed the small bites of fruit he was periodically eating, and surveying his friends meals and the room around them seemed like the best idea until he landed back onto his and Caleb's small section of the table, and so resigned himself to staring intently at the rings on his fingers, made specifically for him to twist and turn to his delight.

“Herr, Thelyss, are you doing alright? You’ve barely touched your food.” Caleb’s voice, a little bit slurred mostly from exhaustion, cuts through his thoughts and brings Essek back to the present. He’s looking straight at Essek though still seems to be absent mindedly petting his cat.

“Ah, yes sorry, It seems for once, I’m not in the mood to be eating soup” it wasn’t a full lie, he really wasn’t that hungry, he’s pretty sure he’d lost his appetite sometime along seeing Caleb speared onto Lucien’s Wings earlier that day.

Caleb then lifted the plum in his hand upwards towards Essek, a large chunk of it having already been bitten out by Caleb himself

“You could always try one of these? They’re easy on the mouth when large meals are a bit much I’ve found”

“I’m not really a fan of sweet things, fruits are, a bit on the nose for me” another non-lie, he truly wasn’t that much of a fruit person, but right now he was trying to not think of the fact Caleb’s lips had been on the surface of the plum being offered to him.

“That’s not a problem, Plums tend to be a bit bitter, less sweet but still nice.”

He takes a moment to consider it, the half eaten fruit in Caleb's slightly limp hand does look fairly nice, and it would be rude to turn down the offer.

“I’m always open to trying new things.” He really did try to sound confident here, but his voice wavers at just the last second, his eyes flicking downwards to Caleb’s lips, stained slightly purple from the traitorous fruit, and he has to fight to bring them back up to Caleb’s eyes.

And then there’s a hand on the back of his neck, his face slowly being tilted upwards, and Caleb’s mouth is a breadth away from his own, and honestly this feels like the worst tease in the world, until he realises Caleb is waiting for him to tell him this is okay, and it is okay actually it’s more than he’s ever wanted, so he makes a short nod with his head with a gentle noise of affirmation, and Caleb’s lips are pressing against his own, and it feels wonderful. Essek lets out a small noise before melting into the kiss, the bitter taste of the fruit on Caleb’s lips, that are rougher than he expected them to be, and after a few seconds Caleb opens his mouth slightly, letting Essek kiss him deeper, tongue tasting the full rich fruit that Caleb had been eating seconds prior, the bitter taste slowly giving way to something sweet, mixed with the natural smokey undertone that was simply Caleb.

Essek really can’t recall how long they’ve been pressed together like that, At some point his hands had found their way to Caleb’s hair and had tugged the band holding his ponytail in place free, letting soft curls drop downwards, and acting almost like a curtain between his and Essek’s faces, thin soft fingers playing with the hair he’d been guiltily dreaming about carding through for months now, it smelt, faintly of some drink he’d tried during his short trip to Nicodranas, and by the light was it better than all the times he’d imagined this happening.

“Herr Thelyss? Essek? Ah,I uhm, do you want to try this or not?” Caleb's voice brings him back to the present and, he can see a plum being held out to him.

Oh by the light. He’d been daydreaming, him, the Shadowhand, Daydreaming.

“Ah, I, actually I’m terribly sorry I have to uhm” Think Thelyss Think. He’s stumbling over his words and making a fool of himself, over what? A small purple fruit? Thinking of Caleb's lips pressed against his own?

“Essek?” And Caleb sounds so concerned and it just makes it worse, so Essek does what he was best at.

Quickly standing up from his chair, he gave a Curt nod to the rest of the Nein, and fled.