While the Sun Shines

by TheWedgeInDairy

Summary:

Caleb's summer library job is ideal for many reasons: it's quiet, it's easy, and he receives money for spending time in a building that he'd otherwise be in anyway. However, this summer, someone's beaten him to the punch: new kid Essek Thelyss, who seems to have no idea he's stolen Caleb's spot and seems to have no interest in him at all.

But a whole summer is a long time to spend ignoring someone. And with the rest of Caleb's friends otherwise occupied, there's nothing left for either of them to do except become friends. Or maybe more.

[A glimpse into Caleb and Essek's summer together].

Notes:

So this AU just keeps spiraling. The idea of writing out how Caleb and Essek's summer went just grabbed me by the throat and then I woke up a week later with almost 10k words written. Sorry not sorry?

Anyway, I think the rest of this it will fit into a second chapter without that much headache. I have most of it plotted out (admittedly, in my brain) so I have hope that I WILL write it and post it relatively soon!

This is technically a prequel to the other two fics in this series, but I'm fairly sure it can operate standalone. If you want a quick explanation on the characters and environment, I recommend you just read this. It's fairly short, and it should give you all the information you need to enjoy this without much/any confusion.

Please enjoy!!!!!

Chapter 1: Summer Sun

At this point in his summer-job career, Caleb had almost forgotten to ask Yudala Fon if they needed him at the library at all. 

He’d worked there every summer for several years in a row. Sometimes, if he was just passing through during the winter, Yudala would ask him to fix something or to hold down the fort for an hour or two. It was just the way it was. 

So he realized the day before school was going to end that he’d completely forgotten to make sure that the job would be happening. He almost hesitated, but decided that it would be pretty presumptuous to not ask. 

Caleb ran to the library after school that afternoon, slowing down and feeling his shoulders relax just by stepping inside. The library had always been his safe haven. 

Also, it was air conditioned. And phew, was it hot outside.  

As always, Yudala Fon was sitting at the front desk. Unsurprisingly, they weren’t doing anything. The library was mostly deserted. It was a minor miracle that it was still up and running as it was. 

Yudala looked up when Caleb opened the door, their face splitting into a small grin as he walked over. 

“Uh, good afternoon.” he said, approaching the desk. 

“Hello, Caleb.” Yudala responded. “Is everything alright?” 

“Ja, yes. I just…er…apologies for the late notice, but I just wanted to ask if it’s okay for me to work here again over the summer?” 

An odd expression flitted over Yudala’s face, which instantly made Caleb’s stomach drop. “You wanted to work here again?” 

“Yes, of course.” he responded, trying not to sound desperate. “If that’s okay?” 

Yudala set down the book they were reading and reached into a drawer, pulling out a piece of paper that Caleb couldn’t read upside down properly. They examined it for a moment, then set it down. 

“I suppose you could work here,” they said. “It’s just…I’m not really sure there’s enough work here for two people.” 

Two people? How could that be? Had someone else beaten Caleb to the punch? That was impossible! As far as he knew, nobody else his age frequented the library enough to want to work there, and most everybody knew that Caleb had the job anyway. 

He tried not to let this panic show on his face and said, “I think that could be okay.” 

Yudala looked unsure. “I might have to change your wage, then. Money’s tight. And I’ll have to speak to the other candidate, to make sure he’s okay with this.” 

Caleb tried not to wring his hands and instead settled for tucking them behind his back and clenching them into nervous fists. “That…that could be okay. Just let me know once you’ve figured it out?” 

“Of course.” Yudala said. “Thank you for your interest, Caleb. I just didn’t think you’d want to work here this summer, since you’ve been doing it so long.” 

Caleb didn’t really know what to say to that. He’d never even considered this line of possibility. 

“Anyway, come back in a day or two, and I’ll let you know how it turns out.” Yudala opened up the drawer again and returned the piece of paper inside. For a brief, hotheaded moment, Caleb was tempted to try and sneak back in to read it, but then quickly reminded himself that that would be a horrible idea. 

“Thank you.” Caleb said with a smile, then turned around and strode out of the library. 

 

---

 

Two days later, Caleb strode back into the library at noon after spending the entire morning stressing and pacing. And the entire day before that. 

“Seriously, dude, what’s wrong with you?” Beau had asked, as the two of them sat down outside next to Fjord and Caduceus for their final lunch of the school year. “You look like you can’t decide whether you’re going to throw up or pass out.” 

Caleb had explained everything to them, but his friends were unfortunately all unsympathetic. Caduceus had worked at the family graveyard his entire life, Fjord had a job lifeguarding at the public pool, and Beau’s family was going away to the seaside for an extended period of the summer. 

If Caleb didn’t work at the library, he genuinely had nothing to do for three consecutive months. He’d probably have to find a job elsewhere, but he’d been so sure that he’d be able to work at the library that it was probably too late for him to apply to other places. Plus, he was going to need that money to pay to attend university soon.

So he walked into the library that day feeling extremely stressed out. 

As he opened the door, he saw (to his surprise) that someone was already talking to Yudala Fon. Without even stopping to see who it was, Caleb veered off to the side to sit down and wait for them to leave. 

However, before he could safely make his getaway, Yudala looked up and noticed him. They immediately waved him over, saying “Ah, perfect timing, Caleb.” 

Caleb walked over to the front desk and buried his fists in his pockets anxiously. The person who Yudala Fon was speaking to turned around to make eye contact as he approached. 

They were a dark elf slightly shorter than Caleb, and perhaps his age. Their white hair was cut short, just curling around the tips of their ears. Their clothes looked a lot nicer than Caleb’s - dark jeans, a green shirt, and a messenger bag slung over one shoulder. 

“You’re in luck, Caleb.” Yudala said, and instantly all other thoughts evaporated from his mind. “Essek has agreed to work alongside you for the summer. Essek, this is Caleb, who has worked here for several summers. He’ll show you the ropes, and you’ll be working together.” 

Essek stuck out his hand to shake, as if this was some sort of business meeting. Caleb shook it. 

“Nice to meet you.” 

“Nice to meet you, too.” 

Essek turned to Yudala. “When do you want us to start, then?”

“Next Miresen.” they responded crisply. “If that works for the two of you.” 

Caleb and Essek both nodded. Yudala went back to their work - it was clear that they were dismissed. 

Caleb turned to Essek to say…something (his instincts were demanding some kind of joke to break the tension) but before he could, Essek spun on his heel and strode right out the door (to which Caleb’s instincts demanded that he trip him on the way out). 

However, Caleb resisted such an idea and watched the back of Essek’s head walk out of the library and down the road. He sighed and walked out of the library too, in the opposite direction. Without anything else to do, Caleb began to try and find someplace to eat lunch. Maybe, after that, he would go to Beau or Fjord’s house. They were probably around. And Beau would be leaving soon, so he wouldn’t see her for a while. Maybe even until school started again. 

Eventually, Caleb walked into one of his usual lunch haunts. However, instead of quietly sulking to the counter to order, he was instantly attacked by someone shrieking “CALEB!!!” at the top of their lungs. 

“ACK!” he jumped back what felt like a foot in the air. 

Jester, Mollymauk, and Veth were sitting at a booth together. Jester had leaned over the table and was excitedly waving at him - there was no doubt that she was the one who had shouted. 

“Come sit with us!” 

Caleb hesitated for a moment. Sit with the Fluffernutters? Weren’t they supposed to be rivals? 

Jester beckoned him again, and Veth titled her head towards the wall - a clear indication to join in. 

Fine. Whatever. They weren’t really rivals at this point anyway. 

Mollymauk moved over on his side of the booth to make room for Caleb as he awkwardly sat down and pooled his backpack on the floor on top of his feet. 

“How’s it going, Caleb?” Jester asked. “What are you doing here?” 

“Getting lunch.” Caleb said shortly. 

“Where’s everybody else?” 

Caleb tried not to make a face. “Around. Doing their own thing.”

He tried to imagine what would happen if the Fluffernutters and his friends all tried to eat lunch together in a public place. They’d probably get into a huge screaming match. Or a food fight. Or maybe they’d burn the building down. It wouldn’t end well. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be working in the library by now?” Veth asked, swirling some colorful soda in a plastic cup with her straw. 

“Ja. I’m starting next week, though, because someone almost stole my job.” 

Mollymauk gasped. “Scandalous!” 

“Stole your job? Like, your summer, minimum-wage high schooler job?” Jester repeated. “Who would want that?” 

“Another high schooler.” 

“Nobody else in our grade - or in our school, for that matter - wants that job.” Veth scoffed. “It’s impossible.” 

“Well, clearly it isn’t.” Caleb said, suddenly wishing for his own soda to stir, just for something to do with his hands.

“Who took it!?” Jester cried. It was clear that that was the information she’d been digging for with her previous comment, but Caleb only picked that up now. 

“His name’s Essek. I think he’s our age, anyway.” 

The Fluffernutters all made weird faces. 

“I’ve never heard of an Essek around here.” Mollymauk said. “And I know everybody!” 

“Me neither.” Veth responded. “Must be some new kid!” 

“Ohmigods.” Jester said. “We should go and meet him at the library! Do you think he’s going to come to our school in the fall?” 

“Well, given the fact that there’s no other high school around until the next town over, that seems pretty likely.” Mollymauk waved a hand dismissively. “And it’s our business to know everybody our age.” 

“Tell us about him!” Veth demanded. “Is he tall? Short?” 

“Shorter than me, a little.” Caleb responded. “He’s a drow. He…wears black jeans. Uh…” 

“Come on, Caleb.” Jester sighed. “The first new kid in years and you can’t even gather any intel?” 

“I’m going to order my food.” Caleb said, abruptly standing up and moving towards the counter.

This entire interaction was, in all honesty, throwing Caleb for a loop. First the Fluffernutters were treating him like one of them, and now they were expecting him to have gossip on some guy he’d only known for about fifteen minutes of his entire life? 

Beau was going to have a field day with this. 

He heard the Fluffernutters continuing to talk behind him as he ordered his food. Feeling slightly nervous about how he’d left the conversation, he awkwardly returned to the table, soda in hand. 

“But this could be really great, you guys.” Jester was saying, as Caleb slid back into place next to Mollymauk. “We could make a new friend! Add another number to the Fluffernutters!” 

“What is this, a war?” Veth asked.

Mollymauk shrugged. “Could be. Friends are fun! This is a phenomenal plan.” 

“And we know where Essek’s going to be all summer!” Jester cheered. “This’ll be a breeze!” 

Veth pouted. “I can’t believe I’m going to spend months dealing with hearing my racist aunts argue for hours when I could be ensnaring a new friend into our clutches.” 

“You should steal their car and come back.” Mollymauk suggested. 

“If I do that, my parents won’t pay for me to go to university, and then I’ll be stuck here FOREVER.” Veth bemoaned.

“You should steal their car and crash it. Out of spite.” 

“Do you want me to be trapped here forever?” 

“Just don’t get caught! It’s not that hard.” 

“Seriously, though, Veth, you can’t convince your parents to let you come back at least a little?” Jester pleaded. 

“Maybe once or twice.” Veth grumbled. “I could argue that I’m coming back to, like, clean up the house or something, but I don’t really want to do that -” 

“But you’ll get to see us!” Mollymauk cried. “Surely that’s worth a bit of cleaning.” 

Veth rolled her eyes. “Maybe.” 

Caleb used the lull in conversation to ask, “Are you and Mollymauk staying in town for the entire summer, Jester?” 

“Yup.” she sighed. “Nothing but hours at the pool, movies, shopping, and takeout for us.”

