Hopesnare

in which abel gets hurt

"What are these anyway. Potions?" Abel flicked one of the Florence flasks in a bored fashion.

"Don't touch that," Teadus snapped from his workstation on the other side of the room. "Please," he added as an afterthought.

Abel snorted and slid off the bench he was kneeling on, and went to stand beside Teadus. "What are you doing?"

"Making sure this grows correctly," the troll replied simply, moving the plate he was watching slightly to the left. This way the odd white plant was closer to the center of the light coming from his heat lamp.

Abel lifted an eyebrow at that, then started to inspect the books on Teadus's shelves. To his surprise, there were more mystery novels than the scientific books one would expect to find in the ownership of such a dedicated scientist. Most of the mysteries were written by a 'Tanyth Oculib.'

"Oculib?" Abel wondered aloud. "Isn't Hikaya an Oculib?"

Teadus gave an exasperated sigh. "Yes." He slumped farther down, maybe to better see his plant? "They're written by Hikaya's ancestor. The Reporter."

"Reporter," Abel repeated.

"Reporter," Teadus said irritably. "Can you do something that requires... less talking? Why don't you sort my concoctions?"

"The ones you told me not to touch?"

"... no. The other ones. In the cabinet, I think."

Abel exhaled through his nose, but went through the cabinets in the room before finding several flasks filled with liquids of different colors. He brought them over to an empty table. As he couldn't read the labels he sorted them by color.

It was quiet.

Almost too quiet.

Abel should've known something would go wrong.

Teadus was only aware of Abel's predicament when he heard the human's cries of pain and Teadus's own name being shouted. He turned to see Abel on his knees, clutching his hands to his chest. They were dripping a bright, lime green liquid, and they were actually steaming. Teadus's heart sank when he saw the bottles from the cabinet marked "dangerous" on the table. He supposed he should have locked it, but made himself focus on the problem at hand.

Abel was hurting, and Teadus had to help him.

Teadus grabbed the bandages from the "health" cabinet and knelt in front of Abel, forcing the latter to show him his hands. The troll was a little puzzled when he saw that, other than the steaming, they were pretty fine. As in, he's seen—and had—worse.

"Why are you just standing there?!" Abel screeched through his agonized moans.

"I, um, it's not that bad..." Teadus stammered.

"WHAT?!"

"I mean, I've had worse."

"Teadus," Abel hissed, stuttering on every word. "I am—my hands are burned SO BADLY that they are literally STEAMING."

"Oh, no," Teadus said in an irritatingly nonchalant manner, "That's just an effect from the liquid."

"WHY ARE YOU SO CALM?!?!" Abel screamed.

"I've dealt with this before," Teadus explained. "Though never with a human."

Abel looked even more upset than before, for some reason.

"Okay," Teadus said. "Let's just have you cleaned up."

The troll brought his friend to a sink, where he turned on the faucet and forced Abel to keep his hands under the scalding water. Abel moaned the entire time. Teadus had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes at the drama queen.

When Abel's hands were rinsed to Teadus's satisfaction, the troll brought them to the soap dispenser... AND PUT THEM BACK UNDER THE WATER.

By now, Abel was sobbing and shrieking loudly, telling Teadus to stop. Teadus didn't hear him; he just stared at Abel's hands. Eventually, Teadus turned off the faucet and allowed Abel to dry his hands. He watched the human slide down the wall and curl into a ball, nursing his hands.

Teadus finally sighed and moved back over to the health cabinet.

"Do you, uh, want to bandage that?"

Abel looked up at Teadus's anxious voice. He tried to glare, but he was too tired and miserable to do anything but nod dejectedly.

Moments later Teadus was crouching uncertainly in front of him. "Can I see your arm?"

Abel let the troll take his left forearm and firmly wrap the gauze around it. He blinked when he felt a cool, sticky liquid on the gauze, then realized it probably was one of those ointments he'd see TV ads for. The bandage itself was surprisingly well-done, he was pretty sure, as it was tightly wrapped around his arm, but not tight enough for it to hurt.

Then he realized that Teadus was still waiting, and gave him his other arm. Teadus mumbled a quick thank-you then went to work on it. Abel's eyes drifted close, and the boy fell asleep. Somehow.

His dreams were short and painful and horribly colorful, and pierced with Andi's unmistakable glitchy laughter.

Fortunately, he was awoken by a concerned Hikaya. He groggily watched as she scolded Teadus, but complimented him on Abel's bandaging. The human looked at his arms in confusion, then his memory flooded back, and he started. Hikaya looked sympathetically down at him, and proceeded to help him up and out.

"Sorry."

Abel glared up at him. "Why should I forgive you?"

"I forsook a project!"

"You burned me!"

Teadus quickly backed up, and hung his head. He was pretty sure he felt remorseful about the whole ordeal, but understanding emotions wasn't really his forte.

When he glanced back up, he saw that Abel's expression had softened. "Look, sorry about your project, and misunderstanding you and getting you in trouble. I just...."

The two boys looked at each other in silence. Neither could really speak. And then Abel did something that surprised both of them.

He got up and hugged Teadus.

Teadus was rather overwhelmed by the sensation. Abel had run into him and locked his arms around him and buried his face into the troll's shoulder. Normally, Teadus would've shrunk back from such contact—even if it came from Hikaya. But they were both too tired and upset to argue, and subsequently drifted to the floor.

They sat there, hugging, for a long time.