Corrin stabbed another block of hay onto his pitchfork with the others before he made his way to the barn, stacking them neatly against the wall before a loud voice interrupted his work.
"Corr~in!"
"Are you done yet?"
"Come on! Argat and Tugan got paid today!"
"Meals on us!" Argat called.
"It's on you, you cockered, clack-dish clotpole!" Erwin joked.
A shadow darkened the large doorway. "Son."
Corrin whirled around and instantly fell to his knee in front of his father. "Yes, sir?" he asked, his eyes pinned to the floor.
"Stand." He did, lifting his head until he stared into his father's blue eyes. "I will allow you to stay with your friends if you finish organizing the barn within the hour. Alone."
"Yes, sir."
"I shall make the same proposition to your friends. Good day."
"You as well, sir."
His father strode out of the barn and immediately began yelling at Erwin and Tugan for climbing the fence, asking them to correct their behavior lest they embarrass their fathers.
Corrin turned back to his work and moved the hay bales between the back door and towards the back of the barn within the half-hour.
"Is that the last one?" his father asked, having followed him since he picked up the bale.
"Yes, sir," Corrin said as he turned around and kneeled again. "I can spend the night packaging more bales if that is what you wish."
"Indeed. Well, stand. They've been waiting. Come back before sunup."
"Thank you, sir," Corrin said, placing the pitchfork on the wall before he stepped out of the barn and walked to the fence gate.
"Corrin! Finally!" Erwin called, but he made no move towards the fence as Corrin stepped through the gate. "We were about to burn Tugan's money."
"No, you wouldn't! I still haven't given my father his cut!" Tugan cried, trying to jump to reach Erwin's hand as Remon snatched a few coins out of the hole in his pant leg.
"That is what you get for sneaking away!" Tori laughed, pulling out his darkwood wand to spell Tugan into the ground.
"Let's head to the shops. What are you going to buy?" Corrin asked with a laugh.
Gillot, still in his armor from his watchman job, wrapped an arm around his shoulders as they began down the hill towards the small market below, the group following. "Argat and Tugan are paying, but we're going to the sweets shops."
"Sweets?" Tugan whined. "Do you want my father broke?"
"Remon thinks of it!" Ulric noticed, pointing his wand at him. Remon snatched it out of his hand and pocketed it before he held a hand to his head, keeping him out of reach.
"Let him fight you, Remon, what's the harm?" Corrin laughed. "Just because you're a silkmaker doesn't mean you can't take him in a fight."
"Exactly," Remon said, swallowing the sap he'd been chewing as they entered the market and Gillot pulled Erwin and Tori towards them before they got crushed by a cart.
"You would've met the same fate as that outcast, you churlish coxcomb!" Gillot swore at them.
"Speaking of outcasts, is he still at work?" Remon asked as he grabbed Ulric's hair and heaved him to his feet.
"I assume," Corrin said, not looking at either of them. "Doesn't he leave after the last customer?"
"Come on, you snails!" Argat yelled from down the street as Ulric began to run. "We're already ordering!"
"Codswallop," Corrin muttered as he ran down the street, Remon in tow. They quickly put their orders in before Argat paid, and their food was done within minutes. They collected it from the counter and found a wall and bench in the corner on which to sit.
Corrin ate in silence, letting them talk amongst themselves about their girlfriends or colleagues, adding quips here and there as he scanned the street.
"Found him!" Ulric yelled in Corrin's ear, making him jump.
Sachse had just closed the door behind him before the group ran towards him, Remon grabbing his arm before he could teleport away.
"We thought you'd never leave!" Erwin taunted.
"Thanks, Slateaf."
"Awh, I thought we were friends!" Tugan laughed, pinching his cheek.
Sachse looked around them, desperate for a way out. "Look, I have to go home…"
"You mean your plank between buildings? That's not a home!" Remon chuckled, gripping his arm tighter until he flinched.
"Where's that bruise from?" Corrin asked in their same mocking voice, noticing it under his tunic sleeve.
The other boys began making up theories as Sachse tried to wretch his arm out of Remon's grip.
"Could be from a boyfriend." Ulric theorized.
"That's true!" Gillot laughed. "How's your boyfriend been, Mil? Still absent?"
"Like everyone else in his life." Remon chuckled as he pulled Sachse's arm across his chest, letting the other flail. "Someone grab him."