“Wow, you sound so excited.” Mollymauk deadpanned.

“I just wish I was going elsewhere!” Jester cried. “I’ve stayed here every summer forever!” 

“I mean, you could probably come with me -” Veth began, but Jester started making gagging noises. 

“No offense, Veth, but I don’t really want to have to meet all your relatives.” she said. 

“Shame. I want you to meet them. I think they’d all hate you and you’d scare the will to live back into them.” Veth shrugged. 

“Also, Caleb,” Mollymauk suddenly said, “It’s Molly to my friends, not Mollymauk.” 

Caleb almost choked on his soda. Friends?

“I thought we were rivals.” he managed to say. 

Jester scoffed. “It’s the summer. We’re off.” 

“Yeah, but when school starts again, it’s back on.” Veth made the I’ve-got-my-eye-on-you gesture, pointing two fingers at her eyes and then two at Caleb. 

He chuckled. “Ja, right. Once school starts again, I was never here.” 

 

---

 

“So how’s the library going?” Beau asked, meandering around her room and picking random articles of clothing off of the ground and furniture to toss into a suitcase. 

Caleb frowned. “It’s…it’s been better.” 

Beau looked over her shoulder as she held up two socks to check if they matched. “What’s wrong? That new guy giving you trouble?” She then tossed the socks into the suitcase even though they did not match at all. 

“Sort of.” Caleb said, wringing his hands in his lap again. “He does not like me much, I think. It’s rather uncomfortable.” 

On their first day of work, when Caleb had gone around and explained how the library was catalogued, how to access the older materials and how to run the front desk, Essek had barely even graced him with a thank-you or even a spare glance. On the second day of work, they hadn’t said a single word to each other, and Caleb had the distinct feeling that Essek was avoiding him on purpose. But now, today, Caleb had asked if he’d seen some book that someone was asking for, Essek had rolled his eyes and then had gone and found it.

Beau scoffed. “Want me to go beat him up?” 

“Nein, no, that’s not a good idea.” Caleb said quickly. “I’m sure it’ll…get better eventually.” His stomach turned at the idea of spending the entire summer in Essek’s chilly presence. Working at the public pool would somehow be preferable to that. 

“I just wish he wasn’t working at the library. Everything else is fine except for him.” 

“I could ask my parents if you could come with us. To the seaside.” Beau suggested, picking up a shirt out of a pile of (presumably dirty) laundry and tossing it into the suitcase next. 

“I don’t think my own parents would be very happy with that.” Caleb sighed. “And your parents don’t seem to like me much.” 

“Are you kidding?” Beau asked. “They love you. They think you’re a good influence.” 

“That’s just because I submit my homework on time. And have never been arrested. And have never been drinking.” 

“Correction.” Beau smirked. “Have never been caught drinking.” 

“I stand corrected. Also, I pack clean clothes to go on vacation.” 

“One, I can’t even remember the last time you went on a vacation. And two, how long has that dirt wizard nickname been a thing for you?” 

Caleb’s cheeks instantly reddened as Beau snickered. “That was only one or two times! I don’t -” 

“Yeah, right, tell that to Jester. "

Caleb huffed, not knowing how to respond to that. It wasn't his fault that he'd tripped and fallen into a mud puddle before a math test once, and he'd walked in late covered in grime. It also wasn't his fault the time a few weeks later when Yasha had accidentally elbowed him into a half-melted snowbank, ruining his coat and boots and making him leave dirty, salty boot prints in his wake for an entire day. Since then, Jester had insisted on calling him a dirt wizard.

Where had the wizard part even come from? Not for the first time, Caleb wondered what it must be like to live in Jester's brain.

Caleb was startled out of his thoughts by the sound of a door opening a floor beneath them. Beau looked up from the suitcase like a gopher surfacing out of a hole.

"I think that's Fjord. He wanted to come talk to us about…something." Beau said.

Caleb made a face. "Should I be worried?"

"No!" Beau said, hurrying for the door to her room. Caleb stood up to follow as well as she continued, "I think he's in charge of trying to plan some party or other at the pool, and he wanted our ideas."

"Oh. Why didn't you just say so?"

"Cause I didn't remember until just now. FJORD!"

The two of them leaned over the second floor banister and down into the entryway, where Fjord was taking off his shoes while trying to balance a handful of posters in his arms.

"Hey, Beau." he said. "Hi, Caleb."

"What're those?" Beau shouted.

"Orly wants us to advertise our events this summer!" Fjord shouted back. "Can I come upstairs?"

"I'm offended you even had to ask. Come on!"

Fjord clambered up the stairs, catching up to Beau and Caleb as they walked back into her room. Caleb resumed sitting on the floor next to Beau's bed, and Fjord sat down next to him, spreading the posters across the floor.

The three of them huddled around the posters, examining them. There was the usual jazz-aerobics that older ladies were so fond of, a distance swimming challenge with a cash prize, a teens-only night, and even a pet swimming day.

"Aw, damn." Beau asked, picking up the poster for the teens-only pool party. "I'm going to miss this!"

"It's not like that many people are even going to come to that." Caleb said. "Half of the people we know are leaving town anyway."

"Yeah, but if you and Fjord are going to be there, that's excuse enough for me to go." Beau harrumphed.

"I'm probably going to be busy at the library when it's happening anyway." Caleb waved a hand dismissively as he frowned at the pet swimming poster. "You're going to be having more fun wherever you are then we'll be having here."

Fjord explained the rest of the events to them. Halfway through, Beau got bored and stood up to finish packing, which mostly meant that Caleb was sitting there pretending to be interested.

"…and now, because we've invented all of these events, I've accidentally tricked myself into doing more work this year." Fjord finished.

"You are being paid more, ja?" Caleb responded.

"Yeah, yeah, but I miss my time off!"

"Realistically, you'd rather be at the pool, I think."

Fjord sighed. "I could be hanging out with you. Or Caduceus."

"Caduceus and I are both busy. In fact, this is probably a pretty good way to balance it all out. If all three of us are busy, I mean."

Fjord made a face. "Fine. I guess that works out."

Beau zipped her suitcase shut with no small amount of effort, and then plopped on the ground next to them. "I don't see why you're so sad about having to spend more time at the pool. I heard that Jester and Molly are going to be here for most of the summer."

She smirked and bounced her eyebrows up and down.

Fjord's face flushed at once. "Okay! It's not like that. I'm not some creep ogling a girl at the pool, thank you very much."

"I wasn't saying that! I just think that this is an excellent opportunity for you to take advantage of!"

Beau elbowed Fjord with a good-natured grin. He sighed and rolled his eyes.

"I won't be doing anything untoward. Unlike you, I know how to act cool under pressure."

Caleb stifled a snort. "Right. Like on Halloween when you walked into the doorframe because you were busy looking at Jester?"

Fjord's jaw fell open. "You - nobody was around! How could you possibly have seen me!?"

Caleb shrugged. "Anybody who was around would've had a hard time missing it. You just need to keep your eyes out for funny things."

"And blackmail material." Beau added.

"Yes. If that's the best blackmail you have on me, you need to step it up." Fjord harrumphed.

"Is that an invitation?" Caleb couldn't conceal a grin.

"No!" Fjord cried. "Look, we should all just calm down! I'm doing my job at the pool, and Jester being there means nothing to me."

"Keep telling yourself that." Beau sniggered.

Fjord rolled his eyes with a huff and didn't dignify them with a response.

 

---

 

Caleb waved at Kingsley through a space in the bookshelves as he walked past his table to sit back down in the corner. The library was nearly completely empty otherwise, despite the absolutely blazing heat outside. If Caleb didn't work at the library anyway, he would be spending all his time indoors in the air conditioning.

"Friend of yours?"

Caleb looked up from the book he'd just reopened to see Essek re-shelving something.

"Ja, kind of."

Essek leaned around the corner, looking confused. "Is that Mollymauk?"

"You know him?"

Essek waved his hand in a so-so motion. "Do you know Jester?"

Caleb bit back a laugh. "I definitely know Jester."

"She and Molly have been…er…enthusiastic. Yes, they've been enthusiastic. There's no other word for it."

"Enthusiastic about what?"

"In general. I've spent some time with them. They're…nice."

For a moment, Caleb imagined Essek with the rest of the Fluffernutters and bit back a laugh. His quiet, reserved demeanor seemed so at odds with Jester's endless excitement, Mollymauk's mischief, and Veth's brand of chaos.

Well, Yasha was much more quiet, too, and she fit right in. Maybe Essek was similar.

"No, that's not Mollymauk." Caleb said, getting back on the topic. "That's Kingsley, his younger brother."

Kingsley had never really been involved in the Fluffernutter-versus-Beau-Caleb-Caduceus-Fjord rivalry, but that didn't mean he wasn't petty about it. Fjord had always had a way with him, and if Mollymauk ever made Kingsley particularly angry, he would hang out with the four of them instead of with the Fluffernutters out of spite.

You had to admire the commitment and the opportunism. Kingsley could be pretty fun from time to time, and Beau certainly got along with him better than she did with Mollymauk.

"I didn't know Mollymauk had a brother." Essek said, turning around to go back to his work.

Caleb almost mentioned Mollymauk's other brother, but didn't see any real reason for him to extend the conversation. Essek eventually walked away, the thread of talk having dissolved completely.

However, Caleb ended up not needing to at all. He heard the library door suddenly slam open, and jumped a little at the sudden noise.

He looked up and saw Lucien storming into the library, and resisted the urge to hide in his book like a child. Instead, he buried his nose in it but kept his eyes up.

Lucien's appearance in the library (or any public place, really) could only mean one thing: trouble.

"Kingsley." Lucien barked, already way too loud for a library. Caleb resisted the urge to go and check to see if Yudala was at the front desk. However, the lack of a sharp shhhh! alerted him that they probably weren't.

Fuck.

"Where's my guitar?" Lucien shouted, storming over to Kingsley's table.

"I don't know." Kingsley said flatly, not looking up from his book.

"Yes. You do." Lucien hissed.

"No. I. Don't." Kingsley spat.

Lucien grabbed Kingsley's chin and forced his face upward to make proper eye contact. Caleb shuddered at the thought of Lucien's jet-black painted nails digging into his face.

"Where's my guitar!?" Lucien shouted.

"I don't have it." Kingsley glared right back, grabbing Lucien's wrist and jerking his face away.

Caleb turned the page of his book without actually finishing it, just trying to appear busy. He was torn between storming up to Lucien and ending the fight (the way he usually did when people got too loud in the library) or just waiting for it to blow over (because Lucien had a mean streak a mile wide).

Lucien and his gang of other outcasts had formed a band at some point called the Tombtakers. As the name suggested, the Tombtakers were mostly all about punk, goth, and emo music, three things that sometimes went well together and sometimes did not. Their music was subpar at best, but Lucien was particularly sensitive to being called out. He played the guitar, of course, a gnarly black electric thing that made Caduceus leave the room whenever as he laid eyes on it.

"Whatever god invented music, I'm very sure that this is not what they had in mind." was all he said. Once, Beau had pointed out that Caduceus' own music taste was pretty gothic as well, but Caduceus had made an offended face and said that the Tombtakers were "a disgrace to goth and music and life as a whole." Caleb didn't think their band was quite that bad, but he'd once heard it when in a bad mood, and it certainly wasn't conducive to feeling better about life.

