🔘 a kiss on a bruise/wound/etc.
(And one or two extra...) || Not currently accepting
He could not get there fast enough.
The week of knowing had been a thorn in his side. A distraction, pure and simple, needling him with every breath. The kind of thing that made him aware with a vengeance of things like distance and the way that meant he couldn’t do anything and how he had been before -and would no doubt be again- on the other side of such a situation. (Hetty had noticed his discontent, asked after him and, when he answered her true, laughed, cradled his face, and told him ‘welcome to the club.’) Truth be told, there had been nothing for him to do regardless of where he was. It was only the waiting and the distance and the waiting from a distance that had sunk its teeth so mercilessly into his chest.
And it was biting down harder the nearer he drew to the Lost Revenge. He had offered his help and would fulfill that. First, though. First.
Henry spotted her among the crew and beamed, vaulting the ships rail like it was an afterthought. His feet hit the deck and cargo could wait and Desiree could threaten him if she wanted to – he went straight to Noelani and pulled her into arms, kissed her right there without even the slightest inclination that he cared more than a whit for anything else going on around them. When he drew back, he was laughing softly; joy and relief and joy again.
“Hi,” he greeted belatedly. A heartbeat later only, he caught sight of a bruise on the corner of- “Your head.” He fell into a mild fuss, grimacing as he looked her over for any other evidence of the battle as if she would not have already done the same a week gone; as if the mark on her head wasn’t a fading shadow and nothing more. He ran his thumb over it. He followed after with a kiss of feathers and well wishes. “I’m glad you’re back.”
He never claimed to be subtle.