This is it. This is his chance. The stars are shining beautifully above them, yet he can’t seem to look away from her eyes; eyes that shine brighter and more beautiful than any star. How long has it been since he first met her? He didn’t know, truly. Every moment with her felt like an eternity and a mere second at the exact same time.

“Listen, I-”

“Are you seriously reading that novel again?”

The sudden voice almost made Malva drop her book. How she didn’t hear nor feel them approaching, she doesn’t know. Her heart hammers wildly as she bolts upright and whirls around to face whoever it was that had interrupted her reading, clutching the book so tightly to her chest that she was sure the pages were going to be so wrinkled it’s going to be hard for her to read any further after this. The chair she was sitting in falls to the ground with a loud thud as she does.

Lilia is there, leaning casually against one of the poles of the medical tent, his eyes locked on the book in her hands. “You know the queen is going to force you to come back to Black Scale Castle if she finds out you’ve got your hands on romance novels again, right?” And he sounds so amused by that too…!

Malva’s ears burn with embarrassment. “If you tell her then you should look out for pretty red yew berries in your food the next time you eat anything.” She hisses, quickly placing the book behind her back.

He looks so genuinely amused. She can honestly see it now, hovering above her like a guillotine ready to drop at any second, and the person holding it there is none other than Lilia Vanrouge himself. She still remembered the last time he found her novel collection. Those endless nights bored out of her mind with nothing to do and not able to meet with her best friend at all. A shiver runs down her spine at the memory.

“And I’m the only fully trained healer you have on hand right now. What are you going to do, put Coriander in charge of everything? I don’t think so.”

“I’m not going to.”

“And I’ll cut off your- wait what?”

Lilia shrugs, pushing himself upright and stepping towards Malva so casually that she was caught off guard enough that he managed to snatch her book right from under her nose. He opens right on the page she was on.

“A confession scene? I didn’t know you were such a sap, Malv-”

Inhale-

“Huh? Wait-!”

FWOOM!

A cone of dark-green fire spews from the dragon fae’s mouth, coming dangerously close to burning Lilia to a crisp. Thankfully, he managed to dodge just in time. Sort of. The tips of his hair are very charred now.

“What the hell?! I  just told you I wasn’t going to snitch!”

Malva, pinned under the weight of his glare, takes a few tiny steps back. She had only meant to scare him into dropping the book. And that’s what she mumbles out. Though she doesn’t really seem to mean it since her attention is currently focused on said book, checking it all over for any damage while also barely acknowledging how she almost made him into a roasted bat.

The book is unscathed. With that confirmation out of the way, Malva straightens up and turns back to Lilia. Now that she takes the time to actually look at him, the back of his left hands does seem to have a small burn. She winces slightly at the sight. “Are you alright?” she hesitantly asks, feeling just a little bit guilty for his injury. 

The glare he levels her with is all the answer she needs.

“I’ll… go get the aloe vera.”

*°*°*°*°

Ah. This wasn’t what Malva wanted to happen. This was supposed to be a decent day. There had been no injuries or accidents that she needed to tend to, they have now enough potions and herbs to last at least five to six years, and while she’s technically the only fully trained healer present, Coriander and Altair both have enough training for small injuries and ailments. She was having fun and reading her novel and suddenly she almost killed her kingdom’s army’s General.

Lilia slowly pulls his hand away after it has been sufficiently treated, hesitating to remove his hand from hers and carefully flexing his muscles, and upon confirming that it no longer hurts too much, drops it onto his lap and sighs. “What was that about?”

Malva looks away from him, “I didn’t want to risk you telling on me and taking the book away.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Lilia deadpans, “I told you that already.”

Malva feels even more guilty.

Almost mechanically, she stands up and makes her way to her storage chests. Opening it, she starts to count and sort the contents once again, even though she just did so a few nights before, humming to soothe herself.

After a few seconds of near-silence, though, the General once again speaks up, sounding just as awkward as he probably felt, “so… how have you been lately?”

Malva pauses. She tilts her head slightly to look at him, cocking her head to the side questioningly. Lilia, much to her surprise, doesn’t turn away from her, watching her from the corner of his eye like she watches him.

“Why the sudden question?”

