a minute (bhaltair/otto)

It's a beautiful day, breezy and lazy and not too sunny and not too gray, and the two of them chatter about nothing as they stroll through the park with gravel crunching beneath their boots, and Otto has only a split second's warning before Bhaltair's knees buckle and he falls.

Otto catches him without thinking. Bhaltair is a big man and he nearly takes him down with him, but between the two of them they manage to stabilize. Otto can still feel the sway and keel in his stance, one arm over his shoulder like a drunken man while the other hand holds his cane in a death grip.

"Alright?" he asks, worried. He's seen him stagger before, but never like this or up this close.

"Alright," Bhaltair says wanly, and it's not hard to see that he's lying through his teeth. "Get a little dizzy sometimes, that's all."

"We can leave if you need to---"

"No." Bhaltair shakes his head quickly, and sways again. "Nope. Naw. Little lightheadedness isnae worth wasting a day like this one. Let's go feed the ducks."

"Let's go sit down," says Otto cautiously, steering him away from the ducks toward a park bench. Bhaltair makes a show of insisting he's fine, but his swarthy face is pale with vertigo and he looks on the verge of passing out. He sinks down gratefully onto the bench the moment they're in reach, sweat beading at the corners of his dark red hair.

Otto eases down next to him, even more worried now. "Is this normal for you, Freund?"

"Every now and then," says Bhaltair, squeezing his eyes shut and opening them wide as if trying to clear them of something. "Every once in a while. Isnae so bad for the most part." He laughs and raises his cane. "Y'see why I need this?"

"And you are sure you do not need to go home," says Otto dubiously.

Bhaltair smiles weakly at him, something in his eyes that gets into Otto's heart a little. "Nah."

He doesn't want this to be over, he realizes. Oh.

Otto considers this a moment. Then he reaches over to squeeze the big hand gripping Bhaltair's cane. "Alright. We will stay and talk awhile."

Bhaltair beams.

The chatter continues. Bhaltair looks a little less pale with each passing minute, and when the shadows are long and it's time to go he stands with little problem.

"See?" he says, as they stroll back to the car arm in arm. "Just needed a minute."

"It was more than a minute," says Otto.

Bhaltair slides their arms down until he can twine their fingers together. "It was a good minute."