But what if?

When she looked at him with such surprise and had such an amusement in her voice he felt like there must be some piece of the puzzle he was missing, but he still gave her a bit of a "guilty as charged" look when she accused him of acting like a mother hen. He leaned his head into her paw as she lifted it to his cheek and then it was his turn to look at her in surprise when she informed him that there was no chance because of an herb she had been taking. He didn't know the first thing about herbs or which ones did what, but he vaguely knew that there were herbs that could prevent pregnancies and that sort of thing so he had to assume that's what this Gueen Anne's lace did since she brought it up now. The tension in his shoulders relaxed and he felt like a complete fool for worrying over her like he had. No matter how many times she proved that she could hold her own, old habits died hard.

His larger paw came up to rest over hers on his as she questioned him on why he didn't just ask her about it and insisted that he could talk to her about anything, no matter how hard. He sighed softly, gently squeezing her paw. "You're right. I know you're right. I was just trying to keep any other stress off of you while you recovered." Releasing her paw, he dipped his head to give her lips a tender kiss, infinitely relieved that his fears were unfounded even if he was an idiot about how he went about handling his concerns. After growing up with someone like his mother who crumpled so easily at the smallest thing and living with Azariah who he had catered to in every moment they were together, adjusting to the strength and independence that Eska held was a whole new world. "I'm sorry," he said softly against her lips, his paw brushing her cheek in return. "If you ever feel like I'm being a mother hen again please call me out on it. Sometimes I don't even realize when I've gone too far."

He smiled softly and kissed her again, lingering a moment longer than he had before and kissing her more deeply. "I hope your injuries finish healing quickly," he admitted after a moment with a slightly more husky tone to his voice, a little smirk pulling at his lips as he remembered the heated kiss she had given him before they came down to the infirmary. With that worry and weight lifted off of him it was easier to acknowledge the constant attraction he held for her. He would never do anything that would just end up hurting her worse than she was, but he wouldn't deny how he felt either.

"Ulric"