Best first date ever. ;D
Rivek leaned his head back, but it only caused the blood to drain down the back of his throat. It tasted sour. He turned and spat into the fountain before pinching the bridge of his nose.
Willow grabbed his jaw, so she could hold him still and get a better look at the damage. She wet the rag she clutched and wiped off the blood that had begun to dry on his upper lip. As her fingers graced his skin, she could see the networks of his broken blood vessels lighting up with her magic. Quickly, they darkened, absorbing her energy. She blinked. This had never happened before. She touched them again, and again her magic faded into his body.
"Can you fix it?" he asked. His ears rang, and his stuffy voice felt far away.
"I'm trying - I don't know what's wrong." She threw out her threads once more. This time, she had to forcibly pushed them forward through his bloodstream, constantly reinforcing them with more magic from her core. Her hands shook a little, and sweat beaded on her palms and forehead. As her energy passed through, the burst vessels repaired themselves. She drove her threads deeper, through the soft skin and flesh, to his skull. She ran them along its surface, searching for any irregularity. A wide fracture ran across his nose bridge.
She moved his hand away from his face. "Don't touch it - it's broken."
He smirked and replied with a nasal, "You're telling me."
She placed either hand on the side of his nose and with a crunch, set it back to place. He howled and pushed her hands away.
"You, sir, are a terrible patient. Stay off it, and let it heal." She looked at her work in the moonlight. Even in the dark, she could tell this was sub-par to any healing she had ever done before. She sent another barrage of magic through his sinuses, but she was too tired to reinforce it. It dissipated like her first and left her short of breath. The bone and tissue repair was still shoddy, rough around the edges.
"This is going to bruise tomorrow morning. Keep something cold on it, to keep the swelling down."
He sat on his hands to keep from touching his face. "Is it going to hurt like a bitch? The same way it's doing now?"
"Don't say 'bitch'!" She set her arms in her lap and broke eye contact. "Probably."
He shrugged. "Don't worry about it. We'll just say I fell off a horse."
"I'd believe that. You're an awful rider." She stifled laughed with her now bloody hands. She rinsed them in the fountain.
He washed his hands as well and stood up to wipe them on his pants. "Let's go," he motioned. "It's harder to sneak back into a castle when people are awake."
Willow stifled a gasp as he put his arm around her shoulder. She was glad it was dark out, or he would have seen her blush. "That was a really nice thing you did - standing up for me."
"Don't worry about it."
She ran her fingers nervously through the ends of her braided hair and bit her lip. "You're not going to tell anyone that I asked you to sneak me out of the palace, right?"
"As long as you don't tell anybody that I travel with thieves - but more importantly - that I can count cards." He winked but quickly regretted having ever moved the muscles on his face. With something halfway between a smile and a wince, he whispered, "This is our little secret."
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