Chapter Text
It was time to go to bed and Rayla was feeling laggy.It had been such a long two days and all she needed was sleep.
First they had gone to Scumport where Ezran decided to steal glow toads from Finnagren who was obviously none to impressed by this decided to chase them and try to make them his prisoners. He then locked them up, tried to cut of one of their hands, froze Rayla's blood, tried to feed Soren to a leviathan, had Soren beat up to the max, and tried to get Callum to do dark magic. Nyx, even though Rayla was still mad at her for abandoning them, had given them an advantage by telling Finnagren about treasure, sending them right where they needed to be to find Aaravos's prison.
"I shouldn't have brought them to Scumport." Rayla thought to herself as she sat looking away from the boat to prevent sea sickness. "But what choice did I have."
She headed down to go talk about sleeping arrangements with her fellow travelers. Apparently all the other crew already had sleeping quarters so they were fine so it was up to Soren, Ezran, Nyx, Callum, Villads, and of course Berto.
"Well Nyx and I are going to be driving the boat all night," Villads said grabbing Nyx by the arm. "Plus I also got some pretty good sleep whilst we were captured."
It was true all he had done was slept through most of what was happening.
"I checked out the ship to and thanks to Elmer I found out there are guests rooms but there are only two beds so Ezran and I could take those.' Soren said posing with courage like he has won an important medal.
Callum winced a little bit grabbing his ribs. Elmer who was standing beside Soren looked in guilt at him in pain.
"I'm fine." Callum said shaking off the pain with a not so convincing smile.
Rayla tooke his arm and put it around to her shoulder to hod him up.
"Elmer," She said turning to the wooden creature. "Do you know where the medical supplies or a medical room is?".
He nodded signaling toward her to follow him.
"Her you go," Elmer said showing them a spacious room with all kinds of medical equipment. "Don't worry no one was tortured, Finnagren just had a lot of health problems. I'll give you two some privacy."
He closed the door causing the floor to shake beneath them.
With the lighting, Rayla totally saw what damage Finnagren has done to Callum. He was completely bruised under one of his eyes to the point he couldn't fully open it and cuts surrounding his face which seemed untreated and caused by blunt force trauma. She saw he was also griping on tightly to his ribs and chest while he gritted his teeth.
"Are you injured anywhere else besides your face?" Rayla asked looking him in the eye. She showed concern in her eyes. She already knew the answer but wanted him to tell her.
"Yes," Callum said, sounding reluctant. "I am almost a hundred percent certain my ribs are broken and I don't even want to see my other injuries.
"Is it ok if I take a look?" Rayla asked holding his hand. She wanted to help him but wanted to make sure he was comfortable.
"Of course." Callum said smiling at her through his pain. She could tell he just wanted to seem ok but he even admitted that he didn't know the extent of his injuries under his shirt.
Rayla and Callum pulled apart and Callum took off his jacket then pulled of shirt slowly, wincing in pain at every movement. Rayla was expecting something much more tame though which left her in shock when she saw his injuries almost causing her to gasp.
Callum had bruises on his ribs which seemed to be broken but he had much worse than that. On his stomach and chest there were burn marks and scratches that seemed to be not healing so well and alongside that were bruises also. As she moved to his back she felt fear wash over her. It has looked as if he had been slashed or whipped multiple times in the back. Rayla felt so bad for feeling like she had been mistreated by having to be stuck with a bunch of idiots, meanwhile Callum had been silently suffering in pain.
"What happened to you?" Rayla asked cupping Callum's face holding back tears.
"Electrocution, punching, scratching, beating with heavy objects, burning, and whipping." Callum said looking away.
Rayla's heart sank all the way to the bottom of her stomach. It just hurts to see him like this. She knew she couldn't do much but wait for his injuries to heal but she was confident he would.
"Ok let's deal with your face first." Rayla said.
Callum's face would probably heal the fastest. He had ice over his black eye and she had cleaned all his scratcher which were pretty deep. Callum could thankfully open up his eye a little bit more now and wasn't squinting with the other one.
Rayla moved on to his back she took one glimpse at it and felt the pain run through her body.
"You sure you want to do your back first and not your chest?" she asked putting her hands on his arms.
"I'm sure," he said moving her hands from his arms. Rayla took a step back to give some space but instead he took her arms and put them around his shoulders making her lean in.
"Are you ok?" Rayla whispered looking at him from the side. He looked kind of lost and confused but when he turned to face her she saw a glimpse of love.
"Yeah," Callum responded after a few seconds. "I'm going to have to get this wound on my back cleaned eventually so might as well do it now.
"Callum," she said looking into his eyes which were the farthest thing from convincing. "Just be honest please."
"I'm ok" Callum said skidding her hand of his shoulder. "Let's just get this wound cleaned up."
"All done!" Rayla said wiping her hands of a towel. Sure Callum wasn't in the best shape but much better than before.
"Thanks for being there." Callum said lying down on his bandaged back. "You were so supportive of me, well, like always."
