Work Text:
Harsh icy wind and thick snow fall ripped through Haafingar as the sun began to dip behind the mountain peaks, Kaidan pulled his hood tighter as he trudged his way uphill through thick snow, a layer of hard ice on top making him stumble with each step.
He was quickly becoming colder with each passing second, if he didn't reach shelter fast the cold would soon threaten his life.
After climbing over a particularly tall and steep snow drift he finally reached the road, Shadowgreen Cavern was not too far off now maybe 15 minutes, 10 if he could keep a good pace and not run into any trouble.
A few minutes down the road Kaidan spotted a tall figure ambling in his direction, squinting against the wind and snow. He looked for details but could see no distinguishing features on the humanoid silhouette.
No pauldrons from armour or cloak. No cloak?!?
What sort of ice brained fool traipses about in a blizzard without a proper cloak?
But as they got closer to each other Kaidan recognised said fool and he was completely buck ass nude!
It was gods damned Leslie, what did that stupid elf get himself into?!? Rage from the past two weeks boiled anew in Kaidan and he opened his mouth to shout at and admonished the moronic altmer.
But he choked on his word as he finally notices the blood on Leslie.
It was all over his mouth running down his neck to his chest as well as completely staining both of his hands.
He froze in his steps and stared in shock at the state of who he once called his friend short circuiting his brain.
Leslie continued forward, eyes unaware and unfocused, his breath coming in quick huffs and his body shaking and twitching.
He did not seem to notice Kaidan despite the man being in his line of sight.
Kaidan shook himself from his stupor and started running to Leslie shouting his name,
But the mer seemed to barely recognise the sound of his name, only pausing in his movement and seemingly looking confused as if he was just hearing an odd noise.
He stood in place swaying slightly like grass in a breeze before promptly falling over into the snow. Kaidan made a startled noise in his throat and dropped to his knees before the mer, fumbling for the pulse point on his neck with panicky hands.
He could still see small puffs of fog from his breaths but his pulse was feeling weak, Kaidan practically ripped off his short cloak desperate to give him some coverage from the cold.
As he wrapped the mer he noticed marks all over his body, lacerations, whip marks, bruises, branding marks from a piece of hot metal and a plethora of other marks from various types of magic new and ageing.
Kaidan pulled the bundled up mer to his chest and stood holding him bridal style, he headed down the road with renewed vigour, he wouldn't dare let the person he owed his life to die out in the cold even despite how angry he was at him.
At Least some luck seemed to be on their side as the two had no trouble on the road, Shadowgreen Cavern was in sight and Kaidan pushed hard to make the last bit of distance, the terrifyingly still elf held tight to his chest.
The temperature difference inside was almost immediate and he let out a shaky tired sigh, pushing further in; it became eerily quiet as the howling wind faded away, no animal made a sound as they silently observed the new intruders move through the cavern.
Kaidan was nervous taking quick but cautious steps, the feeling of eyes on him making his skin crawl.
But so far the local life seemed content to just observe.
Kaidan moved up the steep slope in the centre of the cavern, a slight smile forming on his face at the feeling of nostalgia.
When they reached the top Kaidan gently set Leslie down upon the soft mossy ground then set to work collecting branches from the ground to build a fire, he dared not attempt to take a branch still attached to a tree lest he anger the spriggans that reside here.
After a few minutes of work he had a toasty little fire going,
But it wasn't enough heat of course, he watched as the still unconscious altmer shivered where he laid.
Kaidan sighed as he began to strip his armour, letting out a muttered string of curses.
He set his armour neatly aside then shuffled uncomfortably as he looked at Leslie, there was so much blood all over him, no way in oblivion was it all his.
He grabbed a cloth from his pack and soaked it in the oddly placed nearby spring, after wringing it out he turned back to Leslie and hesitated as he stared at the mers bloody lips.
He shook his head and gave himself a quick admonishment as he moved to start wiping the blood off the mers face, he very gently cupped the mers face to keep him steady while he wiped away the blood carefully tilting or turning his head when needed.
Kaidan got a very close look at all of Leslie’s wounds while he worked to get him clean, but what kept drawing his attention was the healed burn scars that ran from Leslie’s left cheek down his neck over his shoulder and across most of his chest, with smaller smattering of scarring on his arms and hands.
They were from the first dragon he fought out on the road somewhere in the Reach, is what Leslie told him, but he had no idea it covered this much of his skin as Kaidan had only seen the scarring on his face, neck and hands before now.
As he dabbed the cloth on Leslie’s chest he couldn't stop the old memories that were dredged up from the back of his mind, Kaidan shivered as he shook his head chasing away the memories that pecked at old wounds like hungry carrion birds.
Kaidan moved onto his hands, wiping around the mers more slender fingers, he sighed thinking of the first time he touched Leslie’s hand, when they had shook hands to agree upon Kiadan travelling with him, Lucien and Caryalind.
Kaidan frowned,he missed the bubbly Imperial man and flirty altmer.
Even though they didn't always get on well, the two were still nice company to have.
Well Leslie was a more comfortable level of clean now but still cold, Kaidan rinsed the cloth out and hung it to dry.
He moved back over to his pack and unstrapped his tarpaulin and bed roll from it, he set the bedroll out on the ground next to Leslie then carefully moved him onto it, he then laid down next to the mer flush against his side and pulled the tarpaulin over both of them.
Kaidan didn’t get a moment of sleep even though he was exhausted from the bounty he had just done and carrying Leslie here, he just watched his unconscious friend. Friend? Could they still even be that anymore.
