Kuo was restless and couldn’t sleep the night of the full moon. People were loud outside, many preparing for the hunt while he was stuck inside folding fabric and repairing clothes for the fledglings. Aro had told him to go to bed when he was done with the tunics but the hours dragged on, leaving him with a sour mood.

He felt the magic within the walls of the monastery. He’d been drawn to it in the first place and now the walls around him hummed. Soaked for hundreds of years with spark and mage power. He loved Gimma. He just wished his spark had a mage to thrive on. The spark grew on it’s own but it tasted the magic everywhere and was already growing greedy. But Aro had held him back. So now he was stuck with basic spells and learning the embroidery, hands already itching to improve what he was given to work with.

Still deep in thought, he didn’t hear the creaking door right away. But the heavy footsteps and the magic sizzling through the air and crawling over his skin snapped him out of his thoughts. 

Kuo turned around and wasn’t quite sure what to make of the doe a bloodied mage had just dumped, quite unceremoniously, right at his naked feet.

He was breathing heavily, eyes wide open with a clouded pupil, giving his disturbingly light blue eyes the impression of being blind. A mage with sight. Which didn’t explain the dead doe. In the sewing room.

The mage watched him, sighed and went down on one knee, baring his neck and turning the hands painted with blood and soil from the woods upwards.

His voice sounded tired but proud when he proclaimed his offering of a dead animal to the befuddled looking young man. “Please accept my offering as a sign of devotion.”

Kuo’s eyebrows shot up into his hairline. “Um…”

He knew the hunters had brought back prizes from their hunt that night but they were supposed to go to their loved ones and pages or the head of the monastery or whoever caught their eye, but Kuo knew he had never spoken with this mage. Ever. Aro had made sure to keep them apart. And Kuo still remembered why. His spark had wanted. So much. Too much.

The mage kept his strenuous pose and wheezed, nearly toppling over but trying hard not to give in.

Kuo crouched down in front of him to get a better look of the grey haired mage.

He was young. Younger than Kuo had expected and quite beautiful. His skin was unmarred - by luck or because he hadn’t fought many battles yet. He looked Kuo straight in the eye and the desperate stare, waiting for approval, was heart wrenching.

Kuo reached out and patted his cheek awkwardly. “Thank you for your generous offering. I accept it.”

The mage’s head dropped, he took a deep breath and with some pain ridden moans, he dragged himself back to his feet and slowly made his way out of the sewing rooms.

Kuo stared after him. “Thanks… good-bye. Um….” The door shut behind the mage, who wordlessly left. Kuo was puzzled. He looked down at the doe. Still at his feet. Possibly his own body weight. Dead weight. Too heavy to be dragged out of the building without anybody noticing. And then he remembered how Berinn had bragged about his mage. “Embry here, Embry there, I have the strongest of them all, he’s so good, so good.” It had been a never ending tirade of boasting. Kuo’s mood soured immediately just reliving those moments. But right now his spark rolled around contently like a cat who got to lick all the cream, bathing in the certainty that the mage had brought his offering to Kuo - and not his page.

And although the satisfaction and the possibility of humiliating the braggy bastard in the morning sounded good, he knew that Aro might see him unfit as a page, and Kuo didn’t want to risk being mage-less for another year.

“Fuck.”

He dragged the doe behind his table and covered it with clothes before dashing out of the building and making his way to the main square. People were still walking around - half the monastery was awake and bumbling around. He could easily slip from group to group without too much attention. He just had to get to the ouga. She would be able to help him. And she would keep her mouth shut. He didn’t want anybody to know. Yet.