Chapter 459 - 460: All Grown Up.

Chapter 459: Chapter 460: All Grown Up.

He’s seen both Loac and Khobi fight many different soldiers –some for the first time, and some for the hundredth –but there’s always been something different when their opponent is each other.

It’s hard to explain it, because despite his tenure and his own proficiency as a soldier Bongo has had very few soldiers he has been so in tune with, but this back and forth is nothing as simple as reading each other.

To read an opponent requires time, and patience.

They have neither of those things.

​Somehow they just know each other. How the other will move. And that is something rare and enchanting to behold.

Something about the way they circle each other and then pounce like beasts of prey; biting, clawing, refusing to yield, only to fly apart and give chase that stirs a vortex in your chest, sucking out the air and gaining momentum and you can only wait with bated breath for it the moment it reaches fever-pitch and the sparks explode into cataclysm while hoping that it never does.

​It feels like something truly magical will happen if you just look hard enough, and you can’t bear to look away just in case you miss it.

​It’s hard to tell from where they stand, but somehow Bongo can tell they’re both laughing.

​The three of them watch the entire fight in absolute silence; transfixed by the shapes they weave and the patterns of light they forge, and even when it’s over and Loac has Khobi pinned to the ground with a foot and a sword at his throat, Mozry and Khojin remain rooted in place with wide eyes, and frozen lungs; struck speechless.

​"...Khobi said he was incredible but I never would have thought..." Khojin breaks first, voice touched with awe, and the sound of the soldiers slow counting their way up to five rises up over the other sounds of the training grounds.

"...What’s happening?"

​Bongo explains the reasoning for the five-count, and then adds, not without affection, "He never gives up, that nephew of yours."

​They watch as the watching soldiers grow more rambunctious the higher the count goes, and when they finally hit five the entire watching crowd goes absolutely ballistic.

Pulling his sword back, Loac offers Khobi a hand up, and then once he’s back on his feet both Khojin and Mozry are right there watching as he hauls him in and kisses him.

Not without passion, either –the sword gets tossed aside without a second thought and suddenly his hands are on Khobi’s face and Khobi’s are in his hair and the soldiers are tossing boots and gloves and their waterskins into the ring to heckle them out of there.

​Undeterred, Khobi kisses him back; wholly and without a care for who might see.

​" Ah ," Khojin says; a sound of understanding more than one of surprise.

​"...Khobi didn’t tell you?" Bongo queries quietly. It’s not really a question.

​"Not in as many words."

​Something hits Khobi in the back of the head and he pulls away from Loac’s embrace to scoop it up and hurl it back at the owner with something indiscernible but likely a curse.

Loac’s laughing though, grinning bright and open as he hooks an arm around Khobi’s shoulder to drag him back towards the fence.

​The fence shakes violently as they both hoist themselves up to sit on in, legs and elbows clanging together.

Khobi accepts a waterskin from one of the soldiers, takes a deep swig, and then for whatever reason –maybe Loac said something he didn’t like, or maybe just because he feels like it –upends the rest of it all down Loac’s back and over his head.

It gets a round of tumultuous laughter from the soldiers all gathered there and Loac looks hard done by until Khobi ruffles his hair and kisses the water off his chin.

​"...Would you look at that," Mozry says with a small laugh, watching the display of affection with undisguised affection of her own, "Our little Khobi’s all grown up."

​Khojin puts an arm around his wife’s waist and tugs her into him. He’s smiling, too.

​"I should be getting you back to your room," Bongo says after a moment, letting them take one long, lingering look at the scene laid out before them.

It looks like Khobi’s been hit with a boot this time but doesn’t seem to be able to figure out just who threw it.

​There’s obvious reluctance on both their parts but to Bongo’s relief they comply nonetheless.

He has absolutely no desire to test his mettle against the Iron Heart, but it does serve to remind him that at the end of the day Khojin Frost and Mozry are both hardened soldiers in their own right –playing nice for now only for Khobi’s benefit –and that one day he very well may have to.

​He’s already aware, as Gurdet is probably himself well aware, that Khojin Frost has no intentions of remaining his prisoner here.

And while he’s gotten used to his king’s intricacies and flights of fancy over the years, he can’t say for certain whether Gurdet would order them to stop him when he inevitably tries to leave with his family.

Because he may well already be laying plans to do just that.

​"...As you can probably tell, my prince has grown quite fond of your nephew," Bongo tells them as they walk, just in case he is.

He keeps his eyes forward and his voice soft though, because they’re still dressed as servants and it wouldn’t do for him to be conversing with servants so casually or about such things, "...It would probably devastate him if Khobi were to, say, suddenly up and disappear without saying goodbye."

​Break his heart, even .

​Perhaps it’s not his place, but he hopes Khojin can read between the lines; that Bongo knows that he’ll leave one day, with or without the king’s consent. And sooner, rather than later.

​"...I can see that," Khojin replies after a moment, and from the way his brow softens Bongo can tell he’s heard, and understood, "...Khobi too, by the look of things."