The Year We Had (MCYT AU)

30: Bandages

Tommy was so fucking grateful that Sally had a car. Walking to her house would have been an absolute nightmare with his twisted ankle.

He was less than thrilled about the whole 'taking care of his wounds' thing, but with some stern words from his brothers, he allowed both Sally and Wilbur to clean his cuts and scrapes. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but he kept himself entertained by looking around Sally's bedroom, picking out little details.

He was staring quite intensely at her stash of nail polish as Sally wrapped a bandage around his twisted ankle. "You like the nail polish?" She asked, a gentle smile to her words.

"It's colourful." He said, glancing back at her.

"What do you think of these?" She asked as she finished the bandage off with a clip before holding out her hand, showing off the teal colour she had on her nails. There were a couple of little wales and fish painted on with other colours, details so fine that she would have had to use a toothpick.

"It's really cool." Tommy told her, his lips twisting upwards slightly. "Did Wil suggest it?"

She let out a laugh, nodding her head and gently removing his foot from her lap. "Yeah, he did. I can paint yours, if you want. After we're done with your scrapes."

Tommy's face lit up slightly more than he would ever admit, and he nodded. "Yeah. That sounds pog."

Sally turned his head and got to work clearing the blood from the cuts on his forehead. "Alright, it's a deal then. Think about what colours you want, and we'll get to work when I'm done with these last few bits."

At that moment, Wilbur and Techno walked back into the room. Techno's hair was wet, but more pink than it was before, and his roots were no longer his original brown colour. Wilbur's hands were only slightly stained from helping him wash the dye out.

"He behaving?" Wilbur asked, raising an eyebrow at Tommy, who scoffed and rolled his eyes.

Sally laughed her usual, warm laugh. "Yeah, he's doing well."

"Sam's getting suspicious." Techno snorted, tapping away on his phone. "Apparently everyone's doing a great job of keeping him confused."

"Your friends seem really nice." Sally offered as she carefully placed a bandaid over the last of Tommy's facial cuts. "Covering for you, like that."

"You've met them." Wilbur said with a light laugh to his words.

"I know, but people really show who they are in stressful situations." She shrugged, giving Tommy a nod as she began to pack away her first aid kid. "They really had your back there."

"They're kind of the best." Techno mused flatly, the lack of emotion in his words making up for the heartfelt sentiment. He didn't like to show that he cared for things, but everyone knew.

"Yeah." Wilbur agreed, taking a seat on the other side of Sally's bed.

With a clap of her hands, Sally stood and looked to the youngest in the room. "Alright Tommy, what colours are we doing?"

Tommy got to his feet with minimum pain and a certain brightness to his eyes that made Wilbur and Techno hold back their smiles as he paced over to Sally's collection and looked carefully through the colours.

---

Sally dropped them off at the other end of town, and they met up with Sam and the rest of their friends who had spent the last hour and a bit distracting him.

"You were at a nail place?" Sam repeated, raising his eyebrows. "And you had your phones off, so that's why you couldn't take any of our calls?"

"Is there something wrong with boys getting their nails done, Sam?" Wilbur asked calmly, raising his eyebrows. Behind their teacher, Niki had to stifle a laugh. Karl nudged her, pressing his own mouth into a straight line so as to not give anything away.