Whumptober 2022 Oneshots + Alt List Oneshots

Prompt 4 : Dead On Your Feet

Subprompt : Hidden Injury
Fandom : Tenchi Universe
Pairing : Nagi/Ryoko
Chronology : Pre-canon
Headcanons : MTF!Nagi, Autistic!Nagi (if you squint)

When Ryoko came home, Nagi could tell something was off, but she wasn't quite sure what.

"Something is wrong" she said flatly, getting a roll of the eyes from her girlfriend.

"What? Did I get hotter since I left or did you just miss me?" Ryoko joked, easing Nagi's worries a little bit. Her sense of humor was still intact, so she was probably fine.

"Yeah, yeah" Nagi chuckled. "We're still going out tonight?" she asked, hugging Ryoko from behind, causing the other woman to tense slightly from the contact. Once again, concern uncurled in her stomach, but she brushed it off. After all, it wasn't uncommon for Ryoko to flinch or tense up like that. She was constantly alert for an attack, so it only made sense.

"Of course"

And so they did. However, something was consistently off. Ryoko seemed off the whole night, her usual pep gone. She seemed pained and exhausted, but Nagi wasn't quite sure why. So, she did the next best thing- Ryoko refused to come out and just say what the issue was, so she had now moved onto trying to figure it out on her own.

It did in fact seem to be a physical pain, considering the way Ryoko winced whenever moving too much. She was leaning against the bar in such a way that put all the weight on the right side of her body, meaning the issue was most likely with her left side. When it came to her left side, the outfit she was wearing quickly drew attention to her arm, which had a sleeve in contrast to the other arm that did not have a sleeve. Nagi tilted her head in curiosity before jabbing Ryoko's left shoulder, getting a shout of pain in response.

"I thought so" she muttered to herself. Ryoko looked away in shame, getting a sigh in response. "Okay" Nagi said, getting off of her stool at the bar. "Into the bathroom"

"But-"

"You go in first" Nagi insisted. She knew it was unsafe to go into the women's bathroom by herself. Someone could see her and jump to the wrong conclusions. On the other hand, she was also fully able to stand her ground if things got physical, but it was always better if Ryoko accompanied her. "But I need to get a good look at whatever is causing you pain and try to treat it, at least a little bit"

Seeing that she wasn't getting out of it, the space pirate reluctantly nodded, got up, and went into the women's bathroom, closely followed by Nagi. Without a word, Nagi pulled down her sleeve enough to see a bloodied bandage wrapped around her shoulder. Upon pulling off the old bandage, the bounty hunter was met with a big, nasty cut. "Explanation" Nagi demanded firmly. "Now"

"Some asshole didn't like me shoplifting" Ryoko said with a shrug, wincing as it jostled the injury. Nagi sighed before grabbing a wad of toilet paper, running it under water, and squeezing it until it was a relatively solid, slightly damp towel. She then re-wet the end of it and added a bit of hand soap to the top. It was far from ideal, but she wanted to at least clean the wound a little bit.

After some sharp intakes of breath from Ryoko as the makeshift cleaning process took place, Nagi took a full roll of toilet paper out of one of the stalls and began wrapping it around Ryoko's upper arm. Once she was content with the bandage, she tied it off and set the roll on the counter by the sink. "Okay" she said flatly. "We're going" she instructed. "Don't pull a stunt like that again"

"Yes, ma'am"