"Don't take it harshly." Ajax responded to her first comment, drily, looking at the couch as well. "Please, stop burdening me with your worries. I'll be FINE on the couch and you will be FINE on the bed and EVERYONE WILL BE HAPPY." He snorted grumpily, crossing his arms. "Oh I'm glad that it'll work for thy great Princess Mercy." Ajax answered in a tone that was dripping with sarcasm that matched her own, if not quite a lot more. "Yes I am, and honestly? Probably. With the little bit smaller stuff, anyway. You cannot help with the first step, however, because that is chopping down trees to use as wood and ALTHOUGH I am SURE Miss STRONGER THAN AN ELEPHANT could do AMAZING at chopping trees, I'd rather have someone with a little more experience that I'm ok with getting squished. Ok?" He pointed that out slightly sarcastically, but he did sound serious for the most part. Cutting trees was EXTREMELY difficult work, and really, it wasn't a first time job thing. Ajax had almost gotten killed MANY times. The trees always fell the wrong way, and then idiots tried to run away from them and end up becoming floor art. Made by the tree.

Mercy huffed at him, crossing her arms and plopping down on the couch next to him. "Sorry for wanting you to be comfortable." She joked, but her playful smile turned into a bit of a pouty glare as he continued. "Ajax, I can help! I can do something with trees." She huffed, flopping back on the couch to stare at the ceiling. "So I'm just supposed to watch you work all day? As cute as you are, I'm pretty sure I'll die of boredom after a while." She teased, attempting to fluster him into letting her help. She didn't know how it was supposed to work, but it seemed smart in the moment.

"Apology accepted." Ajax answered gruffly, a teasing twinkle in his eye as he glanced out the small window to the woods that surrounded the clearing. "Yes, I'm sure you can do something, but cutting them down probably isn't the something you're looking for." He pointed out with a slight eyebrow raise, racking his brain for something she COULD do without getting killed. Cutting down trees was terrifying, if you asked Ajax. When he was still, er, alive, he was with a half-friend and they were cutting trees to build a new bunkhouse for the ranch. His friends worked at cutting while he stabilized the tree and cut a little to make sure it fell the right way. Ajax was inexperienced at that time, and a strong wind blew up. The tree fell the wrong way, crushing his friend with an immediate death. Ever since then Ajax had felt terrible, and that contributed to his *not wanting anyone to help him* attitude. There was no way he was letting Mercy help with this... especially since he actually cared about her. As she flopped on the couch and continued, he rolled his eyes. "Well poor you but there'll be no cutting down trees for Miss Mercy. Why dont you explore a little... get to know your new, shabby home? For now at least. WAIT NO, bad idea. I'm not letting you out of my sight. HOW ABOUT ..." Ajax paused with a smirk, flipping her attempt back on her then continuing. "You can either die of boredom watching me get all sweaty and rip my muscles to shreds cutting down a single tree, or you can start sewing the curtains for the new windows. Which sounds more boring?" he asked with an eyebrow raise, tilting his head a little.

Mercy looked up at his little proposition, giving him a glare. "...I don't want to sew." She whimpered slightly, sitting up and giving him an evaluating look. "...Maybe I'll watch you for a little while until I get up the motivation to start sewing?" She offered, sitting up and giving him a small huff.

Ajax let out a loud laugh at her whimpered comment. "Do you think that me, skyscraper Ajax, 6'5 burly man that loves black and weighs around 210 pounds, really WANTED to carefully break each of his fingers sewing these curtains or knitting these rugs? Not really." He snorted, opening the door and gesturing outside. After Mercy had come out, Ajax let the door slowly close before going into a very small shed that was much more crudely built than the house. He grabbed an axe, because chainsaws were way easier and Ajax had never used one... old fashioned father.. then some wood blocks and went out to start cutting. "I'm sure you'll get up motivation quite quickly considering how boring this will be until I start yelling at you to get out of the house cause a tree is falling that way." He grinned, rolling his right shoulder with a wince. When Ajax was younger and stupider, he had been riding a horse and herding cattle when the cattle stampeded and the horse freaked out. Blah blah he fell off blah blah, and ended up with a torn rotator cuff and a broken arm. The arm had healed, but his shoulder never fully ... revived itself. Scar tissue had built up and ever since it had been painful and stiff. Ajax went to start chipping at the tree with the axe, focusing on the much thinner ones because they were: easier to drag and pile up and: took less time to cut. Skipping about three hours: sweat had completely soaked his shirt by now and the sun felt like it was burning the earth. "You can almost hear the sun at this point." He mumbled under his breath, swinging again, the axe hitting with another dull thud. Ajax's shoulder was on absolute FIRE, and the rest of his body ached from the hard work... especially his lungs. They had obviously not fully healed from the 'episode', and it was still hard for him to breath when he did too much work... this was past too much work and into something else. Though, his hard work had paid off a little and the tree cracked. Ajax went round to the other side and chopped a quick wedge, then got out of the way. This caused the tree to fall away from the cabin and into the woods. "Timber! Finally!" He sounded relieved, the tree thumping down with a surprisingly quiet sound.

Mercy followed him a little huffily, sitting by the house and watching him quietly as he worked. It was surprisingly interesting- but she also couldn't find it in herself to force herself into sewing. She longer she watched, the more concerned she got. He looked majorly exhausted, and he was working in a way that attempted to favor one of his shoulders. She walked inside quickly while he worked to grab him a bottle of water and a towel, watching as he celebrated over his tree with a smile. "Alright, Lumberjack, it's time for you to take a break. Come here." She huffed, slinging the towel around his neck and offering him the water while she watched his shoulder.

Ajax held his right shoulder quite still, trying not to agonize it more. Even though he was right hand dominant he accepted the water bottle with his left hand, kind of just cradling his right hand next to his side. "What, now I'm lumberjack as well as skyscraper? I have way too many nicknames, I think you'll need to stop making them soon or I'll get confused." He joked half heartedly, though sounding exhausted. Ajax hadn't fully recovered, and this was IMMENSE physical work. "Well it is not like the room has to be big, and with the length of that tree I guess I can probably make one wall with it... so I'll have to cut down roughly three more tees. Yay."

Mercy scoffed at him, rolling her eyes and gently reaching up to move his right sleeve up, careful not to touch his shoulder so she could look at it. "You'll have to live with them, but I think you're smart enough to know when I'm referring to you." She teased, released his sleeve after a few moments and grabbing his left hand. "Yeah, well, you can cut down three more trees some other time. Come on." She ordered, giving him a gentle tug towards the door of the cabin.

Ajax winced away slightly, though careful not to move his shoulder. "It's an old injury." He muttered, snorting a little at her comment. "I'm thrilled you think I'm smart enough for that." He chuckled, looking at Mercy suspiciously as she started to tug him inside. If she wasn't here, it was true, he would have worked till he literally.. physically couldn't move. When he couldn't lift the axe anymore, Ajax would usually just collapse under the tree he was trying to cut down. He slowly followed her with a sigh, trudging into the cabin. "Why a break?"

"Well, I think I might be overestimating you a bit, but I'm willing to take the risk." Mercy shrugged teasingly, sitting him down on the couch and plopping right down beside him. She gave him a skeptical look as he referred to her yanking him away as a 'break'. "Uhm, it's not a 'break', it's the end of your workday for today because otherwise you're going to work yourself like a dog. And don't argue with me." She huffed, taking the towel from around his neck and wiping his arms off with it since he was still soaked with sweat. She peered gingerly at his right shoulder, trying to gauge how much she could do for it.