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So far “keep him out of trouble” had consisted of locking him in his room with someone standing guard on the door.
Like he even wanted to leave. Like he even could. His whole body protested at the slightest movement. Fighting his cousin, easy. Fighting a demon possessing his cousin, slightly more difficult. Someone had stabbed him. Probably Lucanis, maybe the mage - that scepter had a nasty looking point on the end. The blood seeping through his vest and shirt was sticky against his skin.
Annoyed words were exchanged outside his door, he only cracked an eye open when they fell silent and his door handle lowered.
“Has my cousin changed his mind? Or has my loving grandmother gone behind his back already?”
The door clicked shut.
“Neither.”
He shot up at the sound of her voice, then groaned as his body protested.
“What are you…?”
June stood only about two steps from the door, holding a steaming bucket in one hand, a healers bag slung over her shoulder.
“Who’s my guard?”
“My brother,”
“Oh, is that common knowledge now?” He raised a brow, she didn’t bite. “Guarded by the Fifth Talon himself. What. An. Honour.”
“Well,” June shrugged. “They’re having a party downstairs, and Viago hates parties, so your bad behaviour has actually given him the perfect excuse.”
“And you’re missing a party? You?” He resisted the urge to make a quip about being a ‘bad boy’ he knew her well enough to know it would go down like a lead balloon right now.
“You’re hurt,” She said it like it should be explanation enough.
“What do you care?”
“I wanted to talk to you,”
“Ah, and there, finally, is the truth. I’m afraid you’re not going to find any noble, hidden reason behind what I did.”
“I don’t care,”
“Oh," He laid back on the bed. “You’ve come to berate me instead,”
“I have come to help you,”
“I don’t need your help,” He snarled.
“You’re bleeding,”
Her voice was closer, she had moved while he was distracted.
“ ‘Rio,”
“Do not.” He snapped.
The bed dipped as she sat on the edge.
“I could kill you.”
“Viago is still outside.”
Illario scoffed. “And? With that leg? Your brother wouldn’t be quick enough to save you,”
“Perhaps not, but you’d definitely join me in death,”
“Touché,”
“Let me help you,” She insisted.
“Why?”
“Because unfortunately for me I don’t want you to bleed out and die.”
He mulled it over, he definitely wouldn’t die from his injuries, she was being dramatic. But any infection they might bring? That wouldn’t be pleasant.
“Fine.”
He pushed himself up, sliding up the bed to rest against the pillows.
“Do your worst, Healer de Riva,”
“Don’t worry your pretty little head, I’ll make sure I hurt you,”
An involuntary smirk curled his lips and he huffed a laugh. She just stared at him.
“You’re going to need to take off your shirt,”
“No desire to undress me, Amore?”
“None. Your fingers look like they work just fine,”
“Oh, they certainly do,”
She reached out and pressed her knuckles into his wound. He gritted his teeth, doubling over with a hiss.
“Fair enough,” He choked out.
“Take off your shirt so I can help you.” June ordered.
He grumbled but complied, stripping himself of his vest and shirt, tossing them on the floor. She lifted the bucket, setting it on the bedside table, and moved up the bed to kneel beside him. Her nails trailed along his jaw as she held him steady, checking his eye.
“I don’t think anything is broken but you’re going to have one hell of a bruise,”
“Couldn’t you ask your mage friend for some ice? Keep the swelling down.”
“Her name is Neve. And no, not after what you did to Lucanis,”
She pushed away from his face and reached for the healer bag. Decanting its contents Illario counted three bottles of something blue, a whole block of gauze, and six packets of bandages.
“I didn’t lose that badly,”
“I can leave,”
He put his hands up.
Finally she reached for the bucket, pulled and rang out a cloth from inside it before looking him right in the eyes.
“This is going to hurt,”
“On purpose or…?”
“Illario.”
“Alright. I know. Thank you for the warning,”
She wiped the stab wound along his ribs as gently as she could, but it still fucking hurt.
“Mierda!” He flew forward instinct replacing any logical part of his brain with the need to defend against the pain.
“Sit back.” Her palm was hot against his chest as she pushed him down. “Just try to relax.”
“Try to relax? Are you fucking joking?”
“Oh, poor baby,” She continued to push until he laid back. “I haven’t even gotten to the antiseptic yet,”
Shit. That was the blue stuff.
“You’re lucky it wasn’t me. My blades are filled with poison,” She mused as she cleaned him up.
“Would you have?”
“Hm?”
"Would you have stabbed me?"
She either ignored or didn't hear him.
“Shit!” He lurched, grabbing her wrist as she wiped the very edges of the wound.
“I don’t think it’s too deep,” She observed, leaning closer to inspect it.
“No,”
Deft fingers snatched up one of the blue bottles and a new cloth.
