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Stumbling, Esha struggled to remain upright as she covered the wound that was now blossoming in pain over her thigh. She groaned and fumbled around her stash in the meditation room. She was lucky none of her siblings were at the Lighthouse, and most of their companions were gone, save for Bellara and Harding, who had been with her when she'd been injured.
If they had been there, they'd have fussed over her, and there was nothing Esha hated more. No matter how big the wound was, she was not one to accept help with things like this.
She leaned against the wall and located what she'd been looking for. Some antibiotic ointment. She quickly popped the lid to the compact and gathered the goo onto her fingers so she could spread it across the thick, deep cut. She hissed in pain, it hurt so bad, but she had no bandages. Esha was sure she'd be walking with a limp for a while if she didn't let Allona heal her. But that would come later, when her pride wasn't so injured.
She couldn't believe that had even happened. Sure, she was bad at dodging, that was a known fact. But she was still good at knowing how to take a hit in the spot that would cause the least amount of damage, or how to not take a hit that would need to be dodged in the first place. She was great at interrupting, distracting, at hitting before getting hit.
But to tank a cutting strike from a lowly demon, not even a pride demon, just some shade or something, had wounded her ego something fierce. She was frustrated with herself, and anyone who knew her well enough would know she tended to retreat inward when these sorts of things occurred. She couldn't let anyone know she was hurt, not when she had duties as the Leader of the Veil-
“Esha?”
Damnit.
She whipped around to face her beau, Davrin. They had only been dating for about a week or two at this point, enough to still be in the honeymoon phase but not enough for Esha to want to confide in him about this sort of thing.
“Davrin!” She smiled and wrapped her armor's coat further around her. It was plain crow armor with the cape, nothing special. Not really made to take hits in, though. More suited to sticking to the shadows. “What are you doing in here?”
Davrin looked concerned. “Bellara told me you were back.”
“So I am.” Esha responded, trying to shift so she could sit on the green chaise she used to meditate with Solas that they'd shoved into this corner of the room.
“She didn't tell me you were injured.”
“I'm not.”
“Don't lie” Davrin rounded the bed to get to her. “It never does any good.”
Esha winced as he peeled back her coat. An otherwise intimate gesture felt humiliating to her right now. “I'd argue that as a Crow, lying is my entire job.”
He glared at her silently before turning his concerned gaze back to the blood-soaked cloth of her armor. “Then don't be a Crow for a moment. How'd this happen?”
The shame that filled her was hot, spreading a not-so-pleasant warmth over her face. She could tell she was blushing, she was embarrassed, after all.
“It was a demon.” She mumbled.
Davrin nodded. “Pride or Envy?”
Esha further retreated, even further embarrassed, but Davrin gripped her wrist to keep her from shying away from him. Why did he insist on this?
“Neither…it was a Shade.”
Davrin didn't make the expression Esha was expecting. She expected disbelief, or confusion, maybe even amusement, but he just gazed at her wound with a clinical eye and didn't meet her eyes.
“Aren't you gonna tell me that was dumb?”
Davrin shook his head and pulled Esha to her feet, much to her chagrin. “Any monster can sneak up on you. What makes a hunter is surviving the encounter, not how much damage you take.”
He squatted to get a closer look at the wound, and Esha flushed. She should have been used to the sight of a man at that level with her, but with Davrin she could never tell what was going to set her off. It was all new, and weird .
“We should treat that before it gets infected.” He said, reaching to touch the gashed flesh, but Esha jerked back, whining at the pain when the cut opened a little more, dripping fresh blood down her pant leg. “Esha!” He reprimanded. “What was that for?”
She stumbled a bit, and he caught her as she nearly toppled to the floor. “Sorry, You startled me. I put ointment on it already, so no need.”
“That's a deep cut. It'll need stitches.” He held her still as he, gentle as only Esha and Assan knew him to be, traced the wound from its origin to its end. “They got you pretty bad.”
Esha sighed. “Thanks for reminding me. I'll be fine , Davrin. Just a few days off the leg. You really don't need to worry.”
Davrin chuckled. “Monello tells me that's Esha-code for ‘I'll handle it on my own, consequences be damned’. And I'm not keen on that. Just come with me, please? With some proper care you'll recover quicker.”
She weighed her options. Now that Davrin knew about the wound, there wasn't much she could do to dissuade him. She really didn't wanna have to fend off all his worried glances. And of course, he would tell everyone else, and then she'd have to deal with her siblings.
“Fine. But let's do it in your room. If you're back, the others will be back soon as well and I'd rather keep this quiet for as long as possible…”
He nodded, and stood up. “That sounds good to me.” He offered her his shoulder, which she gratefully took, happy he wasn't going to carry her like some damsel in distress.
She leaned on his shoulder the entire way to his room, and Esha avoided the pitying gazes of Bellara and Harding. She thanked whoever was listening that none of her siblings were in the library.
Nothing was different about Davrin's room from the last time she was there, save for her own chair sitting by his that he had scrounged up for her from a storage room, and a pillow of hers leaning against the wall separating his bed from the rest of the room. She liked to sleep there sometimes.
He brought her to the armchair and guided her to sit down with her side facing out.
“Stay there.” He ordered, and then left the room without waiting for her to respond.
“Not goin’ anywhere…” she muttered under her breath. Her leg ached and throbbed with pain, and she shifted a bit in her seat to try and get more comfortable. Her wound was still open, and she could feel the lacerated flesh moving as she shifted, which made her wince and groan. Yea, she couldn't show this to Allona. She could just imagine the yelling she would get.
She made a mental note to get blocking and parrying training from Davrin.
Speaking of Davrin, he returned a moment later carrying a box full of supplies.
“That's all for my leg?” Esha asked, dumbfounded. They hadn't even needed that many things when she'd been stabbed in the gut during a contract long ago.
