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Being Qifrey’s best friend since childhood, Olruggio understood quite thoroughly why Qifrey was so obsessed with leaving the assembly. Folks were always whispering behind his back, scandalized by his very existence. If that weren’t enough, Olruggio couldn’t imagine it was great for Qifrey’s mental health to be residing, well, underwater.
Even knowing all this, Olruggio couldn’t quite share Qifrey’s enthusiasm for the outside world. The weather up there was so unpredictable and dangerous. He much enjoyed the fact that there was no way for the cold winter winds to find their way underwater. In addition, the assembly offered a wide variety of resources and shops that simply weren’t available in the world of the unkowings. At the end of the day, life for witches living outside the assembly was just all around more difficult.
That said, while life outside the assembly was difficult, it would have been much more difficult for Olruggio to live without Qifrey by his side, so when Qifrey left to build his atelier, Olruggio followed without question.
It took a good amount of time just to build and furnish the place. The two of them spent long days out in the beating sun and pouring rain alike, working to build what would become their new home. Olruggio couldn’t help but wonder when it would actually start to feel like home, though. Right now, the cold stone walls just felt lonely. There was a strange sort of homesickness that had settled in Olruggio’s gut now that he’d left the assembly. Perhaps it was inevitable when you leave behind the place you grew up. All of those muddy feelings were a rather small price to pay, however, because he’d never seen Qifrey look so free.
There was one night that the two of them had split a bottle of wine after a particularly long day of work. They had been moving furniture: bringing in tables, chairs, and more. Even with float magic to help here and there, it had been an exhausting day, so the wine felt well-earned.
The new couch was comfortable, Olruggio decided. The weather was unpredictable, the walls were cold, and he was now cut off from everything he once knew – but the new couch was comfortable. At some point, Qifrey had nodded off a bit, and was now resting his head on Olruggio’s shoulder. It was nice. So nice, in fact, that within a few minutes, Olruggio found he was close to nodding off as well. If that was going to be the case, he figured he ought to at least cork the wine before sleep took over.
This was a task easier said than done. His dominant hand was currently useless, as that shoulder was where Qifrey had chosen to nap. On top of that, the alcohol in his system was making all of Olruggio’s movements feel rather fuzzy. He spent a good five minutes fiddling with the cork before finally managing to close the bottle. Satisfied with himself in his success, he pulled his arm back a little too quickly and sent his cup clattering over.
Qifrey awoke with a start at the sound, looking around wildly before realizing the source was simply a knocked over cup. A bit of red wine had spilled from the cup, leaving Olruggio to fumble around, trying to find something to clean it with before a stain set into the wood.
“Oh Olly,” Qifrey giggles, voice still sleepy, “Look, you’ve already gone and stained our new table! We haven’t even had it for a day!”
“Hey now, you’re the one who suggested drinking tonight.” Olruggio grumbles back, giving up on his search for cleaning supplies. It was a weak defense, but it was something. “I’m sure there’s some kind of water magic you can figure out to get the stain out, anyhow.”
Qifrey simply hums at that, leaning over Olruggio’s shoulder to better see the stain in question.
“I think we should just leave it like that,” Qifrey says after a moment, with a brief tap to his chin. “Gives it character.” Now it’s Olruggio’s turn to laugh. That was such a Qifrey thing to say.
“Okay, sure,” Olruggio agrees, “We’re gonna be living here, so we may as well make the place feel lived in, hey?”
“Exactly.” Qifrey says, tilting his head a bit and giving Olruggio a smile. It’s one of his real ones, hopeful and free.
Maybe it was the alcohol, but the stone walls of the atelier don’t feel quite so cold as Olruggio drifts off to sleep that night.
Qifrey’s first apprentice is a girl named Agott. She’s an extremely hardworking and driven child, though sometimes her dedication to improvement worries Olruggio. After Agott comes Tetia, who brings a much needed burst of energy and color to the place. Olruggio often finds himself amazed with how good of a teacher Qifrey is to them. It fills his chest with pride to see how far Qifrey had come since they were young. Because of this, it was a complete shock to Olruggio when Qifrey came to him one evening, distraught and convinced he was doing everything wrong.
