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"My dear Marco," Giuliano turned to him once the door had closed behind the Doctor and Sarah. "let me see to you." He reached a hand out to his lover's cheek. Marco's clothes now hid the marks of the torture he bore to keep his prince safe, but the wounds remained all the same. He pressed his face into Giuliano's palm letting his eyes slip shut at the comforting touch. "You are still in pain." Giuliano's soft voice broke the silent moment.
"It is nothing I cannot handle" Marco protested as Giuliano gently nudged him to sit on the edge of the bed. Marco's eye was swollen and there was a nasty cut on his cheek that Giuliano had carefully cleaned.
Loosening his tunic and pushing it off his shoulders, Giuliano ran his fingers gently over the bandages that had been wrapped around Marco's chest. His ribs had been cracked by the torturer and the deep purple of bruises peeked around the edges of the bandages and sprawled across his chest. His wrists were a rubbed raw from where he had been chained and dressings covered the deep welts across his arms and chest from the burns he had been dealt.
"My dear, I shall be okay." Marco said earnestly, lifting Giuliano's face to look him in the eye. It pained Marco to see such worry and pain his love's eyes and he hated that it was his state that caused such pain. "I am alive, I will heal, you need not worry." He leant forward and captured Giuliano's lips in a gentle, reassuring kiss, hands cupping his face. Giuliano let his eyes flutter shut and leant into the kiss, laying one hand gently on Marco's waist and letting the other run through the hair at the nape of his neck in an attempt to reassure himself that Marco really was okay. Eventually they pulled apart and pressed their foreheads together, eyes still closed.
"I know, my love, I know you will be okay. I just-" Giuliano's whisper was broken off by a deep breath. He was trying not to cry. Trying to stay strong as Marco had for him. He leant back and looked into Marco's gentle eyes. "I thought you were dead. When we returned to my chambers and you were gone and then my Uncle had seized control I feared the worst. He knew of my love for you. I feared he had killed you. When I discovered you were alive I nearly wept with relief." Marco smiled softly, running his thumb across Giuliano's cheek where a lone tear had escaped his eye. "But then- then I thought if- if he hadn't killed you, what was he doing? And I-" he was cut off again by a sob, pulling Marco closer to him, tears now gleaming in both their eyes. "I saw you in that dungeon when I was dragged in there and for a second- you were so still and beaten, I thought you were, were gone again." Giuliano was hiccupping his way through his sentences now and Marco was pressing soft kisses to his shoulder as they clutched onto each other.
"I would never leave you my love." Marco whispered "I would fight the hordes of hell and the Lord in Heaven Himself to stay by your side." This finally rewarded Marco with some semblance of a smile from his lover.
"Marco, such thoughts are blasphemy." Giuliano murmured as they looked into each other's eyes. A small gleam entered his eyes, though, as he whispered back "And I would commit such blasphemy every day for the joy of being with you."
Eventually they disentangled themselves from each other long enough to lay back against the head of the bed, Marco wrapped safely in Giuliano's arms, where he could come to no harm. Giuliano pressed kisses into Marco's curls, passing him sips of water and bites of bread to ensure he kept up strength enough for his body to recover. Here in their chambers, pressed against each other, there was nothing that could touch them, they were safe as could be.