He woke up suddenly, shooting up and reaching for his sword, grabbing nothing but air and realizing that it wasn't there. He opened his eyes and scanned the room he was in quickly, feeling that he was in a bed. The room was new to him, fancy looking with drapes over the window and a rug on the ground, and he found Elaine, who had apparently fallen asleep next to him, as she looked groggy and confused.
He took a deep breath, seeing that he was safe as he felt Elaine grab his hand, getting his attention as he looked over at her, seeing tears in her eyes and wondering why.
"About t-time you woke up. Even after I h-healed your burns, you didn't wake up, and I was worried."
She suddenly looked away, looking guilty of something as she continued to speak.
"I...do not know why, but the burns on your face, neck, and chest left scars. They shouldn't hurt, but I took your armor off and checked just in case, and I hope that you are not upset with me for-"
He snapped his fingers, cutting her off and getting her to look at him again.
"Why would I care about that? Do you have a mirror?"
She still looked upset, but quickly found a hand held mirror, handing it to him and looking away. He looked at his reflection, frowning at the sight of himself. The burns covered his neck, creeping up onto his face and taking up about half of his right cheek. His chest only had burns just past his collar bone, so it was his neck that got the worse of it. Scars were nothing new to him, and his chest and arms were covered in them, mementos of how foolish he was when he was younger.
"Not nearly as bad as you made it out to be." he said, handing the mirror back to her, seeing that she still wouldn't meet his eye. "What is the problem, Elaine? It is not like you are the one who burned me."
She slowly met his gaze, playing with her hair as she spoke.
"I know that, but I thought I would be able to heal the burns completely. I can still try, if you want me to."
He chuckled, noticing that she was still holding his hand and taking Drakes advice by not saying anything about it.
"No, I do not mind scars. Unless they bother you; they are kind of ugly."
She immediately gasped, squeezing his hand.
"No, I never said that! I just didn't know if you wanted to keep them or not."
He poked the burn scars with his free hand, able to feel the difference between the scar and his normal skin. He had plenty of scars, but this was his first burn, and it was uglier than the others were.
"As you can see, I tend to keep my scars, so I do not forget what caused them. Most are from my stupidity, but a few are from intense battles, or from people I did not wish to kill."
She said nothing at first, surprising him when she lifted her hand and traced the scar on his face with her finger, her expression calm and looking slightly sad as she did.
"Like this one, which you asked me to leave alone? It makes me sad to see how many you have, how much pain you must have endured for all of them."
He grunted, surprising her when he tapped her head.
"The scars up here are much worse than any I have on my body. Unlike the physical scars, no one else can see the mental ones, no one else can truly understand how damaged your mind is. The visible ones are easier to deal with, and I have no doubt I will get more of them before this is over."
She looked into his eyes, holding his gaze as she placed a hand on his chest, and she most likely felt his heart speed up at her touch, surprised by her sudden boldness.
"I wish to get stronger...so that you do not need to get any more scars."
He shook his head, placing his hand over hers and leaning closer, his mind not working as fast as it usually did as his heart only sped up more.
"I swore to your mother I would protect you, not the other way around. Getting a scar or two for you is nothing."
She finally broke his gaze, looking away and once again growing sad.
"And you have protected me, risking your life multiple times, turning your back on your own race. You have truly done enough already, and I would understand if you..."
She trailed off as he gently cupped her chin, turning her face towards his, looking deep into her emerald eyes, losing himself in them like a green ocean as their lips slowly inched closer and closer.
They both jumped when they heard a loud knocking at the door, both of them blushing as Elaine hid her face and Jack sighed, yelling at whoever it was to come in. The door opened, Drake entering first followed by everyone else. Drake saw their faces and laughed loudly, only irking Jack further.
"I didn't mean to interrupt! After three days of sleeping, I thought that you might actually die in your sleep this time, so I was worried. Seems you still have plenty of life in you after all!"
He laughed again, the others ignoring him stepping forward, Midnight holding out a water skin. He accepted it, thanking her before taking a swig, frowning at the taste of what he thought was animal blood. Jerry spoke up, saying more in that moment than he normally does in a full hour.
"Two of the vampires escaped, but the rest are dead, as well as ten human knights. It seems someone had informed them of a group of vampires blocking the road, and they were sent to deal with it."
"I am more concerned with how the general knew we were on our way." Midnight said, looking furious at the thought. "They were waiting for us; they knew we were coming, and where we were going. Seems we have a snake in the sanctuary."
"Not much we can do about it now." Noelle said, frowning and appearing deep in thought. "Although it is a problem that we will need to address sooner or later."
"That will have to be later." Drake said, gesturing to Jack with a smirk on his face. "While I am sure Elaine enjoys seeing him without a shirt, we have been waiting for him to wake up. He needs to get dressed, so that we can speak to the emperor."
Elaine only blushed more at his comment, standing and hitting his beefy arm while Jack swung his legs over the side of the bed, standing up and feeling better than he had in a while. He crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow at the group.
"Alright, you already ruined the mood I had going on; get out, so that I can get dressed in peace."