Subaru wondered how this had happened. How he'd let her discover this. Though he already knew the answer. It was because he was so disgusting and incompetent.
Things had been going normally. He'd made up a bullshit excuse to go away from the mansion for a bit, and everyone had bought into it. He'd shown up at where they usually met, and she'd gone in rough.
Then it'd gone wrong. As she pinned his arms above his head, he felt a sudden pain, and red seeped through his sleeves. Capella's crimson orbs immediately flicked to the crimson on her Subaru's arms. Within seconds, her demeanor changed. She went from horny and hungry for her Subaru-kun to concerned. Especially when his eyes shook in his head at realizing she had noticed.
She grabbed an arm, bringing the trembling limb downwards. She pulled up the sleeve, revealing the source of the crimson.
"Subaru-kun, you're bleeding," she muttered. Her eyes saw red leaking from thin lines on his arm. While Capella wasn't necessarily a trained healer, over the decades, she'd gained a very expansive amount of hands-on knowledge concerning wounds and the like. She could tell that these were recently healed ones, reopened by her roughness.
"Y-Yes," he squeamishly replied, unsure of what she would do now. What she would do once she realized what these wounds were from.
Capella felt rage fill her. She liked making him bleed, yes, but this was different. Someone else had hurt him. Had hurt her pet, her Subaru-kun. Her children were often hurt, yes, but this was different. Subaru-kun was different. Her children were assassins, strong ones. If they got hurt, it was no one's fault but their own for being incompetent. But her Subaru-kun wasn't like her children. He was weak. Fragile. And someone had hurt him.
"Who?"
"H-Huh?"
"Who? Who hurt you?" she demanded, tone promising revenge on whatever name he answered with. The half-devil, the oni, the spirit, the merchant, the beast meatbag, the clown. She didn't care. They would pay for hurting her Subaru-kun. "Tell me. Tell Mama. So she can make whatever piece of fucking worthless trash that did it pay!"
Despite himself, Subaru felt his heart speed up the slightest bit at her protective fury. Which made his answer all the more difficult to spit up.
"M-Me."
It took a few seconds for Capella to process his answer. What his answer meant. When it did, her brows scrunched up in confusion.
"You?"
"Y-Yes."
Now, Capella was a selfish individual. Incredibly selfish. Completely and utterly self-absorbed, with Regulus being the only other Archbishop who could even hope to rival the sheer and utter size of her vast ego. Oftentimes, the selfish would assume everyone to be like them. Just as concerned with their own wellbeing above that of all others. To a degree, this was just as true with Capella.
But while Capella was selfish, she wasn't dumb. Quite the opposite, in fact. One doesn't run an international organization of assassins with a small brain, after all. She could understand the way other individuals worked. What made them tick, what made them do certain things. Even if she couldn't emotionally empathize or identify with them, she possessed an intellectual understanding. Enough of an understanding to know what things could lead people to self-harm.
And the thought that Subaru, her Subaru engaged in such a thing, thought in such ways, it…
She wasn't sure what it did, but it certainly didn't make her happy.
"When?" she asked.
It took a couple seconds for Subaru to answer, confused by how calm she appeared. "L-Last night."
Capella brought her other hand up, running it along the lines on his arm. Blood stuck to her digits, staining them red. He shivered, unsure how to feel about her action.
"How?"
"I-I scratch. T-Tear through my skin."
That made sense. Randomly bloody knives would definitely arouse suspicion. While her Subaru-kun was surrounded by stupid meatbags, they weren't completely braindead.
"How often?"
"U-Usually at least once a week. S-Sometimes more."
Capella hadn't stopped running her fingers along the bleeding lines, feeling the crimson stick to the digits, still wet. It didn't feel like it usually did. Normally, she was overjoyed at such a thing, knowing a meatbag was in pain. But not here. Not with her Subaru-kun.
"Who healed you?"
"B-Beako. S-She's the only other one who k-knows."
'His spirit, huh? Guess she's not completely worthless.'
She appeared done with her questions for now. Capella began to use her Authority, making the wounds close once more. She then took his other arm, doing the same with it. As much as she wished to get rid of the scars altogether, she couldn't. The spirit would notice it, have questions.
Subaru stared down in shock at her action, feeling his traitorous heart speed up. S-She was healing him. Why? Why was she healing him? S-She was an Archbishop, a monster. She didn't care about him. He was just a lay to her, a toy. So why?
"There," she told him, after finishing the last of the healing. She narrowed her crimson orbs at him. "If I tell you not to do that again, can you obey?"
"... N-No. I d-don't think I can."
Capella sighed. "Well, in that case, let me know in the future if you think they might open. Can you do that?"
"Y-Yeah. I think I can do that."
After that, the night proceeded. If Capella was less rough than usual, and if she used a water spell to clean his sleeves quickly, Subaru didn't dare to mention it.
Notes:
Well, seems like Capella is in a more wholesome mood than usual this chapter.
Now, the reasoning for her concern here is that, in a yandere sort of way, Capella thinks that she's the only one allowed to hurt him. So when she hurts him, it's okay. She owns him, she's allowed to do that. When someone else does it, it's a filthy meatbag laying their hands on her Subaru-kun.