Gentle Winter

1.4

          Levi sat curled up on your sofa as you tried to regain your composure in the kitchen. After treating his wounds the best you could with what you had, you pulled your brother's clothes onto his thin body, slipped some socks onto his feet, and wrapped him up in three warm blankets fresh from the dryer. You also patted his wet hair with a towel for good measure. All the while you were making conversation with the boy, who answered all your questions with soft, stuttered sentences.

You learned that Levi had graduated high school the year prior, his birthday was December the twenty-fifth, and he would he twenty years old on that day. He almost shamefully answered that he didn't know what he wanted to be when he grew up (you had stated it that way in order to avoid the seriousness of the question), and he informed you he lived with his uncle. You tried to prompt him to tell him a little more about his uncle, but he only hunched his shoulders up and almost disappeared into the blankets that surrounded him. He had stuttered out a small, "U-Um..." before you quickly dismissed the question. He obviously didn't want to talk about it, which made your suspicions rise even further.

You sighed and gripped the countertop of your kitchen island. You felt lost at that moment. You had done your duty as a caretaker, but afterwards... what did you do? Contacting his uncle was definitely out of the question because he seemed scared, plus he was legally an adult, so it wasn't like you could force him to go back to his guardian even if you wanted him to.

You knew one thing for sure: Levi definitely needed to be examined by a doctor. He needed a chest x-ray, and his ankle needed one as well. His bruises needed to be looked at by more experienced eyes because your knowledge only went so far. You were mainly used to administering IV's and stitching up small wounds. Every once in a while you would get paged to help the trauma unit or help assist on a surgery, but other than that, you did simple things. Levi's injuries could be more severe than they looked, so you wanted to make sure.

You filled up another mug with water and popped it in the microwave for two minutes. You had promised the boy hot chocolate, after all. 

You grounded yourself before taking the small trip back to the living room where your guest was snuggling with Drax. "Hey, honey." You announced yourself, taking a seat next to him on the couch, "You feeling any better?" Earlier, you had given him two pain pills to ease his discomfort.

"Y-yeah... Thank you v-very much." He responded quietly, hands peeped out of the blankets, rubbing under Drax's chin, "I'm not very cold anymore."

"That's good, sweetie. I'm glad." You told him happily, reaching over to join him in petting Drax. "Is it okay if I ask you a few more questions?" Levi's cheeks were pink after your first sentence, and he timidly agreed; you could tell he was extremely worried because his fingers had a small tremble in them, and he took one small quick breath.

"It's nothing bad, sweetness. I just wanted to talk about you going to the hospital to get checked out. I can only do so much, and I want to make sure you're completely okay." You informed him softly, hoping to keep him calm. You needed to know if he had any kind of health insurance because the cost of what he needed would definitely stack up a lot of bills.

"O-Oh. So... So you're le-leaving me at... at a hos-hospital?" He trembled, retracting his hands away from Drax and back into the blanket. His blank eyes were angled towards your lap, and his long bangs covered most of your view of his face. He was withdrawing back into himself.

"Oh, no no, lovely. We'd go together; I'd stay with you the whole time, and then we'd come back here, together. I'm not going to leave you anywhere unless you want me to, honey." You quickly crushed his doubts by explaining further. You knew you should have said that in the beginning... Levi was sensitive to words, so you had to be careful how you said things. You really didn't want to hurt the boy.