Chapter Text
“Hey, Chilchuck, wait a second!”
Hearing that voice made Chilchuck grit his teeth, face tightening into a scowl. He did halt in the street, but only looked over his shoulder, not bothering to turn around as the tall-man behind him jogged a few paces to catch up. “What?” he asked, hoping his tone made it clear he was not in the mood to linger. The job was done, thank heavens, and he intended to go to the nearest tavern and drink until he could drown out the more unpleasant memories.
Laios Touden was the absolute last person he wanted to be talking to right now, but Chilchuck wasn’t fool enough to be outright rude and dismissive to the man, no matter how much of an imbecile he’d proved himself to be during this week’s dungeon dive. It was more important for Chilchuck to keep in mind that the tall-man had paid him up-front, and not many parties had been willing to do so for his services lately. Not only that, but despite the unpleasantness that came with such a dysfunctional party, they’d actually managed to make it to the third floor and back in relatively good time and with some decent loot. All things considered it had been a quick, profitable trip — the sort Chilchuck wouldn’t mind being part of again. Even it it meant dealing with such an obvious greenhorn who had zero skill when it came to leadership.
(A small part of Chilchuck wondered if he was being too harsh. Despite his flaws, Laios had been at the head of this successful trip, hadn’t he? Didn’t he deserve some credit for making sure things had gone well? At least he hadn’t gotten any of them frivolously killed. Then Chilchuck remembered one of the many instances that Laios had pissed him off, and he ruthlessly snubbed any sympathetic thoughts.)
Laios eased to a stop, looming over Chilchuck and staring directly down into the half-foot’s brown eyes with his intense yellow ones. “Can I buy you a drink?”
Chilchuck’s eyes bulged, his jaw nearly dropping as an unpleasant feeling made his skin erupt with goosebumps. Dozens of thoughts raced through his head at such a speed he felt dizzy: What the hell was this guy’s problem? Did he really think Chilchuck might be interested after that embarrassing display of mildly infuriating incompetence? As if Chilchuck would ever let a tall-man try courting him! Was Laios even interested in men? In half-foots? Had Chilchuck gotten that impression at all since they’d been introduced? Dandan hadn’t mentioned anything like that, but maybe he hadn’t thought it was his business to— and wait, why did Chilchuck care? He’d never accept an offer like that from Laios Touden!
Chilchuck opened his mouth to immediately curse the guy out in at least two different languages, probably kick him, and then let the asshole know that he could find a new half-foot to leer at, because like hell Chilchuck would ever get involved with a party leader; he hated when this sort of thing happened! Besides, Chilchuck had seen the way Laios treated that auburn-haired mage; what was this guy’s problem? Was he seriously trying to flirt with two party members at once?
Before his impassioned rant could erupt into reality, Laios cut him off by saying, “Wait, I don’t know if you like to drink alcohol. I guess it doesn’t have to be alcohol, specifically, but people usually mean that when they ask, right? I could just buy you something else, if you prefer. Maybe a meal? I could cover tonight’s dinner instead!”
Chilchuck felt his cheeks burn — with anger or mortification, he wasn’t sure. Probably both. But Laios’ fumbling words gave Chilchuck a moment to consider he might be interpreting the tall-man’s invitation incorrectly.
He’d noticed, more than once within the last week, that Laios had a tenancy to say one thing while meaning another. It was annoying and happened often enough that Chilchuck had begun to wonder if he did it on purpose. He’d dealt with shitty team leaders who acted similarly before, slyly wording things and framing conversations so they could blame mistakes on others, shunting any responsibility from themselves onto other party members for “misunderstanding” their instructions.
Then there had been an instance where Falin, Laios’ younger sister, thought to clarify one such statement. Laios had seemed genuinely surprised that the others might have misinterpreted his meaning and had reworded his instructions very carefully. That got Chilchuck thinking that Laios just wasn’t very mindful of how he phrased things, and there were certainly many other times he proved he had poor communication skills. It seemed impossible for Laios not to know how this offer would come across, but Chilchuck was coming to the realization that assuming Laios had any level of self-awareness was giving him too much credit.
Glaring up at the man who was standing too close, Chilchuck asked, “Why do you want to buy me anything, Laios? You just paid me commission for a job, and that came after covering my contract. If you want to get pedantic about it, I’m about to go spend your money anyway.”
That seemed to stump him for a moment, but Laios shrugged it off. “I just wanted to. To say thank you.”
“Thank you? For what?”
“For helping us! I know I complained about your rates before, but you really helped out a lot, and so now I feel bad about making such a big fuss over it. You were totally worth the price! Can you come down with us again next time?”
Chilchuck was slack-jawed again. He was still trying to process… a lot of things (You were totally worth the price!) His body, recognizing that his brain was having a difficult time, decided to shift to autopilot. Without permission, his mouth formed the words, “Go ahead and buy me that drink. I’ll decide after.”
The way Laios’ face lit up at his acceptance was much too bright for Chilchuck, who hurriedly spun on his heel and began to march away. He didn’t have to look to see if the tall-man was following, hearing the guy’s heavy, clumsy footsteps with ease, even among the dozens of other people making their way down the street.
This was probably a mistake, Chilchuck thought, but at least it wasn’t Laios trying to ask him out. Anything was preferable to that.