What's It Like Outside? [An II Fanfiction]

Chapter 16: That's Better

Trigger Warnings: wound cleaning, paranoia

Paintbrush took a sip from their bottle of Dr. Fizz and screwed the cap back on. They were about to leave the kitchen before they heard someone calling out to them.

"Painty!" It was Lightbulb. 

Paintbrush smiled. "Hey! you doin' better?"

Lightbulb walked up next to them and shrugged. "Eh, I... can't really tell."

Paintbrush noticed how tired she looked. "mhm. You get much sleep last night?"

"N-no." Lightbulb admitted.

Paintbrush pat Lightbulb on her head. Lightbulb smiled and her tail wagged slightly.

"That's understandable, you just got back." Paintbrush said. They caught a glimpse at the bandages on Lightbulb's leg and raised an eyebrow. "Did- did you change those yourself?"

Lightbulb also glanced down at her leg. "Yeah?" She'd just been freaking out in the bathroom after her interaction with Test Tube, and had decided to go ahead and change her bandages while she was in there since she hadn't yet. She wasn't able to be that precise with it since she was pretty stressed when she did it, but she didn't think it was done that badly.

Paintbrush grabbed a pen from the counter and scribbled "PB" on the cap of their soda bottle, putting it back in the fridge. They grabbed a bottle of water and a paper towel, placing their hand on Lightbulb's shoulder and walking out of the kitchen with her.

"Wha- where are we going?" Lightbulb asked.

"You can't leave those on like that we gotta go change 'em" Paintbrush responded.

Lightbulb stifled a yawn. "Huh? It's not that bad!"

"Yes it is" Paintbrush opened the elevator and stepped inside with Lightbulb, pressing the button to the floor their room was on and waiting for it to go up. They led her to their room and sat her on their bed as they began rummaging through the drawers on their bedside table.

Lightbulb looked over at Baxter's tank. "Hi Baxter!!" She waved at him.

Baxter blinked at Lightbulb. Paintbrush pulled a med kit out of the drawer and sat it down on the bed, climbing onto it themself and sitting next to Lightbulb. 

"Why do you just have one of those?" Lightbulb asked, looking at the med kit.

"Got a bit of training a while back, thought it'd be useful since I'm usually the one with the singular braincell in this polycule." Paintbrush joked.

Lightbulb laughed a bit at that. "Eh, fair."

Paintbrush lifted up Lightbulb's leg and started carefully unwrapping the bandages. They set the old bandages aside and gently straightened out Lightbulb's leg. Lightbulb flinched slightly and suppressed a few giggles as their hand moved along it. Paintbrush noticed this and perked their head up. They smirked at Lightbulb and lightly pinched under her knee.

Lightbulb's giggles grew louder. "Painty!!"

"Alright, alright" Paintbrush grabbed a small bottle of antibacterial soap from the med kit. "This is probably gonna sting a little." They carefully applied the soap to the wound, rubbing their thumb in circles on it. Lightbulb winced and tried to keep her leg still.

"Sorry sorry" Paintbrush put the soap back and put the paper towel under her leg. They opened the water bottle and started drizzling water on the wound to rinse it.

Lightbulb inhaled weirdly at the uncomfortable feeling and fiddled with her bandanna. "Never seen someone use a whole water bottle for this." She figured talking to them could distract from it. "Or- well- I've never seen someone do this general, so I guess that makes sense."

Paintbrush smiled. "It's easier than trying to do this over a sink." They set the water bottle back down and grabbed some fresh bandages from the med kit. They carefully wrapped them around the wound, making sure not to do it too tightly. They taped the bandage and let go of Lightbulb's leg. "Alright, that should be good."

Lightbulb looked at the bandages on her leg. "Oh yeah, that is a lot better!" She leaned forward and hugged Paintbrush. "Thanks Painty!!"

Paintbrush returned the hug. "Yep, no problem."

"And so I went ahead and made the cookie pizza anyways, cuz y'know I still thought it was a good idea." Lightbulb explained. "And then their pizza disappeared so I gave the cookie to the judges and we got a 49 out of 40!"

"Wow!" Bot exclaimed. "So who got eliminated after that?"

"Uh.. I think Trophy?? I dunno I didn't pay much attention to the other team before the merge."

Lightbulb perked up her head when she heard a voice from the other room.

"Hey, have you seen Lightbulb?"

It took her a second to register it, but she recognized the voice. She needed to leave, and quickly.

"I-I gotta go" She stood up and grabbed her crutches.

"Huh?" Bot seemed surprised by Lightbulb's sudden change in tone, likely not having heard the voice.

"I just- I gotta leave, sorry." Lightbulb tried to mask the panic in her voice as she quickly went to the elevator.

She made her way down the hall. She couldn't go to her room, she'd get caught too easily. If she was quick enough, she could probably hide in Fan and Paintbrush's room for a while. She turned a corner and heard the elevator ding in the distance. She tried to walk faster, but it was pretty difficult and took some effort to go at even a speed-walking pace. She started tripping up a bit but she was determined to make it. She heard footsteps rapidly approaching her as she reached for the door handle. Right before she could open the door, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her from behind. She yelped in surprise as she was lifted off the ground, Test Tube making a little "shyoom" sound as she spun around to the door parallel to them. She entered the room, carelessly tossing Lightbulb to the middle of the floor as she closed and locked the door.

Lightbulb sat up and immediately started backing away from Test Tube. "W-What's this about?? What did I do??"

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reeheehee cliffhanger

ALSO TY FOR 1K READS! WTF!!