“Why not?” Draven asked.
“Sand’s fucking gritty,” he complained as he paused to slap some of it from his pants leg. “I was out earlier. The damn gnats fucking bite here. There’s—“
A ball came rolling towards them then, and Nadir’s attention went sideways at the sight of it. He paused behind and caught it with his toes, letting it roll up onto the top of his foot, bouncing it a few times.
Draven and Hagen paused to stare at the Commander as he bounced the ball higher and higher until finally kicking it back to the children that were waiting on it. A boy caught it between his own moving feet, and the group ran off once more.
Hagen’s grunt sounded, making Draven smirk at the Blackhand.
“Show off,” Hagen grunted.
“You’re just jealous,” Nadir snapped back, a crooked grin rising on his lips. “You wish you looked this good next to the ocean,” he said as he started walking backward in front of the pair. He looked to Draven and gave him an upwards nod. “You know what else I hate about this fucking beach?”
“The rocks?” Draven suggested.
“I like the rocks,” Hagen said before Nadir could reply. “Gives it character. Much better than your shit beach.”
Nadir stopped walking, expression shifting from play to fight.
Draven stared at Hagen, knowing those words were about to set off a fight. Hagen caught his eye, and Draven shook his head. “Why?” he asked. “Just why.”
“Shit beach?“ Nadir repeated.
“Thought it was funny,” Hagen said, ignoring Nadir.
Draven caught Nadir by the arms.
“He didn’t mean it,” Draven said as he glared again at Hagen. Nadir started forward again, but Draven pushed him back. “Hey—“ He grabbed his friend’s face. “You fight now, and you’ll be wearing a black eye to the banquet tonight.”
“That’d be an improvement,” Hagen grunted.
“Not like anyone would notice the difference if I broke his nose,” Nadir argued.
“Break my nose, and Princess will be sucking my cock tonight instead while you’re recovering in the ward,” Hagen warned.
And the triumphant smile that spread on Hagen’s lips at Nadir’s reaction to such a statement nearly made Draven hit the Blackhand.
Nadir’s fists curled, nostrils flaring. He tensed against Draven’s grasp, and instead of jumping at Hagen, he took two solemn steps back, chin lifting. Draven hadn’t felt such intensity from Nadir since the first time they’d battled the strangers on his beach and he’d lost so many men.
“Fuck you, mate,” Nadir said before walking away from them.
Draven sighed in a heavy huff and shook his head at Hagen. “Good job,” he muttered to Hagen.
However, Hagen was staring down the beach in confusion at Nadir’s retreating figure. “Didn’t realize he’d be so sensitive about it,” he said, regret in his tone. “Shit—Aye, Fish!” he called for Nadir as he picked up his pace to catch up with him.
Draven hung back as Hagen reached Nadir, not wishing to interfere with any kind of apology Hagen might be giving their friend. The pair had always shared a rivalry, but they always made up no matter how harsh the bickering and fighting got.
There was something about the heaviness in Nadir’s eyes that morning when he’d met him out front, though, that lingered with Draven. He knew his friend was under a lot of stress with the strangers arriving on his shores, with his beach being threatened. Draven was having a difficult enough time being away from home for this meeting. He was sure it was eating at Nadir as well. To be halfway across the world with no way of knowing if his realm was on fire and no faster way to get there if it was.
After apparently apologizing, Hagen held out his hand to Nadir, and Nadir sighed as he took it. Draven caught up with them a few steps later and clapped his hand on Nadir’s shoulder.
“Okay?” he asked him.
Nadir pushed his hands over his face. “Yeah, fine,” he said in a breath. “Just—“
“Speaking of your Princess,” Hagen interjected, nodding up at the beach.
Their attention diverted, and Draven felt his shoulders relax at the sight of Bala sitting with Nyssa and Dorian a hundred yards up the beach. Dorian skipped rocks over the water while Bala settled back, Nyssa hugging her arms around her knees.
