Battle Scars

A request and a demand

The next day came quickly and the training went as well it could.

Eve and already started her set of stretches, not waiting for Nesta to come. Cassian on the other hand, was standing still, his gaze on the doorway, as if hoping to materialize her out of thin air. Eve, though equally amused and concerned, did not comment on his behaviour.

After much waiting on his side, Nesta arrived, gritting her teeth. Her face full of misery made a laugh elicit from the General. Eve only smiled as she bent down to touch her legs. "I should've realised," he said.

"Realized what?" She stopped five feet from him. "That you'd be late because you're so sore you can't climb the stairs." She pointed to the archway. "I got up here, didn't I?" "True." He winked. "I'll let that count as part of your warm-up. To get the muscles in your legs loose." "I need to sit down." "And risk not being able to get back up?" He grinned. "Not a chance." He nodded to the space beside him. "Stretches."

Eve wondered if she could place a bet with Azriel to see when these two would get together or if it would be morally wrong of her to do so while being Nesta' friend whom Nesta had disregarded quite successfully in the past few days.

A few hours later- Eve gave up on counting- she also debated if she should ignore Nesta or help her stand up from where she had stumbled and hit the ground. "My muscles are sore," she panted, looking towards Cassian. This had been going on since some time now- Nesta grumbling and complaining and Cassian replying with a snarky comment. "You need to get the lactic acid out of your muscles—that's what's hurting you," he finally explained. Nesta's face showed confusion.

"Teach you that in warrior training?" Eve asked him. He gave her a lazy smile, "bastard born I might be, but at least I am a smart one." Eve huffed, "I know you are already on a high pedestal, but you are no bastard. There are few better than you." Cassian' face turned into that of a surprise and even Nesta stopped whatever she was doing to carefully gaze her eyes over the two. "Thank you," Cassian said but Eve waved him off.

Inhaling sharply, he turned towards Nesta who was now on the ground. Bending, he took her ankles in his hand, helping her stretch. "Breathe into it when I push the leg toward you," he ordered her. Eve stood and went to get herself some water and by the time she came back, Nesta's legs were on Cassian's chest. How did they manage to be so intense all the time?

"The soreness does get easier," Cassian said after a moment of helping her. "Though I have plenty of days when I can barely walk at the end. And after a battle? I need a week to recover from that alone."

"I know." Came the quite reply and Eve had to get up and distract herself with getting some water again. "I mean —I saw you. In the war."

Saw him hauled in unconscious, his guts hanging out. Saw him in the sky, death racing at him until she screamed for him, saved him. Saw him on the ground, broken and bleeding with Eve by her side just as helpless, the King of Hybern about to kill them both.

"I'm a soldier, Nesta. It's part of my duties. Part of who I am." No one said anything for a moment. Eve stood on the side, reimagining the atrocities of the war for a second before shaking her head, and going to freshen herself so that she could get ready for Rhysand' lesson.

Gods, they all had very nearly died. Hell, Rhys and Amren had died. She wondered what was the situation in Gods-damned Hybern now. Sighing, she let the water freshen her face as she debated if it would be alright for her to leave the little sanctuary and make her way towards the exit while Nesta and Cassian shared their moments in between the field. With Nesta ignoring her, things were a bit awkward for her.

"What happened to the priestesses in Sangravah two years ago?" Eve heard Nesta ask as she made her way towards the exit. Her walking slowed as she curiously listened in. Cassian went wholly still. It was terrifying. The stillness of a male ready to kill, to defend, to bloody himself.