This One Love

Author's Note:

Thanks again to Mayu for the lovely review. I'm not sure what was up with the game either. I dont think Ying was portrayed as much gorgeous as she as portrayed with an inner beauty. The Qiao's, Zhen Ji...they looked prettied up. Ying didnt need that, hers was natural....well, thats my humble opinion anyway, and people might not agree with it. If so, sorry, but thats not gonna change it. Anyways, onto the next chapter. And your going to get Zhuge get MUCH more adoring before its over with Mayu, hehe. Enjoy!


Chapter 3:


“Incompetent horses asses, the lot of them.” Zhuge had grumbled as they made their way back to their room after the doctor had finished stitching up her arm and deemed her ready to go recuperate.

It wasn’t so much his obvious worry over her well being as it was that he purposely stayed as close to her as was possible without tripping the both of them. Ying didn’t mind, of course, but she did wonder why there was such a sudden change in the man. She had to remind herself that she’d never been injured in battle since they were married, so she had no other instances to compare this one to.

Once they got back to their room the nervousness set in again, and it must have been obvious because she’d no sooner been sat on the edge of the bed than he was heading out again.

“Leaving for the evening?” she enquired curiously, wondering if she’d see him again before morning. She couldn’t shake the feeling her injury had disappointed him and pushed him to reconsider Li Shen’s offer earlier.
“No, just going to get dinner brought to the room for us so you don’t have to be uncomfortable. I thought you might want privacy to get changed and such as well.”
“Oh … well, thank you then,” she said, trying to hide her surprise. He’d said us … could that mean he would be joining her for dinner instead of going to the dinner hall alone?
“I’ll return shortly,” Zhuge said as he left the room, not even trying to hide his smile as he started down the hall. Maybe this was a start at least.

Meanwhile, Ying fished through their dresser for decent sleeping clothes. She usually slept half dressed for battle considering the recent battle circumstances, but it had been made clear that she would possibly be out of battle for weeks while the wound healed and she worked the use back into her damaged shoulder muscles. Which was going to get really old considering she would be stuck in the room with just her books and charts and weapon designs to humor her during that time.
Finally finding what she was looking for, she went into the bathroom to shower, being careful not to let the hot water hit he wound directly. After she was finished, she went back into the bedroom wondering how in gods’ names she was supposed to get her hair dried or brushed. Zhuge was just coming back into the room and raised an eyebrow at the exasperated look on her face.

“What troubles you, Ying?” He searched for a change in her features as he asked, thankful when he saw none.
“Just cursing my inability to deal with my hair, no big deal,” Ying said gruffly as she sat back down on the edge of the bed, glaring slightly at her hairbrush as she sat it back on the nightstand beside their bed.
“I could help you with that, you know,” Zhuge offered innocently, earning him a surprised look from his wife.
“You don’t have to do that, you probably have better things to spend your time doing.” She said softly, almost hoping he would argue and mentally kicking herself for getting herself into this mess in the first place.
“There are better things than helping my wife when she’s injured?” he asked as he sat behind her on the bed and took the towel from her, gently drying out her hair before reaching for her brush.
“Umm … I thought there would …” Ying couldn’t finish the sentence once he started slowly running the brush through her hair so she just let her voice trail off and her eyes fall closed as she enjoyed the feeling. Nobody had done this for her since she was a child and her mother used to brush her hair, she remembered as he continued working the tangles out of her hair.

Zhuge kept quiet as he worked on her hair, not indicating when he laid the brush aside and started just using his fingers to comb through it, enjoying the feel of her hair against his hands. The innocent act was causing him to think of more affectionate gestures and he had to fight the urge to just pull her to him and not let her go. He knew that would be moving too fast, though, so he tucked it in the back of his mind for later and worked on how to phrase his next statement.

“Our lord has given me permission to take leave of my battle responsibilities in order to assist you while you recover instead of having one of the maidservants helping you.” Zhuge flinched to himself when she went rigid at his quietly muttered words, praying she wouldn’t push him away from the privilege.
“T-there’s no need for that, Zhuge … I can take care of myself while your away, you don’t have to stay and baby-sit.”
“And what if I don’t see it as ‘babysitting’, as you put it? What if I asked to be here with you while you recover because I’d rather spend time with my injured wife than deal with whiney soldiers and know it all generals?”

Ying couldn’t answer his quiet questions, and wondered if he could see the smile that fought its way onto her features at the thought of him actually wanting to be near her outside of business and battle arrangements. Here was her chance to work at letting him know how she felt. Her chance to get things straight between them or to find out once and for all whether he really cared for her as a woman as well as respecting her fighting skills and knowledge. She relaxed again with the thought flitting through her head that it was going to be a very interesting few weeks.