#you give me a chance to write fluffy ryn/red i'm gonna RUN WITH IT

[queen-scribbles]

Relatively Speaking

First, anon, thank you! ✨ ❤️✨ 😊 Second, my immediate reaction of “Aahhh, that’s perfect for them” was proven correct as this morphed from a micro fill to an actual 1200 word oneshot very quickly.

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Wolves were, relatively speaking, less of a concern once you’d gone up against a Faceless Lord or three. (Or five.)

That did not, however, guarantee emerging unscathed.

“Come here.” Xaeryn let the spell at her fingertips fade away and strode toward Red as Chase and Briony made sure the wolves stayed gone. His yelp of pain from mid-fight was still ringing in her ears and it made her heart pound

“Ryn, it’s fine, I can take care-”

“One-handed?” she cut him off, words sharp with her racing heart. She arched her brows knowingly. “It’ll be much easier if you let me help.”

“Heh, can’t argue with that,” Red conceded with a small laugh as he sat heavily on a convenient boulder and half-extended his arm. And he did know her well enough to not even try when she was so adamant. “Alright.”

Xaeryn sat next to him and cupped her hand under his forearm as she examined the pair of gashes that cut across the skin. She didn’t miss the way his breath caught, ever so slightly, at her touch. “Good thing you have quick reflexes,” she finally said. “It only grazed you; these aren’t even deep enough to need stitches.” Thank God. Her thumb rubbed an arc against his skin and she couldn’t help a small smile.  “Nice backswing, by the way.”

He chuckled, darting a glance toward his warhammer, propped against the side of the boulder . “Thank you. I’d like to take credit, but it was pretty much all instinct-”

“Pretty sure you still get credit for those, Red,” she teased, releasing his arm so she could gather the supplies she’d need from her pack.

“-and adrenaline,” he finished, smiling at her. “Do I get credit for that, too?”

“Hmm, ‘fraid not.” Xaeryn paused just as her fingers brushed his arm.”What?”

Red nodded toward her hand, his smile faded into something more sober.  “Looks like one got you, too.”

She followed his gaze to the blood rapidly going sticky down the side of her hand and wrist. The sting set in as she registered its presence. “Oh. Must have been the one I tried to light on fire; none of the rest ever got close enough...” The gash sat just below her knuckles, only a slightly deeper cut than Red’s injuries.  “It’ll be fine.”

He studied her face as she set about cleaning his arm. “Awfully reckless, especially for you, Xaer,” he said softly.

She shrugged, picked up the bandages, and nudged his elbow a little higher so she’d have a good angle as she set to work. “It was after you,” she replied, just as softly. “And you already had your hands full.”

She tried to ignore how uncomfortably close the scratches came to parts of his arm where they could have done real damage and didn’t quite succeed.

He chuckled. “If you’re worried about me, Ryn, your best course of action is to stop doing things that nearly give me heart attacks.”

Xaeryn smiled wryly. “I’ll see what I can do. But between our line of work and you being-”

“A worrier?” Red filled in blithely.

She laughed as she nodded. “I don’t know how successful I’ll be.”

“I’ll appreciate just the effort,” he said, his free hand coming up brush dirt off her cheek.

They lapsed into silence as she bandaged his arm, almost elbow to wrist, pausing when he winced despite her efforts, or when her hand spasmed.

“There we go,” Xaeryn murmured as she finished and tied off the bandages. She slid her hand the few inches to let Red’s rest against her palm, fingers tracing small, gentle circles on his skin, around his knuckles and back toward his wrist.

“Thank you.” Red indulged her for a moment, then flipped his hand over, gently grasping her wrist to pull her hand toward him. “Your turn.”

She laughed a little as she passed over the bandages and waterskin. “Very smooth.”

“Well, I do have a reputation,” he joked, turning her hand over so he could trickle water over the gash to wash away the blood.

“The legendary Antiqua charm?” Xaeryn needled with a smile, splaying her fingers a bit so the bandages wouldn’t be too tight when he was done.

Red laughed warmly. “I feel like ‘legendary’ is overstating it a little, don’t you?” 

Her smile turned into a smirk and she leaned forward to flick a clump of grass off his sleeve. “As the one who watched pretty much everyone in the Circle swoon over my best friend at one point or another, I have to disagree.”

He blushed and turned his attention to her hand. “I don’t think it was everyone, Xaer.”

“You’re right, Pan and Neon did prove surprisingly resistant...” Xaeryn joked, then cocked her head in thought a moment and laughed. “Could’ve been they were trying to nudge the two of us together...”

Red snorted an amused laughed as he wiped the blood and water off her hand. “Would have saved us a lot of time if we weren’t such idiots if they were.”

“Thankfully it worked out, even though we are idiots,” she replied with equal amusement. She looked down at the now-clear gash and wrinkled her nose. “Good thing that’s not any deeper or it might turn into a problem...”

His thumb ran gently along the edge of the wound. “It did come awful close to doing serious damage.”

“But it didn’t,” she reminded him, seeing the worry creeping in his gaze again.  “We’ll keep an eye on it, to be safe, as well as yours. Absolute worst case, Briony does know something about Healing. But I don’t think it’ll come to that.”

“I hope not.” Red bit his lip and concentrated on wrapping the bandages evenly. “There you go,” he said softly when he was done, and pressed a light kiss to the backs of her fingers just above the bandages, running his thumb--warm and callused and gentle--over the skin before he released her hand.

“Thank you,” Xaeryn said, the earlier worried tightness in her chest easing into warmth. She caught his hand as he started to withdraw and leaned forward until her temple rested against his. “I’m glad you’re alright, Red.” Her fingers brushed lightly over his bandaged arm. “Relatively speaking.”

“Same to you, Xaer,” he murmured, leaning into the contact and glancing at her hand. “Relatively speaking.”

“You lovebirds done patchin’ each other up yet?” Chase’s voice interrupted cheerfully, along with the rustle of undergrowth. “‘Cause I figure none of us wanna camp right next to the half dozen dead wolves.”

“Chase!” Briony huffed. She slugged his shoulder, and he winced for a moment before it turned back into a cat-like grin.

While she appreciated the indignation on their behalf, Chase did have a point.  “It’s fine, Briony. We’re done. And he’s right; this would be a rather terrible place to camp, so we really should try to find a better one before it gets dark.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Chase winked at her. “I think I saw somewhere while we were shooing away our uninvited guests.” He jerked his head toward the nearest dead wolf. “Looked like a safe spot for the night, relatively speaking. We are still in the middle of the woods.”

“Sounds good.” Xaeryn leaned more firmly into her contact with Red for a moment before she stood.

“I feel like ‘relatively speaking’ is the best we’re going to get out here,” Red agreed as he followed suit. He collected his warhammer and nodded to Chase. “Lead the way.”

He and Xaeryn fell in step next to each other as they followed Chase and Briony back through the woods, close enough their hands brushed even if they never clasped. Each brief contact had Xaeryn fighting a smile, and she saw Red doing the same. But given they weren’t alone, it was probably best if they behaved themselves....

Her fingers tingled where Red had kissed them and she bit her lip to hold back a wider smile.

....relatively speaking.