Fearless // Lafayette x Reader

13. She Decides

The next few days were practically the same. Laf stayed by her bedside nearly every minute of the day, where he continued to teach her more French. It was nice to have someone around all the time, especially whenever she got frustrated about her arm.

The bullet wound was finally healing up nicely. After accidentally reopening it while stretching one day she'd been worried she would have to stay a lot longer, but they quickly assured her it would be fine.

Or maybe they just told her that because they knew what her response would have been if they'd said otherwise.

John popped in frequently from time to time, stopping to chat. Alex barely showed up at all, and soon stopped coming altogether. This made her a little upset at first, until John told her why.

"The General's mad at Alex for indirectly disobeying him," he explained to her. "Even though I'm the one who shot Lee, George knows who brought up the idea."

"Not necessarily brought the idea up," she corrected him jokingly. "We've all thought about shooting Lee before, let's face it."

They laughed.

"Have you tried getting up yet?" John asked, abruptly changing the subject. The old mattress creaked as he sat down on it.

"Well...yes," she admitted. She wasn't supposed to - General's orders - but she'd managed to pace the tent a few times when nobody was looking. It felt good to be able to do something.

"General Washington told me to tell you that you're officially allowed up today."

She sat up straight. The pain in her arm was practically gone now, and they were traveling to the training cabins soon anyway - she wasn't needed to fight for a while.

"For real?" When he nodded, she let out a little whoop.

"Woah there, (Y/N)," John laughed, catching her as she stumbled. "Take it easy, alright? Don't overdo it."

"Yeah, yeah." She spotted Laf at the entrance of the doorway and quickly stood up straighter, stepping back from John a little. Although it was basically nothing, she was almost sure he'd seen her stumble into him. "Don't you have...uh, something to do?"

John raised an eyebrow, catching sight of Laf. "Yeah, actually, now that I think about it." He wiggled his eyebrows, causing her to roll her eyes exasperatedly.

When he left, she fixed her gaze on Laf.
He was tired - she could tell it immediately. Whether it was physically or mentally, she wasn't sure. What was Washington having him do these days?

"You can walk now, I see," he said, motioning to her. It was a feeble attempt at conversation, and she wondered if he'd misunderstood what he'd just seen.

"Just got 'officially allowed'," she replied, smiling shortly. Although he returned it, it was halfhearted.

Concern overtook tension. Each made their way to the other.

"What's he been having you do these days?" (Y/N) murmured, brushing a stray curl out of Laf's face. He - somewhat out of habit - touched her elbows as she rested her hands on his shoulders.

"When General Washington got to the battlefield, just before we found you," he began, "he put me second in command in place of Lee."

She looked up at his dark eyes, shining with mixed emotions that she couldn't read.

She wanted to congratulate him. It was an honor, wasn't it?

But she just couldn't bring herself to.