“What the hell are you on about? You’ve been amazing. ” Olruggio tells him, and Qifrey startles a little at that response. What the hell had he been expecting Olruggio to say, anyways?
Qifrey opens his mouth to say something, then closes it again, clearly caught off guard. After a pause, he looks away, then very softly asks, “Do you really mean that?”
“Absolutely,” Olruggio replies. But that wouldn’t be enough to convince Qifrey, would it? Qifrey was always so stubborn, especially when it came to self-deprecation, so Olruggio decided to push on.
“When I watch you with them, I think how lucky they are to have a teacher like you.” He admits. It’s a far too genuine and soft thing to be saying sober, but Qifrey needs to hear it. “I think you’ve become just the kind of person you’d wished had been there for you when you were young.”
He looks up at Qifrey after that, desperately needing to see his reaction. Qifrey meets his gaze with a wobbly little smile, and though Olruggio could have been imagining it, his eye seemed a little teary as well. He wasn’t given time to investigate that observation further, however, as Qifrey all but launched himself forward to pull Olruggio into a tight hug.
“Thank you, Olly,” He mutters, voice muffled because he’d buried his face into Olruggio’s hair. When they separate, Qifrey adds, “But you’re wrong about me wishing someone had been there for me. I never had to wish for something like that, because I always had you.”
Before Olruggio even gets a chance to start unpacking that statement, a loud bang coming from the direction of Tetia’s room startles the two of them out of whatever weird thing had just been happening. Qifrey immediately rushes off in the direction of the noise, and Olruggio right at his heels.
They find an unharmed but guilty looking Tetia standing in the hallway outside the apprentice’s quarters.
“Heyyyy, professors,” she says, wincing a little as the two of them survey the damage. Somehow, she’d sent her door flying off its hinges to where it was now embedded in the wall of the hallway.
“What, ah, happened here?” Qifrey asks gently, gesturing at the displaced door.
“I was practicing ‘Grasping Wind’, and uh, I think I drew something wrong, and it, well… yeah.” Tetia explains, twirling a piece of her hair between her fingers.
“Well, mistakes happen,” Qifrey reassures her, not missing a beat. “Why don’t we take a look at what you drew together? Let’s see if we can find exactly where the problem was.”
With that, the two of them are off, leaving Olruggio to repair the damage. Luckily, the door is still in good enough shape to just be put back on its hinges. Olruggio patches the wall as well, but it leaves a slightly discolored spot where the damage had been.
The third student to join Qifrey’s atelier is Riche, who they stumbled upon completely by accident. After realizing the situation she was in, Qifrey immediately offered to take her in, and she accepted.
Riche didn’t speak at all for her first few weeks at the atelier. Olruggio didn’t think much of it until Qifrey brought it up to him.
“I don’t know how to help.” He admits, a little distraught. “I want her to feel safe, but I feel like I’m failing her…”
“I don’t know if that’s exactly right.” Olruggio responds. “Just because she’s not talking doesn’t mean somethings wrong. She might just not feel like talking yet, which is fine.”
Qifrey sighs at that. “I know, I know. I just worry.”
“You know,” Olruggio starts, giving Qifrey a little nudge with his elbow, “She reminds me of a certain someone who didn’t say a word to me until months after we’d become friends.”
His teasing earns a little smile from Qifrey. “Oh, you’re exaggerating! It wasn’t that long!”
“Was too!” Olruggio argues. “On top of that, I think I knew you for a whole year before I got you to smile!”
Qifrey’s laughing a bit now, which is a good change from how gloomy he was earlier, and Olruggio can’t help but laugh along with him.
“Really though,” He says once they settle down, “I think Riche is going to be okay. Just give her some time, okay? She’ll open up.”
Later that month, Olruggio and Qifrey find themselves replacing all of the atelier’s curtains, which had recently been set ablaze by Riche experimenting with fire. Olruggio just barely resists the urge to elbow Qifrey and tell him ‘I told you so’.
Olruggio was glad to be headed back to the atelier. He’d been kept away for over a week due to a particularly fussy client. He was accustomed to missing Qifrey whenever the two of them were apart, but this time, he found himself missing Agott, Tetia, and Riche as well, which was unfortunate. He had been trying not to get attached.
