I thought that I heard you laughing
He hadn’t wanted to come here.
Ard had been terrified that something would happen, that the members of the Scarab would see Erd and promptly snatch him away again, or that something else might happen to his twin. He was a bundle of anxiety, dread, and fear, each breath a great puff of air that escaped his nostrils as his ears constantly twisted and turned trying to make out the barrage of talking, laughter, singing, and so on around them.
This place was too loud. He had never liked it, and it felt too much like offering his brother up on a silver platter for the people who stole him away to do it again.
They wouldn’t. He wouldn’t let it happen. He would keep his brother safe…
… And then Erd steps away from the stall vendor with a polite farewell to the shopkeeper and immediately gets run into by a youth and her companion.
Ard feels his stomach drop with terror, a shout rising its way into his throat without means to escape. Turquoise eyes are wide as Erd and the youth struggle to catch themselves but his eyes are only for his brother, and he rushes to his twin’s side and begins to examine him with fretful glances and gentle touches even as Erd lets out an amused laughter.
The older twin straightens and presses a gentle kiss to Ard’s cheek and he swallows hard, not convinced, terrified that something had already happened and they had hardly been there, they needed to go home--
But then Erd is speaking, talking gently, pressing up against him so that their wings are touching and the rising blind panic begins to ebb and fade, his racing heartbeat beginning to calm down to appropriate, normal levels. Erd is fine. He’s fine, it was an accident, and Ard does not need to tear apart an innocent child.
The younger warlock’s eyes remain rooted on the pale colored youth, listening to her every word from his mute, stationary position next to his brother. Silence was his ally here. Even in the face of children he didn’t wish to speak, even less so when another young colt joined them, clearly having witnessed the collision. They were fine, though. ‘They’ meaning he and Erd, of course.
Nothing else mattered, not right now, child or not.
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