CLOSED ♔ THE BREATH THAT CARRIED ME

[slay]

{ between two lungs ♔ florence + the machine }

WHO || Buffy Summers & Arthur Pendragon
WHAT || Arthur wakes up from his near-death experience at the hands of the Slayer.
WHERE || Knights HQ, Medical Center
WHEN || After training
HOW || Whatevs.

According to the clerics, he'd be out for a while longer, despite the fact that he was perfectly fine now. A little while longer meaning hours, and she should go eat something and finish up with the others.

Buffy declined.

Instead, she pulled up a chair beside the Med Center's bed that Arthur was laying in, opened up a gossip magazine and began to flip through. By the time he did actually awake, she had made herself a nest of them. But, she wouldn't leave, no matter how bored out of her mind she might have been.

Because, thing about anxiety, it made sure you were never too bored. It just figured. Jack had been gone, like, less than a week, and already she had managed to screw up in major ways. First the thing with Lan at the feast, then showing off her colossal freakiness at training with Luthir, the guy who had been giving her hinky feelings since day one had turned out to be a freaking vampire, and on her first day of actual combat training, bam. She killed King Arthur.

Well. She cast him a glance over People. All but killed, anyway.

He was gonna be so mad when he woke up.

Comments

[king]

"Good."

Arthur lifts an eyebrow, his remark seemingly callous in the face of her distress. But before she can say anything, he elaborates. "I mean, you're not going to save anybody if you've the strength of a kitten."

They are members of this order of Knights, after all. They'd sworn vows. Buffy's abilities were going to be a great asset to the fight — if she wasn't too afraid to use them.

"You still have that chance. You're only as dangerous as you allow yourself to be, after all." He waves a hand, as though to dismiss and dispel the apologies that were lingering in the air between them. "It's not as though you attacked me out of nowhere. You're challenge is going to be into controlling yourself, so that the next time you knock someone that close to death, it's deliberate."

[slay]

There's a flash of indignant frustration that he calls it good, but the rest of his response soothes her. She looks down at her hands, fidgeting for a moment, then meets his gaze again with a soft look. It's difficult, putting herself out there this way, but Arthur's reassurance makes it easier, reinforces the behavior that much more.

"It won't happen again," she seems determined, and she goes on to explain. "Not on accident. I won't … I won't fight anyone else until I know exactly what I can do. I'll train, and I'll -- I'll get better."

It means more than just apologizing. So, she figures she can get away with it. She isn't interested in saying she's sorry again -- he knows that, and he seems to be past it. But, she can amend her behavior, make sure it doesn't happen again. She can try harder, do better. She can show that she means it through her actions. She can swear that much.

[king]

Buffy's resolve is admirable, and Arthur finds himself wanting to match it. "I look forward to seeing it next time we fight," Arthur says, and means it. "Although don't think it'll be such a foregone conclusion. I'll be training too, after all."

She may beat him now, but he knows in his heart he can do better, feels as though a lot of his instincts for the fight have been lost with the years of training and tourneys. Time was he would have assessed someone with Buffy's skill for his own knights. "You've a lot of combat potential — for a woman."

He grins, deliberately baiting her, even though it's not entirely far from his true feelings on the matter. But it's not as though she can knock him out again. ... Right?

[slay]

"For a what?" Buffy's lips pursed in annoyance. Okay, so, granted, for someone her size, yeah, definitely, way potential-y. But, she had a feeling there were plenty of girls around here who'd be happy to reintroduce him to the ground. She wasn't the only one, and, well, she just didn't like the sound of for a woman to begin with.

"This woman just handed you your ass, thank you very much. And, unlike some people, remains perfectly capable of doing it all over again if you keep with the ookie woman commentary." The scowl she fixes him with, when combined with the arch in her eyebrows, is lecturing and firm, but almost laughably so. That authority seems out of place on her in so many ways.

[king]

And Arthur does laugh, mostly because she's just so annoyed. He lifts a hand, palm out, as though to ward off these promises of further attacks, whether for the "ookie woman commentary" (ookie?) or the simple fact of his not being able to take her seriously at all. "You're really bad at taking compliments, you know," he tells her, still chuckling.

[slays]

The askant look deteriorated into one of amusement slowly, and then she too began to laugh, light and airy, unladen by any remote trace of guilt for having brought him here. She reached up, taking a moment to push hair out of her face as the chuckling died down, smile still shining in her eyes even as she fought back its presence on her lips.

"You're really bad at giving them." The acknowledgment just made her laugh again, and she sat back, dropping her hand to the chair's armrest.