Unfortunately, he found himself arriving back a bit too late to see everyone, which was okay. He’d just have to join them for breakfast tomorrow, instead. After shrugging off his cloak, Olruggio makes his way to the kitchen, wanting a warm cup of tea before bed.
To his surprise, the sink was still full of unwashed dishes. Strange. Qifrey was usually not the type to let them sit…
A scratchy cough from the direction of the couch drew Olruggio’s attention before he could investigate the dish mystery more. Rounding the corner, he found a very sickly looking Qifrey, curled up on the couch and covered in blankets. Ah.
“Qifrey, what the hell are you doing sleeping on the couch? You should have been off to bed hours ago,” he scolded.
Qifrey gave a pathetic little sniffle before stirring to peek his head out from under the blankets. He looked awful. How long had he been sick? Before Olruggio got the chance to ask, Qifrey’s face split into a smile, sleepy and lopsided.
“Olly! You’re back!” Qifrey says, sounding absolutely thrilled. “I wanted to stay up ‘til you got back so I could welcome you home.”
Olruggio can’t help but flush a bit at how genuine Qifrey’s voice is. This also answered the question Olruggio had been trying to ask earlier–if Qifrey was acting this loopy and unguarded, chances were he’d been sick for a good while now. In this state, there would be no reasoning with him either, so Olruggio decides to skip lecturing Qifrey on proper self care (for now).
“Well, I’m back now. Let’s get you to bed, okay?” Olruggio says, and Qifrey gives an absent minded nod, but doesn’t budge from where he’s curled up on the couch. Olruggio sighs, and bends down to help a very reluctant Qifrey to his feet.
Once he’s got Qifrey standing, he moves to try to hike the other man up onto his back, doubting that Qifrey was willing to walk in his current state, but Qifrey pulls away.
“You don’t have to carry me, Olly. I can make it upstairs myself.” He says, words punctuated with a yawn.
“Alright. I’m going to clean up the dishes, and then come check on you, okay?”
Qifrey nods, and Olruggio returns to the kitchen and busies himself with finishing the dishes that had been left from earlier. He’s working on rinsing out a cup when he hears a horrible succession of thumping noises followed by a loud crack. Startled out of his work, Olruggio drops the cup back into the water and rushes towards the source of the sound.
What he finds is Qifrey at the bottom of the staircase, sprawled out on his back. Panicked, Olruggio’s immediately squatting down and helping Qifrey to a sitting position, fingers skimming across his skin in search of any injuries.
“What the hell happened? Qifrey? Are you okay? Did you fall down the stairs?” The questions pour out, one after the other, and Qifrey doesn’t answer any of them, but just looks up at Olruggio, dazed. Qifrey then seems to notice something just over Olruggio’s shoulder. Olruggio turns his head to look and finds that a sizable dent has been left in the drywall.
After a moment, Qifrey speaks up. “....I think that hole is because of my head,” He mutters, rubbing his temples.
At this point, Olruggio can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of the whole situation. Qifrey looks a little embarrassed, but he doesn’t say anything else.
“God damn it, Qifrey,” he huffs. “You sure are a handful to take care of when you’re sick, you know?” With that, he pulls Qifrey upright again. As they attempt the stairs once more, Olruggio keeps an arm snug around Qifrey’s waist, not wanting to deal with another fall. Round two of climbing the stairs is thankfully a success, and Olruggio manages to get Qifrey to bed without any more problems.
As Olruggio finally makes his way back to his own room, he can’t help but remember Qifrey’s words from earlier– I wanted to stay up ‘til you got back, so I could welcome you home .
Home, huh?
Maybe it was, after all.
When Qifrey takes in Coco as an apprentice, Olruggio’s terrified at first. Olruggio wanted nothing to do with forbidden magic these days. As a child, he had followed Qifrey’s brimhat chasing whims with a naïve sort of boldness. Things were much different now, though. This wasn’t just about Qifrey being reckless and worrying Olruggio anymore, it was now about Agott, Tetia, and Riche’s safety as well.
What was he thinking ? How could he risk everything they’d built here? Would Qifrey really endanger all of their safety just to chase a lead? Of course, all these thoughts were washed away rather quickly after they’d sat down and talked everything through, because as they spoke, Olruggio came to the realization that Coco was just a child, too.