The Tombtakers had all graduated from high school a few years earlier, but as far as Caleb knew, most of them had stuck around town, either attending the community college not far away or not attending college at all. Or possibly some combination of both. Truth be told, Caleb could be a bit of a coward, so he generally stayed away from them after being warned by Mollymauk several years earlier.

However, it appeared that Mollymauk had not given this warning to Essek.

"What is going on over here?" Essek suddenly stormed over to their table, looking very angry indeed. "This is a library. You're supposed to stay quiet."

Lucien looked away from Kingsley for a moment, eyeing Essek up at down. He relaxed his grip on Kingsley's face and rotated on the spot to face him, a smooth and oily move that Caleb knew could only mean trouble.

"If you're not going to stay quiet and respect our rules, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Essek said coldly.

"Am I, now." Lucien responded just as icily. "I can't say I've ever seen you around here, friend. What's your name?"

Essek narrowed his eyes. He looked conflicted for a moment, before saying, "Essek. What's your name?"

"Lucien." he said coolly, sticking out a hand to shake. "Nice to meet you."

Essek took it without even thinking. And in an instant, Lucien yanked, and sent Essek sprawling onto the dirty library carpet.

Lucien kicked Essek sharply in the side once, twice, three times, before the fourth was strong enough to flip him over. Lucien bent down and wrapped his hang around Essek's throat.

For some reason, this was the thing that finally made Caleb throw his book aside and storm across the room.

"Leave him alone." Caleb spat.

Lucien's head snapped up before splitting into a devious grin.

"Caleb Widogast." he drawled. "Fancy seeing you here."

"I work here. You're causing a ruckus and harming my colleague and a patron of the library. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Since when does the mysterious Caleb care about anybody but himself?" Lucien mused, not letting go of Essek's throat. It appeared that he wasn't choking him to the point of harm, but he was certainly restricting his airflow. "I was under the impression that everything you do is for your own good.”

Caleb clenched his jaw hard enough to hurt. "You're interfering with my job and the library's functions. Leave the premises now."

Lucien paused for a moment, scoffed, and let go of Essek's throat. He gasped with the sudden intake of air as Lucien spun on his heel and stormed out the door - not before knocking Kingsley's small pile of books onto the floor.

"That was out of line." Kingsley scowled, his hands curled into fists. "That piece of shite, that bastard, that -"

"You won't win against them all." Caleb said, guiding Kingsley into sitting back down. From through the glass doors, he could see the rest of the Tombtakers materializing out of the shadows to talk to Lucien, and he felt his stomach flip at the thought of the five of them rushing into the library. If that had happened, it would've gone from bad to very bad quickly.

"Who the fuck was that?" Essek asked, coughly slightly and sitting up.

"Lucien Tealeaf." Caleb said. "The oldest of the Tealeaf brothers and -"

"The worst." Kingsley spat, leaning over to pick the books off of the floor.

Essek's eyes widened. "He's related to Mollymauk?"

Kingsley scoffed. "They're not as different as you think."

"But they are different enough that it's jarring." Caleb sighed, trying to stop another fight from breaking out. "I'm sorry I didn't intervene earlier, Kingsley."

"I didn't need help. But thanks anyway." Kingsley sighed. "I should go."

"Are you going to check any of those out -" Essek started, but Kingsley stood up and walked right out of the door. "Never mind."

Caleb turned to Essek. "Are you okay?"

Essek stood up, wincing and holding his side. "I'll be okay. I don't think anything was broken."

"That was pretty fucked up. Where's Yudala Fon?"

"Not here. Lunch break, maybe." Essek twisted from side to side, and his spine made a variety of alarming cracking noises. "…thanks for stepping in."

Caleb shrugged. "It was the right thing to do."

He couldn't think of anything else to say. Frankly, some part of him was surprised that Essek had even intervened in the first place.

Another part of him was surprised at his own intervention as it was. Sure, he'd stopped other loud arguments in the library before, but never with people he really knew. And never between people he'd been expressly warned about.

"Is there anybody else in town I needed to be warned about?" Essek sighed.

Caleb paused, seriously considering for a moment. "Well, it depends. If you get on the bad side of the Fluffernutters, that will be the end of you. Either your house will be covered in eggs every morning, or they'll never find the body."

Essek's face morphed into a properly horrified expression. "What?"

"Ja, yes. But if Jester and Mollymauk like you, you'll be fine." Caleb paused again. "Beauregard - she's not part of the Fluffernutters - can be very fearsome. If you cross any of her friends, she'll beat you up worse than Lucien. Lucien might have his little band to back him up, but Beauregard will hang you out to dry with her bare hands alone."

Essek's eyes darted around the room nervously. "Who are Beauregard's friends?"

A slow smile spread across Caleb's face. "Well, there's Caduceus Clay, who works at the funeral home. He likes almost everybody though, and never gets mad unless you do something really bad. If you make Caduceus mad, you'll know. There's Fjord Stone, who works at the pool. Him and Beauregard at like this." Caleb held up two crossed fingers to indicate the level of connection that Beau and Fjord had. "But he's chill, for the most part. Oh, and then there's me."

He couldn't help but smile as Essek's ears flattened against the side of his head nervously.

"Don't worry. I don't think you've done anything to merit getting Beauregard unleashed on you. Also, she's out of town for the entire summer."

Essek's stiff posture instantly deflated. "Are you serious?" he cried, burying his face in his hands. "All of that, and she's not even here!?"

Caleb nodded, feeling awfully proud indeed. "At least you know now. For the next school year."

"Thanks the gods I won't be here, then."

Caleb immediately whipped his head back around to look at Essek. "Was? You're not staying for the school year?"

"No." Essek said simply. "My mother has some job here for the summer as a favor to somebody, and then we'll be leaving."

"Huh." was all Caleb could think to say. He suddenly felt oddly disappointed that Essek would be leaving.

Which was completely ridiculous. They barely even knew each other. And up until today, Caleb hadn't even been sure if he liked Essek at all.

Stay on task, Widogast.

"Well, that's certainly good news for you." Caleb said, hiding his dismay with an easy laugh. "There are much better places to be than here. More interesting places, anyway."

"Have you always lived here?" Essek asked, sitting down at the table that Kingsley had just left.

Okay. Conversation starting.

And not necessarily Caleb's favorite conversation thread, either.

"No, not always." he said casually, sitting down across from Essek and not letting any anxiety show. "My family and I moved here from the Empire a few years ago."

Essek hummed, interested. "I've never been there. Unsurprisingly. Were you in Rexxentrum?"

"I spent a bit of time there, ja." Caleb said, his usual explanation for everything ready at hand. "But my parents wanted us to be somewhere a bit quieter. Where did you live? Or where do you live, I should ask."

There. Perfect. Moving on.

"My family lived in Rosohna for…" Essek made a face. "Many centuries. But we've been on the move throughout Xhorhas, and the Empire, and now the Menagerie Coast, for some time now. I think my mother was tired of the capital, and now can't seem to sit still." He sighed. "I spent the last year and a half in Port Damali, and now we're here."

Caleb couldn't resist making a face, too. "You left Port Damali to come to here?" Compared to Port Damali, this place was a dump.

"Yes." Essek sighed. "It's temporary. I believe that the plan is for us to spend the next year in Nicodranas."

Caleb had heard all about Nicodranas from Beau and the occasional tirade from Jester. Beau's family owned a summer home on the coastline not far from there, and Jester had been born in the city before moving more inland.

"That's nice." Caleb responded, unsure of what else to add. "I've heard it's quite a lovely place."

"This town doesn't seem so bad." Essek said with an elegant shrug. "It's nice that everybody knows each other."

"It can be nice." Caleb shrugged back. "But it can be kind of weird that everyone knows all of everyone's business."

The conversation ebbed and flowed from there, thankfully steering away from their pasts and more into their futures. At some point, Caleb lost track of time, and only looked up when he heard Yudala Fon printing something out on their ancient printer.

"We should probably get back to work." Caleb said, standing up with what he hoped was an apologetic smile. "I still have a few things left to do."

"Me as well." Essek said, looking a bit nervous.

They both smiled at each other, then went their separate ways.

At the end of their shift, Caleb went to try and find Essek, hoping they could walk home together, but realized too late that he was already gone.

 

---

 

"Caleb!"

"Hallo, Mrs Clay -"

Before Caleb could get more than a foot into the funeral home, Constance Clay stood up from the front desk and wrapped him in a huge hug.

"Oof."

"How are you doing? How have you been?"

"I've been good, ja. Is Caduceus around?"

Constance frowned, looking around. "I think he went out to the grocery store not too long ago. He'll be back soon, though, if you're okay with waiting."

"That's fine. Can I just sit here?"

"Of course."

Caleb sat down in one of the armchairs in the entrance hall of the funeral home and resisted the urge to curl his knees into his chest. There were a lot of places in town he'd rather wait than here, but there weren't really any other options.

He'd planned on spending his day alone, but he'd gotten a call from Fjord earlier that day. He'd sounded like a maniac, worrying that nobody was going to come to the teens-only party next week. In an effort to calm him down, Caleb had asked if he wanted him to talk to some of their friends and/or supposed rivals and see if they would come. Fjord had agreed, and now the Blooming Grove funeral home was his first stop.

Beau was out of town, so she was out. Veth, too. And Yasha as well, if Caleb remembered correctly (he usually did). That left Caduceus, Jester, and Mollymauk, which was not a lot of people.

Well, it also left Essek.

Caleb would've been lying if he said that the the idea to go and talk to Essek hadn't almost immediately jumped into his brain. It was a great idea. Another person to come to the party, another person to ensure that Fjord's contribution to the public pool was a success.

But Caleb also would've been lying if he said that he didn't want Essek there for selfish reasons. But nobody needed to know that.

Caduceus took a while to return to the funeral home. Long enough that Caleb started reading the flyers and pamphlets that the Clays kept in a box at the door. Things that read Explaining Death to Children and Basic Burial Rites of the Prime Deities and How to Care for a Friend Who's Grieving.

None of them were particularly enlightening. Caleb had the distinct sense that people who read them weren't really looking for the information, but a distraction.

Shortly after that, Caleb spotted Caduceus walking down the path. He jumped up, quietly waving goodbye to Constance (who waved back distractedly, mid-phone call) and hurried outside.

"Hello, Caleb." Caduceus said pleasantly, his arms filled with groceries. "It's nice to see you. Can I help you?"

"Fjord wanted me to talk to you -" Caleb began, but was quickly cut off.

"Ah, that's nice. Want to help me put away the groceries? Then you can talk."

No, Caleb didn't particularly want to put away the groceries, but it would be better than waiting around in the funeral home for longer than necessary. "Ja, okay."

He took a few bags out of Caduceus' hands and followed him down the path and through the graveyard.

Unlike most graveyards that Caleb had seen (in his thankfully limited experience), the Blooming Grove was a riot of color. Nearly every grave had plants growing out of it, curling around headstones and stretching their vines into their neighbors. The trees kept the grounds shady, with the those resting beneath them helping to keep the roots healthy. Some of the trees and plants reaching over the path were in bloom, dusting a few lucky graves with colorful flower petals.

Eventually, the two of them reached the Clay family home, in the heart of the cemetery. Truth be told, it was one of Caleb's favorite places in town - beautiful, cozy, and most of all, utterly peaceful.

Caduceus unlocked the door and pushed it open, leading the two of them into the kitchen. This was also one of Caleb's favorite kitchens in town - both of Caduceus' parents were amazing cooks, even if they were vegetarian. And what little Caleb had tried of Caduceus' own cooking was worth the awkwardness of coming over to a friend's house for dinner.

