Chapter 14: Kiss

"Lucius…Lucius, can you hear me? Lucius?"

"…"

"I think he's waking up. Go and get a vulnerary for him, will you?"

"…"

"Hey, Lucius! It's a bright and sunny morning!"

Urging his eyes open, the blackness became vanquished by the joy of color. He could make out the wooden floors and the sunlight that poured in through the open curtains through the glass. Looking down, he noticed the chair that he had been propped up onto. The vest he was wearing was clean and new, and the chair was comfortable. There was someone sat in front of him dressed in more causal clothes, and as the blurriness of his vision faded, he realized that the man sat beside him was none other than Hector.

"Hey, you're finally awake!" he said.

"Ooohhh…" Lucius groaned. "My head….ngh…."

"You had a rough battle" Hector said, his expression an understanding one. "Someone told me you got pierced by a lance"

He thought of the poison at once. Closing his eyes, he mentally scanned his body to try and sense any illness. Apart from the subsiding headache he had, there seemed to be nothing wrong with him, apart from a little hunger.

Rubbing his head, he focused to look at Hector once more. His armor had been removed, leaving him dressed with just the shirt and trousers beneath it.

"Ah…Lord Hector" Lucius mumbled. "H-How long has it been?"

"Well, the battle was yesterday" Hector explained. "Soon after you were hit, the Ostian reinforcements arrived, so I'd say you held out pretty well!" he complimented. "Taking a puncture from a lance is a nasty one though…I've had that one a few times when the spear slips through my armor plates, hah hah! What's worse is yours was poisoned, but thanks to Florina's quick thinking, it looks like you got cured pretty quickly!"

He suddenly remembered the angel that had produced his very own medicine to him. Was that Florina? Lucius started to blush as he thought of the circumstances, and what he considered to be his angel at that moment in time. He also thanked St Elimine that he had created the bergamot and vetiver medicine, which although was meant for a different purpose, served to save him from a potentially cruel fate.

"In any case, from what the doctors can see, there's nothing really that wrong with you, so you've been told just to stay here for the day" Hector explained. Before Lucius could mount a resistance, Hector brought his hand up to stop him. "You don't have to worry about being left behind, I'll tell you what's happening. We're going to the Dread Isle again to finish this" he said.

"You mean to say this will all be over?" Lucius asked. Hector gave a nod.

"We're going to use today to get some supplies and rest up, before setting out tomorrow" he explained, standing up from his chair. "I hope you get better soon, buddy. Take care now, and I'll see you tomorrow. Florina should be in with a vulnerary to finish up on your wound now…"

Hector quickly left the room before Lucius could have the time to fully say goodbye. Sighing, he sunk into his chair and allowed his thought to have free reign.

So the end was coming. After so much journeying, after so much toil and trouble, the end was at hand. The final battle against Nergal. Lucius had been taken so much to the monotony of the travels and fights that he had almost forgotten completely that the journey had to come to an end at some point. It came as a shock to his system, a sudden stop the moving train of his thoughts and actions. He hadn't even thought very much about what he was going to do after it was all over.

As if by automatic, the need to talk to someone arose in him. He couldn't just sit in his chair and think. There were too many thoughts; he had to speak to someone! Someone, anyone, just as long as he could share his thoughts and empty his chest of the growing worry.

A knock on the door. Before Lucius could even answer, a head popped through to look at him. St Elimine really was looking down on him; he couldn't have asked for anyone better.

As Florina walked into the room, carrying a small pouch that revealed the outline of a pair of bottles, Lucius felt his heartbeat quickening. The nerves returned in force, strengthened by his slight hunger, but a firm grip on the arms of his chair helped to alleviate the shaking. He looked up somewhat weakly to Florina, who appeared to be unscathed from the previous battle.

"Good morning Lucius" she said warmly, setting the sack onto the bed. She produced the pair of bottles, one containing the vulnerary solution and the other of his almost empty bergamot and vetiver medicine. Lucius peered at his own remedy strangely, he had never sat down to think of the medicine's significance. He knew this would have never happened had it not been created. How strange, he thought.

"Good morning, Florina" Lucius replied, looking back up to her, the sunlight from the window reflecting on her figure, who was still in her battle outfit (minus the armor plating). He decided to humor her. "Come to give an old man his medicine?"

Florina giggled, controlling her laughter with her hand. Lucius also laughed, but his eyes focused on the smoothness of her hand. No clear vein in sight, no specks of dirt. He noticed a broken nail on her index finger, but the rest were well kept. Well kept…

"I brought your medicine as well" Florina asked. "Just in case you wanted it" She also decided to add some humor to their interaction. "Shall I bottle feed you?"

The comment tickled Lucius quite effectively, as shown by his hearty laugh. Florina herself had no hearty laugh, just a fit of giggles. The two were there, laughing, trying their best not to. But it was hard not to. Almost unconsciously, Florina handed Lucius the remedy, who drunk the last few drops in one gulp. Putting the cork back on the bottle, he handed it back to Florina, who placed it slowly back into the bag.

Something strange was happening, he thought. Why was Florina suddenly going so slowly? And why, after all the laughing, after creating such a social atmosphere, did everything go so quiet?

