❝ three. ❞
out of breath
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Harley and Harith were currently heading over to the training room. Harith could feel Harley's eyes piercing the back of his skull, all because he had forced the mage to intertwine their fingers. He had no idea why the mage was so embarrassed to display their relationship in public. It wasn't as if no one knew that they were together. But he should've known that Harley was the shy type and would want to avoid any attention drawn to him. And, with their hands locked together, Harith had happily swung his hand, earning glances from the other heroes they passed.
Of course, this led to Harley glaring daggers at him the whole way. He knew that it was bad to get on the mage's demonic side, but he couldn't help but want to tease the mage. It had always been so fun seeing the mage all blushy. Though, this time, he may have gotten the mage's wrath instead.
They almost reached the training room, when Harith decided to break the somewhat tensed silence. He looked at the mage behind him. "What's with the long face, Harley?" He let go of the mage's hand just to pull at those rosy cheeks. It earned him a deadlier glare—which he happily ignored. "Is it because you were forced to hold hands with me the whole way?"
"Not only that, but you wouldn't stop kissing me and calling me cute while people are looking." Oh yeah, and that too. No wonder the mage was annoyed with him. Harley then slapped his hand away from his cheeks and walked past him. "Tonight, you're sleeping on the couch."
Ah, the horror. Maybe he went too far.
Harith gave him one of his innocent smiles. "Come on, Harley. You know I'm just joking."
Harley rolled his eyes before entering the training room. Harith followed behind him, and they both were greeted by Nana, Cyclops and Kimmy, who were relaxing at the sitting area.
"Yo, my dudes!" Kimmy said, pointing finger guns at the two of them. When she saw Harley looking all gloomy, she went closer to him and gasped. "Uh oh, Harith. What did you do?"
Harith rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish smile. "I may have forced him into doing something he didn't want to."
Nana crossed her arms and raised a brow. "You mean purposely tease him in public just to see him all embarrassed?"
"Yes, but, as you can see," Harith gestured at Harley, earning a deep frown from the mage himself. "His current expression is not how I expected it to be. And... it may have earned me the couch tonight."
Nana, Kimmy and Cyclops shook their heads in sync.
"It seems you all are here."
Eudora entered the room, floating lazily above the floor. She looked at each individual in the room before nodding in satisfaction. As far as Harith was concern, there were only five people training today at the Mage Section. The rest were either on a holiday or on a mission.
"Harley, Harith, let's start with you," Eudora said, pointing at the both of them. "Kimmy, Cyclops, Nana, you sit down first."
The three mages motioned towards the couches in the distance. All of them were grinning at each other, and Harith knew that it was because they were excited to see the both of them duel. On normal days, Harith would be excited too, but since it looked like he had angered the younger mage, he could only brace himself for the hell Harley was about to throw at him.
Right now, he was facing the Mage Genius, a short distance only keeping them apart. He gave the mage a grin, only to earn himself slitted eyes.
Yes, he was definitely sleeping on the couch tonight.
"All right, let's start in three," Eudora said, taking a moment to check the time. Then, she looked at him. "And, Harith, you better not go easy on Harley. I know you two are all lovey dovey, but if you keep letting Harley win, how is he doing to improve himself?"
"I won't this time," Harith said, giving the older mage a non too certain smile. He looked at Harley and found the mage ready with his staff. "Besides, I don't think Harley is going to take it easy either."
With a count of three, both, Harley and Harith started attacking each other. When dueling, there was a chance you would earn a few scratches or bruises, but nothing too serious. Harith would always end up fine though, because his magic would produce a shield that would absorb some damage he takes. Harley, however, does not have that ability. It was the reason why he had always hated it whenever he has to duel with Harley and would always go easy on him. He didn't want to end up accidentally hurting the mage. This time though, it looked like Harley was planning to kill him, because the mage doesn't seem to be holding back.
