Chapter 29: Visiting Orion, love in the air

 The two waited, until the maid announced them to Orion. Baliel shifted from one foot to the next. He was wearing his bright new clothes, which he had gotten with his first daily wage.

Still, they would be a far cry from what Orion wore, he knew that much. How was he going to ever get the heart of the Fey, without coming off as a money grubber? 

"Don't worry," Darius murmured next to him. "Everything will be alright. You will see." 

"I hope so," Baliel said, and then they heard the front door open. Out came Orion, jogging towards them. Even from this distance, Baliel could see the bags under the Fey's eyes. His tousled hair, and his ink-stained fingers. 

He must have worked the entire night. Something like hope blossomed in Baliel's chest. What if he hasn't forgotten? What if things will be better for the homeless in Brukleon? What if he and I...

Baliel shook his head.  A movement so small, he hoped that the lord didn't notice it. They could be friends, at least, that was for what the elf hoped for. Nothing more. He couldn't go that way, and fool himself into a hopeless dream. 

"Baliel, I am so sorry I didn't come back to the tavern yesterday," Orion apologized, and stopped before the two. "Please tell me you didn't get a day off work just to check up on me?"

"No, I did all the work I had to do yesterday, and I have today free," Baliel told the Fey, and gave him a slight smile. "And you? Have you slept at all?"

"Sleep? When my people are working for a single copper coin per day? I can go without sleep for a couple of days, but..." Orion might have said more, but Baliel gave him a stern look. 

"You will sleep, my lord, even if I have to tuck you into the bed and wrap you in the blankets as if they were bindings," Baliel said, and Orion's cheeks colored crimson. The Fey coughed in his hand, and shook his head. 

"I have a couple of more laws to consider, before I can allow myself to sleep," Orion protested, but then he looked down, and saw Darius. "Ah, if it isn't my favorite demon child. Come in, I have a mug with warm chocolate with your name on it." 

Darius's tail began to wag, as he heard that he was going to get to drink something so delicious. Andiel did his best to get him chocolate from time to time, but it was an imported ware from the human realm, and thus expensive. 

"Thank you, uncle Orion," Darius said, and then walked inside the property.

"Uncle?" Orion asked, when he saw that the demon boy was following the call of the chocolate, and heading towards a maid with a purpose. 

"He calls me uncle too," Baliel said, and then shook his head. "He has that silly notion that the two of us should..." 

Baliel closed his mouth. No, he was not going to tell the lord that the boy hoped to get them hitched. It was an impossible dream. Orion would marry for politics, if at all. He would have to produce heirs, and Baliel couldn't give them to him. 

"Yes?" Orion tilted his head to the side, and nodded to the maid, when she sent him a questioning look. The maid disappeared inside the house, followed closely by Darius, whose tail wagged like mad. "He is just like a puppy, is he not?"

"I said the same just this morning. Demon children are adorable, when they are this tiny," Baliel spoke. Orion blinked at the wistful note of the elf, and turned to look at him. 

"How come you don't have a child already? You seem like the type to fawn over them and baby them," Orion asked, and Baliel just shrugged. 

"I am a gardener. That means, I get enough to support myself. I don't complain about that. I love my work. I think the worst thing about being homeless was being so distanced from plants all the time. No one lets homeless bums around their houses, or to tend their gardens. I think that they believed that I will eat their plants. Even though most flowers are poisonous," Baliel said with a sigh, and Orion saw around his own garden. 

"If you have free days, would it be ok if you come by and help my gardener? He is an old Fey, and doesn't see all that well," Orion suggested. In truth, he wanted to see his elven friend more often. "I will pay you, of course." 

"I wish I could tell you to keep your money, but..." Baliel looked uncomfortable now, and Orion berated himself for causing this discomfort to his friend. 

"How much are you paid, at your current job?" Orion asked, curious. Baliel had not told him, back when he got the job because Orion himself had not been called by the Unemployment Office and thus, the elf didn't want to rub in the fact. 

"Fifty copper coins per day, every day," Baliel said, proud that he could save up money, once he prepaid his room in the tavern. 

"I will pay you one silver coin, for when you can spare the time to come over. My petunias look half dead, I pity them," Orion pointed at a flower patch, and Baliel bit his lower lip. 

"Don't fire your current gardener, my lord. He will end up homeless. I am certain he served you well, and..." Baliel was stopped by a finger pressed to his lips. He stared at the digit in wonder. 

 "For you, I am not lord. My name is Orion, I am your friend, with whom you shared a room at Orc's eye tavern. Do we have an agreement?" Orion asked, and removed his finger. It took all of Baliel's self-restrain not to kiss it. 

Why am I doing this to myself? The elf asked himself, looking torn. He may be nice enough not to cut me out of his life, and to ask me to treat him the same as before, but for more I can't really hope, can I?

They stared into each other's eyes for a while, and then heard the front door open again. 

"Uncles, come on! I got the maid to make you warm chocolate as well. She said she will put whipped cream on top and something called marshmallows!" Darius called from the doorway, and the trance-like state of the two adults was broken.