Claris slept peacefully and looked very pretty while he did it. Evan hesitated to wake him up, he felt bad for having to disturb his sleep. As such, he decided to go another route and see if it helped. The captain got out of bed and walked towards the wall that had the sofa against it. He placed his hand and allowed magic to flow out of him, the act triggering some runes in the wall and making it transparent. The morning sunlight poured into the room, warming it up ever so slightly but enough for Claris to notice.

“Hmmm?” The prince mumbled stirring awake. He turned and opened his eyes wide, surprised by the beautiful scene of the rising sun covering the whole wall. “Holy Goddesses…”

“Morning, beautiful.” The last word slipped out of Evan’s mouth by accident in his native tongue. He was thinking about it but had no conscious intention of saying it out loud.

“Oh?” Claris blushed, he didn’t understand the word but somehow knew he was being complimented. “What does that mean?”

“Ummm, uh…” Evan stuttered for a few seconds before manning up. “I said ‘morning, beautiful’.”

Claris grinned, his heart starting to do some silly things he was not ready to feel this early in the morning.

“Good morning to you too, handsome.” He sat up on bed and straightened up. “Morning meeting?”

“Yeup, I’ll send someone to get you clothes and then you can meet Ashura’s war council, or some of it at least.” Evan explained.

“Okay, I don’t need fancy clothes though… I kinda like your pjs.” Claris said, raising the bottom border of his top slightly. “They’re so comfy.”

“You can use them whenever you come sleep over.” Evan replied, placing both hands on his hips. You can sleep over whenever you want, I don’t mind. Heck, I loved waking up to a warm body.

That last part was him thinking, doing everything in his power to not let the rambling go on out loud.

“In that case, I guess it’s okay if I change clothes for now.” Claris got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom. “I’m uh, gonna take a shower?”

“Sure, take your time.”

Maybe I should take longer on getting his clothes… I could see him naked. OH NO, don’t. Ashura’s rubbing off on me. Evan watched his crush close the door to the bathroom and messed his own hair up in frustration.  Okay, centered. Level headed. I gotta catch Rikiya.

Evan went out of his room only sporting a pair of loose track pants, and made his way to the cargo hold real quick. He looked around, his crew reminding him he was still in his pjs, “again”, as he walked past them. Looking through a crate full of guns was a young person, with short, spiky hair, a pair of overalls and a black t-shirt. Their right arm was decorated with a cherry tree dyed with black and pink ink.

“Rikiya! Can you do me a solid?” Evan asked them as he got nearer. Said person turned and rose an eyebrow.

“Sure boss, what’s up?” They asked, slanted brown eyes staring right at Evan’s pecs.

“My face’s up here, sweetheart. I need you to go to a coffee shop by the pier named Pearlie’s, ask a wererabbit girl named Opal for Claris’ clothes.” He asked, crossing his arms and staring down at Rikiya. They were smaller than he was.

“No problem, boss… you should get a shirt on. You’ll catch a cold.” Rikiya patted Evan’s chest before they picked up a small board, jumped on it, made it hover and got on their way off the cargo hold.

“…I’ve got to get me one of those.” Evan sighed before sprinting back to his room.

He walked in, a little sweaty from having made the trip so fast and knocked on the bathroom door.

“Clothes are on their way, should take about ten—” Evan was leaning on the door as he spoke, so when it slid open he fell right into the bathroom and into Claris’ arms. The prince closed the door and kissed Evan on his lips.

Evan’s brain fried, he couldn’t think of anything, his mind blank. Claris pressed his body against the captain and wrapped his arms around his shoulders. The kiss itself was innocent, just a gentle press. Evan had no idea why this was happening, but he leaned into the kiss, placing his hands on Claris’ waist. The prince separated his lips from the captain and blinked twice.

“…Did I just kiss you?” The blue haired mer asked, he looked really exasperated. “I zoned out… I think—”

“You’re going to be in heat soon?” Evan asked, he didn’t remove his hands from Claris’ waist. “It’s okay, is it starting now or…?”

“No, I still have a couple days before it really starts up…” Claris explained, lowering his gaze. He was still in Evan’s pjs by which he assumed he must’ve zoned out having one of his freak-out sessions. “I like you, a lot more than I thought apparently… which is why I went blank and why I’m having this intense need to…”

“Rip my heart out of my ribcage and devour it whole?” Evan chuckled pressing his forehead against Claris’ unconsciously.

“No,” The prince had closed his eyes, his tone sleepy. “I want to kiss you. Your heart sounds delicious, but I want you alive.”

“Claris…” Evan thought about it for a few seconds, thinking about how maybe this was going too fast… and then thinking that fast wasn’t always bad. It’s just kissing. You like him and he really likes you.

“Evan, I don’t want to scare you off. Goddessess, I really don’t want to scare you off. Maybe I should go solo until this wears off.” Claris wasn’t expecting any of this, he thought he still had a few months in before his week. The dazing off, the pulsing heat in his chest… how damn nice Evan smelled, it definitely meant he was about to go into heat.

What bad timing… The Prince thought, closing his eyes.

“It’s fine, you won’t scare me off.” Evan reassured him, going on a limb and raising Claris’ face so he could plant a soft kiss on his lips.

“Maybe that shower could help us— you.” Evan stuttered for a second before letting go of Claris, who looked like the happiest person in the world. “I’ll, like… be outside…don’t get me wrong, I’d love to shower with you—”

“I understand, Captain.” Claris said and got around taking his shirt off. “I’ll be quick.”

Evan hurriedly went for the door and got out of the bathroom. He lay against the blue metal, hand covering his eyes as he breathed in and out doing his best to not do anything that might be considered embarrassing. Claris on his end also lay with his back against his side of the door, holding in his enormous need to squeal and drag Evan into the bathroom with him.

“You guys are pathetic.” Rikiya was sitting on Evan’s bed with a bag full of clothes. Evan stared at them surprised as he wasn’t expecting Rikiya to arrive for another five minutes. “I’ve been waiting here for fifteen minutes by the way, you two are going to be late to your own meeting.”

Rikiya left the bag on Evan’s bed and exited the room with their hover board under their arm. It took Evan thirty whole seconds to realize what they had mentioned.

“Wait, it’s been how long?!”