Harith dodged when Harley tried to attack him, and he couldn't help but taunt him with a wide smile. "Can't catch me!"
He watched as a nerve popped through the mage's temple, and he knew he was going to get it. It seemed he had a habit of digging his own grave, which needs to be stopped. In the distance, he could hear his friends shouting.
"Uh oh, Harith!"
"The couch is definitely yours tonight!"
"Harley looks like he's going to kill you for real!"
A bead of sweat rolled down Harith's forehead at his friends' comments. Thanks guys, he thought inwardly while dashing to the side when Harley teleported close to him. He knew that Eudora was waiting for him to use his magic on Harley, but he felt like now wasn't the suitable time. Because Harley was annoyed, and that would sometimes lead the mage being careless. So, he decided to do something else.
He decided to run in circles for Harley to catch him.
"What the–" Harley gave him a deadpan look when he waved in the distance. He watched as the mage crossed his arms. "Are you serious?"
"Aww, come on, Harley!" Harith said, ready to dash if Harley decided to teleport closer to him. "What? Or are you too slow to catch me?"
"We're not kids, Harith."
"Still, this can be fun," Harith said with a beam. "Tell you what? If you are able to touch me, I'll do the house chores for the whole month."
Harith could see the corners of Harley's lips twitching upwards, before the mage decided to teleport closer to him. He knew that it was a sign that the mage agreed to his conditions. He kept dashing further whenever Harley teleports closer, and, to make it harder for the mage, he would also stun the mage with Zaman Force so that he would have to struggle a bit to catch him.
Eudora, in the distance, sighed. "I knew you two would end up not taking this seriously."
Harith couldn't help but chuckle at the older's mage disappointment. He continued to avoid getting touched by Harley, and he could tell that the mage was getting annoyed that this was dragging on. Harley continued leaving his hat and teleporting back to it just to get closer to him. After a few more minutes of chasing each other, finally, Harley was able to grab his forearm.
Harith grinned, and he couldn't help but pat the mage's back for successfully catching him. "Congrats, Harley. You did it."
Harley was panting when he looked at him. Nonetheless, he smiled faintly.
Eudora checked the time and shook her head. "That took half an hour, and you two didn't even use your magic on each other." The mage sighed and added, "But I guess it would help improve Harley's stamina."
A guard came into the room and apologised for interrupting. He whispered something to Eudora, and the older mage frowned. It seemed that there was something important going on.
"I'll be right back. It seems Aurora has decided to freeze Franco and Bane," Eudora said, rubbing her temple. "Wait for me here, I'll be gone for a few minutes."
Everyone nodded as Eudora left. Harith grinned when he glanced at Harley, and he pulled the mage closer to him by the waist to give him a cuddle. "I knew you could do it."
"Y-Yeah..." Harley wheezed and nodded. Harith's brows knitted when he realised that the mage was breathing heavily. "I told you I had always been... faster than–"
Harley dropped to his knees and Harith caught him before he could collapse to the ground. Now, he was very concerned. He noticed that the mage looked very pale, and it wasn't helping that Harley's breathing was laboured. The mage was looking at him while blinking rapidly, and Harith soon came to a conclusion that Harley was on the brink of passing out.
"Harley?" Harith asked, shaking the mage's shoulder. All of a sudden, Harley started coughing. "Harley, what's wrong?"
"What happened?" Nana asked, running towards them. Cyclops and Kimmy followed behind her. The cat elf's eyes widened when she spotted the Mage Genius. "Harley!"
Nana bent down and hurried to search for something in the pocket of Harley's coat. Cyclops, beside her, was fidgeting anxiously. "Hurry, Nana!"
"I... I can't find it!"
Harith had no idea what was going on, and it seemed it was the same for Kimmy, because the mage marksman had a baffled look. He focused back onto Harley's face and found his lips turning blue as he continued coughing.
"Nana, what's wrong with Harley?" Harith asked, his eyes darting from Harley to the cat elf. "Why is he like this?"
