As if held to some kind of magical contract, Siffia dutifully put ointment on all of her bruises and wounds before crawling under the covers with an exhausted sigh. It wasn’t even noon yet, but for some reason she felt like she’d been stressfully awake for days. Closing her eyes and nestling into the mattress, she turned in an attempt to get more comfortable, when suddenly she winced.
“Ah-!”
Already guessing what the problem was, her hand ran itself into the covers and under her nightclothes, gently stroking the sore area and confirming the slightly abraded and bruised spot near her hip. Having found the previously unnoticed problem area, Siffia eased her touch even more, gently tracing the tips of her fingers over it to get a better mental picture. In the end, feeling that it too would need to be treated, she had no choice but to sigh once more and get back out of bed.
Tired as she was, and bored of treating her wounds like this, Siffia’s mind wandered as she once again applied the ointment. She couldn’t help but laugh at her foolish self for even getting hurt in this way, fully capable of saving herself just as Eris had said, if she hadn’t been so horribly flustered. She remembered the gallant way that Eris had carried her, just as a knight might do to the princess he was rescuing, or perhaps a groom to a bride.
It was something that she had never expected to experience in her life. Even now, if someone else were to do it to her, she would just find the entire thing terribly uncomfortable. While it was true that she was still horribly embarrassed when Eris did it earlier, it would be a lie to say that she wasn’t looking back fondly upon the experience now that she wasn’t as overwhelmed. Truly, she wished that she’d been of sound enough mind to enjoy that moment wholeheartedly, instead of spazzing out as she had.
Of course, Siffia also felt the same way about most of what had happened in her bedroom afterwards, too.
With the hazy fondness of a memory’s filter, she thought back to Eris’s gentle care, her soothing touches as she applied the ointment, and even the piercing-feeling gaze that Eris had held her with the entire time while doing so. The way that she had slowly stroked her way up Siffia’s arms might have been too sudden and unexpected in the moment, but now that she was safely alone and could leisurely think about it…
…The memory of it was making Siffia feel strangely hot in the oddest of places.
Stopping to fan her face for a moment, Siffia decided that it might just be time to stop letting her mind rudely wander over the kind and well-meaning actions of her friend. She dabbed a bit more of the ointment onto her finger, redoubling her efforts to finish treating the wound so that she could go to sleep, when suddenly her mind strayed to something that it certainly shouldn’t have. The thought was too strong, taking everything over too quickly to stop, before it was all that Siffia could think of.
The thought of Eris discovering the existence of this wound before she had been kicked out. The thought of Eris adamantly resolving to treat it. The thought of Eris, knelt down on the floor, slowly rolling up the hem of Siffia’s dress to reveal her hip. The thought of Eris looking at all of her.
And the thought of Eris gently placing a soothing kiss upon the poor abused flesh that she’d found.
Of course Eris would dutifully take care of the wound, as was only befitting someone as gallant, kind, and caring as she was. But what if that wasn’t the only place that she took care of? What if, just like the lewd observations that Eris had made about her chest, she were to also make some new observations now that everything else had been revealed to her down below?
What if she, with all of her charisma and undeniable dominance, leveled her usual commanding gaze upon her and demanded for Siffia to give her a better look?
Siffia squirmed, for some reason no longer able to sit still. Her thighs rubbing against each other unbidden caused the hem of the dress that she’d unknowingly let slip from her grasp rub against her hip, stinging her a bit and waking her up from the lewdening depths of her own thoughts, causing her to gasp for a number of reasons. She felt as if she couldn’t stop what she was doing fast enough, putting back the tin of ointment as if she'd been burnt, pulling down her dress as far as it would go, and leaping back under the covers as if running away from something. It was all she could do to press her blanket against her face, as if hiding the furious redness that had spread over her face would somehow remove it.
“I’m crazy, I’m crazy! I must be crazy! I know I had those feelings, but to actually imagine such things to such an amount!”
She shook her head wildly from side to side, unable to take what she was feeling.
“Am I in heat? Is that it?! Is that why I’m having such deplorable thoughts?!”
Even though her rational mind immediately knew that what she was saying wasn’t quite true, she couldn’t help but babble out the hopeful words.
“Yes, that must be it, it must just be a side effect of my heat approaching. That’s got to be what caused it!”
Forcing herself to turn over onto her uninjured hip, Siffia snuggled into the covers and tightly closed her eyes.
“It’s no problem. I’ll be fine. I’ll just make sure to take some heat medicine over the next few days to help me calm down…”
With a few quick nods in agreement with herself, Siffia finally felt her raging heart begin to calm down. Once more she wriggled until she was completely comfortable, the sleep quickly rushing into her.
