Veteran Bracket: Elijah Morendale vs. Reine

[Elijah_Morendale]

If you wanted to see me at my absolute worst, all you had to do was put me in a room alone with a woman who was half undressed. Of course, by that I don't mean in a sort of "ha ha! I'm-a gonna' rape you then steal all your jewelry!" kind of worst, but you'll definitely see me stutter, stammer, blush, and blunder even more than I already do. I've never been terribly comfortable looking at a naked body, especially a woman's...

And here was one sitting in front of me, still attractive despite the bruise that was starting to form on her left arm and the cut across her eyebrow from when I... From that split second that I really should apologize profusely for.

(Oh gosh. Better avert my eyes and distract my mind before I go into any descriptive detail that might, uh... yeah. Don't need that happening right now.)

I slowly made my way over to the bed beside her and plopped down on the soft mattress. A thousand things to say sprung to mind, but my tounge refused to cooperate. This afternoon had just been one really bad trip. We spent the next ten seconds in awkward silence; Reine hunched forward slightly in her chair, myself leaning forward, my elbows resting on my knees and my hands clasped together.

Without thinking, I picked up the wet cloth that she had tossed onto the table. I brought it up to her face, causing her to wince and pull back for a second.

"Oh, sorry..." I retracted the cloth a bit. A speck or two of dried blood had stuck to it.

"No, it's alright..."

I went back in to try and clean up her wound a little bit. I tried to dab lightly, since I could only imagine how much it hurt to the touch. Man, I was still feeling terrible about hitting her upside the head with that icicle. We spent a few more seconds in silence, seconds that seemed like an eternity.

"It's not your fault," I finally said. "I got careless. I should have remembered that it was just supposed to be a light sparring match. At least, I hope it was, right?" I didn't wait for a response. "I also feel bad about what Nadia did, and I'd like to apologize for her as well, since I know she probably wont. It's just that..." I let out a deep sigh. "I don't know what goes through her mind sometimes. Like, uh, a few weeks ago, when we were all ghost hunting and whatnot... How she didn't really lend a hand when I was hurt... But then today..." I couldn't go on. Time to change the subject. "Turn your head just a bit this way, please."

Reine silently complied. I shifted the rag around in my hand a bit to find a strip that was still a little wet, then wiped some of the smeared blood off of her cheek.

By the gods, she has pretty eyes.