#bloomsbelow

[hezulion]

um oh ah yeah

It’s that time of year once again! The Battle of the Eagle and Lion rears its head on the horizon, and you know what that means: it’s time to booby-trap scope out the playing field ahead of time and see if you can’t give your chosen house a leg up on the competition. Trouble is, it looks like someone’s beaten you to the punch! And these aren’t any old traps either - some of these look downright deadly. Escape the gauntlet in one piece as best as you can! [ Any Skill +1 ]

continued from here (we’re also saving kitties today pals.)

Sakura isn’t hurt, at least not physically. That’s something at least, Ares thinks as he wonders what to do or say next. His hands hang heavily by his sides, awkward whilst unoccupied with a weapon. It’s obvious she won’t look him in the eyes and he isn’t sure if that’s better or worse than her getting angry or upset with him for bumping into her.

“Um... so you’re definitely okay?” Ares asks again to be certain. It crosses his mind that she might simply have said that to get away from him. She didn’t fall to the ground though and whilst her gaze is turned away from him her posture seems a touch more relaxed than it did five minutes prior. “As long as you’re sure. I’ll be more careful in future.”

He turns away, ready to give her the space to carry about her day when something freezes him in place. A high pitched scream. Something zips past the pair of them, faster than a lightning strike.

A child charges past his legs, eyes filled with tears. His heart stops for a moment.

The ground around them is littered with traps and pitfalls. Chestnut brown pigtails bounce as the girl sobs, running wildly into the field with no sense of danger. Just a desperate desire to cling on, to not be alone.

Instinct takes over. Ares leaps after her, picking the crying child up around the waist before she can hurt herself. His leg however, is not so lucky. Jammed between the ferocious metal teeth of a bear trap, blood drips down his chin as he bites down on his lip. A flurry of angry curses are stopped behind clenched teeth. Rarely does he bother holding his tongue but between Sakura’s anxious behaviour and a small child staring up at him wide-eyed, he keeps quiet. Mother taught him better than that.

Gods, it feels like his leg is about to split in two though.

[atypicalsenerio]

[a platonic kiss just meant to express overwhelming emotion]

It's their first time meeting, and it’s not particularly pleasant. They haven’t even exchanged names, for gods’ sake! The fact that they have even met at all is thanks only to the gash along this young man’s arm, and the fact that Sakura had decided to volunteer in the infirmary today.

She’s not sure who he reminds her of. It’s the only explanation she can think of, as she studies him from across the small room, where she picks out the antiseptic. If he doesn’t remind her of someone dear to her, then is it really just the emotion flashing behind his eyes that makes her heart ache? The tension in his shoulders, the slight purse of his lips? She averts her eyes before he can catch her staring. He looks as though he has enough on his mind.

“I-I’m sorry if this hurts,” she mutters as she sits next to him and begins cleaning out the wound. She makes sure to be thorough as always, but it’s slowed by her efforts to keep her touch light, gentle. She takes as much care with wrapping his arm in bandages, not too tight but not too loose either.

He seems impatient by the end of it, but her hands still linger, now on his. He looks in desperate need of kindness, of softness. Perhaps it’s her brother that she thinks of when looking at this man, the shadow cast over him. Perhaps it’s someone else as dear to her; gods know the people in her life had dealt with too much. Without thinking, she raises his hands to her lips and brushes them across his fingers, in what could hardly be called a kiss. Something gentle, for someone who seems not to have had gentleness shown to them in quite some time.

Sakura catches herself after the deed is done, and drops his hands as if they’d burned her. “O-Oh gods, I’m s-so sorry! You can go now!”

((feel free to ignore this if you'd prefer !

Soren always put on his best brave face when he was having a wound treated. He tried to not even flinch as the healer girl cleaned the cut on his arm, expression fixed somewhere in the distance. She was efficient and gentle, and for that he was grateful.

“It’s fine.” Of course it stung, but the pain was fading by the moment under her care.

She was indeed such a soft soul that she gave his hands a butterfly light kiss when she was done.

Soren blinked, but any harsh words he might’ve had melted as she profusely apologized.

“It’s alright. No harm done.” He couldn’t quite fathom why he made the effort to reassure her. Perhaps she like Mist and Maria before her had found a weak spot in him. He’d gotten used to the idea in his younger years that most people were at least somewhat calloused and cold- and those who proved him wrong, who were so innocently kind even to the likes of him, always took him slightly aback.

“Thank you. I won’t keep you from the rest of your patients.” Soren nodded to her and left, holding his arm but barely noticing the healing ache.