Sword and Snow

Avuri

I wasn't quite sure what the plan was, but as soon as the kids were in bed, Rylie and Demi pulled me aside for the night's treatment. Usually, we'd wait a while after bedtime came and went to make sure the kids were asleep before we started, but they seemed like they were in a rush.

Aside from worrying about one of the little ones needing something, there really wasn't any reason to hold off on our medical work for the night, so I did as asked. The four of us went down to the bottom floor as we had been doing for a while now. Emery and Rylie took seats by the bottom of the stairs to chat and watch for any incoming kids to intercept them from seeing the unwrapped injuries.

Demi slid up onto the table we had been using as a medical bed for the last few weeks, and began undoing her bandages. The process, despite being rather serious, had also become quite rote at this point. Once I had dragged my own seat over, I helped undo the rest of the bandages and then got to work.

Thankfully, things were going well for both sisters. There was little that I could do for the necrotized flesh that the poison continued to eat away at until it was well and truly gone, but there was still marked improvement. The outermost areas affected by the poison had been slowly turning to a paler, sickly color instead of the angry reds of infection or dark green and purples of the poison. While it wasn't actually healing yet, it would get there eventually.

Things progressed as normal. I sat and worked for a while on Demi, trying to draw as much of the poison back as I could, pulling out whatever I could manage. Once I felt about half way drained, I had Demi swap with Rylie so I could do the same thing over again until I was exhausted for the night.

The process was getting easier to perform every time I went through it, but it still required the same amount of effort and concentration. One thing that had been drilled into me throughout the little time I spent training as a spiritual doctor was that growing too used to the process could invite catastrophe. I needed to make sure that I stayed fully focused and vigilant the entire time, even when I was so used to the process that I felt comfortable with it. It was important not to get lazy, but it also meant that no matter how 'easy' the procedure itself became, it never got easier on me to actually perform. I always ended the night exhausted.

Admittedly, I took pride in that.

As Rylie worked to resituate her bandages once her turn had finished she smiled at me. I tried to help where I could, but my fingers were shaking from the spent energy. Still, it didn't take all that long to get everything back into place. We double and triple checked both sets of bandages to be sure they were working before I finally sighed with relief that we were finished for the night.

Rylie laid a hand on my shoulder with a smile. "Now you get to go rest and relax for the night."

I cracked an eye open to look at her smile. "Yeah? Why did you two want it done so fast tonight, anyway? Tired?"

"Demi and I can keep an eye out for the kids tonight. You and Em go lock yourselves in your bedroom and don't come out until the sun's up, yeah?"

It took me a moment to process the suggestion in my state, which prompted Rylie to chuckle as I blinked, trying to sort out the information.

"You've been working yourself ragged every night for us," she explained, "and because we've all been hesitating to just get it done every night, you barely have enough time to rest and recharge before morning comes. Now, you've got a solid block of hours to rest." She turned to look back at her sisters. "And we feel bad that both of you spend so much time between this and entertaining us during the day. You've gotten basically no time alone. So we wanted to make that happen tonight, at least. Maybe we can manage to make this normal, even."

Despite feeling drained, the thought of curling up in a hot bath with Emery followed by just some time alone made me smile. "Thanks, Rylie. Tell Demi I said thank you, too."

"I can hear you, no worries." Demi quipped from the other side of the room. "Not like you two are being quiet."

Emery took that opportunity to walk over and help me up with a gentle touch. I wasn't so exhausted that I couldn't stand or walk, but I leaned on her anyway, just because I could.

"Let's get upstairs, hm?"

I lightly bumped my head into hers. "Yeah, that sounds lovely."

I felt like I blinked and was in our master bath. Getting upstairs and unclothed went by without much thought, though I didn't feel like we had rushed it either. And while we had almost definitely washed before getting into the bath to soak, I hardly registered that either. It hardly mattered to me as I sunk and melted into the hot water of our bath.

While the master bath in our house wasn't anywhere near as large as the main bathhouse for the Basin, it was still just as nice. And it was, very pointedly, just a bit bigger than was needed for two people. Emery and I fit inside it together comfortably, able to sit and stretch out side by side on a contoured bottom that was comfy to lay on.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

I slid down the seat until my nose was just barely above the water, taking in the warmth of the water and Emery so close beside me that our bodies were basically flush under the water. The position made it easy for me to lean my head on her shoulder, which was typically somewhat hard because of our height difference.

"I have to hand it to those two idiots, this was a nice idea." Emery said with a distinct fondness in her voice.

I drew up just far enough to get my mouth free of the water. "Calling them idiots isn't fair. They're a little rash and look before they leap, but that just reminds me of someone else." I said pointedly. Emery jokingly turned toward me the best she could with my head on her shoulder, her hand to her chest as if I had insulted her.

I just rolled my eyes. "You were a lot more like them when we first met, I bet. Maybe even more than you'd be willing to admit."