He had to hope that when Qifrey took her in, it was not because he saw a lead, but because he saw a child, lost and frightened. He could accept that, even if it still wasn’t a great situation. That said, the alternative would have been to take Coco’s memories and then leave her all alone, without any family or anyone to turn to. Olruggio certainly wouldn’t have had the heart for that. And so, just like that, three apprentices became four.
Coco is a bit different than the others due to her unconventional situation. She’s eager to learn and just as eager to practice, but she’s inexperienced. Because of this, Olruggio finds himself doing household repairs more regularly–fixing some water damage here, scrubbing out an ink stain there. He’s lost count of how many holes in the walls he’s had to patch at this point.
And, for the very first time, he has to repair damage caused by Agott , of all people. Not used to her too-fast soar boots, the poor girl had sent herself flying into the ceiling. Agott insisted that, at the end of the day, the damage to the ceiling was really Coco’s fault, because she was the one who’d drawn the seal.
Olruggio didn’t bother to point out the fact that Agott could have easily fixed Coco’s seal, or that she had had plenty of time to do so by now. Instead, he just kept his mouth shut and patched the ceiling.
It had been one hell of a week. The absolute disaster of a second test and all the paperwork that followed were enough to give Olruggio a headache for weeks to come. But of course, there was more. No thanks to Beldaruit, Olruggio, a very injured Qifrey, and a very distraught Coco all made an impromptu trip to the tower of books as well. Somehow, they all made it back in one piece.
After returning to the atelier, Olruggio and Qifrey had gone outside together. Had they been gathering herbs for dinner? Olruggio couldn’t quite remember, because apparently, his body was tired enough from the past week’s action that he fell asleep outside on that hill before the two of them got around to whatever they were supposed to be doing. When he woke up, it was already evening.
After watching the stars for a bit, they settled on just heating up leftovers for dinner. No one had the energy to cook right now, anyways. Shortly after eating, the girls all made their way to bed, surely just as exhausted as Olruggio felt, if not more. They were really still so young.
Qifrey was still finishing up the dishes, so Olruggio decided to put a pot of tea on the stove. Qifrey had been acting somewhat strangely all evening, wearing a distant smile that Olruggio knew wasn’t real. It gave Olruggio a horribly uneasy feeling, seeing Qifrey like that. He tried his best to convince himself that Qifrey probably just needed rest, and that some warm tea would help facilitate that.
As he waited for the tea to brew, Olruggio let his thoughts drift. Even with Qifrey acting strangely, it sure was a relief to be back at the atelier. When had he become so fond of this place? Really, he shouldn’t be. It was in the middle of nowhere, away from every convenience he had grown up knowing. Sure, it felt like home here. But Olruggio has had other homes, and none of them had ever come close to feeling quite like this. It was almost as if there was some type of special magic scratched into the woodwork of the place; but he and Qifrey had built this place by hand, so he would have known about any such seals.
“Olly?” Qifrey’s voice is soft, but it shakes Olruggio from his thoughts nonetheless. “Oh, you’ve put on tea. Thank you.”
“I thought it would be nice to have a warm drink before bed.” Olruggio replies.
With that, Qifrey walks over to where Olruggio stands by the stovetop and rests his head on Olruggio’s shoulder. He remains there as Olruggio finishes preparing their tea and clicks off the stove, then finally moves away to give Olruggio enough range of motion to pour two cups.
Tea now in hand, the two of them settle on the couch together. As Olruggio goes to set his cup onto the coffee table, a familiar stain catches his eye, and suddenly, a slightly younger Qifrey’s words come to the front of his mind: “I think we should just leave it like that. Gives it character.”
And just like that, it clicks. All of this time he had been wondering what it was about the atelier he loved so much, and not until just now did he consider that maybe, just maybe, the reason was simply that it was Qifrey’s.
“What’re you smiling about, Olly?” Qifrey asks him. Ah, caught.
“Oh, nothing really. Just happy to be home, that’s all.”
Qifrey smiles at that, the first real one Olruggio’s seen from him all evening.
“Yeah, me too.”