This ended up being my first Kai/Adaryc fic! They ended up being a lot of fun to write! Something about their dynamic feels very Regency Romance.
This takes place immediately after the Eyeless fight when you first meet Adaryc in WM2
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92. “Don’t move.”
"Wait." Kai reached out and grabbed Adaryc's elbow as he and his soldiers turned to leave. "Your men need medical attention. Let us help."
It was the truth. They'd all gotten pretty banged up by those… creatures, constructs, whatever the Eyless were. They may have won, but they'd paid a heavy price for it, and no one had left that fight unharmed. The Commander himself had a large cut over one eye that was still bleeding sluggishly, and he held one arm close to his body in a way that told her it was likely dislocated, if not broken.
He froze at her touch as if she'd warned him of a bear trap underfoot - or like he was expecting her to sink a knife in his back and finish the job the Eyeless had started. He somehow went even more still when she tugged on his good arm and started leading him back toward the cabin they'd first spoken in.
"Watcher, what are you--"
"Kai," she corrected tersely. "I don't like being called 'Watcher' any more than you do, I'd wager."
He nodded, conceding her point. "Kai. What are you doing?"
"Helping you." She closed the door behind them and brought over a chair. "Sit down."
She didn't wait for him to comply, stepping away to hunt for a water basin and dig through her pack for medical supplies.
"One battle together doesn’t mean I take orders from you," Adaryc grumbled, though in spite of his words he sat down on the stool she'd dragged over.
"Why not, my dear?" she muttered. "That’s how it worked with everyone else." She reached for him again, but this time he flinched away. "You’re injured."
"It’s not serious."
"Your arm is dislocated, and I doubt you can even see out of your left eye right now." Kai tried to gentle her voice, to make it a request instead of a demand. "Let me take care of it."
"Ordering me around again." He didn't sound annoyed this time, more amused.
"It seems to be the only way you’ll listen, Commander."
"Adaryc."
"Adaryc," she repeated with a slight smile.
They let silence fall as she worked on removing his armor, keeping her movements careful so as not to jostle his shoulder.
He broke it first, voice almost hesitant. "You're a skilled fighter."
She raised an eyebrow, trying to judge how sincere he was. "You sound surprised."
"I am," he admitted easily. "I expected you to be… softer. Your memories…"
Ah. That explained it. She must look very privileged to someone like him; in many ways, she supposed she was. "I was raised nobility. It… didn't suit me. I ran away."
"To Dyrwood?" Adaryc seemed genuinely curious rather than judgemental like she expected.
"Eventually." Kai bit her lip, considering how much to say, and eventually settled on, "It's a long story."
A small smile tilted the corners of his lips, the first she'd seen from him. He looked like he was trying to remember how smiles worked. "I'd like to hear it sometime."
"I'll show you mine if you show me yours," she said dryly. She set down the last piece of armor and reached for the wash basin, wetting a cloth and bringing it toward his face. "Don't move."
This time, he obeyed without argument. He didn't flinch or make a sound as she cleaned the cut on his forehead and washed the blood from his face.
After a couple minutes, Adaryc once again broke the silence. "How long have you been…"
"Been what?"
"Inflicted." He said it like a curse, which she supposed to him it was.
"Six months, give or take. My grasp on the passage of time is… tentative, some days." She left it at that, confident that he'd understand.
He looked surprised. "You've adapted very quickly."
"Not really. I'm very good at pretending." That was a remarkable amount of honesty for someone Kai had just met, but he had already had a front row seat to some of her memories so she let it go just this once. "But I'm no stranger to power and this one, at least, is mine alone. It requires nothing except that I am me and I exist. Few other powers can boast the same."
"You are a strange woman."
That startled a laugh out of her. "You are not the first man to tell me that. Though you are the first to make it sound like a compliment."
"I'm as surprised as you are that I meant it as one." There was something akin to fondness in his voice, enough to bring color to her cheeks.
She turned away to mask her strange reaction, cleaning blood off the cloth as an excuse to hide her face. "So how long have you been 'inflicted'?"
Adaryc was quiet so long that she didn't think he was going to answer, but eventually he just said, "Years."
"That's a long time to be at war with yourself," Kai said quietly.
"I have no other choice." His conviction was clear in his face, but it just made her sad.
"There's always another choice, darling. Gifts and curses alike are nothing more and nothing less than what you make them." She didn't think he was really listening, but she knew enough of self-loathing to know how to be heard over it. She tried a different tactic. "Do you think me less because I'm a Watcher?"
"Yes," he said automatically. Then, "...No."
"I think you have enough war in your life. You don't need to battle yourself as well." She carefully pressed a poultice to the cut over his eye, giving him time to consider her words.
"I will… think on what you've said." He sounded like he meant it, and that was good enough for her.
"That's all I ask. Thank you. Now I'm afraid I'm going to have to hurt you." Without any more warning, she pushed hard at his elbow. With a sickening pop his arm slipped back into the socket.
He hissed, but made no other noise at the pain. His voice was only a little rough when he said, "That never gets more pleasant."
"I'm sorry," Kai said, and she meant it. "If I could have done it gently, I would have. I'm afraid without a healer available, I'm the best you've got." They did, technically, have a healer, but she tried not to subject strangers to Durance's ministrations unless absolutely necessary. Especially not such a devout Eothasian as Adaryc.
She took off one of her scarves and tied it behind his neck, making it into a makeshift sling. "That should keep until you can get somewhere safe enough to bandage it properly. Do try to go easy on it."
"I will. Thank you, Kai." There was that barely-there smile again.
She smiled back, fragile and unfamiliar in its sincerity. "You are quite welcome, Adaryc."
She stepped back to put away the supplies, but she only made it a step before he grabbed her arm.
"Wait."
She turned to face him again, unconsciously following his orders like he kept doing to hers. "What is it?"
He stood up from his chair and moved closer. He tilted her head up to meet his gaze. Even though things had calmed down, there was still something feverish in his eyes; it made it difficult to look away from him. "May I?"
"May you--" her question ended in a sharp hiss as he brushed a wet cloth over a cut on her cheek that she hadn't known was there. "You could have just asked, darling. Words are not your enemy."
He chuckled, a warm and raspy sound. "I will try to remember that for next time."
Kai rather liked the idea that there would be a 'next time,' but she didn't say it and let him clean and bandage her wounds without fuss.
His touch was both gentler and more hesitant than she expected from a man who led a group like The Iron Flail. His fingers were rough and calloused, but she didn't mind. In fact, she found herself having to resist the urge to lean into it. It had been a long time since anyone had been so careful with her.
They both lingered after he was done, standing close but no longer touching. Kai was surprised by how much she wished they were.
"I hope…" he started, but he trailed off and made no attempt to finish the sentence.
"You hope?" she repeated, trying to jostle the rest of the thought loose.
Adaryc cleared his throat and ducked his head, an unexpectedly shy gesture. "That we... will see each other again. Perhaps sometime less dire."
"I'd like that." The last thing she'd expected when she snuck into an 'enemy' fort today was to leave with a friend, but here they were. "You're always welcome at Caed Nua."
"It would be my honor." In a quick, fluid motion, less like a formal bow and more like disarming an opponent, he lifted her hand and pressed a firm kiss to her knuckles. "Farewell, Watcher."
She grinned and bowed her head, somehow managing to make the casual gesture look formal. "Farewell, Watcher."
Adaryc gave her a wry, boyish smile, and then he was gone.
"Gods above, Kiki," she whispered to herself once she was alone, "what have you gotten yourself into now?"
Unsurprisingly, she didn't get an answer. Kai followed Adaryc out into the fort, but she knew by now he'd already be gone.
