semi-automatic ; j.d

twenty nine ; strawberry cuts

"mh, babe, quit it," laughs josh in between bites of his cheesy gordita crunch. he shrugs her off as she puts one of his tacos back down after taking a bite.

mia grins cheekily, leaning her head on his shoulder and glancing back at her phone. "sorry," she drawls out in a tone that says that she's not really sorry.

he shakes his head slowly. "i literally asked you if you wanted me to get you anything and you said no," he reminds her with an amused smirk playing at his lips.

"shut up," she nudges him a bit and pulls her bottom lip between her teeth.

josh nods his head, trying hard not to let out a laugh as he takes another bite of food. "m'kay."

mia exhales while standing up from the dining room table. "i'm gonna cut up some strawberries," she says and goes into the kitchen.

josh swallows, and then stifles a laugh. "good, maybe then you can stop eating my food."

"fuck you," she sings under her breath, grinning at him through the opening of the kitchen. she pulls out the plastic container of strawberries from inside the fridge and sets it down on the counter while she rifles through the drawers for a cutting board.

"d'you know what the bridesmaids dresses are gonna look like yet?" asks josh, who's not a fan of the lack of spoken words between them in that moment.

mia shakes her head, "no, but jenna said she wants them to be champagne color."

"you'll look really pretty in that," he says. "well, you look really pretty in every color, but still."

"why the fuck you lyingg?"

josh grins and turns in his chair so he can look at her through the kitchen opening. "i hate you."

she sticks her tongue out at him and then starts cutting up the fruit. "what about you guys? has tyler started doing anything with colors?"

"all black suits," answers josh, swallowing as he nods his head. "it's gonna look super hot."

mia exhales an amused laugh, because an important thing to be aware of is that josh dun is lowkey very full of himself. "lucky me, then, huh?"

"mhm," he hums in response.

the cutting board suddenly shifts out of place and as quick as blinking, the knife in her hand moves down and creates a long cut from her palm down to the top of her wrist.

she drops the knife on counter and takes an instinctive step back. her brown eyes blink once, and suddenly beads of vermillion bubble up on the surface of her skin. her arm turns and droplets of blood hit the tiled floor like soft rain on a window.

"um," she swallows heavily, her throat feeling tight. "josh?"

he perks his head up and glances at her, expectantly. the gentle smile falls from his lips when he notices the look on her face. "is everything okay?"

it would be so much easier for her to explain how seeing blood, how seeing her own blood makes her stomach lurch and her whole body heat up. cold chills run through her nerves and all she can feel is nausea. but for some reason her lips don't allow her to explain that. "i uh, i just cut myself."

"oh," exhales josh softly and he quickly arises from the table. he's expecting maybe a small nick or at worst one of her fingers to be bloody, but when he sees her standing there with a dripping arm, he pauses. "shit, what happened? are you okay?"

mia glances up at him with a nervous expression. "i don't feel so good."

he carefully steps around the mess and fumbles with his hands for a second, unsure where to put them in order to be helpful. "yeah, you look really pale," he says, keeping his voice even because he doesn't want her to be alarmed.

"i don't really...like seeing my own blood," she blinks a few times in attempt to get rid of the dots that blur her vision. feeling lightheaded and nauseous is a combination that just makes you feel out of place and awful, and it's one that she recognizes. before her hands can reach for the counter or even josh to stabilize herself, all sense of awareness slips away and unconsciousness sweeps her into its arms.

josh catches her around the waist before she can fall. "hey, hey, mia," he says gently, slowly sitting her down in front of the cabinets underneath the countertop. he kneels down in front of her with a worried expression and puts his hands on her cheeks. "mia, hey, can you hear me?"

she inhales through her nose and opens her brown eyes slowly. "hm, what?"

he can tell she's still out of it.

"everything's fine, okay? you're just bleeding a lot, and- hey, no, don't look at it," insists josh when he sees mia glancing down at her arm.

he puts his finger under her chin and looks her in the eye, raising an eyebrow. "where do you keep first aid stuff?"

"b-bathroom," she stammers, swallowing heavily. her face feels hot and clammy.

josh nods and puts his hands on her knees before he stands up from the kitchen floor. "i'll be right back," he tells her and then he's gone for a second. when he returns he has an array of pretty much whatever he could find from her bathroom that would help.

"here, hold that," he insists after pressing a damp wash cloth to her hand and wrist to stop the bleeding. he doesn't think it's bad enough to where it would need stitches or anything, but there's a good amount of blood and he doesn't want her passing out again.

mia holds the washcloth in place with her left hand, eyes watching josh while he tears open the package of a few gauze pads and medical tape. she wonders how he knows what to do, and how he makes it look so effortless for him to be doing all of this.

"still doing okay?" he questions, glancing up at her through his eyelashes while he opens up a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

she nods in response. 'okay', she figures, means that for the time being she doesn't feel like she's gonna throw up from the mess of blood.

josh works on her hand quickly. after removing the washcloth he soaks it with the rubbing alcohol and gives mia a look that basically says 'this is gonna sting like a bitch sorry' before pressing it back against her hand.

her first response is to wince at the initial sting, but then the liquid seeps into the wound and then it really burns. "ow, fuck," she sighs, clutching the washcloth with firmer pressure.

"sorry," he tells her and leans forward to kiss her forehead.

after a few minutes of dr. dun waiting to make sure the bleeding has almost stopped, he wraps her hand up with a couple gauze pads and then secures it with the medical tape. there's still blood on the tile floor and some on the counter, but right now josh's main focus is on his girlfriend who looks as pale as a ghost.

he gets her a glass of orange juice and sits back down in front of her, watching her carefully. "you scared the shit out of me," he says once the color starts returning to her face.

mia swallows a mouthful of juice and then says, "well that's what you get for not wanting to share your food."

josh grins, shaking his head with disbelief at the fact that she's making jokes when not even ten minutes ago she was passing out. "you're the worst."

"mhm, i know."