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heaven-asunder · 6 years

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[* or nsfw would be 👍, whatever you think! Thank you!] Micah/Gaius - One of the villagers performs an experiment using the blacksmith's forge, resulting in it being temporarily unusable. Micah offers his for Gaius to use and eventually he gets used to Gaius being in his home, even if it's only for a few hours out of the day. Gaius can tell pretty easily that Micah likes his company so he drags the repair process out, taking the opportunity to be a bit lazy and explore their relationship.

hello yes i love this. this will be chapter 1/3 (probably unless i get particularly long-winded) pls keep an eye out for the next few chapters (i’ll be cross-posting this to my ao3 if u want to bookmark or whtvr)

Rune Factory Fanfiction

Gaius/Micah: Pre-Relationship

SFW (rating will change in later chapters)

Gaius was always worried when he came back from a walk to Raven telling him, “don’t be mad.” The fact that he wasn’t regularly mad made it all the worse. It had to be bad if Raven was warning him ahead of time. So as he entered the smithy, his stomach dropped as Raven greeted him in that manner, not quite making eye contact.

“What happened?” he asked, his voice already pitching just a bit too high.

“Marian...got a little over zealous with one of her potions. Figured heating it at the forge was the only way to get it hot enough...” Raven’s voice trailed off as Gaius’ focus blurred. Marian’s potion. His forge. He didn’t know if he wanted to see the damage, but his anxiety wouldn’t let him not. Swallowing hard, he nodded to Raven, and walked into the other room.

To call it a disaster was an understatement. The entire surface of it was covered in a thick blue goo. Parts of the forge were entirely missing, as though a very large monster came and took a very large bite out of it. Gaius’ hands fluttered across it, wanting to fix but not knowing where to start. Raven came up beside him.

“Don’t panic,” she said, in the most reassuring way Raven possibly could.

“Who’s panicking? I’m not panicking,” Gaius said, three octaves higher than normal. “I--I think I might need to sit down.” Raven brought him a chair just as he collapsed. He leaned forward in his seat, breathing too fast. Fanning him, Raven tried her best to sound steady and comforting.

“Breathe...easy,” she muttered to him. It sounded more like an order than a comfort, but Gaius did his best to steady his breathing. Too caught up in this, he didn’t hear as someone entered behind him.

“Good afternoon!” came a too familiar voice. Micah poked his head in the forge room. “Hey, what’s going on--oh Gaius.” Gaius turned to him, miserable.

“Marian broke my forge,” he said, his voice just on this side of whining. He knew he should be more mature, but Marian broke his forge damn it, he was allowed to whine.

“Why--I mean--how did this happen?” Micah stammered, wandering farther into the room and surveying the damage.

“She tried to brew a potion in here. It blew up,” Raven explained, and Gaius focused on his breathing again.

“And these holes?”

“She tried to disappear it away. It...disappeared the forge instead.”

Gaius bit back a whimper. His poor, poor forge.

“How long is it going to take you to fix this?” Micah asked, turning to Gaius. Gaius simply threw his hands in the air, a pathetic motion, mostly meaning “who knows? Not me.”

Micah turned to Raven, and Gaius closed his eyes as they talked.

“How are you guys going to fill your orders?” he asked. Gaius could almost hear the gears in Raven’s head turning.

“We’ll have to direct our customers to other means. Unless, of course, we can find another available forge,” she said. Gaius opened his good eye, watching them both from the side.

“I have a working forge Gaius can use until you guys can set this to right.” Micah offered. Gaius sat up, startling both of them.

“For real?” he asked, hopeful. If that had been Raven’s plan, he was fine with it.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Micah responded with a smile. “Anything to help out.” Gaius all but jumped out of his chair, catching Micah in a bear hug.

“I owe you one, big time,” he said, letting go and patting the other man on the arm.

“No--no need. I’m happy to help,” Micah stuttered out, looking a bit pink in the cheeks. Gaius barely considered this as he turned to Raven.

