He took a brief moment to take her words into consideration- and erase the mental images that quickly sprang to mind just seconds after they had finished. "I didn't really take you for being that type of person, Lady Calill."
A slight flush in her cheeks noted that she too seemed to be slightly taken back that she had uttered those words to him; his return comment probably didn't help all too much either. She recovered far quicker than he did though and only moved to press the still wet rag against the open cut in response. He didn't get a chance to catch the motion beforehand and couldn't stop the brief hiss of pain that escaped from his bloodied lips.
"Okay, okay... forget I said anything." he retracted as the throbbing quickly returned and spread itself across his face; he managed to pull his wrist free from her grasp and moved to cover her hand with his own. "Goddess damnit, that hurt a lot worse than I thought it would."
Now she felt just a tiny bit of regret for the action, especially after catching his pained reaction and noting how quickly the blood seemed to drain from his face. She just kind of... panicked for a moment and couldn't figure out what else to do; with the wound just sitting out in the open, it seemed like a decent choice to do. "I told you it was broken."
"Believe me, I trust you now."
The slight tightening of his grip brought her attention to how his fingers had partly invaded the space between her own; she didn't know if the motion had been intentional or not, but he certainly moved his hand to her own like he knew what he wanted. Maybe it had been to remove the burning rag from the wound or to take back the cleaning process... either or it seemed as though he had forgotten about his own motive and just simply kept it there. Not that she was complaining so to say, if anything, at least his strength was still with him despite the battle this morning and whatever else he had to deal with in the last week or so. And that was good. She made a motion to pull the rag back for a moment and watched as his hand quickly dropped away from her own to allow the movement. Tucking one hand against his jawline, she leaned down to get a closer look at the wound and grimaced once more at the sight of it; despite the clean cut of it... it was still rather grotesque. "This will definitely need stitches if you can't get a healer to look at it; it might even be a little difficult for them to piece it back together to be honest. As for the break itself, there's nothing we can really do about it right now. You'll probably have to wait for the whole thing to heal completely first and then... break it again I suppose, and pray that it sets itself back straight."
"I think I'll be okay with a little unevenness." he admitted, trying not to show even the slightest amount of discomfort he felt with her being so close. He hadn't really been anticipating for her to get so close and didn't really have a way of distracting himself from it this time. Maybe if he just kept his focus on the wound itself, then- no that really wasn't working. "Believe me, I've had my share of scars and broken bones, after awhile you realize when you command a fighting unit, it's hard to keep up with appearances; I'm kind of surprised I've gotten this far without some kind of facial mangling."
"So you're saying this doesn't count?" she questioned.
"I wouldn't really count it, no."
She was just going to keep her opinion to herself then. "I'm sure it'll heal just... fine." she tried to assure, repositioning the damp rag to press against his split cheek now; noting that blood had already dried down along his jawline at this point. If he got these injuries taken care of now, then the chances of scar tissue forming was minimum- he would probably still have a few knots of it around his eye and across his nose but those couldn't really be helped. Then again, maybe it was for the best if a Commander like himself had a wide variety of scars, that just meant he was doing his job correctly, right? "Any idea on when we're going to start traveling again?"
"Probably by tomorrow morning, not that I really want to think about it at this moment." he started. "We're on a schedule with this thing but I don't want to risk moving the injured that we have; I don't think Kieran will be up for a long journey, despite what he says."
"I'm sure everyone will be looking forward to more days on the road." she chuckled lightly as she pulled the cloth back for a moment before she moved it to clean off the dried trails of blood on his jaw. "It is entertaining to listen to everyone's conversations though- personally, I think Astrid has some of the best ones." she moved to press the thin material against the blood of his lower lip but stopped when he flinched at the motion. "Sorry, I got a little sidetrack there."
"It's fine, I just keep reopening the wound and making it worse." he replied, moving to push her touch away for a moment as he tasted the metallic hint of blood in his mouth again. "I'm surprised it's still attached..."
