literature

Stitches

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Lissa gave a sleepy sigh as she sunk into the bathtub, her body was aching from the last battle and she was practically the only healer on the battlefield. A concoction helped, but her wounds were still painful. The water was almost immediately dirtied from the dust and grime caked onto her body and she whimpered, the water wasn’t warm at all and the cold felt piercing.

“Ahhh...” She hissed, closing her eyes tightly. She let down her pigtails and the curls flopped around her slender shoulders. “Mm...” She bit her lip and covered her eyes, beginning to sniffle because it hurt. She’d held up well on the way back to camp, but it was hitting her. War was horrible, and everyone was tired.

She turned around abruptly when the tent flap was whipped aside and to her horror, in stepped a tall and muscular Lon’Qu, his black hair looking frazzled and dirty. Her eyes were wide and she realized her clothing was too far away to be sneaky and try to stand behind something - besides, he’d hear the water... right?

When she saw Lon’Qu again, he was half naked and walking towards the tub without even looking up, he was reading something? What was he holding? When he looked up their eyes met, his were huge and her’s were rivaling his.

“Gods!” Lon’Qu shouted, dropping his book and his towel.

“EEK!!” Lissa screamed, she stood up abruptly and backed up, forgetting that she was standing in a tub, she ended up flying over the edge backwards when she tripped, her heart racing and screams escaping her throat.

“Get out!” Lon’Qu shouted.

“I was in here first!” Lissa replied, trying to get up, she was holding her side where it really hurt from being agitated. The cold water hadn’t really helped it at all, and she hadn’t had a chance to stitch it yet.

“Y-Yeah, well, one of us has to leave!”

“You!” Lissa cried, doubling over a little, “Mm...”

Lon’Qu was about to say something, Lissa could see it, but he stopped himself and bent over to pick up his towel, wrapping it around himself, “What’s wrong...?”

“I got wounded today.” Lissa stepped slowly over to grab her own towel, wrapping it around herself before sitting down on a cot in the tent. She moved hem of the towel away from her side and cringed, she’d made it bleed again.

Lon’Qu grunted, “... What do you need?”

“I brought the supplies in here with me...” Lissa sighed, “I just need you to hand me the bag...”

Lon’Qu looked hesitant, he stepped over to where a bag was sitting, it was full of things she probably carried. “Why can’t you just use a healing staff?”

“A healer can’t heal herself.” Lissa sighed, “I’d need another healer, and we don’t have one... not right now. Besides, having a basic knowledge of stitching and salves is great if I don’t have a healing staff. But in battle... they are necessary for the sake of the fighters.”

Lon’Qu approached her slowly at first, then tossed the bag at her from a distance, the contents spilling out on the ground when it landed. Lissa gave him an impatient look.

“Of all the men who could walk in on me bathing!”

“You have your things, can I go?”

“No...” Lissa pouted, “You scattered my things on the floor and I can’t bend over.” She scooted around to show him the wound at her side.

“Should I tell someone? Chro-”

“Don’t you dare tell Chrom! He would lose his mind if he saw me bleeding, I shall be fine!”

“Then what am I to do?” Lon’Qu sounded anxious and impatient.

“Pick up my things off the floor.”

Lon’Qu hesitated, looking at her as though she were completely insane. “I can’t.”

“Oh... oh I’m sorry. Do I frighten you?” Lissa laughed, “Poor sweet, Lon Lon!”

“Don’t call me that!” Lon’Qu puffed himself up, “I just-”

“Just what? You’re afraid of a little girl like me?” She giggled, “I’m not going to attack you, I’m unarmed and wounded, there is nothing I can do.”

Lon’Qu was looking more anxious, but Lissa wasn’t really giving him much of a choice. He approached her really slowly and began to pick up the things off the ground, shoving each and every one of them into the bag. His hands were dangerously close to her tiny feet and it made her giggle how he glared at them as if they were going to kick him while he was down.

