How To Fall From Grace [MxM]

Step 14: Fall for him (pt. 1)

It wasn't as bad as he'd thought. The street was clean enough and the houses were at least not falling apart. If Frey had to compare it to anything, he'd say the standard was actually just slightly below how his mother and sisters were currently living.

They all looked pretty much the same though, so the description Marius had given him turned out to be useless. Not that it had been great to begin with, seeing how Marius couldn't write and Frey had to interpret the directions for him. Still, it wasn't that big of a street.

A couple of children in large mufflers ran by, giving him wide eyed stares as they spotted him. He doubted they knew who he was but his appearance did stand out in a place like this, not that he minded.

He wasn't dressed enough for the unexpected and unfortunate kind of cold though. The kind where the temperature hadn't quite dropped to a freezing rate and the raw humidity crept in underneath the clothes. The snow falling down from the sky was heavy and wet, and the entire town's population would end up with solid ice under their feet should things freeze soon after.

Finally Frey spotted Marius, who'd thankfully walked outside to wait for him. He was crouching down next to the door of one of the many houses further down the street, fully occupied with petting a cat.

He did look different in this environment. His hair looked even curlier when newly washed, and his face had a different glow around it. His clothes were actually of decent quality with deep colours that matched his complexion. Maybe he really did know his way around appropriate attire.

His seemingly everlasting smile was of a gentler kind at the moment while stroking the cat's fur, and as always Frey found it hard to stop staring.

This turned out to be a horrible inconvenience as his inattention soon caused him to walk right into one of the streetlights.

He cursed under his breath as he raised a hand to his nose. Somehow, the awkwardness seemed about right on schedule when it concerned his and Marius' encounters.

"Are you all right?" Marius' voice soon asked, not too surprisingly, and Frey looked over at him with a scrunched up face. "Your nose isn't bleeding, is it?"

"I don't think so." He still grimaced as he dropped his arm, but aside from a light sting he'd managed just fine.

"Well thank Sihlea for that." Marius nodded as he scanned Frey's face, more specifically his nose, just to be sure and then turned to face him again. "Would've been a poor start to the evening."

"Especially if it had gotten on my coat." Frey looked down at the pale green, blood unfriendly colour, and then arched an eyebrow as he looked up at Marius again. "... Sihlean, huh?"

Marius blinked. It seemed reasonable that he didn't pay attention to uttering his deity's name in regular conversation.

"Yes," he replied, a concerned wrinkle showing up on his forehead. "Why? Does that bother you?"

"No, not at all." Frey shook his head with a shrug. "It's just not very common here, I believe?"

"Definitely not as common as the Archonic faith, but we're around."

"And you're still excited about Dyris' day?"

"The decorations are pretty, and I like the atmosphere," Marius said as they began walking. "And I did want to convince you to go. You're of that faith, aren't you?"

Frey scrunched up his nose.

"It's... Complicated. Born into it, but haven't really thought too much about it until recently."

He noticed an inquisitive stare from Marius in the corner of his eye, and he knew what he was thinking.

"My father was a religious man," he therefore continued. He didn't want to get into how his specific interest in the faith and its connection to his father was the result of the Scourge-pact the aforementioned had made. It seemed ridiculous sometimes but Frey couldn't help but think about it, wondering if he could still do something to ease the suffering his father would be in by praying to the Archons. If not for his sake, given his reluctance to worship something he couldn't see, then for his father. He'd still worshipped the Archon Ilara for as long as Frey could remember, so wasn't there a chance he could still watch over him wherever he was?