"What's going on with Fjord?" Caduceus asked, opening up the cupboards and starting to fill them.

"Nothing serious." Caleb said, grabbing the bottles of milk and putting them in the fridge. Caleb's parents had actually gone to help the Clays buy this fridge a few years ago - they weren't really big on technology. "Fjord's helping to throw some teens party at the pool next week, and he wants some of us to come and help make it a success."

Caduceus raised an eyebrow over his shoulder. "Huh? Why?"

Caleb shrugged. "He's worried that it's not going to work out, and he'll be fired. Or something. He didn't say that. That's just what I think he's scared of."

"That's ridiculous."

It honestly was. But Caleb knew the fear of trying to hold onto a job. His first summer at the library, he'd been jumping at shadows the entire time. He'd even had a panic attack the first time the scanner had broken, and Yudala Fon had walked in from the back room to find him hyperventilating in front of a very confused and very concerned Gustav Fletching.

It was not his brightest moment.

"Well, there's no harm in us going. To support Fjord. And to make sure he keeps his job."

"Next week, huh?" Caduceus mused. "Maybe I could go. Who else is going?"

"I'm going to talk to Jester and Mollymauk later today." Caleb responded. "And…er…my friend Essek, from the library, too."

Caduceus' head snapped up from where he was refilling the bottle of white vinegar under the sink. "Essek who?"

"Just Essek." Caleb said, who had not realized until that moment that he'd never gotten Essek's last name in all the weeks they'd been working together. "He's…er…working at the library with me, because he got the job first but Yudala Fon took pity on me."

Caduceus looked impressed. "Wow. That's so great, Caleb. You should invite him! So we all can meet him."

"I was gonna call him, and maybe walk over to his house later today." Caleb said. "Just making the rounds, you know."

"Can I come with you?" Caduceus asked. "I'm not busy today. I can help you convince them to come."

"So you will go?" Caleb asked.

"Sure. Why not? It's for Fjord."

Caleb silently gave himself a pat on the back. "I don't see why not. Can I use your phone, though? To call Essek?"

"It's back at the funeral home." Caduceus said absently. "I can finish putting these away and meet you there, if you want."

Caleb nodded and walked back out of the house and through the Blooming Grove again. He and Essek had exchanged phone numbers not too long ago, and had already spent several hours continuing their conversations from home. One night, Caleb had nearly fallen asleep talking, and then had actually fallen asleep at work the next day. Essek, of course, had been unflappable as always, grinning when he woke Caleb up to stop him from drooling on the front desk.

That had also not been one of Caleb's brightest moments. Maybe he should make a point to avoid the library front desk from now on, especially since he had someone else to do that job now.

He walked back into the funeral home, and thankfully Constance had finished her phone call and had left the room. Caleb dialed Essek's number and tried to ignore the sudden anxiety pooling in his gut as he heard the tone once, twice, three times.

Four times. Five times -

"Hello, this is Deirta Thelyss, how can I help you?"

Caleb felt his heart jolt slightly in his chest. This was surely Essek's mother, from the sound of it. Essek had always picked up before, so suddenly Caleb didn't know what to do.

"I’m - This- this is Caleb Widogast. Is Essek home?" he said, trying to steady his voice. 

Breathe. It was just a phone call. Phone calls were easy.

"Yes, one moment please." Deirta Thelyss said politely, then there was a somewhat distant shout of "Essek! Someone's on the phone for you!"

See, that was easy. Calm down. It was a two sentence exchange, Caleb scolded himself.

"Hello?" Essek's accent floated in through the tinny speaker. "Who is this?"

"Hallo, Essek, it's Caleb." he responded, attempting to shake the anxiety from his shoulders.

"Hello, Caleb." Essek said pleasantly. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, er, I was, um…" Caleb had been so startled by the appearance of Deirta Thelyss that he'd almost forgotten what he was actually calling for. "I was wondering if I could stop by your house a little later? Just for a bit. There's something I've been meaning to ask." Hearing how strange that sounded when he could hypothetically just ask here and now, he added, "Also, my friend would like to meet you."

"Oh. That's alright, then." Essek responded, and Caleb forced himself not to read too much into his tone for any reason. "When will you be coming over?"

"Within the next hour or so, I think…"

Essek relayed his address to Caleb, who quickly scribbled it onto his wrist with a spare pen.

"See you soon, then."

"See you soon."

Caleb hung up just as he noticed Caduceus strolling into the building.

"Where are we going first?"

"I think Mollymauk's place is the closest. That's assuming he's even there, though."

Caduceus shrugged. "I don't think I've seen Jester and Molly separate from each other at all this summer. Every time I see them in public, they're together."

"Well, if Mollymauk's not at home, we'll just go to Jester's next. And if she's not there, we'll just loiter at the candy store until she shows up. You know how it is."

"Great idea." Caduceus smiled serenely, his usual response to Caleb (or anybody's) half-jokes.

It didn't take long into their walk for it to become unpleasantly hot. Outside of the Blooming Grove, there was an agonizing lack of shade. Most of town was just a cement desert, with the occasional patch of mostly-dead grass. It was so hot that there wasn't even anybody in the main public park.

Caleb and Caduceus walked down the main street before turning a few streets away from that, towards the more niche (and more seedy) areas of town. What had once scared the socks off of Caleb was now almost comfortable to walk into - almost none of the people lurking and scowling in what little shade there was batted an eye at him anymore.

Eventually, the two of them approached a small shop with the sign FLETCHING AND MOONDROP'S CAPTIVATING COLLECTION OF CURIOSITIES painted above the window. Neither of them hesitated as they walked up to the door and opened it, stepping inside.

Fletching and Moondrop's Captivating Collection of Curiosities was a pawn shop. Nearly every available surface was covered in something. Tables were covered in bowls, plates, trinkets, and treasures. Shelves stacked with knickknacks, and walls covered in faded tapestries. From the ceiling hung bundles of herbs, interesting light fixtures, and one memorable taxidermied devil-toad head.

Sitting at the checkout counter crammed in the back corner was one Mollymauk Tealeaf, swinging his legs back and forth and bent in half over some painting project, from the looks of it.

He didn't even look up when the door opened. He just absently waved with his free hand to indicate his existence, then went back to what he was doing.

As they walked in, Caduceus arbitrarily plucked a tin off of a shelf, opened it, and gave it a tentative sniff.

"Huh. Wow. This seems like pretty good stuff."

"What is it?" Caleb asked.

"What's what?" Mollymauk responded.

"This." Caduceus rattled the tin a little.

Mollymauk at last looked up, face breaking into a grin as he did so. "Well, well. If it isn't Mister Clay. And Mister Widogast! What brings you here to my humble abode?"

He leaned forward, glancing at the tin. "Also, that's probably weed."

Caduceus made an appreciative face and nodded. Caleb caught a whiff of it and tried not to grimace too much.

"Fjord wanted me to talk to you." Caleb said. "He's helping to throw a pool party next week for us…youths, and he wants you to come."

"Fjord? Wants little ol' me to come to his party?"

"Well, it's not really his party." Caduceus commented. "But he's helping to organize it and is now all worried about it failing."

Mollymauk scoffed. "Who would I be to say no to a party? Of course I'll come! I'm so honored that you asked."

Caleb sighed. "I'm doing Fjord a favor. And Caduceus is too. And now you are too. Thanks."

"Who else is coming? That we know?"

"Well, Caduceus just agreed, and I was kind of hoping you knew where Jester was." Caleb admitted.

Mollymauk waved a dismissive, paintbrush-holding hand, which sent a small spray of watercolor paint onto the counter. "She's off at someone's house, being herself. Dunno where, really, but in all honesty, I could probably find out. Not a lot of people our age in town at the moment. No wonder Fjord's all scared."

Caleb made a face. He might have to catch Jester some other day, then. He wasn't really interested in actively trying to find her, especially if she was spending time with somone. The last thing he wanted to do was be any kind of bother.

After all, weren't they still technically rivals?

Being rivals went on break with the school year, too, apparently.

"Who else is going?" Mollymauk pushed.

Caleb ignored the heat that threatened to rise in his cheeks. "Er. I was going to ask my friend from the library."

Mollymauk gasped like it was the most scandalous thing he'd ever heard. "Hot library guy? The one you told us about!? Who stole your job?!"

Now Caleb was definietly blushing. "Essek. Yes."

"Essek!" Mollymauk pumped his arm in remembrance. "I said hi to him a while back. And Kingsley told me about him!"

"Right." Caleb remembered the fight in the library a few weeks ago and felt a pit of anxiety in his stomach at the memory. Yudala Fon had not been happy that a brawl had nearly broken out under their watch. Frankly, he'd been in more trouble from that than messing up the scanner all that time ago.

"Jester met him at some point, too." Mollymauk continued. "But I thought you guys hated each other!"

"I never hated him." Caleb retorted, trying not to make it sound like a scoff. "I thought he didn't like me. But he defended Kingsley, so he isn't all bad, and we've been talking more regularly since."

Mollymauk nodded. "Any enemy of Lucien's is a friend of mine. I approve!" He slammed the pad of paper shut (still wet, by the looks of it) and stood up. "Where does he live?"

"You're coming with us?" Caduceus asked, somehow managing to not make it sound judgemental whatsoever.

"Yes, obviously." Mollymauk said. "I simply just have to meet whoever's making Caleb "I'd-rather-be-reading" Widogast willing to walk around and knock on doors. And blush like that."

Caleb felt his eyes widen at the insinuation, as Mollymauk cackled at his own joke. Even Caduceus was chuckling behind him.

"Nein, no, don't say that -"

"It's settled!" Mollymauk cried, already sweeping towards the front door. "Lead the way, Mister Widogast."

Caleb gulped nervously, glancing at the address scrawled on his wrist. It didn't help the sudden nerves he was feeling.

Electing to ignore Mollymauk completely, Caleb strode out of the shop, Caduceus on his heels. Mollymauk and Caduceus quickly fell into step between each other, talking about tea of all things. Caduceus' family proudly dried and sold what Beau had coined as "dead people tea", and Mollymauk was, for some reason, very interested in this.

Like most people were when confronted with the concept, Caleb had initially been a bit disturbed by the idea of drinking the distilled remnants of a corpse. But after a while, he'd started to really enjoy the tea, which had the unfortunate side effect of him casually mentioning "dead people tea" to other people, which promptly weirded them out as well.

It wasn't a surprise that Mollymauk was a dead people tea enjoyer as well. His last name was Tealeaf and everything.

With a combination of street signs, the scrawled address, and Caduceus' intuition, the three of them eventually navigated their way through town towards a row of newly built townhomes. Each one had a FOR RENT sign nailed into the tiny spat of a lawn except for one. Surely this was Essek's.

Feeling oddly trepidatious, Caleb led Caduceus and Mollymauk up the front steps and politely knocked on the front door.

There was no barking of a dog, no crash of someone dropping something (which happened somewhat regularly at Caleb's house when someone knocked on the door), and no rush of footsteps to answer it (which happened somewhat regularly at Beau's house). Instead, the three of them waited awkwardly on the tiny porch for about a minute before the door swung open.

It was not Essek. It was also probably not Deirta Thelyss, either. Instead, it was another relatively young drow - with a face younger than Essek's, but with a stature taller than him.

Perhaps a sibling of some kind? Or some other relative?

Caleb cleared his throat awkwardly, realizing that he'd probably waited a touch too long to say something. "Hallo. Is Essek home?"

"Yes." the drow said, something oddly like a smirk starting to curl onto their face. "Who are you?"

