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It's rare for Athena to be in this position as she heads over to Medusa's cabin with a mug and a canteen of liquid in her hands. When she gets inside, Medusa is face down on the bed. She turns her head slightly when Athena enters and though she makes a face, she says nothing else.
"I have brought you some tea, Medusa," Athena says, setting down the mug and pouring the liquid from the canteen into it. She wraps a hand around the mug, focusing her magic into heating up both the water and the cup.
Medusa only grunts. She must be too tired to respond properly, Athena thinks. Athena had thought that perhaps coming with tea would be too presumptuous of her but she remembers all the time Medusa had done the same for her and how grateful she had felt, so she hopes Medusa will feel the same.
It takes about a minute before the cup starts to steam, which also means the smell of the mixture of herbs inside is much more pungent. Even Athena can't help but wince when the smell hits her nose. She moves to sit at the edge of the bed and reaches out to Medusa, carefully shaking her arm. Medusa makes a displeased sound but she opens her eyes.
"Ugh." Medusa wrinkles her nose.
"It is that same mixture of tea that you had brought me once before," Athena begins to explain, "that you mentioned is good for recovering and fatigue."
"I didn't get banged up that bad," Medusa mutters but she pushes herself up into a sitting position. She takes the cup from Athena, stares at the drink for a few seconds before taking a sip. She recoils, hissing now. "Bleh! This is awful."
"Perhaps I can find some sweetener to add?" Athena offers. She moves to get up before Medusa answers but something wraps around her arm suddenly. It is Medusa's tail, which makes sense as Medusa is using both of her hands to hold the cup... but Athena does not understand why Medusa would not want her to find something to alleviate the bitterness of the drink.
"... it's fine," Medusa mumbles after a moment. "But remember for next time!"
Before Athena can answer, she takes another sip of the drink and a disgusted noise comes out of her. A snake forms from her hair and crawls over to the rim of the cup, flicking a tongue inside. It opens and closes its maw several times before abruptly falling away, hanging limp next to Medusa now, as if knocked out by the drink.
Athena blinks at the sight. She has always been trying to figure out exactly how her serpents work, and each new thing she sees only brings more questions rather than answers.
As Medusa slowly drinks through the rest of the mixture, Athena takes this opportunity to examine Medusa, just to calm her own mind down. There are no visible injuries that she can see, and Medusa has not yet complained about anything although she's sure that Medusa is simply too exhausted to do so right now. Usually, it'll be Medusa berating Athena for getting herself so injured but as Athena had not been called to the front lines for this mission... Medusa is quiet now. She's sure that once Medusa has some time to rest, she'll be more than talkative.
It still feels odd, for Athena to be the one to take care of Medusa rather than the other way around. If she must be honest though... this isn't too bad either, from time to time. Of course, if she had the choice though, she would rather be on the front lines as everyone's shield.
They continue to sit in comfortable silence as Medusa finishes the rest of her drink. Once she does, Athena quietly takes the cup to place on the nightstand, being able to reach over from where she's sitting.
It is now that Athena realizes that Medusa's tail, which had initially been wrapped around her arm, had moved to circle around her waist instead. When had that happened? And had Medusa moved that intentionally or had she done it out of instinct? There are always moments where Athena finds the tail wrapped around her but Medusa never seems to notice until Athena mentions it, and thus unwraps her tail from Athena in the process while going red in the face as she exclaims that Athena shouldn't think any deeper of it. Now, Athena chooses not to say anything, but it always makes her curious about this behavior.
"Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?" Medusa asks suddenly.
Athena thinks to herself. "I have nothing scheduled, as far as I am aware."
"Okay, good. We're going into town tomorrow."
"... we are?"
Medusa finally looks over at Athena, her expression dark as several of her snakes hiss in unison. "I want to eat a tart."