Dinner later that day had been a horribly awkward time for Ritt. For some reason, ever since their heartfelt talk in the morning, Sien had been quite handsy. At multiple opportunities throughout the day, Sien’s hands had found a way to stray somewhere onto Ritt’s body, resting on him or sometimes even grabbing or squeezing him in random places. There were also times that Sien had cutely rested his head on Ritt’s shoulder while they were sitting next to each other, causing Ritt’s heart to slightly melt, as it made him think of the young children he’d once briefly lived with in the mage tower.

 

Of course, Sien had easily caught on to the strange, slightly euphoric expression that Ritt would make whenever he did it, and had to hide his own smug and conniving smirk each time.

 

But once dinner with the Duke came and these overly(?) affectionate actions still continued right in front of him, Ritt felt like he wanted to melt into a puddle from how awkward he felt. He’d already been terribly confused as to why he was being treated like this, especially since he’d never experienced such closeness before, and had practically had question marks all over his face for half a day. But now, with the Duke clearly staring at the two of them in displeasure, Ritt truly and deeply felt uncomfortable, a feeling he had rarely experienced before coming here. Still, as a complete beginner to processing his own emotions, the best Ritt could do in such a trying situation was to sit stock still like a statue, and eagerly await the situation’s passing.

 

Sien, seeing this from his spot where he was comfortably leaning against Ritt, cocked his head cutely like a child.

 

“Huh? Why did you stop eating? This meat dish is your favorite, though.”

 

Sien reached over to fork up some of the meat, carefully bringing it up to repeatedly poke at Ritt’s tightly sealed lips.

 

“Eat. Eat this. You love this dish, Ritt. Why aren’t you eating?”

 

The Duke, who had already been greatly frazzled from having to watch his nephew act so lovey-dovey, looked like he was going to have an aneurism. He shook his head and sighed, sending a piercing glare across the table.

 

“I don't know why you're forcing me to watch this, lad.”

 

Sien glanced over towards the Duke for a second, but then quickly returned his gaze towards Ritt, continuing to poke at his mouth with the fork as he spoke. 

 

“Nobody's forcing you to watch anything, old man. All I'm doing is acting how I'd like to in my own home with Ritt. If you don't like what you're seeing, you can always just close your eyes or leave.”

 

The Duke's glare turned a smidge more harsh at those words, but then his eyes focused towards Ritt, instead of Sien.

 

“You.”

 

“Yes?”

 

Ritt answered immediately, just as he’d been trained for all those years, despite how desperately he'd been attempting to stay still and quiet. With Ritt’s mouth opening to reply, Sien took the opportunity to slip the forkful of shredded meat in, triumphantly smiling when Ritt was forced to eat it. Ritt chewed quickly, almost not even able to taste the food, his speed and embarrassment almost completely drowning out the flavor. 

 

The Duke, of course, looked completely unimpressed by such actions.

 

“...I believe the lad said your name was ‘Ritt’, wasn't it? You're fine with such actions being forced upon you by another man?”

 

Ritt’s eyebrows quirked at the question. Perhaps he was confused and embarrassed by the sudden increase in skinship and closeness, but it wasn't that he hated it or anything. And he especially didn't understand why the Duke had to specify that it was between ‘men’.

 

Doing his best to finally finish chewing, Ritt quickly licked his lips free of the meat juices that Sien had smeared on them, and gave his answer. 

 

“I'm not being forced at all, My Lord. I may not be used to such things, but I am happy that Sien and I were able to become so close.”

 

Sien’s already triumphant smile became a shade more intense at Ritt’s words, and he quickly turned to show it towards the Duke, as if to say ‘I told you so’. The Duke huffed in response, looking Ritt over with a judging gaze, but eventually he seemed to give up, and simply got up without a word and left the room. Sien fell back in his chair when the door closed, throwing his head back and looking like he was exhausted by it all. 

 

“Finally, he's gone. Man it's hard to eat with someone staring at you so hard like that!”

 

“I agree.”

 

Ritt had thought that Sien hadn't been bothered by the awkward situation at all, truthfully. It was quite surprising to him to learn that Sien had simply been acting tough all along. However, as he thought about it more, it made sense; After all, he’d basically done the same thing when the two first met in the morning. He stared at Sien’s backwards slumped form for a while before his hand suddenly came out once again to pet Sien’s hair, unbidden. As was to be expected, Sien flinched away, just like he always had. Ritt accepted the action, used to the rejection, and began to pull his hand away, but Sien caught it quickly before he could take it too far away, and firmly placed it on top of his head with a small, embarrassed smile. 

 

“...Thanks for saying that to my uncle, Ritt. No one but my mom has ever stood up to him for me before.”

 

Ritt stared at the new face he was being shown for a little while, digesting this new information, and then absentmindedly began to pet Sien's hair as he decided to speak his thoughts. 

 

“To tell the truth, I wanted to say it when we saw him earlier as well, but I was worried that it wasn't my place.”

 

“Huh? Why wouldn't it be your ‘place’? If you have something to say to somebody then just say it. Nobody's allowed to stop you from doing that while you're in my house.”

 

Ritt gazed blankly at Sien, his mind struggling to come to terms with the concept that he'd just been told. It was such a strange and foreign thing to accept for Ritt, who’d lived for so long being taught to hold his tongue in front of others and to only speak when spoken to. If it were true that he could speak freely all he wished, then that would indeed be nice, but a piece of Ritt’s mind still believed that Sien would one day become cross with him if he said the wrong thing. 

 

Perhaps for now he would think upon it some more, and try to figure out when exactly to test the line. 

 

~~~

 

On most days, Sien would stick to Ritt like glue, often coming to find him as soon as it was time for breakfast and not letting him go until after dinnertime. It was to the point that Ritt sometimes wondered if Sien was properly doing his work as a lord, considering that he rarely if ever saw Sien doing any of it. There were, however, occasional times that Sien was called away for important business for the surrounding towns and villages, whether that be for monster removal or other necessary on site decision making.

 

And it was currently during one such rare occasion that Ritt found himself cornered in his room by Duke Freylan.

 

Shortly after a breakfast where the Duke hadn’t joined them, Sien was notified that one of his towns needed him, and had left with an apology. Ritt had wanted to ask if he was allowed to come along, but he was afraid to push his luck, still unsure exactly where it was that he stood with Sien. The possibility that he asked Sien to bring him along and was immediately accused of some kind of plot or treachery was very worrying to Ritt. In the end, he decided that it wouldn’t be bad to wait until another time, after he’d shown Sien how trustworthy that he could truly be.

 

Ritt had been laying in bed, relaxing casually during one of the rare moments of solitary, unchained, and unworried free time that he’d been allotted in his life, when the Duke had suddenly entered, without even a single knock. Ritt immediately stood up, alert from the sudden intrusion, although he made sure to quickly relax himself to not seem intimidating, not wishing to appear too tense around Sien’s family.

 

“...So this is where he keeps you, is it?”

 

The Duke’s unimpressed gaze wandered over the room, while both of his hands rested authoritatively on top of his cane. The man was over half a head smaller than Ritt, and yet for some reason his figure standing there seemed to take up the entirety of the doorway, not offering a single hope of escape.

 

____

AN: If you're liking the story and wanna get 10 chapters in advance, how about visiting my patreon at patreon.com/user?u=63286737 and consider supporting me? I'd be super grateful for it, I promise. :P