by J B Black
Washing quickly, Ælfweard stepped out of the bath, determined in part to not go with William again for fear of how his wanting would be written across his body. He wrapped a towel around his waist when his eyes caught on William only having started on washing his hair.
“I can —” the wizard cleared his throat and tried again, “I can do that for you.”
Though the towel gave the wizard some coverage, the white bit of fabric drew William’s gaze, and he flushed, shifting in the water. “Um, okay.”
Ælfweard knelt beside the bath, and his fingers gently caressed William’s scalp. Massaging the shampoo into suds, the wizard concentrated on carefully keeping his touch comforting. This was the first time William allowed him close in such a vulnerable position, and Ælfweard had no intention of the dark-haired man coming to regret it.
The feel of Ælfweard’s touch left William completely unmoored. His heart thundered in his chest. Crossing his legs, he tried to appear casual as the gentle but firm touch sent shivers down his spine. He never wanted it to end. It would be so simple to turn around and tilt his chin up, begging for a kiss or pulling the wizard down into a kiss. Perhaps it would turn to more. With a kiss, they would know, so maybe Ælfweard would pull away after — scrambling to hide his embarrassed disappointment.
And that thought undid any arousal at the wizard’s touch, leaving a cold sadness to settle in place of the heat which once built in William’s core. It was better that way. Anything they did would transform in the light of not being mates when they finally kissed or sooner if Ælfweard realized his infatuation was just that before the wizard found the courage to attempt a kiss.
“You should dunk now, or I could move some of the water,” Ælfweard suggested, and William smiled, ducking his head forward to sink forward into the water.
The sight of his long back left Ælfweard flushed, glancing away and desperately thinking of anything else as his cock rose, tenting the towel. When William rose, running his hands through his hair, the water which ran down his back did nothing to assuage the desperation to touch which curled in the wizard’s stomach. His body flushed, and when the warlock turned with a bright smile, Ælfweard wanted to remember the moment forever.
“You’re pretty good at that,” William told him. “A big brother thing?”
Thinking of his family cooled the heat inside, and Ælfweard thanked the warlock in his mind for shifting topics to something which would diffuse the tension building between them. “Most of my brothers keep their hair short, but Hannah — she’s the closest sister to me in age — she needed help when she was little with her long hair. Our mom did it mainly, but when she was pregnant with the twins, she had to go on bedrest and couldn’t, so I helped.”
His fingers clenched, knotting in the fabric of his towel as Ælfweard struggled to not reach out and touch the warlock once more. Standing, he headed to the side to change into his clothing as he struggled to keep the heat from fogging his head. His heart yearned, begging him to return to William’s side. It would be so simple to slip into the water and pull the man against his chest. If he knotted his fingers into the dark waves of the warlock’s hair, Ælfweard could pull him into a kiss. Their lips would brush, and sinking into the hot water, they could recognize each other as fated mates, and in that moment, Ælfweard might attempt to pull away, but the arlock wouldn’t let him. William might pull him tightly back, drawing Ælfweard into another kiss as he spread his legs, pleading to be taken and have their bond secured.
But for all the weight of the wizard’s blood coursing through his blood, a slight fear remained. If they kissed, a chance existed they would discover fate had not connected them, and their courtship would collapse as quickly as it had begun. However long William allowed, Ælfweard would keep the connection between them. Soon, he would find his courage, and in that moment, the wizard intended to draw the warlock to him for a kiss, but until that moment, Ælfweard would collect these soft memories and keep them close in his chest. The longer he managed, the better the truth would be when their fate revealed itself.
When the soft splash of William leaving the bath reached the wizard’s ears, Ælfweard blushed, ducking his head as he dried his hair. “If you want, we can go see the practical in the back fields.”
William laughed as he spun, using his magic to dry his hair and shift his clothing to the fitted dark slate trousers and warm high collared black sweater. Only then did Ælfweard brave glancing at the other man, and the sight of his heat-flushed features left the wizard breathless.
“Breakfast in bed, washing my hair, and now battle magic practical — you really know the way to a guy’s heart,” William teased, but his bright smile gave away the truth of his words.
Running a hand through his hair, Ælfweard froze when William reached forward, ruffling the blond locks and drying them with magic as he worked. His touch sent shockwaves through the wizard’s body, leaving his knees shaking.
“Thank you.”
When their eyes met, William blushed, quickly pulling back his hands. “No problem.”
Like two celestial bodies, they found themselves caught in each other’s gravity. The new definition balancing between their relationship left them tentatively reaching out and backing away as every action found itself with meanings and significance greater than they had ever been before. As Ælfweard led the way through the castle, his eyes darted to the other man’s hand, and swallowing down his fear, he reached out only to hesitate at the last minute when their fingers brushed.
It would be so easy for William to pretend the touch never happened. A flush of heat rushed up his fingers, but if he ignored it, the pair could go on without anything happening, but as Ælfweard’s hand slipped away, William found his hand drawn forward. He couldn’t explain it. The need to reach forward and take Ælfweard’s hand in his own overwhelmed him. Coming and fast as any instinct, it left him almost stumbling down the stairs. Their fingers entwined.
