ย ย ย harry had been content to leave his hands as they were โ sore, bruised and split open. leave them to scab over on their own, for the blood to dry and skin to grow hard once again. he had experienced worse than the scraped skin he had now, worse enough that he thought of them as little more than an inconvenience but ben had insisted and harry had felt compelled to oblige rather than have to deal with the kingโs disapproving eye.
so harry had sat and let the king tend to hands. dabbing at the open wounds and wiping away the blood from his knuckles and his fingers until skin was clean. there, beneath the blood and the dirt were numerous blemishes. discoloured skin, lighter where nicks and cuts hadnโt healed quite right, evidence of burns long since healed, knuckles and fingers calloused and hardened from bare knuckled boxing matches that had broken bones again and again. harry lets ben wrap his knuckles carefully, gently and felt a grin crawl across his lips when ben spoke.
ย โย ย isnโtย aย properย fightย ifย youย donโtย getย hurt.ย ย โย ย harry claimed, tempted to make some off-handed remark about the shelters of castle life but found himself freezing on the spot as ben raised his hand to his mouth a placed a kiss upon his freshly bandaged knuckles. harry might have gaped, open mouthed and stunned if he had had enough sense to react at all.ย ย โย ย iโmย carefulย whereย itย counts.ย ย โย //ย @inuraeย continuedย fromย here
