Armored Hearts

Charter's Point of View

Waiting was never one of Charter's strong suit. He hated it. Waiting meant that at some point your objective is no longer in your range of chance. So when he was assigned to watch over Private Strawberry while he recovered from the wounds he gained, Charter groaned. Not only because the private did something so reckless but because he still couldn't get what happened in the bathroom out of his head. The images of the hours before hoof made his face heat up, made his blood rush and he almost craved for the Private's lips to be back down there but that was something he knew he couldn't afford. He didn't need these emotions, these desires. He was a Lieutenant and you don't climb ranks by sleeping other members of the guard. Even is he couldn't get Strawberry's eyes out of his mind, the way those yellow orbs that withhold sunsets or how sleek and feminine his body is with how it curves in just the right places.

A small voice forced Charter from his thoughts as his eyes focused down onto a nurse's own brown ones,

"He's ready if you'd like to go in, his wounds aren't very serious. Just a couple bruised ribs, a torn wing, and we've collected some blood samples from his teeth. It doesn't seem to be his but we've sampled it in case it matches the mark on the prisoner," with that she turned to walk away only to stop when Charter cleared his throat,

"What do you mean from his teeth?" the larger stallion asked.

The nurse stops to think for a minute before she turns around in order to face the guardpony,

"I mean, the blood from his teeth are most likely a match to the prisoner's bite mark on his neck. It's a pretty deep wound, even tore some flesh," she turned back to go check on the prisoner and this time Charter let her.

A bite mark? Strawberry bit the unicorn? Charter's mind took a minute to process the information. He's never heard of a bat-pony that drinks from other ponies, but then again he was unarmed so it was most likely a defensive measure. A couple of moments later and the Lieutenant knocked on the door before he walked in to find Strawberry sitting up on the bed with a bandage on his the right side of his muzzle, bandages wrapped around his chest and barrel while his left wing was bandaged shut. A bowl of apples sat on the nightstand next to his bed with one in his hoof. He was staring at it as if thinking about what juices lay inside.

Charter walked up to him as if not to disturb his thought process. The large stallion couldn't take his eyes off the smaller one. His heart fluttered once the bat-pony looked up from his apple to meet eyes with the Lieutenant who now stood at his the right side of his bed. Charter watched as a slight shade of red bridged across his face and felt the heat rise up to his face. The lilac pony cleared his throat while he kept his gaze on the stallion even though their eyes are no longer locked together due to Private Strawberry's face now focused on his apple. He didn't know what to say. Hey nice job! Charter shook his head, no that was too much his inner thoughts weren't much help either. Thankfully, it was Strawberry who spoke after Charter's second throat clear,

"I'm, I'm sorry for the bathroom incident and I know I disobeyed orders but I couldn't help but feel bad for what happened so I figured if I came back to give a description about the mare I saw that I could be more useful-" he was cut off by Charter's hoof being placed against his sore muzzle,

"Breath, Strawberry," the Lieutenant commented, "Just, breath,"

Charter watched as the private took two big breaths before he continued,

"I just wanted to help Princess Candance get better..." he allowed the rest to trail off.

Charter rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly while Strawberry bit into the green apple only instead off taking a chunk out, the apple suddenly became shriveled and a gray scaled version of it's former self. He starred amazed at the sudden transformation. Sure he knew that bat-ponies eat differently yet he has never come to see one actually eat before. The lilac stallion reached up to remove his helm to reveal a mess of light brown hair slightly damped with sweat from his helm. He placed it upon the bed with a content sigh,

"Private Night-"

"Please," Private began, "Call me Strawberry,"

Charter was left a little conflicted. He's always called someone by their title and then last name; calling the private by his first name only felt slightly off for the stallion,

"Pr-Strawberry," he started before he swallowed his pride a little bit, "You did help," he continued which caught his attention from the next apple he was just about to bite into, "You helped catch one of the ponies who stole the vial of medicine; if it wasn't for you who knows how long it would've taken us to actually get this close to finding out who stole the vial and... and for that I'm sorry that you were almost sent home due to my lack of judgement in trusting a bat-pony from the Night Guard,"

Charter lowered his head as he left to the foot of the bed. He's never had to say he was wrong before so all this felt brand new to him and he didn't like just how vanulable he was. How could one simple stallion get over the walls he put up by just being there. His heart was beating hard within his chest as if it was trying to break out from his ribcage. Charter didn't know what to do with these new feelings that began to bloosm inside himself. It wasn't until an apple bounced off his head and rolled along the floor did the lilac stallion snap himself out of his daze to find a curious Strawberry with his head tiled in a cute way that made his eyes shine even brighter in the moonlight that bled through the windows. It was as if he was looking into pools of gold reflecting the sunlight in those orbs. Charter took a deep breath in before he shook head to clear away any unnecessicary thoughts from slipping through his lips,

"Earth to Lieutenant," Strawberry cooed with a wave of his right hoof, "Did you hear me?" his words fell upon deaf ears.

The Lieutenant quickly shook his head as he tried to compile some kind of response,

"Ss-sorry-" he quickly cleared his throat a third time, "I had things on my mind. Now that I know you're doing well. I have a prisoner to interagate bout his partner in crime," was all he said before Charter forced himself to tear away from the smaller stallion on the bed before he could say anything that would truely embarass him.

Once he was out of the medical ward, Charter gave the silent order for the two other guardponies to take root in front of the door. Strawberry already took off once and broke a window in the process. He doesn't need him to end up back into the hospital wing or else, six hooves under. Pushing those thoughts and images to the side the lilac stallion quickly began his way to the dungeon where he had to see the face of the stallion who decided to attack a fellow guard, no, not just any guard... he attacked Strawberry and was ready to strike him down. A glare formed on his face as he made his way down the hallway.