Chapter 50:

I ended up winning against one of the Fae girls in my challenge that next day, but that night Xavier wasn't at the gym after dinner. Bane hadn't been there either, and I was instantly a little worried. He was always here at this time. He told me that right before this was the professor's scheduled sparring and workout time, which is why it was so easy for him to stay an extra hour or so to work with me. 

'Can you reach them?' I asked Nova as we started walking back out of the gym and into the main hall. If he had been there and had to leave for some reason, I would have run into him, so something wasn't adding up. 

'Xavier was pulled out on a mission in the mountains, but Bane is flying back for a few moments with me now.' On a mission? What kind of missions would they be running out there this late? Not to mention that it was close enough to allow Bane and Nova to still reach each other, and not require me to go with him. 'Bane says he's supposed to be out all night. Apparently, they had to leave after your combat class.' Nova told me, and I glanced over at where she had perked up on my shoulder. 

'Why don't you go meet him at least halfway then? Xavier might need him back. I'm just going to go back to my room to study.' I told her as she listened, leaping from my shoulder and out the nearest window as I turned and headed back towards my room. I tried to distract myself through studying, but something about this just didn't feel right. 

The next day, Xavier was back in our combat class just like normal, but he looked far more tired. 

It went on like that all the way through Friday. Xavier had been pulled out on missions every single night and was still working during the day, looking far more ragged as the week progressed, but by the time Saturday rolled around, I was more than worried. Nova had told me that Bane had been too exhausted to even meet her halfway last night, but he wasn't nearly as bad as Xavier was. 

Getting up a little extra early, I quickly got dressed as Nova led me out to the courtyard just as Xavier was stumbling through the gate. He was all but dragging himself along as Bane curled around his shoulders, sound asleep. 

"Xavier," I whispered as I walked up to him. His normally sharp gaze was slow to find mine, instantly worrying me even further. God, he looked like hell. Dark stubble littered his jaw; every inch of skin I could see was scuffed and scraped to hell under a layer of dirt and grime, and the dark bruises that had taken up residence under his eyes earlier this week looked even darker in the early morning light. 

"What are you doing out here, Ari?" He questioned, but there was no bite whatsoever to what would normally be a stern question. There wasn't even a hint of command to his tone, like he was too exhausted to even try. 

"What happened to you? You look like absolute shit." I asked, but he just sighed, rubbing a hand over his face, effectively smearing the blood and dirt down his cheeks. 

"I'm not going to lie, princess. I really don't have the energy for questions right now. All I want is my bed and some actual time to rest." I wasn't about to press him about it right now, so I just nodded, but stopped him for just a moment longer as I reached up to where Bane was passed out on his shoulders. Gently, I woke the dragon before beckoning him down off Xavier as I took him into my arms. I held the huge dragon more like a baby than anything else, but at least it took a bit of pressure off Xavier at the moment, who looked like he was about to fall over at any moment. "You don't have to do that." 

"Stop questioning me, and get your ass up to bed. You look like you're about to fall over. While I've gotten a lot stronger, I know I can't carry your ass, but I can carry him. So walk before I damn well drag your stubborn ass up those stairs." 

He gave me a fraction of a smile as he looked over Bane's position as he curled around me, and promptly went back to sleep. "Thank you." He whispered to me before starting the task of dragging himself along once more. 

When we had finally made it up to his room, I gently set Bane and Nova down onto the bed, where Nova instantly went over to him, gently curling up against him as I turned back to Xavier. He was leaning back against his dresser, numbly fumbling with the strap of one of his swords. 

Going over to him, I gently batted his hands away before unbuckling the strap for him, carefully setting the heavy blade aside before reaching for the other one. I made quick work of unbuttoning his armor and removing his knives before gently, but firmly pushing him towards the bed, where he collapsed the second he got there. He hadn't even bothered attempting to remove any clothing or anything, but the second his head hit the pillow, he was out. 

I was stunned for a moment as I looked him over. What the hell did they do to him to make him this exhausted? He couldn't even remove his own blades. Hell, he just passed out, like he had used the last bit of his strength just to make it to the bed. He couldn't even find the energy to change into more comfortable clothing or even take his boots off. He just simply collapsed. 

Being careful of the sleeping dragon, I gently moved Xavier into a position that he would be more comfortable in before going about removing his boots. Setting them by the door where he would normally keep them, I then sorted out his knives, pulling them off his armor, and placing his armor in his laundry basket. Then I placed his swords beside his knives on the rack, making sure that they were all exactly the way he liked them as I removed mine, placing them alongside his. Removing my own boots and getting a little more comfortable, I went over to stand beside him. 

'Did Bane happen to say anything about what happened?' I asked Nova, but she just sighed, letting out a soft little whine of worry as she curled in around her mate. I'll take that as a no. 

Taking a breath, I decided that I wasn't going to take any chances then. Heading into the bathroom, I searched through the cabinets until I found a bowl and a washcloth. Filling the bowl with warm water, I placed the washcloth in it and headed back out into the room. Setting it aside on his nightstand, I slowly looked him over once more. I knew what I needed to do, but that didn't make the task any easier. Considering no one knew what had happened to them, I needed to make sure he wasn't seriously injured, which meant I needed to remove his clothes. His undershirt was easy enough. It was already all but ripped to shreds, so cutting it off him wouldn't be an issue. His pants, on the other hand, I couldn't just cut off. The pants of our armor were made of a material that was meant to prevent being cut through, making cutting them off completely out of the question. 

Taking a breath, I moved onto the bed to where I was straddling his waist, unbuttoning his pants, and slowly working them down over his hips. The form-fitting material was not helping in the slightest. As I finally got them down over his hips, I tugged at them a few more times before they finally came down further, and I was able to pull them off. 

After cutting his shirt off, I carefully started cleaning as much of the dirt and grime off him as I could, checking him over for any serious injuries. As I moved my attention to his chest, I started wiping at what looked like dirt across his side, only to realize that it wasn't dirt at all, but some seriously extensive bruising. Dropping the cloth back into the bowl of now black water, even though I've changed it no less than ten times at this point, I ran my hands over his ribs where that bruising stemmed from. Slowly checking over each of them to make sure he hadn't broken anything, but at the very least, if they were broken, it wasn't bad enough for me to feel. After I finished going over the rest of him, I put everything back before climbing up beside him in the bed and lying down with him. 

It didn't matter that he was still sweaty and dirty; that could easily be fixed later. Right now, the only thing that mattered to me was the fact that he was here, he wasn't seriously injured, and he was getting the rest that his body very obviously needed.