Ch.43
Ais's first swing missed by two inches.
Not missed-the-target missed. Missed-by-Ais-standards missed, which for anyone else would have been a direct hit. The tip of Desperate passed through the space where my shoulder had been a fraction of a second earlier and the arc continued past without correction, the follow-through sloppy by her standards, which meant it was merely excellent by everyone else's.
She reset. Came again. The second swing was better but the timing was off by a heartbeat and I parried it cleanly, which never happened, and she blinked.
Her left hand came up to her mouth. Two fingers touched her lower lip. A quick motion, unconscious, gone before she registered she'd done it.
I'd seen her do it three times in the first twenty minutes of training.
She dropped her hand and came at me with a combination that was precise and fast and technically perfect and completely automatic. She wasn't thinking about the swordsmanship. Her body was running the drills from muscle memory while her mind was somewhere on this wall twelve hours ago with her back against the stone and someone's mouth on hers.
I knew where her mind was because mine was there too. The taste of her. The sound she'd made when I'd kissed her neck, that small surprised "ah" that she'd tried to swallow and couldn't. The way her fingers had dug into my hair. The trembling in her legs when she'd stood up and walked away.
"I'll be ready."
She'd said it looking back over her shoulder with her gold eyes wide and her ears red and her voice steady in a way that cost her effort. And then she'd left, and I'd sat on the wall for another hour looking at the sky and not thinking about anything else.
Now it was morning and she was here and her swings were off by millimeters and she kept touching her lips and neither of us was acknowledging it.
"Ais."
She stopped mid-swing. Her eyes focused on me.
"Your guard is open on the left."
She looked at her guard. It was open on the left. She adjusted it with a sharp motion and her jaw set and she came at me again, harder this time, and the intensity was real but the focus was borrowed from frustration rather than discipline.
"Ais! Your ears!"
The voice came from above. Tiona Hiryute dropped from the top of the wall, landing on the training surface in a crouch that cracked the stone under her bare feet. She straightened, dark green eyes fixed on Ais with the gleeful precision of someone who'd been stalking prey.
Ais's hand went to her ear. "They're not red."
"They're CRIMSON." Tiona was grinning so wide her face was mostly teeth. "They're the color of a tomato. They're the color of Riveria's spell when she's genuinely angry. They're-"
"They are not."
"Ais. I can see them from the TOWER."
Ais's ears were, in fact, crimson. The flush ran from the tips down to where they met her jawline and the gold hair she'd tied back couldn't cover them. She adjusted Desperate's grip and her face was perfectly composed and her ears were broadcasting everything her face wouldn't.
Tiona spun on me. She crossed the distance between us in two steps and dropped onto the wall beside me with her legs swinging over the edge and her shoulder bumping mine and her grin hadn't shrunk.
"What did you DO to her?"
"Trained."
She punched my shoulder. "Liar."
"We trained. On the wall. With swords."
"You trained until her ears caught fire? You trained until the Sword Princess can't hold her guard? You TRAINED?" She leaned in. Her dark green eyes were six inches from mine and she was vibrating. "Argonaut-kun. I read every hero tale in every language I could find. I know what happens after the hero and the princess train on the wall at night. I KNOW."
"You read too many hero tales."
"You can NEVER read too many hero tales." She grabbed my arm with both hands and her grip was terrifying because Tiona's casual squeeze was strong enough to dent steel. "Tell me. Tell me tell me tell me. Did you. Did she. Was there a-"
"Tiona."
She stopped vibrating. Barely. Her eyes were enormous.
"We trained."
She looked at me. Looked at Ais, who was standing six feet away pretending to examine Desperate's edge while her ears glowed. Looked back at me.
"You're the worst," Tiona said. "You're the absolute worst and I hate you and I'm going to find out and when I do I'm going to scream."
She released my arm. Bounced to her feet. Walked to Ais and leaned in close and said something I couldn't hear. Ais's ears somehow went redder. Tiona made a sound that was half squeal and half war cry and sprinted off the wall with her arms up.
Ais watched her go. Then looked at me.
"She'll tell Tione," Ais said.
"Probably."
"Tione will tell Finn."
"Yeah."
"Finn will file it."
"He files everything."
Ais's mouth did the slight tightening. Processing. She looked at Desperate. Looked at the wall. Looked at me.
"Tomorrow," she said. "Same time."
"Same time."
She sheathed Desperate. Walked past me toward the stairs. As she passed, her fingers brushed the back of my hand. The contact lasted less than a second. Her face gave nothing away.
Her ears were still crimson when she disappeared down the stairwell.
Hestia knew before I walked through the door.
