ustulation » lightwood+bane [1]

THIRTEEN

USTULATION; RAISING HELL (I)

AVA STOOD IN THE doorway to Nico's temporary bedroom where he had escaped to from the infirmary. She knew he would escape even if his injuries were too severe; although, his current injury was two infected cuts that had grown in size somehow but hadn't stopped bleeding and so required the bandages to be changed every two hours to lessen the severity of the infection.

But of course to be difficult, Nico had escaped the infirmary using his 'ninja skills' that he praises so often. After escaping, he found his way to the room he was assigned, near Ava's since she had insisted, to help him familiarise himself with the situation.

And at the moment, Nico was draped across his bed, half asleep which she could tell since his eyes were half open and he wasn't fidgeting as much as he did in his sleep. When there was signs of him waking up, Ava moved to sit on the edge of the bed near Nico's legs which were still clad in his ripped black jeans that had seen better days. His black Doc Martens' were placed near the foot of the bed, showcasing his ducky socks, which were a gift from Eliza when he turned 18.

After a minute or two of annoyed groaning, Nico opened his dark brown eyes and looked towards the blond sitting by his legs. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, noticing he was wearing a shirt that he hadn't seen in a long time.

"Didn't you steal this from me, when we were dating?" Nico asked puzzled. Ava nodded, confirming Nico's thoughts, "well your other shirt was kind of ruined. It had rips in the front and back, and it was heavily stained from your blood. And I happened to have multiple of your shirts and I thought you looked best in this one."

Nico's mouth opened then closed, "but why didn't you button it up?" "Stop being demanding all of a sudden. It's easier to change the bandages if it isn't buttoned up." Ava informed her ex-boyfriend who nodded in understanding.

The Fray moved his legs off of the bed, causing Ava to move over to sit next to him. The two sat in silence for a moment or two. Nico cast his eyes over Ava's form, noticing the dark circles under her eyes and pale face. Ava cast her own eyes over Nico's form, seeing the scars made by those vampires, several other unrelated scars that were distracting, fading runes also covered his form.

"So why are you here?" Nico asked bluntly, causing Ava to glare annoyed at him. "That's something you have to ask about, is it?" Nico shrugged. "I do care about you, believe it or not. I mean, we used to date so of course I'll help you when you're hurting."

"What if I'm not hurting?" Nico remarked. "Once again, I know that when you bleed, you bleed a whole damn lot more than the average person or shadowhunter, so don't question it."