22 Chapter 22

Jeanne

"Come on," Jeanne said as she tried to wrap an arm around Godricks waist.

"Let's get you back so you can rest." She finished.

It was a little awkward at first with the height difference, but soon they were on their way back to the castle. Jeanne was surprisingly strong for her small stature, though in reality, she could carry more than a couple tons at the least. As the minutes passed, and Godricks body slowly healed, he thought of what he had gained. His Agility Stat had permanently raised to A, meaning he could coat himself in the white lightning and move at incredible speeds. His endurance was also close to evolving, though into what he didn't know.

He didn't know that releasing so much energy at once would hurt him as well, which surprised him.

As they finally reached the castle, Chiron and Siegfried tried to replace Jeanne to help Godrick to where he was staying. She wouldn't budge, but let one of them take Godricks other side to help her take him to his room. As they passed the small group Jeanne turned to Fiore.

"Let's meet in Godricks room to discuss our next steps in a little bit. Let's just get him situated first." She said, to which Fiore nodded.

Godrick decided to help out with what he could, and dematerialized his armor to lessen the weight. He was surprised at the damage he had done to himself. Usually when a servant is injured, they can heal themselves in a matter of moments with their master's energy. He could do the same, like Jeanne, but these injuries? They weren't healing very fast. He could also have entered his spirit form, but then he would be alone in a sense.

Finally reaching his room they helped him sit on the bed, before Jeanne continued cleaning his face and upper body with a towel.

His shirt was covered in blood that had come from his mouth, eyes, nose, and ears, so he took it off before sitting back down on the ground with his back to the foot of his bed this time. Jeanne blushed heavily as he did so, but the blood distracted her from his shirtless torso for the moment.

Chiron and Siegfried left to go fetch the rest of the group, leaving Jeanne and Godrick alone for the moment. She took one of the chairs from the table nearby and set it next to Godrick to continue cleaning his face.

She started with his eyes, gently rubbing the wet cloth on them before moving to nose. She couldn't help but notice his strong facial features. His piercing icy blue eyes, his angular jawline. As she moved down to his mouth she noticed a small but prominent scar running over the left side of his mouth.

She ran a finger over it, touching his lips with a delicate finger. She looked back up at his eyes, that stared back into hers. Her chest began to tighten as one of her hands unconsciously ran down his muscular neck onto his chest still slik with diluted blood.

She didn't notice as they both unconsciously began to move towards each other, lips drawn to one another.

Suddenly the door was open as Fiore and the rest of the black faction excluding Chiron walked in. Jeanne flung herself backwards into her chair, making her fall to the ground. She quickly got to her feet, embarrassed as she wiped at her clothes. Fiore looked at her battle dress with a hint of amusement, as the rest just looked on awkwardly. Looking down at herself she noticed she was staining her own clothes with the blood on her hand that had drifted. She looked to Godrick who had the decency to look embarrassed, looking away from her.

"I'm sorry, did we interrupt something here?" Fiore asked in a teasing tone.

"N-, No. Not at all!" Jeanne blurted out. "How can we help you?" She continued.

"Oh, well we were coming to talk of our next steps in the coming conflict… like you asked of us?" Fiore said, reminding Jeanne of what she had said earlier.

Jeannes face started to turn red as she remembered what she had said. Flustered, she turned to Godrick.

"Will you tell them what we plan to do while I go find the bathroom, please?" She said as she left the room, clearly Flustered at everything.

Everyone turned to him, as he raised his hands into the air before letting them fall to his thighs in exasperation.

Jeanne practically sprinted down the hallway to the room she had been given before slamming the door and running to the bathroom. She slammed that door as well, then slid to the ground with her back to it.

"Did I just ask Godrick to explain our plans?" She asked herself. She slapped her forehead as she berated herself for asking someone mute to speak. She couldn't help but laugh a little at the absurdity of the situation. She then thought back to how close the two of them were before they had been interrupted. She felt confused at the feelings running through her head at the moment.

She didn't know him very well, but she felt something she had never felt before for him. She just enjoyed being in his company. Though he couldn't talk, that didn't stop them from connecting and bonding. She had to admit… he was a great listener.

She laughed at herself again, thinking of the time they had spent together. In reality it had been less than two days, but she felt like she had known him for so much longer. She just felt… safe with him. Peaceful. Stable. She just felt that everything would be ok with him around. She wondered what he was thinking at this moment. Did he think of her the same way?

Godrick

As he watched Jeanne walk out of the room, red as a beat, he couldn't help himself from throwing his hands in the air.

'Did she really just ask me to tell them what our plans are?' He thought to himself.

'I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT OUR PLANS ARE!' He thought.

He couldn't help but to start to laugh at the situation, though no noise came from him. Everyone had looked away from him when Jeanne left, feeling awkward at the situation, but their attention was drawn back to him as he slapped his thigh hard, continuing to laugh.

After a while he stopped, but continued to chuckle from time to time. Fiore came to him then and positioned her chair next to where he was sitting.

"Would you like to learn to say hello, while we wait for her to come back?" She ask.

