Their conversation was nice. Once the Lady Selene began to feel comfortable that her presence was welcome and not a distraction or an intrusion she relaxed and spoke fondly of her trip to Athenia. Vangelis had been to the capital of their neighbouring kingdom before so was able to nod and make small comments on certain places but most of his knowledge was confined the royal palace - where he was always received as a guest because of his station and the Senate. He hadn't even attended the Naos that Selene spoke most fondly of.
It was perhaps an hour into their discussions - with Vangelis attempting to keep up his end of the conversation - that the physician Dimas decided to walk in.
While Vangelis enjoyed Selene's presence - her beauty and even the pitch of her voice were a comfort on his senses - he had been growing steadily more tired and knew that his need to heal was catching up on him. Dimas' presence was only going to make this worse as he knew a bandage change was imminent. Which meant a lot of movement, a lot of effort and a lot of pain. After which he would need sleep. He therefore utilised the opportunity...
"I fear, Lady Selene, that you will have to excuse me. I believe Dimas is here to change my wrappings and examine my injuries." To soften his rejection of her presence, Vangelis reached out with his good hand and rested it on her own in the same way she had done for him earlier in her visit. "I have enjoyed your company as always and hope you will grace me with it again before your return to Taengea."
Ever the entertainer, Selene tried to weave the experience of her travels. She detailed the joys of traveling by boat, even describing how she had learned to fish (she hadn’t caught anything, but was excited to try elsewhere) and spoke of her new found love of travel. She tried to paint the picture of her sight, of how exciting it all had been. She pressed upon him the need for him to see some of the sights himself. Perhaps, she had said gleefully, he would find some time to enjoy at least one of the simpler sights of the city.
It was easy to tell that he was doing his best, but that he was beginning to tire. And, bless him, he didn’t want to be rude and ask her to go. Divine intervention, then, when the doctor walked in to change his dressings. She was quick to stand, quick to brush off any of his excuses. “Fear not, I will make sure that I see you once more before I leave. I will need to make sure that you are well, else I will not be able to return to Taengea and hope for a decent night’s rest.”
His hand on hers had the same effect as hers had on his, and she found herself flipping her hand over so that she could give it as reassuring squeeze. “Rest well, Prince Vangelis.” There was a moment’s hesitation before she released his hand. As if she was savoring the moment. But then, it passed, and she was out the door without waiting for Zanon to escort her back to her room.
Zanon chuckled to himself the whole way down the hall, memorizing his brother's expression for a rainy day. It wasn't often he got to pull one over on Vangelis, and after the scare the idiot had given the whole family after the storm it felt even better than he'd hoped to have her presence shock him into silence of a sort. The awkward tension had been palpable, and honestly it had gone even better than he could have hoped for.
The second prince occupied himself with a stack of scrolls he had yet to read, settling into a hall with a view of the crown prince's door just in case. He lounged lazily against one wall, waving off anyone who tried to ask if he wanted to move somewhere else and keeping one eye on the entrance to his brother's room at all times. It felt like about an hour, perhaps more or less he wasn't keeping fantastic track of the time, but a flurry of woman and blonde exited just moments after Dimas entrance and Zanon was not quick up enough from the floor to catch her. Allowing her the time, he grinned and slowly poked his head round the frame to peer over at Vangelis with a broad expression of amusement on his face.
"Well brother, how was your visit? Was it all you hoped it would be?"
Ignoring any scolding from the healer, Zanon sidled into the room and closer to his brother's bedside, eager to hear exactly what the man thought of his hastily considered present.
"You..." Vangelis stated defiantly, with a pointed finger from his good hand, his words interrupted as Dimas worked around him. "Are an arse."
Sitting on the side of his bed now, with the help of the physicians, his blankets pulled over his lap and his bandages being unwrapped by the older gentleman, in order to replace new fresh linens over the bruised mangled flesh beneath.
"You realise I barely know that woman, yes?" He asked with his expression one of sheer confusion and a hint of "are-you-crazy?""The poor lady probably had no idea what she was doing here or what to say. If you didn't embarrass me, you certainly embarrassed her." He told Zanon, far angrier on the Lady Selene's behalf than he was on his own.
He winches as Dimas lifted his arm to wrap the new coverings beneath his bicep. He then shook his head at Zanon.
"If your sole intent was to surprise me, then you succeeded." He told the man. "But that only makes you a successful arse. What in the name of the Gods were you thinking was going to benefit from this?"
His tone of voice strongly indicated that he thought his brother had, overnight, had his mind sucked out by a creature of Hades, because clearly, he had gone insane in the last twenty-four hours...
"Oh don't be cross with me brother. You needed cheering, and looking at her certainly cheered me."
Zanon grinned cheekily at his wounded brother, moving into the room though making a concerted effort to stay out of grabbing reach. For all Vangelis might be injured and all but half crippled at the moment, he was sure the grip of his good hand was just as damaging as ever and he had no desire to find himself strangled half to death. Crossing his arms, he tilted his head to the side like a dog trying to understand what his master was saying.
