Chris had bathed and now sat on the edge of the tub with nothing but pants on.
With the limited movement in her left arm, she couldn't put on her bra. A knock came at the bathroom door. Chris got up and stood behind it. "Before I let you in, Can you be an adult about this?" She leaned in closer to the door to try and hear him better. "Adults are the ones who have sex." she groaned, no apparently he could not be an adult about this.
"I think I'll just stay in here for a week until it feels better." Zeven rapped on the door. "Hey, I'm only kidding, please let me in." Against her better judgement she found herself unlocking the door. However, she kept hidden behind it as it opened. Her front to the wall and her back out in the open Chris had her good arm wrapped around her chest.
Zeven peaked his head around the door and saw her standing there. "I figured as much. You doing okay?" Chris could feel her face growing warm as she practically overflowed with embarrassment. "I'm fine, let's get this over with." Zeven made no move to get closer. "Would you feel better with your chest covered? I haven't had to put on many bras, but I'm quite experienced taking them off." He kept his gaze off her, looking at the tile on the floor instead.
Chris wasn't sure if he was teasing or genuinely offering to help. But she took her chances, "It would make things a bit less awkward, yes. It's on the ground by the tub. Please don't-" "Don't be an ass?" he cut her off. "I'm sure I'll manage somehow." Grabbing that garment off the floor.
It was white and stretchy, serving only to make the chest flatter. The bras Zeven was used to were usually more of the aesthetically pleasing kind. "How would you like to do this?" She took a deep breath, "I'll get my left arm in and then you'll help me pull it up over my head. You help in the back and I'll take care of the front.
Stiffly, Zeven marched over passing Chris the bra over her shoulder. She leaned closer to the wall to try and hide her chest. Quickly slipping it on her arm she worked it up to her shoulder joint. "This is the part I need help with. If you'll grab the back and help me get it stretched enough for my head to fit through, all that will be left is getting the other arm in and it'll work just like getting it over my head." "Okay."
Due to the difference in height Zeven could easily look down Chris's front, but he kept his eyes firmly on the back of her freckled shoulder. He went to open the hole for her head and accidentally brushed over her skin. She flung herself further into the wall, and he immediately pulled his hand back. "Sorry, I should have warned you first."
"It's fine, let's get this over with." Working together, they managed to stretch the material enough to get it over her head and then work her other arm in. For a small scrap of fabric, it made a big difference. Chris still faced the wall as she adjusted the front of the bra.
"Would you believe that taking it off together is even more fun?"
"Why do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"You make jokes at the most inappropriate times."
Zeven paused, raising an eyebrow at Chris, he stepped back and sat on the edge of the tub. "I only make jokes at the most opportune times." He said with mock offense "I consider myself somewhat of a people expert. As such, I am capable of being whoever I need to be in the moment. I joke with you, because you are incapable of feeling fear and irritation at the same time. that and sometimes I just like to watch you squirm." He was far enough that he could no longer make out the freckles on her shoulders, only the outline of her body. "Is that the reason for your frequent mood swings?" Immediately he looked away from her, realizing he had been staring. "Just trying to have the upper hand in every situation."
"Do you ever fear you'll forget who you are in the midst of it?"
"Fear is not a luxury I have." It was something he had often thought of. There was no point in worrying, he would do what needed to be done. Damn the consequences. But in the back of his mind he couldn't help but wonder if he had already lost a part of himself over the years.
Chris turned around, still uncomfortable her good arm situated in front of her chest holding onto the injured shoulder. Zeven cleared the side of the bathtub so Chris could sit there. She swung her feet into the tub so that Zeven could freely move behind her. Grabbing the first aid kit he brought with him, he pulled out the bandages and moved closer to Chris.
The beginning of a large purple bruise could be seen under the thick straps of her bra, like a tipped glass of wine it seeped out over her white shoulder.
"Chris-" he caught himself, "Christopher."
"Chris is fine."
"This wasn't my intention, I didn't plan on hurting your shoulder.." Zeven sat on the rim of the tub facing the opposite direction from her.
"It's really fine, I've dislocated it so many times that it's not much of an issue. inconvenient sure, but not world shattering."
"You've dislocated it before?"
"Plenty of times, I'm convinced that it was out of socket during the war more than it was in place." Chris laughed stiffly, remembering what it was like then.
"Did you ever get it treated? I didn't think they knew you were a girl."
"They didn't, I had a medic pop it back into place and then I went into my tent and tried to secure it the best I could." she paused, " I did eventually have someone who would help me-"
"Who?"
"Brennan." They both grew quiet as the tension in the room rose. "After finding out that I was a girl I kept him close so that he wouldn't be able to tell anyone else. Somewhere along the way, he became a friend to me." She said friend with a bitter note.
"I know that it doesn't change things, but he wasn't the one who betrayed your secret. I had that from a prior source."
She ignored him for the most part. "It never occured to me that the 'jerk' he used to talk about would have been you, but it does make sense."
"He called me a jerk?"
"His words were a bit stronger, but essentially. However it can't be said that he isn't fond of you."
There was a great empty space that neither of them could fill. Zeven went to place his hand on her shoulder, but caught himself at the last minute. Curling his fingers inwards he withdrew his hand. "Let's bandage that shoulder shall we?"
Springing up, Zeven stood over Chris, and unrolled the bandage enough to get started. He bent forward to get close enough to wrap it around her. Starting with the bicep of her injured arm, he pulled it gently to the side to secure the dressing around it. Making several loops he took a deep breath before passing it around the front of her body.
