Chapter 52:

When we had made our way upstairs, Bane reached a wing out for Lexi and Genie to touch as we entered Xavier's room, allowing them through the wards before I shut the door behind us. Then I quickly walked over and set Bane back down beside Nova. She happily rubbed up against him before he moved further up the bed, pressing in against Xavier's side as he lay his head up on his shoulder. Xavier was still completely out, but, with what Bane had told me earlier, I really wasn't too surprised at that one. 

Lexi set the tray of food down onto the dresser as I turned to look at the two of them still standing back in the doorway. I still didn't like the fact that I was bringing them into Xavier's personal space without his knowledge of it, but it made me feel at least a little better that Bane had approved of it. Although at the same time, I really needed to know that he would actually be okay. 

"Would you mind checking him too?" I asked Genie, and she looked from me to Bane with a wary gaze. "Bane is the one that asked," I told her as I saw the hesitation in those vivid green eyes, but that had her nodding to me.

Slowly, she came up beside me, still eyeing the dragon pressed against Xavier's side a little warily, before she slowly reached to place her palm to the center of Xavier's chest. She closed her eyes for a long moment, focusing before they opened once more, and she pulled back away from him. 

"He's got two cracked ribs on his left side, but they're not too bad. Other than that, he's just got a ton of scrapes and bruises. He's extremely exhausted, even more than Bane was, though," she took a breath as she glanced back down at him. "I'm honestly surprised he had made it all the way up here from the courtyard. It's going to take a lot of rest for him to get back to normal." 

"Thank you both for your help. We really appreciate it." I told them as they both just nodded to me before leaving the room. 

Once they were gone, I walked over to the dresser, taking the full plate of food from the tray and placing it along with a glass of lemonade on the nightstand. As I went back, I took up the other plate and my drink, walking around the bed to set my drink on the other nightstand before taking the biscuit off the plate and setting the rest of it down between Bane and Nova as I climbed up onto the bed beside Xavier. 

"You can have the rest of it. I'm fine, just share some with Nova." I told Bane as he blinked those big golden eyes up at me for a long moment before moving down beside Nova to the plate of food. 

'You also need to eat, Ari.' He told me, but I just smiled at him. 

'I had an early breakfast this morning. I'm fine. I'll eat more tonight. Please, just take as much as you want from mine.' He just looked from me to the plate and back before coming up to me. He placed his front two feet on my leg before reaching up to gently brush his scaled cheek over mine, making me smile at the soft gesture from him. 

You really are too sweet for this place. Then he turned, going back over to my plate as I set the biscuit aside and gently woke Xavier up. It took a bit, but I was finally able to take a full breath as those beautiful eyes opened and landed on me. 

"I'm sorry to wake you, but you really should eat something," I whispered to him, gently tracing my fingertips over his jaw as he grinned at me. At least he looked a little better now, but I was still far from convinced that he was anywhere near normal yet. 

"Since when did you start taking care of me, princess? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?" 

I couldn't help but to grin at him. I was just happy that he was feeling good enough to actually tease me like normal once more. "Well, when my warrior is too exhausted to even unstrap his own swords, I took it as a cue that I should help out a bit," I whispered, pressing a kiss to his cheek before pulling back to allow him to actually sit up. 

He slowly sat up, moving back to where he could lean back against the headboard before taking up his food. He took a moment, looking from his full plate to where Bane was happily ripping up another chunk of meat. Nova took one more piece off my plate before nosing it over closer to Bane, making me smile. 

"You need to eat something, too, Ari. You can't just skip a meal, especially when I know you were out too early this morning to have gotten breakfast." 

"I already told you before that I can't eat much. Plus, Lexi brought back some apples from town yesterday, and I took a couple of them this morning when I left to find you. I'm fine, so stop worrying about me and eat before I start damn well feeding your stubborn ass." I gave him my best warning glare, but he just chuckled at me.

"Don't tempt me with a good time, princess." I just sighed as I shook my head at him, but he started eating, and quickly cleaned the plate before downing the whole glass of lemonade as I happily munched on my biscuit. Bane, however, was the one to surprise both of us, though as he brought me the last slice of meat from my plate, pressing it into my palm as he gave me no other option but to take it from him. Xavier scoffed at him as I thanked him and ate the piece of meat. 

"I think you broke him," Xavier whispered to me, and Bane turned on him, snapping those sharp teeth at him as I giggled at the two of them. Bane, however, just continued to grumble at Xavier as he came over to my other side and lay back down, although this time he was pressed up as close as he could get to me.

I gently rubbed at the scales under Bane's chin with a smile before looking up at Xavier once more. "I hope you don't mind, but I had Genie check on you to make sure you weren't seriously hurt. Bane told me that you might have broken some ribs when you were out there, but she said they were just cracked. It's nothing serious, but you should really take it easy for a bit if you can." 

"Thank you, princess." He whispered to me before leaning over to press a kiss to my cheek, causing me to giggle as his scruff tickled me, but I thanked every single god I could, knowing that he was okay. 

"You should go back to sleep," I whispered to him, carefully wrapping my arms around him as I gently leaned in against his chest. I had been so terrified when I saw him this morning, and just the simple press of my body against his had my whole being rejoicing at the feeling.  

"I'm going to finish getting cleaned up first, now that I actually have the energy to do so. Then I will. If you go back out later, would you mind picking up the file off my desk for me? And if someone comes knocking, don't open the door. Just open the letter that they slip under it, and wake me up in enough time to leave, please." I just nodded to him before he slowly got up. 

I got up too, though, quickly moving around him to go over to his dresser and pull out a pair of sleep pants for him and one of his shirts for me. He just watched me for a moment, but I just grinned at him. 

"What? If I'm gonna be cuddling up to you all day, I might as well be comfortable." He just smiled at me as he continued into the bathroom. Once the door was shut behind him, I made quick work of changing into his shirt before sitting back down on the bed and gently rubbing over Bane's chest scales as he still lay where I had left him.