Nana shook her head and rubbed her face in frustration. "Harley is having an asthma attack. It's been a while since he got it, but–" She looked at said mage. "Harley, where's your inhaler?!"
Harley could only manage a small shake of his head.
"What do you mean you don't have it?!"
Harith stared at Harley, his eyes widened. All these years he had been with Harley, this was the first time he found out that Harley had asthma. How did he not realise it? Was that the reason why Harley would stop himself midway whenever they try to chase each other? Or the reason why he would suddenly run into their room whenever he starts breathing heavily? Harith had always thought that he was just worried about something he left whenever he runs into their room, but he would have never expected the mage to be asthmatic.
Whenever he asks Harley about it, the mage would usually brush the topic off and said that it was nothing. Seeing how casual he was, he actually believed that nothing was wrong. Why didn't the mage ever talk to him about this? Was it because he was worried that he might find out how sickly he could get? Well, after this, they were going to have a serious talk about this.
All of a sudden, Gusion burst into the room and dashed towards them. He shoved what it looked like to be an inhaler into Harley's mouth, and Harith watched as the mage's breathing slowed, before it returned back to its normal rate. Harley looked relieved as he inhaled from the inhaler, before he let out a deep, shuddering breath.
While everyone was watching Gusion in shock, the mage assassin had his phone over his ear, his eyes staring at Harley. Then, he nodded at the phone. "No, no, it's okay. I got it– yeah, he's fine." He gave them all a smirk in greeting when he realised that they were all staring at him, before he focused back onto the phone. "Okay, I'll tell him," he said, and, aburptly, his cheeks flushed. His face was smug when he said, "Of course I'll do anything for you, Lesley. Yes, I love you too. Now, be careful over there, and get back here as soon as possible."
Gusion ended the call and looked at Harley, who was now giving him a puzzled look. He shook his head and crossed his arms. "Lesley's furious, Harley. When she gets back, she's going to kick your ass for not bringing your inhaler."
Harley coughed a little and sighed. "How did she know?"
"You know her and her crazy instincts," Gusion replied, rolling his eyes. "She called me, asked me to grab one of your inhalers in her drawer, and told me to check on you because she had a feeling you're having an asthma attack—and she thought you didn't bring yours."
"Aren't her instincts a little too specific?" Harley asked, frowning.
Gusion shrugged. "Hey, at least it saved your life. Oh, and by the way, your welcome." He turned around and headed to the door. He waved a hand in the air. "Later."
Harley mumbled a thanks just before the mage assassin left the room. Whether Gusion heard it or not, Harith wasn't sure. The only thing he could focus right now was; why didn't Harley ever tell him about this, and why did he keep this a secret? He glanced at the mage and found him breathing normally again. The colour of his cheeks had returned, and his lips were no longer blue. He looked slightly tired, but at least he no longer looked like he had trouble breathing.
Harith looked at his friends and gave them all a strained smile. "Can you guys leave us alone for a minute?"
Kimmy, Cyclops and Nana exchanged looks at each other. Harley looked at him, surprised by his request, but didn't say anything about it. The trio nodded their heads before leaving the room. Once all of them were gone, Harith faced the mage, his face solemn.
Harley seemed to realise that they were going to have a serious discussion, because he immediately begun, "Harith–"
"Why didn't you tell me?" Harith asked, his eyes narrowed. "This isn't a joke, Harley. If Gusion hadn't come here, you would've probably fainted, and I couldn't do anything about it."
"I didn't know it would be this bad. It had been a few months since I got an asthma attack like that," Harley said, his shoulders slumped. He lowered his head. "Besides, I didn't think it would be important–"
"You didn't think it would be important?" Harith interrupted, taking a step forward towards the mage. "Harley, all things concerning about you are important. Did you see yourself just now? You were about to lose consciousness!"
"I know," Harley said, his voice quiet. He looked up, but his eyes refused to meet his gaze. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to worry you."
