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Unfair, that’s the word Mollymauk would use to describe his current situation. Unfair, confusing, bullshit. He hadn’t done anything wrong either, simply his job. That being said, his job was to loiter and he was advertising for Gustav’s circus right in front of the “no loitering” sign and he might have ignored it and fought the guards that tried to fight him off…
Nah, his job got him arrested. This was the semblance of his thoughts as his arms lose circulation from the tight grip the guards had on him along with the cuffs forcing his arms to stay behind his back. For the fun of it, he tries to shoulder-check the nearest guard and is rewarded with nothing more than a grunt and a tightened grip.
“Fuckin- ow !” He bites back, tail whipping behind him in fury as he turns his red glare to the offending guard. This earns him a small flinch that he revels in, followed by a furrowed brow and a harsh shove.
Mollymauk knew what he was, why people fear him. He's a demon . Except he really wasn’t, he was a tiefling. That’s only, like, half a demon. Kind of.
The guards push him down a small hatch, following after him into a damp stone hallway, the most stereotypical dungeon hall he has seen. How bland.
Eventually, the only guard not holding him that had been trailing behind squeezes past to take the lead, coming to a stop in front of a cell with stone walls fully surrounding and a thick iron door.
“All this for loitering?” Molly asks, forcing his tail to feign confidence and calm. “Seriously, you guys are doing too much.”
One of the guards holding him clears his throat. “Actually, this is for attacking us. That gets a serious punishment.” Right, the superiority complex of Crownsguard. Nonetheless, Molly stays quiet, trying for once not to make this worse for himself.
He doesn’t fight as the cuffs get removed, nor as he’s shoved into the claustrophobic room. He immediately turns back to the door as it slams shut with a loud thunk, sealing his fate in the damp room that’s cold enough that he can see his breath on every exhale. He sends a quick thank you toward his tiefling heritage for having him run warmer, then turns around to take stock of the cell.
Except his eyes pause as they meet a pair of clear blue eyes, frozen as they stare at him and causing Mollymauk some pause. His focus now shifts; screw the room, who the fuck is this?
Ginger hair knotted and caked in all sorts of grime trailing down a dirty and freckled face, ending to rest around his shoulders. That piercing blue gaze never once leaving his, a tattered coat that had definitely seen better days covering some kind of leather holster, bandages wrapping around his wrists.
“Hello,” Mollymauk hesitantly starts. “Mollymauk Tealeaf, your temporary roommate.” For the sake of it, he ends the statement with an overdramatic bow.
If the red-head is amused, he doesn’t show it very well. Still, he does reply, so that’s enough of a win. “Caleb Widogast, a pleasure.”
And wow what an accent. That certainly hadn’t been what Molly was expecting, but it suits Caleb quite well. The harsh sounds said Zemnian, though Caleb wasn’t the stereotypical angry Zemnian. No, a voice so quiet, as if he were afraid of taking up too much space.
Molly nods, realizing that he had been staring too long. “Show me around the room?”
Calling the cell a room was certainly a decision he made. There was a corner with a bucket for doing business, a nearly invisible flap near the bottom of the door for food trays to go through, and two straw beds. Molly had slept on worse, his time with the circus had given him plenty of experiences in his short time of remembering. There was also a small window of iron bars near the top of the back wall, narrow enough that there’s no way either of them would be able to escape (except maybe Caleb, his figure is a bit covered by his coat though).
The cell quickly grew dark, and though he had his darkvision, Molly is suddenly reminded of how claustrophobic this cell was. He feels buried, suffocated, this is how we woke up oh gods he needs to get out right now-
He can feel his breathing speed up immensely, and can't seem to will himself to slow it down. He curls up in a ball, his tail lashing wildly, putting his head between his knees as best as he could like Yasha had taught him. His hands instinctively went to grip at his hair, trying to ground himself. He misses Yasha. God, he feels like such an asshole. His roommate was probably trying to sleep, didn’t need to be dealing with Molly’s problems when they had just met. He wouldn’t be able to explain in the morning why he had been panicking, that it just reminds him so much of a grave–
His hands are gently grabbed and pulled away from his head, then set against a warm body with a steady rhythm of breathing. It must be his roommate but why in the hells would he be this nice? He was a prisoner, just like Molly, and they had just met and he didn’t deserve–
“Breathe,” Caleb orders, enunciating the demand with his own steady breaths. It helps a bit, but Molly felt awful–
“Stop thinking, just focus on breathing.”
Molly nods, following the breaths under his hand, his eyes steadfastly closed. He was too embarrassed, gods , this was so embarrassing.
“What do you need right now?” Caleb whispers in his ear, and suddenly Molly realizes just how tense they both were. God, he was an asshole–
“ I need Yasha, ” he whispers pitifully. His strong, protective, older sister-like friend, the person who had found him just after he dug his way out of that hole in the–
“Well, I do not know what a Yasha is,” Caleb said, rubbing Mollymauk’s lower arms. And was that a hint of humor in his voice? The brief surprise at the attempt of humor briefly shocks Molly out of his stupor, taking his head out from between his legs to meet Caleb’s eyes, breath still not fully back to normal.
