Adrissu did not see him again for two days. He had partly expected it, knowing the workshop had a small sleeping space and Pollux would be eager to bring it up to his own personal standards. Still, it was strange to know his mate was so close, had finally come to Polimnos to be with him, only to be apart again for the first few days. But Adrissu had the comfort of knowing he was near, so he didn’t bother the elf. When everything was complete, Pollux arrived back at the tower, walking in as comfortably as if he had done it a thousand times before—not quite with a smile, but with a self-satisfied, tired expression.
“I take it everything’s set up, then?” Adrissu asked, looking at him over the top of the book that he was reading. Pollux nodded.
“Yes,” he said, sitting down next to Adrissu with a long sigh. “I think I’ll take tomorrow off, but after that, everything should be good for me to start work.”
“Any ideas as to what you want to work on first?”
“Hmm,” Pollux murmured, glancing away. He seemed to mull it over for a moment, then said, “I’m not sure. I’ll see what feels right when I see all the supplies I have.”
Adrissu smiled indulgently at him. “If you need something, just ask. I can get a hold of almost anything.”
Pollux nodded, leaning closer to Adrissu. “I will.” He was silent for a long moment, tension palpable in his body where their shoulders touched. Adrissu remained silent, eyes on his book, even though all his attention was centered on Pollux next to him.
“Adrissu, I—” he stammered, only to cut himself off with a huff. “That is—put that away.” He pushed the book out of Adrissu’s hands, so he set it down, stifling a laugh. Pollux frowned at him, color rising in his face. “I—I want to—”
“Want to what?” Adrissu asked innocently, forcing himself not to smirk as Pollux’s expression darkened. The elf groaned and, instead of answering, swung his leg over Adrissu so he was straddling his hips.
“Oh, this?” Adrissu teased, grabbing his waist and grinning up at him salaciously. “All you had to do was ask, my love.”
Pollux didn’t reply, only kissed him so fiercely that if Adrissu didn’t know better, he might think that Pollux was trying to suffocate him. They both gasped when Pollux finally pulled away, both his hands on Adrissu’s face, their noses still brushing up against each other.
“Is it always like this?” Pollux muttered, his eyes squeezed shut and his mouth turned into a frown.
“Like how?”
“I think about you all the time. I can barely focus on anything else. I hate it.”
“It is very distracting,” Adrissu agreed, idly moving his hips in a slow, rocking movement that made Pollux groan. “It lessens over time, but being together like this is still so new—I think we have to get it out of our systems before it settles down, hm?”
Pollux opened his eyes to give Adrissu such an unconvinced stare that he had to laugh.
“I’m serious,” Pollux scowled. “How am I possibly going to get any work done like this?”
“Don’t,” Adrissu replied simply. “You don’t have to work. My hoard can provide for us for centuries, even without my salary from the Academy.”
Pollux stiffened at that, not in a good way, and his expression darkened considerably.
“No, you don’t want to be around me when I’m idle,” he muttered. “I don’t want to be idle. I have to have something to work on.”
Adrissu hesitated—unsure if he should pursue this unexpected, darker turn that the conversation had taken, or direct it back to their more lighthearted exchange. In the split second it took him to think it over, though, Pollux seemed to have decided for him, grinding down against him with the same irritated expression on his face.
“Don’t make me ask,” he growled, burying his face in Adrissu’s shoulder. Adrissu’s nostrils flared, breathing in as deeply as he could to fill himself with the scent of his mate.
“I won’t,” he murmured against his skin, hands already reaching to slide the elf’s robe off his body. “I won’t.”
Things were going well, Adrissu thought, more so than he might have anticipated when Pollux had first agreed to move to Polimnos. Pollux would often be gone for a day or two in his workshop, but most nights he came back to the tower and slept in Adrissu’s bed. The elf was not a warm person by any means, but he seemed to be quite fond of Adrissu, and expressed it in his own way. Adrissu was in no rush to hear some opulent declaration of love; after all, it was his mate. They had already said so a thousand times before in past lives, so even if Pollux didn’t say it as overtly or as frequently as the others, Adrissu knew Pollux felt it just as acutely as he did.
Despite all this, though, he often had an underlying sense that Pollux was... not unhappy, but tense, as if he was waiting for some unforeseen shoe to drop. It was similar to the tension he had felt from Pollux when he had visited him in Wintergrove, which made him uncertain. Was he only imagining it? Pollux said nothing, but he always seemed restless at night and tired during the day, as if he couldn’t sleep.
One night it seemed particularly bad, about a month after Pollux first came to Polimnos. He had woken Adrissu several times as he tossed and turned, then finally got up with a defeated sigh when Adrissu was certain that it was still at least two or three hours before sunrise.
“Pollux?” he murmured as the elf stood. “What’s wrong?”
Pollux was silent for a long moment, then answered in a soft voice, “Can’t sleep.” He left, and Adrissu thought of going after him, but Pollux seemed irritated, so he stayed. When he got up later that morning, though, he found Pollux curled listlessly on the downstairs lounge with Vesper coiled half next to him and half in his lap.
“Good morning,” Adrissu said, and Pollux only grunted in response. He had a thought, then, that maybe Pollux was going into heat—Braern was often irritable and restless in the day or two leading up to his own. “Are, ah… Are you well?”
Pollux looked at him with an utterly annoyed expression, but it faded quickly into something more melancholy. “Sorry if I worried you. I haven’t been sleeping well.”