Harith stared at the mage for a while before letting out an exhausted sigh. This is one problem they had in their relationship. Harley loves keeping things to himself in order not to worry him, but, he doesn't know, this was one of the causes of his worries. He had told him many times not to keep things like these from him, but he should've known that the mage was just stubborn and would do that. Does he know how worried he was when he saw him breathing heavily like that?
"Harley, don't ever keep something like this from me again," Harith said, his voice low. Harley nodded his head, and he forced the mage to look at him in the eyes. "Promise me."
Harley seemed to hesitate for a moment. But then, he bobbed his head. "I promise."
"Good." Harith eyed the inhaler in Harley's hand and took it. He spent a few seconds looking at it before showing it to the mage. "You're going to bring this everywhere starting from today. Do you understand? I don't want something like this happening again."
Harley looked at the inhaler in his hand. "Okay."
The both of them stood there in awkward silence, not knowing what else to say. It would always end up like this right after they have a serious conversation. Usually, someone would say something just to break the silence. And, since Harley doesn't look like he was going to say anything, Harith decided to say something random. But, thank goodness, Harley beat him to it.
"You're still doing house chores for the whole month, you know."
Harith groaned. He had totally forgotten about the stupid deal he had made. He looked at the mage and smiled hopefully. "Can't it be two weeks?"
Harley had a brow raised. "We had a deal."
"Well, we also had a deal of not keeping secrets from each other," Harith countered.
Harley sighed, but smiled. "Fine."
"A-hah!"
Harley and Harith whipped their heads to the direction of the door and found Cyclops, Kimmy, Nana and even Eudora staring at them in what it seemed like expectation. When they found them just standing there, all four of them let out disappointed sighs. Nana ended up glaring at Kimmy, and Cyclops punched the mage marksman's arm.
"You said they would be kissing!" Cyclops said.
"Yeah, with full of confidence you said," Nana added.
Kimmy rubbed the arm that got punched by Cyclops. "Ow– okay, geez, I didn't know my guess would be wrong. I mean, it had a seventy percent chance that they would?"
Eudora shook her head and exhaled deeply. "Why am I standing here, allowing my students to talk about a couple doing something intimate?"
"Because you're our favourite teacher," Nana chirped, instantly forgetting that she was angry at Kimmy.
Harith had a mischievous smile on his face before looking at Harley. "Should we give them what they want?"
"What–" Harley's face flushed a crimson, and he took a step back. "Hell no. I am not going to entertain–"
Harley was silenced when Harith quickly leaned forward and pressed his lips against the mage's. He could hear the sound of squealing and shrieking next to him, and he couldn't help but smile when he pulled away. He chuckled when Harley's face turned a bright shade of red, and the mage tried his best to hide his embarrassment by pulling down his hat.
"What did I tell you, huh? What did I tell you?" Kimmy said, the self-satisfaction evident in her voice. She knocked her chest with her fist and pointed to Harley and Harith. "I told you I'm never wrong."
Nana and Cyclops nodded in agreement, and Eudora just pretended that she didn't see that because—wasn't she supposed to stop the two of them from doing something like that while they were at training?
Harley spun on his heel and grumbled, "People are watching, you idiot."
Harith grabbed his hand, stopping him. A wide smile took over his face. "Always had been the shy type, aren't you?"
Harley blushed, but still managed to roll his eyes. It took Harith by surprise when the mage ended up smiling, because, that meant, the mage had enjoyed it despite his complaints. And, seeing how the mage was smiling at him, Harith couldn't help but grin himself.
Also, now that Harley was back in a good mood, Harith wondered if he still had to sleep on the couch tonight. He hoped not, because that meant he couldn't hug the mage while they're asleep.
Ah, I'm sure he won't do that, Harith thought, his grin growing wider. He loves me too much!
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note: this is just a what-if harley has asthma. it's not canon or anything. this is written based on my friend's idea. :)