She winced slightly before she leaned in a little closer to see the injury. "Now I remember why everyone was so glad to have the Hawks on our side... because this is disgusting."
He chuckled briefly and moved to push her hand away, managing to pull the rag from her grasp. "You don't have to humor me by staying around; you're all the more welcome to leave."
"It's fine, I want to be here." she quickly intersected before she had the chance to catch herself. "Helping, I mean."
"I apologize, but am I interrupting something here?"
He glanced up at the intruding voice and easily spotted the blonde-haired Count standing in the now open flap of his tent; his first thought wondered how long the man had been standing there... not that they were doing anything incriminating... but he knew he was going to hear something about it. "No... no, Lady Calill was just helping me with these injuries. Is there something you need me for?"
"I hope you don't mind me having to borrow Commander Geoffrey once more, but... well Sir Renning is awake and he wishes to speak now." Bastian answered.
"Already?" Geoffrey questioned, watching as the Count nodded in answer. But they... he just... it couldn't have been more than an hour or two, unless he just somehow managed to lose track of time. Letting out a heavy sigh, he pushed himself to his feet and listened to the rather painful crackling of his body at the motion. Those were definitely bruised ribs, another diagnosis he was wrong about. "Alright, give me a few minutes." he watched as the man gracefully bowed back outside before he turned his attention back to the other Sage. "I uh... this is really important and it's probably going to take a few hours to deal with."
While she was curious about the whole thing... she didn't feel as though it was her place to question it. "You don't have to explain yourself to me, Commander." she assured. "Just... get a healer to look at those cuts when you're done; I don't think I'm doing much for them."
"Yeah, that would probably be for the best." he agreed before he moved to take the second shirt he had set out just before the woman had arrived in the first place; slipping into it with a slight sense of difficult as it only pulled at the gash on his shoulder. There was no sense to get back into his armor, he was only meeting with Sir Renning after all... which was going to be quite an engagement. Excusing himself, he stepped out after the Count and nearly ran into him just a few steps later. "Alright well... let's get this over with."
The rest of the camp seemed almost deserted as most of the small army had disappeared into their tents to get some rest; the battle this morning had not been an easy one but it was only bound to get worse from here. A few people stayed seated around the small fires that were keeping a couple of coffee pots warm, their conversations were light and quiet as though they were only talking to break the silence. Even with this many people in one area, the silence was still almost overbearing, nearly suffocating all of them with its twisted grasp. And yet, a single word spoken felt like it could echo onward for miles in all directions.
Bastian didn't really let on anymore than what he said before, which only made him more worried about the situation. What exactly were they supposed to tell Sir Renning? That he was taken over by Daein and forced to fight against his own niece in battle; that after his loss, they managed to capture him and keep him somewhat safe while they tried to track down a cure for his disease-riddled mind. It took them three years to do so and when they found the man who caused it, they lost him and then watched him get ripped to pieces without so much of a word for the cure... but then again, he was cured regardless in the end, so it didn't really matter anymore. He just... he used to hold Sir Renning in such high regards; he was supposed to take over the Crimean throne after the King passed on and he was ranked as one of the best on the field. He remembered reading all sorts of passages and news clippings about Sir Renning's accomplishments and victories, he told himself that he wanted to find that kind of honor just the same.
But right now... it didn't even feel like he was close to it.
"You know, Lady Calill-"
"Bastian."
"She's a very fine woman, and very skilled on the battlefield-"
"Stop."
"She would make a beautiful wife for you."
He stopped for a moment and looked down at the Count, who continued on for a few feet as though in hopes to escape the would be encounter. Recalling previous moments though, he simply moved to step on the end of of his cape and watched as the slight jerk was enough to cause the man to stop. He had to give the man credit where it was due though, he was very persistent and could bring it up on a dime. "I don't know what you want me to say about this whole matter, but you're not helping it."
"Well... what do you want to say about it?" the man countered.