“There!” He set the bag next to her and she began to dig through it for a needle and thread. Once she found the items she took a deep breath. “Have you done this before?” He asked.

“M-Many times...” Lissa paused, “But not on myself.” She mumbled.
Lissa bit her lower lip as she prepared to stitch her own wound, it was difficult but she had to do it.

“Stop!” Lon’Qu held out a hand, startling her greatly.

“What is it?”

“Just teach me how to do it...”

Lissa raised her eyebrows considerably, “What? You can’t touch a woman let alone come near me... your hands are shaking!”

“Well so are yours!”

Lissa looked down at her dainty hands, trying to keep a grip on the needle she’d haphazardly threaded. She sighed softly and debated within her own mind, if he hadn’t shown up she would have still been doing it alone, she would have been sewing up a wound that wasn’t nearly clean enough, but she didn’t have many supplies. She reached into the bag and managed to find a disinfecting cream. She closed her eyes tightly as she applied it to the wound.

“Are you going to let me help you?”

“Are you that willing to touch me?” Lissa asked, wiping her hands upon the towel. “If you panic, you could hurt me worse than I could hurt myself.” She gave a lighthearted giggle, mostly to calm her own nerves.

Lon’Qu was cringing, he seemed so torn. It was like part of him really wanted to help her and to overcome his strange fear, but the other half of him was screaming to run away. She could at least see that. Finally he let his shoulders relax and he pushed himself to approach her.

“Give me the needle.”

“Have you done this before?” Lissa asked, holding the needle up but not yet relinquishing it.

“No. Teach me.”

The blond haired princess smiled softly at him, seeing it was taking a lot for him to come this far. He was practically touching her already since his hand was held out in waiting for the needle.

“Okay, but keep yourself put together...” Lissa felt strange even exposing a part of herself to him, but he’d seen enough, and she’d certainly seen enough of him. No one needed to know, right? Besides, it wasn’t as though they were doing anything terribly questionable.

Lon’Qu took a look at her wound, looking extremely nervous, “What do I do?”

Lissa began to walk him through the process, telling him exactly how he should stitch. She pulled a piece of fabric out of the bag and showed him her own stitches that she’d practiced. “My skin is thicker than this fabric, but this is how it should look...”

“Right.” Lon’Qu took a deep breath, taking the needle and inserting it quickly into her skin.

“Ngh!” Lissa bit her lip, it stung so terribly. She felt him pierce the other half of the torn skin and pull the thread through until it was tight. She blinked slowly, deciding not to look as he worked, but then she realized she had to to see how he was doing.
“Keep up the good work.”

“This is really okay?” Lon’Qu asked.

“It’ll have to do, you’ve already started and I’m not going to stop you.” Lissa took a deep breath and tried her hardest to keep her arm out of the way of him working. It would hurt to keep her arm lowered for a few days, but at least it would be okay.

“Gods.” Lon’Qu grumbled, “How did you hide this?”

“It didn’t take much...”

“But aren’t you in pain? At all?” He sounded confused.

“Of course! But if either Chrom or Frederick knew, I’d never hear the end of it. They would make me stay behind and then they would all die in agony because their only healer wouldn’t be there!”

“That’s a bit violent... princess...?”

“Don’t call me that, I’m not as delicate as I look!”

Lon’Qu gave a light chuckle as he continued to stitch her up carefully. “Right, you aren’t.”

“Huh?”

“I always pictured you being this fragile girl, but you have proven me wrong.” He threaded her skin again, trying his best, from what she could see at her angle, to keep the stitches even.

Lissa smiled, “Really? I mean... oh, I’m glad! I was hoping being on the battlefield would have proven it much sooner! I’ve even taken up learning magic!”

“Magic huh?”

“As it turns out, I’m not cut out for axes.”

“I thought that looked a little strange... How do I tie it off?” He asked, looking somewhat nervous.

“Don’t look so scared, you can’t do anymore damage than what has been done. Here...” She showed him the fabric again, “No pretty bows.”