"I'm Caleb Widogast. This is - these are my friends Caduceus Clay and Mollymauk Tealeaf."

If Caleb hadn't been standing on the front porch faced with an unfamiliar figure, he would've clapped a hand over his mouth at his own daring. Even though Mollymauk had insisted that they were friends but a few weeks ago, this was the friendliest the two of them had possibly ever been.

Stay on task, Widogast, he reminded himself. Not the time for another one of these crises.

"Ohhhh." the drow responded. "I heard you were coming! My name's Verin. I'm Essek's brother."

"Right. Er. Nice to meet you." Caleb said awkwardly. He was forcibly reminded of the times where he was invited to other people's family dinners back in Blumenthal, and shuddered slightly at the memory.

"Here, come inside." Verin gestured the three of them into the entryway before closing the door and shouting over his shoulder, "ESSEK! YOUR FRIENDS ARE HERE!"

As Verin walked away, there was the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps from up above - except the figure that appeared on top of the steps was decidedly not Essek.

"Jester!?" Mollymauk cried.

"Molly!" she squealed. "Caduceus! Caleb! What are you doing here?!"

Caleb was about three seconds away from questioning his sanity before Essek appeared on the stairs next to Jester, eyes wide with surprise.

"Omigods!" Jester cried, hurrying down the stairs. "What are you guys doing here?"

Caleb was suddenly regretting bringing Mollymauk and Caduceus. Now it felt like an event.

"I just needed to ask Essek something." Caleb said, as patiently as possible.

"Hello, Caleb. And Molly. Who's your friend?" Essek asked, coming down the stairs behind Jester.

"This is Caduceus!" Jester cried, beating Caleb to the punch.

Caduceus nodded and waved slightly from where he was standing.

Essek nodded back, then turned to Caleb. "Is everything all right? Was is it that you wanted to ask about?"

Caleb vaguely wished that the floor would open and swallow him up. All of this felt like way too much effort just to ask Essek to come to a stupid pool party. He should've just sucked it up and asked on the phone.

"My friend Fjord works at the pool," Caleb started. "and he's helping to throw some kind of party for people our age next week. He's kind of worried about it, so I said I'd help by getting some people of the target audience to come. If you're free -"

"Omigods!" Jester beamed. "Caleb, are you asking Essek out on a daaaaaaate?"

Caleb instantly felt himself flush. "Nein! No, I'm doing Fjord a favor, like I just said -"

"I dunno." she giggled. "You guys would be pretty cute together. And you came all the way here to ask -"

Caleb elected to ignore her. He turned back to Essek and said "It's next Folsen at the public pool - just show up if you want to come." He looked at Jester as well and said, "That invitation goes for you too."

Jester grinned. "Don't worry, Caleb. I already told Fjord I was going. Are you and Caduceus coming too, Molly?"

"Sure are." Molly nodded. "It'll be fun!"

Caleb looked back at Essek and smiled apologetically, suddenly struggling to make eye contact. He hoped his smile conveyed the entire message of I'm-so-sorry-that-my-friends-just-made-a-whole-scene-and-thanks-for-tolerating-our-presence-in-your-house-when-I-could've-just-called-you.

Essek smiled back, though, and said, "That sounds all right, then. I'll be seeing you tomorrow, then, Caleb?"

Caleb nodded. "Ja. See you later, Essek."

He resisted the urge to run out of the house and instead settled for waving goodbye to him and Jester, opening up the door, and walking out. Molly and Caduceus followed quickly behind.

"Real quick before we move on from all that," Mollymauk said, as soon as Essek's front door closed behind them. "Are you sure you weren't asking Essek out on a date?"

Caleb glared at Mollymauk over his shoulder and began walking away faster. "I was not. At all. I'm doing a favor and being a good friend. Don't see patterns where there are none, Mister Mollymauk."

"I told you." Mollymauk scoffed. "Call me Molly."

"Fine, Molly. I am not asking Essek on a date."

"I don't think he would be opposed to it." Caduceus said. "Essek, I mean. A date."

Caleb rolled his eyes, but the effect was somewhat diminished by him walking slightly in front of Molly and Caduceus. The idea of Essek agreeing to something like that was laughable.

It was easier for him just to know that than to consider the alternative.

(This did not stop Caleb from spending the next several nights awake and wondering what if.)

Chapter 2: Something's Begun

Summary:

In which Caleb and Essek attend a pool party, and decisions are made.

Notes:

Hello!!!! Here's the promised ending to this little story, which ooooooooof, got WAY out of hand way faster than I'd ever anticipated!

Writing shippy stuff (especially getting-together) usually isn't my strong suit, but I had a lot of fun with this.

Also, side note, whoever recced this on the shadowgast reccing blog on tumblr, I owe you at least a million hugs. Thank you SO MUCH!

Please enjoy!!!!

Caleb nodded hello to Orly by way of a greeting as he unlocked the gate, stepping onto the pool deck.

Almost nobody was there yet - it was mostly pool employees running around making sure everything was ready. Caleb spotted Fjord unfolding a few tables and approached him.

"Need any help?"

"Caleb! You came." Fjord cried, spinning around excitedly. "I thought you were going to ditch us."

"Wow. You think so low of me." Caleb said, half-joking. Wrapping his towel around his shoulders, he grabbed the other side of the table away from Fjord and helped to unfold it.

"Thanks again for talking to people." Fjord said, looking unusually nervous.

Caleb shrugged. "It was no trouble. I'm not even worried about who's coming. Orly isn't going to fire you for one failed party."

Fjord sighed and didn't respond. He looked over his shoulder, to where a few more people were wandering in.

"Just making sure." he mumbled.

Caleb followed Fjord back to where his chair was - a foldable beach chair on the water's edge with a golf umbrella sticking out of the back. Fjord settled in, and Caleb sat down, kicking his feet in the water.

"How have you been?" Fjord finally asked. "I feel like we haven't spoken much since school ended."

"I've been busy." Caleb responded. "We've both been busy. How has it been here?"

"Same as ever." Fjord sighed again. "Nothing really ever changes. Every year, Orly tries to come up with some thing to drum up more support, and every year it doesn't really do much."

"I feel like this is the most well-liked piece of public infrastructure in town." Caleb commented. "More well-liked than the library, at least."

"I guess." Fjord looked around.

Compared to the library, the public pool was downright wondrous. It was L-shaped, with the long side of the L being mostly the same depth and length for people to swim laps, and the small side being very deep with a tiny diving block to jump off of. A few dozen chairs surrounded it, but most people just brought towels and sat on the hot cement. On summer holidays, sometimes people had to sit in the grass outside of the gate since it got so full. There wasn't even a proper changing room, either - just a small shack of a bathroom with a few stinky stalls.

Still, it was nearly always in use. It was hard to have a bad time at the public pool. Caleb definitely understood why Fjord spent as much time as he could here - it was nice. Swimming wasn't really Caleb's thing, though - summer in general didn't really agree with him.

If he spent all summer outside, he would be burnt to a crisp and then die of skin issues thirty years later.

"How's the library?" Fjord asked. "How's your…fellow rival or whatever?"

"Essek. It's…been okay. Better than I thought it would be. Definitely better than it was when we started."

"Sounds like it's been better than just okay." Fjord raised an eyebrow. "Since you invited him to this party and everything. If you didn't like him, you would be expressly going out of your way to avoid all contact with him."

"That's not -"

"Come to think of it, even though you're friends with me, Beau, and Caduceus, you still don't talk to us that much. You run away from us in public."

Caleb instantly felt his cheeks turn red. "I simply don't always feel like talking. And I run from everybody in public."

"All I'm saying is that you clearly like this Essek fellow more than you're letting on." Fjord finished, smirking slightly.

"I don't see how you could've possibly made such a connection." Caleb grumbled, looking away slightly.

Thankfully, he was spared from responding because at that moment, the gate to the pool swung open and Jester came bounding in, shouting, "FJORD!"

"ACK!" Fjord jumped in his chair as Jester dashed to his side, with Molly slightly behind. She ran up behind Fjord's chair, throwing her arms around him.

"I'm so happy to see you!" she squealed. "This is going to be so much fun."

Fjord cleared his throat, suddenly looking flustered. "Hi there. It's….it's good to see you too."

"Hallo, Jester." Caleb said dryly.

"Hi, Caleb!" Jester cried, wrapping him up in a hug as well. "I can't believe you willingly came to a party!"

"Neither can I." Molly chuckled. "I can't even remember the last time I saw you in swim trunks."

Caleb couldn't decide whether to chuckle or scowl at that particular comment. 

"We're gonna grab some chairs, Caleb, come put down your stuff with us so we can all sit together!" Jester trilled. "Be right back, Fjord."

Caleb stood up and followed them over to a set of several chairs. Molly began pulling out towels out of Jester's bag as Jester herself asked, "Who else do we know is coming, dirt wizard?"

"Caduceus." Caleb said flatly, ignoring the nickname as he awkwardly folded his towel into a pile on the end of a chair.

"Kingsley's coming." Molly added. "He said he'll be here soon."

"Gods, I hope Lucien isn't coming." Jester scrunched up her face.

"He might be. Keep an eye out."

"Ugh." Jester tossed down the last towel with a little extra force.

The three of them walked back to where Fjord was sitting. Caleb sat back down on the pool's edge as Molly ran up behind him shouting "CANNONBALL!"

With a massive splash, Jester and Molly leapt into the pool, soaking Fjord, Caleb, and Caduceus, who had just walked in.

As the conversation began to start around them, Caleb found himself slightly zoning out. He was feeling oddly nervous - and it wasn't until Molly drifted into his absent line of sight and winked (for no reason) did Caleb settle on a reason why.

Over the years, he'd repeatedly found himself falling for several people in his immediate vicinity. First it was Jester, with her endless kindness and effusive spirit dissolving what he'd expected to be an impending awkward disaster of starting at a new school. But that never would've worked, especially once the friend group rivalry with the Fluffernutters became a thing.

Maybe that was why he'd fallen for Mollymauk next. The drama and the excitement of the whole rivalry, and he was by far the most tolerable flirty person Caleb had ever met. But that never would've worked, either.

And then there was Fjord, who'd always been good-looking, but only became more attractive to Caleb as they'd become friends. But Fjord didn't need that ruining their friend group, so Caleb had settled for sitting around and moping until he accepted the impossibility and the feelings went away.

All of this was on his mind as he watched them start some game with a beach ball. Even if he'd sworn off these useless crushes, they were all still very easy on the eyes.

But the reason all of this was in mind in the first place was because of Essek. Quite possibly the most misplaced of his seemingly-endless bad romantic feelings. Essek was smart, good-looking, and exactly the kind of person Caleb was missing from his existing friends.

But, more than anything or anyone else, that would never work. Essek was going to leave town in the fall. Even if Caleb somehow gathered the courage to confess, and even if Essek somehow did reciprocate, it was, quite literally, doomed from the start.

So he was going to have to spend the rest of his summer tragically pining away like an idiot.

Again.

He was jolted out of his reverie by the massive splash that was Caduceus leaping into the pool. A tidal wave's worth of water rained down on Caleb and Fjord, making them both shriek in surprise.

"Come on, Caleb, jump in." Fjord grinned, tilting his head in the direction of the pool.

"Alright." Caleb sighed, grinning slightly as he stood up.

"CANNONBALL! CANNONBALL!" Jester cried.

Caleb grinned at her good-naturedly and readied himself to jump. However, before he could, a voice suddenly spoke up behind him.

"Hello, Caleb."

"AGH!"

