Chapter 1: “How about a Bath?”

"So you really were raised in a barn," Aria grimaces as she looks down into the rapidly dirtying water. 

"Why would I lie to you about that?" Gideon laughs, his muscled body tensing with the pained effort.

"I thought perhaps it was hyperbole, an exaggeration, a joke" Aria scorns, backing away from the now wincing Gideon, as he grabs at his ribs and tries to suck in less painful breaths of air. 

"She's right you know," Oliver agrees, though it hurts him to agree with Aria just about as much as Gideon hurt himself laughing to admit it. 

"See?" Aria sneers, rolling her eyes with a great deal of drama. "Come on, get out. I want a hot,

clean bath, not a bloody, dirty one," She sighs, and places her fingers up to rest gently on her face, reminding Oliver of his old school teachers. 

"Oh come on, I just got in! It will be even colder if I get out now…" Gideon protests by settling himself further into the makeshift stone tub. 

"And we are all cold standing out here waiting for you…" Oliver retorts, more than a little annoyed as he holds his arms close to his skinny frame to try and keep the cold wind from cutting through him. 

"Damn…alright, alright." With a lulling head and an exacerbated sigh, Gideon yields and removes himself from the water. 

Oliver watches in stunned silence, at how Gideon can leave without so much as a shiver from the warmth of the bath out into the cool morning air, but also at how easy it looks for him to move, despite the line of fresh stitches arching from shoulder blade to hip, and the myriad bruises along his arms and legs. 

"Disgusting," an unimpressed Aria mutters under her breath, as she casts an incantation that causes all of the water in the tub to lift as one, moving it over to drop onto Gideon. 

With a splash, and a shocking amount of force, enough to bring Gideon stumbling, Aria allows herself a self satisfied smile. 

"Watch where you drop that stuff!" Gideon shouts out after her as walks the short distance to the nearby creek to collect more. 

"She did that on purpose you know," Oliver points out, though mostly to annoy Gideon. 

"An astute observation as always," Gideon teases back. It's a wonder how he can always be in such good spirits, Oliver wonders. Were the roles reversed, Oliver is uncertain if he could look Gideon in the eye. Oliver's source of guilt stems from his own ineptitude of course. It was his lack of ability that caused Gideon to become so terribly injured, his lack of battlefield prowess that has Gideon holding back laughing to prevent the pain in his ribs. 

SMACK

"OW!" Oliver yelps out as he stumbles forward. Recoiling from the sharp pain on his backside. Rubbing at the suspiciously hand sized welt on his bare bottom, he casts a judgmental look to Gideon who stands stoically by, the face of innocence. 

"What was that for?" Oliver winces. 

"Because you were looking way too full of self pity for my taste," He says casually with a grin. 

"I was?" 

"You hide your thoughts about as well as Aria hides her skin," 

"That poorly, huh?" Oliver hangs his head. 

"Yup, that poorly. Remind me never to take you out to play cards." 

"Sorry, I was just-" Oliver starts, but is cut off. 

"Sorry, nothing. In fact I don't want to hear any more of it, alright? I see you thinking about it any more I'll smack the other cheek" he winks, and Oliver shivers. 

Gideon had in fact taken quite the substantial amount of damage, far more than he should have if Oliver had been at the very least passingly capable in either defensive or offensive magic, but Gideon doesn't mind. Seeing Oliver's expression drop like that is more pain than the burning on his back or the piercing in his ribs. 

Gideon realized, over their time together than once Oliver starts thinking it doesn't stop, for better or worse, and given that Oliver is built similarly to a local skeleton, or sickly child, or old man, or wet parchment, or any number of other small, frail analogies, the best way to get him to stop is physical violence, which happened to be an area Gideon excels in. 

"You should rinse down the bulk of the dirt before Aria gets back, she's a stickler for her clean bath water and I'd really rather not wait any longer" Oliver holds back a shiver as a particularly strong wind moves through the space. 

"I think that first dip did the trick," Gideon smiles. 

"It did not, i can see the caked on grime from here" Aria calls out as she walks back over to the tub with another floating ball of water. 

"Alright alright" Gideon sighs, and makes his way over to the creek to wash the bulk of the dirt away. 

"If only he had done it at the same time we all did, he'd be here to enjoy the first dip" Aria muses as she lowers the water into the large stone tub. 

It looks like she was already in the process of warming it up as she brought it here, the fresh water landing in the tub is quickly steaming as she continues to silently apply fire magic to it. 

"He already did enjoy the first dip though" Oliver points out, as Aria lowers herself into the water with a sigh. 

The sigh stops, and she opens one eye to stare daggers into Oliver. Who shrugs his response and joins her. 

"OW!" Oliver yelps again, as he sits, the spot he chose burning his butt. 

