Korah knocked at Leif's door that morning, just like he always had, but when he did, Korah found that Leif didn't respond as he would most mornings. While this was far from troubling, still Leif could hear something different about the knocking that came next. There was an insistence in the rap-rap-rapping on his frail, wooden door. The heavy-fisted knocks that came had a certain insistence in them that could not be denied, a needful anxiety, even.
When Leif did not answer or open his door at the end of those knocks—again, not a new thing, Leif sometimes, were he lucky, slept heavily—, Korah simply pushed open the door. There was on his broad face a very serious look that had replaced the usually calm, caring one that was almost always present there, framed by long, voluminous, blue locks of hair.
Leif noticed the body language straight away and instantly felt a pang of guilt in his chest. Although he hadn't meant to, Leif scrunched his narrow shoulders into a knot behind his neck. He did this often, though he went through each day trying to shame himself into not doing so Some habits, he reminded himself often, though troublesome, are too hard to so easily be rid of.
"What's wrong?" Lief asked. That there was something wrong, he was almost certain. Certain enough to ask, at least.
"We have a situation..." Korah trailed off, allowing the knotted, pine door behind him to clap shut with a thud. "But that can wait, of course. Hard night?" Korah gently moved Leif aside to make room on his bed. It was necessary to do so. It was a small bed and Korah was anything but small. He did this with a leisurely arm that stretched around Leif's scrunched shoulders. "Easy, love."
Leif's shoulders fell with the kind mention of the anxiety his body betrayed. Although he knew he had little to be embarrassed about where Korah was concerned, his instantaneous reaction to the two, almost whispered words brought a flushing pink to his cheeks that he needn't have a looking glass to prove had bloomed there. The heat made it more than evident.
Korah smiled. It was broad and changed the whole structure of Korah's face. Leif felt that warmth on his face broaden in response and playfully nudged Korah with one elbow. It only caused Korah to smile more broadly and move in closer. And that was perfectly fine.
When the White Guard had seen the way that Leif could manipulate the elements and cast such powerful, useful spells, they immediately made him part of them—so he'd be working with Korah and his sister since that time. Leif had thought, and adamantly so, there had been some insistence from either Korah or Elle to indoctrinate him into the small, elite group that served Oasis. It turned out that it wasn't so, but in the beginning, how could he have been sure? He couldn't. He had refused to live with the others of the White Guard, behind doors and runes and walls that had also seemed too much like being confined.
He couldn't have that, not then. How would he run and leave? This was before he became quite certain that he didn't know if he could.
"What happened?" Lief asked as Korah moved in closer. They embraced and kissed as though they had been separated a very long time. In this instance, it had only been a brief, handful of hours. Many of which Leif spent awake thinking about Korah in one way or another. Always that.
"I'm not really sure, but all the White Guard have been summoned to the catacombs." Korah held up the flashing ring on his right hand. A gentle, white pulsing, really. It meant to report immediately. "I know you don't have one. That's unfortunate, but temporary."
"I thought perhaps that was your doing." Leif said playfully. "That way you could come by each morning to see me."
"Don't need a reason for that, love," he flashed his smile again. Instinctively Leif looked in the other direction.
"The catacombs?" Leif asked, gathering his tools needed to work magic, throwing them into the enchanted, never full, satchel that went everywhere with him and hung from shoulder to hip. He then began to attach the White Cloak, a cloak of fine leather that was enchanted to protect the Guard from most common attacks.
"There's nothing down there really, is there?" Leif added when he hadn't heard Korah answer. He followed his eyes and seen that he was admiring him, and not with very much attempt to hide his doing so. It was Leif's turn to smile.
"Oh there are things down there, things that only certain Guardsmen know about. What we have is a situation where a disbanded Guardsman has somehow made his way past the security posts at its entrance. Inside, he has proceeded far enough to have gained access to some powerful relics that are stored down there. We have to prevent him from escaping with anything, of course. Are you going to be ready any time soon?"
"I guess I could, but I get such little time watching you watching me."
"There's a very simple way to remedy such a situation," Korah pulled Leif close, kissed at his neck and then pulled him on top of him, laying back and hugging him tight. Leif didn't resist, he only smiled. "Move in with me. It's where you belong. You know it is."
It was a lot to take in, what Korah had asked, and it hadn't been recently. In a lot of ways they both moved quickly as their bond grew. Yet he knew it was true, and smiled in kind.
He had made up his mind that he was going to tell him exactly that a week or more ago, he was just giving it time, just to make sure. It had been so long since Leif had had something like this; this love. And the very first time he was blessed enough to have someone as romantic and beautiful rescue him and keep him safe. He wanted to make sure he was doing the right thing.
"I'm ready now, dear," Leif said.
"We'll leave soon. Just one more moment," Korah gazed into Leif's eyes, causing Leif's lower lip to quiver slightly. His chest tightened pleasantly.
"Not what I meant," he squeaked.
"You mean it?"
"Of course I do. I just wanted to be sure." He replied through a grin.
In a flash Korah was on his feet and spinning them both in circles, but only briefly. "We better get moving." He announced, and they fled from the room. Though Korah had postponed pulling Leif from the room and dragging him to the catacombs, always there was that tension in Korah's temples that betrayed he had more than just a few things on his mind.
Though Leif certainly hoped it wasn't so, he had a feeling Korah felt more strongly about the situation at the catacombs than he wanted Leif to believe.