Caught off guard, Caleb stumbled into the jump and flopped right into the pool with a painful-sounding SLAP. When he surfaced, he looked up and saw Essek standing at the pool's edge.

Damnit.

"Are you okay?" Essek asked, looking like he was trying not to laugh. Behind him, Verin was snickering shamelessly.

"Ja, er, I'm alright." Caleb said, trying to shake some of the water out of his ear.

"ESSEK!" Jester hollered, swimming up to the pool's edge like a particularly excited mermaid. "I'm so glad you made it! Hi, Verin!"

Verin waved hello, still laughing.

"We have chairs! Come sit with us!" Jester hoisted herself out of the pool and led the Thelyss brothers over to the set of seats.

Behind him, Caleb heard Molly chuckling, and he turned around and tried not to glare.

"That was fucking flawless." he snickered.

"That was…" Caleb trailed off, but there wasn't a word strong enough for the level of embarrassment he was feeling. "Bad."

"No, no!" Molly chided. "You're doing everything so well! Acting endearingly stupid, still being your typical adorable nerd self, and you're showing some skin! I'm so proud of you."

Caleb felt his cheeks redden even more. "I don't know what exactly you're suggesting, but I can assure you that I'm not trying to do anything."

"Sure you are." Molly drifted through the water of the pool to face Caleb more directly. "You just looked at him like he hung the moons."

"I did not."

"You did so!" Fjord shouted.

"Yeah!" Molly cried. "Even Fjord agrees! This is going to go so well, don't you see?"

Caleb sunk himself into the pool so only his eyes, ears, and nose were still sticking out, sparing him from having to respond.

At that moment, Jester returned with Essek in tow, jumping into the pool excitedly again. Essek hesitated before sitting at the pool's edge where Caleb had just been moments before.

As Jester swam over to Molly and resumed whatever they were doing, Caleb drifted over to Essek's side and lightly splashed his knees in greeting.

"Hello."

"Hi, Essek." Caleb gulped. This was already feeling awkward. "It's good that you were able to come."

Essek nodded. "If I'm being truthful, Jester had already invited me. But you being here is what persuaded me. Also, Verin wanted to go."

Caleb barely registered the last sentence, as he was too busy processing what came before it. It felt like he'd just swallowed a tornado. 

Blargh. Not good.

"Parties are not usually my thing either." Caleb said, drifting in the water so it came up to his neck. "But Fjord wanted me to go, so here I am."

Fjord sighed, reminding Caleb that he was even there. "Don't go acting like I forced you to do anything. You're the one who suggested going around and inviting people."

Essek chuckled at that. "Perhaps he does like parties after all."

Caleb scoffed, except his face was partially underwater, so it was more like a small spurt of bubbles than a proper scoff. "I like some parties. But not these."

"What parties do you like, then?" Essek asked, turning back to speak to Caleb as Fjord got distracted speaking to Caduceus.

"Ones that I can leave early." Caleb grinned.

Essek laughed slightly. "Yet another thing we have in common. I don't really like parties, either. Light knows I've had to attend to far too many with my family."

"You have a big family, ja? Parties must be an ordeal, then."

"Calling them an ordeal feels like an understatement. Back in Rosohna, I scarcely knew anybody at family reunions." Essek rolled his eyes.

Caleb laughed as well. "Well, that never really happens here. I think I've known every single person here for years."

Essek suddenly looked a bit uncomfortable. At that moment, Caleb registered that he probably didn't know anyone aside from himself, Caduceus, Mollymauk, and Jester.

He opened his mouth to say something along the lines of "you'll fit in soon" but remembered that Essek wasn't staying. He didn't need - or want - to fit in at all.

Thankfully, he was spared from responding by the sound of Orly opening and closing the gate carrying over half a dozen boxes of pizza. Behind him, Marius LePual (one of Fjord's fellow lifeguards) was carrying several more boxes - so many that he almost couldn't see over them.

Orly didn't even need to announce it. Nearly everybody stopped what they were doing to clamber over.

"NOT YET!" Orly harrumphed. "We're putting in on the tables. Line up, now, everybody…"

Caleb grinned sideways at Essek as he hoisted himself out of the pool. The two of them walked over to the gathering line, with Jester, Caduceus, and Molly behind them.

Jester quickly engaged all five of them into a new conversation. Soon, the awkwardness was forgotten, and it suddenly felt like Essek had never not been a part of their collective orbit. His sarcasm and dry humor somehow fit right in with everything else going on.

The five of them picked up their pizza as the sun began to sink. Sitting around their cluster of chairs, it wasn't long before someone else came around with cans of beer. Molly, Caleb, and Fjord (who joined them shortly after) accepted. Jester, Caduceus, and Essek did not.

"My mother would kill me." Essek laughed nervously as Fjord opened his can.

"My mama wouldn't kill me." Jester shrugged. "Beer's just kind of gross."

"You have no taste." Molly scoffed, but there was no bite behind it.

"Prost." Caleb said, raising his can up.

There was a beat, and then everybody tried to say Prost back, but they all bombed the pronunciation. Still, they clinked their cans and cups together, drinking deeply.

"FYI, Essek, if you're actually worried about your mama killing you, you should talk to your brother." Jester pointed over to Verin, who had somehow managed to get tangled up in the presence of Kingsley. The tiefling was laughing at something, patting Verin on the back good-naturedly and causing some beer to slosh out of the red plastic cup Verin was holding.

Molly made a face. "That just might be Kingsley's fault. Essek, if your mother needs someone to murder, tell her she's welcome to kill my brother anytime."

Fjord grumbled into his slice of pizza. "Tell her she's welcome to kill your other brother. Last week, Lucien and the Tombtakers spray painted the side of the bathroom and then chucked the open paint cans into the pool. Now there's stains on the bottom."

Caduceus leaned around Caleb and glanced at the pool. "I don't see anything."

"That's because we put more chlorine into the pool to get rid of it."

Jester harrumphed. "No wonder my hair has been smelling so gross."

Fjord made another face. "You don't like the smell of chlorine?!"

"No? It's…chemical-y. And it smells like rotting scalp."

Now it was Essek's turn to make a face. "You don't have to be so graphic about it." He ran his hand along the side of his undercut.

Jester sighed. "The worst part about Yasha and Veth being gone is that I have nobody to practice hair-braiding on."

Molly's jaw dropped, offended. "You braid my hair! Like, every day!"

"Your hair isn't long enough!" Jester argued, gesturing to Molly's curls, which were just barely brushing his shoulders. "I can only do scalp stuff on you. And Essek's hair is definitely too short."

"You could braid my hair." Caleb blurted.

Wait. What!? Had he just said that?

Fjord and Caduceus both looked surprised as Jester squealed, "Omigods! Can I do it right now, Caleb?" Her accent made his name sound more like Cayleb.

He gulped. "That's…that's alright."

Caleb sat down on the cement next to Jester's chair, trying not to overthink as she raked her fingertips through his hair.

"Seriously, Caleb, you need to take better care of this." Her grimace was audible.

The conversation resumed as Jester began braiding Caleb's hair. It took much longer than he'd anticipated.

At one point, the conversation was mostly between Molly and Caduceus, and Jester leaned forward and said into Caleb's ear, "What did you say to Essek?"

Caleb made a weird faced. "Was? What do you mean?"

"He looks, like, really intense. Really intensely looking at you." she said.

Partially out of habit, Caleb looked to his side to where Essek was sitting. At that moment, he was laughing at something that Fjord said, and his smile was enough to make Caleb's stomach flip.

"You just did it too!" Jester hissed. "You keep taking turns looking at each other all dreamy-eyed!"

"This is not one of your romance novels, Jester." Caleb sighed. Internally, he cringed at the thought: a preposterous summer fling with the cute new guy, only for it to be doomed come autumn.

He needed to stop talking - and thinking - about this. Now.

"Jester, really, how many times have you come to the pool just to see Fjord?"

Jester scoffed. "Only a few times! Most of the time when I come he's not even doing his job the entire time! He's just…around."

Caleb bit back a laugh. "If you're trying to keep an eye out for these apparent intense looks, you should pay more attention to Fjord. He's very happy about all the time you spend here.

Jester swooned. "Really? Omigods. Really?!"

"Ja, yes, really." Caleb chuckled. "Talk to him."

Jester squealed as she tied off the braid and placed it on Caleb's shoulder. "All done! You look so handsome, Caleb. Essek will totally fall in love with you now."

Caleb felt his cheeks turn red again. Thanking Jester, he stood up and sat back down on the chairs proper, rejoining the conversation.

By now, the sun had set completely. Lights began to flick on around the pool, including a set of rinky-dink string lights that stretched over the deep end of the pool.

Music began to play from somewhere, and a makeshift dance floor formed by the side of the pool, with less and less people in the water as the songs continued.

By now, Caleb's beer was nearly empty. By now, he was feeling oddly comfortable with everybody around him. By now, he was having a hard time maintaining the coherent strings of thought that he usually prided himself on. But somehow, he found that he didn't mind all that much.

"We should dance!" Molly said, standing up when one of his favorite songs came on. Setting down what sounded like an equally empty can of beer, he linked arms with Fjord and Jester and dragged them over to the dance floor. Caduceus stood up too, and to Caleb's surprise, so did Essek.

"Are you coming, then?" he asked.

"Nein, no, I'm…a bit tired." Caleb responded. Usually he enjoyed dancing, but he had the odd feeling that if he stood up, it would be hard to stay on his own two feet properly.

"Essek!" Jester shouted, waving him over. "Dance with me!"

Caleb nodded. "I'm not going anywhere."

Essek looked a bit anxious. "You'll be okay by yourself?"

"Certainly."

Essek followed Caduceus across the pool deck and joined the throng of people dancing. Caleb felt content just to watch - this chair was actually a great view.

Maybe he'd had too much to drink.

He sat there for several songs, each one slipping by unremarkably. Until a figure made eye contact with him from on the dance floor and strode out of the huddle.

Lucien Tealeaf stormed across the pool deck to where Caleb was sitting. Normally, Caleb would rapidly stand up and find some excuse to leave, but he couldn't see how that was going to do anything for him at that moment.

He glanced sidelong at the beer can as if it was to blame for all of these problems. What was in this shit?

"Caleb Widogast." Lucien drawled. "Once again at a place where I'd never expected to see him."

"Fuck off, Tealeaf." was the only thing that Caleb could think to say. "What do you want?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing." Lucien waved a hand dismissively. "I just came to…shall we say, give you something."

Give him something? Something dangerous, surely.

Lucien leaned forward, getting way too close.

"If you ever get in my way again, I will render you incapable of such an act."

"Was?" Caleb asked. "I - I have not been trying to get in your way."

"Yes. You did." Lucien hissed. "Or have you forgotten the library? I had the situation with Thelyss and Kingsley handled." He leaned in even more, making Caleb want to squirm. He was certain that that was the intention.

"Stay out of my way, dirt wizard."

Lucien's twisting of that shitty nickname made Caleb's stomach curdle. He'd long since given up trying to dissuade anyone from using it, but it suddenly felt like a slap all over again.

"Hey!" a voice suddenly barked. "Get away from him!"

Out of seemingly nowhere, Essek appeared and shoved Lucien off of Caleb. Caught off guard, the tiefling stumbled and went sprawling onto the wet pavement.

"Leave him alone." Essek spat.

Despite the multitude of other things to think about, Caleb's immediate thought was that was hot.

And then, STAY ON TASK, WIDOGAST.

