Summary: Tempest and Ornstein have some kind of talk. Gwyndolin takes care of Ornstein.
(Author's note: I will admit it right away, writing these parts is difficult. The characters are extremely stubborn, especially Ornstein, and I feel like I have to bend and twist with them so that they act in favour of the story. Please stay with these dorks, I promise they will get better.)
Tempest squeaked in surprise and tried to withdraw his arm, but the grip of the dragon slayer was too strong and he couldn't move a single inch. His hand was still clutching the braid.
"Don't ever think about touching me again.", the dragon slayer growled.
"I am sorry.", Tempest squealed. "Would you let me go? You are hurting me."
"First let go of my hair.", the knight said and jerked up. Then he suddenly let go of Tempest arm, murmuring "Mistake...", clasped a hand over his mouth and Tempest instantly knew what the bucket was for and handed it to the dragon slayer just in time before he could soil his blankets. Tempest stepped a few steps back from the bed, releasing the braid, asking himself if he should have hold it nonetheless as he watched the dragon slayer noisily puking into the bucket.
When the dragon slayer was finished, he was fumbling for the jar of water on the night stand and used it to clean out his mouth. He then carefully laid back in the pillows, glaring at Tempest.
"This is your fault.", he said.
"I thought you wouldn't wake up.", Tempest said, staring anywhere but into the eyes of the knight.
"How couldn't I wake up when you were so close to me and touching me without my consent?", the dragon slayer asked. "What were you thinking?"
"...I wanted to know how it feels like...", Tempest said. "It looked so soft."
"You could have at least asked first."
"Would you have allowed it then?"
"No." The dragon slayer crossed his arms in front of his chest, grumbling a bit, then unfolded them again as if the position had been uncomfortable. "Where's Gwyndolin?", he asked.
"They asked me to watch over you while they rested.", Tempest truthfully said.
"Great, so they left me alone with the idiot?", the dragon slayer murmured.
"I have a name, you know.", Tempest said.
"Don't care, idiot will suffice for now." The dragon slayer had a sardonically grin on his face.
"Well then, dragon slayer.", Tempest said, putting as much coldness in the last words as possible, and sat down on the chair, feeling the glare off the dragon slayer still on him. Well, that felt uncomfortable. It felt like Tempest should do or say anything, getting some small talk started, so that this awkward silence between them would cease.
"So, how was it feeling like having to guard the cathedral for around a hundred years with a cannibalistic brute?", he asked in as much of a casual tone as possible.
Tempest started to suggest this question had been a mistake, when he didn't get an answer right away. He slowly turned his head to look at the dragon slayer and was greeted by a face which was hardly able to contain the fury of its owner.
"Leave.", the dragon slayer said between clenched teeth. Tempest shot up, the chair falling down in the process. His gaze fell on the bucket.
"I, uh, I think I will clean this up.", he said and quickly ran out of the room.
When Tempest returned to the room, the dragon slayer had laid back down in the pillows, but was still awake. Tempest placed the bucket next to the bed, raised the chair and tiptoed away, sitting down at one of the chairs at the table, at a reasonable distance of the knight.
"I think I told you to leave.", the dragon slayer said coldly.
"Look, I am sorry.", Tempest said. "I have said something wrong. But the dark sun wants me to watch over you, so I can't leave. I won't talk to you anymore, I promise."
He heard a deep sigh coming from the dragon slayer. "We need to talk when I am supposed to help you out.", he said. "Why do you think that what you have said was wrong?"
"Uh, because you clearly were upset about it?"
"You called him a brute."
Who? Oh, he was talking about the executioner. Wait a moment... from every story he had heard, it always had been said that Ornstein, the dragon slayer and Smough, the executioner hated each other. Smough, because he had never been granted knighthood and Ornstein, because he despised the cannibalistic ways of the executioner.
"...Was that, like, a misconception?", Tempest asked.
