“So where was it that Val said the drunkards thought the treasure was?” Shani groaned, “I think I’ve forgotten already.”

Hreysti rolled his eyes, “The bathhouse, the city walls, and under the governor's villa in its catacombs.”

“Right, right, so where the fuck would you put gold in a bath house!?”

“I’m not sure Shani,” Dyo muttered, “I’m not sure… I mean, I haven’t been in one, ever!”

They were stood outside a once grand building. A monument of classical Emoran architecture that had been butchered by half of it being cut off and slashed into the city’s fortifications. The bath house. Dyo couldn’t help but chuckle to himself with that realisation. He was somehow right about that one…

“What is it?” Shani asked, eyebrow raised.

“Oh, nothing, just remembering something I said…”

“Right… So are you going to show us around this place or-“

Dyo’s eyes widened, “I’ve never been in one of these places before! The first city I ever visited was Pygus a few weeks ago!”

“So we all know nothing. Fun.”

"It’s a bath…” Hreysti murmured, “What’s complicated about a place with baths?”

Shani snorted, “They’re Emoran, it’s special baths. Nothing is as simple ‘as just a bath’.”

“Can’t see why it can’t.”

“Hreysti, here in the south, we like our cleanliness and traditions, so yes, it is a little more than a normal wooden tub with dirty water.”

What followed were both glaring stares from both Hreysti and Dyo. Hreysti’s was more a simple one of anger, but Dyo’s had a more complex, but simple to understand meaning of “Don’t insult my friend and our teammate.”

In response, Shani turned around and looked down at Dyo with a look of her own, this one screaming, “Oh don’t do that, you called us all savages on the first day over wine hypocrite, let me have my fun.” With that Dyo’s eyes shifted elsewhere.

But Hreysti was not so easily cowed. “We took our cleanliness so seriously up in the north that the Rhwyi and Varyng were jealous of us! The only reason why,” he gestured to himself, his voice rising, “look like this, is because I was hiking across the continent in a haze, avoiding people by laying in bushes, fighting, and having only an undead rat as a friend!”

Shani looked down, now the one cowed cursing to herself.

But it also rang a bell in Dyo’s head, “Wait, where has the rat gone? I haven’t-”

He looked at Hreysti and saw the rat sitting on Hreysti’s shoulder a little worse for ware, but still sniffling about. “It’s been here all the time, just everyone didn’t pay attention and forgot about Dúnkenndur…”

“Sorry…”

“Wait,” Shani said, raising a finger, “You called that ‘Fluffy’!?”

Hreysti looked down, blushing slightly, “I forgot about the translation potion… Just- He was fluffy once…”

“Sorry, sorry, I shouldn’t poke at you anymore. I’ll keep it all for Ercole.”

He just nodded in response.

Dyo cleared his throat, “Right, so, time to go in?”

----------------------------------------

Unfortunately, upon entering they had to split with Shani as she was pushed into the women’s section with great protest, crying out that she’d seen a lot worse from her compatriots in the mercenary company she was in, but was ignored. That left Dyo and Hreysti wandering through to the men’s changing area.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

The inside of the bath house however was about as crumbly and “past its prime” as the rest of the building. The plaster was peeling in places, the frescoes were faded, and there seemed to be a little less light than there should have been. Another sign that all that wasn’t useful to the defence of the border had been gutted.

But a short walk later and they were both in the rather busy changing room and-

Dyo’s face went rather warm as he spotted the fresco in the changing room, the one that spread all across one wall and showed one woman and two men uh- Going at it in a very creative position that made certain thoughts bubble up in Dyo’s head involving being in the mix. Even with the fading of the colours and cracking of the paint, it was very graphic in the b-

A sudden jab from Hreysti woke Dyo from his thoughts as the vampire coughed loudly, covering his face with a hand that- Wait- Is he blushing as well-?

