Lilie’s reassurance did little to quell his concern, but just as Aaron drew a breath to respond, his reply was cut off by a deafening
CRACK booming through the Arena. On instinct he ducked, shrinking down over Lilie with his arms over his head, but when the Arena itself didn’t come crashing down on him he cautiously looked up, just in time to see the it come crashing down on someone
else. He didn’t see who it was, but simple elimination told him it was the Astorio vampire; the Arena Master was apparently just as displeased with that little stunt as he was.
Aaron watched with wide-eyed fascination as the stone beneath the Arena swallowed its prisoner whole, the whole floor rumbling and shaking like some kind of angry beast as he was driven deeper underground. He stared, blinking, at the spot as Dracion made his orders, largely deaf to the man until he turned to him and Lilie. Aaron simply nodded to him before turning back to Lilie as Aine did her work.
When it was his turn, he accepted Aine’s help happily, closing his eyes and drawing a long breath as the familiar warmth of life magic flooded through his veins. Almost immediately the pain in his head and ribs faded away to little more than inconveniences, the swelling in his abdomen going down and his headache reduced to a dull throb in the back of his head and the base of his neck.
He smirked at Aine’s comment.
“A bit,” he replied, thanking her once she cleared them both. He watched her go and tossed a cautious glance to Dracion before standing, offering Lilie his hand.
“Feeling better now?”Lilie nodded, taking Aaron's hand gratefully as she let him help her to her feet. She waved her fingers together, eyes wide with excitement.
“Life magic is so cool!” She could hardly contain her excitement, dropping her hands as she rolled her shoulder.
“Are you feeling better? She said you’re used to this?” She asked as she eyed him warily.
Aaron smiled, a little more bashfully this time, and shrugged.
“Yeah, training back home can get a little brutal, so I’m pretty familiar with life magic,” he replied. He actually had a mild dependency on it, like Aine had mentioned, but there was no need to bring that up.
He tugged on one of the straps of his padded gear.
“We don’t use any of this, so cracked ribs and broken fingers happen pretty frequently.” As he spoke, he turned his attention to said gear, struggling a little with the buckles as the pair made their way over to the edge of the sands where they’d left their belongings.
The girl fumbled with her own gear, raising her eyebrows at the mention of broken fingers. Once she managed to unbuckle one or two spots, she managed to free her arms out of the clunky sleeves.
“No wonder you lasted way longer than I did,” Lilie frowned, letting out a sigh.
“Aside from the end, you looked like you were having fun, too. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you liked getting hurt.” She joked, pausing as she began to shimmy her way out of her gear.
Aaron grinned, but continued to struggle with his gear; it seemed no matter how many buckles he loosened he was still trapped by one or two more, somehow.
“Well that’s a bit of an exaggeration,” he chuckled back, freeing his arms but remaining stuck in his chest piece. After another moment of just trying to pull the thing off, he dropped his arms and sighed, defeated.
“Do you think you could help me with this?” he asked Lilie, just slightly more exasperated than he was embarrassed.
Taking pity on the struggling blond, Lilie suppressed her giggles as she stopped pulling her own gear. After a quick look, she quirked an eyebrow at him, noticing two untouched straps.
“Next time I’ll just trap you in your gear, then I’ll secure my victory,” She teased him as she worked on the missed straps.
Aaron grinned, ears flushing, but the smile faded after a second or two.
“Well, there’s no need to feel bad about your performance,” he offered sincerely,
“Remember, we’re both physically hopeless against vampires no matter what we do, and I’ve been training against one for years and just barely lasted as long as I did. And what he did to you…” he trailed off for a second, his former indignation coming back, only slightly soothed by the fact that the Astorio Count was something like fifteen feet underground, probably waiting for a tongue-lashing. Thoroughly deserved, in Aaron’s opinion; Lilie was not that Count’s mage, he had no right whatsoever to make her ‘pay’ for anything, and he broke Arena rules besides. She could have been seriously hurt! Damn Astorios. He supposed he shouldn’t have expected anything less.
He let his irritation out in the form of a sigh, expression softening again.
“Well, it was entirely uncalled for. I’m sorry that happened.”Lilie listened quietly, more focused on freeing Aaron, though she did briefly look back at the arena. She frowned for just a second, turning her attention back to Aaron as she shook her head.
“No harm, no foul, right?” She waved away his concern, absentmindedly pulling his gear off.
