Gathering Herbs [Artemis]

It figured he wouldn't be so lucky to get that damnable cast off early; Andrei was slowly going stir-crazy having it keep him from working.

Though the twins and Leif had been admittedly happy to see more of their brother now that he had such an ample amount of free time... much of it consumed with whittling since he wasn't ambidextrous enough to make anything useful. Seth's prosthetic leg was still in his workshop, and Andrei felt a pang of guilt that the project had been put off for so long.

A bit longer still, it would seem.

But, then, there was worse company to have while he was on the mend. The fact that Autumn was pretty certainly helped, but Andrei had never let himself get too wrapped up in looks even if he was a complete sucker for blue eyes. Granted, his check-ups over the past couple of months didn't typically last long, but in that time he'd started to get a handle for what the healer was really like. On-duty, of course she was take-charge and no-nonsense (and damn it if he hadn't also inherited his father's weakness for tough women), but never once had that translated into brashness or a lack of delicacy when she'd checked the progress of his mending bones and the bruises that had colored him black and blue for weeks.

Andrei wasn't altogether sure what to make of all this sudden shyness on her part.

He let her lead him to the couch, sitting down like an obedient patient while she retrieved her medical supplies and set to work cutting off the ruined plaster and re-wrapping his arm.

"How are your ribs feeling. The last time I checked on them, they were almost completely healed."

"Good as new... most of them." Andrei rubbed the tender spot over the rib that had been broken; it didn't protest much anymore, outside of when he'd discovered one-armed pushups weren't a terrible substitute for his usual physical activity.

The new cast, though Autumn apparently lacked some of the necessary materials in her personal kit, was snug on his arm and considerably lighter. Andrei clenched his hand as best he could, relieved that in spite of the rain there was no harm done.

"Where are my manners, I'll get you a blanket," Autumn said suddenly, as if thinking aloud.

She disappeared into another room, leaving Andrei to slide off the couch onto the rug in front of the fireplace; his trousers were nearly sopping wet, but there was no way in hell or high water he was about to take them off, here and now and in this particular company...

Who had come back to drape a blanket around his shoulders; he rumbled a 'thanks', pulling it around his shoulders grateful more for the cover than the warmth. Andrei had always had the approximate heat output of a furnace, a point well established by the fact that when they were younger (and he was smaller), his siblings often crept into their oldest brother's room in the dead of winter for company and warmth. Even nowadays as the nights got colder, Leif still used his brother's chest as a pillow on the floor in front of the fire and the twins still fit neatly under his arms.

Their parents rarely had the heart to wake them when they inevitably fell asleep in a pile that way.

Autumn's cheek were flushed, appearing warm if not for the fact that her arms were tucked against her body, trying to suppress the shivering barely noticeable if not for her hands.

"C'mere." He said finally, gesturing her to move closer, "You're still cold and I'm hogging the blanket."