Page 37 of The Song of the Void

“I bet it’s blue.”

My lips curled as I approached his cot. “Think carefully about mocking the person taking care of you. Especially when you look so adorably vulnerable, lying here wounded.”

He choked on the tea he had been in the process of sipping, clutching at his stomach as it certainly hurt his injury. “I’m not mocking you, Blue. I’m…curious.”

Curious? About me?

After I tired of answering all his questions, I asked if he was going to tell me anything about himself, since I was being so generous with information, only to get a cheeky grin and a, “Hell no.”

Soon, Reiven was well enough to move around, though he always had me worried. Chatting with me seemed to keep him relatively entertained, so I continued to answer his questions, and took care of him despite his constant complaints that I was babying him. Ashkade came and visited a few times to give me a break, playing card games with Rei and rambling about Calinia's presence. According to him, Lyneca let her take the room attached to the galley, and she kept to herself in there, sniffing that she was going to stop him from getting the Voidtome. Poor Ash didn't know what to do with her.

One evening after he finally left, I headed to the hutch to retrieve fresh bandages for Rei's wounds. Our nightly routine. The only ones left happened to be on the top shelf, barely visible even as I stood on my toes. I strained and growled and cursed quietly, trying to decide if I should attempt to climb on the hutch’s countertop and risk it falling over, or go to Ash's room to borrow his stool.

While I was lost in irritation, the warmth of Reiven's bare chest against my back made me jump as he leaned over me. His height and longer arms let him reach the top shelf easily.

“Damn, you're short.”

“No, I'm not.”

“You're barely taller than Ash, small fry,” he said with a smirk, handing over the bandages. Then he anchored his hand on my waist and squinted as he dug around the glass bottles and vials of medicines. “You're not hiding any alcohol in here, are you? I've been dying for a drink.”

I carefully turned toward him, trying to keep a bit of distance between us, though he made it difficult with how close he stood.

A grin split his face as he grabbed a stout bottle of liquid. “This has to be rum.”

“That's not the kind of alcohol you drink, dumbass. Give it here.”

Reiven laughed as I snatched the bottle from him. He genuinely laughed. I had seen him smile a few times during our time spent together while he recovered, and he chuckled a few times, but this was the most real, non-condescending laughter I had ever heard from him. A bit of warmth spread through my heart, and I had to fight off the urge to smile, too.

“What are you going to do? Beat me up?”

“I might resort to violence if you keep moving around.” Off in the corner of the room, my hammock thumped against the wall as the ship groaned with a sudden swell. Rei braced himself against the hutch behind me, and I grabbed his shoulders to keep myself steady. Numbing heat crawled across my cheeks. I avoided his eyes, murmuring, “Go lie down.”

“You're like a damn prison warden, Blue. You know I'm fine. If you don't let me get some activity in, my muscles might wither away to nothing.”

Before I could come up with an argument, he picked me up by the waist with ease, setting me down on the edge of the hutch’s countertop. I sputtered uselessly at his touch and finally managed to say, “Y-you’re going to reopen your wounds and bleed to death.”

He clutched his chest mockingly. “Wait, you might be right. I think I moved an inch too far. Now I’m dying.” At my unamused glare, he laughed again. “Calm down. Let me stand while you wrap my bandages.”

I reluctantly agreed and started on his arm bandage, pleased to see that his wound was healing nicely. I scooted forward so I could see what I was doing, and he stepped closer, between my knees, without a word. An odd quiet fell over us as I worked, but I wasn’t about to break the silence or look in his eyes.

As I started next on his stomach wound, Rei finally cleared his throat. “You seem to enjoy taking care of people.”

I squared my shoulders and finished tying his last bandage. “I think you just like having all your needs taken care of for you.”

“True. I should get wounded more often if it means being tended to like this.” Rei’s grin widened. He reached out to touch my cheek. “Your cut healed up pretty nice.”

It took my mind a moment to catch up to his words, to disregard the odd numbness his touch paralyzed me with. To free myself from the way his dark eyes beckoned me closer. The real smile he gave me reminded me, again, that I was starting to enjoy seeing him smile. I gave myself a shake and ordered myself to ignore those out-of-place feelings.

“It was just a small cut.” I couldn’t take the way he stared at me, resting his fingers against my face as if he cared. I had to get away from him. Surely that would calm the hurried pulse in my veins, and the warmth that bloomed across my face and neck. “Go to bed.”

“Wait.” Reiven didn’t move, keeping me blocked there on the counter. “Uh…Ash, he…he said I should tell you something, and—er…”

Why is he being so awkward?

Reiven cleared his throat again. “Look…Thank you.”

My heart stuttered at his earnest gaze. The moment the words came out of his mouth, I realized I had never heard him say “thank you” before. Not to me, not to Ash, not at all.