"I'm sorry I can only offer this type of food to you. We only have this at the moment," the woman said while putting down dried fruits on the table.

Yuzan and Azmir sat down across the table facing the woman and her little sister, Grace.

"We haven't introduce ourselves yet. We sincerely apologize. We should have done this before you served as supper," Azmir said with an apologetic smile.

Yuzan looked at him curiously. Azmir was a good people person. The kind of man you'd expect to have lots of connections. He was a natural at it. If Azmir was in Yuzan's world, he would be well-suited to be a politician.

"No, you have nothing to apologize for, Sir. It's alright. Grace is now fine because of your kindness and serving you this kind of food is the least that I should do for you. If only I can offer you money but we do not have that too," the woman said sadly.

"It's fine. I have a little sister too and she just reminded me of mine. I'm Yuzan and this blue bird here is Mir," Yuzan said ruffling Azmir's hair.

"Don't call me that! I'm not your blue bird!" Azmir said shooing away Yuzan's hand on his head.

"My name is Ruth. Are you a healer, Sir Yuzan? We don't usually get healers in our village," Ruth said.

Yuzan peered closely at the cup of water suspiciously. He dipped his finger in it. His eyes widened.

"Poison," he murmured.

"W-what?!" Yuzan sputtered out the water already in his mouth.

Yuzan turned to Azmir and placed his hands on Azmir's cheeks.

"You drank it?" Yuzan asked.

"I t-think so. A bit," Azmir said, looking pale.

"Shush. I'm going to purify you," Yuzan said, staring intently at him, firmly holding Azmir's face.

"Y-you're too close!" Azmir said.

"Shush..."

Yuzan's face got closer to Azmir's face.

Azmir could only stare back wide-eyed.

"W-what are you doing?!" Azmir asked.

Yuzan closed his eyes.

Azmir shut his eyes too.

"THERE'S A KID WATCHING. WE SHOULDN'T BE DOING THIS HERE!" Azmir shouted.

"And done," Yuzan said and let go of Azmir.

Ruth chuckled softly.

"Sis, were they going to kiss and make babies?" Grace asked innocently.

"No! Guys can't make babies!" Azmir said, his face had turned bright red.

Yuzan raised an eyebrow. "I was just purifying you. You didn't tell me that's what you wanted. Sorry. I didn't ask God for that ability."

Azmir glared at Yuzan and Yuzan just smiled at him mischievously.

Yuzan turned to Ruth.

"I'm not a healer. I'm a poisoner and I can only purify poison. I can't heal injuries or illnesses. Can you show me where you get your water?" Yuzan asked.

"Yes, of course. I can show you tomorrow. It has gotten late already and it would be too dark outside," Ruth said.

Yuzan nodded.

Yuzan purified their food and water and they had dinner which only consisted of dried fruits.

"I'm going to get us meat tomorrow," Yuzan said, chewing on a dried mango with an unsatisfied expression.

"But you don't know how to hunt," Azmir said.

"I can poison though. You saw what I did with the snake," Yuzan said.

"But what if it's a wild boar? You might get attacked by the boar before you can even poison it," Azmir said

Yuzan scratched his head in frustration.

"Um, if I may interrupt, we used to have hunters in this village but ever since the curse, they became too weak to hunt. If you could help them, they'd be able to supply us with meat," Ruth said.

Yuzan sighed.

"I take it that you dont like helping others," Azmir said and took a bite on a dried pineapple.

"The only one I like helping is . . ." Yuzan was saying before Azmir interrupted him.

". . . your sister," Azmir finished.

"Is your sister as small as Gracie here?" Ruth asked and patted the little girl's head.

"She used to be. I was separated from her. I haven't seen her in person for . . . a very long time," Yuzan said in a pained expression.

"Don't worry. You'll meet her soon. I'll make sure of it," Azmir said with a confident grin.

"Really? What makes you so sure of that?" Yuzan asked.

"I have to meet her too and tell her that her brother has a huge sister complex and he's been talking about her for hundreds of times ever since our journey began," Azmir said.

"That's fine. Praise me all you want," Yuzan said with a shrug.

Azmir rolled his eyes at him. "That wasn't a compliment."

"Oh, were you trying to offend me, water mage? Because I wasn't offended at all, water mage," Yuzan said emphasizing his tone on 'water mage.'

