I'd Give Up The World For You

Rukelion went upstairs to change out of his uniform and came back down. Feeling rather needy after today's bad news, he hugged Daisy's shoulders and rested his head on top of hers from behind as she kneaded the bread. She could tell he needed it and didn't say a word, continuing on as she had been.

He closed his eyes as she began humming to herself. He was with the woman he loved. He had to believe that everything he was worried about would be fine since he was with her. She had a way of making his worries melt away.

He ended up taking advantage of that a lot while the squadrons with his allies were gone. Once again, they were fighting through the winter but at least this time they started in the fall and went to the south where it wasn't nearly as cold. That should make things a bit easier for them.

Still, Rukelion was worried. He had done his best to train them but what if it wasn't enough?

News got around slowly. Soldiers on horseback took messages to and from the front but those took over a week to arrive. By the time word came back to headquarters things had already changed drastically. It was even worse back in Aveleen, which was why they had that debriefing when they finally made it back.

It had been months since they first left and there had been plenty of casualties but none from the Silver Wolf Squadron. Conrad was keeping his promise.

Unfortunately, he didn't have jurisdiction over any other squad. Some of his precious few allies from Black Dragon and Golden Eagle who hadn't gone through the anti-mage training had already been killed.

What was he supposed to do now? The longer they stayed there, the more people were going to die! He couldn't afford to lose anyone else but only Conrad knew that. His responsibility was to his own squad first and Rukelion understood that.

Who knows? Maybe if Conrad saved some people who hadn't been on their side before he might be able to turn them. That was the one potential bright spot in this mess.

The worst part of all of this wasn't the uncertainty of losing his allies though. It was the war meetings. As a major he wasn't even allowed to be a part of them since they were all happening with the truly high-ranking officers in the castle with the king. Not being there was driving him crazy!

If nothing else, Rukelion should be able to use this rare opportunity to get more information that would help his plan but he was barred from it. He was doing three times as much paperwork too since the colonels and generals were gone. The majors and lieutenant colonels had been left to deal with the mess and there weren't enough of them to go around.

The only thing keeping him sane was Daisy. He would have completely lost his mind by now if not for her.

"Leo, can you pass me another ball of yarn?" she asked from her place on the sofa next to him. The yarn basket was closer to where he was so he reached down and handed it to her.

She was currently knitting him a red sweater to replace the one that had fallen apart after wearing it to death over several winters. She probably didn't know that only fire mages had hair as red as his but whenever she did make him clothes she usually made them red in honor of the color he couldn't proudly display right now.

It was a very thoughtful thing to do. He missed not having to dye his hair. Not having to wear an eyepatch too. He wouldn't be able to show off his true appearance until the day his identity was revealed to the world and who knows when that would happen?

Daisy tightly tied two pieces of yarn together so she could use the new yarn ball and returned to her task. Rukelion was content to watch her go.

"…is what I'm doing really that interesting?" she asked after a while with a half-smile on her face.

"Not really. I just like looking at you," he admitted. "Sorry if that's weird."

"It's a little weird but simultaneously kind of flattering. I know you don't mean any harm so it's fine. But you must be pretty bored to have nothing better to do than look at me."

"I'm not bored. I like spending time with you most no matter what we're doing."

Daisy reached out and ruffled his hair fondly before returning to her knitting. "You're cute."

Was that a good thing? He thought she was cute but she was much smaller than him. And a woman. He knew some soldiers who resented being called cute because they thought it was emasculating.

Any compliment from her was better than nothing. Unfortunately, her word choice implied she still thought of him as a child. What did he have to do to change that? He was halfway to being a general for crying out loud! Everyone else in the world saw him as a man!

"I'm a grown adult, must you call me cute?" Rukelion grumbled.

Daisy looked up at him with a furrowed brow. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. I thought what you said was sweet."

She had called him that a million times, usually with a smile, but now he wasn't sure if being considered sweet was any better than being considered cute. He was doomed, wasn't he? Was there even a way out of this rabbit hole?

Noticing the look on his face, she momentarily set down her knitting with a serious expression. "Hey. Sweet is a good thing. It's actually one of the things I like best about you. You're probably the nicest person I've ever met and I really appreciate that."

Rukelion was slightly mollified. Nice was better than cute. And of course he was nice to her; she was the only person in this world he truly cared about!

"You like nice?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Duh. Who doesn't like people being nice to them? Unless they're a masochist, I suppose," Daisy mused.

He knew a lot of things she liked in general—he did know her best, after all—but he didn't know specifically what she liked in men. He only knew some things she disliked because of the bad examples of all of her suitors back in Cloverfield.

She didn't want to be controlled by anything or anyone. She wasn't interested in overbearing or bossy men. Aside from that he had no idea what she did want. She seemed to think that love was off the table for her way back before they were engaged so he was willing to bet she didn't like the type of men Mirea tended to produce in general.

What kind of man did she like back in Ohio? He would need to know that if he was going to win her over.

Rukelion didn't want to cross any lines but he didn't know what he could do other than be straightforward here. He would never get any answers otherwise. He needed to ask the right question though.

The one he rather stupidly ended up settling on was "Are cute and handsome at all similar?"

He was an idiot. Why couldn't he come up with anything better than that? He truly did want to know if she found him even slightly attractive though and couldn't think of any other way to ask. His brain was fried from all the paperwork earlier.

Daisy's eyebrows shot up. "Uh…not really. 'Cute' is behavior-based and 'handsome' is appearance-based. But if it makes you feel any better, you're both."

So she had caught onto what he was trying to get at. His face flushed with pleasure. She really thought he was handsome!! That was so, so much better than cute. He could work with that!

"Really?" Rukelion asked, trying his best to hide his eagerness.

"Yeah," she said with a shrug. "You have beautiful hair and eyes. I've never met anyone who looks like you. You're unique."

His heart skipped a beat. Unique was definitely better than cute but he still wasn't sure if it was enough. What if she didn't like unique? She did always make him red things though so if nothing else she liked his hair.

Something caught his attention that hadn't before. She had never complimented his eyes until now. Her eyes were one of his favorite things about her because they were so full of vitality. They sparkled in a way that could make anyone feel happy right along with her.

"You like my eyes?" Rukelion asked casually.

Daisy nodded. "They're really pretty. I had heard of heterochromia before but you're the first person I've met who actually has it. The two colors suit you. It's a shame you have to wear that eyepatch all the time but I get why you have to do it. They do sort of stand out."

Standing out was a problem but not as big of one as the fact that it would be a dead giveaway to his identity for anyone who was even passingly familiar with his father.. At least he was able to take the eyepatch off at home now that he had his own house.