"Hardly know her? Why is she writing letters to our mother inquiring of your health then? And, when asked why did a scribe mention having seen several letters from her arrive addressed to you before? Are you in love and afraid to admit it, Vangelis?"
His eyes widened in delight at the prospect and he clapped his hands, spinning on his heel ready to run after the Lady Selene and tell her all before spinning right back around and pointing out the door instead with little care for Dimas in the room with them.
"Oh, you haven't bedded her yet have you...should I offer my company until her preferred brother recovers?
Vangelis felt his stomach acid churn and his jaw clench around Zanon's words his thoughts and emotions swirling somewhere between extreme anger and just plain exasperation.
"Dimas..." Vangelis halted the physician for a moment. "Pass me that cushion for a second." And bless him the physician did, with a comically querying look on his face. The man clearly had no brothers or sons if he didn't know what Vangelis was about to do with it.
Launching the projectile at Zanon with his good arm, his aim was true but the aim that lanced through his shoulders was excruciating as he growled in pain the second the cushion left him. When the cushion hit a surprised Zanon clean in the face, however, Vangelis grin and groaned aloud - "Worth it."
As his heartbeat subsided and his now sweaty skin cooled from the sudden moment of exercise, Vangelis straightened back up and glared at the brother, knowing that his aggression would be taken the right way - that all the pent up violence Vangelis never showed to anyone else was actually strange sign of affection and camaraderie.
"My feelings in the matter of Lady Selene are nonexistent, Zanon. And if they were not they would be of no import to you. I expect you to drop the subject while the Lady is staying with us and instead ensure those letters are brought to me. Don't assume them to be sweet nothings when they may, in fact, hold significance."
When Zanon then made comment of keeping Selene company, Vangelis spotted the opportunity to turn the heat back on his eldest younger brother and wasted no time in redirecting the blaze.
"And yet you have a wife, dear brother..." He commented. "I should like to know what Evras would think if she could hear you now."
While Vangelis was away from home a lot of the time, it was hard not to notice the difference in his brother's marriage since his last military excursion. Originally so in love it was painful to watch, Zanon now seemed to avoid the topic and presence of his wife at every turn, while Evras moved about the palace like a ghost. He had never considered his brother's marriage his business and had therefore said nothing of it but he couldn't help but bring it up if the man was going to rib him about women... Those who lived in weak houses were not to throw stones, after all.
The cushion hadn't actually done any damage aside from the shock, but as he rubbed at his nose the skin there still stung from the impact and he pulled a face at his older brother. Whatever dignity the brothers had was lost in fraternal affection and teasing it seemed. In any case, by launching projectiles at him it only lengthened Vangelis' recovery time, and so by staying in bed he would be reaping the punishment himself for the moment of surprise caused to Zanon's face.
Clutching the cushion to his chest, the second prince tipped up his chin defiantly at the protestations of innocence in his relationship. There wasn't a man alive who spent time and energy writing a woman letters that he didn't find attractive or see in her some sort of political gain, and as his calculations could tell aside from being noble and foreign, the lady Selene didn't have much politic pull to cause a reason for letter writing, and therefore his logic that the two must clearly be romantically interested in some way still felt sound.
"I'm taking this. If you're throwing things you don't deserve them."
He brandished the cushion and tucked it under his arm, choosing to pointedly ignore Vangelis' statement about his wife. Evras had already melted down about his innocent interaction with the Lady Selene no doubt, and had run to coddle Dion even more. If he didn't get his son back under his roof and away from his mother soon the boy would die in his first battle, or turn tail and run, and Kotas men were not cowards. Zanon gave a wave as he turned about, heading for the door to leave the physician and patient to their healing process.
"Say as you wish, brother. If you want her brought to you simply call. She's staying in my wife's chambers for her visit here."
Vangelis snorted and raised an eyebrow at his brother's statement that the Lady Selene had been gifted his wife's apartments during her visit.
"I'm sure Lady Evras will be exuberant to hear that." He told his brother with a glare, as the man placed the pillow under his arm. He cared nought for it as he could always request another if he needed it.
"I don't know what is going on with you brother, but when I am fit and able to deal out the beating I suspect you so desperately need we will be talking more about this marriage of yours." He told the man, intent on putting his brother on the back foot as he had done to the eldest only moments before, for a moment though, the quiet stretched and Vangelis' tone transformed from teasing to strength and loyalty. "I am with you my brother." He told the man. "In any way you need... And for whatever is best for Diom."
After a momentary nod of brotherly duty, the two of them separated and it was only a half hour later that Vangelis was presented with the letters he had missed during his immediate recovery - a clear olive branch by his brother in meeting his request to see them.
At the end of the day... they were still the closest of brothers...