Just as Hani had predicted, the elements that day were ruthless in their pursuit of drying out the already cracked land even further. Hani pulled a black shawl out from his pack and wrapped it around his head and the lower half of his face.

Levi, much to Hani's dismay, remained shirtless for the whole two and a half hours it took them to get to the small market town of Moldecs.

"You're not even wearing protective oils!" Hani scolded as they entered through the town's main gate and Levi let out a pleasured moan as they finally stepped into some shade down a side alley.

"And you call yourself a child of the desert," Levi retorted with amusement.

"That means having respect for the sun," Hani snapped back, "not trying to challenge it like a complete fool!"

"Maybe I just don't like wearing clothes," Levi shrugged as Hani choked on any response he could possibly have come up with.

"Right," Levi announced enthusiastically, clapping his hands together and glancing both ways down the street. "It will be market day today; all the inner desert settlements have markets a day later than the border towns."

"I know," Hani stated grouchily. "How exactly does that help us?"

"Use your imagination Hani," Levi huffed, "if everyone's at market it means that there will be more horses left unattended in stables."

"Camels," Hani whispered, ignoring the glare Levi sent his way. "And again, how does that affect us?"

"Well I don't know about you kitten, but I'm a little short on loose change at the moment," Levi replied slowly.

"Oh," Hani replied, feeling stupid that he hadn't realised that Levi, of course, intended to steal some horses. "Right, sure."

They made their way across the town, searching out for blocks of stables with the smallest number of people in the vicinity.

"This looks good," Levi stated, nodding his head around the corner of an alleyway to a narrow, tall strip of stables. "Can't see anybody about. What does that sign say?" Levi nudged Hani's shoulder and pointed at a large sign above the stables incised in traditional script.

'Artli's Racing Camels'

"Um..." Hani chewed on his lip for a moment, trying not to smile, "It just says that the stable belongs to a Mr Artli."

"Alright then, we'll be sure to thank him tonight in our prayers," Levi snorted lightly, reaching out to squeeze Hani's arm and indicating for them to move across the street.

Hani didn't care how much trouble he was in because the look on Levi's face was worth the lie when he pushed open the first stable door and promptly had a giant camel spit straight in his face.

"Fucking shitting hell!" Levi shouted, staggering backwards and wiping the quite frankly, disgusting looking blob of camel mucus from his cheek.

"Wow," Hani noted stiffly, trying not to laugh, "that's a big pony."

"You little shit," Levi growled, turning to glare at Hani, "you fucking knew that sign said camels!"

"My linguistic skills are a little rusty," Hani shrugged, "but now we're here we might as well take a couple of camels."

Levi snatched out his hand to grip tightly around Hani’s bicep, tugging him uncomfortably close.

“Hey!” Hani protested weakly as Levi stared hotly down at him. “It’s not that big a deal…”

“Next time,” Levi muttered darkly, “just be good and do as you’re told.”

Hani felt his body shudder slightly as Levi pulled him up and closer still, so their faces were inches apart. The larger man didn’t show any sign of letting go or relenting his vice like grip.

“Yeah, fuck, fine – whatever,” Hani mumbled, his face flushing heatedly. Levi let out a low exhale before cracking his neck from side to side. His eyes seemed to fade back to light grey from the thunderstorm hue they had been before. Hani shivered and shook the strange tension off of himself, the mood lightening once more as one of the camels let out a questioning, braying sound.

Hani schooled his features back into a cocky grin and rolled his eyes, "Oh come on - why are you afraid of camels?"

"I'm not afraid of them!" Levi retorted with a look of indignation. "I just hate the fuckers - they spit at you whenever they can and they've always got the hump."

"Seriously?" Hani laughed. "That was terrible."

"I'm damn serious!" Levi exclaimed, his eyes widening in a way that suggested he really was being so. "They're the moodiest creatures I've ever encountered...well, that was until I met you."

"I can spit too you know," Hani sniffed, pushing past Levi to stroke his hand lightly down the camel's nose. The camel snorted gently before pushing its head harder against Hani's scratching fingers. "I think I'll take this one," Hani smiled thinly. "He's obviously an excellent judge of character."

"You're welcome to him," Levi growled, stalking off to one of the other pens. Considering the fact that they were currently in the process of stealing livestock - a crime punishable by chopping off hands, Levi took an inordinate amount of time in choosing his camel. When he did finally reappear, leading a rather frail and elderly looking beast by leather reins, Hani was not impressed.

"She's too old," Hani stated stiffly, wondering what the hell Levi was thinking?

"Don't listen to him beautiful," Levi sniffed, reaching out to cover his startled looking camel's ears with his hands.

"I thought you hated camels?" Hani asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Well, yes," Levi shrugged, "but this one and I seem to have come to somewhat of an understanding."

"In that you're both old?" Hani frowned.

"You know I could tie you up and gag you for the entire journey and I still wouldn't be risking breaking my promise to get you safely to Alack," Levi muttered darkly.

"Fuck off," Hani bit back, but there was no heat in it as he found himself strangely embarrassed at the thought of Levi being the one to tie him up.

"Alright, you take Ethel and your hell beast round to the exit on the south east side of town and I'll pick us up some supplies," Levi instructed.

"Ethel?" Hani's attention snapped back to the conversation.

"My camel," Levi smiled proudly, "she reminds me a bit of my old mother you see,"

"Levi that camel is old and frail!" Hani cried out in frustration.

