For a small while after, she finished most of the food, eating it in small pieces as much as she could, pacing herself so that she did not puke it all up. It pained her to have to break her food into such small pieces again. But she pushed through it, knowing how to help herself this time, unlike the last when she'd been just a child. Once she decided she was finished, Nadir simply threw the rest onto the ground.
The bed was almost uncomfortable to her after having laid on the wooden floor for the last month. Nadir laid down crossways in front of her, taking her legs in his lap and massaging her now limp muscles, the soft words between them a safety and comfort she didn't know she needed. She waited for him to make a comment about her legs, to say something about how skinny and depleted she was. She waited for it so much that she nearly didn't hear anything he said for a while.
"Nys?" he called, bringing her back. "Hey—What's wrong?"
She fidgeted with her fingers. "Ah... Nothing, it's just... I thought you would have said something about—about what I look like."
He paused, brows creasing. "Should I have?"
She sighed out the thoughts in her head with a close of her eyes. Of course, he didn't have anything to say about it. This was Nadir. Nadir fucking Storn. The most genuine person she'd ever known, constantly making her fall more and more in love with him with every sweep of his long lashes and flick of his tongue. Both Commander and charmer in one. Of course, he didn't comment on her starving figure.
Because he didn't see her as the helpless, starved Princess. He saw her for her. Terrified and running into the fire anyway. Supporting her and standing by her side should she ever need him.
Allowing her to prove herself and conquer the world without ever offering it to her on a silver platter.
"No," she finally said.
She sat up and turned so that she could lay beside him. His hand came to rest on her hip, and for a moment, she simply searched his face. He kissed her palm when she touched his cheek.
"I'm sorry I wasn't by your side," he whispered.
She sank against his forehead and scooted closer so that her legs entwined with his.
"You weren't supposed to be," she told him. "You were protecting your people and letting me do what I needed to do."
He pulled back then, his hand on her cheek. "You will never feel alone again," he promised. "Even when this place rips us apart again in the morning. I know where you are now. You are not alone."
"I told you this world would bring my fears to the surface in grand fashion," she said, almost smiling.
His lip quirked and his grip on her tightened. “You realize the only thing holding me back from picking you up over my shoulder and hauling your ass back to the Umber is that I trust you, right?”
She smiled up at him. “Thank you.”
His lips pressed to her cheek and then her jaw, and she sank her head into the crook of his neck.
For the first time in weeks, she felt safe, as though the reality of what she would have to face the following day didn’t exist. And, for the second time in her life, and once more with him, she begged the sun to be late rising.
The Porter did not wait for the sunrise before he came for her.
Nadir’s bargain for an entire night was well brought to attention when Quinn had come. Quinn, at least, had the decency to knock, but even that had only given them time to prepare.
They knew the Porter would expect her disheveled and naked, especially after the mockery of a show they'd ended up sounding off in the middle of the night. It had been ridiculous. She'd almost started laughing at one point, to which Nadir had stared at her for a long enough moment that her heart began to ache, and he'd hugged her in his arms.
What had hurt the most, though, was the look on his face when she'd asked him to mark her throat for show. To bite her skin and make it look as though he'd thoroughly had his way with her and enjoyed it. She could see the break in his eyes, that the action would not be sexual in any way, but rather as something to ensure both their survivals. But he'd done it, and she had held his trembling hand, closing her eyes as the tears washed down both their faces.
Until Nadir broke in her arms and pleaded again for her to let him take her home. Seeing him in such a state sent what was left of her heart into shambles, and they'd held each other tighter.
Nadir threw her clothes into a heap on the floor along with his when the Porter knocked that morning, and he tousled her hair in the thirty seconds they had between the knock and the Porter bursting in.
Quinn paused upon going inside. Nyssa yanked the blanket up to cover her breasts.
“I bartered for the entire night, Porter,” Nadir seethed, his hand placing on her leg through the blanket. “The sun has not yet risen. Get out.”
“Your time with the slave is done with, by order of our Noble,” Quinn affirmed.
“My time with this enchanting creature is still running,” Nadir argued. “Get out. I did not give over all of my furs so that I could be cheated. If your Noble wishes to remain part of our trading route and enjoy the hospitality of my people on a land not of his own, I suggest you walk out of here and wait for the sun to rise.”
Nyssa had only heard Nadir speak with such confirmation a few times before, and suddenly it was the Commander in the bed beside her.
