Thick as thieves Suivre l’histoire

Mylo and his wife burst into the hostel. She was clutching her pregnant stomach and looked very pale, in pain. The sweat slid down her temples, threatening to ruin the gaudy makeup she managed to put on considering her inexperience.

Except it wasn't Mylo and his wife, but rather Mylo and his male best friend disguised as his wife. He wasn't pregnant at all, rather holding all of their worldly possessions underneath his dress, and the sweat was water Mylo had sprayed to make the costume look more convincing. The only real part of the charade was the pain. His new career as a famous calligrapher had caused Arthyen to forget how tiresome it could be to ride a horse for days.

"Please, help me" begged Mylo. "My wife isn’t feeling well. We were planning on stopping in the next town, but we can't continue like this."

The man behind the bar counter, which also served as a register, looked at the keys next to him. They certainly had rooms left, but he hesitated.

"I can offer you a room, but this place... it can get noisy during the night," he warned.

"She just can't walk anymore, and it's too dark to keep wandering around. At our pace, we would almost certainly get mugged," Mylo said fearfully.

Arthyen cooperated by making a noise, crying out in pain. The man finally sighed and handed them the keys.

"Thank you very much, we will repay your kindness," assured the young man, letting his black hair fall in front of his eyes to cover them.

"Now hold on, you have to pay for the room in advance," asserted the bartender, as they headed towards the stairs.

"I will come downstairs as soon as she is asleep, you have my word" replied Mylo, caressing his wife's ginger mane.

He then swung one arm around Arthyen’s shoulders, slid the other under his knees, and carried his pregnant princess upstairs.

His best friend glared at him through the makeup covering his emerald green eyes, but had no choice but to wait until they were inside the room to whisper:

"I am never doing this again."

He gave birth to their bags on the bed rather violently and kicked off the uncomfortable shoes. Luckily, the makeup was hiding how red he had turned, out of humiliation.

"That's a pity, you look so beautiful with that makeup," teased Mylo, also dropping an impressive amount of items he had been concealing under his cloak. "This place looks awful… and for me to say that…" he added, looking around with exasperation.

"Don't you dare complain after all the trouble we went through or you will be the one in a dress next time." Arthyen took off the orange hair extensions. He wasn't sure why he kept wearing them, since his natural ginger tresses weren't much different. "I am showering first," he announced.

When he returned, without makeup and wearing his regular clothes, he looked ready to go to bed. Especially after the two days and three nights they had spent traveling non-stop.

Mylo entered the shower soon after, and got out with fresh clothes, drying his black hair with a towel. "We should think of a way to deal with the man downstairs."

"We’ll just climb through the window in the morning. It's not like we’re planning to pay anyway," Art answered, barely awake. He was already laying inside the bed. His bones and muscles had finally given up.

Mylo pulled back the covers on the other side of the mattress and got himself comfortable too. It was never awkward for them to share the same bed, as they had been sleeping together since they were kids."Let's hope he doesn't decide to come and get his money tonight."

"Don't worry, I already blocked the door. If he wants to come and collect the money, we will hear him struggle soon enough. Now, let's try to sleep through this… noise"

Mylo hadn't noticed while he was in the shower, but the place was filled with moans and bangs echoing into their room, sounds of people having sex in the adjacent rooms. He tried to hold it in at first, but ended up bursting out laughing. "What a concert."

"Maybe we should check the place out a little better before getting in next time. No wonder the dude at the entrance was hesitant to let us in."

"Well that’s funny coming from you, I hear these noises coming from your room pretty often." Mylo teased with a little smirk on his face.

Though he did sleep around often, Arthyen still flushed as he rolled over, turning his back to his best friend. It was embarrassing enough to share a bed with these noises all around them - let alone discussing his sex life.

"If you are jealous just go enjoy yourself too."

"Who says I'm jealous? If I had to 'enjoy myself' with the same kind of people you do, I would be moody all day, just like you. No, thank you."

Mylo was always amused by his friend's reaction when he mentioned anything sexual. He found it funny that, despite Art being shameless and often using his body to get what he wanted, was always embarrassed to speak about it with him.

"It's not my fault that I’m famous and rich people want me. I have a reputation to uphold." He bit his tongue for a few seconds, but couldn't restrain the words from coming out of his mouth: "And I am not that noisy."

"I usually hear your partners more," agreed Mylo. "Who was that girl from last week? Kaira? Kora? She was yelling as if you were killing her."

"Stop it. Disgusting. I don't wanna know what you heard." He rolled to the edge of the bed.

"Are you sure? Because I think I can imitate her moans pretty accurately". One of Mylo's favorite hobbies was embarrassing Art to the point where his face was redder than his hair.

"No! I won't allow that." Arthyen flipped around, straddling his friend and instantly covering his mouth with his hands. "There is no fake moaning happening here."

Mylo took Art's hands off of his face and smiled at him with a twinkle in his eye.

"It can be real moaning if you’d rather."

Art's emerald green eyes went wide and for a second, and he froze. The only thing he could see were Mylo’s blue eyes, those eyes he had observed in detail so many times. Then he let his gaze slide from his disheveled black hair to the shape of his face, and then he dangerously focused on the shape of his lips. Finally, his brain began functioning again, and he instantly snatched the pillow next to him to try to smother his friend. But he didn't have much time, because before he could, someone rapped on the door.