Work Text:
Why were the Sultansworn so terribly bad at protecting her from assassination attempts at parties?! They were becoming more frequent, and though they were usually caught by her or Pipin they apparently didn’t sense this one before a knife was buried in her chest.
She immediately fell to the floor, and her vision was slightly blurry due to her pain while her breathing was patchy and heavy from having a dagger go through her left lung. The knife was aimed at her heart, but she had turned and altered its course. Regardless it was incredibly painful and she was coughing up blood as she cried out, and it attracted attention. It was hard to tell who had stabbed her since she didn’t see it but she scanned the crowd as Pipin rushed to her side. Though it was difficult to breathe or see or talk she spotted someone with a lot of red on their hands and she pointed to him as she gasped amid bloody coughing fits, “You…you have blood…on your hands.”
The man had stopped in fear, accidentally revealing the tell-tale blood that splattered on his hands when he stabbed her. The Sultansworn could at least do their job well enough for that, so they surrounded him as she turned her head to Pipin. Obviously he was incredibly worried for her and was expressing fear over the fact that she might die from this while Nanamo asked if they should call a healer.
She would have laughed if she didn’t have a dagger in her chest. But she did, so she gritted her teeth due to pain before nearly shouting, “For Twelve’s Sake, I am a healer!”
She immediately switched to Astrologian, and Pipin dutifully kneeled between her legs to shield other’s view of the underneath of her skirt. Thus he had a good view of the blue light that came out of her hands when she put them on either side of the blade.
She could breathe a little easier with her healing magics supporting her lungs, and she concentrated on healing the sundered tissues around the blade. Thank goodness she was a good enough healer that conversation didn’t break her concentration because Pipin immediately asked, “Should the blade be removed?”
“No, it is stopping me from bleeding out.” It was much like a plug, the handle guard was wide enough to surround the wound. It was still painful of course, especially when she breathed, but that was better than dying from blood loss. Pipin seemed to not be satisfied with that and asked, “Could we stem the bleeding?”
He had seen her do that before, using ribbons to hold up blood flow in limbs to lessen the loss of blood. But that wasn’t feasible on her chest, and she made that clear as she said, “‘Tis too close to my heart to stem it.”
Despite the conversation she was able to sufficiently heal the tissues, so now it was time to remove the knife. And there was only one person she would trust to do that, so she looked at Pipin as she said, “Time to take it out, and I would like for you to do it.”
“Me? Why do you want me to do it?!” There were a few different reasons, the main one being that she knew he would do his damnedest not to kill her. The knife was also in very deep, it would take a fair bit of strength to remove. It was also at an angle, which meant taking it out would require great precision, and she knew that was a trait he had. Over all, really why she wanted him to do it was because, “There is no one else I would trust with this.”
“Why can you not do it? You at least know where it is.” Gods he was really trying to deflect this, though she could tell from the slight blush in his cheeks that he was at least honored that she trusted him that much. She wouldn’t let him get out of this on something so small though so she said in an obvious tone, “I need both my hands to close the wound.”
“But what if I hurt you?” It was both cute and annoying that he was so worried about her. But his complaining was getting on her nerves and she gritted her teeth with her pain as she stated very pointedly, “I do not recall complaining this much when I had to pull a sword out of you.”
She certainly remembered how that had gone, because she had covered her fear of hurting him while doing it with frustration at his insistence that she be the one to do it, because much like her he trusted his partner more than anyone else. Regardless of that, she never wanted to repeat that situation…
-
It was in the middle of a battle that she heard a sudden cry of pain from the direction that Pipin was in. So she whipped around and saw that he was suddenly a bloody mess. In the literal sense, as there was a sword stuck in the side of his left knee. From afar it was a little hard to tell but she could tell from how he bent it that it was between the tendon and joint. She didn’t bother finishing her enemy, she just raced right over to him as she switched the Astrologian. She called out for two soldiers to very carefully take Pipin to the infirmary, and she raced after them after placing Aspected Benefic.
In the infirmary it was up to her, because she was the best healer in the godsdamn world. She knew the human body, so she knew exactly what was happening and how to fix it. First she tied an incredibly tight ribbon above his knee cap to stem the blood flow, to prevent him from bleeding out. Then she healed the tissue damage around it, and she had to stop halfway through calling out for someone to take the sword out because he interrupted and demanded that she be the one to do it.
“There is no one else I would trust with this.” Those were his words, so she grit her teeth and grabbed the handle of the blade with her right hand and carefully but quickly pulled it out before closing the wound with her left hand. She still remembered the cries of pain she heard from him, as much as she’d love to forget them. But he was fine afterwards, thanks to her.
And no thanks to him, because he tried to go back out on the field. She refused to let him though, he had lost too much blood. His leg would be dead for a bit too since she cut off the blood flow. He wasn’t content to just rest though so she had to have someone watch him while she returned to the field and took up command in his stead.
