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They didn’t want to drag him from anything. It was so rare to see Zolf happy, and after the past few days they’d all had he deserved it more than ever. This could wait, probably, until everything settled down again. Though, it was looking like that could be a while. No matter what, they’d have to do a lot of working together between now and then. What if Zolf still thought about it? What if they’d offended him, and hadn’t apologised, and now he was just going around thinking that that was how they treated people-
“Uh, hey, uh-” Cel laid a hand on top of Barnes’, reigniting the blush he’d just managed to wipe from his face, “I’ve just got something to take care of, I’ll be a minute?”
Barnes mumbled something that could have been, “Yeah, of course,” and patted Cel’s hand before they left. No eye contact, that was too much, but Cel understood.
Zolf was at the opposite end of the long table, having sandwiched himself between Earhart and Wilde; a decision he was now looking to regret. Wilde was in fits of giggles while a flustered Zolf held Earhart at bay with an elbow.
“And what’s the wooden tower on deck called?” Earhart demanded, ignoring Zolf’s grimace.
“The-the-” Wilde caught his breath. “The espy erection.”
“No!”
“Captain, he’s just winding you up-”
“Mind if I, uh, butt in?” Wilde burst into laughter again. “Sorry, uh, no pun intended there.”
“Please take one of these two off my hands,” Zolf grumbled, smiling softly the whole time.
“Actually, it was you I was hoping to talk with, Mr, uh, Zolf. If, if you’re busy, or, uh, you need a minute then don’t worry about it-”
“No, no.” Placing a hand on Wilde’s shoulder for balance, Zolf swung his legs over the bench. “I can come.” Before Wilde could laugh Zolf wheeled round. “Don’t you start again.”
Wilde stifled his laughter, instead giving Zolf a fond look. “Right,” Zolf hummed. He gave Wilde’s shoulder a gentle squeeze before following Cel into the square.
“Y’alright?”
“Oh, um, yes. Sorry, didn’t mean to alarm you or, or anything. It’s nothing serious, more of a, a personal thing?” Cel began to pace around the square, striding over five planks at a time. After a moment they realised Zolf was struggling to keep up - and also looking a degree more anxious than he usually did. They slowed, just enough to allow Zolf to catch up.
“It’s nothing bad. I realise when people say it’s personal that usually means it’s bad. I was actually trying to do the opposite, make it seem less bad by telling you it’s not about world-ending stakes, but I guess for you that’s more manageable?”
“You're stressing me out, Cel.” Zolf wrung his hands. Worry sparked through Cel’s chest as they realised they may have killed Zolf’s tiny crumb of happiness already. “Just be out with it.”
“Okay, so-” Cel took a deep breath. They’d circled the square once already and were heading into a second lap. “I don’t know if you think about these things as much as I do, so maybe this is nothing to you, in which case I’m just being selfish and unburdening myself, but I won’t know for sure unless I just get it out, so I really hope you don’t mind-”
“I don’t mind, Cel,” Zolf interrupted. “Go on.”
“Right, okay, so, in, like Japan and stuff, and back on the airship, and really just the whole time I’ve known you that we haven’t been in mortal peril I’ve been, um, sort of asking, and maybe poking - I’m sure I was a little invasive with it at times - about you and, and Oscar in, like, a relationship way?”
They glanced down at Zolf. He was chewing slightly on his lower lip, watching the floor. Unresponsive.
“And, well, after everything that happened- I know what I experienced with Sassraa, and I can only imagine you had something similar, only maybe more difficult, since Oscar’s been around a bit longer than Sassraa, and I know that that required a really deep bond, which obviously I have with Sassraa because of our shared love of alchemy and engineering and we’ve spent a lot of time on that together, but you obviously have with Oscar in, in other ways, which is lovely. I just, I mean, he clearly means a lot to you, there’s a lot of love there, but I feel like I’ve been quite, quite rude implying that that love is romantic when, when actually that might not be the case? I guess my point is-”
Cel paused for another huge inhale, but Zolf interjected, “Cel, uh, s’alright, I get you, you can stop. I- Thank you, appreciate you saying that, but, truth is-” Zolf sighed heavily. He hadn’t slept, Cel knew. They’d seen him, through the slightly ajar door, sitting by Wilde’s bedside. He could cure fatigue, but no amount of spells made up for the sheer weariness that came with having been awake for what must have been close to forty hours now.
