[prp] no apple ever bore so rich a red [alexis/nasir]

[Daekie]

Alexis doesn't -- they don't remember -- it's. Hard. To place things, because their side hurts, and because Alois is very thorough, and -- it doesn't mater. Their side hurts. That's the important part. And they know Nasir, they recognize his name, remember his face - so kind, so kind - he can help. He has to help. They don't know where else to go.

(Not Autumn. They can't go to Autumn. They -- they did this for her, didn't they, it's so faint -- yes. Yes, yes, yes.)

It's so dark, and it's raining, and the rain won't touch them not one bit - it loses momentum around their form, dripping to the ground like they're shielded - but they have a hand pressed to their side, the blood seeping through the fabric (they shouldn't have pulled the knife out, they know, they know, but they needed to put the jacket on and they couldn't with it stuck in there and -- it's stupid, it's so stupid, it's the most childish possible ******** reason to bleed everywhere isn't it), and it hurts. It hurts so much. Alexis just wants to go to sleep and maybe wake up when everything's better (and it won't be, so never, of course).

Just a little longer. He can help. He's got to help. He has to.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Nasir is actually stepping outside for a moment to make sure the pumpkins are lit up when he notices them in the dark.

"Alexis?" he calls out, and then stops because is their hair longer than it was last time. Yet they look a mess, more so than he remembers them looking when he saw them last (and the hurt is still there but-).

He steps off of the porch, heading towards them.

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

Alexis takes a hesitant step closer (he's there, he has to help them, he's got to) and another - below the nose their face is covered in slick gore, their eyes dull, their hair messy and tangled. "Sorry. I know it's late. I need help." It's almost like they're scared to get any closer to him.

"Got stabbed. I can't go to the hospital and I can't close it myself." They stay still, one hand pressed to their side, their whole body tensed.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

For all that he wants to shake, Nasir doesn't. Instead he bypasses fear and everything else and goes straight to calm. (He will flip out later, when this is done and he's not seeing someone so obviously covered in blood and-)

"It's alright, come on ..." A hand is held out for them to take, Nasir feeling oddly wary of them in a way he cannot shake at all. "I'll see what I can do and then-" He shook his head, brown eyes wide behind his glasses, but his need to help overrides everything else.

Alexis looks like they might have eaten a person and he's desperately trying to not think that.

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

Alexis is limitlessly hesitant - closer, Nasir can see they're shaking, breathing hard. "Please," they mumble, taking his hand so tightly they might never let go -- there is no pretense left in them. It would be terror, if they weren't too tired for that. "Jus' don't...don't let me go t'sleep, okay? I want to, n' you can't let me do it. Y'can't."

Their hands are clean, if dry and calloused, rough in ways they weren't the day before. (At least, the hand they're holding his with is. The other one stays straight at their side, putting as much pressure on it as they can.)

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I know," he says quietly, "just talk about anything, alright?" Nasir squeezes their hand and he's tugging them towards the front door of the house.

It's multiple stories (a place that was meant to be for a frat but then was repurposed) and he leads them to the kitchen (which was exactly the kind of fabulous kitchen you'd imagine for someone like Nasir).

"Sit," he insists, nudging them towards one of the stools so that they're at the right height. "I need to get the first aid supplies ..." Which he had actually added to after Blackfriars.

"I'll be right back," he tells them, before he squeezes their hand and lets go to get the things. As he is trying to not think about the difference of their hand or the hair or-

Later, later, after he's helped.

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

"'m cold," Alexis whispers, squeezing his hand back too weakly, like they don't want to hold him too hard or he'll disappear. "'s too cold out. I'm tryin', I promise -" It's so hard to get warm. They want to pull their knees up under their jacket and wrap their arms around them, but -- they know they can't. They have to keep pressure on it. They're not so far gone that they don't know that, don't know the steps of treating an injury they've already aggravated more than they should have.

Their hair is dry. Even through the rain, discounting the blood, Alexis is completely dry -- like it could have been a sunny day out.

"Why d'you have first aid," they call to him, "do people...usually keep that?" It hurts. It hurts.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I'm going to get you other things too, Alexis, it'll be fine." They are unnerving in some other way that screams predator but Nasir pushes past it to do something to help.

