EroticReverieFantasies

Salayna Silveri Salt

A warm hand cups my face as I stir. Wincing with a groan at the ache in ribs. I feel like a boulder was dropped on me. My head pounds and I groan with discomfort, but turn my cheek into Dath palm. I whimper and open my eyes to look at him. Unsure of why Im so comofrted by HIM being there, but I am. 

Except when I open my eyes, it's not the tank skin, black hair and blue eyes I was looking forward to seeing. It's a deeper shade of brown skin, short brown hair and brown eyes. For the longest time these shades of brown were my favorite colors, once I daydreamed about, and crushed over, and fell in love with. Rylus. It's still a a comfort, I still do love those eyes, that hair, his perfect, flawless skin. So why do I feel disappointment? Why would I want my Captain here, over my best friend? I must have been dreaming when I heard Dath saying things to me, and kissing my forehead and my bruised ribs. Of course I was, Dath wouldnt call himself a fool for me. And he wasnt the one here right now. Rylus was. Was I imagining him as Dath? 

"Hey" Rylus says with worry, that underlying pity that he's looked at me with since the first day I arrived at Battle Guard. I hate it. 

I close my eyes do I dont have to see it, and I turn my head, my cheek leaving his palm. 

"hey" I say , my voice a bit off. I crane my neck slightly , tilting my head and wincing at the crick in my neck and the throb of pain that shoots up to my head. 

Ruckus. And that first year loyalist. Renaya.

"Who did this to you?" Rylus asks, his hand seeking the side of my cheek again, and I lift my hand, curling my fingers around his hand and bring it down from my face. 

It would be easy to just tell him. But what would he even do? Rylus was a clear rule follower. Would he break them for me though? I didnt want to know. so I dont answer.

"Dont know." I say and turn my head away and sigh. 

"I was...i just walked into the locker room...and they threw me down and started kicking. I didnt see them." I lie. 

"they? Who? You didnt see them at all?" He asks three questions at once.

"I just told you, i dont know." I say with annoyance. Maybe it's the discomfort, maybe it's the disappointment of waking up with the wrong hand cupping my face. I grumble. Because I shouldnt want someone elses hand on my face. Least of all, my captain, a Wild. 

"You had to have seen something Salay-"

"I didnt!" I say, my voice raises and I turn my head and scowl at him. 

"Please" I say when he frowns. "Please, just....im in pain...and i dont want to talk about it...just...stop" I say and he nods. 

I sigh, exhaling and deflating, letting the tension leave me as I settle back into the less than comfortable bed. 

"They said you can go back to your room once you're up for a few hours." Rylus says and slides his hand over mine, sliding it under and threading his fingers through mine. I let mine curl back around , holding his hand. Because Im not mean enough to pull it away, and unsure if I want to. I'm glad he's here. I just, I hate the way he treats me. Dath is right. He babies me, because he sees me exactly for what I am. Weak. A real student of the guard, would have at least had some kind of way to defend themselves. Some kind of skill to fight back, even if it was two against one. But I crumpled up like a fucking napkin. 

"I sent a call to your father." Rylus says and I snatch my hand from his and my eyes that had just relaxed shoot open. He jumps slightly at the quick way I snatch my hand from his. 

"You WHAT?" I hiss and glare at him. 

"He should know that you're not safe here Salayna!" Rylus starts to defend himself. 

If I had an ounce of strength, I might have smacked my best friend across his face in this moment. I might be weak, but apparently my best friend was stupid. 

"You dont think he KNOWS that Rylus?" I hiss. Angrily. Hurt flooding everywhere, from the bruises and damage done from getting my fucking ass kicked. but the place it hurts most, is my chest, as if my heart actually break a little bit from reminding myself, that my father knows, and doesnt care. That hed sacrifice his own daughter, just because "Salts are fighters." Yet the man didnt do a damn thing to prepare me for this. 

I feel tears burn in my eyes, turning my head away. 

"Maybe if he-"

"Leave." I say, cutting him off, sniffling.

"Salayna" he says, trying to calm me. 

"You had no right to call to him.  You can leave now." I say, and it hurts, to send him away, to tell him to leave when he's been sitting here with me, making sure I'm okay. But he had no fucking right to place a call to him. It would do more damage than good. Im sure they already made my father aware anyways. I was sure he was monitoring my progress or lack thereof. He didnt care. Not really. He'd leave me here till I either proved myself as the generals daughter, or died trying. 

"Salayna please, I just -" 

I hear the curtain slide.

