(no subject)

[iniquiticity]

mini fic meme: Ludvic/Rhodin, “things you said that i wasn’t meant to hear”



Rhodin had been plagued by the concern he could not quite assuage that retirement would be boring, even though he knew realistically that retiring with Fitzroy Angursell and Kip Mdang, he of the six hundred cousins, would provide ample opportunity for entertainment. There was also Conju, his sublime partner in all things gossip, and of course, Ludvic, the guard captain whom he had become content to be quietly in love with. Ludvic had never once reciprocated to him or anyone else, though many of those gesture had been so long ago. Rhodin had become settled with it. Ludvic could be the most important person in the world to him. Rhodin did not need serenades of erotic poetry.

He knew it had been a foolish concern and it was. On this perfectly content to be retired day, he took one of the many routes home from the market, his backpack heavy with ingredients and spices and pastries to deconstruct. He could - had - repurposed his sharp eye to find the freshest fish and his keen nose to find the most pungent spices. He liked to take different routes home out of habit; this one took him past the barber shop, past the back, so if he could eavesdrop on Lazo.

"... He's at the market," he heard, in an extremely familiar accent, Shaian, long palace-bent, "This works between us. I don't want to ... I don't want to upset it."

"Are you being fair to him, by not letting him decide that?"

Rhodin stopped.

"What if agrees because he thinks he has to."

"He's an adult," Lazo said.

Rhodin kept walking, only because if he didn't, he would have easily dropped something or a lot of somethings, and he had seen enough plays where the spy was exposed by dropping a ten pound bag of flour on their foot and then executed.

He would not have agreed because he had to. He only needed to make sure Ludvic knew that. He needed to make sure Ludvic knew about him, what he wanted, how his heart beat primarily in service to him.

Only the hottest hot sauce of all time would do.

He turned back to the market in search of peppers.