He looks over to Aria with narrowed eyes, but she stays perfectly tranquil, eyes closed, lips curled up into a self satisfied smile. 

The tub was an excellent idea, Aria thinks to herself as she lets the warmth work its way through her tired muscles. There is a small pang of intellectual suffering admitting that, even to herself. 

Admitting any of Gideon's Ideas are good in and of itself should be grounds for legal recourse, or at the very least exile. Unlike Oliver, who she ignored primarily out of ego at first, only to realize despite his sheer lack of magical ability was quite the competent strategist and tactician, Gideon was… 

"What's a good word for Moron, that isn't moron?" Aria asks, twirling her hand in the air as if to conjure the thoughts existence. 

"Half-wit," Oliver says confidently. 

"Half-wit! Thank you" 

Gideon was a halfwit. A lovable, loyal halfwit, but a halfwit nonetheless. A brick wall to throw enemies at, or a sword to point and say "kill", which is why she feels guilty about enjoying herself, and why she made Gideon leave before she got in. 

While yes she does prefer clean water to bath in, its not as if they all haven't shared worse, or more dirty spaces before, rather shed sooner end her life via ritual suicide than allow Gideon to see the expression of joy on her face from one of his ideas. 

"Ahhhhhh, this was a great idea" the water level rises substantially, causing some to spill over the edge as Gideon's mass enters the tub. 

"Agreed" Oliver sighs his own agreement. Evidently reluctant, but too grossly incapable to be egotistical enough to try and hide it. 

Aria on the other hand, levels her expression with measured practice, allowing just a fraction of annoyance to show, though Gideon doesn't seem to notice, or if he does, doesn't care. 

Her skills are wasted on a….

"What's another-" Aria starts

"I've always been a fan of "Twit" " 

"Twit! Perfect" 

Her skills are wasted on a Twit. 

The stone tub took the better part of a week to make, as it had to be large enough to comfortably fit all three of them. But it was well worth the effort. 

Positioned in the back of their current living quarters, it's only a few steps away from the patio stairs, resting in a patch of grass just before a forest, where a creek runs through. Not that there is anyone around this far from the town center to see them, having dense trees to offer some semblance of privacy is nice. 

A collection of freshly bloomed wildflowers in the grass around them, carried by the breeze helps disguise the smells of nearby farms, though not by much. 

It was Gideon who found the place, he had helped the farmhand clear out wild boars who had been ruining his crop. The gentleman had no one to help tend the farm any more and needed the extra help and income, so he offered Gideon the place to rent for a fraction of what would be expected, on the condition they help with the farm's heavy lifting. Furthermore the 3 story building was being mostly unused, as the man in his older age had trouble with the stairs, offered both the 3rd and 2nd story to stay in, as well as the ground level, save for the small converted bedroom the man would be staying in. 

Oliver noticed the man was looking at Aria however, and likened his generosity to the fact that an attractive woman would be staying in his home, a fact not lost on Aria, not one that seemed to bother her. 

Gideon sucks in a breath "So I was thinking-" 

"Shit" 

"Shit" 

Aria and Oliver say in unison, and then laugh

"What the hell! I didn't even say what I was thinking about" Gideon protests. 

"You thinking is rarely a good thing, the last time you had a thought it was "what if the grass licked you?"" Oliver groans, putting his hand over to cover his face. 

"Don't forget, "we should pool all of our money to buy a dog, and train it to sniff for gold" Aria points out. 

"The golden retriever was a great idea! It's in the name! But i promise it isn't like any of those, come on just hear me out" 

"Ugh" 

"Ugh"

"I take your disgust as consent" 

"Don't ever do that" Aria retorts. 

Oliver snorts. 

"Listennnnn" Gideon continues anyway "I had a thought. What if we started spinning all the windmills in the opposite direction to make the air hotter? In winter and so forth"

Oliver sits in stunned, sober silence as he tries to process what possible series of logical leaps would need to be made in order to have both come up with, and legitimately propose such a question to peers without an ounce of shame. 

Aria sits in cold, quiet contemplation as she tries to understand what series of falls, in what stage of infancy could potentially recreate the mind of Gideon, for further research. 

"Gideon, what the hell does that mean?" Oliver breaks first, incapable of wrapping his mind around what his best friend is thinking. 

"Well, when windmills spin it blows air. I've stood under them during the hot summer days to cool off when there wasn't much water around, so…it just makes sense to spin them the opposite direction in the winter, so instead of blowing cold air, they blow warm air. Honestly I'm surprised no one else has thought of this" 

"Gideon, I trust you with my life" Aria starts "but please never have another thought ever again. 

Aria sinks lower into the bath, letting her ears go under the water to avoid hearing any more of the now ongoing argument between Oliver and Gideon, wondering how it could have ever possibly been him who had the idea for the bath.