Wild Afflictions

Chapter 6

 Mito opened her door to see her nephew carrying a young child, around his age, in his arms. Both of them were covered in blood and — much less pleasing — rain. At first, she thought to scold him, assuming that the blood was from some animal or something, until she looked down at the new boys left leg, seeing Gon's shirt wrapped around it, blood slowly dripping out of the cloth.

"What the hell—"

"Help them... him, I don't know, But this is the person I've been trying to find and their leg was caught in a bear trap, and I don't know what do do, but you gotta help them or they'll die and I can't—"
It was Gon who was cut off by Mito taking the young person into her arms with the gentleness of a mother and carried them up towards their bathroom.

There she softly set them onto the tile floor, before pulling out as many towels as possible and setting them down into a bed like a form, putting the child onto them after they were laid out. Right after, without hesitation, she went through her cabinets to find her medical supplies form when she had been a nurse, gathering everything she needed. It took her a while to notice the presence of Gon at the doorway.

"Go make yourself something warm to drink and change out of those clothes, sit by the fire. If I'm going to worry about him, there's no way I can worry about you getting sick." She threw some more towels at Gon who followed her instructions right away, leaving her to work.

Once he was Gon, Mito got down beside the boy and unwrapped the shirt from his leg to reveal the wound. It was horrible. The flesh had been shredded and the bone was visible through all the flesh. She thanked everything around that the boy had passed out and wasn't likely to wake up anytime soon.

She quickly disinfected her hands and then pulled out the rubbing alcohol, pouring it all over the wound to disinfect it.

Then she set to work.

————————————————————

Gon sat by the fireplace, warm cup of tea in his hands, still full from when he made it two hours ago. Despite Mito telling him to drink something, he didn't think he could stomach anything. All that was on his mind was the flashing images of the boys bloodied leg and his cries. They were haunting him as he stared into the fire and thought — his thoughts morphing to be dangerous.

"Who the hell put out those traps?" Gon whispered to himself as he finally put the mug down, wrapping himself further into his blanket. And it was a valid question. As far as he knew, there was no one on the island that ever went that far into the forest, unless there was someone out there who was trying to kill rare animals.

Whatever it was, it made Gon furious, rage flourishing to be like the flames in front of him.

"Gon!" He heard Mito shout from upstairs. He was up in an instance, racing up the stairs to the bathroom, only to see the door nearly closed.

He moved to open the door, only to have Mito open it, blocking the whole view into the bathroom. "I need you to get my hair scissors. I want to get his hair out of his face."

"Okay... the whole thing?"

"Yeah, that's best," she whispered, before quickly looking in.

Gon went to move but stopped himself looking back up at Mito. "Is he okay?"

"For now. I got the stitches in and he's still passed out. I also cleaned him up, so he isn't filthy— oh, grab him some of your clothes, preferably loose and warm, okay?"

Gon only nodded before he went to his room and grabbed a sweatshirt of his and a pair of sweatpants that were to lose on him, including some clean underwear from Christmas. He dropped them at the door to the bathroom before he went into Mito's room and grabbed her hair kit, also dropping it off by the door.

Deciding to try to get some sleep instead of staying up for who knows how long — also because Mito told him to stop hovering around the bathroom door. He also changed into pj's, settling into his bed.

But sleep didn't find him and he stared mindlessly up at the ceiling for what seemed to be hours, until there was a soft knock on his door and he looked over to see Mito peeking her head in.

He rolled over and looked at her, making eye contact, and she continued her way into his room, sitting beside him on his bed, reaching down and running her hand through his hair.

"I'm really proud of you," she started softly, a kind smile falling onto her face. "It was really strong of you to have helped him, and I know it must've been hard for you to do that. So, I'm proud of you."

Gon only stared at his hand resting in front of his face before responding. "Thanks, Mito... Is he okay?"

"Yeah. Heart's stable and he isn't bleeding anymore. I set him down on a futon in the living room by the fire so that he'd stay warm. But I'm going to sleep now. And you should too."

She leaned down and planted a kiss on Gon's forehead before leaving the room.

Gon waited about twenty minutes, till the light streaming in form under his door had vanished, then got up and slowly made his way down the living room where the fire was burning brightly and the futon laid in the middle of the living room.

On the futon laid the boy, and as Gon moved around to get a better view of him, he was completely entranced.

His skin was as pale, like snow, but with a pinker tone, but his hair looked like a cloud. Mito had cut away the hair that had turned to dreadlocks on his head, leaving it to falling out into soft puffs, slightly damp from being cleaned. Gon continued to watch the boy, whose face was completely visible for the first time since Gon First laid eyes on him. He had sharper features than Gon, but it was much more obvious that he was Gonna age with the hair out of his face. But, without the hair, it was all the more evident that he was malnourished.

Gon slowly moved so that he was lying on the couch, watching the boy sleep, and he slowly fell asleep claim him as well.