"Smough was so much more then what people depicted him as.", the dragon slayer started. "He was kind, understanding, soft, cute and... the light of my life." He clenched his fists. "And then you came along and killed him.", he hissed. "And you failed to kill me. This is unforgivable."
Tempest blinked once, then twice, then shot up. "Wait, WHAT?", he shouted. "You and Smough were like, a COUPLE?" He could hardly believe his own ears. He would blame it on feeling hollowed out, but right now Tempest was in his human form and his ears were working amazingly well.
"Yes.", the dragon slayer just answered. "So I guess now you'll know why I reacted this way. If I just would have been able to follow him..."
Tempest sat down again: "I am sorry, I had no idea..." The rest of the words was lost when he tried to make sense of all of this.
So, Ornstein, the dragon slayer, and Smough, the executioner, had loved each other. And he supposed they had been happy with each other, as happy as possible living in a dying city at last. And then Tempest had come along and killed one of them. By the lord, would that have happened to him, he would be pissed and devastated too. And nonetheless, the dark sun was expecting them to work with each other? Tempest put his head on the table and sighed. What had he gotten himself into? Should he try and apologize for this? What good would this do? As he was still pondering his option, the dark sun came back into the room.
"Oh, Ornstein, you are awake. How about some food?", they asked. They noticed Tempest sitting at the table. "Are you two getting along?", they asked.
Tempest was in the process to open his mouth but closed it again, unsure about what to say, when the dragon slayer spoke: "Don't worry, we will manage." Tempest saw him smile at the Dark Sun, but it felt kinda pained. Tempest just raised his hand in a thumbs up gesture.
"Some food would be fine, but nothing to heavy.", the dragon slayer said. Tempest almost offered his help at cooking the meal, but the Dark Sun vanished quickly, muttering "Let's see what I can do."
Tempest sighed and strolled over to the bed, sitting down on the chair.
"I am sorry.", he said. "But in my defense, I didn't knew you weren't dead. I thought after the executioner had crushed you, you would be gone for good."
Tempest could feel the glare of the dragon slayer on him. "And it didn't occur to you to check if maybe the job needed to be finished? Aren't you an elite knight of Astora?" He gestured at Tempest's armour.
Tempest looked down at him, straightening the blue tabard. "Oh, this? It isn't my armour. I picked it up in the Dark Root Garden, it was laying around there on a corpse. I am from Astora, but I never have been a knight. I just couldn't resist putting this thing on, wearing that armour is pretty much every young Astoran's dream.", he explained.
"Oh...", the dragon slayer said. "I should have figured this out on my own. Still...", the eyes of the dragon slayer pretty much pierced into Tempest. "I resent that you didn't check and left me to bleed out and to... survive..." The knight averted his gaze from Tempest and stared at the wall instead.
"I am sorry.", Tempest said again, not knowing what else to say.
"Apologizing won't help.", the dragon slayer murmured. "Just let me heal up, try to stay out of my sight and let us get this done as quickly as possible."
Tempest considered their talk to be over and retreated to the table. A few minutes later the Dark Sun came with a bowl of steaming oatmeal and handed it to the dragon slayer. Tempest watched them sit down next to the dragon slayer and keeping him company while eating. Tempest in the meantime, wondered if he would be able to taste the oatmeal now that he had regained his human form for the moment? Since he had become undead, he didn't had experienced any hunger and when he tried to eat something, it tasted like nothing, but that had been in his hollowed out form. Usually, drinking estus was all he needed. It was also a thing he could taste, even though it pretty much tasted like something had put fire and ashes into a bottle. With nothing better to do, Tempest grabbed for the emerald flask at his belt and inspected the liquid inside. What really was it? It got filled up whenever he touched a bonfire, so was it like, liquid bonfire? His thoughts got interrupted when he heard the Dark Sun say:
"It is time to change your bandages, Ornstein."
