Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 5)

"Maybe we should give them some privacy," Tomhas murmured.
"You're welcome to try and carry me out of here, but I was told not to move," Gaius replied. "Bones shifted out of place or something." Tomhas wrinkled his nose; that sounded horrifying and painful.
"Will they go back into place?"
"If I exercise it enough. Which I'm not inclined to do, but I suppose I'll have to."

Ky and Tadaaki had both been ignoring the brothers up to that point, but their attention was more focused on them after Ky's silent accusation, so they both heard the quiet conversation between them. And neither of them wanted to be the reason Gaius hurt himself further. Or risk Tomhas hurting himself, in an attempt to carry his brother.

Ky was by far the lightest, and Tadaaki was by far the biggest. It made more sense that if anyone was carrying anyone, for it to be the two of them.

"We're more mobile," Ky murmured, standing up and immediately swaying as the world shifted under her swiftly.

Tadaaki wrapped his arm around her, not quite lifting her off her feet, but still taking almost all of her weight off her. They stepped towards the door. "We won't be long."

"No, no!" Tomhas shot to his feet. "Hey now, you two should stay here. Ky, you're in no fit state to move."
Gaius shifted himself further into a sitting position. "I can make it to the room next door," he said firmly. "We'll go."

Tadaaki and Ky both blushed profusely at that. They were in the right here. They both knew they were. And yet, they couldn't very well argue with a Lord. Two Lords.

And then it struck Ky.

She could get away with it. More, anyway, than she used to be able to. It was her father and her uncle now -- not two untouchable Lords.

It was still hard to work up the courage to argue with them. "I don't mind. It'll be good for me to get up and stretch a bit."

Even though she fully intended on forcing Tadaaki on putting her down in the nearest seat they found out of the infirmary.

"Nonsense." Gaius grabbed his cane and boosted himself up, keeping his bad leg off the ground. "You need this space more than I do. I'll have someone get me back to my room." He accepted an arm from Tomhas, leaning into his brother to steady himself. Even standing like this with his weight off his leg was agony; he kept silent now to keep from showing it.

Gods, she should have just ignored them and kept talking to Tadaaki. Pretend they hadn't heard them talking about leaving. It's not like she had anything to say to Tadaaki that Gaius and Tomhas hadn't already heard this morning.

"I'm going to feel unbearably guilty if you leave," Ky said, steeling her will. Even though her chest was tight with anxiety. Imagine, arguing with Gaius. "What if we all stay? We need to talk, anyway, you said it yourself."

And she'd be damned if she was having that conversation in Gaius's bedroom. She'd die from embarrassment.

The brothers looked at each other. That was preferable.
"I just figured you'd want to talk in private," Tomhas said, but eased Gaius back down onto the bed. Gaius couldn't hold back a small grunt of pain but was otherwise silent. "If you want us to stick around then, I've got no problem with that."

Ky let out a breath of relief. She could live with this compromise.

Tadaaki set her back on her bed, too. She sat on the edge for a moment, blinking hard in an attempt to clear the dizziness in her vision that was agitating her stomach.

"I've nothing private to say." That wasn't properly true. She needed to talk to Tadaaki and figure out if they were still going to run away or not. She promised not to kill herself; she made no promises to not run away. But, she was feeling guilty about the idea. They needed to talk it out. Later. She leaned back onto her pillows, patting Tadaaki's chest as he finally started to step away. "I mostly just wanted proof of life."

"Me too," Tadaaki murmured, smiling softly at her.

What a dismal thing to say. That the two of them were so concerned that they'd both had the same thoughts, that they might have gone through with it...Tomhas pushed the thought away and took a seat. "Well, I'll just be sitting her twiddling my thumbs, then. Talk away!"

(oops haha they're like haaaaalf joking)

Ky nodded. So did Tadaaki.

But how were you even supposed to start a conversation now?

It felt like it'd be weird for the two of them to try to have a conversation between themselves -- no, the opportunity had passed for that one. Now they needed to figure out a way to bridge the gap on all four of them being tuned in to each other.

The longer the silence stretched, the more uncomfortable they both got. Tadaaki was used to having to be silent and take it; but, usually, Ky could get away with talking -- or at least baiting someone else into talking -- so they didn't have to deal with such an awkward silence as this was turning into.

"So, uh... what'd we all need to talk about?" Tadaaki asked awkwardly after a moment.

(Yeah I guessed that but Tomhas was like x_x)

Tomhas chuckled. "Uh, I don't know. Ky asked for you, I guess to check up on you."

Ky nodded. "Yeah. I just wanted to make sure you're okay...ish."

"Ish," Tadaaki agreed.

"We could discuss the potential journey to Serpent Keep," Gaius suggested.

Tadaaki glanced at Ky to see if it'd been mentioned to her yet.

She nodded.

He mirrored the nod.

Neither of them knew what to say, though.

Gaius glanced expectantly between them. He'd been so close to getting to his room. Maybe he'd get Tomhas to take him there later, but for now this was a thing they needed to discuss at length.