Excalibur's Seven | ✓ [LGBT]

~ 34 ~

GISELLE'S EYES OPENED TO the sight of Selene at her bedside, holding her hand and brushing the hair from her forehead. The glow was gone, and she felt drained, more than she was used to being.

Her pink dress was replaced by a loose blouse and a long, brown skirt, a bandage wrapped entirely around her waist. The wound still felt fresh, but there was no blood seeping through the linen.

Selene sat up the moment she saw that she was awake, leaning over to check on the princess. "Darling, are you alright?"

"Selene," Giselle whispered, placing a hand over the one on her cheek and turning her head to press her lips to Selene's palm. "How is everyone else?"

"Good," she breathed. "They're good, I think. If they weren't, they'd say so. Kit didn't get help until someone found him on the dungeon floor but... he's Kit. He'll survive."

Giselle believed her. Kit was as tough as nails and too stubborn to die. She was fully convinced an arrow to the throat couldn't kill him so quick. The prince would run through fire to prove a point and stay standing, he was almost more headstrong than Morgana.

"How are you?" Giselle croaked, trying to sit up further. Selene pressed a glass of water into the Seelie's hand, and she lubricated her throat while her Lady spoke on.

"I'm alright. Nothing serious for me, they patched me up quick," she said. The princess didn't miss the ugly cut on her brow, or the nasty bruise on her cheek, but Selene wouldn't dare say it if it actually bothered her. Giselle pressed her fingertips to the cut on her forehead, and when Selene tried to stop her, she fixed her with a glare.

"It's okay. I'm not wasting anything I need," she whispered, watching the cut sew itself shut, leaving behind an angry scar. "There. Now, you look more badass and less beat up."

Selene chuckled, then gently scooped Giselle up into an embrace, tucking her face into her shoulder. The Seelie held her back, fists gripping the white fabric of her tunic while the Lady breathed her in. She felt a warm dampness against her skin and she realized Selene was crying. She threaded her fingers into her hair and soothed her as she let it out.

"Talk to me," said Giselle, plump lips brushing against Selene's ear.

Selene pulled back, wiping her red eyes with her fists. Clearly, she hated when people saw her like this. This was more than Giselle had ever gotten, and she couldn't help but love it.

"Conan," she breathed. "I hate his bloody guts, I swear it, but I... how could he do that? You know, every day I was with him, he spoke of how much he loathed my position. When he wasn't insulting me for thinking a woman could live up to the job, he was insulting the King for needing us, insisting a real king could defend himself. And now look at him.

"I bet he was just bitter," Selene chuckled. "That his wife wasn't a submissive housemaid with no ambitions of her own and nothing better to do with her time than serve him. And jealous, that I was more of a man than he'd ever be."

Giselle sat with this. She knew full well Selene was married, but she was accustomed to marriage being an arrangement of duty before it was ever an arrangement of love and never thought much of it. But clearly, it meant something to Selene.

"If it makes you feel any better, I think his 'beard' is just a bunch of ingrown hairs," Giselle hummed.

Selene's eyes creased with laughter. "Or perhaps pubes he stuck on with tree sap."

"He didn't treat you well, did he?"

"He tried not to," the Lady said. "But I know he was too scared of me to be cruel. I know it's not good to intimidate your partner but..."