“We need to get changed” He stated flatly, tugging Dyo along to a more secluded spot in the room before freezing, his back turned to Dyo. “Do you… Want to turn the other way while we do this?”

Dyo swallowed, “We’ll be naked all the time we’re here,” he said weakly, his entire face flushing red, “I don’t think we can avoid it.”

Hreysti nodded, still not turning around as he started to undo the ties of his crimson red shirt. “Could we not look too much?” He asked in a similarly weak and meek voice.

Dyo was just about to respond till Hreysti, after finally undoing all the ties on his shirt, started to slip it off his back, revealing his toned body, the pale scars and skin, and his deep red face covered in embarrassment as his head turned to look at Dyo.

Dyo immediately flicked his gaze away, his entire body red hot as he turned away too and started to unbutton his doublet, then his shirt under it. A few moments later he had everything off and put together into a scrappy pile to put away in one of the cupboards.

He turned and saw Hreysti in the same state, also looking at him, their eyes meeting for a moment before both flicking away. Fuck!

His heart strained and beat once again, as it did every time he looked at Hreysti like this, or every time he caught his smile, or a moment of vulnerability… Dyo swallowed hard and looked down at himself. Did he- No- But- It’s so clear… He knew he found Hreysti attractive but- This was a lot more than that, it had deepened with time and by getting to know him more and more over the many weeks together…

He loved Hreysti, he wanted him and he wanted him to be happy. There was no use in denying it any longer.

But- How did Hreysti feel? It was clear he had some sort of attraction to him but was it as deep as his attraction to him? If he asked Hreysti and it wasn’t- But what if it was!?

He shook himself from those thoughts and tried to put them to one side, but all he could do was stem them as his heart pulsed and his face burned. What finally jerked him was a tug on its arm, it was Hreysti, looking about as flustered and embarrassed as one could be as he looked around the room.

Most of the people in the changing room were looking at them. It didn’t seem to be entirely lustful, instead, the expressions were a mixture of stunned bewilderment, curiosity, and fearful apprehension. They were looking at both a vampire and a fae-like creature having a bashful moment in the corner of this city’s bathhouse after all and they could all be most likely ripped apart by the two.

Hreysti’s grip tightened, the blush fading from his face being replaced by apprehension and… Fear? It was…

Dyo took the hint. He wrapped his hand around Hreysti’s arm, the two becoming intertwined as they walked out. Pushing past some people staring at them, they made it into a cool room with a set of small bathing pools, clean, simple walls and a mosaic floor where a few patrons were soaking in. Including the unmistakable figure of the short-haired, dark-skinned, and bulky Shani sitting in the deepest part of the pool, eyes closed and relaxed.

Well, that settles the question of gender separation in this place, and where she is.

“Shani?” Dyo asked sidling up to her with Hreysti, “Have you found anything?”

“Mmm?” She murmured, lazily opening one eye, “Oh I have.”

“What is it?”

“That this water is fucking freezing but nice when you sit in it for a bit. I think there might be some warmer ones about but I think you go in here first. Fuck it’s nice to be able to relax like this…”

Dyo and Hreysti looked at each other.

“Aww just come in!” She said, pulling a hand out of the water to wave them in before switching to Cudeshian, “We can sit in the tranquil depths for a few short moments of our lives to take care of ourselves and to blend in. I know your culture means a lot to you Dyo, so why don’t you let yourself be enveloped by another aspect of it? And you Hreysti, you need a gods damned moment, I see it in your eyes.”

The two looked at each other again before swallowing, trying to ignore the eyes on them as they descended down the steps into the bath.

Dyo shivered slightly as he stepped in, needing to take it one step at a time to slowly acclimate to the water, while Hreysti walked into it like it was nothing. The cold didn’t bother him, but he did stay a little further away from Shani as the two joined her in the corner, settling in yet sitting a little lower in the water than her. That wasn’t all that surprising though, given that she was taller than the two by a bit.

“So do we-“

“Shush, just relax…”