Of course, his situation was much more dire now that he didn’t have access to any of his account. He shouldn’t be looking down at Han’s frugality, he should be learning from her!
“How do you…” he started to ask her a question about surviving on such a limited income when he noticed her rubbing her leg over the healing wound. “Does it hurt?”
She let out a frustrated breath. “It doesn’t hurt, but I wish I had some lotion or oil,” she said, pulling her pant leg up to her knee and lightly scratching her blunt nails over the long scab.
“What are you doing?” he asked with a worried rumble. Abandoning the tea, he rushed back to her and pulled her hand away.
The skin patches had fallen off earlier that day. Normally they’d stay on longer, but because the first set had failed and the wound had aged, the second set fell off early to keep from growing into the skin as it healed. Even though she assured him the scab was natural, he hated how it looked like it must hurt.
She tried to tug her hand free. “It itches.”
“You shouldn’t touch it like that. You could reopen the wound!” he admonished, still holding her hand, and sounding a worried rumble. “Does itching indicate infection?”
She shook her head. “Itching is normal but annoying.”
“You said you wished you had lotion or oil. Does that help?” he asked.
“Keeping the scab and skin soft helps.” She tugged again, and this time he let go of her wrist. “I usually carry a tin of salve that Aunt Elle makes, but I ran out a few months ago.” She let out a long sigh. “I’ve run out of tea, salve, and tamarind candy. I should've really visited home sooner.”
For the first time, she sounded a little sad. He sounded a soothing rumble. “I can’t produce any of those things but might be able to provide you with some oil.”
She stopped tugging and met his gaze. “You can?”
He pointed to the side of his face with his free hand. “Uh, my kind produces oil from glands in our face.”
She tilted her head, a sign of curiosity, and leaned closer to him. She brought her free hand to his face and ran her fingers gently across his cheek. Her touch caused his aching scent gland to release. After only one touch, her fingers were coated in oil.
Drawing her hand away, she rubbed her fingers together. “It feels like the expensive oil we’d sometimes buy before the Veli traders took Inneeko off their route a few years ago.”
She put her fingers to her nose and breathed in deep. “Hibiscus.”
His INT couldn’t translate that word. “What does that mean?”
“It’s a flower from Old Earth,” she explained, rubbing my bonding oil over her lips. “It’s one of the plants we make tea out of. It tastes delicious on its own, without having to add any sweetener.”
“Do you like the smell of hibiscus?” he whispered. It was hard to focus on words when all he wanted to do was press his face to her and rub bonding oil all over her pale body.
“Very much.” Without warning, she pressed her fingers to his face to gather more oil. He barely kept from gasping. He was forced to clench his jaw to keep from reacting.
Once she had enough on her fingers, she rubbed it over the healing wound in her leg. He could tell it helped by the way the tension in her body relaxed.
“Zeph, you’re amazing!” she exclaimed with the dramatic flair he’d come to adore.
It was difficult, but he unclenched his jaw enough to speak. “That’s true.”
She chuckled. “I’m going to make the tea, you relax.”
Zeph was quick to sound a negative rattle and put a hand on her shoulder when she tried to stand up. “No, you shouldn’t be moving around any more than you need to.”
She rolled her eyes. He’d learned that was the human expression for mild exasperation. “I know I was pretty weak for the first few days, but I’m fine now. Remember yesterday when I bathed all by myself? I’m capable of doing some things.”
He sounded a negative rattle. “I’d feel better if you continued to rest as much as possible. You felt faint this morning.”
“That was only because I stood up too fast,” she argued. “Fixing a few mugs of tea isn’t that taxing.”
He was going to continue arguing until she gave in, but before he could do that, his Ident chimed. “It’s time for the evening meal.”
“Oh good, I’m hungry!” she said and tried to get to her feet again.