Though the human did not physically smile, somehow his eyes exude warmth and patience and everything Molly needs in the moment.
“Sorry,” Molly whispers out, letting his legs relax into a folded state. “Sorry, I don’t do well with uh…” he trails off, waving around the dark, small, tight room they're stuck in.
Caleb continues rubbing Molly’s arms, patient and exhaustingly kind. “I understand. Would it help if I showed you something a little more exciting?”
Molly tilts his head curiously, though not answering the question. Still, seems Caleb doesn't need an answer. He snaps and suddenly, three small globules of light were lighting up the room. It does, shockingly enough, help with Molly’s panic, inspecting the globules from his place on his hay-bed, never leaving Caleb’s grasp.
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Caleb is shivering.
It’s Molly’s third night in the cell, having established some sort of schedule with Caleb and the Crownsguard. Every morning, the guards provide two trays of stale bread and soup with two glasses of lukewarm water. It was fine, as far as conditions go, he’d lived on less. He and Caleb would do very little during the day, sometimes talking, sometimes basking in each other’s quiet comfort, and they’d settle down in the evenings with Caleb’s globules lighting up the cell.
But unfortunately, there were no blankets. And as the weather outside got colder, so did the cell they were in. And as the cell got colder, so did Caleb. And as Caleb got colder, he turned blue.
Not in a stunning tiefling way, but in a he’s-totally-gonna-freeze-to-death way.
After withstanding what must have been an hour of Caleb’s teeth chattering while pretending to sleep, Mollymauk let go of his resolve. Caleb was kind enough to help him on his first night, he can be kind enough to help Caleb now.
Molly quickly sheds his coat, walking over to Caleb’s hay-mattress. “Hey,” his whisper felt too loud as it echoes around the room, and he is suddenly hyper-aware of how he sounds.
“Yeah?” Caleb asks, turning his head to look over his shoulder at Mollymauk.
Mollymauk points an accusing finger at Caleb, as if he was to blame for the shivering. “You’re cold, I run warm. Scoot over and let me help you not freeze to death.”
Caleb purses his lips, and his face looks a bit flush, though that was likely the biting cold. Eventually, he does scoot over, allowing Molly into the too-small area for sleeping. Molly takes Caleb’s hands, frigid to the touch, and maneuvers them over his chest similar to how Caleb had the first night. Although Caleb had been tense on initial contact, the heat radiating from Molly seems to cause him to melt, subtly trying to scoot closer to Molly. Figuring he’d save Caleb the embarrassment, Molly wraps an arm around Caleb’s back to press the human closer to his chest, and with that, Caleb is far more relaxed than before.
Molly purrs in delight as Caleb tucks his head under the tiefling’s chin, knowing that he was of use warding off the chill that had been keeping Caleb up. With a brief press of lips to Caleb’s forehead and the lazy wrap of the tiefling tail around Caleb’s waist, Molly drifts off in a dreamless rest.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are people standing over him and Caleb.
That's the first thing Molly notices when he wakes up, and his sleep-addled brain is quickly shocked awake as one of the figures reaches toward the two of them.
Molly curls tighter around his human, letting out a low growl and a hiss of Infernal as his vision clears to show the figures.
God, there were quite a few. A blue tiefling significantly shorter than Molly, a green half-orc with a wicked eyebrow scar, a small child or perhaps a gnome, and a human all stood around the two, the human who had reached out took a step back at Molly’s aggressive demeanor.
“ Shhhh,” the half-orc hisses out, shouldering the human out of the way. “It’s the middle of the night and we’re trying to break him out.”
Molly blinks, trying to wake himself up more to fully process what had been said.
“It’s alright, Molly.” Caleb whispers from where he's firmly held against Molly’s chest. “They’re friends, I trust them.”
Molly’s eyes dart between a sleep-tousled Caleb (there would be time to swoon over that later) and a mixed group of waiting people. Gently, Molly releases Caleb, letting him slip from his grasp and toward his friends, picking up the smallest and most shrouded of the four and hugging them tight.
“It is good to see you all again, I was hoping you’d bail me.”
“No more funny business, got it?” The human said, which earns her a harsh elbow from her half-orc companion.
“Caleb!” The other tiefling shouts just a bit too loud. “We didn’t know where you went until we heard that someone got caught smuggling a scroll out of that one bookstore you were obsessing over and we discovered you were going to be held here and so we-”
The half-orc covers her mouth with his hand, stopping her rant. “As fun as it would be to catch up, we only have a few minutes while they switch shifts. Let’s get a move on.”
With a curt nod, Caleb stands at his full height, walking with the other four toward the open iron door. Molly sits frozen watching as the kindest person he had ever met was ready to walk out of his life without a second thought.
Except, he did give it a second thought. He glances back at Molly, frowning when he realizes he's not being followed.
“You’re staying here?”
Molly freezes, not knowing where he should situate himself. He settles for a lackluster “I didn’t know if I was invited.”
Caleb smiles, an actual facial smile this time. It looks right on him. “Come on, let’s go.” He holds his hand out to Molly, unaware of the impact that action would have on their lives. Molly could sense the start of a new adventure.
Molly quickly gets up, snagging his coat from where he left it and taking Caleb’s hand as they walk out of their shared cell.