Raffe sighed. Penryn was being especially difficult, and although he did a better job of hiding it than she did, he was hungry as well. And it would help if they could get out of this cursed rain.

They stopped when Penryn dramatically keeled over, causing Raffe to roll his eyes. I thought it was my job to be the difficult one, he thought.

There was a small house, not even fifty feet away. Penryn couldn't have dragged her lazy butt that short of a distance? The drama queen in question had closed her eyes and made pathetic whining sounds, but when she snuck a peek at him, he realized what she was waiting for: She wants me to carry her inside. She wants the freaking ARCHANGEL to carry her inside. GREAT.

He picks her up, but not quite in the way she was hoping, it seems. Muffled indignant protests come from behind him as he hefts the ridiculous daughter of man over his shoulder. He spans the remaining distance to the house, which could more accurately be described as a shack, and flops her down on the old camping mattress inside. He walks over to the cupboards on the wall to see about food, and is not entirely disappointed, as there appears to be at least thirty something cans of beans. He cracks a couple of them open and hands one to Penryn, who is making an odd wincing face. Still milking her "injury", I see.

They make short work of those two cans, then two more, and several empty cans and two full stomachs later, they lay sprawled out on the old mattress. Everything would be perfect and peaceful, except Penryn suddenly sits up and starts prying at her boots. She wears a very intense version of the wince from earlier, and Raffe is shocked to see the ultra tough daughter of man making slow hissing sounds as she drags the boots and socks off over angry red blisters. He realizes then that while his boots covered half his calf, hers were short enough to allow her socks to become soaked, causing chafing on her feet. I believe this is what the monkeys call "deja vu".

But then, Raffe had a very interesting idea. He stood up abruptly, causing Penryn to glare at him as her heat source relocated. He walked to the cabinet and pulled out the first aid kit that was nestled among the cans of beans. Penryn tried to see what he was doing, but his back was turned to her, and her efforts were futile. He pulled out the fifteen or so blister packs, and brought them over to her. She was already sitting up, so he got to his knees in front of her and took one of her feet in his hands. It was surprisingly chilled, seeing as how it had been in a wet sock for the past fifteen hours.

She immediately tensed, because here was this powerful creature in front of her and he could easily break all the bones in her foot with his BARE HANDS and oh goodness what was he doing and his dark, dark blue eyes locked on hers and he gave her that smirk that angels just SHOULD NOT HAVE, and then he started to MASSAGE HER FEET. Oh goodness. Oooh goodness, that was nice, actually. Perhaps he wouldn't break her foot. Her ankles were the worst, but while his beautiful fingers were gently caressing the sore spots, his thumbs were rubbing slow, nice circles on the tops of her feet, massaging some warmth back into them.

Raffe withdrew his hands, but they were quick to return with the blister packs, putting them on her feet.

"Well, someone has been paying attention to Penryn's First Aid 101 Class, haven't they?" She said, in a poor attempt to cover up the fact that she had very much enjoyed the footrub.

Raffe gave her a look. For five. Whole. Seconds. And then he gave her a VERY self satisfied smile, that told her she was SO not gonna hear the end of this anytime soon. But then, miracle of all miracles, his expression changed to a soft smile.

"I did learn from the best, you know."

And then all of a sudden, the lovely little moment was interrupted by Penryn realizing just how eager she had been to eat those beans. VERY. LOUDLY. And smelly. Raffe's mouth dropped open. Penryn was forced to wonder: Did he even know what a fart was? Did angels fart?

I should have just left her outside.