the greatest love story ever told;

[succinct]

[ She had known. Both of them had known, that being aides to Prince Zen mean facing danger on all sides, at any given time. They had known that their first priority was their prince.

And yet, the amount of panic and anger that surges up when she sees Mitsuhide fall in the middle of a bandit attack is so sudden that Kiki almost stumbles from the overwhelming force of it. She doesn't, of course; there are too many attackers left standing, and while Zen has escaped with Shirayuki, her partner has fallen.

She doesn't bother to check on him, to verify how bad his injuries are. Instead, Kiki throws herself into the fight with renewed fervor, driving them all away from Mitsuhide, cutting them down in silent, angry slashes.

And when she's left standing, she staggers as quickly as she can, dropping to her knees beside Mitsuhide and automatically checking him for the worst of his injuries with slightly shaking fingers. Adrenaline, she tells herself. She'd be steady otherwise. ]

Answer me. Mitsuhide!

Comments

[cavaliering]

[A good portion of his focus is on berating himself. After all, if he hadn't slipped up, he wouldn't have left Kiki alone to deal with the rest of the bandits. That's not fair to her, though he knows she can handle it.

Ah...she'll scold him later for it, and it'll be fine, right?

That's what he tells himself, because the rest of him can't help but notice how much it hurts. He's bleeding pretty steadily, too; he can feel it, and automatically pushes a trembling hand to the gash in his side.

(He's not ready to die) after all, there's no time for sick days. They have to be able to keep up with Prince Zen.

...And then the sounds of fighting fade away, and he winces as he's rolled over, and then he blinks blearily. ...Oh. Kiki is--]

Kiki...

[His voice is a croak, which is something he can't seem to fix; trying to clear his throat just makes him wince.]

Ha...Sorry. [for leaving her to fight them all along, he means--nothing as grim as his lack of addition makes it sound.]