"She told you to leave Rainest." A deep voice fills the air and I feel my ribs ache as I suck in a breath. Everything in me tenses and then relaxes, and I feel my eyes fill with tears. An overwhelming relief , that disappointment I'd felt earlier, is gone, because he's here. 

"I was just-"

"Leave. Now. I allowed you your time , you can speak to her later. Let her rest. That's a fucking order incase you were wondering." Dath says, his voice is quiet, but leaves no room for argument. 

There's silence. I don't look back to Rylus, because I cant. Because I'll feel guilty, and apologize when I shouldn't. So I just wait. Then hear the shuffle of Rylus getting out of the chair beside my bed. 

"I'm sorry." Rylus says. And i know it's for me. But I just keep my head turned. He sighs. He rubs my hand and my fingers twitch and I slip them away. Maybe it was cruel, but he needed to stop butting in, needed to stop trying to get me out of here or having any kind of hope that my father cared about anything other than his power and his pride. 

I hear the sound of Rylus slipping past the curtain and his foosteps carrying away. 

Dath's footsteps are quiet , but I swear I feel the weight of those big black boots hitting the floor as he moves to sit down. 

He says nothing. 

I sigh. 

"You're gonna yell at me, aren't you?" I ask. 

He says nothing. I turn my head slowly, and risk the fierce cold blue of his eyes. My breath catching as my eyes land on them. 

"Maybe later." He says , his eyes on me. His face gives away nothing, but I feel my lips move just slightly into the smallest smile. 

"Sorry, what I meant was yes, definitely...but.. later." He says. I give a little laugh and it makes my ribs hurt, my hand lifts to clutch them and I wince and hiss, my laughter stopping. 

He shifts. 

"Do you need more meds?" He asks. I scrunch my nose. 

"I dont know." I say and he shifts and places his hand over mine and I freeze. My eyes look at his hand over mine on my ribs through the sheet. I almost want to tell him about my dream, but I know it would make me look stupid and silly a lovestruck to be dreaming about him. 

He calls the healer in. She nods when he tells her I need more meds and that I'm in pain. 

She leaves the curtain to retrieve a dose and I look down, his hand still on mine. 

"I hope you know that by the end of the night I want a name." He says and I roll my eyes and lay my head back. 

"I already told Rylus I dont know who-"

"I DARE you to fucking to lie to me Silver." He growls quietly and I turn my head and look at him, narrowing my eyes. 

"Im not lying." I bite out. 

His brows lift. 

"You just did. Twice. Three strikes and your out Silver. So dont open that fucking mouth again unless it the truth." He warns, his eyes narrowing right back at me. 

"You could be nicer you know. Im laying in a healer bed, all broken and bruised and you're yelling at me." I say and he lifts one brow.

"Trust me. Im always fucking nice to you. And...you are not fucking broken. And..if I'm hardly fucking yelling." He says. 

"huh" I huff. "Always nice to me, my ass." 

"Now's not the best time to make me think of your ass." He says and I look at him. Staring him down. 

"Only YOU would be a pervert while a girl is on her death bed." 

"DONT" He almost yells. "Dont you fucking say that." 

"It was a joke." I say after a moment. Seeing him stare me down, anger and something else behind his eyes, his jaw clenching. 

"Well good thing you're not trying to make it a comedian Silver, because it's not fucking funny." He says and I open my mouth and then shut it. 

"Okay." I say, and heave a breath, because, the way he's looking at me is more than I can handle right now. And im about to over analyze the ...fear? Was it fear in his eyes?

The nurse comes in, saving me from the awkwardness of having Dath glare at me like I just kicked his puppy. 

She gives me a shot and then also places her hand on my ribs and I feel a warmth radiate and relieve the pain, and relax the area, the feeling spreading and I hum, immediately feeling loopy and drunk. 

"It'll probably knock her out for a little bit again." I hear the nurse say as my eyes drift shut and I feel a blissful smile take over my face. 

"how's that feel?" Dath asks after the curtain swishes closed.

"mmhmm" I nod. 

I hear his soft chuckle. I open my eyes, they're heavy. 

"Oh yeah, you're feeling good" He says and give a little laugh again and then his eyes drift over my face and down the bed and back up and I smile, my eyes opening and closing. 

"You know you're smiling at me, right Salt?" he asks. 

"promise you'll still here be, when wake up?" I mutter, knowing my words are backwards, but unable to force myself to try to speak them again. 

"You want me to be here when you wake up?" He asks and I nod as I close my eyes. 

"always...near...me....i like it when.....near me" I sigh as the drugs pull me under.