How to Make a Sinner Sleep

104 | plea; tip of a drink

The two men walked with a prominent distance between them as if trying to avoid catching an illness. Neither looked at each other. Then, in the midst of the stifling silence, Noah sneezed.

Kaden's steps faltered, and he undid the knot holding his cloak. Noah was dressed lightly, but it was also the dragon who wasn't fond of the cold.

He threw it over wordlessly and the fabric soared in the air, slapping Noah in the face. The dragon paused. "....." He took the cloth, stared at it, and looked sideways impassively. "Is this clean?"

"It's drowning in the blood of my enemies," retorted Kaden, offended at the question. "That way, if you're injured, the blood won't make much of a difference."

"Is that how it works?"

"It is."

"Hm." The dragon hummed and fastened the cloak around his neck, feeling the residue heat engulf his body. It suffused him with warmth, penetrating his lonely bones. The dark eyes flickered briefly before he continued walking forward.

Noah turned left, and Kaden stopped in his step. "I think we should walk right," he said, more so out of the sheer mood to argue. He felt a little frustrated at Noah's frustrations.

It was for the better, that they were distant, that they didn't recall their past. Three years was both long and short, and the closeness of that one year had already become a memory. It was only one year. And yet it was an entire year.

Noah's black gaze swept sideways. "Why should I trust you?"

A bitterness coated his voice, deep and biting. Unforgiving. The temperature was dropping, and the coldness grew more eminent.

A sarcastic smile made its way onto Kaden's face, his hand flipping the gold coin in his pocket. "I don't know. Is my murdering of dozens not convincing enough?"

The dragon seethed. "No."

"It's a joke." Seeing the genuine irritation, Kaden shoved his hands deeper into his pocket, striding a step ahead. If he kept walking, he would disappear into the sweeping fog and they would never have to cross paths again.

He slowed down, slightly. Enough to hear Noah's quiet breathing behind him, following steadily.

"A joke made in poor taste," growled the dragon.

"A defining joke that quotes my personality actually, darling dragon."

Noah's eye twitched at the name, spoken with pure, drawling sarcasm. There was a time it had been endearing, the way Kaden delighted in his silly names. Noah's shoes stiffly grounded against the marble floors. "Then your personality is in poor taste."

Kaden's smile flattened. "Your taste, supposedly."

"Unfortunately," replied Noah.

"I think I like you better when you shut up, dragon."

Noah stopped in his steps, eyes rounding slightly in memory, a softness of a distant past. Within seconds, they hardened once again. Quietly, he drew the words to the tip of his tongue. "It seems we have something in common, then."

Familiarity rushed through Kaden and the words inching up his throat were hastily swallowed. He changed the response he was about to reply with instinctively. "Are you implying I'm beautiful when silent, as the saying goes?"

Noah turned, walking in the direction he'd originally been meaning to. "You're beautiful," he said in a dead voice. "When you're not thinking."

Kaden spun around and followed behind, the clatter of his boots echoing in the strange space. "So you'd prefer me mindless?"