"Inez!" Medya cried out, rushing to the fallen woman, and sliding down to her knees next to her. "What happened?"

"It's just a burn, it hurt a lot more than I thought it would!" Inez complained, tears in her eyes.

"A burn? Hold on, you can't use a dry cloth!" Medya carefully lifted the cloth from Inez's hip, noticing it stuck a little to the mark and hearing Inez whimper as it pulled loose. "I'll be right back!" She ran into the attached bathroom and dampened the cloth in the washbasin, then ran right back to Inez, who hadn't moved in the meantime. Taking the cloth, she gently dabbed it on the scorched skin. "Here, you keep doing this and I'll be right back, okay?"

Inez nodded gratefully, happy to feel the cooler dampness of the cloth against her skin while Medya darted out of her room. Moments later, Medya was back, backpack in hand and she was rifling through it only to pull out the case with her potions. She checked each of them in turn until she found what she wanted. "Perfect!" She pulled out a bottle of a thicker liquid and then lifted Inez's hand and cloth from her bare hip. Pouring a little of the viscous purple liquid onto her hip, she gently spread it over the wound with her fingers while carefully not touching the skin itself.

"Alright, let that salve do its job while you rest," Medya instructed, trying not to pay attention to the fact that Inez's pants and underwear were down around her knees to expose the hip. How the hell had she burned herself like that?

Inez sighed as soon as the salve touched her skin, the pain fading as Medya's gentle fingers spread it to cover all the oddly shaped burned skin. "I'm glad you had that; it feels much better. Thank you,"

"Most of these are healing potions, but that one is mostly for burns. Sorry it took so long to find it," Medya apologized.

Inez looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "How many healing potions do you have in there?"

Medya shrugged. "I haven't looked through the inventory, but maybe a dozen or so still after using the ones earlier."

"And would those potions work on say, an arrow wound?" Inez asked in a low growl.

Medya opened her mouth to answer but knew that this would lead to another fight. So, with a sigh she simply nodded.

"What you're saying then, is that when you were shot in the shoulder, you could have healed yourself in minutes. But even now, you're still in pain and recovering?" Inez clarified.

Medya hung her head sadly. She knew this would go badly, and now she'd disappointed the woman she loved yet again. The tears from her eyes were the only answer that Inez got.

Inez clumsily got to her knees, trying to avoid her burn hitting and kicking her pants and underwear off so she didn't fall right over. She reached out and pulled Medya to her, since the smaller woman was still on her knees next to her. "Medya, please tell me why you didn't heal yourself?"

Medya sank into Inez's embrace, trying to ignore the fact that Inez was pant less and that their bare legs were pressed against one another. The heat from the fire was warming her, but not as much as the feel of Inez's body pressed against hers. The scent of her hair and skin reminded her of better times, and she couldn't help but relax within her arms. "We were going into battle, I didn't know if you'd get hurt or not, so I saved them all. I wanted to make sure I had enough to take care of you."

Inez sighed into Medya's hair. She knew that was going to be the answer, but it distressed her all the same. "Medya, you're the most selfless person I know, always putting others before yourself. But sometimes you need to be selfish, you need to make sure that you're living the life you want to live so you can be happy too. You rescued Katja from a horrible life and have given her freedom and the chance to find love. You rescued me and instead of leaving when you realized that the treasure wasn't real you stuck with me all the way till now. You saved us in Nahmia's shop, helped plan the invasion to save so many other oppressed people and have given so much of yourself to everyone else. So why would you not have taken even one potion for yourself? Aren't you worth it?" Inez asked fervently.

"Inez, you know I'll always be the slave girl," Medya said bitterly.

Inez pulled away, her eyes flashing. "Stop that! You were so angry with me when I touched your brand because you didn't want me to see you as the slave girl, yet here you are calling yourself that very thing in order to justify why you can't let yourself be happy! I want so much for you to be happy! Gods, I want to be a part of that happiness with you! Please, for once in your life, be selfish and take what you want to be happy!"

Damnit, she was right, Medya realized. She was always using her past as an excuse to not grab what she wanted, what she so desperately needed. But, when it was all said and done, Inez was still a princess. Even if you removed the stigma of being a slave, she was still nothing more than a commoner at best. "You know what I want!" Medya groaned in frustration.

