practicality

"I already stocked his room with the necessities to keep him from whining too much." Elena shook her head. "Anything you need?"

"I think I'm fine for the moment, although if you could ask Aeris to bring some food up in a bit, that would be appreciated. Just no dairy - I think we still have some fruit left..."

Tseng gave her a small smile. "Thank you."

A tenseness she didn't know that she'd had eased from her shoulders and neck and she didn't quite sigh in relief. "Oh good. Even having worked around alchemists and having read alchemy texts, I still don't know half of what goes into those things. Putting large amounts of things you can't pronounce into your bloodstream has always seemed a little uncomfortable to me. But when the pain is so great that you can't sleep and let the body get on with healing..." She shook her head. Thinking of Rufus lead her into wondering if Tseng had been going to see him, but surely not, if he had thought the Turks were after him. "If you don't mind me asking, where were you going to run off to? Not to Midgar...?"

"Well, if you're only a day late, and you didn't go, it wouldn't be impolite... You didn't use it, after all, so you should be able to get your money back. I could go down there for you, if you like, since you shouldn't get out of bed." She offered, cocking her head with a smile.

"They may not return the money if they realize that was you, but it's always worth trying." She stood smoothly, making her way to the dresser and lifting the bill fold. She held it up for verification before opening it and gently extracting the ticket. She tried not to pay attention to the other things in the wallet - they were none of her business. She set the wallet back where it had been and brought it back over, setting the tote bag full of books next to his bedside table. "I'll run over there tonight before they close and see if I can't get a refund for you. I don't know if I could leave this place. Not right now, anyway. Is there some place you'd like to exchange it for, if they won't return the money?"

"I'll certainly ask her. Everyone is so busy right now, it seems like. Is there anything else that you'd like, while I'm out?" She shouldn't keep him awake, if he'd like to sleep. He'd need a lot of it if he was going to recover quickly, even with the healing.

"I just hope you find them to be entertaining." She smiled at him and held the ticket tightly to keep herself from pushing back a stray wisp of hair that had worked itself loose to lie along his temple. "Be sure to rest, won't you? And call should you need me? I'm sure you'll be well taken care of, though."

The hug took her by surprise, but she bent down and returned it with all the warmth she could. "Don't push yourself too hard, too fast, Xiaowen. Let Aeris help you, and don't get up unless she says it's all right, ok?"

She wrinkled her nose cheerfully at him. "I'll try. It's difficult not to worry when it's someone I care about. But I just keep reminding myself that you'll be healthy and hale again in far shorter a time than were you in my world. I wish Sparda-sama would get to teaching me the healing spell he demonstrated for me, though."

She waved a forgiving hand. "That's all right. You've been busy! Sparda-sama thought that I should learn some defensive spells and supporting roles. They all have material components, it seems, but I haven't been able to touch them yet, since I'm still learning centering, grounding and calming meditation tactics." She sighed. "I'm so eager to learn, but I need to manage the basics first."

"If it's not too stressful, that would be wonderful." She would not squeak or flail about unnecessarily... She would not... She couldn't help squeezing his hand - it was that or hug him again and she wasn't sure if that would be a good idea. "It's such a fascinating subject! I could never quite get the hang of alchemy, so if I could learn magic, maybe I could..." She twisted her wrist in a sort of I-don't-know fashion. "Not be such a burden to people."