Ælfweard glanced down at their hands then to William. His bright blue eyes awoke a fond longing inside the warlock — one he desperately struggled to suppress. This heat would end. They would find themselves back to friends, and moments like this when they held hands wouldn’t mean what it did in the moment.
At least, that’s what William told himself. His attraction to his roommate would fade just as quickly as it came, and even if Ælfweard realized he didn’t love William like he thought before the warlock’s crush ran its course, the dark-haired man hoped his roommate wouldn’t shy away from the friendship which had blossomed so easily between them.
Their hands were still joined when they arrived in the furthest field where the battle magic students practiced their skills. Dummies stood on one end. Some were stuffed straw figures while others were golems, moving about in clumsy thudding steps as the students raced around through a massive obstacle course with different weather divisions. Ice wove through the field, creating sharp shards which shimmered in the sun and matched the snow surrounding the rest of the castle. Patches of desert shimmered, wavering with heat as rain poured in other places in between. Towering blockades sectioned the field, and dressed like triathlon athletes, the students came around in circles, stealing flags and knocking out golems with each turn of the oblong course.
“William!” Petra called as she slid down an icy slope. “We’re the blue team. Get in here and help me take out these idiots!”
A wizard wearing a red sash about his waist sputtered, “That’s cheating! You can’t call for reinforcements!”
“Who said anything about calling? I’m summoning a warlock,” Petra countered.
Releasing Ælfweard’s hand, William jumped into the ring, sliding across the ice before he spun, shifting his clothes and creating ice spikes out of his boots. “What’s the goal here?”
“Capture as many of the other colored sashes as possible,” Petra explained as she slid between a golem’s legs to steal the sash of the wizard who complained earlier. “Fuck off, Gino!”
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“You’re cheating! You can’t call on help in the middle of a practical,” Gino complained, but gliding overhead, one of the battle magic lecturers gestured, causing Gino to pop up into the air and out of the course.
The lecturer was a stocky woman with a braid of gray hair down her back. “No complaining, Mr. Santoro. A wizard must always be prepared to adapt to whatever situation may arise. Your enemies will have many allies. You must be prepared for anything!” Her eyes were so dark they appeared black as they settled on William and Ælfweard. “Welcome to the battle magic practical course. To prevent mayhem and murder, here are your sashes.” She snapped her fingers, and white sashes appeared around both their waists. “Try not get yourselves maimed.”
Immediately, Petra launched forward, freezing the golem and shattering it as he smashed her way through with outstretched hands. She looked like a demon, battling her way through hell as the dust and frigid crystal exploded around her.
“Sash gets grabbed, you lose!” was the only warning she gave them as her hands reached out, intending to steal away the sashes the moment they had gotten them.
Teleporting, William dodged her hands. He appeared behind her, but before he could tug her own blue sash free, Petra spun, kicking him in the stomach. Ælfweard grabbed hold of the magic, twisting it in his hands as he threw her back as he raced forward. Back to back, the roommates stood. Their magics flared out, knitting together as Ælfweard put the golem back together. William’s own magic focused on creating a shield. He wove his way through the ground, sensing out through the roots which remained even with the rest of the plant wrecked above the soil’s surface.
Recognizing how outmatched she was, Petra raced away, climbing up the smaller of the two slopes around the area where they came into the course.
“I guess we’re on our own team,” Ælfweard joked.
William laughed, drumming his fingers about the wizard’s waist. “I could just take your sash and be a one-man wrecking bomb.”
His touch sent shivers up Ælfweard’s spine. They stood so close together. Even in the chill of the muddy mess of the course, the heat of William’s body threatened to overwhelm the blond. Just the sight of his smile melted the wizard’s heart. He ached, longing to wrap his arms around the other man as he stole his lips in a kiss.
“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t do that,” the warlock informed him cheerily as he stepped back. “That would ruin our date.”
Ælfweard bit his lip. “And if we won, what would that do?”
“Make this the best first date ever.”
With a nod, the blond shifted toward the slope where Petra had escaped. “Then — let’s do this.”
The pair raced up the hill with Ælfweard’s newly remade golem following slowly behind. It trudged, wearily lurching forward. With each step, it stumbled as if it might fall apart, but the spellwork held its once shattered frame together.
Harsh winds and chaotic weather met them on the crest. Rain came at them sideways. Sleet and hail followed, but side by side, the pair raced ahead. Having come in late, they faced a far smaller number of competitors, and the first few were so startled to see unfamiliar faces that William and Ælfweard managed to remove their sashes with barely any effort at all. The course, however, grew harder the further they continued to travel through it. Chilling winds and icy ground shifted to deserts before tumbling into humid forest.
In the crowded sections where vine-covered trees narrowed their path, Ælfweard watched in wonder as William teleported amongst the branches, weaving traps in the vines before coming back to guide the wizard to safety. In the muddy fields, the blond held up shields around them, repurposing any golems they defeated to march ahead of them, scouting out their path, so they never came over a slope without knowing who was on the other side.
