A/N: the eye of the hurricane has to happen, I suppose.
Will's POV
Ten was exhausted. Anyone could tell. There was always someone with him; if you had to go get ready to go, you called someone else over to watch him. It was like we were afraid he would collapse. To be fair, he hadn't walked at all that morning, which made it even harder to trust that he was doing okay.
And now it was my turn to watch him. I hadn't eaten breakfast yet so he offered me a couple of his berries. I declined, knowing full well that he needed all the energy he could get. Reyna brought me mine and told us to be ready in a couple minutes. We nodded at her.
"So," I asked, "Where did we go wrong with getting you to sleep?"
He paused and laughed nervously as he picked out another berry from the bowl. For some reason he was afraid to tell us. "Oh, it's—You know, it's nothing. You did fine."
I gave him a look, which he shrunk away from, immediately causing me to feel guilty. I guess I have to be extra careful about how I talk to him. He's...fragile, somehow. "Ten, we left you kneeling all night without sleeping. We need to know how to do it better in the future."
He stared into his bowl. "I...I feel like this is a trap. What did I do wrong? Why are you all always leading me into dangerous conversations like this?"
I frowned. "What is dangerous about this conversation?"
He blew out a long breath. "You must be doing this on purpose. That's two difficult topics in a row, your majesty."
Reyna yelled at us to get going.
We helped Ten get on first. He slipped almost immediately, and grit his teeth before trying again. I tried to support him on my side, but something was wrong.
"Ten, you doing okay?" I asked warily.
He looked at the ground. "I'm fine. I just.... My leg is still a little bit numb. I'm sorry. I'm trying."
I raised my eyebrow and stopped him from trying a third time to jump up onto the horse. "Numb?"
He scratched at his arm as he glared at the obstacle in front of him. The horse whinnied in reply. "Yeah, I mean, I was on my knee all night, so..."
"Well, if you would've told me it was numb, I could've gotten on first and pulled you up after me. Hold on." I swung myself onto the back of the horse and reached my hand down to Ten. He warily took it, so I gently pulled him a couple feet closer so I could reach him. I hung onto his sides and heaved him up. He winced and clutched his wrapped-up and healing wound instinctually, but didn't say anything as I helped him get situated in front of me. I grabbed the reins on either side of him, effectively forming a barrier he couldn't fall off.
"So how can I let you sleep now?" I asked him.
He leaned back, into me. "So, I'm already broken out of form so now it's just, you have to—I mean, you don't have to, but I have to have permission from the person of highest rank in order to sleep. And to break form. That's kind of how I couldn't.... Nevermind, that was getting into dangerous territory." He tucked a piece of hair behind his ear nervously as he rambled, and I swallowed. He was really cute. "Can I have permission to—?"
I rolled my eyes. That's what he'd been waiting for last night? I suppose he'd also had to be broken out of form first, but the whole thing was just silly. "Yes, Ten. It's okay. You didn't have to ask."
He closed his eyes, finally, and despite the sun that was rising in the sky, his shaking breaths slowed and his body relaxed into mine.
We rode in silence so he wouldn't be woken up.
The birds sang. Thalia looked back at me with Ten and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at us. I glared at her.
Around noon, we stopped to give the horses a break. I nudged Ten's arm, and he jerked awake. He looked at me, alarmed. His hand was on his knife, which he had put into his belt loop as a replacement to whatever weapon he had lost. A sword, probably.
I put my hand on his shoulder. "It's alright. We're just giving the horses a break and stretching our legs. You feel better?"
He nodded groggily. I jumped off the horse and helped him down. He was back to his graceful self again now that his leg had time to get better. Of course he was graceful. I swear, this boy was perfect.
He blew a strand of black hair out of his face. Absentmindedly he began to fix the bun which had fallen apart again while he slept. He was beautiful. I led him over to where the group was meeting, to stretch his legs if not to hear what they wanted to say.
"...so I figure we can rest there, and then it'll be a straight shot back to camp. Hopefully they haven't missed us too much," Reyna was saying. I took Ten's hand and sat down.
Before joining me, he whispered "Your majesty, permi—"
I cut him off. "Yes, Ten. You don't have to ask, remember?"
"That's not really how it works," he mumbled as he sat down again. I rested my head on his shoulder.
"And the distribution of supplies?" One man asked.
Reyna brushed his question off. "We'll deal with that when we get there. The Papadopoulos group has been complaining about a lack of blankets, so those will probably go to them unless we find a group with more need. The clothes will follow the same idea. One pair should go to our friend, here," she gestured to Ten-Seventeen, "since he's still wearing a soldier's uniform and would be easily recognizable because of it. It's not very often that you see soldiers wandering about. He'll be less vulnerable in normal clothes."
Beside me, Ten tightened his jaw. I nudged him and when he looked, gave him a reassuring smile. He gave me a worried look in return.
"Other than that, just be ready to leave in ten minutes and try to stretch your legs. We have a long journey tonight, and we're not stopping until tomorrow. You're all dismissed."
I stood up, Ten's hand in mine still, and took his other as well after he brushed himself off. "You wanna go to the river? Have some fun before we have to leave again? It's not far; I've been there."
He smiled hesitantly. "Okay?"
I speedwalked all the way there, Ten laughing behind me every time I tripped on a root. Right before we reached the river bed, I stopped, and he bumped into me, still laughing from my last blunder with a particularly evilly-minded twig. I looked at him with shining eyes and brought him to the edge of the water. It was brown with dirt and who-knows-what-else, but every once in a while you could see a blur of white in the water. Those were the fish; I'd come fishing with my dad here when I was little. I put my finger over my lips, grinning and waited for another. Ten bit his fist to keep his laughter from scaring any away.
Nothing, nothing, nothing.... White! I lunged and grabbed it. It wiggled and I pulled it out of the water before it was gone. I held the fish above me to show it off, cheering about my world-famous fishing abilities. Ten was laughing again. Happy, I held my prize out to him. "Fair maiden, have this as a token of my love."
His cheeks were pink, but he reluctantly took the fish, smile still present. "What am I supposed to do with this, your majesty? It's—it's a fish, dude—"
"And a token of my love, so if you throw it back I'll be really sad," I reminded.
He held it away from him, over the water. Looked me straight in the eyes, practically glowing. I gasped melodramatically and said, "No!" as he dropped the fish back into the river.
He was laughing again, and I pretended to be hurt. I fell to my knees. "Oh, alas, if only my one true love did love me back! My heart is a wound, a wound I say!" I fell back onto my back near the edge of the water for effect.
He stood over me. "You're going to drown, you idio—your majesty, come on. Stand up." He offered me his hand.
I threw my hand over my face, blocking my eyes but not my smile. "You have thrown away my token of love." I peaked between my fingers. "Dost thou want a different token of love?"
He was kneeling over me now, grinning. This was the first time he'd looked at me, ever. He always seemed to want to look everywhere else. "What kind?"
I leaned in. We were inches apart. He watched me with wide eyes. "A kiss, perhaps?"
His eyes flickered down to my lips. He leaned in. I finished my sentence with "And of course, another fish."
He laughed and pushed me back. "You need to work on finding better 'tokens of love,' your majesty."
"Maybe." I pulled him into a hug as a wave in the water came up the riverbed and wet our hands and legs. "But I got you to laugh. Is that the first time?"
He rested his head on my shoulder and sighed, ignoring the question. "I'll never figure this out, your majesty. I'll never figure you out."
I was about to reply when I heard my name being called. I remembered it's probably been about ten minutes, so I grabbed his hand and stood up. We ran back to our temporary camp the way we'd left it—laughing, hand in hand.
Word count: 1653