“Do you want warning? Or just want me to do it?” June asked, decanting some of the liquid onto the cloth.
He watched her, considering.
“How fast do you feel?”
She’d taken enough hits herself during that fight, but she seemed to be moving fine.
“Harding forced a healing potion down my throat, and Emmrich set my wrist. I like my chances,” She shrugged.
Healing potions were a luxury he doubted he would be afforded.
“Just… Keep talking to me,”
“I can do that,” She nodded. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Anything,”
“How about we talk about…” She pretended to think, even lifting a finger to tap on her chin for show. “How the fuck we got here? What about that?”
“Anything else,” His eyes drifted to the ceiling, he couldn’t look at her.
“Alright.” She stroked her fingers softly along his ribs, and he focussed on her touch. “My Warden friend Davrin has a griffon.”
“So Lucanis told me,”
“He’s adorable. He’s so funny, and playful. Reminds me of a puppy.” He could hear her smile in her voice.
“The cat-bird reminds you of a puppy?”
“Yes. Or a kitten I guess. He’s still learning though, sometimes he listens to Davrin, sometimes he doesn’t,” Her fingers moved across, straying to the middle of his ribcage.
“So he’s disobedient?”
“No, he’s a baby. He’s learning,” She sighed, her hand stilled. “Sometimes I forget,”
“What?”
“The number your grandmother did on you,”
He didn’t move his head, but his eyes slid to her. She wasn’t looking at him, instead tracing the other scars that littered his body with her eyes.
“It wasn’t that bad. Taught me discipline.” He repeated the statements he told himself daily.
“Viago taught me discipline. He never hurt me.”
“I still find that hard to believe.”
“You know he didn’t. I told you, he told you, Teia told you. Outside the training ring he never laid a hand on me. And even inside it he was reluctant to, until I got older.”
“Yes, I know. Your brother was the good parent, and my grandmother is a shitty human,”
“You know, when Viago said she was dead… I wasn’t sad.” A frown pulled at her mouth. “I was sad for you, for Lucanis, for Teia… But I wasn’t sad she was gone.” She still didn’t look at him, but the admission seemed to weigh on her. "Does that make me a bad person?"
"You're definitely not the worst in the room,"
she managed a weak laugh, but still chided him. "Illario."
“At least you’re honest,”
“I don’t see the point in not being,”
“Why? Because nobody will believe a thing I say?” His eyes returned to the ceiling.
“That too, but because I hate her for what she did to the two of you. Not just the physical stuff, but the mental stuff too. She could have made House Dellamorte so powerful with the two of you united, working together. Instead she chose to play favourites and completely destroy -”
“FUCK!”
Illario tried to lurch up from the bed but June held him firm, pressing him down into the mattress by his shoulder.
“Shh…” She soothed, as she cleaned his wound with the antiseptic.
It burned. Somehow this was worse than the injury itself.
He didn’t realise he was breathing hard, panting through his teeth, until her hand smoothed over his forehead and into his hair
“I’m almost done. Just breathe,”
A thumb swiped along his brow as a cold sensation replaced the sting running along his side, his breathing slowed. He relaxed.
“Shit.” He snapped.
“I know. That’s why we did the worst one first.”
He didn’t realise his fingers were digging into her thigh, gripping her like an anchor to life until she shifted to grab the gauze and bandages. He didn’t release her.
“Thanks, I think,”
She chuckled. “I’m going to have to pack it a bit. So it’s going to sting again, but not quite as badly.”
He nodded.
“Adrenaline finally wearing off, huh?”
“It wore off the moment your brother shoved me through the door and locked it behind me.”
“Understandable,” June nodded.
“I’m surprised he didn’t stab me with a poison blade himself,”
She still wouldn’t look at him.
“He wouldn’t do that to Lucanis,”
He squeezed her thigh gently to try and get her attention.
“Or to you?”
“You saved my life. He’ll remember that,”
“He pushed me on the floor,”
“You also betrayed the Crows, he’ll remember that too,”
Illario managed a wry smile.
“I did,”
“You did,”
They lapsed into silence while she packed the gauze, and bandaged him up. He occasionally dug his fingers into her thigh when something stung, but she didn’t comment on it.
“You’ll need to change that tomorrow. I’ll leave you some supplies.”
“Thank you,”
She went silent again, watching him.
“What?”
“Nothing, just cataloguing.”
“There’s something on my back, two cuts on my other arm, and I think something on my leg. But they’re nothing.” He pushed himself up to sit. “Unless you want me to take my trousers off,”
June fixed him with a glare.
“Okay, too far. My sincerest apologies,”
“Turn over,”
“Kinky,”
“Illario!”
“Alright!”
With a little effort he rotated to lie on his front.