She was reaching for the vulnerary. Lucius started to realize what was to happen. His wound!

"I…I-I need to see your wound, Lucius…" Florina said quietly. Lucius looked at Florina as she shyly made her request. New ground was to be broken; he had never shown such bare skin away to anyone before. Not even Raven, and he was his best friend! Yet that was what was so strange about it: even Lucius himself was curious about what his wound looked like. At the time he was stabbed, he never thought to take off his own robes to examine the wound himself. Al he remembered was watching his blood and the poison intertwine…

Looking down as if he felt the injury a second time, he could see the small spikes of his scar reached out from the shoulder strap of his clean white vest. Without uttering a word, he slipped his arm out of the strap, almost gasping at the scar that was left behind.

It was a young scar that was still a pale red on his skin, clearly distinguished from the undamaged tissue around it. It had five spines, much like a twisted scar, and could just about be hidden if he cupped his hand into a fist and placed it fingers down on the scar. He swallowed his saliva, hoping it would calm him a little.

"Uh…a-aah…" Lucius uttered, taken aback by his own wound. Florina also breathed in a delicate disbelief, the contrasting colors of his wound and skin creating quite a stark scar.

"…Does it hurt?" she asked. The question was well processed in Lucius's mind, much like his mind check for poison, he sensed for any pain. Breathing in and out, he felt nothing.

"…No" he replied. "No pain. I think you'd better apply the vulnerary…just in case…"

Florina nodded in response and pulled the small vial of vulnerary lotion out of the bag, un-bottling it. She poured roughly a third of the lotion onto her hand before placing the bottle on the windowsill nearby, rubbing it onto her hands.

"This might hurt…be strong" Florina asked.,

"I will" Lucius whispered powerfully, sitting back and re-ascertaining his grip on the arms of his chair, digging his fingers into the fabric.

Florina closed in and softly rubbed the wound with her hands. The sting came immediately, Lucius breathed harshly through his teeth as Florina administered the medicine to his wound. The stung partially subsided, the soft rubbing fluctuating in depth. Lucius focused on his breathing, forgetting to breathe would be stupidly fatal. He could feel the tingling of the wound caused by the medicine. Throughout the procedure his eyes were closed; he was taught when in the process of healing, whether he was the healer himself or the one being healed, to always close off as many unnecessary senses as he could in order to enhance concentration. Concentration in the healing process was essential for both.

The apex of his concentration caused him to notice something that sent his heart racing. He wasn't sure what to make of what he felt or what he should do about it. He couldn't tell whether the nature of the feeling was an intention or just a natural occurrence, something that neither was supposed to notice.

He could faintly feel her breath on his face.

Like a quiet wind blowing, the mere touch of her breath, something invisible, so small and insignificant in size, caused Lucius's concentration to shatter as he opened his eyes. Realizing that her rubbing had slowed to almost a massaging speed, as his eyes opened, they came right into contact with hers. They were merely a few inches apart from each other, closer than he had ever been before. He could sense almost every detail, every strand of hair, hear every breath, and the tense, awkward pause that followed when Florina noticed Lucius had his eyes open, in which her rubbing had stopped. The vulnerary had absorbed into his wound long ago.

They were now looking right into each other. The windows into their souls, everything in that small moment of sheer, anxious silence had been laid on the table. It felt as if their understanding of each other had greatly enhanced to an intimate stage, one that neither had intended to enter, but one that neither felt the need to escape. Lucius looked down, then back up. She was sill staring. She blinked. A pressing negotiation of the eyes was at hand. In the time he had looked down, she had gone an inch closer. Could Lucius stand up and walk away? The negotiation was drawing to a close, and he couldn't believe what his decision was to be.

And then, without a moment's pause, she leaned in and kissed him.

His eyes closed again, his mouth only lighting touching hers. Both were closed, the exchange was very polite and unobtrusive. Yet Lucius felt his heart pumping powerfully, sending blood rushing right up to his face, dizzying his head as his eyes closed, as if to contain the blood that threatened to seep out from the rush. He felt light, lighter than he had ever before. Words filled his head, laughter, joy, controversy, passion, the future.

She pulled away slowly, having closed her eyes as well. Stepping back, she touched her lips, almost in disbelief as what she had just done. She didn't appear shocked, just dazed. Lucius was dazed as well; he could feel even his eyes tingling as his lips grew cold of the absence of Florina's own mouth.

They were like two children, having delved into the wonders of romance for the first time. It was a peculiar scene to witness; two fully grown people, standing and blushing, humming their words out, their voices illegible to understanding but their expressions and messages perfectly clear.

"U-uhm…." Florina uttered, her face rouged completely by her awkwardness. Lucius felt like laughing at the sound of her voice, bellowing as loudly as he could. He choked a giggle, quickly putting the strap of his vest back to where it belonged.

Florina quickly spun on her heel and walked out of the room, forgetting to pick up the bag that she had left on Lucius's bed. She appeared so stunned that she walked in a wavy line, forgetting to even close Lucius's door. But Lucius didn't care. He remained in his chair, trying to comprehend the magnitude of what just happened to him. It was his first kiss.