Page 27 of Inferno
“Make yourself comfortable,” Nerik said. “You can pull a couple of blankets off the bed and sleep on the sofa. Or sleep on the bed, if you want to, but it’ll be warmer in here, with the fire going.”
“What about you? Do you want to move to the bed, or-”
“I’ll stay here,” Nerik said, inching a fraction closer to the fire. “It’s warm here.”
“Do you want something softer to sleep on? Just a blanket or two can’t be all that comfortable.”
“There’s some extra pillows in the bedroom,” Nerik said, sounding sleepy. “Can you grab a couple of those?”
Yorin headed for the bedroom, taking the lantern with him, and collected the three pillows from the bed, noting that there was another one tossed on the floor, and a fifth on a chair in the corner. He also grabbed two blankets for himself out of the wardrobe, taking them back to the kitchen. “So you like pillows, hm?”
Nerik grinned. “Yeah. Can’t have too many pillows.” He rearranged himself, tucking one pillow under his hips, another under his shoulders, and the third one under his head. It was a very makeshift sort of bed, but serviceable enough, given the circumstances. But in the process, the blanket slipped down to his waist for a moment or two, giving Yorin a clear reminder that beneath the covers, Nerik was entirely naked. Now that he no longer seemed to be on death’s door, the observation had more of an impact on him.
“I’ll sort myself out on the sofa,” Yorin said, turning his back to do just that. He spread out the blankets and set a cushion in place of a pillow. With his ‘bed’ sorted, he checked on Nerik one last time. “You need anything else before bed?”
Nerik shook his head. “I’m good.”
Yorin turned down the lantern, then slipped off his trousers, steadfastly refusing to turn around and see if Nerik was watching him. He folded them and set them on a chair, then slipped beneath the blankets. The room was dark, with a faint orange glow and flickering shadows cast by the light of the fire. It was cosy in a way Yorin had sometimes dared to imagine; sharing an evening with a lover, warm and comfortable, tucked safely away from the world. And thankfully, now that Nerik was on the way to recovery, he needn’t fear that he’d lost the opportunity to do this again sometime, under better circumstances. “Goodnight,” he said to Nerik, through the darkness. “Feel free to wake me if you need anything.”
“Goodnight,” Nerik replied. There was a moment of silence. “Thank you,” Nerik said, his voice sounding thin. “Seriously, Yorin, if you hadn’t been here, I would have…”
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Yorin said. “It wasn’t exactly the evening I had imagined, but… I’m glad I was here.”
“Me too,” Nerik said. Then, after that, there was only the crackling of the fire and the slow rasp of breathing.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
When Nerik woke in the morning, his first thought was for his fire. With a moment or two’s concentration, he was able to assess where he was up to… and was relieved to find that his inner fire was glowing warmly, just as it should be, with several chunks of wood still left to burn.
His second thought was for Yorin, and he twisted around on his makeshift bed, glancing over at his guest. Yorin was still asleep on the sofa, peaceful and relaxed for the time being, though Nerik was aware he’d had a restless night. He was slightly too long for the sofa and hadn’t quite been able to get comfortable.
But despite that, there had been a few periods where Yorin had slept soundly, and as risky as it had been, Nerik had used those brief opportunities to take off his obsidian necklace, refuel his fire and correct the imbalance of water and heat inside himself. Each time had been a nerve wracking experience. However asleep Yorin might have seemed, Nerik had been well aware that all he actually had to do was open his eyes and he would have seen Nerik’s infernal form, with no chance to hide or pretend he was anything else.
By some stroke of luck, though, Nerik had managed to feed dry twigs into his fire, top it up with a couple of burning coals and dry off the remains of the water he’d absorbed. And now, with the first wisps of sunlight creeping in the window, he felt almost normal. A bit tired, perhaps, after a trip up and down the mountain and a night of fretting and too little sleep, but he was no longer at risk of dying.
Oh, and he was still entirely naked.
Hm. Well, he’d have to do something about that, but first, he stood up, wrapped the blanket securely around his waist, and added another couple of logs to the fire. He’d kept it burning all night, ready to take advantage of any opportunity to fix his internal fire, and now the wood rack was almost empty. Thankfully, though, they shouldn’t need much more wood this morning.
Next, he thought about breakfast for Yorin. Being very, very careful to keep his hands out of the water, he filled the little tea kettle from the mostly empty barrel in the kitchen and set it over the fire to heat. Then he filled a small metal pot with leftover stew from last night and set that on the edge of the fire to heat as well. It wasn’t the most conventional breakfast, as far as human food went, but the food was there, and since Nerik wasn’t going to eat it, encouraging Yorin to have it would mean it didn’t go to waste.
The scrape of the pot against the bricks of the fireplace was loud in the peaceful stillness of the morning, the rain having long since stopped, and Nerik heard the rustle of blankets and a sleepy moan of a yawn from Yorin. He stood up and turned around, then couldn’t help the smile on his face as a rumpled head peeked out from beneath the blankets on the sofa.
“Morning,” he said, aware of the way Yorin’s gaze lingered on his naked torso before he forced his eyes northwards.
“Morning,” Yorin said, suddenly snapping to full alertness, presumably as he remembered where he was and what had happened the night before. He looked Nerik over again, more critically this time. “Feeling better?”
“Much,” Nerik said, with a nod. Yorin looked so delicious at this time of the morning, still sleep-rumpled, his shirt rucked up and creased, his hair sticking in twelve different directions. “I’m boiling some water for tea, and there’s some stew you can have for breakfast. I’m just going to make some toast for me,” he added, cutting off the inevitable suggestion that he should eat some of the stew. “I’m still feeling a bit queasy after last night, so I thought something plain would be better for me.”
Yorin untangled himself from the blanket and stood up, apparently having forgotten that he didn’t have any trousers on. He was wearing just his shirt and a pair of cotton undershorts, along with his socks. Liking the view, but knowing that Yorin would hastily grab his clothes if Nerik brought any attention to his undressed state, Nerik instead made sure his eyes remained on Yorin’s face, even as he fought back a smile at the sight of his pale, hairy legs. Nerik didn’t have nearly as much body hair as many of the humans, and he supposed that it was one of the places where the witch had cut corners with the spell in his obsidian gem. And he could hardly hold that against her, given the amount of effort she’d put into making him appear human.
Yorin crossed the room towards him and put a hand on his forehead, then felt his hands. “Oh, thank the gods,” he muttered. “You scared the hell out of me last night. I can’t believe how long it took for you to warm up.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t fun,” Nerik admitted, knowing perfectly well how close he’d come to dying. “Thank you. I owe you a lot.”
Yorin smiled, a wry, affectionate expression. “I’m happy to help. I’m glad I was here.”
He seemed to realise at that point that Nerik was shirtless, and also that he wasn’t wearing any pants. “Excuse me,” he said, stepping back and slipping into his trousers, though with less haste than Nerik might have expected. “I’ll just step outside for a moment.” He tugged on his boots and then disappeared around the side of the cottage to the outhouse.