When they returned from Hell, the messenger had been escorted to the Infirmary immediately, the fledgling was quickly cleared for any injury to herself, and besides a broken wrist was given a clean bill. Though she was permitted to leave, as any friend would, she refused to leave her friends side.
Zaveriel hadn't protested the fledging sitting in his lap, her eyes peering into his, as they check over his wounds. The cuts and bruises, the soreness in his ribs, the odd angle of his left ankle. They just stared at each other without speaking a word. It concerned the ones tending to them, and more than once did they spare the Healer a glance, where he stood as to not overcrowd them preparing concoctions for the two of them to aid them in sleeping through the night. The young messenger refused to let her go when a healer asked him to as to bind his ribs and didn't push the matter when the little fledgling looked up at him with blazing eyes.
She instead worked around the fledgling taking up a perch in his lap, her little fingers clutching at his sleeves as he clutched at the back of her robe. His ankle was set and still not a sound was made, not a whimper or a wheeze, they just stared at each other. Their grip evidence that they had been separated whilst in their captivity and now that they were together again refused to allow it to happen a second time.
"You were gonna let them burn you."
The fledgling broke the silence first, continuing her stare into his eyes, her voice so soft it was nearly missed. Raphael looked over in alarm at the admission into what was experienced, fingers stopping their sifting through the different colored bottles for the right ingredient he was looking for.
"A thousand times to save you."
His friend pulled him from his own silence, and she folded herself against her friend, with her ear pressed against his chest to listen to his buzzing grace. He wrapped her up in his arms and hugged her close, burying his face into her shoulder as he did. The other healers left them be beyond that, not wanting to pull any strings from the high-strung messenger and fledgling.
Raphael found what he was looking for and quickly stirred it into the two mugs he'd concocted together, nodding to the others to leave them and attend to the others, they left with little prompting with one final look back at the fledgling and her friend.
"Take these.", they looked up at his soft command and took the mugs he held out, the elder watching patiently as they took a sip each, and then nudged them off with a gentle hand. Sitting beside them, he lifted his arm, and let the messenger crawl forwards, practically curled in his lap, with their little fledgling in tow.
And he just held them, well into the night, even as they settled into light slumber. Comforting them in the form of solid presence, his arms tightly curled around them, both their heads nestled under his chin.
He just held them.