“Just how did you expect to sort this out yourself?”
“It’s not that bad,”
“I would love to see you reach it,”
He twisted his arm behind his back, and she put a light finger at both the top and the bottom of the slice. Which, no matter how he contorted, he couldn’t reach.
Neither said a word as he lowered his arm back to the bed.
“I don’t think this will hurt as much,”
She ran her finger beside the length of it, he hissed.
“Talk to me,” He insisted.
“Baby…” She grumbled, as she reached for the hot water and cloth again. “Neve has an office, slash bedroom, at the Lighthouse, and it is just full of wisps. They won’t leave her alone,”
Wisps. He’d only ever seen one or two in his whole life. Though he supposed they would be more abundant in the Fade.
“I would have thought they would be more obsessed with the necromancer,”
“I think she was hoping the same when we brought Emmrich in. But no. They still hang out in her room, steal her things, bring her other peoples things… They’re actually kind of cute.”
“Wisps. Spirits. Are cute?”
“Kind of,” She ran her fingers down his spine, a contemplative pause. “I’d love to see you meet Manfred.”
“I’ve not heard that name,”
“We don’t tend to bring him with us outside of Nevarra. There would be some interesting reactions, especially here,”
“Dare I ask why?”
“He’s a skeleton,”
“He’s a what?!”
At the same time he responded she used the antiseptic.
“Shit. Jay.”
The hand between his shoulder-blades tensed, nails scratching.
“Don’t.”
He’d set his own boundary earlier, he shouldn’t be surprised. He didn’t apologise, only nodded.
“Manfred is a skeleton.” The tense hand now moved, smoothing gauze against his skin. “He was a wisp of curiosity that was drawn to Emmrich and never left. So Emmrich built him his very own body,”
“Okay.”
“You’re just willing to accept that?”
“I’ve been dabbling in blood magic for over a year. I can accept a lot of things right now. You saw how rapidly Zara aged.” He attempted to shrug. “Besides, I’m a little frightened that if I don’t accept it you’ll force me to meet him,”
June fell quiet as she worked. She even moved onto his arm, cleaning and bandaging one of the cuts without a word.
“Talk to me?”
“How about, you talk to me?”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“I’m telling you about my life now. Why don’t you tell me about yours?”
“I already told you.” He snapped. “There isn’t a noble reason for what I did, and if you’re looking for one you’re going to be very disappointed. I - -”
“Tell me about Zara.”
“June…”
“Tell me about Zara.” She repeated.
“A means to an end,”
“She called you Amatus,”
“You’ve seen me work. I can be very convincing,”
“Hm.” She frowned.
“You weren’t here. You aren’t allowed to take it personally,”
He barely noticed the antiseptic this time, he was too busy watching her.
“You weren’t here.” It was his turn to repeat himself.
“What am I? Your impulse control? You’re an adult. You are responsible for yourself. I’m gone a month, and you jump into bed with a Venatori witch?”
“A means to an end. I’ve told you.”
She wrapped the bandages a little too roughly around his bicep.
“Ow.”
“You conspired to have your cousin killed, and instead he was tortured for a year, and the first thing I could think of when Caterina said Lucanis was dead was that I let you drown in that grief all by yourself because I messed up. I felt guilty. Then to find out you did that… Why?”
“I wanted to be First Talon. With Lucanis alive Caterina would never have decided in my favour. I would have had to kill him anyway,” He pushed himself up to turn back over, and look at her properly. If they were having this conversation he wanted to see her face.
“Bullshit.”
“Believe what you want. I’m telling you the truth.” He propped himself up on his elbows.
June sighed.
“You are not that conceited.”
“What do you want to hear? My life fucking imploded, and I went off the deep end?” He dropped back against the pillows. “Then here - My life fucking imploded and I went off the deep end. You were gone. Lucanis was never here and determined he would die on the job. Teia took every contract that paid enough. She tried not to be so blatant about it but everyone knew she was doing it to keep herself so busy she couldn’t think. And Viago… Your brother was never my friend anyway. Being a Crow was destined to take everything from me the moment I was born. So maybe I decided I’d had enough. Maybe I decided if my life was going to collapse I was going to be the one orchestrating that fall. Maybe I decided I wanted some damn control over myself for once in my damned life!”
“There it is,”
“Don’t mock me.”
“I’m not mocking you,” She shook her head. “Thank you, in fact,”
“For what?”
“Actually telling me the truth,”
“I don’t regret what I did,”
“I know.” She nodded.
“I don’t,”
“Not yet,”
“I won’t.”
“You will,”
He was about to snap back at her again when she reached up to his face with a clean piece of gauze, and started gently wiping his eyes. He pushed her off and swiped at his face angrily.
She sat back creating space but staying within reach.
“Are you sorry for what you did?”