Corrin grabbed his other arm and pinned it across his chest like Remon, hissing an apology in his ear before Erwin threw the first punch.
"Again, again!" the group hollered, each taking turns hitting him to release whatever pent-up emotions were swirling in them.
Remon found the bruise on his arm and shoved his thumb into it, laughing as he gasped in pain.
Corrin watched Tori punch him across the face enough times until he spat blood into the ground. But it must have been Gillot's hit to the throat or Argat's kick to the ribs that made him unable to stand, because as the boys kept cheering, Sachse went limp in Corrin and Remon's hands and they dropped him, letting him go motionless on the ground.
"We better not have killed him," Remon said, quieting the boys' cheers.
Corrin forced himself to be still as he gave him a good kick, rolling him on his side as he spat more blood. "No, he's alive."
"He better be," Erwin ordered. "Father's organized a dinner party for his brother, and I might need him tomorrow to get my anger out."
"Does anyone need to leave?" Corrin asked, stepping over Sachse as he followed the group out. "Erwin does."
"Father said to be home by sundown," Tugan said, gazing at the sky. "So I'll be back tomorrow."
Corrin nodded as he ran ahead towards his home. Erwin said a few goodbyes before he started running, and Tori briefly looked into an alley as they passed.
"Me too," he said. "Told the girl I'd meet her around now. Tomorrow, then?"
"I've been paired with a new employee for the early shift tomorrow, so I can't stay out much longer," Gillot complained. "What about you, Corrin?"
"Same as you, just work." He said as they waved him off. Tori stepped into an alley as they passed, calling out for his girlfriend, leaving Corrin with Ulric, Argat, Gillot, and Remon. They struck up easy conversations with each other as they dropped each other back home.
"Hey, Corrin?" Gillot asked as they waved Argat farewell. "Why haven't you had a girlfriend yet?"
"Because he might be queer," Remon said, pulling another drop of sap on his tongue.
"I'm not! I've had a girlfriend before!"
"When we were fourteen. You barely kept her for a year."
"It wasn't my fault she cheated," he said as they stopped at Ulric's house.
"I think she just needed a reason to get rid of you, friend."
"Can we wrap this up?" Gillot snapped. "Corrin needs a girlfriend, and my sister is an adult next week. I can ask her out for you."
"No, I'd rather not."
"I'm telling you, he's queer!" Remon ordered as he chewed the sap. "His sister is so pretty, why wouldn't you date her?"
"If you think she's pretty, then date her," Gillot said, shoving Ulric towards his house. "We'll see you tomorrow. Bring your sister."
"You're literally neighbors," Corrin said, pushing Gillot across the street towards his house. "Same spot, then?"
"Of course!" Gillot yelled over his shoulder, leaving Corrin with Remon, who led them down the street toward his house.
"What makes you say I'm queer? I could just be picky on which girl I have on my hip."
"Friend, you haven't dated in years. That's weird. And you're nice to the guys' girls instead of hitting on them as Erwin does."
"Because I respect them."
"Are you dense?"
"Father might've dropped me a few times as a child, but regardless, I don't think so."
Remon stopped outside his door. "You're too nice, do you know that?"
"I'd say that." Corrin waved farewell. "See you tomorrow?"
"Don't be late," he said as he spat the sap into the ground and shoved it in with his heel before he opened the door ahead of him.
Corrin began to take the path towards his family's hill, but when he found the path, he turned back towards the market, taking a trail he knew well.
Within minutes, he made his way to the shops again and stayed in the shadows, throwing his hood over his mess of blonde curls. He looked back before he ducked into an entrance concealed by vines, noticing the blood dripping on the ground.
"I thought you'd never show." Sachse smiled as Corrin stepped towards his plank.
"I had to shake off the boys. You know I'd never leave you alone after what they did."
"I know, Corr."
He grinned at the nickname and held his chin high. "You just needed a reason to use that name."
"It's a cuter version of Corrin." Sachse's smile grew until Corrin pulled away and sat on the plank, seeing him wrap his wounds.
"Did you do those yourself?" Corrin asked as he leaned forward and grabbed the end of the wrap he'd been holding.
"Of course. Can you help? I think they bruised my ribs."