Did he really have to have a return question? His mind seemed to fumble for an answer, possibly causing a pocket of silence that was far too large to recover from. "I just want this war to be done with... and then I'll try to figure something out."
"But you don't object to anything that I previously said." Bastian recalled, watching as the words only seemed to further the Commander's issue of silence. "Love has always been deeply engraved across the battlefield, it's been going on for centuries now... it's nothing new. Why, when I see Lady Lucia dance with her sword-"
"Stop, just stop... Lucia's my sister; you can't say things like that in front of me." Geoffrey interrupted, catching how the reaction only seemed to provoke the man to laugh. "Now please, we're supposed to be dealing with Sir Renning here so... let's just get back to that and leave this conversation behind us. I don't really have the patience for it right now."
"Oh, but she seemed so caring while she was gently tending to her wounded soldier-"
She sighed to herself when the Commander finally left and moved to clean up the mess of cleaning supplies everywhere; gently placing the bottles back in their bag while she tossed the rag elsewhere to dry. Smoothing out her dress, she carefully exited the tent and started to move back through the camp. It was overcome by silence once more but that wasn't really anything new... with Kieran probably passed out from the broken ribs, there was no one else to cause noise and mayhem. Everyone else seemed to be taking the down time to rest their aching bones and relieve themselves of their war torn troubles.
She couldn't blame them; it's been a tough tour for everyone involved.
"Calill, what are you still doing up?" she looked up at the question and spotted the black-haired Archer not too far from her; she was probably the only figure sitting around the second fire they still had going on. A small cup was nestled between her hands while all of her armor had easily been cast aside to reveal the short white dress and blue over tunic she wore underneath it; a pair of white stockings clung easily to her slim legs, which one of them was still wrapped in light bandages. "I thought you had gone back to sleep hours ago."
"I wish I had." she chuckled as she made her way over to the woman instead; taking the open seat next to her. "Unfortunately, I can't sleep so easily like that."
"Same here." Astrid nodded, holding the cup close to her face just to feel the warm steam. "I figured I didn't want to disturb Makalov, so I decided to come out here and enjoy the air for a little while. But... it seems like the silence is only making the air feel... stale almost."
"It does feel different, but soon enough we'll be at the Goddess tower and finally bring this whole war to an end." Calill offered. "Which, I cannot wait for. I have an inn I'm supposed to be rebuilding and unfortunately enough, I suppose those orders I put in are now lost out there somewhere." she heard the Archer offer a slight chuckle at the response. "That's the first thing on my list when this whole thing is over."
"At least you have something planned." the woman smiled. "That'll make the transition a lot easier when this mess is behind us."
"It's not a whole lot but it'll be something to keep me busy; not to mention, I promised Queen Elincia that I would host a party there when the ordeal with Lucia was over... I guess now I'll just have to bump it back and say whenever it's remodeled." Calill chuckled, tucking aside a loose blonde strand before she looked over to the other woman. "What about you? I'm sure you've got to have something planned right?"
The Archer was usually a quiet person and kept to herself a lot of the times but if you caught her at the right time, she was all the more open and friendly. A slight blush seemed to work its way across her pale cheeks as she offered a light shrug in response; dropping her eyes to the cup in front of her. "Well... it's not official yet but... we were thinking when this mess was over and Crimea was back on its feet that... Makalov and I would take a break from the Royal Knights for a little while; we've been thinking of finally settling down and starting a family. It's not official yet but I mean... we've been talking about it more as of lately."
"A family?" she repeated, as though the thought of it was still odd to try and imagine. The mental image of little pink-haired, red-eyed children running around was a little frightening to think about, but suiting just the same for the couple. "Well, you two have been married for years now, I guess most people would consider you guys to be behind schedule. Was there anything that... provoke this idea?"
