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The last glance backwards had let her see enough to know that Jake was going to be clear of the explosion, or at least nearly clear. She was nearly clear herself, far enough away she might have started slowing down to take cover. So she wasn’t watching as Jake gained ground on her, and she wasn’t expecting it when he collided with her.

Were there three tumbles, or four? More? Less? She hadn’t been counting the number of times the sky and the ground traded places.

Her head was still reeling when they finally stopped moving, and Sherry’s first goal was to breathe. Good job, Jake. Knocked the wind out of your girlfriend.

At least they both made it out of the blast radius, alive, probably. Perhaps without any broken bones, too. Though the pain in her elbow and her tailbone were trying to convince her otherwise.

“Ouch.”

At this rate, an early death somehow caused by Jake was plausible. It would be an accident of course, but a plausible one. Even if Sherry didn’t think it would happen. Far too many other things in this world could kill her.

Jake was answered with a groan as Sherry realized, with mixed feelings, that reason her ribs were protesting against the whole breathing thing had a whole lot to do with the fact she had a death hunter on top of her. She forced a grin then forced some words out after it. “Fine, fine.” It wasn’t a lie, she was fine, just a little stunned but recovering quickly.

One hand, her elbow didn’t hurt quite as much when she moved it, came up to pat Jake on the neck or shoulder (she wasn’t really sure). “You?”

By the time he’d started to apologize again, the smile on her face was far more genuine, seeing as breathing was thing her body decided it could do, even with the extra (and somewhat pleasant) weight on her torso. She even laughed a little at when she realized he was blushing, though it sounded more like a cough than a laugh.

The longer he stayed where he was, the easier breathing got, and the more comfortable Sherry found herself. True, it could be because it was nice to have a break after all of that, and she’d not deny that was the reason. Armagnac certainly suspected there was more to the comfort than just rest, especially when Jake seemed to come to his senses enough to move. Sherry found herself severely disappointed by the fact that he had.

With a sigh, she took his hand, and leveraged enough weight to sit up. “I was rather comfortable, you know.” The pout she added was not on purpose, it just happened. “And we need to have a talk about you asking me for help when you need it.” Then Sherry was doing the very not sensible thing, and tugged on Jake’s arm. “We should discuss that down here.”

She was already covered in dirt. Laying in it a little longer wouldn’t hurt anything.

The mild scowl he’d gotten when suggesting the infirmary was gone by the time he sat down.

“You’re right, you shouldn’t be that stubborn. I don’t know why you do it, but there’s no shame in asking for help. Especially not for something like this.” Squeezing his hand, she scooted a bit closer. “I don’t like the idea of having to drag your unconscious or, heaven forbid, lifeless body away from one of those things. I’d be tempted to just let you rot on its back.” It was meant to be a joke, mostly.

“So next time, make sure you’re honest with me. I can see you using those bandages.” She was grinning as she said it.

And then she was kissing him. Because that seemed like a nice thing to do.

"Good." A very warm smile had settled itself on her face. "You had better not."

The sharp exhale she let out as he started to get up again was out before she'd even realized it. On one hand, he had a point. They should likely go collect things and turn them in. One the other hand... Somewhere in her mind, Armagnac was groaning.

"Can I ask why you are in such a hurry? You're not addicted to those darn patches are you?" There was humor in her tone.

Now she was wearing what she'd call her concerned face while she climbed to her feet. Not that she really knew what it looked like, but that's what it felt like. That face was on, and for a few heartbeats she just looked at him, as though doing so might instill some kind of wisdom on one of them, or actually help in some way.


Shaking her head, she sighed. "Of course I don't want to stop. Well, I'd like to not have titan roaming the island to fight, but Jake..." Hugging him seemed appropriate, so she did that. "What's not fair is not being honest with me. I can't help you if I don't know what I need to do."

Her arms squeezed him a little tighter. "Flatterer. But I'll take it." She didn't know what else to say. There were plenty of folks better than her, but she liked being the best in his eyes.

"Come on. I suppose we should get a move on, then." Much as she would have liked to stand there all day like that, it seemed like they had work to do.