Chris sat rigidly, perfectly still. Her eyes focused on a single spot on the wall, but when Zeven brought the wrap over her chest, she grimaced slightly.
"I can think of something else I'd prefer to wrap around your breast."
She grimaced more, "Do I seem nervous, or is that something you are actually considering?"
Zeven laughed, "Relax, if you get any more tense you could end up straining your shoulder."
"Why is it that I only seem to get crude jokes?"
"Well, you are particularly sensitive to it, so you fall for it every single time. Besides, you have a preconceived notion of me, I find it easier to lean into that instead of fighting it. You know, a lie is easier to swallow when it contains a little truth."
"You understand that now that you have told me your secret it doesn't hold the same power. Be careful or you may start to look like a fairly decent guy underneath it all." Zeven's hand brushed her back as he wound the bandage around her. His calm demeanor masked his humor. "Me? Decent? Never. How do you know I didn't reveal that information to make you think I was a good person so that your guard would be down and I could take advantage of you with greater ease?"
"I have a hard time believing that you could string so many thoughts together."
"I am capable of more than what you are giving me credit for."
"Since I've been here you have been both and ass and kind at different moments on any given day. If you are that cunning, I think that you would be able to commit to one facade."
Having nothing else to comment, he shook his head before returning to wrapping Chris. He was about at the end of the roll so he made one more pass in a figure 8 around her shoulder and chest to secure it before stooping down to fasten the bandage in the back. As he got closer, he saw something he hadn't noticed before. Chris's skin was covered in hundreds of scars. He could read the tapestry of her skin, recognising the ones made from swords to ones made from arrows and whips and other things.
Following them with his eyes, he saw them run across all the skin on her torso. Chris felt his stare, turning her head to look back at him. Zeven was too occupied in looking that he didn't see that he was the one being studied. "There are just scars, it would be unreasonable to think that I wouldn't have some."
"But to have this many-"
"I was a general of an army. Do not forget that."
"That's not what I meant. It's just that most of these look like they could have been avoided with proper medical treatment."
A moment of realization crossed over his face. As a woman pretending to be a man it was unlikely that she had anyone to help with that sort of thing. Even then, that was not the most troubling thing he saw when he looked at her scars. It was the age, frequency, and shape of the ones on her back that infuriated him.
The fact that so many of them were on her back, sent a shiver down his spine. It is common to have scars on the front of your body from battle. You were fighting an enemy head on, and the front was usually the only place they had to strike. Scars on the back however were less indicative of a battle. It was considered cowardly to charge at an unsuspecting person who had their back to you. There was no honor in that. But in times of war, ethics and honor became skewed, morals that should have been held onto are let go as the sides rage into battle.
Still, to have so many also meant that there had to be another reason behind them. He didn't ask, but he could assume where and whom she got them from.
Zeven tore his eyes away, finished fastening the bandage and stood up. Trying to put some distance between himself and her so that he could no longer see her scars. But now that he knew they were there, he doubted he would be able to forget them.
He found himself fidgeting, unsure of what to do next. "Out of curiosity, just what would you say was your role in the army?" He looked at her sitting on the edge of the tub. Her arms rested on her knees as she leaned forward and in. "I was a puppet. Even when I had ideas or useful insight it was often ignored on my father's order." He was treading on dangerous territory, but couldn't help himself from continuing.
"It seems counter-intuitive for him to have the future king be little more than a prop in his hand. Aren't you being raised to become king after him?"
"It would appear that way, but it's all for show. His intentions are to rule through me, everything I've done has been to keep up appearances."
Zeven squinted his eyes and exhaled loudly, "What a dumb plan, he has given you all the tools you need to run a country, couldn't you just take it take the throne and then ignore him?"
Looking over her shoulder she stared at Zeven, leaning into her good shoulder for support. "Because I was born a woman, it's put me in a bit of a tight spot."
"Do you want my opinion?"
"If I say no, are you going to give it to me anyway?"
"Yes." he immediately started to carry on, "Chris, people have an amazing ability to wish away things. Believing what they want and interpreting facts to come to a favorable solution for themselves. I can't guarantee it, but I'd bet that if they truly wanted to believe that you were a male they can interpret that scene into something that suits their narrative. Or better yet, they can just get over it."
"It's a nice sentiment, but things are never that easy."
"Chris," he said, "I am very sorry for what I did. I am aware that apologizing after the fact does not take back what I did, but I am sorry. At the time I was sure that I could use you to further my goals, and that I could take you by force, make you my queen and then throw you away when you lost your usefulness-"
"That's brutally honest, you sure you don't want to hold some of that back?"
Zeven leaned into his back leg and stuck his hands in his pants pockets. There was bruising around his eyes and nose which broke up his passive expression. "No point in it now. You're in too deep to back out at this point." Chris rolled her eyes, but he was right. Even if she managed to get back to her own kingdom there was no guarantee that things would work out in her favor. At least come the end of the month, she would return with a viable solution to lasting peace, hopefully that would be enough.
Chris stood keeping her injured shoulder pulled close, but there was a new energy coming from her. Zeven felt her magnetism pull him into her, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. From a distance the bruise on her shoulder didn't look as bad.
It was almost too easy to see her mother in the way she looked. Her long, blonde hair cascading down, her creamy white skin. But the way she stood didn't resemble her at all. It was blockish, and masculine. The way her chin jutted up slightly and the way she walked up to him screamed of her father and his training. She was a blend of the two, both taking up enough space within her that she managed to be a reflection of both of them.