He nodded, starting to unpack the box. “I have water, soap and a rag to clean it. Needle and thread to sew it up. Ointment, gauze, and bandages to dress it. Some leather straps for me to make a simple brace, and some new clothes so you're not walking around in bloody clothes.”
Esha chuckled. “As if that's not a regular occurrence around here.”
Smiling gently back, he reached up and then paused. “Can you undress or do I need to cut the pants off? Because I brought scissors.”
Esha scrambled to get her pants off, not wanting to deal with the humiliation of having to get her outfit cut off of her, but she didn't get very far before collapsing with a yelp of pain. The cloth was too close around the wound, and too tight to move without seriously agitating it.
She whined. “Just cut it…’
Davrin reached into the box and pulled out a shiny pair of silver scissors. They were either medical grade or made to cut hair, Esha couldn't tell, but they were definitely sharp.
She sat, white hot humiliation ravaging its way through her nervous system as Davrin cut her own pants off of her. This is not how she wanted Davrin to see her in the slightest. She was so, so grateful to be wearing smallclothes at the time.
“There.” He snipped off the last bit of cloth. “How do you feel?”
Esha muttered.
“I'm assuming that means you're ready for the next step.” He turned away and Esha pressed her hands to her cheeks. This was so embarrassing. This had never happened with a lover before, and it wasn't something that she had ever even considered.
Then again…it was a special type of vulnerability to be seen like this. She felt laid bare in a way that intimacy hadn’t ever given her. He was seeing the gritty reality, and not running away.
“Davrin…thank you.” She said quietly.
Davrin barely glanced up as he dipped the cloth into a bowl of water he'd pulled out. “Yea. Don't worry about it, Esh.”
Esh. It was a nickname he'd started calling her when they'd gotten together. Ridiculous, her name was short enough as is, no need for a nickname. But she loved It.
He started to dab at the wound with the wet cloth, and she hissed in pain. “Sorry.” He quickly apologized and switched to lighter, almost feathery touches to the wound.
The time passed excruciatingly as she shifted every time he pressed particularly hard into the wound, to clean a rather bloody spot. He then moved on to the needle. He looked up at her with sympathetic eyes. “Do you need anything before I start?”
“Please…I'm not a child, Davrin.” But she was already tensing, and he could tell.
“You sure? Alcohol, A pillow to scream into, anything? I've sewn up quite a few Wardens before and even they'd ask for some sort of sedative for a wound this deep.”
Esha fought the urge to be a smartass. “No…I've had worse, honestly. Did I ever tell you about my forty third contract?”
Davrin shook his head and threaded the needle. “No. Tell me, it'll distract you.”
The first press of the needle was utter pain, but Esha grit her teeth and started to tell him about the infamous contract through hisses and yelps. How she'd been wounded by a mystery assailant on the roof, how she'd barely escaped with her life…how she'd passed out at the De Riva Estate entrance and not woken up for a week.
By the time she finished telling the sordid tale, he had mostly finished sewing the wound up, snipping off the end of the thread and tying it.
“How does that feel?” He reiterated.
Esha tested it. It didn't hurt as bad as it had before, but she was still struggling to put weight on it. She told him as much.
He nodded, thoughtful. “Hopefully I'll be able to brace it with the leather straps. It won't be very comfortable, but it will do, if the intent is to hide your wound from Allona.”
“How did you-”
“Because I'm pretty sure all of us have been on the tail end of an Allona rant.” Davrin continued. “And while I can't claim to understand why you wouldn't want your wound healed by an actual healer…I get the shame. I've patched up wounds of my own before, after hunts.”
He wrapped her thigh so softly and gently, that Esha nearly teared up. She was unused to such tender treatment by a lover. Of course, lovers usually only wanted one thing out of her, and Davrin was anything but her typical conquest.
Not that they had…done anything yet. Esha was saving it for the right moment, but it never felt like the right moment.
Esha sighed contentedly as he fixed the leather straps to her legs. His touch was reassuring in and of itself, honestly.
“Try that, now.” He adjusted the straps and then stood back, leaving her room so she could stand herself.
She rose slowly, feeling around for the right point of stance. “It feels…ok”
He smirked, clearly proud of himself. “Good. I'm glad. Just be careful, we don't want the wound to reopen.” He wrapped the bandages back up and started to repack the box, glancing back at her. “You should lay down for now. Get off that leg, at least for a while.”
Esha groaned and looked at the door. “That's a long way to walk…”
He jerked his head towards his own bed. “Who said you had to walk all the way back? You have a pillow here.”
That was true. But she had missives to respond to, and she had work to do.
“I-”
“Assan will be sad if he sees you limping.”
Cheeky Bastard.
“Fine. But just because of Assan.” Esha limped over to the bed and flopped down on top of it. She nestled herself into his blankets and inhaled deeply. They smelled of him.
“You enjoy that.” He laughed, and Esha flushed but smiled at him. “I'll go get you something to eat.”
She rolled over to face the wall. “Thanks. I appreciate this, Dav.”
Davrin didn't respond at first, but she could hear he was still in the room from the box shuffling around. She saw his shadow approach on the wall.
“Davrin?” She rolled over to look at him again.
He propped her head up and shifted her own pillow underneath, and sat down the change of clothes he'd brought next to her. “Take your time. You do a lot for the team, you were probably tired, and that's why you slipped.”
“I could use some dodging practice in general though.” Esha said quietly.
“Well, we'll work on that. But for now.” He kissed her ever-so-gently, and she relished in the attention. “I'll fend off the excuses of where you are.”
She hummed low, and laid back down. Davrin's hands rubbed her tired arms and back.
“Mmm….You're the best…” she sighed and drifted off into peaceful sleep.