" William, I've-"

" Oh, Kirie. It's fine. Nova brought me lunch."

Kirie stared at him- at both of them, actually. Though Nova was sitting apart from him, looking as taciturn as ever, William felt that she was taken aback by him being present at all.

" We're close enough to imperial territory that we can afford to import more expensive traditional food," Nova said shortly. " It'd be a shame to pass up the opportunity."

Kirie opened the room's small refrigerator and put the takeout tray she'd brought in.

" Right," she said.

" It's cultural exchange, Kirie, cultural exchange," William said, shaking a slice of some spiky red vegetable he had speared on his fork. It tasted mildly bitter, a bit spicy, and had a very strange texture.

" On the note of exchanges, William, what should we do about the Lyeha coming aboard?" she asked, used to his behavior.

" I'll be up and walking by then, so I'll go with Nova to pick her up," he said, waving the issue off. " I guess I'll give her the other nice guest room? We'll have no room for visiting generals if we keep collecting royalty like this."

" I'll make the arrangements for that, then, since you're still hurt," Kirie offered.

" Don't encourage his laziness," Nova said. " He can hold a pen."

William rolled his eyes.

" Don't listen to him," he said. " I'm an invalid, Kirie."

" Have more respect for your staff, William, she isn't a secretary."

" I'll be going to start up the paperwork for that now, then," Kirie said hurriedly, and she left in the same manner.

William watched her leave, thinking.

" Well, she was in quite a hurry," he commented.

" Oblivious oaf."

He smiled politely at Nova, unsure how to take the statement.

" And what do you mean by that?" he asked.

Nova's ear flicked in annoyance.

" It's obvious how we look, William," he said.

" You think she took it that way...?" William blushed red; he really hadn't considered it...

Ah.

" Why did you bring me lunch, anyway, Nova?"

Nova blanched.

" Excuse me? Why wouldn't I?" he demanded.

" Hmmm... Any number of reasons?" William ventured. " I was awfully forward with you yesterday, before the duel..."

" How about after?" Nova asked, pressing his lips together in a thin line. His ears had flattened down.

Ah.

" I don't especially, well- you know- one might say... remember much afterwards?" William admitted awkwardly. " I was completely blitzed on pain killers all night..."

Nova gave him an absolute death glare, all stiffened up and hackled. What the hell had he done?

He stood, abruptly, and snatched the half-finished plate from William's lap.

" I see," he said, voice cold.

" H- hey now, Nova-!" William protested, sitting up as best as he could. " Don't you think that's a bit much? It's not like I can chase after you if you leave-!"

" I'm sure you could, all things considered," Nova said, making to leave.

" Nooooova, my leg hurts and I can't get out of bed," William complained. " Make things easier on me, I'm hurt... You're bullying an injured man... Where's your honor now? You can't withhold food from me like this..."

" Then crawl across the floor and get the food your lieutenant brought you," Nova said diffidently. " Or perhaps get black out high on your pain killers again."

" What did I do to deserve this?"

" You know what you did."

" I really don't! Nova!"

...But he had left.

William flopped back on his pillow, feeling somewhat defeated. He couldn't, for the life of him, figure out how he'd managed to offend him so badly. He had been rather nice, for Nova, until William mentioned he couldn't remember the night before...

Had he been hitting on him again?

But he'd spent the entire past few days hitting on him, to no effect. Nova had just seemed irritated by it. He was only humoring him because he thought Diurn was going to kill him. The thought of him reciprocating in any capacity actually seemed a little ridiculous. The man was ice all the way through. Pretty ice, that was fun to chip at, but still...

It wasn't like William could ask him; he'd left, and he never had his comm on anyway. It wasn't like he could call him and say, 'sorry for whatever reckless flirting I got up to last night while I was high, let's try that again without the drugs?'

If he tried that line, he felt reasonably sure that Nova would make a sincere effort to break his other ankle.

No wonder he was the Lyena, undefeated in those frankly hellish duels. He'd probably rather die than show any emotion besides annoyance and disdain.

How troublesome.


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