| [Nov. 29th, 2016|10:20 pm] |
“Stop, stop, you’ll give yourself a brain infection and Shiranui will yell,” Kakashi said. He shook water off his hands, flash-dried them clean with a controlled fire jutsu, and moved around to prevent Ryouma from grinding sludge into his open head wound.
Obediently, Ryouma lifted his head into Kakashi’s hands. The bandage was grey with sweat, speckled with unnamable things, and fraying at the knot. A pinkish stain seeped through just above Ryouma’s eyebrow. In retrospect, Kakashi could have done a more competent job, but if he was going to reevaluate anything, he’d have to start with not dropping a goddamn ceiling on Ryouma’s head in a first place.
He unwound the bandage, burned that too, and took stock of the damage underneath. The cut was long, deep, and oozing sluggishly past a half-formed scab of blackish dried blood. The right eyebrow had been split clean through. Ryouma hissed softly when Kakashi touched the edge of it.
Kakashi bit his lip. “I think you need stitches.”
Ryouma gave a muted groan. “Kuroda’s gonna be pissed at me. Again. And Genma’s worn out already.” He squinted up at Kakashi. “Butterfly bandages won’t do it?”
“You’re the medic,” Kakashi pointed out. “You tell me.”
“If I were a real medic, I could heal it myself,” Ryouma muttered. He grimaced, wrinkling his forehead like he wanted to feel exactly where it hurt, and sighed again. “Stitches’d be best. Especially given the damp here, and more swimming across the Strait— Adhesive might not hold. But the lieutenant...” He worried the inside of his cheek, making a dent, then blinked and knocked his cheekbone against Kakashi’s hand. “You know basic field med.”
“I don’t think Shiranui’s actually dying,” Kakashi said, with caution.
“He performed major healing on Kuroda,” Ryouma said hotly. “You saw how flat he was afterwards! And he’s gonna be working on Sakamoto’s eye now, if Kuroda let him. And we’ve still got swimming and fighting and fucking mass murder ahead of us. Can’t ask him to waste chakra sealing up my eyebrow when we might need it sealing up someone’s ribcage later.” He paused. “Can you do stitches?”
“Only when I forget my staple gun,” Kakashi said. He considered asking are you sure? because it was Ryouma’s face, and Kakashi was fairly certain Ryouma had strong opinions about his face not being hacked about by amateurs, but apparently his opinions on Genma’s welfare were stronger.
Kakashi’s mouth twitched. He had a few scars he hadn’t let Rin waste chakra on, either.
“Okay,” he said. “Sit against the wall.”
After all that, it wasn’t much work to clean the wound, blot the last bleeders, and put a simple running stitch through it. Ryouma sat like a patient — or very tired — stone, only flinching once when the needle hit a particularly raw nerve. Kakashi tied the final knot, clipped the thread, and studied the result. It wasn’t the fine work of a properly trained hand, but the wound was closed and the sutures were small and neat. With any luck, Ryouma would just end up with a faint line through his eyebrow.
“You know what’ll be fashionable this summer?” he said, as he smeared ointment and re-bandaged the wound. “Headscarves. We can get you one.”
Ryouma tipped his head for better bandaging access. “Hitai-ate’ll hide it. You can keep the scarf. Though—” he flicked a look up at Kakashi’s hair— “not the brown. Silver suits you better.”
“I’ll take that under advisement,” Kakashi said slowly, and tied the last knot. “Done.”
Ryouma let out a breath, soft with relief, and let his head drop so that his cheek rested against Kakashi’s wrist. Startled, Kakashi held still, then gave Ryouma’s hair a careful tug with his free hand. “C’mon, up. There’s food waiting.” |
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