Inez smiled at her, hoping that she'd see how happy she was too. "Yes, I do. And what you want is right in front of you, ready to be freely given to you. Just accept it, be happy. Hell, make me happy! You know I want the very same thing as you do!"

Medya knew Inez truly believed that they could be together. She was the queen, or would be after an official coronation, but would the people accept an ex-slave Kittani on the throne beside the woman she was holding in her arms? And after the last time they had tried to be intimate, and Medya had run after Inez had touched her brand, could she get past that feeling as well?

"You're thinking too hard Medya. Are you going to make me beg? I mean, I'm already on my knees, so I'll beg if I need to. Please, be mine. Let me be yours. Stay with me forever," Inez pleaded.

Medya's hand slipped down to her hip, unconsciously rubbing her brand as she tried to make sense of everything running through her brain. "Why is everything so damned hard?"

"Please, my darling it isn't. If you love me, and I love you, then it isn't hard at all. You do still love me, right?" Inez asked hopefully.

Medya looked up into her eyes, getting lost in how soft they were as they gazed back at her. She could just stare into them all day and be happy. "Of course, I love you, my queen. That was never an issue."

Inez slid her hand down Medya's arm to where her hand was touching her brand. Slipping her hands inside the waist of her pants, she slipped her palm over her light fur. Medya flinched at the touch, but she was still captured my Inez's eyes and didn't pull away. The princess ran her thumb over the brand, touching it lightly and making Medya shiver. "This is the problem, right here. To you, it is a symbol that took away your freedom, which means that you're owned. In fact, technically you're owned by me since I'm the head of Clan Akopa."

Medya dropped her eyes at that statement, the shame evident in her face. Inez was right, that hateful symbol would always make her inferior to the princess.

"I don't want to own you," Inez whispered, her lips kissing Medya's neck. "I just want your heart." With her free hand, Inez took a hold of Medya's other hand and placed it on Inez's bare hip, right on the burn. "My mark is on you. I can't change that. But now your mark is on me too."

Medya's eyes flew wide with shock, and she craned her neck to look at the burn on Inez's hip. She gasped when she realized what it was, the outline of a sitting cat, with two spots for the eyes. She scanned the floor and found what she was looking for on the hearth of the fireplace, the pendant she'd given Inez before she left the campsite. It was scorched now and had some ash from where Inez had tossed it after using it as a makeshift brand, but it would still be wearable. "Why? Why would you do that to yourself?" Medya cried out, her eyes swimming with tears that soon spilled out.

Inez reached up, using her thumb to wipe away some of the tears and her lips to kiss away the others. "I wanted to make sure you realize what I take these marks to be. We belong to each other. No matter what happens to us from here on out, this mark shows who owns my heart, and always will. I hope you can think of your mark the same way. Let me own your heart, and nothing more. You have your freedom, but I want your heart to carry with me as you carry mine."

"You didn't have to do that to yourself!" Medya shook her head wonderingly at Inez while lightly stroking the little brand on her hip. Truthfully, she was trying not to break down. She could never have imagined someone going to such lengths to prove their devotion to her, let alone the queen.

"Would you have believed me otherwise? That brand on your hip is only a stigma if you let it be. To me, it is just a mark to show how far you've come. The pain it took to mark my hip was worth it if it helps to let you see yourself in a different light," Inez snaked an arm around Medya's lower back, pulling her body tight against hers. "So, are you still going to make me beg?"

Medya's face finally broke into a genuine smile. Inez was her queen, and if she was willing to go to such lengths to show just how much she wanted her, then she couldn't deny her. The love they shared was real, and if the brand on Inez's hip was any indication, they would go through anything to be there for one another.

"No, you never have to beg me," Medya told her lovely queen. "Besides, you still owe me a favor from the bath in the woods."

"Then be selfish. Take what you want," Inez murmured. "Claim your favor!"

Medya smiled up at her queen, wrapped her arms around her waist, pulling their hips tight against each other. "It looks like I already have what I want!"

"Oh? Well then perhaps I'll do the taking tonight," Inez slid her hands down to Medya's ass and gripped it tightly causing the Kittani to purr happily against her. "Mmmm, you make that sound again and we might not get much sleep at all tonight."

Medya used her raspy tongue to trail a line up Inez's jaw to her ear, and then gave a moaning purr into it. "I just had my nap, so take what you want my queen. My heart is always yours, and tonight my body is as well."