#chungcest

“Hey,” murmurs Trooper as he comes into Paladin’s room.  “I brought you tea.”

“Tea won’t help,” Paladin whispers.  “He’s gone.”

Trooper doesn’t have to ask who ‘he’ is.  There’s only one ‘he’ Paladin has been talking about for the past month or so.  Ever since Chaser died, Paladin has been absolutely inconsolable, only rousing himself once to make an announcement to all of Hamel that he was abdicating his position to Trooper.

Now Trooper has to juggle Paladin’s responsibilities, his own, Chaser’s, and taking care of Paladin.  He’s done harder things for less reward, he’s sure, but he just can’t think of any instances right now.

But that’s beside the point.  He sets down the tea and embraces Paladin from behind.  Paladin doesn’t react.

“It’ll get better,” Trooper reassures him.  “I promise.”

“You can’t promise that.”  Paladin bows his head.  “You can’t promise anything.”

“I told you, not to hit him so much… ugh…”

Even though the antidote was quickly ingested after the battle with Magmanta, Tactical Trooper would have to rest for a few days longer to recover. It was really his counterpart’s fault for not following him, and the Trooper had to shield him from being harmed by the spider’s poison attack.

Unfortunately it ended up with him being poisoned. the Iron Paladin looked at him with an apologetic look as the Trooper was currently suffering in bed. “I’m sorry… I’ll try to make up for it.”

The Paladin was about to turn away when Tactical Trooper weakly waved him over. “…Yes?”

He cursed himself for not being able to sit up. Tactical Trooper waved him even closer, until their faces were only inches away from each other, and he closed the distance with a sudden kiss.

When they broke away, Tactical Trooper’s smile and features were meek but his eyes shone as if he was already healthy.  “Thank you, I’ll be alright.”

Iron Paladin returned his smile, and ruffled his hair. “You should rest…”

—–

The two of them were startled at a sudden bang coming from somewhere. Add had become overwhelmed with jealousy from the kiss and ran to get his own.

He ran into a glass panel. Since when was that there? Iron Paladin laughed at Add tumbling down.

“Ah… Pala, you don’t have to do this…” The Tactical Trooper trails off, his face slightly reddening as an armored arm lifts the Tactical Trooper off the floor.

“You’re injured. As a guardian, I must escort you as fast as possible.” The Iron Paladin reasons. With inhuman strength, she easily tucks him under her armpit, her other hand carrying her destroyer.

The male chung mumbles in embarrassment, blue eyes peering down on the floor as Pala carries him as if he was actual baggage. He appreciates that she’s trying to help, he really does, but isn’t this a little too pride-breaking? He feels like people are going to laugh at him because of the position he is. He can certainly imagine Elsword doing it. “Come on. I’ll make up to this,” she pulls a lop-sided grin. “I’ll carry you bridal style when we go back home.”