"Argh! When you say it like that it's like an insult!" Azmir said.

Yuzan smirked.

Azmir groaned in dismay.

Ruth chuckled.

"The two of you look so adorable. You make a lovely couple," Ruth said, smiling.

Azmir's jaw dropped.

"W-we're not a couple!" Azmir protested.

Ruth looked surprised.

"Oh. I was sure the two of you were lovers with the way the two of you were bantering. Well, best friends then?" Ruth asked but looked unconvinced.

"No! We just met about a month ago!" Azmir said.

"Shush, my little blue bird. Stop denying it," Yuzan said patting Azmir's hand.

Azmir wiped his hand on his pants looking horrified.

"Don't call me that!" Azmir said with an aghast expression.

"I'm sorry. I thought you were a couple and that there wouldn't be a problem. We only have one extra bed," Ruth said apologetically.

Azmir was horrified.

*

*

*

"Don't remove your clothes!" Azmir yelled, shutting his eyes.

Yuzan frowned at him and continued on removing his shirt.

"What are you fussing about? We've been sleeping together for a month already," Yuzan said.

"You make it sound so weird!" Azmir said, his eyes still shut.

Yuzan titled his head sideways.

"Stop acting so weird then," Yuzan said.

Azmir sighed. His ears red. What the hell was wrong with him? The two of them were both guys and they were just going to sleep in the same room. What could possibly happen, right?

"Come on. Take off your clothes and get up from the bed. You'll get all the dirt on it," Yuzan said.

"It's dirty anyway," Azmir mumbled.

He turned his back and took off his shirt.

Yuzan whistled.

Azmir could feel a vein throbbing in his head.

"Yuzan, stop looking. I can feel you staring," Azmir said.

"Why? It's a shame if I'm not going to look. Your skin is a rare thing to look at," Yuzan said.

"And what's that supposed to mean? You like skin that's pale as yours?" Azmir said, irritated, pulling out a fresh shirt from his magical pouch.

"Didn't say that. I like yours actually," Yuzan said.

"Here. Change to that," Azmir said and tossed a fresh shirt to Yuzan.

"We should change pants too," Yuzan said.

"Fine," Azmir said and pulled out pants for the both of them from his magical pouch.

"Here," Azmir said and tossed the pants to Yuzan backwards.

A sound of zipper going down.

Ruffling of clothes.

A sound of zipper going up.

"You aren't changing. Go on," Yuzan said.

"Turn around. You're going to look again!" Azmir said.

"Come on. What's the harm. Just change already so we can go to sleep," Yuzan said and sat on the bed. His eyes still gazing at Azmir's back.

"Argh. Just don't whistle," Azmir said and began taking off his pants.

Yuzan was quiet.

The pants came off. His eyes stared at Azmir's butt covered in a boxers type of underwear made of thin-looking soft white cloth. Even with the boxers, Yuzan could see that his butt was a perfectly round shape.

He licked his lips.

Azmir put on the fresh pants hurriedly and turned around afterwards.

"You were staring!" Azmir said.

"Just waiting for you to finish. Sheesh. You're too noisy, my blue bird," Yuzan said.

Azmir glared at him.

"Come on. Lie down here," Yuzan said and patted the small space beside him.

"I don't need to. I still have the sleeping bag we used in the forest," Azmir said proudly.

Yuzan looked at it with disgust. "That's dirty already. What's the use of fresh clothes then? Come on. Don't you miss lying down on a bed?" Yuzan said.

Azmir hesitated. "I do but it's not much of a bed anyway. I'll be fine with the sleeping bag."

Yuzan sighed. "Fine. I'll take the sleeping bag. You take the bed."

"No, it's okay! You don't need to. I'm fine with the sleeping bag," Azmir protested.

"Just take the bed. You're a water mage and I can take sleeping on the floor better than you," Yuzan said.

"What does that have to do with me being a water mage?!" Azmir said.

Yuzan pulled Azmir towards the bed but Azmir stumbled on a loose plank on the wooden floor and fell on top of Yuzan's chest.

Thud!

Yuzan's eyes seemed to darken.

"S-stop moving!" Azmir squeaked.

Yuzan smiled lazily and slowly traced a line on Azmir's back. Azmir shivered.

"You should have just told me that you wanted us to sleep together," Yuzan whispered.