“No.”
“Okay,”
“That’s it? You’re not going to tell me something righteous like ‘you will be’ or something like that?”
“I’ve already told you that you’re going to regret what you did, the remorse will come after,”
He shuffled up the bed to prop himself up against the pillows.
“Why did you come?”
“You know me, I like a party. Your invitation sounded interesting, despite the fact I didn’t get one myself,” She picked at the knee of her trousers. She’d shed her cloak and jacket between the door and the bed, something which had taken him too long to notice.
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
“Stop you from doing something stupid,”
“You still trust me.”
She stayed quiet.
“Why do you still trust me? After all of that? Are you really so naive?”
“You fought Lucanis. You fought Neve. You fought your own damned Venatori soldiers. But you never touched me. You even killed the Venatori who tried. Even if you’d beaten us, even if you’d won. After that? They never would have let you stay in charge.”
“Zara killed them all the time, they are expendable.”
“She killed them for herself. You killed them for me. Someone on the opposing side.”
“I wasn’t going to let them hurt you,”
The answer came too quickly and he watched as she caught it.
“Why?” She moved closer, keeping her eyes on his.
“Do you really need me to say it?”
“I do,” She knelt up, closer still.
“No.”
“Say it.” She got into his space.
He watched her, she was so close one movement of his leg and she’d fall right into his lap.
“Say it.”
“June…” He whispered.
“Why did you save me, Illario?”
She reached out, her hand on his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch.
“Look at me ‘Rio,”
He opened his eyes.
“Tell me why you saved me.”
“Because I still love you,”
The words slipped out before he could stop them. Just as quick her lips were on his, her hands drifted to either side of his head holding him in place. Not that she needed to, he was exactly where he wanted to be. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his lap, she didn’t resist. It was clumsy and slightly awkward with the angle and his injuries, but he made it work. Her hands slid down to his neck, her arms eventually replacing them as she moved one hand into his hair. The heel of her boots dug into his thigh, his grip on her waist was likely bruising, but Illario didn’t care. Her lips were sliding against his, his tongue was in her mouth, and if he breathed deeply enough underneath all the antiseptic and the scent of exertion from the fight he could still smell a familiar scent of lavender and vanilla.
He was intoxicated.
So much so that when she pulled away for breath, June had to hold him back so she actually got some.
“Easy,”
“I love you,” He repeated, turning his attention to her neck.
“Illario,”
His palm splayed between her shoulderblades, fingers just brushing the bottom of her neck. His other arm wrapped tighter around her waist pulling her around to straddle him, putting them chest to chest. A moan slipped free from her lips, he held her tighter.
“Stop.”
He barely heard her.
“Illario. Stop.”
Her nails dug into his shoulders, and it was all he could do not to fling her from the bed, never mind his lap.
“What did you do that for?” He panted.
“You’re injured. You’re really hurt, and I -.”
“Let me worry about that-,”
“I don’t want to do that yet,” The words left her mouth in a rush.
That sobered him right up.
“You kissed me, if I recall correctly.”
“I know. And I’m… I’m okay with just that, for now… I…” She shook her head, sitting back on his thighs, sliding her hands down her face.
“Cu- June,” He lowered his hands to her knees, keeping them in firmly neutral territory. “June, it’s okay, I should apologise. I jumped ahead when I should have asked instead,”
“No. I shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have done that…”
She started to slide away but he held firm to her knees, fingers sliding around the back for better grip.
“I’m not complaining,”
She laughed, a little, the tension easing from her shoulders.
“I know you’re not,”
He lifted a hand, twisting a lock of dark red hair around his fingers.
“Can we do it again?”
"Just the kissing?"
"Pretty please?"
She laughed again, finally relaxing.
“Sure,”
Trailing his fingers down her spine, he urged her forward with the light pressure. She shifted forward until her thighs bracketed his hips, and she looked down at him.
“Exquisite.”
June smiled. “Sweet talker,”
“Beautiful,” He trailed fingers across her cheeks, down the slope of her nose.
She grabbed his hand and kissed his palm.
“Flirt,”
“Only for you,”
“That’s not true,”
“I only ever mean it for you,”
When their lips met again it was more tenderness than ferocity. A gentle longing after being apart for over a year. They stayed like that for a while, perhaps too long, until there was a prolonged banging on the door and June practically leapt from his lap.
“If I don’t hear signs of life from that room in the next thirty seconds I am going to assume that something has gone horribly wrong, and break down this door. And if I was to break down this door and catch anyone in the middle of something they shouldn’t be doing I’m going to slit the throat of the Dellamorte on the other side of it!”
“Well that’s an over reaction, there's no need to bash the door down! You have the key!”
June pressed a hand to his mouth but laughed quietly. “Shut up,”