All the Things He Said

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The night started off normally, he went with Octavius on a ride around the museum in their
little toy car and played with Rexy for a little while, they also watched some cat videos
on the computer which gave Jed a chance to take a look closely at his friend.

There was something wrong with Octavius, his shoulders are visibly slumped, his face is drawn and devoid of the smile, that usually rests there. It's pretty alarming, Octavius is rarely this sad, most of the time only when he gets reminded of something from his past life but that doesn't happen really often. Jed tries to think if one of those memories could've been triggered tonight,
but there isn't anything that he can come up with.

"Jed?"

Guess this thinking showed on his face more than he thought. Jed focused on his friend's
confused face. "Yeah?" Octavius eyed him weirdly. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?" he has to save himself somehow. "Like there is something on my face. Yours is
all scrunched up." he doesn't like this frown on the Romans' face at all. Sadness doesn't look good on Octavius overall, he is too pretty for that. Jed's eyes widened, pretty? Did he just described Octavius as pretty, Octavius the Roman general, his best friend, the only one he fully trusts, the-

It's getting way too far.

"Jed!"

Jedediah visibly jumped "Why are ya screamin' for?" , he focused on Octavius again, and oh no
the frown is even more deepened, that's even worse, "I called your name a few times and you
didn't answer, it seemed that you needed something more attention-grabbing than regular
volumed voice." he answered tilting his head along the way as he explained. "Oh, really? Didn't hear ya, sorry"

"Obviously" the Roman murmured, looking back at the top of the desk, eyes full of salty liquid that he barely stopped from spilling down his cheeks. "Hey, what's wrong? You have been really quiet for the whole night and thinking about it now, you have been off for a few nights now."

Octavius tensed at that, "N-nothing is wrong, everything is fine!" he nervously laughed it
off, like Jed couldn't see the trembling in his hands or the way his eyes darted between
Jeds face and the wall, also as if the stuttering didn't give the Roman general right away. Octavius never stutters unless there is something really bothering him, but even then he won't give anything away if both of them aren't alone, he is a general of the Roman army, covering that kind of stuff comes with the job description.

The fact that Octavius trusts him so much that he doesn't cover up instinctively will never stop the warm feeling that spreads through his heart. "Are you tryin' to bullshit me or yourself?" Jedediah challenged, he wasn't fooled.

Jed could see the shift in Octavius's expression, he wasn't speaking to Octavius the friend anymore, now sitting there was Octavius the General, in the place of nervousness was a mask of calmness that covered everything that was there before. He couldn't really see it, but Jed knew that it was terribly forced. "You don't need to worry about me, my friend. Everything is ok, even if it wasn't, I would be able to deal with it on my own," he replied with an easy smile like he wasn't almost crying, like a minute ago.

"But that's the thing, you don't have to deal with it alone! You can talk to me, or Larry, or Teddy, or Wea, or Ahk, or, I don't know, anyone from your army! There has to be someone there who you can talk to!" Jedediah exclaimed.

The mask of fake calmness, as good as it was, was crumbling down piece by piece, it showed more on the Romans body than his face. The hands that were clenched so hard that Jed feared they will start to bleed, the tensed shoulders and the clenched jaw, but Octavius's expression didn't waver. "Please, talk to me Tavi" Jed whispered sincerely, brows furrowed.