Note from the Author: I am a Jade fanatic. I love Jade Curtiss. And, I love Jade Puget. Oh, the glory of those named Jade.

That was completely irrelevant, of course. I just thought I'd share.

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The fighting has been pretty near constant lately, and we're tired. Every time a monster attacks, someone gets hurt, usually a slash here or there, and Tear takes care of it right away, and everything's fine.

But, this time, it's different.

Jade has always been the strongest of us. He makes fighting look like dancing, and he has never been seriously wounded. He is the condescending presence in our party always telling us that we should be more careful.

So this is disorienting. His hair is matted with sweat, his eyes shut tightly with fever. His head rests in my lap, and nervously, I dab a cool wet cloth across his forehead, chewing on my lip, and I watch his face, praying for him to wake up. "Tear," I say softly. "Can't you-?"

"I've done what I can." Tear flips her hair over her shoulder, wiping at the remnants of blood on his chest. "The wound itself is healed. We just need to wait for his body to stop panicking, and he'll wake up."

"How did this happen?" I brush a stray strand of hair away from his face. My mind replays the scene: the triumphant smile, quickly followed by an agonized breath, and the slow-motion fall as the ground rose to meet him. I was the one to catch him, and he smiled at me, saying he should have been more careful, before he passed out.

"He'll be okay, Luke." Tear offers me a soft smile that says she knows me too well, she sees how I'm feeling. I developed, somewhere along the way, a devoted love for the Colonel, and although I've never expressed it, I'm sure in the almost teasing way he looks at me that he knows.

The sun has dwindled into darkness, and my friends sleep. They do not try to persuade me to join them. I'm going to sit here with Jade until I know to sure that he's alright. The darkness is complete, and my eyes close, my head bowed over him, my fingers tight in his shirt, making sure that he will remain safe with me

I must have drifted to sleep, because Jade's voice is waking me, and the absence of cotton between my fingers makes them stretch. I look up, and he is squinting at me with red eyes hazed with sleep and poor eyesight. I fumble for his glasses, and he smiles when I set them gently on his nose instead of handing them to him. "Thank you. I'm quite blind without them. It's my age, you see."

I'm glad he's back to normal, playing up the fact that he's more than twice my age like it will get him better treatment. I yawn, smiling back. "How do you feel?"

"Like I spent the evening sleeping with my head in your lap," he chuckles as I blush. "It is much more pleasant than it sounds." He is spreading out his blanket. "I'm alright. There's no need to worry abut me. I recover quickly, and Tear's healing abilities are superb. Now," he lifts the corner of his blanket, sliding under it. "Would you care to share a pillow?"