Emery eyes drifted up and away from me. I took that, along with her silence, as proof enough. "Yeah, I thought so. And let's be honest, you're still like that whenever something important is happening."

"Hey, that's not entirely true. I'm sure there's at least…one…" She trailed off, and I felt the change in her body language against me. It drew me along her line of thought to the single most recent evidence of Emery choosing to think before she acted, which had ended with what was very likely a preventable death had we just acted sooner.

I tried to quickly steer us away from that regret. "Point being, they're not idiots. Neither are you. Sometimes thinking about doing something first is important. Other times, acting first is more important. It's all about balance."

That was a line we had heard so often from Vale that it was enough to pull her out of the start of the rut with a huge groan. "Ugh, you sound like Dad."

"You about to tell me he's wrong?" I prodded her in the side.

"No…" she sighed. "Doesn't mean I need to hear it from both of you so much, though!"

"Hey, I've heard it just as much as you have." I said defensively. "Besides, it's a good thing to keep in mind."

Emery rolled her eyes dramatically and let out a dismissive "Yeah, yeah." Then I saw her eyes lower and narrow in on me. "But if you start spouting his other lessons, I'm going to get you."

I took on a purposefully poor imitation of Vale's voice and began, "Emery, you need to be sure that -"

I didn't even get to any actual quote before Emery grabbed me by the shoulders and shoved me under the water. I tried to hold back laughter so I could avoid breathing in any of the bath water. I wouldn't have been in any real danger even if I had, but it still hurt to do so.

When she let me up, I immediately turned toward her and continued, "- be sure that you don't give unimportant things too much power over you."

Emery gave me a faux smile and said the next bit with me in unison, "You should try to only worry about things you can change," and immediately pushed me under the water again.

This time she used her whole body, going as far to spin to sit on top of me to keep me under. I put effort into not resisting, calmly laying against the very bottom of the tub with my eyes closed like I was napping, hoping the lack of response would rile her up further. I had expected her to tickle me, or perhaps find another way to make me squirm and try to escape.

Instead, she dipped her head under the water and kissed me. It was gentle and pleasant, nothing more than a press of lips under the water to avoid accidentally drowning either of us. Then she drew back and allowed me to break through the surface of the water safely again. I opened my eyes to see her giving me a brilliant smile that was obviously full of love. Without saying any more, she laid her head on my chest, still half way in the water.

I adjusted the best I could with her laying on top of me, trying to keep both of our bodies in under the water to keep warm. Thankfully, we had very specifically designed our bath to be deep enough to accommodate such a position. I put my arms up around her in an embrace, and we just laid there like that for a while.

It was easily the most relaxed I had been in days. Sitting comfortably and soaking in nice hot water was pleasant enough on its own, but there was something special about having Emery laying there, cuddled up in the water with me. So much so that once I had laid my head back against the edge of the tub, I struggled to stay awake. It was like all of the stress and everything else that helped me remain awake and alert just rinsed off in an instant.

I couldn't have even said with any real certainty that I hadn't fallen asleep when I felt Emery slip off me to sit in her spot in the tub. "Ri, we should probably get you to bed."

"Yeah. We probably should." I said lazily as I rolled to snuggle into Emery's shoulder. "Or I could just sleep here."

"Come on, you."

"No." I said, trying to channel my inner petulant child.

I heard Emery sigh, but that was about all the warning I got before she slipped her arms under me and picked me up in a bridal carry from the water. Cultivator strength made it easy for her to simply carry me from the water, step up and out of the bath, and walk us both into the master bedroom, basically as easily as she would have without even carrying me.

"Do me a favor?" She asked.

"Hm?"

"Dry us off."

"Oh."

With a quick burst of Qi, I did exactly that. The water clinging to our bodies wicked away in a matter of seconds - a little long for me, given my half-asleep state - and floated through the air to fall into the rest of the water in the draining bath. It didn't take me long to get the water back where it belonged, but it was still more than enough time for Emery to cross the room to the bed.

As soon as I dropped my concentration on my Qi, she slid me deftly onto the bed on my side, only to proceed to clamber over me to get to her own side of the bed. Her awful attempt to appear uncoordinated made me giggle as she pretended to wobble and fall on top of me more than once. Had she wanted to, she could have very easily leapt over the entire bed with little issue.

When she 'fell' the second time, my arms flew up around her shoulders and neck in an embrace and I rolled so that we were laying close together but each on our own side of the bed.

"Hi," she chuckled as her arms slid around my waist.

I grinned back at her, still sleepy and mildly exhausted. "Hi."

Emery leaned in for a gentle kiss, then wrapped her arms around me tighter, cuddling close. I was already beginning to drift off in her arms, but eventually she let me go and rolled back to her own side of the bed prioritizing sleeping comfort over contact. But as I fell asleep in earnest, her presence and warmth beside me was no less comforting than the embrace itself.