Written for Alexia, based on the prompt: Why are you half naked?
Clean
- During the Missing Year
Regina appeared in her room in a purple swirl of smoke, cursing between her teeth. She was holding a hand pressed over her leather pants – a hand already soaked in blood. She uncovered the offended skin to inspect the wound. A deep, long cut started from her knee and went up to her thigh: the black fabric was split in two folds, hardened by the thick and red substance. She hissed, passing a hand above the wound, but nothing happened.
Her heart accelerated – why didn't it work? She tried again, but her palm stood silent and normal. When she tried to free her skin from the leather, she had to bit her lip to hold back a cry of pain. Finally, she managed to get rid of her pants, and she extended the leg on her bed, spilling blood on the blue silk.
A loud bang! startled her, the door had been opened, and she lifted her gaze quickly, like an animal in a trap.
"Milady, I –" the thief said, but he stopped in the middle of the room, widening his eyes.
Regina looked back at him and lifted her chin. "Clearly, knocking is an unknown curtesy in the forest," she spat out, with all the venom she could gather.
"I apologize," he said, without any trace of remorse. "Why are you half naked?"
"What do you think?" she said with a grimace – the wound had started pulsing, and she stretched her arm towards the nightstand. She reached the water bowl, but almost dropped it. Robin got closer, and took it from her hands. "Let me," he said. He sat on the bed, and he lifted the sponge from the water, squeezed it, and placed it on her skin. She clenched her teeth, and he stopped.
"Does it hurt?" he asked, and she shook her head.
He looked at her intently, "Don't lie to me," he said, and he started to clean the wound carefully. She held her breath, biting her lip again, but Robin continued, and the skin regained its pinkish color. The cut was a clean, red line, and Regina felt his fingers ghost over the offended flesh.
"There," he said, replacing the sponge in the water. He opened her night table – and he suddenly had a pile of linen cloths in his hands. He started to unroll them, and Regina widened her eyes. "How did you know they were there?"
"Granny placed them in every night table in this castle," he answered, and she nodded, eyes fixed on her wound. He had started to wrap her thigh, from her knee to the other end of the wound, and there was only kindness in the way he worked.
"Thank you," she whispered, in a voice so low that she wasn't sure to actually have said it.
He chuckled, and shook his head. "Why didn't you heal this?" he asked, fixating the linen band with a loose knot.
"I can't," Regina explained, "apparently, that bitch has modified a spell… so that she can hurt me and I can't heal myself"
Robin nodded, he seemed almost saddened by that explanation. Then he smiled, "Well, I'd suggest to avoid leather pants for a few days, milady," he said, and despite the dull pain, Regina laughed. "Of that, I can take care of," she said, moving her hand, and one wave of smoke later, she was wearing a light blue, cotton dress, legs now covered, hair braided loosely on a shoulder.
He got up from the bed, and smiled at her, "I'll ask Granny to make you eat something, later," he told her, and Regina rolled her eyes, but smiled back.
He closed the door behind him, and she rubbed her leg absentmindedly, thinking that this was the first time she had made see her body to a man, without him trying to seduce her.
Or maybe, his way to seduce her was way more dangerous. Because that warmth she was feeling, was something she hadn't felt in a very long time.
