The Worth of a Coin (BxB)

Chapter 36

-Quan Leung-

I looked into Ruarc's deep blue eyes as he traced the cut on my face. I let myself sink into the feeling that this was an incredibly cheesy scene in a movie, which I usually wouldn't watch, and lent into his touch, which caused a soothing sensation to follow the sting of pain.

"Where did you get those from?" I asked him gently as my attention was drawn to the scars which decorated his face. "They can't all be cool battle scars."

He huffed a laugh. "Actually, they are." He used his arm to move some hair out of his face, so that he avoided using his hands. "Okay, not even I believed that. I had a lot of scars when I was human, but nothing as elaborate as the ones that I now have. My hands were almost always covered in cuts, and I had a scar on my bottom lip, and one just by my eyebrow."

My attention moved to his hands, where I could now see very small scars, but they were extremely faint. I could almost convince myself that I was just imagining them after hearing that there were once scars there. "From working?" I couldn't help but be curious. Ruarc was from an entirely different time to me, I didn't know much about history, but I knew that everything could change in such little time.

"Yeah," he said offhandedly. "I used to make mats and baskets when I was human, along with the odd building job," His head turned from me and then over to the shower before he picked me up, causing me to wrap my arms gently around his neck. He slowly lowered me onto the floor of the shower. "Suppose you don't mind those trousers getting wet?"

The very slow movement was still enough to cause some mild dizziness. I snorted. "I don't think they'd even be considered trousers anymore," I joked. "But then where'd you get the scar on your eyebrow from? I doubt that's from a basket attack."

Ruarc took the shower head from where it was stationed and turned the water on, feeling it with his hand before he moved to his knees and began to let the lukewarm water wash over me. The water caused a mix of irritation and relief, a very peculiar sensation. "I wasn't the nicest human."

I got the message that he didn't quite want to discuss this at the moment, but he wasn't directly telling me. I really didn't want to overstep my boundaries, but the conversation was the only thing distracting me. I had gotten so deep into my own thoughts and experience, I was using Ruarc's life as an anchor.

"I'm almost certain I've met worse humans than you were," I stated firmly.

"I mean, I'd hope so, considering you're a police officer." The warm water moved to my back, which hadn't really been hurt too much, despite the scraps caused by the cave wall.

"I'm not a police officer, I'm an investigator, there is a world of difference. I wouldn't last one hour out on the street as a police officer." I was sure that it was possible to be a blind police officer, sure, but that wasn't my main anxiety relating to the position. That related to being too much in the public eye, and not being able to handle myself. I had too much of an unfriendly aura, and that wouldn't be in my favour.

"My apologies, investigator. I didn't mean to insult," Ruarc teased. His voice was deeper. My eyes had wandered to the wall behind him, but at the tone of his voice, they immediately moved to his face to see if there was anything wrong. He was focused on me, more specifically, my bare chest. Actually, it was tricky to figure out what exactly he was looking at.

"Ruarc?" I asked with furrowed eyebrows.

He lowered the shower head and flicked it off within a second, causing chills to crawl over my body.

"Remember when I said you were beautiful?" he asked in the same tone, causing me to instinctively swallow a lump which formed in my throat. "I don't think that's a strong enough word."