PeaceMaker

Desilva hesitated stepping into the tent. Last time she had been in there wasn't a pleasant memory and she already had a lot going on her mind, now wondering what he wanted was added to that list.

A face opened the door to the tent slightly, deep-set eyes analyzing Desilva's face for a second. "Oh! Mr. Silver haired-"

Axel's head disappeared back into the tent, "Your highness, Mrs. Milti's daughter has arrived."

"Let her in," Dominic replied, his voice way calmer and quieter than usual, a nice reminder of how he was sick.

Desilva slowly walked in and immediately stared at Dominic, pausing in her steps. He laid in his bed quietly, staring up at the ceiling with a contemplative feel.

"Please leave Axel," Dominic commanded, lifting his finger up slightly and waving it in a 'shoo' motion.

Axel turned to Dominic and then to Desilva and resisted the urge to sigh. He made a quint bow, then turned around and gave Desilva a quick staredown before leaving.

A heavy cloud of tension hung over them.

"Why did you-"

"Take a se-"

They paused for a second before breaking into laughter.

"You go firs-"

"You go firs-"

They broke into laughter again.

"Maybe one of us should go first," Desilva smiled, taking a seat on one of the chairs near him.

"And that one will be you," Dominic chuckled lightly.

"Meee?! Oh come on," Desilva grinned, putting on a fake pouting air, "you're the one who called me here."

"Yea, that's true, but I just wanted to talk to you first," Dominic smiled, ignoring the pain in his face.

"Oh…" Desilva muttered, blushing slightly, "in that case…"

She looked at him, taking in his state and it wasn't one that she liked. He was covered up nicely, but she could see the bandages peeking out from under his clothing, and judging by how he was barely able to move, the pain hadn't subsided at all.

"Stop staring… you'll make me feel self-conscious," Dominic laughed.

"Yea…" Desilva reached out and touched his arm, feeling the layers of bandages beneath her fingers. "How do you feel?"

Dominic could barely feel Desilva's touch on his hand, the layers of bandages so deep he could barely feel any light touch.

"Honestly? Horrible… it hurts so much that my body feels numb," Dominic chuckled, flinching at the pain that came after, "I'm basically paralyzed."

Desilva couldn't even form a sentence, and she looked away in pain.

"Don't be like that… It's not that bad really. At least I can hear," Dominic smiled.

"You can't even see me," Desilva sighed, "how do you know how I feel."

"I've spent enough time in this bed to be able to sense things well now," Dominic smiled, "Since my sight has been impaired, my hearing is significantly keener so I can even hear your breathing and the nervous fiddling you're doing with the hems of your skirt right now."

"What th-" Desilva pulled her hands away from her skirt.

"Haha," Dominic chuckled, feeling the light breeze from her quick movement.

"I-it's not funny!" Desilva stuttered, wildly blushing.

"My baddd," Dominic grinned.

Desilva let out a long sigh and leaned into her chair, "you're really scary."

"Scary? Of all the things I've been called, I've never heard that one before," Dominic laughed weakly. He paused before continuing, "is it my face?"

Desilva looked up at the ceiling before placing her folded arms on her lap and resting her head on them, her line of vision placed directly on Dominic. Her eyes ran up his features, from his long eyelashes down his smooth cheeks to his flamingo pink lips. The only word to describe his face was ridiculously handsome and nowhere left scary.

"No...never," Desilva muttered in reply.

"Then what's scary about me?"

"Your personality,"

"MY WHAT?!" Dominic's voice rose immensely with slight undertones of mockery, "ARE YOU SAYING I HAVE A BAD PERSONALITY?!"

Desilva's head sprung up when she realized how bad it sounded.

"NONONOO I-I DIDN'T MEA-AN IT LIKE THAT," she tried to explain, stumbling all over her words as she waved her hand wildly while shaking her head swiftly, "I WOULDN'T DARE TO!!"

"Hahaha," Dominic snickered, amused by the high levels of nervousness and desperateness in her voice, "I know you didn't."

"Oh," Desilva froze, turning her flushed face from Dominic as she slowly brought her hands down in embarrassment.

"But then...what did you mean?" Dominic asked.

"The way you... react to certain situations? Like your enthusiasm and optimism is scary in a way," Desilva explained, trying to form words out of the thoughts in her mind.

Dominic's eyebrows stiffly rose into a perplexing form, "are you saying you want me to be gloomy all day? Is my optimism annoying? Should I stop?"

"WHAT?! NO! DON'T STOP!" Desilva yelped, immediately shutting down Dominic's thoughts. She looked away nervously, unsure of how to place her next words.

"Haha..then what?" Dominic smiled hesitantly.

"The way you're able to just floss over things that would literally ruin people I know is… amazing but also scary really," Desilva smiled pensively, "Someone like you, who was literally put through hell in war, took damages that were intended for your fellow soldiers, ignored the pain from all the attacks, even tried to find ways to help your soldiers after the war and then suffered an intense and doubled backlash of all the pain from battle and fatigue, can still talk like nothing happened and smile lightly

"It's… so admirable but so scary… it's amazing, you are amazing."

Dominic stayed still in his position, his face stiffly set as he tried to figure out how to reply to that.

Desilva turned back to him, staring carefully and calmly at his striking face, then down to his bandaged arm, her heart throbbing.

She let out a weak laugh, "Ha...someone as physically and mentally strong as you are…" 'someone as amazing as you…' she thought to herself, before looking away from Dominic and burying her face in her arms, muttering, "I can't believe they want me to go after you."