The longer they lay together the guiltier Kaidan felt and the more he realised he was a hypocrite,
Sure Leslie didn’t tell him he was a recent Thalmor deserter like Caryalind did, but he had never shown any bad intentions or any real snooty altmer superiority complex.
He was just unknowledged about the culture of skyrim, he did always listen avidly when Kaidan did talk about nordic culture and seemed to really enjoy learning what Kaidan could teach as well as both Caryalind and Lucien did.
Kaidan has been lost in his head for awhile until Leslie jerked violently and slurred something incoherent, Kaidan sat up quickly which startled the dazed mer and he began to thrash and yell in aldmeris, Kaidan could barely make out what he was saying other than various curses and the word no repeatedly.
He put his hands on the mers shoulders to stop his thrashing.
Leslie froze and stared up at Kaidan with a manic look in his eyes not recognising who was holding him down.
Leslie took a deep breath and parted his lip.
Kaidan quickly slapped a hand over Leslie’s mouth, his hand was immediately chilled and frost formed over his fingers.
Leslie resumed his thrashing and began to cry, he spoke aldmeris in a pleading tone once more in between sobs muffled by Kaidan's hand.
Kaidan was horrified as he tried to reassure Leslie, shushing him and telling him he was with a friend and safe, but Leslie wouldn’t stop crying and pleading until he lost consciousness.
He removed his hand as his vision blurred with tears.
Who would dare make Leslie like this!?! Who would dare hurt his friend so much to put him in this state!?!
Kaidan was angry at someone he couldn’t put a face to, he was angry at himself for letting this happen.
He should have stayed!
He should have stayed…
Then it hit him.
The embassy!
How could he even have humoured the idea that Leslie could just walk in there and back out none the worse for wear.
And Cayalind? Wasn't he gonna go too?
Did he? Did he trick them?
Did he lure Leslie away into a trap?
Did the Thalmor want to capture the Dragonborn or a deserter?
Was Caryalind there willingly or could he be imprisoned now?
Kaidan wouldn't know, not for a while at least, Leslie was his top priority at the moment, and he needed to focus on him.
Soon as the sun was back up and the weather cleared he’d get them a carriage to Falkreath and get Leslie home to Lakeview manor, so he would feel safer and could hopefully heal better.
He sniffled and wiped the tears from his eyes while settling back down next to Leslie,
The tarpaulin was pulled back over them and Kaidan wrapped his arms around the mer for comfort. Whether it was to comfort hisself or Leslie he would not say.
Exhaustion eventually outweighed kaidan’s stress and worry and he fell into an uneasy sleep.
Kaidan woke to shuffling beside him, his eyes snapping open worried Leslie was gonna have another panic, but the mer just sat up drowsily and looked around confused, Kaidan softly called his name making him jump slightly head whipping around as he stared in shock at the man.
‘Kaidan?’ He questioned as if unsure he was really seeing the man, Kaidan slowly sat up worried he would scare Leslie again, “He there.” he spoke gently.
Leslie’s face scrunched up and his lip quivered, “Lesl- '' Kaidan tried to say his name but Leslie launched himself at the man wrapping his arms around his neck.
Leslie sobbed hard saying he was sorry over and over.
Kaidan was stunned and stayed leaning back on his elbows staring off dumbly at a loss for what to say or do for a moment, he slowly sat up and wrapped an arm around Leslie the other going into the mer’s scruffy mullet.
He gently stroked Leslie’s head and reassured him he had nothing to be sorry for, all the while fighting back his own tears.
It took the mer a while to calm down, but he was able to mostly explain what happened, he told Kaidan about how he hadn't been able to escape with Caryalind after a wizard had hit him with a paralysis spell. The closest he got to telling Kaidan what the Thalmor did to him while he was held captive was a strained “Well, you know.” but the look in Leslie’s eyes said a lot more.
After a pause he spoke again, “They were going to take me back to Alinor.” He looked up at Kiadan with fiery eyes and continued, “I’m never going back, no one can make me go back.”
He moved back from Kaidan, becoming a bit nervous again.
“I killed them, the ones who were taking me to Northwatch keep, they were going to transport me on a ship from there.” Leslie took a shuddering breath, “I ripped them to pieces when we were past the road. Used my own teeth and claws…” he mumbled.
Kaiden raised his brows, “teeth and claws?” he questioned. Leslie looked at Kaidan fear creeping into his expression, “Sinding.” was all he said in reply and Kaidan’s jaw dropped.
They had killed Sinding about three weeks ago, how had this gone unnoticed? “You got bit!?!” he said in a panic as he started looking over Leslie to find where he had been bit, but he could find no readily obvious mark.
So he started turning his arms and legs looking for anything he overlooked last night, he grabbed Leslies right thigh and side turning him to look at his back and paused when he spotted it.
Right there plain as day on Leslie’s right ass cheek was a wolf like bite mark still scaring over.
Kaidan stared at the offending mark like it would disappear at any moment, but it didn’t, Leslie then mumbled something about being embarrassed to tell anyone and Kiadan’s shoulders began to shake as his hands squeezed into Leslie’s skin.
He burst out laughing tears welling up in his eyes again, while he laughed at the absurdity of what he was seeing.
Leslie buried his face in his hands, flushing deeply with embarrassment. Kaidan let go of Leslie, still chuckling, “Let’s go home, you bloody fool.” he said, eyes full of fondness.