Lucien scowled, standing back up and trying to brush the water and grime from his bare arms and shoulders. "I was just about to leave. No need to get so violent about it."

Lucien spun on his heel and stomped away. Once again, as he reached the gate to the pool, the other Tombtakers materialized away from what else they were doing to follow him.

"Are you all right?" Essek asked. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"Nein. He didn't touch me or anything." Caleb responded.

"Good. That's good." Essek exhaled, the fight draining out of him. "Come along with us. He might be back."

Like a child, Caleb held out his hand for Essek to help him up. Sighing, he obliged, pulling Caleb onto his feet.

Neither of them dropped hands as they reintegrated among the rest of the group. Jester and Molly both grinned ear to ear when they saw Caleb, and their smiles gave him a sudden rush of confidence.

Grabbing Essek's other hand, he turned to him and asked, "Dance with me?"

Essek smiled right back, and then lifted one hand and spun Caleb around.

As the music pulsed and swirled around them, combined with the alcohol, the entire party felt like a strange dream. Even though the sun had set, the huddle of bodies made the whole place feel pleasantly warm.

Or maybe that was just the reassurance of Essek's hands in his.

They danced for two songs, then three, then four. As the time passed, it was becoming harder and harder to remember why kissing Essek would ever be a bad idea.

In fact, now Caleb was thinking that it was critical for him to kiss Essek as soon as possible. Sure, he was leaving in two months, but shouldn't that mean that he should stop stalling?

The night was young and beautiful, and despite the slightly overwhelming feel of, well, everything, Caleb could scarcely remember a time when he'd felt this light and carefree. It was possibly more intoxicating than the beer.

However, at some point (Caleb lost count of the songs eventually), he spun around and was suddenly dancing with Caduceus. But then everything spun again and he was facing Jester. And then Mollymauk. And then Caduceus again. Then Fjord.

The whole pool deck was starting to spin. Where was Essek?

As if summoned by his thoughts, Caleb spun around and nearly tripped right into Essek. Unlike everybody else, though, Essek made eye contact and furrowed his brows.

"Caleb, are you alright?"

Caleb grinned, and he could feel how lopsided it was but couldn't find a way to fix it. "Ja, everything - everything is great."

"You…" Essek pressed his lips together, which was immediately distracting. "You don't look so good."

Before Caleb could think of a proper response, someone suddenly shoved into his back sending him sprawling forward into Essek with his full weight.

Had he been sober, he would've recognized that Essek would not have been able to catch him at the best of times.

He also probably would've noticed the pool that was immediately behind him.

But since he was drunk, he didn't notice either of this until both he and Essek toppled into the pool with a yelp and a massive splash.

The water was cold after the stifling heat of the dance floor, and it gave Caleb a sense of relief from something he hadn't even realized he needed.

He broke the surface, spitting out pool water and coughing some of it out of his lungs. Thankfully, it seemed that he'd fallen into the moderately shallow end of the pool, so he touched the ground and began to lumber/glide/drift through the water towards the ladder.

Before he could take more than a step, Essek surfaced as well, spluttering. He wiped the water out of his eyes and glanced at Caleb.

His immediate instinct was to apologize for essentially shoving him into the pool, but Essek was quicker, saying "I think we should go sit down."

The two of them clambered out of the pool, which was unusually difficult. When Caleb almost slipped on the wet cement, Essek looped his arm around Caleb's waist, helping to hold him up.

Warm.

Caleb tried to shake some of the water from his hair, but it barely worked. Some distant thought reminded him that he didn't have short hair anymore, but it was too late. Essek had shrieked at the spray of droplets, shouting "Caleb!"

Caleb laughed. Flush with Essek's side, he could hear him laughing, too.

Back at the chairs, Essek saved Caleb from almost missing the chair when he went to sit down, prompting another round of laughs. Eventually, Caleb fumbled the towel around his neck and shoulders, feeling better already.

"Here." Essek grinned. "Let me help."

He reached out and helped to bundle the great big beach towel around Caleb's neck, like a warm winter scarf. While the previous times Essek had touched him had made Caleb feel giddy and fluttery, this time, he froze.

Essek froze, too. They were entirely too close now.

Before Essek could ask what was wrong, Caleb leaned forward and kissed him.

For a split second, Caleb was terrified that he'd made a mistake. But then Essek relaxed, burying his fingers into Caleb's hair and leaning in closer.

Finally-

With a startled gasp, Essek suddenly pushed Caleb off of him. Caleb flinched back the rest of the way, his stomach dropping.

No amount of alcohol was going to stop the amount of panic and anxiety that was now running through his brain at top speeds.

"You're drunk, Caleb." Essek said, looking like he'd seen a ghost. "You - I - we need to get you home."

Caleb couldn't bring himself to respond. If he opened his mouth, the only thing that was going to come out of it was a deluge of apologies or I fucked ups.

After that, everything became a blur. Caduceus appeared from somewhere, and Essek disappeared shortly after that. Caduceus led Caleb out and away from the pool, leading him down the now-dim streets back to his house.

I fucked up. I fucked up. I fucked up.

He didn't even get the chance to apologize.

Fuck.

---

The next morning, Caleb woke up facedown on his bed, still wearing his damp swim trunks, his braided hair a frizzy mess all on one side of his head.

The sheets were now wet as well - had Caduceus just dumped Caleb on the bed and left? What had his parents said?

Caleb grabbed the pillow and pulled it over his head, blocking out some of the light streaming into the room.

A lot of things were blurry from the previous night, but there were a few things that stuck out.

He resisted the urge to scream into the pillow.

Such. An. Idiot.

Well, now he'd gone and ruined it! How was Caleb supposed to face work again -

His eyes suddenly snapped open. Scheiße.

Caleb fumbled through the tangle of soggy blankets to look at his alarm clock. He was supposed to be at work in twenty minutes!

Cursing to himself, Caleb scrambled out of bed, got dressed, and ran out the front door without even eating breakfast. Thankfully, his parents had already gone off to work, but that was probably only delaying an inevitable lecture.

Halfway there, he stopped panicking about being late for work and started panicking about Essek.

Oh, gods, what the hell was he going to say? Sorry didn't feel like enough!

Not for the first time that summer, he wished that Beauregard was here.

Beauregard.

Caleb looked around, then broke back into a run, shaking his pockets to check if he had the copper for it. If he made it to the post office fast enough, he could call her on the pay phone outside.

By the time he made it there, he was gasping for breath and his heart was beating at an unhealthy rate of speed. If talking to Essek didn't kill him, he might have a heart attack and die anyway before he even got the chance. 

"Come on, come on." Caleb muttered slightly as he dialed the number. Beau's family owned a summer home on the seaside close to Nicodranas, and rented it out to other rich people during the cooler months. That was the only reason they'd installed a landline there - the Lionetts could be unresponsive at best and ignorant at worst. Fjord continually made jokes that Beau's family should uninstall their phone to save money, since they never used it anyway. 

The phone rang. Once. Twice. Three times -

"Hello, this is Clara Lionett, how may I help you?"

Thank the gods. "Hallo, this is Caleb, is Beau around?" Caleb gulped.

Clara Lionett sighed. "I believe so. One moment, please."

There was a rustling around the speaker of the phone, and then a muffled shout. More rustling as the phone was passed over, and then Beau's voice. "Hey, Caleb."

"Beauregard." Caleb sighed in relief. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Beau responded. "How are you? You never call! Did someone die?"

"Nein! No, everything is - er…"

Beau's eye roll was practically audible. "I knew it. What did you do?"

Caleb gulped again. Even though there weren't many people out on the street, he wished that he didn't have to have this discussion in public.

"Er…you remember Essek, right?"

"Yeah, Hot Library Guy."

Caleb opened his mouth, then closed it again. He almost regretted calling Beau at all, but if he hung up now, Beau would probably steal a car and drive all the way back to town for the sole purpose of kicking his ass.

"Ja, yes. Erm. I may have kissed him."

"You WHAT?!" Beau shouted, causing Caleb to jump at the volume. Holding the phone a safe distance away from his ear, he could still hear her as she screamed. "I thought you hated him! I thought he hated you!"

He winced, the loud noises not doing anything for his hangover. "Well, I was drunk, and wasn't really thinking, and we're not really rivals anymore or anything -"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Beau said. "Back the fuck up. Where were you? What happened?!"

Caleb explained everything, and by the time he finished the story, he could feel himself rambling like a madman. He tried to quash the urge to twirl the cord around his finger and instead settled for crushing it in his free hand.

There was a long silence. Long enough that Caleb had to fish around and pay another copper to keep the conversation going.

Stupid.

"Damn." Beau finally responded. "This is not looking good for you."

"What do I do!?" Caleb blurted, unable to contain himself. This was the only reason he'd called! "You're the only friend I have who's got experience with this stuff."

Beau scoffed. "It's a low bar. Just talk to him, I think."

Caleb buried his face in his free hand. "Anything but that."

"Sorry. That seems like the only way. Either that, or suffer until he leaves town."

The thought of permanently destroying their friendship and having Essek leave without a resolution was enough to make Caleb's stomach churn. Either that, or it was the remaining alcohol and the lack of breakfast.

Caleb resisted the urge to say something sarcastic and instead settled for sighing and saying, "I have to go. I have work."

"Ohhhhh, shit!" Beau crowed, sounding almost like Jester (sans accent) in that moment. "You have to go talk to him already!"

"Goodbye, Beauregard."

Caleb hung up without giving her a chance to respond, and fought the urge to collapse on the pavement and never get back up.

Stay on task, Widogast.

Just try and make it through the day.

Caleb dragged himself the rest of the way to the library, feeling worse with every step. Now that the adrenaline and fear of being late had worn off, he was really feeling the aftereffects of all that beer.

He was never going to another party again.

He made it into the library later than he usually preferred to be, but Yudala Fon just waved in greeting and didn't make a comment about it. Caleb retreated into the back room, setting his bag down on the floor, and began his work for the day.

Ignoring the front door, Caleb began pushing the cart of books to re-shelve through the stacks, being sure to take his time and make sure everything was in its perfect place. He also stopped to skim through a couple of them. Just to make sure there wasn't any damage.

See? Everything was fine.

Usually, time at the library went by fairly quickly. But today, the morning slowed to a crawl as Caleb stumbled through his tasks in a haze of anxiety and pain. It wasn't until nearly an hour had passed (only an hour?) when he realized that Essek was late.

Very late.

Essek was never late. Compared to some of his friends, Caleb was downright punctual, but compared to Essek, Caleb was the one who looked always late.

After another ten minutes of worrying, Caleb walked away from where he was setting out a new display of books in the front windows and asked Yudala, "Where's Essek? Is he all right?"

"Yes, I think he's okay." Yudala Fon said, not looking up from solving the day's crossword. "He called earlier, saying he was sick and unable to come to work."

Sick? Essek hadn't shown any signs of being sick last night. Nor had he had anything to drink, so it wasn't as if he was trying to recover from a hangover.

"Oh." Caleb responded. "Well, that's a shame, then."

"He'll probably be back tomorrow." Yudala said. "There's no need to worry."

Caleb nodded and went back to what he was doing, mind whirling.

It was possible that Essek was actually sick, but the overwhelming thought in his mind was that Essek was instead avoiding him.

Fuck.

Now he'd really ruined everything, if Essek wasn't even coming into work.

Caleb spent the rest of the day moping. His mood got marginally better when he ate something, which was good, then a bit better when Caduceus stopped by mid-afternoon to check on him.

But all in all, he couldn't get his mind off of the mess he'd made.

