Canon: Remove if not applicable.Gralat ended up in trouble with his eldest brother for pushing Astolphe into the snow instead of helping him all the way back into the manor. Astolphe insisted that he was fine, but it didn’t help. So Gralat was banned from participating in training for the rest of the week. One of the stable hands had been sent to the compound after supper, to let the people there know that Gralat wasn’t going to come for a while. Normally, children their age wouldn’t consider nearly a week without training a huge punishment, but Gralat did.
Gralat was furious.
Not at Astolphe, because, as Gralat told him, it wasn’t his fault. Gralat had been the one who chose to dump him in the snow like that, where he might be seen. But he was furious with his older brother. And with his other older brother, because - and this Astolphe only knew because Gralat had told him - he had sided with the eldest brother.
“Not that I mind your company, but your attitude right now is really distracting.”
Astolphe glanced over at Gralat. The other boy was sitting in the other armchair in the library, his face a stormy darkness. Astolphe had not seen him with an expression like that before, and it made Astolphe once more realize how naive he had been when he first met Gralat. Normal Gralat was just normal, he wasn’t the least terrifying. Not really. But this Gralat was.
“He hasn’t even consulted father, and father was feeling better than older brother, at least he did yesterday.”
Sometimes it was easy to forget that he was younger than Astolphe because of how tall he already was, and because he looked older, but he almost seemed to be pouting at the moment, and that made him look really young. And more cute than scary, once Astolphe realized that.
“Then maybe your father will overrule their decision, if he gets well enough to take part in the discourse.” Astolphe didn’t say that he didn’t mind that Gralat had been put under house arrest. Not because he was upset about being dumped in the snow - Gralat had warned him - but because his point still stood; he thought that taking a break once in a while wasn’t such a bad thing. “I’d like to spend some more daylight hours with you, anyway, so it’s not all bad.”
“You’re missing the point, Astolphe.”
“I’m sure that I am,” Astolphe said drily, because it didn’t really matter.
He watched Gralat out of the corner of his eye, while he tried to turn his attention back to the book. However, he had been thinking, since earlier that day, and the thought wouldn’t leave his mind. So he decided to be brave and simply ask, taking cues from that Ellvaldez directness again.
“Gralat, do you not want to be friends with me?”
Gralat was visibly startled, and all anger he had been feeling seemed to vanish instantly. “Why would you think that?”
“Because you didn’t answer my question before. When I asked if we are friends.”
Gralat kept staring at Astolphe, and Astolphe was reminded of when he had stared at Gralat in a similar way; how he had opened and closed his mouth in silent confusion, after Gralat told him he liked watching him read. The memory of it made Astolphe’s cheeks heat up a little. He hoped it didn’t show. Gralat closed his mouth with a sound of teeth hitting teeth.
“I want to be your friend,” he said eventually, and Astolphe gave him a sceptical look. “I do! It’s simply that, I don’t have any friends besides the ones I train with at the compound. I don’t really know how friendship outside of soldier training works. What those sort of friends do.”
“Don’t we already do things friends does?” The confused look on Gralat’s face made Astolphe elaborate. “We talk, and we spend time together, and we, I guess, play in the snow, if you can count the training and the incident from before as playing, and we don’t necessarily need to talk to enjoy spending time with each other and I think that’s important in a friendship. Some people never know how to be quiet. That can be unbearable. So this is sort of nice.” He nodded to himself. “Yes. This is nice. I like this.”
Gralat blinked slowly at him. He shook his head. Astolphe sucked on his lip when he saw him smile at him.
Really, he’s sunlit ice.
He had seen the sun make icicles and snow glisten several times. He had seen that despite its cold and its unwelcoming and dangerous nature, Ellvaldez was stunning in the sunlight. And Gralat really was a part of Ellvaldez. He was just like the country he lived in. He was a shard of cold ice, that let his beauty show like light fractures cutting through it.
“So..?” Astolphe inquired. Gralat leaned back in the armchair. “So,” he said too, “I guess we’re friends, then.”