“Do you have a count?” William called over the roar of fire as they huddled behind a boulder.
Though they caught a glimpse of a group of wizards fighting in the jagged stone yard-like zone in which they now stood, the warlock hadn’t had the chance to determine the colors of any of them before at least two spun to send pillars of fire at them. Their shields held long enough to get them to safety, but the wizards pinned them where they hid. However, Ælfweard retained control of a number of golems. Some had gone ahead. The clay of their bodies tightened, becoming fragile and brittle in the fire as they slowly froze in place.
“There were five total. Three yellow, a blue, and a red,” Ælfweard informed the warlock.
William huffed, digging his fingers into the soil as he crouched. “I could teleport us behind them.”
“We don’t know where they moved, and if you teleport out of the arena, we’re probably disqualified,” the wizard retorted. He reached out, summoning the furthest out golems back to help them. When the first rose over the crest, he frowned. “Looks like the yellow took the sashes from the other two. I’m only seeing the three.”
“Three,” William repeated. Nodding, he ran a hand through his hair. “Okay. We can take them.”
Guiding the golems forward, Ælfweard glanced down at the warlock. “With three, they’ll be able to split their attention without breaking the fire on both us and the golems.”
“Keep your golems back,” the warlock commanded. He grabbed Ælfweard’s arm with one hand and pulled the wizard closer to press their foreheads together. “I’ll teleport us behind them, and then you can send out a localized terra-wave.”
Though he had often used his magic while working in the fields for local farmers, Ælfweard avoided making the waves larger than what was necessary to sense out or shift around the soil to prepare it for seeding. To use the same technique to cause the earth to quake without drawing attention would take a finesse Ælfweard had never attempted to use on that sort of spellwork, but if that was what the dark-haired man wanted from him, the wizard intended to do his best. Over the other side, he had the golems still
“I’ll do what I can,” he promised.
William smiled, and the world spun around them as they popped from behind the rock to behind the golems. The second his feet landed, Ælfweard slammed his hands into the ground. In a wave, the earth snapped, rising up to slam down, and the wizards tumbled forward, knocking against one another as their fires were cut suddenly.
As they fell, William teleported forward, grabbing two yellows sashes before he fell forward, caught by the ankle. The two wizards flew into the air, and the third scrambled after William, but a well-placed kick to his face sent the man flying back. Marching across the rocky terrain, the golems trudged forward to support the wizard. Ælfweard scrambled forward, reaching out to throw up a shield between the warlock and the yellow-sashed wizard.
Seeing the pair had him surrounded on all sides with the golems, the battle magic student teleported, popping away only to fall flat on his face as he crawled on all fours up the next embankment.
“Come on!” William called, following after him. “He’s getting away!”
Ælfweard raced to catch up. At the next hill, rain poured down around them. The hair hummed, thick with magic as the wizard caught up to the warlock and ran beside him. Flushed from exertion, the dark-haired man laughed despite the storm going on around them as he slapped away fire balls the battle magic wizard sent back at them every few feet.
Tossing up a warding, the warlock yelled, “He’s trying to teleport again. We have to block him in this section.”
Ælfweard sent out another wave, pushing the hill which the other wizard climbed higher. The slope increased, making it nearly impossible to climb as the wet ground gave way beneath his feet. With escape no longer an option, the yellow-sashed wizard turned on them. His chest heaved. Already, his magic stretched too thin, and facing two still mostly fresh magic users left him with few choices. Plasma traveled about his fingers, electricity jumping between them as he prepared to charge the soaked ground. Given time, the other wizard would be able to stun them due to the water gathering across the muddy ground.
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Diving forward, Ælfweard crashed into the wizard’s knees, knocking him to the ground. Immediately, the other reached down, grabbing at the blond wizard’s sash, but the tackle had momentarily distracted him, leaving him open to William summoning the yellow sash right off of him.
Up the wizard went into the air. He shrieked, crying out as he tumbled head over feet out of the course, and floating above William and Ælfweard, the lecturer stared down. Her lips curved into a small smirk. Stumbling to stand, Ælfweard reached out, taking William’s offered hand as the rain continued to pour down.
“White team wins!” the battle magic lecturer proclaimed.
William laughed, grinning broadly at his roommate. “We did it!”
Swept up in the jubilation of victory, Ælfweard tangled his fingers in William’s dark hair, and as he ducked, he tilted the other man’s chin up, so their lips met in a kiss. Sparks flew. A throbbing pulse of rightness traveled throughout his body, leaving his magic to thrum with the perfection of having his mate — fated and truly his — in his arms. The wizard held tight, deepening the kiss. His tongue slid across the warlock’s lower lip, begging entry into the sanctuary of his mate’s mouth, and gasping, William granted it.
Nothing ever tasted as sweet. The feel of their tongues entwined like to two writhing serpents left the wizard aching in his fitted trousers. Even the cold water which soaked him to the bone could not combat the heat rising inside of him. Desire coiled in his core, and his heart raced with ever-present want. Destiny led them to this place, and with his mate in his arms, Ælfweard ached only to join their bodies and solidify the bond between them.
