damn, I went on a writing spreeeee
“Behind!”
Raven’s voice echoed down from his perch and Rita spun. Snap went the sash, cracking in the monster’s face. The strange foxlike beast did an odd hop-skip, ducking underneath the attack. Its spear flashed in the dim light, and it was Rita’s only warning. A sloppy flip saved the mage’s life. She etched the air with wind in her next jump to give her more space, but the creature moved too fast.
Raven tch’d and shook his head, plucking a crude arrow from his battered quiver. He heaved on the bowstring, took aim, and let fly. Rita heard the familiar twang of his bowstring, and the familiar whistle that was one of his arrows. She threw herself to the ground to avoid the thrown spear.
Thunk. The arrow buried itself with a satisfying noise in the creature’s head. Rita pushed herself on her knees, crawling towards the fallen monster to salvage what she could. She had managed to snap the arrowhead out when a crack split the air. She looked up.
The spear had come too fast for Raven to do anything but awkwardly jump to the side. It had missed him completely, but managed to sever his bowstring, which whipped at him at alarming speeds. Raven’s hand was all that saved him from a slit throat. The useless bow clattered to the ground as he hissed in pain and clutched his wrist, watching the blood seep out of his palm. “Well, hell,” he ground out.
“You stupid old idiot!” Rita growled as loud as she dared, clambering up the pile of debris. Her foot kicked a piece of shale free and she nearly broke her nose, but she managed to make it up quickly enough.
“I’ll be fine,” Raven managed, trying to ignore the stinging in his palm and - he discovered to his dismay, glancing down - his chest. Rita’s hand curled on the back of his collar, and Raven knew there was no arguing with her when she got that look in her eye.
“Training’s done for the day.”
“We can’t spend forever down here,” he protested as she steered him down the rubble pile. He slid on a loose rock and tumbled a ways. Once he’d finally come to a halt, he waited for the spraying dirt that meant Rita had frantically slid down to him before continuing. “Rations are runnin’ out. This place doesn’t have infinite resources. It’s only a matter of days before Aether finds us, anyway.”
“Stop being such a baby and let’s go,” Rita snapped, swinging Raven’s battered bag onto her back. “We need to find a new campsite.”
Raven sighed and dutifully crunched along as best as he could. He hurt, certainly, but he was used to hurting - it came with being a Knight. And nothing was as bad as dying. The archer shuddered briefly, the hazy memory making his hands clammy. He focused instead on the mage in front of him. She was blazing a trail for him, fingers hooked around the packstraps, carrying it like it was no weight at all.
Strong, he thought. He remembered her fingers scrabbling at his chest in the darkness, sopping up his blood - fingers that later curled into a fist and sent him flying. Fingers that danced across her diagnoses pad, illuminated by blastialight…swung a chain expertly…flipped pages and ghosted over words gently-
You’ll want to stop that, the Schwann part of his brain advised him. Raven blinked. When’ve I been one for waxin’ poetic ‘bout Rita? he wondered. He tried to imagine himself with her, briefly - the image came to him a little more easily than he was comfortable with. A chuckle escaped his throat, half-forced and half-desperate. ‘s all the time around her. Things’ll be better when we get outta here. If we get outta here.
“If your mind’s going already, old man, I’m just gonna leave you here,” Rita snapped, bringing reality crashing back down on the old spy. He rolled his eyes dramatically, looking at the area she’d chosen.
“Not bad,” he murmured approvingly. “Good enough distance from the water - outta the way, no ambush points…couldn’t have done better.”
“I’m glad I meet Captain Schwann’s approval,” was her irate response as she dropped the bag and shoved him toward the lake. He frowned. “Stop looking like that and let’s go get your wounds bandaged.” Rita marched him to the water, then forced him into a sitting position. “Shirt off,” she commanded. “Stick your hand in the water, too.”
Raven arched his eyebrows up and allowed a grin to spread across his face. Rita yanked on his haori in response, jabbing him in the ribs warningly. He sighed and decided to keep his mouth shut, helping her unbutton his ruined shirt instead. The archer felt oddly exposed in the waterlight of the yawning cavern. He shifted uncomfortably as Rita peered closer at his blastia heart, all business. Without looking away, she grabbed his right wrist and shoved his bleeding hand into the shallows. Raven gave a strangled yelp at the sudden shock of the cold.
“Shut up,” she hissed. “You want to attract every monster down here?”
“G-Geez, a little warning next time!”