Rayla giggled turning away ash she blushed. They had to stop with the cleaning rinse a couple of times and take a few breaks but it wasn't to big of a deal cause it gave her a break also. They sat there and cuddled and talked to distract from the pain both of them were feeling.
Rayla crawled over to the table where Callum was lying down and lied down with him.
"I wish it was tails." Callum said smirking at Rayla which caused her to immediately laugh. No way he just said that.
"Well I have always wanted to experience what it's like to get eaten by a kraken." Rayla responded causing more laughter.
"You know what," Callum said closing one of his eyes. "Maybe we should just sleep here tonight."
"We?" Rayla said smirking at him. He really went right to the chase, eh?
"Yes," Callum said. "We, I mean it in every single way."
"Every single way?" Rayla asked turning more toward him.
"You know what? I'd probably take back my statement by now but I mean this in every, single, way." Callum said also turning towards her.
They leaned in for a cuddle but as they got closer and closer to were their nose touched. They brought each other closer and-
"Nooooo!" Ezran shouted holding Bait tightly.
"What's he going on about?" Rayla asked Callum sitting upright.
Callum looked down and realized he didn't have his shirt on.
"Oh" Callum said grabbing his shirt and walking towards his brother.
"Ez, it's not what it looks like-" Callum said trying to approach him gently.
Ezran just shook his head with fear in his eyes and ran away.
"What's gotten into him?" Rayla asked rushing to Callum's side.
"I may have let Soren tell him how all of us were created." Callum said drawing his eyes to the corner of the room.
"We can sleep in who's room?" Rayla asked tiling her head to the side.
After Callum and her had finished up treating all the wounds they could they went to the main deck to meet up with Soren who informed them that their was a place for both of them to sleep comfortably. The catch? They didn't just have to share a bed, they had to share Finnagrens room.
"Sure," Callum said smiling leaning over to Rayla. 'Its ok." He said leaning his head down.
"Ok?" Soren said looking to the door. "I'll just be down the hall to the right, his room is down the hall to the left."
Soren hurried and left the two alone in the common room.
"You ok with this?" Rayla asked as soon she was sure Soren was away. After all she was very good at hearing the footsteps of people.
"I have you," Callum said grabbing her hands making all the emotion run back to Rayla.
"This is crazy!" She thought to herself. Why was sall the emotion all of a sudden running back to her like it did before. She knew him before they started dating for two weeks. That was it. All it took was Ezran to leave them both alone and two to three days later she was having full make out sessions with him during their breaks on their trip to Zym's mother. It had eaten her alive a month later when she left to go find Viren. She had blown it. A month and a half of a relationship, and she had ruined it forever. When she came back, she just wanted forgiveness from Callum but it was starting to look like Callum was looking for more, just like she was two years ago. She was more mature now though, she was eighteen and unlike Callum, she had seen so much more darkness than Katolis. Were they still a good match for each other?
Rayla ignored her inner monologue though, leaning in closer and closer to Callum but still keeping that distance.
"Aren't you tired?" Rayla asked trying to see if Callum's injuries had effected his sleep.
"No?" Callum said with uncertainty. "Ok, fine. I am tired."
"Let's just rest then ok?" Rayla said holding his hand leading him to the bed.
Callum eventually fell asleep right away after some convincing but Rayla just couldn't fall asleep causing her to leave the room and wander the ship. She just needed someone to talk to. She knew that she probably needed to sleep but she was a moonshadow elf after all.
She wandered the hallway until she found Ezran and Soren's bunk. She knocked on the door until she heard Soren belt "Come in!".
Entering the room she already regretted coming to see them for advice. The room was messy and the smell was enough to make Rayla through up.
"You ok?" Soren asked. "You sea sick?".
"Yeah" Rayla lied. "But that's not what I'm here for."
"Let me guess," Soren said directing her to sit on his bed. "Relationship issues with Callum?".
"How'd you know?" She asked looking around seeing Ezran make a face.
"What do you think I've been hearing for the past two years. "Oh I love Rayla! Blah blah blah!" It does get annoying!" Ezran said trying to keep a king like composure and failing.
"So he does love me..." Rayla said tailing out of thought. "Oh god!'
"Is that a good oh god or a bad oh god?" Soren asked sitting at Rayla's side.
"Both" Rayla said holding back tears leaving the room without saying anything else.
She returned back at her room thinking sitting in bed looking at Callum sleep peacefully in no pain.
This was a lot for her. It was kind of like a one-sided situationship.
She wanted to be with him but she couldn't she just couldn't. But that face just drew her in every time. She just wanted him but did she need him?
Being away had changed her perspective on love. She was good with being alone, but was she good with being lonely?
Allt he thoughts subsided though as Callum grabbed his sleepy arms around her.
"Why you up?" Callum said looking up at her.
"Cause it's almost time to get up and go to find Aaravos." Rayla said looking outside. Thankfully the lie was true though. The sun was rising slowly creating a beautiful orange sky. "Go sleep a little longer ok?".
Callum slowly closed his eyes as Rayla wandered back to her thoughts.
"Maybe someday." Rayla thought. "Maybe."