There was a momentary pause of silence before the woman chuckled lightly in defeat. "Well, I got a letter before we deployed that said my eldest sister, Enid, just had her third child and my other sister, Tara, was expecting her first... and Penelope was trying for one as well; I don't know, I guess you could say I was a little jealous or that I didn't want to get left behind on the matter." Astrid admitted as she brushed her fingers through her black locks. "My parents really don't talk to me anymore but my sisters have been questioning me about it too, so that probably just added to the pressure. But, you know, we have been married for three years and... there's really nothing holding us back, with the exception of this war; we both get decent paychecks so that's not an issue... like I said, it's still in discussion but... it would be nice to have a baby or two."
"Well just think, you could use Marcia as a babysitter." Calill offered before she seemed to catch herself on the matter. "On second thought, if you're ever desperate, I suppose I wouldn't mind watching over a few."
"Ha ha, we considered Marcia once before, but we figured she'd be too grossed out to help." she laughed, sipping lightly at the lukewarm coffee in her cup. "I mean... I know you have Amy, but have you ever thought about having a baby of your own?"
The weight gain, the heightened sense of discomfort, swollen ankles, morning sickness throughout the day, sleepless nights and then having to take care of a infant afterwards... it wasn't exactly something for her. She chuckled and shook her head as she leaned back slightly. "Well you know, Largo and I had discussed it once before- but it was only once, and then we decided to adopt Amy instead. I just don't think that kind of commitment is all too suiting for me; I know, it sounds selfish because most woman are expected to have babies but... adopting is just so much easier."
"I... I probably shouldn't have brought that up, I'm sorry."
She waved one hand lightly to interrupt the apology. "It's alright, I'm not one to linger on the past. If there's one thing I've learned, sometimes you just have to love fast and regret nothing in the aftermath of it."
"That sounds like appropriate advice." Astrid nodded. "It reminds me of Makalov and myself... and how my parents don't approve. But, there's no time for regrets now and days, right? In times like this, we're not guaranteed tomorrow."
"Exactly... so, you could always go and start on that family right now." Calill offered, watching as the remark caused for the woman to rush a bright red, almost causing her to choke on her coffee.
"What? No... people would hear us!"
Her reaction was priceless and she couldn't help herself from laughing at the woman. The two of them combined probably woke someone up in the camp but it was all for good reasons at least; humor would be good for the both of them. "It would not be the first time I've heard a series of bumps in the night." she added, watching as it only furthered the woman's blush.
"Well, if we're all about living with no regrets then... why haven't you said anything to Commander Geoffrey yet?" Astrid questioned.
It was her turn to share the same kind of crimson flush across her cheeks as she pressed her lips together momentarily. "Because... he's a very busy man, that's why."
"Wasn't it you who said there was no time for regrets?"
Of course, using her words against her was a formable act, because if she tried to deny it then that would make her seem like a liar- and she wasn't. It took a few brief moments before she allowed for a soft chuckle to pass her. "That's true, I can't go against my own words. To be honest, I just don't want to prove to Amy that she's been right this entire time; it's a private matter and I know, without a doubt, that if she found out, then she'd go and tell everyone who would listen- willingly or not. It's just going to take some time for us to figure this out... and I would like for it to remain as a private matter until otherwise."
"It probably wasn't my place to bring it up but... I just noticed that you were looking at him in the same manner that I look at Makalov; and if it's anything like that then... it's gotta mean something special." Astrid replied before she leaned back and dumped out the remaining contents of her cup into the dirt patch behind her. "Have you guys... said anything about it?"
"We haven't even talked about it, for all I know this is just one big delusional dream that's going to pop sometime soon." Calill answered. "Everytime one of us is about to start something, someone else comes in and interrupts the whole thing; we never get the chance to bring it up again."
"I guess this whole war against the Goddess thing is putting the two of you into an awkward position. Maybe when it's over, you two can clear things up."
She nodded briefly and moved to smooth out a few wrinkles in her dress. "Why don't we make a deal? You don't tell Amy about this whole... ordeal with us and I won't tell Marcia about your baby."
The Archer drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out before she nodded; chuckling to herself once more. "You got yourself a deal that I can't risk breaking."
"Same here."