“I don’t really know what’s going on wi-with Wilde,” he said eventually. “Don’t know if I will until all this mess is over.”
“That’s okay, Zolf. Feelings are difficult, especially in relationships.”
He gnawed on his lip some more, looking like he wanted to duck back into the board house on their next passing, but he surprised Cel by continuing on.
“I- I don’t think it’s romantic. But then sometimes he looks at me and it makes me feel all funny inside and I don’t know what else you’d call that.” A pause. He shrugged, hoping, Cel assumed, to hide his blush with his collar. “And he is hot.”
Cel grinned. “Oh yes, the white hair is really doing it for him.”
“He- You’re right. He’s very important to me, and after we stop the world from ending we’ll have a sit down and talk about,” a small, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it smile drifted across Zolf’s face, “ what comes next. But for now we’re just, sort of, partners. Like, like work partners.”
“Copy that, Zolf.” They nodded sharply to illustrate that they understood.
“Right, well, we should, um-” Zolf jerked a thumb in the direction of the board house, once again just a few paces away.
“Yeah, no, totally.”
They paused outside. Cel prepared to fit in one final apology, when Zolf spoke up again.
“Hey, uh… It’s actually quite, quite nice that you noticed, I dunno, something between me and Wilde. Sometimes I worry it’s just, like, cabin fever, y’know? We’ve been stuck together for too long, and eventually we’ll just go our separate ways.”
Apology still frozen on their lips, Cel stuttered out a few incoherent syllables. Was he crazy? Wilde wouldn’t even give the rest of them the time of day, unless Hamid dragged it out of him. And Zolf’s awkward, curt manner seemed to melt slightly around Wilde, though only if they were alone. Cel knew they’d overstepped with voicing their thoughts on romantic entanglements, but to have the thoughts in the first place hadn’t been unreasonable. They were good for each other, and wasn’t that what made a relationship - of any kind - work?
Cel chose their words carefully, crafting the conversation the way they wanted it to go. “You didn’t like each other much when you first met, did you? Hamid mentioned something-”
“Nah, um, I broke his nose. Did try to fix it, but uh, I was out for the day. He was being a massive arsehole, though.” Zolf didn’t seem to know whether to smile or cringe.
“What changed?”
“Me. Him, too, I guess. Dunno. The first time we met again, after that lot disappeared, it was just different. He wasn’t making digs and I wasn’t being defensive. We just kinda worked after that.”
“That’s so nice. I’m really glad you have each other.”
Zolf placed a hand on the door, smiling to himself.
“I’m really glad you finally made a move on Barnes. That was getting painful.”
They entered the board house, immediately met with a wave of warm air and loud, chattering voices. The kobolds and Hamid were seemingly paying some kind of raucous tribute to Meerk, which Barnes was accepting but not enjoying. Carter and Siggif were doing some bonding - quietly at least - and Azu offered Cel a brief smile as she and Kiko walked past them to leave. Wilde and Earhart were causing what was apparently a new racket: Wilde seemed to be explaining that he did, in fact, have an Irish accent, because he was Irish, and this was his accent, while Earhart tried to poke holes in his - very loud - logic.
Barnes glanced up and shot Cel a grateful smile.
“He’s so awkward about everything, I didn’t want to overwhelm him.”
“He’s a good guy. You deserve him.”
“Thanks, Zolf.”
He ambled away, back to his seat, gently pushing on Wilde’s chest to make room for himself. “Right, shove over. If you two keep at it you’re gonna wake everyone on the bear up.”
“Tell her I have an Irish accent!” Cel heard Wilde beg as they made their way over to Barnes. They reckoned they could add some interesting insight into accents and what composed them, but there were other conversations they’d rather have right now. Huh. That was a first.
“Hey.” Cel squeezed Barnes’ shoulder, slipping onto the bench beside him.
“I don’t want to be disrespectful,” he said, slow and soft, “But they’re very loud.”
“Don’t worry,” Cel whispered. “I’ll try to get them back onto memories.”
“Thanks, love.”
Now it was Cel’s turn to freeze up and blush. It had been a while - a really, really long while - since anyone had adressed them like that. It made something warm and static crackle in the pit of their stomach.
“Sorry was that- If that’s too quick, or you’re not into that-”
“No, no!” Cel twisted their hip slightly, allowing their thigh to bump into Barnes’. “I loved it.”