“I didn’t think so...” Lon’Qu tied it off and cut the remainder of the string with a knife he had on him. “There... bandages?”

Lissa had nearly forgotten about that. He’d have to wrap her, since she couldn’t do that herself - and to think she’d considered sewing up that wound on her own and making it out without a problem. “In the bag.” She allowed her towel to drop and she felt her face heating up, she hadn’t really wanted him to see her exposed again.

Lon’Qu fetched the bandages and began to unravel them. She held up her arms and he wrapped her several times, actually covering her breasts in the process. He tied off the bandaging and then stepped back rather quickly.

“Thank you.”

“D-Don’t mention it... literally, don’t. I don’t need anyone to hear-”

“The feeling is mutual...” Lissa watched him, he had wanted to bathe but it seemed he was rethinking that idea. he headed behind the curtain that was in the bathing tent and put his clothes back on.

“You should dress yourself... just in case anyone else walks in.” Lon’Qu rushed out of the tent without so much as a goodbye.

~*~

Lissa found herself staring down at a magic book Miriel let her use, trying to study it. She wondered why Miriel parted with arcfire so quickly? Maybe it wasn’t that great... she pondered. The flap to her tent parted and she looked back to see Lon’Qu standing in the doorway, he seemed nervous.

“Oh, hi!” She smiled cheerfully, “I haven’t seen you around in a couple of days. Hiding?”

“I guess you could say that.” Lon’Qu grumbled, “I wanted to talk to you.”

“Oh?” She scooted, careful of the wound on her side when she turned. “‘Bout what?”

“Listen, I was thinking... and this is going to sound stupid but you are... different.”

Lissa felt perplexed, “Huh? Different?”

“Than the other women in this camp. I don’t know...”

“What are you trying to say?” Lissa leaned forward slightly, “I can’t tell if that is a good thing or a bad thing.”

“It’s neither... well, it’s good, for me.”

“How?” Lissa stood up, walking close to him and being careful not to set him off. He still seemed rather nervous.

“I tossed and I turned last night thinking about it and it was making me feel really angry, but I couldn’t help it. I was thinking about you and maybe... maybe you are an exception.”

Lissa blushed, “What? Don’t... Stop beating around the bush!”

“What I’m trying to say is that I think I want to get to know you better and I... I don’t know. You seemed genuinely interested in me, even after I told you to stay away from me at the arena...”

“Oh...” Lissa laughed, “I thought you were cute!”

Lon’Qu turned his face away from her slowly as if he were embarrassed, “Gods... Lissa, this is going to sound sudden, but I want to spend time getting over this but I wouldn’t want to get over it with anyone else.”

“Is this because you saw me naked?”

“What?! No!” Lon’Qu cried, “No! Ugh, don’t bring that up! It’s just that I can’t get you off of my mind and I...”

Lissa reached up and laid her dainty hands against his chest, “Shh... I understand, don’t strain yourself. I’ll help you, I’ll be your exception.”

“Really? I thought it was sudden-”

“Hush... I’m lucky! You picked me!”

“I didn’t realize you liked me that much...?” Lon’Qu gave a slight chuckle.

“I do. I’m glad the feeling is mutual.” Lissa stood on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck a little from where she could reach, “Yay!”

“Eheh... yeah.” Lon’Qu slowly reached his arms around her, carefully hugging her back.

That surprised Lissa, but she was pleased.

He had made big improvements, and it all started with teaching him to give her stitches.

-End
Uuuugh, I can't believe I forced myself to post this one last thing!! OTL Guys, it might be just a little OOC for Lissa and Lon'Qu, but I don't know and I don't care because it was a fun story to write.
Siiiigh... OTL Enjoy?

Farewell!! <3

-Ikkie
© 2015 - 2024 Ikuar
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CimmerianMuse's avatar
I thought this was SUPER cute!! I wish this was a scene in the game! I can imagine it! :heart: I don't find it horribly out of character at all. ;)