Finally, when it was time to leave, Caleb almost didn't know what to do with himself. The idea of going back home and trying to sleep and act normal felt like an insurmountable hurdle. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to talk to any of his friends, either - Fjord was busy, Beau was gone, and even Veth, who he sometimes confided in, was out of town. Caduceus was off the table - he was far too perceptive. When they'd talked earlier, Caduceus had seemed to already know that something was off, and Caleb couldn't risk him figuring it out.

No, he had to find a way to deal with it.

In the end, Caleb ended up dragging himself back up with a plan: call the Thelyss household and ask if Essek was okay. Like any normal person would do if their friend was sick.

He took the long way home.

And when that didn't take long enough, he walked around the block again.

Finally, he dragged himself up to the door, unlocked it, and stepped inside.

Neither of his parents were home. Thank the gods. They were probably still at their respective jobs, but Caleb wasn't sure when they were going to get home. Could've been anywhere between the next hour and by sundown.

Stay on task, Widogast.

Caleb set down his bag in the living room and walked over to the phone. Dialed the number. Almost hesitated on the last digit, but forced himself to call.

One ring. Two rings. Three. Four. Five. Six -

"Hello, this is Verin, can I help you?"

Phew. Not Essek. Not yet, anyway. "Er - hallo, is Essek home?"

"Who's asking?"

"Caleb. Caleb Widogast."

"Oh, right!" Verin said. "The redhead who fell into the pool yesterday."

Caleb felt his cheeks turn red, which only served to make him more embarrassed because he was alone in his own home and had nobody to be embarrassed in front of. "Ja. That's…me."

"Essek's home! I'll call him right down."

There was a weird muffling sound as Verin placed his hand over the speaker, effectively blocking out Caleb from hearing the exchange to come. He expected it to be quick, but the silence on the other end of the line was long enough to make him nervous.

"Hello? Verin? Are you still there?"

"Hang on, he's being a -"

"Don't you -!" another voice shouted.

"Essek?" Caleb startled.

A sharp whistle of air sounded like the phone had been yanked away, then the speaker covered again. A very muffled argument followed, then the sound of the phone being yanked away again.

"Sorry, Caleb." Verin said, but he sounded a little detached. "Essek can't talk right now. He's not feeling good."

"What's wrong? Just sick?" Caleb couldn't help but ask.

Another weird pause.

"Yeah. You can call tomorrow."

"Is…is Essek not going to come to work?"

Another weird pause. Caleb was grateful he didn't have any siblings. Caleb's experience with the Clay and Tealeaf siblings had already convinced him of this (at least in part) but this was adding another level to it. Realistically, the closest thing he had to a sibling was probably Beauregard, in some weird way (his mother had made a lot of jokes about how Beau should just move in already) and that was enough for him.

"He's just not feeling well." Verin finally responded. "Sorry, Caleb."

"Tell Essek I -" Caleb started, but it was too late. Verin had hung up.

Well, that was a total failure.

Caleb practically slammed the phone back down and dropped down into the nearest armchair, burying his face in his hands. Scheiße.

Now what am I going to do?

---

Caleb sat through the inevitable what-the-hell-were-you-thinking-getting-so-drunk-at-your-age lecture that his father had with him and resigned himself to not seeing Essek again for a foreseeable future that night.

He could hear Beauregard already: You're Zemnian. Beer is practically in your blood. I can't believe you're such a lightweight.

Godsdamnit. He hated how much he missed her.

He resisted the urge to call her again, knowing that he wouldn't get any new advice. The plan was just going to have to be make up the plan as you go.

So when he walked into the library at his regular, comfortable time, and saw Essek already setting down his bag, he almost had a heart attack.

Essek froze too, the bag swinging from his fingers an inch above the ground as he looked at Caleb like a deer frozen in headlights.

Caleb's immediate reaction was to run out of the room, then out of the library, out onto the street, and to ask the first person he saw if they had a brown paper bag for him to hyperventilate into.

However, that would probably not be a good idea. So Caleb settled for smiling and waving politely (talking was suddenly impossibly difficult) and moving to set down his bag as well.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

He had not planned for this.

Pointedly not talking at all, Caleb and Essek separated to go about their usual tasks. However, the atmosphere was so tense that Yudala Fon eyed Caleb judgmentally when he walked past their desk.

"Is everything alright?"

"Ja, yes." Caleb gulped.

Hm. That did not sound all right, even to his ears.

"Are you sure?" Yudala narrowed their eyes. "You don't look so good. Did you eat breakfast? Did you catch Essek's cold?"

Caleb shook his head. "Nein, I'm alright. Just a bit…tired."

Yudala didn't look convinced, but thankfully didn't press further. Shortly after that, when Essek was sitting at the front desk for his shift there, Caleb heard Yudala approach him as well.

He froze behind the shelf where he was re-taping some of the loan card pockets in their books and tried to listen.

"Are you really feeling all right enough to work properly, Essek?"

There was a pause and the sound of the desk chair rolling a bit. Caleb could effortlessly picture Essek being startled and jumping a bit at Yudala's sudden appearance.

"Yes, of course. I'm feeling much better. Just a bit of a cold."

"Bit out of season for a cold. Could be something worse." Pause. "If you're not feeling well, I would say it's a part of your job to not get the rest of us sick and do us all a favor and stay home."

Essek laughed a little, a humorless chuckle. "I promise, everything is all well and good now. Nothing a day of bed rest couldn't fix."

A beat of silence. "Well, if you're sure." Yudala sighed. "You and Caleb just aren't acting normal. If it weren't you two, I would be sure you were up to something."

They began to walk away, and Caleb quickly re-shelved the book and moved on to the next one as to look busy and not as if he was eavesdropping.

The morning continued in this tense, awkward state. It was almost as bad as Caleb's semi-lucid partially-hangover induced haze of anxiety of the previous day. Their lunch break, which was usually spent amicably chatting, went by in almost dead silence.

Not long after that, Yudala Fon left the building for their own lunch break, leaving the two of them almost alone in the library, save for one or two people milling about.

Hm. Maybe Caleb should consider feigning illness too, just for an excuse to leave. This was worse than walking into class late and having everybody look up and stare at you.

He was almost done with his usual tasks and sitting down in his favorite chair to continue reading his latest book when, Essek slowly and quietly approached him.

Oh no. Oh no.

Caleb buried his face in the book again and pretended not to notice. Essek probably wasn't coming over to talk to him at all. He was probably just returning a book to a shelf or grabbing something for a patron. No, Essek wasn't going to talk to him -

"Caleb? Do you have a moment?"

Scheiße.

Caleb looked up and set the book down to stop his hands from shaking. "Yes, is everything alright?"

What kind of a question was that? Nothing was all right.

"I…I wanted to talk to you." Essek exhaled as if it was causing him physical pain and sat down on the chair next to Caleb's.

"Same." Caleb responded, and then before Essek could even get a word out, all of that terror in brain came spilling out of his mouth.

"I'm so sorry I kissed you and I was drunk and wasn't thinking, and I know that's not an excuse but I never would do that sober or ever really, but I just wasn't thinking clearly and I promise to never do it again and you don't have to forgive me and we can just pretend like it didn't happen, or -"

"Caleb." Essek said, eyes wide and nervous. Caleb quickly clamped his jaw shut with an audible click. "You…you don't have to apologize."

"Was? No, Essek, I fucked up, and I'm so sorry." Caleb blurted. "I kissed you! Without asking!" 

"No, I'm sorry." Essek said. "I'm sorry that I ran off yesterday. And I'm sorry that…that I gave you this whole impression."

"Whole impression of what?"

Essek's ears flattened against the side of his head. Caleb knew him well enough by now to know that this meant he was nervous. Very nervous.

"The impression that the kiss wasn't welcome."

This singular sentence was enough to turn Caleb's entire world upside down. He replayed it over a few times in his head, just to make sure he'd heard right.

He swallowed, hard, trying to reorient his thoughts.

"You - er -"

Essek's face flushed, which was normally not that easy to see given his dark complexion. "You were drunk. I assumed you were…not thinking straight. I panicked and stayed home yesterday. I didn't know what to say."

"I knew you weren't sick." Caleb said with an awkward laugh, because he wasn't sure what else to do.

Essek chuckled too, then glanced away. "I…I truly value your friendship, Caleb, and I don't want to lose you. If you want to pretend that it didn't happen, we can -"

"No!" Caleb cried, almost a shout, and he clapped his hand over his mouth at his own daring. "Nein, no. I really like you, Essek, and - I - I would really like to kiss you again, if you -"

Apparently this was all Essek needed to hear, because he leaned forward and captured Caleb's lips in a kiss. He reached forward, cupping Essek's face in his hands, and pressed their foreheads together when they parted for air.

There was nothing either of them could do except exchange love-drunk smiles and lean back in again for more.

---

The rest of the summer flashed by terrifyingly quickly.

Gone was the awkwardness of sharing his library summer job. Now, Caleb could barely remember what the library was like without Essek there.

They spent their days off together, seeing movies and exploring town. Caleb was eager to show Essek all of the best places to go before his summer was up. Once or twice they made the trip out to the bowling alley a town away, and then, memorably, a trip to the roller rink in that same town with the Tealeaf siblings and Verin in tow.

For the most part, the two of them kept their relationship on the down-low. Essek was leaving soon, and there was no need to make a charade about their relationship. They just tried not to think about what would happen when autumn arrived.

But arrive it did.

Deirta Thelyss' job was ending. The summer job at the library was ending. Essek would likely move out of town even before school started.

So Caleb and Essek spent their last day together walking around town, stopping at their favorite places and basking in the late-summer breeze. At long last, it was finally starting to cool down, which meant sweaters and socks in their future. In Caleb's future. Essek was going off to someplace else on the Menagerie coast - somewhere even warmer than here. 

More than anything else, Caleb wished that Essek didn't have to leave.

Some part of him was scared to admit that at all. They'd gone into this knowing that it was temporary.

It was better to have loved and lost than not loved at all. That was the motto he'd been repeating for two months. He was better for having Essek in his life, even if it was only for a summer.

"You'll write?" Caleb asked, the two of them standing out in the sunset outside of Essek's house. Even though they usually refrained from doing so in public, Caleb had clasped both their hands together.

"I promise." Essek said with a grin. "If we end up with a phone line, I'll give you the number."

Caleb nodded. He looked over his shoulder, than his other shoulder.

Nobody was around.

Quick as a flash, he ducked in and kissed Essek on the cheek. Pulling back, he smiled, but it felt sadder than how a smile usually felt on his face.

"Don't be a stranger."

"I'm not dying, Caleb." he scoffed with a watery chuckle. "Maybe if I'm really lucky, I'll come back again for a visit."

"Right." Caleb squeezed his hands briefly, then dropped them.

"See you around, Essek Thelyss."

"Don't you forget about me, Caleb Widogast."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

Notes:

I'm considering writing a bit more for this AU - possibly a similar story about either fjorester or beauyasha, or maybe something set in the future with any of the three ships talking through their various bad choices. I dunno, we'll see where my brain takes me.

Please leave a comment or a kudos if you're so inclined, and thank you SO much for reading!!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3

Notes:

Some of you may be thinking, "Writer, how are Caleb's parents alive????" and so I respond, I have a plan for how Caleb's backstory fits into this. Whether or not it will fit in with the rest of the fic is another matter, but I do have that planned out. It exists!

Please leave a comment and/or a kudos if you're so inclined, and thank you SOSOSOSO much for reading!!!!!!!

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 3 of Driftin' Away (Summer Nights)