She was in the church basement, sitting at the low table, reading a letter from Hephaestus about a supply contract. Her blue eyes came up when my feet hit the bottom step. She scanned me the way Ryuu scanned a perimeter. Her gaze stopped on my face and stayed there and her head tilted slightly to the left.
"You're smiling," she said.
"I smile."
"You smirk. You grin. You do the thing where the corner of your mouth goes up and women trip over things." She set the letter down. "You're smiling. That's different."
I sat at the table across from her. Lili was in the corner doing inventory. Welf was at his workbench repairing the buckle on his armor, his red hair tied back, a tool in each hand.
"How was training?" Hestia asked.
"Good. Ais pushed harder today."
"Mm." She picked the letter back up. Read a line. Set it down again. "What's that on your neck?"
I touched the spot. The scratch from Ais's gauntlet, from the moment on the wall when she'd grabbed my hair and the metal edge had caught skin. It was shallow. Barely a mark. Hestia had noticed it from across the room.
"Training scratch."
"From her gauntlet."
"Yeah."
"On your neck."
"It happens."
"During training."
"Yes."
She looked at the letter. The paper creased under her thumb where she was pressing too hard. She smoothed it out. Pressed again. The same spot.
"I'll make dinner," she said.
She stood and walked to the small kitchen area and began pulling ingredients from the shelf. Rice. Dried fish. The miso Mikoto had given us as a gift. Her movements were precise and controlled and she set each item on the counter with exactly enough force that the sound registered without being a slam.
Lili's eyes tracked from Hestia to me and back to Hestia. Her inventory notebook was open but her pen wasn't moving.
Welf's hands slowed on the buckle. He looked at me. Looked at Hestia's back. Looked at the door.
Dinner was quiet. Hestia served the rice and fish and sat across from me and ate with both hands and didn't say anything. Lili ate in her measured way and watched. Welf ate fast and kept glancing at the exit.
Hestia set my plate down with slightly more force than necessary. The ceramic clicked against the wooden table.
I caught her wrist.
She went still. Her blue eyes met mine and the composure she'd been performing cracked.
"You're my first," I said.
Her wrist was warm in my hand and her pulse was fast under my thumb.
She exhaled. A slow, controlled exhale that shook at the end.
"But not your only," she said.
"No."
The basement was quiet. Lili's pen was frozen above her notebook. Welf's chopsticks were suspended between the bowl and his mouth.
"I knew what I signed up for," Hestia said. Her voice was low and even and she was looking directly at me. "The day I fell in love with you. I knew."
She didn't cry. She was past crying about this.
She pulled her wrist free. Stood. Walked around the table. I turned in my seat and she was right there, standing between my knees, four foot seven, looking up at me with wet eyes that weren't going to spill.
She grabbed the front of my shirt with both fists. Pulled me down.
The kiss was hard. Her mouth against mine, her teeth catching my lip, her hands twisting the fabric of my shirt. She kissed me in front of Lili and Welf with her eyes open, looking at me, and her tongue found mine and she made a sound against my mouth that was equal parts anger and want and she held me there.
Lili choked on her rice.
The cough was genuine. She'd inhaled a grain at the wrong moment and she was doubled over her bowl with her face red and her eyes watering and her small fist pounding her own chest. Her brown eyes were enormous above the coughing, locked on us.
Welf set down his chopsticks. Stood. Picked up his plate. Walked to the door. Walked through the door. Closed the door behind him.
His footsteps went up the stairs. The front door of the church opened and closed. Silence.
Hestia broke the kiss. Her lips were swollen and her breathing was fast and her fists were still in my shirt.
"I was first," she said. Quiet. Her chin up. "Don't forget."
"Never."
She smoothed my shirt where she'd wrinkled it. Patted my chest twice, right over the fading nail marks. Turned around and walked back to her seat and sat down and picked up her chopsticks and resumed eating.
Lili was still coughing. She'd gotten the rice dislodged but her face was crimson and her eyes were wet and she was staring at Hestia.
"Lili," Hestia said. "Would you like water?"
"Lili is fine." Hoarse. "Lili requires no assistance."
"The fish is getting cold."
"Lili is aware."
They looked at each other. Lili's mouth was flat. Hestia's smile was small and steady.
I ate my rice. It was good. The miso was better than good.
Outside, Welf was sitting on the church steps. I could hear him through the wall, talking to himself in a low mutter that I caught pieces of. "...lives here... dinner... just eat dinner like a normal... kiss in front of the... I live here..."
Hestia ate with both hands. Her bare feet swung under the table, not quite reaching the floor. The nail marks on my chest tingled under my shirt where she'd patted them.
The scratch on my neck from Ais's gauntlet was still visible.