He perked up at her words and used his hands to push himself up, helping him sit a little straighter. He nodded vigorously as she giggled at his enthusiasm.

"OK!" She said as she prepared to teach him.

"Take two fingers and bring it to your forehead like this," She said as she brought her index and middle fingers to her forehead, while keeping her other fingers down.

"Then you will give a kind of salute, like this!" She said as she brought her fingers away from her head.

Copying her, he brought his two fingers to his head and did the salute.

"Good job!" She said enthusiastically.

He repeated the action multiple times looking at each of the other people in the room. The others in the room smiled at him and greeted him back in turn. Turning back to Fiore, she continued.

"Now let's move onto the next step. The word "my". You do this sign by taking your hand," She then took her open hand and placed it on her chest.

"And placing it on your chest." She finished. Godrick copied her actions.

"Next is the word "name". You sign this by bringing the index and middle fingers of both hands, and tapping them together at the second knuckle, like this!" She then demonstrated, which he copied.

"Now comes the hard part, we have to spell your name out with letters." She said.

They sat in silence, as an awkward atmosphere fell over them all.

"The only problem is that I don't know your name…" She said awkwardly.

"Oh, that's easy!" Astolfo said, "his name is Godrick."

"Oh, perfect!" Fiore said as she turned back to Godrick.

She then taught him the letters of his name, and practiced it with him for a while. Soon enough Jeanne came back from her self solitude. As she walked into the room she looked to Godrick, who was still practicing with Fiore. As she walked to the pair, Godrick surprised her by making hand gestures towards her. Confused, she looked to Fiore, who explained what was happening.

"He's saying hello, and telling you his name!" She said energetically.

Jeanne looked back to Godrick who signed once more.

"Hello, my name is Godrick!" He signed with a bright endearing smile on his face. Jeanne gave a bright smile in return as she sat down in her seat.

"Hello Godrick, it's so nice to talk with you finally!" Jeanne said enthusiastically as she waited for him to reply.

Godricks face froze as he slowly looked to Fiore as if to ask "what now?". She gave a laugh then spoke.

"We still have a lot to learn, but I'm sure we will have a lot of time for that in the coming week." As she turned to the assembled group she began to speak once more.

"I've seen the damage that was done to the Hanging Gardens, and I've been having Chiron scouting the area. He's confident that it will take them at least a week to rebuild the Hanging Gardens. I propose that we harass the red faction every chance we get, to make sure they don't get the grail."

She continued. "I think this would be the best idea while we wait for our allies," She gestured to Godrick. "To recover during this time."

"I completely agree," Caules said, agreeing with his sister.

"I also think that this would be a good time to find our assassin as well. We need to see what they have been up to, and if they will be a problem." He said.

"I think that's an excellent idea." Fiore said. "I also think we should reach out to Saber of red, and see what her and her master think of all of this as well. From what I can tell, they don't particularly care for the rest of the red faction, or they're at least wary of them. If they would be willing to defect to our side I think that would be a great boon to us." Jeanne said as she looked at Godrick. He had sat a little straighter after hearing his sister be mentioned, and knew it would fall to him to bring them over to their side.

He gave a nod of assent to her before falling back into his thoughts. He knew that it would be difficult, but they needed to meet. He had much to learn if he was going to communicate with her, and he would need Jeannes help if he was going to succeed.

Jeanne noticed that there was still some blood coming from his ears, so she once more started to clean his neck and chest, this time without blushing as heavily. The talks continued for a little while after that, but once they were done, the group left, leaving Jeanne and Godrick alone once more.

"You know, I never thanked you for saving me earlier." She said looking into his eyes. He gave her a warm smile before nodding once more.

"You're welcome." He signed to her. She returned his smile before returning to cleaning him up. Before Fiore left she taught Godrick and Jeanne a couple signs for them to communicate. Nothing major, just the most common ones that were easy to learn. Yes, no, goodbye, please, thank you, what, how are you.

Godrick was an extremely fast learner, and so was Jeanne. They felt extremely excited to be able to communicate with one another, albeit limitedly.

Finally finished cleaning his neck, she felt this was a good place to stop. Doing something she had never done before, she leaned down and gently kissed his cheek. She suddenly felt her face start to heat up, but she didn't mind. Right now she just felt comfortable. That's what she liked about him. Standing, she walked over to the door and opened it. She turned to him, still sitting on the ground looking up at her.

"I'll see you in the morning, alright?" She said to him.

"See you later." He signed back to her. She gave him a dazzling smile, then left, closing the door behind her.

Godrick got to his feet before picking up the bucket of bloody water. He walked into the bathroom and dumped it into the tub, then washed it down before dunking his head under the running water to clean his head himself. He could have washed himself, but it felt nice to have Jeanne care for him. After drying his head off with a towel, he slowly made his way over to the open balcony that his room had. Walking out on it he thought over the day's events. It would take a couple days to heal from whatever had happened to him, but he thought it was worth it.

He touched his cheek where Jeanne had kissed him.

"What a wonderful day." He thought to himself.