With the estus flask still in hand, Tempest rushed over to the bed. "Wait a moment.", he said, excitedly waving around the bottle. "Why can't we use my estus? It heals any wound in seconds." His excitement abated when he felt both the gaze of the dragon slayer and the dark sun on him.
"Idiot, that stuff doesn't work on us. It is an Undead thing.", the lion knight said.
"Oh...", Tempest said and then perked up again. "But, what about miracles? That is a god thing, right?"
"When my sister still would be here...", the dark sun said. "I am not very skilled in them, my field has always been moonlight magic."
"Crap..", Tempest said and took a few steps away from the bed. "Sorry, I just wanted to help."
"Well, I wanted to change Ornstein's bandages now, you can help by getting his hair out of the way.", the dark sun said. Both Tempest and the dragon slayer froze.
"I... don't think that is a good idea...", Tempest stammered.
"Yeah...", the dragon slayer added. "I don't want him to touch me. It makes me uncomfortable."
"Oh, I should have figured, I am sorry for being so tactless, Ornstein.", the dark sun said. "But like, feel free to stay here, maybe you learn a thing or two about bandaging wounds. Are you fine with this Ornstein?"
"Ugh, alright.", the dragon slayer said and Tempest went around to stay at the foot of the bed, inspecting the work of the dark sun.
They started with the bandage around the dragon slayer's head and as soon as it was off, Tempest had to gasp at how bad this wound looked, terribly swollen and bruised along a laceration which had been stitched. It was no wonder the dragon slayer was feeling sick with that, his brain probably had gotten a good shaking. Tempest once more wondered how in the world he had manage to survive this blow? Tempest never had been able to survive a blow with the hammer when he already had been hurt. He watched the dark sun carefully cleaning the wound, making the dragon slayer wince, it surely must had hurt, before applying a fresh bandage. The next thing that happened, was the dragon slayer undressing himself and as soon as Tempest realized that, he turned red under his helmet, averting his gaze, asking himself why he did that, why he felt like that and forced himself to look back.
A slight disappointment and a bit of guilt washed over Tempest when he saw the chest of the dragon slayer wrapped in thick bandages. Both legs too, Tempest remembered that they had been a main focus for him, first because the dragon slayer was twice his size and second to rob him of his mobility. The dark sun was changing the bandages on the legs first, but Tempest was more distracted by the countless scars on the dragon slayer's body, a lot of them clearly burns, a particular large one seemed to adorn the left side of his body, probably even going down the back, but he couldn't see it from his position.
"Don't stare at me like that.", the dragon slayer hissed, face slightly flushed, and Tempest muttered a quick apology, focusing on the work of the dark sun. Most of the cuts on the legs were already healing good, but one or two were also stitched and it explained why the dragon slayer had stand on so shaky legs when he had first encountered him in the hallway in front of the tomb.
Now that both legs had wrapped into fresh bandages, the dark sun started to unwrap the one on his chest. Tempest did hold in a breath when he saw the large wound, the one he had inflicted, the one that had made the dragon slayer collapse, but exhaled sharply when he saw the big bare chest which was originally covered by the bandages. It was built so well, probably a result from endless battle, but for some reason, it also gave some soft vibes. An urge to touch it washed through Tempest and he quickly had to avert his gaze, after how badly the dragon slayer had reacted to getting touched at his hair, Tempest didn't want to know his reaction when he would touch his bare chest. Especially when the latter wasn't asleep.
Tempest face flushed and he felt a certain hotness rise in his head. Oh no, did he found the dragon slayer to be hot? A guy who could crush him easily with his size and in fact did crush him several times in a fight to the death? Tempest could barely believe this and just muttered "I have to get out of here.", before rushing out of the room, the hotness in his head feeling like it would spill out any moment. Outside of the tomb he removed his helmet, put his hand against his nose and saw the blood dripping on his gauntlet.
"Oh great.", Tempest said, leaning against the wall, fumbling for his Estus to take care of his nosebleed. "He doesn't even like you, you fool, and you already are attracted to him..."