Litvir watched as Arkay sneaked out of his room, tiptoed down the hallway and slip into the kitchen. After a minute of sandwich construction and three minutes of grilling action, Arkay reappeared holding a few too many cheese toasties. He immediately started sneaking back to his room, at which point Litvir decided to ask him if he was alright.
“Oh, hi Litvir!” Arkay exclaimed, not having realised he was being watched. “I’m alright, why you asking?”
Litvir shrugged. “You have been hiding in your room a lot. I was worried that you were upset. The last… while has been very stressful for us all, and Retvik and I are concerned.”
Arkay shrugged, opening the door to his bedroom. Litvir peered inside, noticing that it was kinda messy, but no more than usual. He however spotted Arkay’s personal computer, which was open and on some sort of text chat. Before he could spy any further, Arkay slammed the door shut.
“Litvir, what the fuck?”
“Sorry, but you have not come out of your room for a whole 30 hours.”
“You’re that concerned?” Arkay put his hands on his hips. “Why don’t you just ask me, instead of spying on me and trying to see what I’m up to?”
Litvir grunted, pulling back a little. “You are hard to pry problems from. Sometimes we have to force you to talk. Plus, you have been in your room for over a day. This is literally the first time Retvik or I have seen you leave.”
Arkay tutted, caring little for Litvir’s explanation. “So? I’ve been doing my own thing. You don’t need to keep tabs on me.”
“That was a large part of being Thantir Decay Lords. That we work together and keep an eye on each other. We are concerned, so we are trying to make sure you are well!” Litvir frowned. “Are you well?”
“I’m absolutely fine!” Arkay exclaimed.
“You sure about that?”
Arkay paused. “Yeah, mostly.”
“What have you been doing that has forced you to remain in your room for 30 hours then, if you do not mind me asking?”
“I do mind you asking.”
“But we are worried about you.”
Arkay sighed, giving in. “I’ve been chatting with a friend. Someone I knew from back before I was a god. And I really, really like him. We just started chatting and haven’t stopped chatting and… it’s like we were never not friends. Like, we had our problems and ended up going our separate ways originally but I thought he was dead and he thought I was lost and we…” Arkay sighed some more. “I like him. He’s super nice. We just click.”
“Oh, is that all?” Litvir smiled, no longer seeming concerned.
“Yeah.”
“You are not thinking about killing yourself or anything? No flagellating yourself or anything?”
“What now?”
“Harming yourself, believing you need to be punished for some unknown sins?”
Arkay frowned. “No, I’m not doing that. I’ve just been catching up with TK. It’s been genuinely really nice. Sure, it’s just online text chats and the odd picture, but it’s nice.”
“Well then!” Litvir backed off, leaning back into the doorway of his own room. “That is wonderful. I am very glad you found a friend to chat with. Just do not forget to take breaks.”
“Oh. Good point…” Arkay’s smile returned, reminding himself of his fresh pile of cheese toasties. “Forgot about breaks. Was having fun chatting.”
Litvir patted Arkay on the shoulder. “It is fine. Try not to get too engrossed though.”
“Yeah, I won’t!” Arkay beamed as he headed into his room. “See you later, Litvir!”
The bedroom door slammed shut before Litvir had a chance to say goodbye back.
“Well, at least he is not suicidal for once…” Litvir eventually muttered, before heading down the hallway to tell Retvik the good news.