“Well, you’re always so concerned with everyone else, yet you don’t really seem to give yourself too much of that care.”

“I’m a healer,” Malva states, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, “it’s what we’re supposed to do; care for others.”

“And yet only you are the one who stayed awake for weeks on end to ensure the health of our troops while you force your apprentice to get the rest that you deny for yourself.”

“You do the same, do you not?”

“Hm?” Lilia looks at her strangely as she makes her way towards him and leans against the table right next to his chair. (Her’s, really. He put it back upright and sat on it after she caused it to fall in her haste to get her book away from him.)

“Don’t think that I didn’t see that you made sure your men get fed before you do, Lilia,” Malva arranges her tail to curl around her side and onto her lap, brushing off the dust from between her scales. She knew what he was really talking about, that hypocrite. Why she would care so much yet not accept much care in return is different from his reasoning, however. This was her job, her duty that she chose for herself. She knows that she is cared for; it’s in how she’s able to do what she loves as she does. The care that comes with respect. The care that comes with being able to be at least somewhat sure of her safety in the middle of a war. She cares, and she gets care in return. The professional kind of care. He, like her, accepts this kind of care, yet when it comes to the care he should care more about… 

“But to answer your question, I’ve been well.”

Lilia hums, a thoughtful look on his face as he studies her expression, “I made the right decision in making you go to Wild Rose, even if you took a detour that I explicitly told you not to have.”

Altair is right outside of the tent, out of Lilia’s field of view, but Malva knows he’s talking about him. “Was it that obvious?”

“People don’t usually randomly meet their childhood friends when they teleport home, Moonlight.”

Right. She did teleport right in front of him after she said she was going to go to Wild Rose. In her defense she didn’t really feel like listening to his rant about how she was overworking herself anymore.

Seeing her sour face, Lilia chuckles, his red eyes shining with amusement and something else entirely, “did you know that there has been a rumor about you lately? They say that that half-human is your secret lover.”

Malva didn’t miss the way his smile seemed to become the slightest bit more forced at that last word. She frowns even harder, “Altair? Why would he be my lover to any extent?” She does love him dearly, she’d be the first to admit that, but a romantic relationship between her and him? Really? 

It’s Lilia’s turn to look confused, “is he not? You’ve spent a lot of time with him ever since he’s joined us, not to mention that you’re the one who insisted for him to stay and become an acting healer.”

He looks and sounds oddly relieved. 

What is that- what is that supposed to mean.

“I mean, I care about him a lot, but not in that way.” at least not for now since I have someone else in mind.

Lilia raises an eyebrow at her claim, that little amused smirk returning to his face. “Maybe your notoriety for being a hopeless romantic has caught up to you, your Highness.”

“Oh please, it’s not like I read those books out in public.” Malva says, rolling her eyes.

Another chuckle, and Lilia looks to the storage chest in the corner of the tent, the place where Malva had shoved her book into. “No, but the incident is still fresh in people’s minds, you know.”

“Really? I was barely one hundred and ten! And it’s been more than twelve decades since then!”

Lilia just laughs even more at that. His joy in teasing her is palpable, even more so when it’s about something as petty as this.

“I shudder to think of how you’re going to react to me getting an actual lover,” Malva grumbles, “between you and ‘Leanor, I’m never going to know peace again.”

“Hah! Well tell me when you’ve found someone alright?” he snickers. Lilia looks so smug about her not having any lovers. She has half the mind to point out that his love life is no different from hers, and that when he fell in love-

Malva stops mid-thought. Lilia, though looking still away from her, has a small, almost victorious smile on his face.

Now that she thinks about it, this is the first time after she became a healer that he went to the medical tent without his or someone else’s health in mind. 

Looking out to the clearing beyond the tent, Malva sees a pair of sapphire-blue eyes watching her from a distance, along with a cheeky grin with prominent fangs.

She hums in understanding, trying to stifle a laugh at the thought of her apprentice purposefully casting a glamour to make sure she didn’t notice Lilia approach. Still maintaining eye-contact, Malva twitches her tail to Lilia’s general direction, to which Coriander nods and mouths something that looks suspiciously like ‘don’t be a coward’. 

Perhaps the teacher should listen to her student, just this once.