Aftermath
For all the love he held of his mate’s ability to tend to him without question or judgement, Subetei Noykin had never adjusted to the taste of the medicines she crafted for him. At best they all tasted lightly of grass and rosewater, at worst...Well, that actually had nothing to do with taste. Worst in these cases was usually the woman behind it all.
Laying in bed, cloistered with his mate in their private home should have been romantic, quiet, intimate. It was anything but right now. Subetei was bandaged from shoulder to waist, his hands covered in cuts and nicks while his arms and legs were braced and supported in some way, the aftermath of his enthusiastic fighting style more than real injury. Still he looked a mess, bruises decorating him, but he was less concerned with his own state after all that had happened.
Leaning over him, practically forcing him to finish the bowl full of herbal liquid she had created, Neyuki was ragged. Her hair a mess, silken locks flung about her neck and face from sweat and lack of care, her skin paler than usual with sunken eyes ringed from lack of sleep. It had been almost two days since he’d woken with her next to him and he suspected she had not slept since then. Playing nurse to him had robbed her of her composure and usual grace, and it was no surprise why.
Under the bandages on his stomach was a scar that wouldn’t ever fade. Healers had made sure of that; They’d knitted a gaping wound in his gut back together and had left a fissure where the hole had been, a place he no longer felt any sensation and that ached in a way that had nothing to do with pain or injury. He’d felt it before when conjurers had tended to him, it usually lasted a few minutes or hours, but this had been different. Something more exotic, not conjury and thus not bound by it’s rules. They’d sealed the wound back together, but something was missing.
Twelve, he’d lost so much blood before they’d gotten to him. He could still feel the sensation in his limbs, the gut-churning lightness that made him feel small and half-there. It had been almost a full day and he still couldn’t move more than was required to relieve himself or adjust when Neyuki needed his cooperation.
Yet compared to his own injuries, Subetei’s eyes never left his mate. True, they’d done this song and dance before, he’d rolled into bed covered in blood and she’d dutifully tended to him, as was their roles. He was the idiot who went out and got himself cut up for money, she was the bountiful wellspring of care that kept him from dying in a gutter. This wasn’t every other time, this wasn’t every other injury. This wasn’t a scratch or a nick, this wasn’t some broken bone he’d need help setting.
Subetei had nearly died, come within a hand of it, the closest he’d come in years and it all stemmed from...What? His pride? His stubbornness? He’d seen a fight and decided to charge into it, and now for all his injuries he’d be fine and whole before long. He, at least, would rebound and recover from it.
Would she?
Neyuki stood mere ilms away and yet he felt so cut off from her, the way she floated around the table of herbs and medicines she’d set up. Perhaps it was the way she never turned to look at him, the way her fingers rested heavily on the table, but he somehow knew she was exhausted and rapidly losing her battle to stay conscious and when she turned this time, holding a bottle of paste she’d need to re-apply to his wounds, she stumbled a little before righting herself.
Something in that stumble made his heart break. Subetei had told her he loved her once, and she had responded in kind, but they’d known how deep the hold the other had on their hearts was for long enough it hardly mattered. Yet in this instance Subetei was reminded of just how wound she was around his heart; She stumbled and he jolted forward, refusing to let any lack of strength stop him from being upright before she’d righted herself, and he found he’d lost his breath at the sight of her.
When she came close to the bed she seemed to notice for the first time he was sitting up and she immediately descended on him, moving to push him back into resting, her paste set aside. There as no way, even as weak as he was, she could force him back down and they both knew it, yet she persisted for a few moments before looking up to him, silently demanding his compliance with exhaustion weakening the lines of her face that usually gave such a gaze more fire than this.
Neyuki looked startled when his arms wrapped around her, and panicked when he lifted her into his chest. There was no room for an argument but she tried anyway, grasping his arms to try and pry them free even as he folded himself onto his side, descending into the bedding below. She was resigned to her fate and still fought against it, moving to pry her legs back until his leg moved around her hip, locking his foot behind both of her knees.
Subetei had completely encircled and enveloped her, trapping her just as much beneath him as the sheets he was wrapped in and he pressed his forehead to hers, his horns scraping the bed under them but he’d long since learned how to hold his head to not hurt her...And she exhaled as she sunk into his chest, fingers moving to slide around his neck, then over it as she hugged him round it, kissing him sweetly as he refused to let her leave his side.
He was selfish and stubborn, he was a brute who knew nothing but war, and yet she entangled herself with him now that he refused to let her leave. He would die for her, fight for her and in moments like this, live for her. Live for the light that came across her face at seeing him so active, the way she melded into him and the heat of his body, the dreamy way her eyes closed as she tucked her legs into his contours.
To be so broken down and yet have her next to him as if he could be no more perfect left him overwhelmed with thoughts. Guilt should have come, but there was none...Regret too, but there was none. She had fallen in love with a warrior, what he had always been. There would be a next time, there always would be, but he would do better. Be better.
As he drifted to sleep entangled by Neyuki’s warmth and limbs, Subetei felt only a warm happiness fighting back the sensations of his body protesting his movements before all was black, save a light that remained even through the depths of sleep; Hers.