Oath [BL; Book 2]

4

Aether sat still while Tighnari worked his magic. Patching him up like usual. Carefully covering the wound he sighed as he finished. "This is the third time this week Traveler." He cleaned his hands taking away the used supplies to toss later. "I didn't take you for the reckless type."

"Yeah! What's going on? Paimon's always happy to visit our friends, but this is excessive don't you think?" Paimon agreed crossing her arms giving him a suspicious squint making Aether chuckle.

He fixed his top on himself and looked at the professional work Tighnari did, "I guess now would be a good time to take a break from adventuring huh?"

Painmon now huffed, "Hmph! If you're going to keep getting hurt Traveler, soon you won't be able to adventure at all!"

Even Tighnari got his words in, "I have to agreed with Paimon for once, even if she's not always right."

"Hey!"

Brushing her disapproval off he went on, "Your other injuries haven't even healed yet. You should give yourself more time to rest."

"Paimon and I rest too often because she gets tired too fast. I can't do half the exploring I want to do because of her habits." Aether chuckled.

"Heeey!"

Brushing her off once more, Tighnari said, "Hm, I guess that's fine, but no flower can bloom under stress. I won't allow you to go out for a full day, so stay here and rest."

"Whaaat? You're grounding me?" Aether couldn't help but laugh, "I'm okay, really. I just need some sleep and I'll be good as new."

"Although I agree-haaa," he sighed deciding not to fight about it, "very well. I'll whip you up some tea before you go then, but please do rest more and take a day off."

"Thanks Tighnari!" He grinned. When he left Aether looked at Paimon who was clearly showing she was upset. He chuckled and said, "Don't be like that Paimon. He wasn't ignoring you on purpose."

"So he did it in spite?! Ooh! He's getting an ugly nickname-!"

"Stop your yelling." Someone said calmly interrupting her shouting.

"AH?!" Paimon asked again.

Wanderer sighed having entered the room unnoticed, "I said stop yelling, it wasn't an invitation to continue."

"Gah, geez! You scared Paimon!" She turned seeing him then crossed her arms disgusted, "Ugh what do you want?"

"Nothing from you." He responded coldly and looked at Aether who smiled wondering what he needed. "We need to talk."

"Huh? About what?" Paimon asked,

"Alone." Wanderer crossed his arms closing his eyes.

Aether could see he was firm on his decision and was about to speak but Paimon spoke over him. "Hah! If you want to talk you can do it with Paimon here! The Traveler would never-"

"It's ok Paimon." Aether was now the one to interrupt her. "Can you give us a minute?"

Wanderer had prepared himself to listen to her whinning through their conversation, but he too was caught off guard by Aether voluntarily asking her to leave. "..." he looked at her, her confusion was obvious and she even looked a little hurt.

"Wh-but Traveler.."

"It's ok." He said again, "We won't be long."

Without anyone else to defend her she looked from him to Wanderer and back to Aether then sighing and giving an understanding nod. She flew out slowly and closed the door.