“Help me get my supplies to Micah’s? I need to make something to blow off some steam.”

Days passed slowly. Although Gaius couldn’t be more grateful to Micah for allowing him access to his forge, repairing his own was taking an excruciating amount of time.It had taken he and Raven two days to begin with to wash off all the leftover potion and then, between his orders, he made missing parts for his forge, trudging down the Sharence tree with the parts, and Micah, in tow. Still, he couldn’t complain. Micah’s forge served him fine, though he couldn’t work into the night like he usually did, retiring around sunset so Micah could sleep.

Micah seemed to enjoy his presence at the least. When he came by, the other man usually dropped what he was doing to join him at the forge, watching Gaius work. Gaius, for his part, had never had an audience before, but he could talk for ages about smithing, and Micah didn’t seem to mind. He watched with a reverence Gaius had never seen before. It was strange, he had never known Micah to be so interested in it before.

Today, though, Micah had work in his fields, and Gaius worked in silence. The order was nothing special, and nothing particularly hard, but Gaius put all his focus into it. Hours passed, and his muscles ached, but he went on until Micah came up from his fields, covered in dirt and sweat and looking as tired as Gaius felt. Gaius lowered his hammer, realizing now he was breathing hard.

“I need a bath,” Micah said and Gaius let out a breathless laugh.

“I think I’ll join you on that one,” he replied, laying his hammer to the side. He stretched, his muscles feeling too light without the weight of it. “Been a busy day for us both.”

Micah averted his eyes but nodded. Together they made their way to the inn, looking a mess next to each other. Gaius was glad for the spare set of clothes he’d brought. He didn’t want to have to redress in his dirty clothes after washing off.

They paid Pia at the counter and went straight to the men’s bath. Once the door shut, Gaius shucked away his clothes without a second thought, rinsing off the bulk of the dust and sweat outside of the bath before making his way into the the bath itself. He sighed as he immersed himself in the water, the heat working its way into his sore muscles. Only after he was situated did he realize that Micah had yet to even disrobe. He raised an eyebrow.

“You gonna wash up?” he asked, and Micah startled, looking down at him. He nodded once, and undressed, turning red. Figuring he must be self-conscience, Gaius only did the polite thing by closing his eyes. He felt the water move as Micah joined him, and he opened his eye surreptitiously to watch him.

Micah was staring, and as their eyes met, he looked away, flustered. That’s when it all fell into place for Gaius. The interest in his smithing, the random blushes, the sudden modesty. Micah had a crush on him. Gaius nearly laughed out loud at his own blindness, but held himself in check.

Micah had a crush on him.

Gaius chewed on that a moment. It wasn’t a bad idea, him and Micah. He realized he had a fondness for the other man, but his one-track mind had never wandered to the possibility of them being together. Now that he thought if it, he wouldn’t mind it at all. Micah was good looking in a soft, slim kind of way, and infinitely kind, with a quick wit and a contagious laugh. The thought of being with him made him warm, though it may have just been the heat of the bath getting to him. How to go about any of it, though, was lost on him. For all his talent at the forge, he was garbage at dealing with the subtle art of emotions.

He rose from the bath, scrubbing himself down with soap, trying to think it all through. His forge would be finished in a couple days, and he’d have to come up with a way to keep Micah near enough while they worked it all out. He stopped cold, a basin of water just poised to rinse himself off.

Or did he?

If he drew out his repairs just long enough, maybe he could find a way to express himself. Or maybe even give Micah enough time to sort out his own feelings. Either way, it seemed like his forge was going to have to wait. He poured the basin onto his head.

This was going to be an interesting next couple of days.

#my writing #rf gaius #rf micah #gaius x micah #rune factory 3 #rune factory #my focus has been all over the place today #so this took me way longer than it should have #but i hope u enjoy this first chapter anon!#Anonymous #quinn answers stuff

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