“And it looks like it’s something I need to get used to sooner or later. Today has been very...enlightening.” The last sentence seemed to be more for herself than him, the girl patting his shoulder to signal she was finished.
As she continued on her her gear, she flashed him a grin.
“But thank you. It’s nice to see someone cares,” She stole another glance at the students leaving. After getting off her gear, she put it back where she found it and gave Aaron her full attention once again.
“So, what are you doing after this? I was thinking you could come over, there’s a few things I’d like to pick your brain on...like your braiding skills.” She motioned to his head.
Aaron smiled gratefully when he felt his chest piece loosen around him, and finally pulled it off with the rest of his gear, hanging it back on the rack where he’d found it as Lilie continued talking. He was fastening Dawn’s scabbard back onto his hip as Lilie made her invitation, and he almost blushed. He would have loved to take Lilie up on her offer - what was this, the third invitation he’d rejected tonight? - but unfortunately, he had his orders.
“Thank you,” he replied, though his brow furrowed.
“And I’m sorry, I’d like to, but I can’t,” he apologized, tugging on his ear.
“I have to do something with my master after this.” The word still made his ears burn, this time with no hair to hide them, but he grimaced as he fastened his watch back on his wrist from his bag, noticing an unread text from Varis. From five minutes ago. Speak of the Devil.
Urgently, he fished his phone out of his bag, throwing the strap over his shoulder as he read it. Right, the Count hadn’t fed that evening, he was probably hungry. Aaron squinted at ‘gawking’, but otherwise hurried to gather his things, rolling his sleeves back down and throwing his jacket over his arm.
“Speaking of which, I have to run,” he added apologetically, circling around Lilie toward the exit.
“I’ll talk to you later though, alright?”Her eyes flickered from his face to his ears for a split second, but his words distracted her. She briefly mouthed a word to herself, looking like she had figured something out.
“Uh...okay. Yeah, sorry, should’ve known you probably had something to do,” Lilie apologized as she picked up her backpack.
There was something on the tip of her tongue, and despite her better judgement, she asked,
“When you say ‘master’, you mean your...vampire?” Her voice was much quieter as she spoke.
Aaron nodded, sad that he’d disappointed Lilie but still markedly uneasy hanging around.
“Yeah, I can tell you more later if you want but I really do have to go, I’m sorry.” He offered her a strained smile and a wave, turning to leave and calling over his shoulder,
“have a good night!”He took off to his dorm - or
Varis’ dorm, apparently - at a jog, hoping (and yet somehow doubting) that his tardiness would pass as travel time and not
gawking. He made decent time, allowing himself a second to let his heartbeat slow before stepping into the dorm, closing the door gently behind him. He looked around cautiously for the Count as he continued inside, but there was no sign of him in the living room, the doors to his bedroom and the study both closed. Aaron’s room was, of course, wide open, but blissfully empty when he went inside to put his things away. Looking around, it seemed like his belongings had been left alone, although nothing had been blatantly out of place the last time Varis went digging, so it was hard to be sure. Pushing the thought from of his mind, Aaron simply hung his bag over one of the posts of his bed and removed his scabbard before…
Wait, what did Varis want him to do?
Aaron almost groaned, fishing his phone from his pocket again.
Stop gawking. You have a duty to perform at my dorm. Simple enough, right? Apparently not. Aaron had assumed the Count wanted to feed, in which case he would have gone straight to the shower to prepare; but experience had already shown him that assuming was to be avoided, so that didn’t seem like the best course of action. Should he just ask? He’d been told he could ask questions if his orders were unclear - or rather, if he was unsure as how to execute them, but he hoped that meant more or less the same thing - but he’d also been roundly punished for not anticipating Varis’ needs. His third night with a new master and he already felt like there simply was no right answer. But surely that wasn’t true, right?
Good grief, how hopeless was he? Maybe Varis was right, surely he shouldn’t be having this much trouble with simple orders, as unclear as they may seem. He felt like his course of action should be obvious, like there was this clear signal he just wasn’t getting. Maybe he really
was struggling with the change more than he realized. After a moment of deliberation (and a moment more of berating himself for needing a moment in the first place) he resolved to just bite the broadhead and ask. Maybe he could spin it in such a way that he’d seem a little less thick.
Peeking out into the hall, Aaron noticed some light underneath the study door; Varis must have been in there. Steeling himself, he crossed the hall and rapped lightly on the door, calling,
“Master, is there anything you’d like from me before I shower?”
