A Thing You Won't Remember

Romulus nodded slowly. He had no clue why he wasn't feeling it worse than he was. He was a little out of it, but not badly, and that wasn't a good sign either…
"Uh, find something sharp and poke the bottom of my foot. A quill from my desk, maybe." If he could feel it quickly, and his toes moved, his reflexes were ok.

His toes twitched, so no neurological damage per se. He noted her gagging. "Hey, you can move up to my hand now. Same deal." He closed his eyes, knowing if he saw it coming, it would skew the results.
File that away, no feet.

All of his fingers twitched like they were supposed to. Hand twitched when poked, meaning his nerves were somehow still intact.
"So, next is speech patterns. I've been talking fine, right?" He was a tad slurred, had been the whole time, but he was tired and his face was a mess, so it could probably be excused from that. Somehow, he wasn't anywhere near as bad as a couple nights ago.
Although I guess we'll see when I try to sleep.

"Well. The rest is checking if I'm right in the head. Like asking if I remember it's Wednesday, or if I know I'm in the Palace, or if I remember other various details." He glanced at her and frowned, before gently reaching up and pulling her back in.
"Hey… stop making yourself bleed…." he said softly. He kissed her gently, focusing on her bleeding lip.

"It's alright." He mumbled back. He paused for a moment, thinking.
"…Listen… do you need to talk about anything? I know Lear is better at this, but… I also know that you tend to process things in… other ways, and we're kinda similar that way."
He paused again, looking at her, before he came to a decision.
"If there's anything you need, any way I can comfort you, Elitia, you know I'll do my best."
Heck of a big promise to try to follow through on, but…. well. There it was.

Romulus bit at a scab on his lip, gnawing it gently. The look on his battered face was… conflicted.
The Prince had always been an intensely physical man, in many ways, and had realized early on that his… appetites were all equally large. He ate mountains of food, he drank entire kegs on his own, and he'd been known to walk into a brothel, buy the whole place for a night, and be able to rank every worker in bed by morning.
As his life had gotten more messed up, he'd turned to these things less for fun, and more for stress relief, and at the moment, he was a bit pent up, in multiple ways.
But asking Elitia for anything one-sided felt absolutely wrong and filthy and just…. not what he wanted to do, even though part of him did want to ask, very much so.
He lay there, considering for a moment, and became aware that his thoughts were likely written all over his face.
"… I'm hungry." He said quietly, trying to cover one appetite with another. "I hate to ask you to go down to the kitchens but I can almost assure you there's nothing in my kitchenette."

She could not be convinced. She could totally be convinced.

( XD )

He kissed her back, before watching her shuffle in her uncertainty. Romulus sat up a little further, and tried to think.
"If you don't want to leave, there should be a bell pull in the living room. It'll call a maid. Ask them for food." Why he hadn't thought of it right off, he wasn't sure, and then it hit him…
You're concussed, you idiot, of course you're thinking slowly…
He was also aware of how dizzy he'd be if he tried to sit all the way up or stand or anything like that.
Well. Must have got punched a bunch after all.
He'd kinda been hoping she'd leave for a moment, so he could clear his head and his heart and not want things so badly that he shouldn't want. Not that he wanted her to leave, quite the contrary, he wanted her to do anything to him but leave, but he also knew better than to make her feel like that was why he'd brought her back.
He only realized he'd been mumbling all of that when the sentence ended and the room went quiet. His eyebrow shot up, which hurt the cut on his eyelid, which had him blinking hard, and the whole stupid situation had him blushing, which was unusual for him.

Elitia giggled, and Romulus knew she'd heard him. There was no trying to hide it now. He glanced up, looking very ashamed of himself, and boy wasn't that different, he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt ashamed of admitting he wanted a woman.
She was grinning at him, and when she pulled his chin up, his blush deepened.
She was very kind in her word choice, and Romulus listened, knowing full well that this beautiful woman was far better to him than he had any right to be treated.
She kissed him, and he kissed back, reaching up to tangle a hand in her hair.
That kiss was both wonderful and awful. Wonderful, because, well, of course it was.
Awful, because it made him want to argue the point. Which he did as soon as they pulled away from each other.
"You're not going to hurt me, Elitia, I can promise you, you're feather light and you're a careful individual, and I'm stronger than you realize, and-…" The Prince bit his lip and looked down, determined not to start begging. He didn't need it that badly.
Well. Maybe a little.

