He buried his face into Scaevus’s chest and proceeded to sob quietly. He felt Scaevus take him in a warm embrace and rock him like a baby. His accelerated breathing pattern painted him in a frantic light. Soon, Durantes began to whine and babble incoherently, and though he tried to summon some sort of articulation to his words, nothing came out as he wanted it to.

The older man shushed him and whispered something in Latin. Durantes was, of course, unable to tell what Scaevus said, but he imagined that the sentiment attached to the words was something comforting and perhaps of reassurance. He was probably telling him that things would be okay, even though Durantes knew very well that things were not okay and would not be okay.

Scaevus kissed Durantes’s forehead affectionately and stroked his chin with his rough thumb. The younger man continued to sob and hiccup hysterically, even when Scaevus’s lips met with his own. The kiss was more of a peck and hardly did anything to calm Durantes down, as distressed as he was, but he accepted it without shoving Scaevus away.

The older man had been a lot sweeter with his approach at courtship since Cella’s passing. Though Durantes was far from interested in delving into a relationship, he had to admit that this was the closest thing he would get to comfort, so he was willing to take it with open arms.