First Burns and First Snow (Milo Murphy's Law)

First Burns and First Snow

Most of the time, Milo got hurt. Not "most of the time he did this or that," or even "most of the time when he left the house," but just... Most of the time. He got hurt incredibly often for someone who was thirteen years old, and he had been hurt incredibly often for someone who was one, two, three, four... You get the idea.

He didn't really scar easily, either. Whenever a scar developed, it was because of something big, and he always appreciated the reminder of good times because whenever he got a new scar, he associated it with the people who asked about it or gave him "get well soon" gifts. Never, ever with the pain of what caused it. If he had to deal with permanent marks that reminded him of bad things - Well, he wouldn't be as happy as he is.

And he was happy. He was so, so satisfied with his life, to the point where sometimes he wondered if he shouldn't be. Sometimes he thought about how life would be if he didn't have to deal with Murphy's law, but he always came to the same conclusion: Boring.

So he never cursed pain, he never cursed a scar, and he never ever cursed his curse. And in his sweet ignorant bliss, life was great. He really didn't need a wake up call for something he couldn't control.

But, with his luck, of course he got one.

---

It was just a science lab on a Monday. Milo was dressed correctly for it, he had brought things that were necessary (like a fire blanket - there was obviously already one in the room, but it was always possible that something would go wrong and he wouldn't be able to access that one) and he was ready to do the project. Something having to do with lighting a wick on a bottle filled with alcohol.

Melissa was across the room, getting the lab paper that she had forgotten to get when she walked in. Zack was already ready to start the lab, and everyone else in the classroom had sort of gravitated to the edges of the room, far away from Milo's team's table.

Milo stood a little ways away from Zack, getting ready to write down the observations of the lab from a safe enough distance that their lab wouldn't get ruined by something going wrong. Unfortunately, he dropped his pencil and, in a moment of pure forgetfulness of his entire life, walked near the table to pick it up.

And that's when there was a small explosion.

Milo fell back from it, his head hitting the table behind them and, right after, the floor. His vision was blurry when he opened his eyes. He heard people fussing, calling the school's nurse and 911 - Nothing he'd never heard before, really. He wondered for a second if he should tell them not to worry, that he had dealt with worse pain than some table hitting his head, but he couldn't because his head was pounding from the noise and he was too busy trying to block out the crying sound -

...Wait, crying?

Milo forced himself upright, to look at the sound, and felt nauseated at the sight of Melissa patting down the fire blanket (Which was his own - The one in the classroom had gotten stuck again) around Zack, who was gritting his teeth and sobbing in pain. Other people in the room were trying to help from a distance, but when Milo was staring at Zack, the entire class got quieter.

He blinked. He opened and closed his mouth. He was suddenly disconnecting himself from the situation, his limbs going numb and his body slumping from how faint he felt. Where he had been hearing people calling emergency personnel before, he could only hear the ringing in his ears and he could only see Zack trying to keep himself from crying while Melissa was still terrified, patting down the fire blanket onto their best friend.

Oh. Oh God.

---

Milo could barely remember being loaded into the ambulance, or being completely unresponsive to the paramedics and the doctors, or being taken to The Murphy Suite, or being left there so the doctors could pay attention to Zack and his much, much more dangerous injury. Milo's mind was racing. Had he ever looked like that? Not the crying, of course, Milo rarely cried and if he did it wasn't ever over pain... But had he ever been near an explosion, been on fire, and ended up with an injury as serious as Zack's? He supposed he must have, but he couldn't remember it - because at this point he was fairly certain he had a small concussion - but there was no way he would be able to forget seeing Zack like that. It was burned into his mind, just like how the fire was burned into Zack's chest, possibly becoming a permanent scar -