| [May. 5th, 2009|06:32 pm] |
Raidou took a shallow breath, risked a deeper one, and could have laughed for sheer relief when nothing rippled up from his ribcage and broke him apart. He let himself be giddy for half a second, then got a lock on reality. Euphoria was just as dangerous as pain, and keeping his head had been the whole point of not taking morphine.
Genma was still coughing. Raidou couldn't tell if it was worse now, but it wasn't a good sign.
"Right," he said, and squeezed Genma's knee quickly before pulling open the medi-kit again. Tape, bandages, a dressing--anything he could slap quickly over his chest and be done with. He found some guaze--maybe enough to stretch over his chest--and taped it into place without looking too hard at the damage underneath. It was easy, if kept his eyes on his hands, to pretend that there was almost nothing there.
Bandages wound around his ribs next, not nearly as neatly as Genma could have managed, but good enough to hold for a while. He ignored the way blood and fluid soaked into cloth--he'd worry about it later, whenever the needles wore off. For now his focus needed to be on moving.
The codeine he'd taken was starting to kick in, too, easing strained shoulders, dulling the pain of missing teeth. It couldn't do anything for his face--even morphine couldn't really touch burn-seared nerves for any length of time--but one hurt to ignore was far easier than half a dozen.
"Okay, kid," he said finally, stowing the kit away again, turning to give his back to Genma. "Up you get, and let's see if we can't manage some distance." |
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