“Hmm… Mmm, but… Do I even… have any... le-... Khnnngg…”
The brief, half-formed thought was swiftly broken up by a snore, long forgotten amongst the realm of dreams.
~~~
There was a pounding at the door, causing Siffia to awaken a moment later with an unladylike snort. A brief glance at the clock placed on a nearby desk revealed that it was only two hours off from dinnertime. She sat up with a start, realizing that she’d been asleep for almost four hours. And while her mind reeled from that unexpected epiphany, the knocking at the door sounded again, making the still groggy Siffia suddenly jolt.
“Huh- Oh, um, y-yes? What is it???”
“...A servant from Margrave Mescal’s house requests to meet with you.”
“Oh!”
Eris immediately flashed through Siffia’s mind. Her eyebrows crinkled, and her hand came to cover her mouth in surprise and worry.
Could this be related to the ‘care package’ that Eris had mentioned she would be sending earlier?
She shot up from the bed, scrambling to make herself look more presentable, all while still shouting through the door to question the maid.
“Erm, h-how long have they been waiting exactly?!”
“...An hour.”
“An hour?!”
“Well, they told us not to wake you and that they would just wait, but after over an hour passed we thought it would be best to just wake you without telling them.”
“Ah… I see.”
For once Siffia was grateful for the rudeness of the manor’s servants, although she’d never admit it to them. If they hadn’t decided to just wake her up anyway, then there was a chance that she could have slept for even longer with how exhausted she’d felt earlier.
Finally finishing tidying herself up and slipping on her house shoes, Siffia opened the door, coming face to face with the bland-looking maid. The maid rudely looked her up and down with an unimpressed face before turning around and leading the way without a word. Siffia quietly followed after her, smiling wryly behind her back. Knowing that the maid was only going out of her way to escort her to the room just so she could save face in front of someone else’s servant, while she, the legitimate child of the maid’s noble employer, was treated so rudely like this, was a special kind of insane in its own unique way.
Well, in the end it was nothing new. Siffia had spent almost half her life being treated like this, so it wasn’t as if she wasn’t used to being disregarded in this manner. Perhaps it just stung her anew after seeing how much more respectfully that even Eris’s servants were being treated than her.
“...Well, maybe it’s only like that because of how perfect she is… Even I-”
“Hmm? What was that?”
Seeing the maid turn around with an annoyed face at her mumbling, Siffia couldn’t help but smile and shake her head like a naughty child who’d just been caught. It was hard to hold back the wry laughter that was tickling at her lips, but somehow Siffia managed.
“No, nothing. I didn’t say anything.”
The maid glared for a little longer before giving up and continuing on.
~~~
“Oh, Lady Heston! You’re here!”
The well dressed servant, clearly someone of decent rank in the Margrave’s household, quickly stood up and bowed as Siffia was shown into the room. The respectful way that he greeted her made Siffia send a quick glance at the maid who was still standing just outside of the doorway, finding the vast difference in treatment astounding. Was it a difference in discipline, a 'lack of proper training' on the Heston's end that was the cause... or was the man’s fear of the great house of Margrave Mescal the reason for it?
Of course, there was also another option, that the servant still didn’t know Siffia’s identity as an omega, and believed her to still be a proper noble. If so, then the servants of her house had been surprisingly tight lipped while he’d been waiting here.
“Yes, I’m sorry to have kept you waiting for so long. It would have been fine to simply leave the package and go.”
Siffia eyed the medium sized gift basket that the servant was dutifully clutching. The thought that someone would wait for so long just to drop something off was quite odd to her, especially when they knew that she was sleeping. Such a thing would usually only be done by two people who are very close with each other.
Well, it would be a different story if there was a message that had to be passed directly to the person being visited, but-
“No, I’m under strict orders to wait until you were to wake up naturally, and to hand-deliver this to you personally! My Lady had wished to be the one to do it, but sadly she was unable to come herself due to the arrival of unexpected obligations.”
“Ah, I understand.”
Siffia nodded along, noting the troubled smile on the servant’s face. Surely, under the threat of Eris’s stern gaze, having to wait an hour somewhere must not have been too much of a hassle.
“Well then, I’ll gladly accept this package, along with Lady Eris’s well-wishes. Please do tell her that I’m exceptionally grateful for her care, and that I’m looking forward to seeing her again.”
“Oh, yes! Of course, Lady Heston! I’ll deliver your words post-haste!”
The servant bowed, delicately handing over the basket as if it were the most precious thing in the world, and then bowed once more to bid farewell before hurrying himself out of the room. Siffia stared after the energetic servant for a while and then shot her eyes towards where the maid who had escorted her used to be, noting that the maid had immediately left once she no longer had to save face. With an unimpressed chuckle, Siffia’s grip on the basket tightened ever so slightly.
“Why does it feel like my exhaustion is coming back…?”