Hello lovelies! This is a melancholy chapter, but you know you can't get the highs without the lows. I'll post the next (happier) chapter soon!
******
In the morning Silver slid from his bed at the crack of dawn, leaving Feldspar to sleep in. When Feldspar shuffled out of the bedroom several hours later, he found Silver and Yago poring over an immense map of Paris and nursing enormous cups of coffee. He kissed Silver's temple in greeting and nodded to Yago.
Silver looked like he'd hardly slept and his face was crumpled in bleary-eyed concentration and he and Yago murmured to each other. Feldspar glanced at the pristine kitchen. There was no sign of used dishes though he was sure they'd been up for hours already. "Did you eat yet?" he asked.
Yago shook his silky black hair from his eyes with a toss of his horns and looked up at the clock. "Breakfast time already?" he said as he rolled the kinks from his neck with a grimace.
"Not hungry," Silver murmured, without looking up. Feldspar frowned. Silver had hardly eaten on the plane, and had only pecked at the snacks Yago had put out the night before.
"Do you mind if I help myself to the kitchen?"
Yago waved his hand in permission and went right back to discussing plans with Silver over the map. Feldspar found the ingredients for a decent omelette and set about prepping the mushrooms, shallots, and onions in familiar motions. It amazed him to think that just months ago cooking breakfast for Silver would have been terrifying. Now even the trickiest part of flipping the omelets onto each plate filled him with calm. The mundanity of cooking soothed him in a life turned upside down.
Yago devoured the omelette in three bites, hissing at the sting of the burning hot food in his haste. Silver glanced at the plate Feldspar had placed on the table next to him. Feldspar held his breath as he waited for his lover to reject the meal. He clenched his jaw shut against the urge to speak, to urge Silver to take just a few bites. Silver inhaled and took a second look at the plate. He sat up a bit straighter and held his hand out. "Fork?"
Feldspar breathed out a sigh of relief and handed the cutlery over. He took the seat on Silver's other side, watching him out of the corner of his eye surreptitiously. After the first few hesitant bites Silver ate with more gusto, especially as Yago began to compliment the fluffy texture Feldspar had achieved. The comment gave Silver the opportunity to brag about Feldspar's aptitude and dedication to cooking, and he did at length until Feldspar was aglow with pleasure and pride.
When all three had eaten their fill Yago and Silver resumed their conversation. As Feldspar took care of the dishes he listened with half an ear as they discussed the local fae folks' funeral rites. Feldspar put the dishes aside to dry and joined them. Yago tapped the map, which Feldspar now saw was covered in notes and circled landmarks. Silver was referring to what appeared to be printed messages from Brody's friends.
"I hope we feel him today," Silver said, his voice catching.
"We will. Brody was full of life. We'll feel him."
"You got Arnau's place on there?" Silver asked, glancing down at the note in his hands again.
"Right here. I know how much it meant to him." Yago tapped a spot on the map.
"Cool. We should go there first. Me, Arnau, and Chop all had it on our lists as one of the strongest memories of Brody. If we'll feel him anywhere, it'll be there." Silver traced the outline of his whisk tattoo as he spoke.
Feldspar leaned closer to look at the place on the map Yago had indicated. The post-it note next to it said "Tatooine."
"It's where we all got inked together," Silver said in explanation. "It's our friend Arnau's tattoo shop."
Feldspar reached over and ran his fingers over the familiar lines of Silver's tattoos, the simple lines of his favorite whisk intertwined with intricate flowers and vines which bloomed into a cornucopia of food and drink spanning the length of his arm. It was beautiful and complex work, seamlessly blending disparate shape, color, style, and subject into a cohesive work of art. "You had all these done with Brody?"
"Nah, just the first one. The whisk. It was his idea one night when we were all partying. He made up all these feats in order to earn our first ink. You already know I got my whisk for making meringue the old fashioned way. Our friend Chop got a chef's knife for prepping all the produce for Saturday night rush in half the time it should have taken. Pretty sure he got carpal tunnel from that one night alone." He chuckled. "Yago got a grapevine for identifying all these different high-end wines based on a blind taste test. Liam got a bone. It took weeks for everyone to complete their feats to Brody's satisfaction, and when we finally did he brought us all together and introduced us to Arnau. The rest, as they say, is history."
Yago cracked a smile. "Didn't Arnau let Brody take a turn with the tattoo gun that night?"
Silver let out a sound too choked to be laughter, but not sad enough to be anything else. "Yeah, for about five seconds. I don't think he got past the start of the first line of that tattoo and Arnau was already taking the gun back from him. The tattoo he gave himself that night was pretty epic though."
"Did he also have to complete a feat?" Feldspar asked.
"Tattooing himself was the feat."
The faun jotted notes as Silver spoke, his spidery scrawl next to each landmark on the map notated what Feldspar guessed were memories of Brody from each of his friends.
