Querencia

S2 E15: Lassitude

Ara carefully maneuvered himself to land on the street before Lou's house, trying not to jolt his riders too much. Cole was quick to drop down first before helping [M/n] down, wincing at the strain on his still broken fingers.

"What do you need me to do?" Cole asked, unhooking the saddlebags as [M/n] leaned against Ara's neck.

"Help me to a shower. I can handle cleaning the stitches myself."

Cole frowned.

"The stitches are glued to my skin because of my blood drying, and some of them are broken," [M/n] explained. "I can handle cleaning it myself, I just need . . . help getting to the shower. If you don't mind."

Cole nodded, carefully supporting [M/n] into the house and down the hall to the guest bathroom. It was spacious, which relieved [M/n], since it would give him more room to clean himself and restitch the wound.

"Thank you," [M/n] murmured, pulling away from Cole.

"Of course."

The door closed, leaving [M/n] completely alone. First, he pulled the neede, thread, bee venom, herbal poultice, and Moon Water out from his saddle bag, placing them by the shower to be easily accessed.

Pausing, [M/n] took a moment to breathe. Reaching into the shower he turned the water to warm before beginning to pull off the armor that had only become heavier.

The pressure, and pain, were subsequently lessened with the weight of the unknown metal, leather, and fur gone. But the harder part was yet to come.

The top of his GI came off easily enough but the tight undergarments stuck to his skin and the stitches. Slowly he pulled them from the stitches, doing his best not to further tear the skin apart as ripping it off would do.

Gritting his teeth, he found that blood wasn't the reason the stitches, gauze, and cloth were sticking to his skin but a strange oily substance that seemed to gleam in the artificial light of the bathroom. The smell it exuded reminded [M/n] of something rotting and he worried that he had developed sepsis or some kind of infection.

"Και ξέρετε για το διασκεδαστικό μέρος." (And now the fun part.)

[M/n] unsheathed one of his knives, carefully slicing through each stitch, struggling to hide the sounds of pain that tried to escape. Pulling them from his skin was even worse, leaving him breathless and swaying in place. Once more he paused to simply breathe before he dragged off his pants - leaving his underwear in case Cole had to come in and help him.

Speaking of the man he could hear him pacing incessantly outside the door, likely preparing himself to bust down the door at any moment.

Stepping into the stream of water - happy that he didn't have to step over the lip of a tub since it was just a shower. Cussing loudly, he was barely able to force himself to stay beneath the stream of water.

"Everything alright?"

"Yes. Just washing the stitches."

Using the soap, [M/n] carefully washed away the oily substance that had stained his skin before washing the edges without getting the soap in the wound. Since the soap wasn't made for cleaning out wounds, it could make the wound worse and he did not need to get an infection from the fancy smelling soap.

Taking a step back, out of the water, [M/n] reached for the vial of bee venom Ronin had gotten for him. Pouring the vial over his wound, he gasped, unable to cry out as his voice was practically stolen by the burning sensation. Slumping against the wall, he squeezed his eyes closed to stop his vision from swimming.