She'd meant it figuratively, Lenneth thought, the part about wanting Aloth beside her, but it was starting to become rather literal. Bit by bit, she was leaving the front line of battle to Edér and drifting back towards the fireball-casting range that Aloth normally haunted. It was just because of the pistol, she told herself.

The pistol that they'd found in Galvino's workshop certainly was a nice one, and a capable weapon. Lenn, for her part, was more accustomed to close combat with her blades. But those skills had been honed through years of street fights. Her goal back then was mostly avoiding conflict, all too ready to cut and run when yet another town saw through her cons, putting her daggers to the test only when there was nowhere left to run. Safer, that way. Stay alive, keep herself safe to keep her sister and brother safe. It was different, now, having people who depended on her in fights they really couldn't run from. Lenn was as determined to keep her friends safe as she had once been to keep her siblings safe, but that meant facing fights even when she was in over her head.

Aloth was not the first to chide her for being too reckless, but it was his voice that finally brought her around. He had expressed his disapproval of her proximity to the fray before, of course (they all had, at some point), but ever since that moment on the bridge when he'd told her how he had worked for the Leaden Key, things were changing between them. Her acceptance and forgiveness of his past - such an obvious conclusion to her; she couldn't afford to drive away a friend like him, especially when what he was confessing had all happened before they even met, technically - seemed to fire him to ever greater devotion. And with that, greater conviction. It was not uncommon now for her to awaken from the dreadful dreams of the past to find Aloth at her side beneath the night sky, his face drawn in sympathy. He brewed teas over the campfire for her, to quiet the voices that disturbed her rest (it was no great help with that, but the kindness of the gesture warmed her more than the drink itself).

So she was not at all surprised, swimming back to consciousness after yet again taking one too many blows from enemies who'd swarmed around her as she dashed too far ahead of her allies, to see Aloth standing over her while Kana bound her wounds.

The look of fury with which he regarded her, though: that was surprising.

Hiding her disconcert, she turned to Kana with some quip about having too many past lives awakened now for her soul to fit back on the Wheel. Over the aumaua's gentle chuckle, she could hear Aloth's huff of frustration. When she looked up again, he was gone.

"Was it something I said?" she wondered aloud.

"I gather that he doesn't like seeing you hurt," Kana offered as he tied off the last bandage.

Lenn prodded at the cloths wrapped round her side and winced. "I mean, I don't particularly like that myself…"

"Well, you'll heal and he'll be fine too," Kana encouraged with his toothy smile, giving her a hand up.

Twenty minutes later, they had finished dealing with the dead bodies of enemies and the damaged bodies of comrades. They had gathered their things and the spoils of the fallen. Five of them stood ready to march on, but Aloth was still nowhere to be seen. Lenneth tried hollering his name, with no response.

"He stormed off toward the creek," put in Sagani, whose hunt-honed eyes could be relied upon to miss nothing, "while Kana was finishing with you."

Lenneth looked where Sagani pointed, put her hands up to her mouth and hollered again. No response. She sighed, slid her pack to the ground and checked her blades in their scabbards. "You all wait here. I'll go find him."

The creek was only a few minutes' walk away. She found Aloth sitting there, his back to a tree, arms wrapped tightly around his knees, his head tucked between the well-muscled - (Her step faltered. She paused in her approach to lean against a tree of her own and took a moment to ponder when she had started noticing his arms like - well. Like that.) Catching her breath and her thoughts, and seeing that he seemed to be in no present danger, his shoulders rising and falling with regular breaths, she finally stepped forward.

"Hey," she called quietly. He looked up at her, eyes wide and dark. A look she couldn't name - relief? concern? - crossed his face. "So," she proceeded, trying to stumble neither over her words nor over the scattered stones near the stream, "we're about to move on. Didn't want to, um, leave without you?"

Aloth's face fell as he registered her meaning. "Oh, gods, I'm sorry," he said, springing to his feet. "Here I am, sulking and holding everyone up. Watcher, I apologize for my -"

"Hey," she said again, holding up her hand with a grin. "No worries. I'm not here to scold you, Aloth. Just...well, you seemed...um...what's wrong? It's not like you to leave like that."

His eyes flicked to the most visible of her bandages, low on her left arm, and then to the carefully wrapped spot on her torso, now concealed beneath her armor, that Kana had been tending to when last Aloth saw her. "I am sorry," he said again. "I may have overreacted."

"To me getting hurt?" she prompted.

Aloth sighed. "To you getting hurt, again."

She put on her most winning smile. "But I'm fine. Nothing that won't heal in -"

"Not," he interrupted her with a step forward, "the point. Watcher...Lenneth. Do you know what it's like to watch from a distance as you go down, time and again, and be helpless to stop it?"

Lenneth flinched. "It's not really all that often, is it?"

"Oftener than it used to be, I believe," Aloth pleaded. "If anything, you're becoming more reckless."

"But I'm fine," Lenneth insisted. "I know the risks, but so many times I can finish the fight quicker if I just get in close."

Aloth's expression of carefully cultivated blandness shifted to the fiery sneer of Iselmyr intending to have her say. "Aye, ye'll finish yersel' in the coorse o' it an' lea him heartbroken!"

He looked away, jaw twitching as he apparently struggled to rein in his elder half from saying more. Lenneth blinked, feeling slightly outnumbered as, for once, Iselmyr and Aloth seemed to be in agreement.

The pistol from Galvino's workshop lay holstered, seldom used, at her back. By the time Aloth had regained his composure enough to glance at her again, Lenneth was holding it out to him like a peace offering on both her outstretched hands. "Know anything about how to fire these?" she asked sheepishly, dropping her chin and looking up at him through her lashes.

"You...don't?" Aloth asked, lifting it cautiously from her hands after she nodded encouragingly.

"Not much," Lenneth admitted.

"But you've been carrying this for weeks."

"It's pretty. And it seemed like a useful backup, y'know? But I haven't found much of a use for it yet, so I haven't exactly gotten any practice in."

"Lenneth. When have you ever seen me handle a firearm of any sort?"

She couldn't quite hold back the smirk at the thought of seeing the wizard do any such thing. She definitely couldn't hold back the blush at the sudden desire to see such a thing. "Well, you're the one telling me to put the blades away, so…"

He met her eyes. "You're...taking me seriously."

"Well, of course!" Affronted, she grabbed the pistol back from him, studied it a moment, then tucked it back in its holster. "I mean...you have a fair point."

"Oh."

"And I'm very sorry I scared you like that, Aloth."

"Again, I'm sure I overreacted." He clasped his hands politely at his waist and stood watching her carefully.

"And...maybe it would be useful for me to at least get a few shots off from a distance, first, before I sneak in to put a blade where it can do the most damage."

"It might, at that." The corner of his lips twitched toward a smile.

Besides, Lenneth admitted only to herself, and whatever past lives of herself might be listening, as they walked in companionable silence back to the rest of the group, I guess I really do prefer you beside me to behind me.