"Yeah, well so was mother by the end..." Levi mused as Hani shook his head in disbelief.

"No you idiot - I'm telling you that that camel won't make it through the desert! Her owner was probably going to put her down soon and sell the tough meat on the cheap."

"Well then," Levi said brightly, "look on it as us saving a life."

"And risking our own," Hani hissed but he could see that Levi was just not going to be convinced on this one. "Fine!" Hani sighed, lifting up his hands in defeat. "Just don't come complaining to me when your camel lies down in the sand and refuses to get up."

"Wouldn't dream of it, kitten," Levi said in an exaggeratedly form tone of voice before sweeping his hand in an exaggerated gesture, "now would you please be so kind as to escort the camels out of the town without anybody seeing you?"

Hani was still muttering and cursing Levi's name as he attempted to look inconspicuous whilst passing through the streets with two large camels who seemed to be intent on stopping to look at everything. Hani wondered if the beasts believed he was giving them a personal guided tour of the town?

When he finally reached Moldecs’ south east gate, Hani decided it would be far more sensible to pass through it, actually exiting the town they had just stolen from and instead wait for Levi by the smattering of palm trees that were ahead of him.

Sure enough, the best part of an hour later, Levi came speeding out of the gate with a wild look in his eyes and his pack looking distinctly heavier. He was also carrying two more packs, judging by the bulging strain of Levi's biceps, they must have been pretty laden down with supplies.

"Hani?" Levi called out, evidently not immediately spotting the younger man over in the trees. Hani was about to milk this moment for a bit longer when suddenly four burly looking men also ran out of the gate behind Levi, then another four came pouring out.

"Oh shit!" Hani exclaimed, jumping nimbly up on top of his camel and clicking his tongue to get him to start moving.

"Levi!" Hani called out as he came galloping up towards the other man, who was still sprinting down the path.

"There you are!" Levi shouted as he spotted Hani with a look of sheer relief. Hani clung on tighter to Ethel's reins in his spare hand; he had been making her run along his own camel.

"Fuck me," Levi groaned hoarsely as he heaved himself inelegantly up onto his ill-advisedly chosen camel along with the packs.

"You'll crush her!" Hani exclaimed in panic. "Give me two of the packs!"

"No time!" Levi yelled back as the eight angry townsmen started to descend on them.

"Yah!" he cried out, kicking his heels into Ethel's rump as one might a pony. Either way, it served to startle the elderly camel enough to move with a surprising speed out in front of Hani's as they began to charge down the path and away from the town.

***

"Have they followed us?" Hani coughed half an hour later as they slowed down to a far more comfortable trot. His thighs and crotch felt like his muscles and skin had been stretched out past the point of bearable pain.

"Levi?" Hani frowned as he turned to see the older man's face twist in apparent agony as he shifted his seated position atop of a distraught looking Ethel.

"This," Levi gritted, "this is why the well endowed man does not travel by camel."

Hani let out a derisive huff but blushed furiously all the same, trying not to let his gaze slip down to where Levi was now apparently palming himself in an effort to regain feeling.

"Stop groping yourself and hand me one of those packs," Hani snapped, trying to compose himself. "Your camel can barely take the weight of you for crying out loud."

"You are delightful Hani, you know that?" Levi groused, reaching down to unhook a particularly bulbous looking pack from Ethel's side. This also had the rather comical effect of her nearly overbalancing on the other side. "No 'oh thank you Levi for getting us all this wonderful food and water and blankets for the journey!'"

"Please don't try to pretend you're doing any of this out of the goodness of your own heart," Hani rolled his eyes, flicking his hand pointedly at Levi's Seprimo scars.

"Trust me," Levi grit as he struggled to lean over and attach the pack to Hani's slightly more sturdy and solid camel instead, "if I'd been getting supplies just for me - there'd be an awful lot more alcohol in here."

"And you'd be an awful lot more likely to die in the desert," Hani huffed, "do you literally have no understanding for how different environments work?"

"I create my own environments," Levi shrugged as Hani let out a weary groan. "And no, to answer your initial question, I do not believe the men from the town followed us. Or if they have, we'll be long gone before they catch up."

"Good," Hani sniffed, "because I'd like to keep my hands."

Levi snorted, "We're in the inner desert kid - they'd take a lot more than your pretty little hands."

"Fuck you," Hani replied for lack of coming up with anything better to say. He gripped his fingers tightly around his own camel's reins and tried to ignore any comments made on them being 'little' or 'pretty'.

"So you keep saying," Levi grumbled, wiping sweat from his brow and grimacing as he inspected his hand and found a crushed cluster of dead insects that would have landed on his skin as they galloped across palm land into the desert sands.

"We should keep going," Levi announced a moment later, after scraping the offending bugs from his fingers.

"I'm not sure if 'Ethel' can keep going," Hani pouted.

"Worry about your own damn camel," Levi snapped back, "Fucking hell, how did your sister ever put up with you for all those years?"

"I-" Hani opened his mouth ready to snap back a cutting remark. "I don't know."

There was an awkward moment as Levi cleared his throat and brushed some dead leaves off of Ethel's neck. "Right, well I suppose you'll just have to ask her when you see her again then," Levi nodded curtly before starting Ethel trotting again.

Hani's mouth curved slightly into a smile before he could think to stop it. Could Levi have possibly just said something nice to him?

Hani recovered himself before clicking his tongue and causing his camel to trot after the other man's. They still had a good five hours before they would be forced to make camp somewhere suitable.