Aleksandra smiled, even in the face of his anger. She knew he was just concerned for her, and she reached up to touch his cheek gently when he finished speaking. "Then there had better not be any more attempted assassinations," she said, her eyes sparkling with mischief. She turned away and fetched everything she'd need to clean herself up. Some clean cloths, a small basin of water, some needle and thread. The cut on her face wasn't deep enough for stitches, but the one on her shoulder was.

She wiped the blood from her feet and legs first, and then her shoulder and face. "I might need your help with these stitches. Turning my head far enough to look just pulls the wound open." She knew it was going to hurt like the Abyss, so she'd grabbed a small goblet and filled it with some of the leftover cider. She was comfortable with inhibiting herself around Aulfr, knowing both that it would numb her a bit and that she was safe with him. She handed over the needle and thread and took a few big gulps of the cider, feeling that lovely warmth settle in her stomach and spread to her ears and toes.

She sighed and let Aulfr do what he had to. And however hard she tried, she couldn't bite back the very colorful arsenal of curses that ensued once the pain hit her. There was something almost cruel about how different the pain of mending was compared to the pain of receiving the wound in the first place. She allowed herself to drink the rest of her cider and then she leaned forward, pressing her forehead into Aulfr's shoulder as he stitched her up. She made sure to call him all manner of names, and in four different languages.

By the time he was done, she was very close to drunk and somewhat exhausted from insulting him so much. She sighed and sat back after he finished with her bandages, and then she stopped. She had to be drunk, she reasoned. Because she was staring at Aulfr and seeing him in a way she'd never seen him before. She was looking at his eyes, a mix of brown and green and grey, and thinking they were so beautiful. Like someone had liquefied a forest and decided it would be his irises. And she wanted to run her tongue over the stubble on his jaw and hear the sigh he made in response. And... Saints, a whole host of other things that made her blush just thinking about them.

She glanced at the goblet in her hand, then at Aulfr again. "Oh, whatever," she muttered, then downed what was left. Yes, now she was definitely drunk. She set the cup aside and, without any hesitation, sat herself in Aulfr's lap. "I am somewhat drunk and having very unusual thoughts. Indulge me for a few long moments while I figure out what in the Abyss I'm doing. I won't be mad at you later, I promise," she slurred, leaning into his chest.

Now, what to do first, she wondered? Her eyes took in different parts of him. No, not that. Saints, definitely not that. Her gaze came to rest on a spot on his neck that looked quite inviting, so she leaned in and kissed it softly. She lingered there, breathing in the scent of him, earthy and sort of like the oil he rubbed into his weapons each day, and sighed. This was a scent she'd learned to love. She could admit that to him. "I love the way you smell, Aulfr." She couldn't tell him she loved him outright, so maybe she could make it obvious in other ways.

She wrapped an arm around him and ran her fingers through his soft brown hair. "I love how soft your hair is." She shifted on his lap, finding a more comfortable position before she raised her head and kissed the little furrow between his brows. "I love how taciturn you usually are, and that I'm one of the only people who can read you so well." Then she kissed the tip of his nose, then his chin, and hovered over his lips. "I love kissing you. You make me feel safe when you kiss me," she murmured.

She leaned in and kissed him, with a surprising fervency that she'd never shown him before. Every one of their previous kisses had been chaste, sweet, unhurried. And none too long, either. This still retained some of her hesitance and sweetness, but there was a pronounced hunger there that hadn't ever been there. And as they kissed, some instinct in her caused her to grab one of his hands and hold it to her breast, her face flushing further in embarrassment. She didn't pull away though. She did want this, but she was so unused to even touching someone else that it would take some adjusting.