I know how to use an axe, Sylvain. I did grow up training with them.
[ Hilda is an excellent teacher. Claude knows this, and also knows that her axe prowess far exceeds his own given that training wasn't something he kept up with once the war began. In the mildly illogical pattern his thoughts are still following in the aftermath this somehow feels important to point out anyway. Better than thinking about his hands, anyway, and he very nearly adds something about his father or a brother, or even Nader, before he catches himself.
He's saved from having to find something to say by Sylvain placing a hand on his face and calling his attention back to something that matters more. Reassurance that he listens to carefully rather than simultaneously finding what to counter it with. Reassurance that Claude hears to the point where he drops his gaze to watch the bandaging process since that feels easier. ]
Too bad it's only our hands that went numb. [ Dryly, like that's a benefit rather than the result of who knows what that happened to them both, and as close as he can get to admitting Sylvain has a point. (He'll admit that later. Probably.) ] At least tell me that when the feeling does come back we at least get to skip that awful pins and needles feeling or it doesn't last that long before everything else creeps back in.
[ Also not a benefit, and not a valid reason to reach for deflections in the face of the care being given to him. When the bandage is secured, Claude sits up and ignores his back's protest to catch both of Sylvain's hands in his own, mindful as he can be of the other's injuries while doing so, before quietly saying, ] Thank you.
no subject
[ Hilda is an excellent teacher. Claude knows this, and also knows that her axe prowess far exceeds his own given that training wasn't something he kept up with once the war began. In the mildly illogical pattern his thoughts are still following in the aftermath this somehow feels important to point out anyway. Better than thinking about his hands, anyway, and he very nearly adds something about his father or a brother, or even Nader, before he catches himself.
He's saved from having to find something to say by Sylvain placing a hand on his face and calling his attention back to something that matters more. Reassurance that he listens to carefully rather than simultaneously finding what to counter it with. Reassurance that Claude hears to the point where he drops his gaze to watch the bandaging process since that feels easier. ]
Too bad it's only our hands that went numb. [ Dryly, like that's a benefit rather than the result of who knows what that happened to them both, and as close as he can get to admitting Sylvain has a point. (He'll admit that later. Probably.) ] At least tell me that when the feeling does come back we at least get to skip that awful pins and needles feeling or it doesn't last that long before everything else creeps back in.
[ Also not a benefit, and not a valid reason to reach for deflections in the face of the care being given to him. When the bandage is secured, Claude sits up and ignores his back's protest to catch both of Sylvain's hands in his own, mindful as he can be of the other's injuries while doing so, before quietly saying, ] Thank you.