After the battle was won she picked him up from the infirmary (literally) and took him to a seat right next to Raubahn and told him to make sure Pipin did not use his left leg at all for the next 8 hours. Pipin protested, but she stared him down as she said with the authority of a healer, “You lost a decent amount of blood and that is about how long it will take your system to replenish it if you rest. It will take much longer if you push yourself!”
Then she noted that she had to take care of something but she would be back later to check on him and do some additional healing.
-
That was how it went in the past, and she knew he remembered every detail. Here in the present he was still complaining by saying indignantly, “That blade was not nearly so close to a vital organ!”
Well he was right about that, but it was still in an incredibly dangerous position that she had to use great precision for. She seemed to be recalling it as she noted, “Well it was right between the tendon and joint so if I had not been precise you might have been paralyzed-”
“You really should not be talking so much with a dagger in your chest.” He was looking at her with a frustrated pout, and it only got worse when she said sassily, “Well you clearly want to talk.”
For a second they simply stared at each other stubbornly, him with a pout and her with a smile. She won that contest, so he sighed before saying, “You are annoying at times.”
She recognized that. She had said that exact sentence to him after her first fight with Zenos. So she repeated what he said, which was, “So are you.”
He recognized it and frowned, though at least he now had accepted that he had to do it. He scooted a little closer to examine the blade, then said with a serious tone, “The blade is angled.”
She nodded, and she knew he recognized that meant it would require a good deal of strength to remove. So she smiled at him as she said, “Hence why I would not trust anyone else with this.”
He took control of the handle in a way that would make it easier to be precise while still offering leverage, then asked, “Will it cut your palms?”
She could tell he was concerned because they were right next to the blade, and to be honest she was not sure if it would or wouldn’t. So the comfort she gave him was, “If it does that is quite easy to heal.”
It didn’t help him much judging from the grimace on his face. But he took a deep breath, then began to remove the blade.
He was going slow, which was a lot more painful. She was also having to work harder to keep her blood in, and that combination was making her irritated. So she said between gritted teeth, “Faster please,” which made him reply with a similarly annoyed tone, “I am being careful!”
“Ever heard of ripping off bandages!?” She was cringing from the pain and her annoyance was boiling out, though it was slightly hilarious to her that when tensions rose they had a tendency to bicker like an old married couple. She was in too much pain to laugh though so she just groaned as he shot back, “You are also likely to lose flesh that way!”
Gods this was torture. But it did eventually slide out of her and as it did he said with a grimace, “There!” as blood burst out of her. Not much left her before her hands folded over the wound, letting out brilliant blue light before she said, “It is healed.”
She kept her hand over it to cover the rip in her clothes, and though it was healed it was still a little tough to breathe. Pipin noticed and gave her a concerned look as he asked “Are you alright?”
“It will still be a little tough to breathe for a bit. It did puncture my left lung, after all.” Though it was tough she tried to steady her breathing, and she heard Pipin echo in surprise, “It punctured your left lung?”
She nodded, then said in a breathless voice filled with humor, “Lucky for me I have two of those, might have been a different story if it went through my heart like it was intended to.”
“My aim was perfect!” She had almost forgotten that the enemy was still present, but as he was she could explain his mistake. She partially uncovered the tear in her dress to show that it was directly over her heart before she said, “That it was. I was not quick enough to prevent it, but I was quick enough to change its trajectory.”
She heard Pipin set the blade down as he let out a deep breath, clearly an attempt to calm down after this stressful situation before he said, “Please never ask me to remove an angled blade again.”
She let in a deep breath to get some air in her lungs as she said, “I cannot promise that, as I know few others with the incredible strength and precision required for it.”
Her deep breaths were not helping her labored and shallow breathing, and her strength was waning. Pipin picked up on it and crawled over her leg while closing them and pulling her into him as he asked, “Did you overuse your magic?”
It was a little embarrassing to suddenly be cradled so to help her embarrassment a little she pouted and stated, “I would not have to if I were under the stars.”
Barely half a second after she said that he picked her up, and the sudden loss of solid ground under her made her gasp in surprise. That gasp soon became a groan at the sudden pain it caused in her lungs and she said heatedly, “Have you lost all sense?! Honestly, startling someone with weakened lungs!”
She let out a frustrated sigh at her own weakness, then felt a kiss nestled in her hair before Pipin said lovingly, “You are not so fragile as that.”
It felt good to be told she was not fragile even when she was weakened. He was always the number one advocate of her strength, and it never failed to make pride blossom in her. Which coincidentally always made her blush, and she didn’t particularly want people seeing that when she was already a little weakened so she sank in his arms a little to hide her face as she gave an amused huff and said, “Charming as always.”
That made him laugh, and as she did not have the breath to join him she simply smiled as they went out to the balcony.