"No, no, no, no, that's not what happened!" Syri laughed as he shook his finger at Estan who was in the middle of telling Brenton the story of how Syri slipped in the stream one day and tripped Estan during his fall, so they both ended up soaked. "You fell completely on your own!" Syri's laugh was loud and high-pitched as he threw back his head and cackled as he recalled the hilarious memory, causing Estan and Brenton to join him in laughing.
The cabin was bright and warm as the three sat around the table after completing their meal and shared embarrassing stories.
"Oh! Oh! Oh! I've got one!" Syri proclaimed as he raised his hand. "This one time Inso tried to ride Dyren, and that horse nearly ate his hair! You should have heard Inso's scream when he felt Dyren nose his head!" The zeta's story caused the gamma and rho to roll in their seats as they laughed from watching Syri attempt to replicate Estan's face when the horse attempted to eat his hair.
"Heyyyyy, I thought we promised to not tell anyone about that one!" Estan called out between laughs as he tried to catch his breath.
"That's what we agreed on for the stream one, too!" Syri returned with a giggle, causing the two to burst out into a fresh laugh.
Brenton's eyes were bright as he gazed at the zeta softly as he watched Syri laugh and smile. The gamma and zeta were caught up in their little dispute, so neither of them noticed the rho completely falling for the zeta...even more than he already had. The poor rho was gone; there was no saving him. Even the slightest glance from the zeta caused Brenton's cheeks to flush as he wished Syri would smile at him all the time. But, deep down, Brenton knew Syri saw him as only a friend. The zeta's heart had already been stolen. It had been taken long before Brenton even came into the zeta's life by a man Brenton had never met.
But that did not stop the rho from longing for the zeta with every waking moment, and this dinner was not helping at all. Brenton had only fallen deeper. And it was getting dangerous. Brenton knew that if he did not stop now, he would never be able to.
Little Syri was completely unaware of the rho's feelings and continued to smile at the man whom he thought of as a friend. Had he been aware of Brenton's feelings, he would have held back on the smiles and kept a bigger distance between himself and the rho. But, Syri being the sweetly that he was, wanted to create happy memories with his friend before he and Estan left for the castle where he would live the rest of his life paying off his debt to the prince.
Syri knew it would be nearly impossible to see Brenton once he and Estan left Alia, so he wanted to have as much fun in that moment as possible. Therefore, he did not hold back on the laughs and smiles, causing Brenton to only fall even more.