"Arms first," Corrin ordered as he held his wrist with his other hand. "I'm sorry about today's fight."
"You don't have to be."
"Yes, I do. I'm sorry that happened, and I should've directed their attention away from you."
"Oh, were you waiting for me?"
"And if I was?"
"I'm only saying. It's cute."
"You seem to enjoy that word around me." Corrin smiled as he tightened the wrap, making him flinch. He finished the wrap and Sachse offered his other arm.
"A drunk gave me a task again."
"Randolf?"
He nodded. "I'm not doing it."
"Why not?" Corrin asked.
"Well, for starters, I'm bleeding and bruised."
"And that's why I'm here," he replied, putting his thumb over a bleeding cut before he wrapped it. "What did he ask you to do?"
"Hunt a monster created by Yael. He was overly specific on details, so I know it's fake."
"You don't have to respond to whatever he asks," he said, moving his thumb out of the way and staining his arm with blood as he tightened the wrap.
"He gave me that bruise on my arm. The one Remon shoved his thumb into."
"I suspected as much. Can you move your arms?"
Sachse stood and rolled his shoulders before he pulled his tunic over his head and dropped it on the ground. He pitched forward, holding the nasty bruise they had given him. "Still hurts."
"Hold onto me." Corrin stood beside him and let him wrap his arm over his shoulder, helping him stand as he began the wrap around his ribs and shoulders.
"Don't put it so tight here. I still need to breathe."
"I know," Corrin said, putting his head over his shoulder in case he missed something.
"Why are you even friends with them?" Sachse whispered, shaking from the chill.
"I'm not. Not truly. Our fathers are just friends and we occasionally grew up alongside each other." Corrin leaned back to wrap around his front again and finished it. "They invited me to the group and I knew I'd be outcasted if I said no, so I didn't."
"Being outcasted isn't that bad. We'd be able to be queer together." Sachse smiled at the idea.
"And get beat up on the regular?"
"I got used to the pain after a while."
Corrin flicked his forehead. "Tunic."
"What if I don't want to?"
"You're going to feel the side effects of the cold and freeze out here without me. Put your tunic back on."
Corrin watched him grab it and helped him pull it over his head before he caught the strong smell of wine from his hair. "Did they pour wine on you again?"
He nodded.
"I'm sorry."
"Stop apologizing."
Corrin's head fell onto his shoulder, and his mind ran through nearly every memory of the group attacking Sachse for something that wasn't his fault.
"It wasn't your fault."
"I know." Sachse whispered, his hands threading through his hair. "And it's never yours either."
"There's so many opportunities I could've taken where I could've stopped them."
"I don't mind."
"Getting hurt? Everyday?"
"I'd suffer all the pain in the world if I was still alive enough to see your smile at the end of the day."
Corrin held him close, hiding his smile. "Don't say things like that."
"Why not?" Sachse asked, breath hitched. "Don't they call you queer?"
"They call me queer because I've had fewer girlfriends than them over the years. I don't like boys in that way."
"Maybe you haven't met the right boy yet."
"Maybe the right boy just doesn't know about it yet." Corrin leaned away and guided him to the plank. "Sit down. You need to rest."
"Says the boy sacrificing his sleep to visit his…friend." Sachse wasn't staring at his eyes anymore.
"I don't mind." Corrin grinned, sitting next to him.
"I know you don't."
An idea came to mind. "What if I do the task?"
"What?"
"If I-"
"I heard you, dalcop, but you don't have to do it."
"Randolf wouldn't care."
"I'm certain Randolf is blacking out on his table at this moment. He doesn't care about the task anymore."
"Randolf hasn't cared about anything for a decade. But think about it. If we bring back a new species, it'll be brilliant! They'll praise you-"
"No, they wouldn't." Sachse said, pulling his knees to his chest and setting his chin on them. "They would never take something I did and make it look good. They'd give someone else the credit, for example, you, and still beat me up regardless. And if I do follow along with this absurd plan, how about you find the Triplets while you're at it?"
"That's not what I meant."
Sachse looked at the sky above. "Speaking of, Moon has already woken up. How about you head home?"
"Sachse-"
"Just leave me alone."
Corrin shoved his hands into his pockets to avoid reaching out to grab his, but instead nodded and walked out, silently praying to Ellery for his health and recovery, hoping he hadn't said the wrong thing.