2.5: Picking Up The Pieces

Chapter 16: A different kind of therapy.

Later that afternoon around two, Alexander went back to the manor for a nap. He wakes up with a shooting pain in his chest, he reaches for the pain relief tonic next to his bed.

He takes a deep swig then puts it down, with a deep breath of relief.
"Ah, that is much better..."
Almost as if they had sensed him waking up, he hears a knock on his bedroom door.
"Come in?"
A few seconds after that, Aerin pops her head around the door. She sighs with relief, a sweet smile on her face.
"Ah, thank the Gods I have the right room, this is a big house..."
Alexander smiles warmly.
"Hah it certainly is, I still get lost in it occasionally... Is everything alright?"

She moves further in to the room, obviously a little nervous about essentially being his nursemaid for the next month. He notices her hesitance and tries to encourage her.
"There is no need to be shy..."
But he says it in a very flirtatious way, completely unintentionally. She apprehensively shuffles fully into the room, shutting the door behind her. Aerin is a beautiful, pure high elven woman from a clan from the very Northern tip of Idralla, she is a very powerful elven sage. She and Seb had dated for a few months about five years previously, before Hadriana had returned. She is about five feet eight inches tall, slim and slender built with almost shimmering light golden skin, big amber brown eyes, freckles and long, wavy deep red hair, comparable to the colour of a garnet, it shimmers every shade of red and even orange in the afternoon sunshine pouring in through the window. It also highlights her near perfect bone structure. She coughs nervously.

Aerin

"Achem... Yes... Everything is fine... I just wanted to properly introduce myself, we have met already but it was very brief, so I thought I'd at least pop in and say hello... And now I'm babbling, sorry... "
He chuckles softly.
"Hah, it is no problem... You are not babbling, I do remember you. I take it that you are Aerin?"
She nods shyly.
"Yes... And you must be the infamous Alexander..."

He raises his eyebrow with a little smirk.
"Infamous, hm?"
She sees his little smile and even that is enough to make some people go weak at the knees, so she is even more nervous now.
"Ahah yes... You uhh... Caused quite a stir when you arrived here... And from what Joseph tells me, you continue to do so, I'm sorry, I meant no offense..."
He grins.
"Ah, now that kind of infamy I like... And there is no need to apologise... Come on, you can walk in further than that, you know? You will have to stand closer to me than that if you are essentially to be my nurse..."

She smiles a little, still nervous though.
"Thank you... Shall I sit on the bed or the chair?"
He finds her nervousness oddly endearing and smiles to himself.
"You sit wherever you feel comfortable... I do not mind at all..."
To his surprise, she sits on the bed and not the chair. She starts talking almost like a health professional.
"So, how are you feeling today? Is the pain almost gone?"
He shrugs.
"Eh, no chamge... It is a little better... I take it my father filled you in on, well uh... Everything?"
She nods with a hint of sadness and without realising, she places her hand over his, sympathetically.
"Yes... And I can understand, I have been in a similar place myself, so I know what it's like..."