A Drink Before Battle [M/M] ✅

6: Buck Up, Kid

Sevei sat on the ground, leaning against a hard and lumpy pack of gear, eating a handful of various bland dried things, and wondering how he would ever survive roughing it in a military camp now. After dragging himself out of that heavenly bed in the pre-dawn, he'd had a breakfast cooked by a chef who could work for the King followed by a long soak in Kyrzhan's gigantic bathtub, with a half-dozen lovely young men massaging his shoulders and adding hot water whenever it began to cool. He had smelled like a flower when he'd arrived outside the city for muster. Five hours on the road under the warm springtime sun had long since taken care of that.

His second-in-command, First Constable Evaran Yanek, threw an empty walnut shell at him.

"What are you sighing about?" Yanek said with a grin. "Miss your paramour already?"

Sevei closed his eyes for a moment, and a pair of emerald orbs appeared against his eyelids. He shook his head and threw the walnut shell back.

"Yeah," he laughed. "Your mom says hello."

"Oh, you're such a philanthropist! My mother is not a good-looking woman, bless her." The walnut shell was launched again.

"One can tell that by looking at you." Sevei landed the shell square in the middle of Yanek's forehead.

A chorus of laughter sounded around them, and Yanek gave a good-humored grimace while rubbing at his face.

"I didn't see you around the party last night," he said. "I thought you'd pissed off to bed early, but you were in an awfully good mood this morning, and now here you are pining like a maiden. Must have been a good night."

Sevei glared daggers at him for a moment, then one side of his mouth quirked as his gaze slid away.

"It was alright," he mumbled. "A little confusing..." he then mused, "but not bad."

"Do tell!" Yanek said dramatically.

Sevei glared again and raised an unopened walnut in his hand, aiming at his face again.

"Never mind!" Yanek yelped, waving his hands in surrender. "Keep it to yourself!"

Sevei cracked the walnut open and popped a piece into his mouth. Seeing the General thus unarmed, Yanek had to try for the last word.

"Well, wherever you were last night, you sure smelled pretty this morning."

"Yeah..." a young man sitting near Yanek guffawed, "the rest of us all smelled like cheap whores!"

Everyone within earshot began to snicker and slap their knees.

"Soldier!" Sevei barked.

The young man's rations tumbled to the ground as he snapped to his feet, a fist over his heart in salute.

"Yes, General!"

"Don't use that word in my presence," Sevei said. He spoke calmly, but his expression was hard, and an angry flame shone in his eyes. "Those people – people," he emphasized, "are just doing their best to get by in this world, same as the rest of us. There's no need to insult them."

Silence descended over all of the men as this poor boy's face turned beet red while he trembled in his boots.

"Yes, General!" he answered. "Thank you for your instruction!"

Sevei stared him down for another very long moment, then nodded and began to crack another walnut lazily.

"As you were," he muttered.

The soldier sat down again and gave a passing glance to his spilled lunch before turning away in defeat.

"Don't waste food, Soldier" Yanek said to him sternly.