“If you had just listened I wouldn’t have to.” Rita sounded more like she was scolding a child. Raven wanted so badly to goad her, but reined the feeling in and waited. She’d give him a chance soon enough. He amused himself by letting his eyes flick over their surroundings, but watching the shadows made him paranoid, so he soon turned his attention to the mage in front of him instead. Her face was lit by the glowing keys on her diagnostics pad, making her eyes greener than they already were. He nearly jumped out of his skin when her fingers ghosted around his collet. She snarled a warning and placed her other hand on his shoulder to steady him. It was an irate gesture, he knew, but it also felt oddly intimate, the way her thumb pressed into his collarbone.
Shit. Raven cast about for something else to focus on, and instead found himself noticing how her hair was matted with dirt and fell in her face. One clean wisp slid over her ears, and the spy found himself reaching toward her as if to tuck it back behind her ear…
Well, congrats, Raven berated himself (and Schwann, who was also most definitely at fault). You need to get the hell outta here as soon as possible or you’re gonna keep crushin’ on someone who’s half your age. He could think of no witty comeback for himself, and knew he was, indeed, screwed.
“Get your hand back in the water!” Rita growled. The cold was a welcome shock from his thoughts. He focused on Rita again, and nearly choked as she started yanking off her red jacket.
“Wh-What-”
“Oh shut up,” was the angry response of someone who had been barely tolerating his presence during the last couple of days. “You need something to stop the blood flow.” She ripped the bottom deftly, the red cloth giving way easily under her grip.
“But that’s your jacket,” he said stupidly.
“It’s seen better days. Besides, if this is the only one you think I have, you’re sadly mistaken. What, you were hoping to see me walk around stark naked?” She scowled, snapping her long-sleeved black undershirt at him, daring him to say something perverted.
He didn’t, and chose to continue gaping at her instead.
“Smart,” she said tartly. The little odds and ends that were always clicking and rustling from her coat were reverently placed on the dirt before she continued shredding the durable material. Raven stared at the magnifying glass, notepad, assorted pens, and steles, wondering how one girl could fit so much on her and manage to go without sounding like a circus act. “Lift up your arm,” Rita instructed, pulling his right bicep upwards. Raven obeyed, water from his hand dripping onto her hair as she leaned closer. “You reek,” she said mildly.
“Sorry if cavorting around down here hasn’t done wonders for my personal hygiene,” he replied absently. He felt something wet mopping against his stomach, and his head jerked. The mage was studiously cleaning his wound with a scrap of what used to be her jacket, which she had briefly doused in the lake. “…sorry,” he said after a minute, surprising them both.
“For what?” Rita glanced at the red cloth in her hand. “This?” She shrugged and went back to wiping the dirt away carefully. “It’s better than letting it get infected and having you keel over.” She sat back on her knees, grabbing the rest of the crimson strips and tying them around his chest. “This should keep your blastia from bouncing around, too, until I can take a better look at it when we get back,” the mage said from behind him. Raven felt a slight tug and knew she was tying the makeshift bandages off. “It’ll hide it, too.”
“What about my shirt?” Raven ignored his goosebumps and looked at the pink slip on the dirt. It was bloodied and shredded beyond recognition. “…ah.”
“Right. Now give me your hand.”
Raven slid his left one into hers and waggled his eyebrows. She swatted at him and grabbed his right hand, inspecting the slash across his palm. “Really, Rita, it’ll heal fine on its own,” he insisted. A pink slip of blood, diluted by the water, slid down his wrist, just to spite him. Rita untied the yellow ribbon around her arm as Raven stuck his hand in his lap.
“Old man.”
“It’s fine,” he lied.
“Raven.”
He was glad the cloth was covering his blastia so she wouldn’t see how it whirred a little faster for a split second. “I thought you were talking to Schwann,” he said instead, flippantly. Thunderclouds gathered behind her eyes. Yikes.
“If you don’t give it to me right now, old man, I swear I-”
Before he knew what he was doing, a grin slipped from him, easy and bright. “That’s what she said,” he drawled, leaning back on his left hand, pose languid and lewd.
Everything about it was so utterly Raven that it took Rita by surprise. It was fair enough, he supposed - Raven hadn’t really been around since she’d given Schwann a good right cross against the jaw. It had been a weird mesh of the two. She stared at him, openly startled. His grin increased, and he opened his mouth to slip out Ya know darlin’, you sure do look cute gapin’ at me like a fish outta water, but was discouraged by the sudden fist in his solar plexus. He coughed and doubled over slightly, and she took the time to grab his right hand and wind the yellow ribbon around it tightly. The wet cloth smacked him in the face as she got to her feet, stalking back to their makeshift camp. Raven untangled the dirty rag from his unkempt length of hair and grinned to himself.
I'm gonna go watch Game of Thrones now.