An out has appeared!
And Romulus took it, nodding quickly. "That sounds good." He nodded too quickly, in fact, and his head swam afterwards.
But it meant a chance to clear his head and think about other things and hopefully figure out what he could move and what he couldn't.
He also needed to get rid of this stupid blush.
"The maids won't come in unless you invite them. If you stay mostly out of sight, they won't be able to see you and identify you later, if you don't want them to. But they'll bring the food and stuff without knowing who you are."

Romulus squirmed a bit under her gaze. When she left, he laid his head back and took a few deep breaths, settling.
You're not some dog catching heat scents, calm yourself!
He went to push himself up a little more, to sit up in order to eat, and something twinged in his neck. He rolled his head, slowly, trying to release whatever it was.
There was a small pop, like cracking your knuckles.
And suddenly, Romulus could feel everything. Every new wound from today, every wound from the week previous. He was woozy, his equilibrium shot, and if he hadn't already been bracing against the headboard, he'd have pitched sideways.
Two thoughts went through his head.
I'm glad this happened before we decided to do anything, this would've been really bad mid-stroke.
and
This is the worst.

He looked at her, leaning into her touch to stabilize his spinning head.
"Don't be alarmed…. but something just popped in my neck and now everything hurts." The slur was much more prominent now.
What he'd pinched that had allowed him to make it that far feeling ok, he didn't know, but whatever it was, when his neck let loose, he felt like garbage.
He swallowed hard. "Yeah, I-I'm going to n-need your help eating… S-sorry…."
While it was incredibly frustrating, this made much more sense than the weird level of homeostasis he'd been at. This felt more like he'd been beaten bloody.
Not that he wanted to feel it, but it was at least logical .

Her caress suddenly felt so much better with the tsunami of pain washing across Romulus. He pulled her in close, flinching as she brushed a bandage. There it is. He pulled her in anyway, wanting the closeness.
By the time he'd finished eating, he felt like a helpless idiot, but she'd been gentle and kind the whole way. He let her go to get rid of the dishes, and just trailed his hand across her lap as she sat near him.
"As much as I hate it… I shouldn't sleep longer than an hour or so. Again." He hated this part, but. Well. He couldn't see straight.

Romulus was drifting, not necessarily towards sleep, just kind of…. not all there. His stomach was full, he was hydrated, his bed was comfortable, and he had a beautiful woman looking over him.
But he hurt, and it was keeping him awake.
"I'm sorry about earlier…. wasn't trying to make things awkward…" If he wasn't going to sleep, may as well say what was on his mind. Or what he thought was on his mind. He wasn't sure.

Lear came back in just about then, calling from the living room. "Heard he needed food, are you both alright?" He came around the corner, into the bedroom, and noted the dazed but awake look on the Prince's face. "You're alive!" The Lieutenant hurried over and flopped onto the bed on the other side of Romulus, immediately checking bandages and casts.

Romulus shook his head just a little. "It's not the patience, I just… I don't think of you like that, Elitia." He wanted to be clear there, but his words weren't coming out as coherent as he wanted anymore.
He looked up, and his face lit up as Lear came in. "You're back!"

Lear smiled at him, and looked up as Elia listed off his condition. "Thank you for checking him over. And no, there's no tonic we know of that works for him. Getting him drunk is about the best you can hope for, but with a head wound, probably not an option." He noted their closeness, and smiled at her. "Thank you for staying with him."

Lear nodded slowly. He started to get up to head out, but Romulus laid his broken arm across his chest. "Bed is big enough for us all." He was right, and Lear smiled down at him. He'd spent plenty of nights in this bed, for much different reasons than most of its occupants.
"Let me get out of my court clothes and I'll be back." He headed through the door to his room and changed into more relaxed clothing, before coming back through. He plopped back down on the other side of Romulus, not as close to him as Elia, but definitely within reach, and stretched, before putting his head down. "We'll switch waking him up through the night." He said softly. As he was drifting off to sleep, he remembered one more thing.
"Lily and Calvin were thrilled, by the way."

Romulus smiled at him, and laid his cast on his friend's leg. He looked back over at Elitia. "Lily and Calvin?"

(I feel like im beginning to write out of character, maybe because Im half asleep. headed to bed)