When things go well, Zillah fights to unwind and comes home flushed with victory, knuckles bruised and otherwise intact. When things go badly, she fights until she's too tired for what should have been an easy block, and she tastes blood.
There have been so many people in her life -- parents, cousins, friends, lovers -- that have never been able to understand, that have looked at her bruises, watched her wincing after a loss, and wondered why she goes back.
Kasimir inspects the damage to her ribs with careful touches, and holds the bandages while she takes care of her scraped knuckles. He holds out an arm and lets her tuck herself in along his undamaged side, hand resting carefully below the healing wound in his other shoulder, his heartbeat steady under her ear.
"Feel better?" he asks, and she doesn't have to listen for the tension she knows won't be in his voice, the question he understands the answer to without asking.
"I love you," she says as an answer, and he understands that, too.
Oxventure: Blades of the Dark, Zillah/Kasimir
There have been so many people in her life -- parents, cousins, friends, lovers -- that have never been able to understand, that have looked at her bruises, watched her wincing after a loss, and wondered why she goes back.
Kasimir inspects the damage to her ribs with careful touches, and holds the bandages while she takes care of her scraped knuckles. He holds out an arm and lets her tuck herself in along his undamaged side, hand resting carefully below the healing wound in his other shoulder, his heartbeat steady under her ear.
"Feel better?" he asks, and she doesn't have to listen for the tension she knows won't be in his voice, the question he understands the answer to without asking.
"I love you," she says as an answer, and he understands that, too.