The odd details were for later, not now.

"After Blackfriars I took some first aid courses because of how badly I was hurt," he calls back. Nasir isn't gone for long and he returns with what looks like an old fashioned medic bag. It's set down on the kitchen counter while he carefully puts a blanket around their shoulders.

"It's a thermal blanket," he tells them, "so it should help." It was part of the emergency supplies they had in case a really bad storm happened.

"I'll need to see," Nasir's voice is soft, "but don't remove the hand yet."

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

"I wasn't there, y'know that," they mutter when he comes back, the thermal blanket like a lifeline - their breath is starting to even out, soft and low, balanced and rhythmic. Alexis' eyelids are so heavy, and the heat is so nice, and they just want to --

No. No. They push themself back to wakefulness via sheer force of will. There is still so much blood on their face, they need to wash it off, they need to - one thing at a time. Stab wound first. Yes. That comes first.

"What do you want me to take off?" They trust him. He wouldn't do anything bad.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I know but you heard about it. The man that attacked everyone got me in the shoulder really bad." Except they hadn't been a man anymore, but a moonwalker caught in Ashdown at the full moon.

His hand presses to Alexis's hair. "Stay awake, okay. I can put something on as noise?" There was a small tablet on the kitchen island that was used for recipes but maybe it would serve as a focus.

A package is torn open and Nasir briefly tries to get some of the blood off their face before he helps them with clothing. "Your top, I think, the rest is fine ... You can put the blanket back around your shoulders."

It'll probably take some maneuvering, to not lose the pressure applied to the wound, but they can manage it.

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

Alexis leans into Nasir's hand - the comfort of someone touching them just to be touching them, to ground them, is not to be underestimated. It's been so long since anyone did that. (Has it? Things got a little blurry, time-wise -- they don't know how long they were away. How long their fetch destroyed Alexis' life for. There is no chance to be solitary anymore.) "You don't need to put anything on." They barely move under his ministrations, patient, pliable.

When Nasir tells them to take their top off, Alexis manages it with some difficulty -- the hoodie is ruined anyways, there's blood all down it, it's unwearable - and, with considerable difficulty, takes the t-shirt under that off as well. (They're not topless, technically. They still have a binder on. That makes all the difference.) Like this, it's easy to see their scars, littered around their arms like so much dust - a large blotch of scar tissue on one shoulder, jagged pinpricks of healing skin down their sides - and, of course, the bleeding gash in their side. That's the important one.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"It might help, though ..." Which means, while they're working through getting their hoodie off (it's in shambles; he thinks he has another they might like), Nasir turns to the tablet and does putting something on.

The volume is low and it is ... Steven Universe. Mostly because that was the last thing they had watched.

He attention returns to Alexis then, each injury and scar noted, but it's the gash on their side. This might be-

Nasir is certain he should be taking them to the hospital but they had asked and there was something on the edge of unnerving him that made him not want to argue the point.

He makes sure the blanket is around them but not blocking where he can work and he looks to the first aid kit.

A little bit higher or lower and this could have been-

His hand settles warm on their head again, pushing messy long hair back until he thinks of it and pulls a hair clip from his hair to pin theirs back.

Then another.

"I think you've got most of the bleeding stopped ..." Things are pulled to try and do this, starting with some wound packing powder. Did he have something to do emergency stitches? Yes but only because he had prepared a kit for the worst what if situation.

The Things He Did Not Want To Think About.

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

"I know I should have left the knife in," Alexis murmurs, low, leaning into his hand all catlike. He's so warm. It feels so nice. "But I didn't wanna make things worse. I was --" their brow furrows. They were...they were what? Scared? No, that's not right. The whole fight, even though it was only an hour ago at most, seems like some sort of blurry fever dream where everything's just out of reach and out of focus -- the only clear thing the feel of bones crunching between their teeth, blood in their mouth, cold metal though their skin.

It's not entirely pleasant. But on some level, it's a good feeling, and that in and of itself is a little scary. So Alexis doesn't think about anything at all. "What show's that...?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Steven Universe," he says on reflex. It is, not so strangely enough, the episode where Garnet is fighting Jasper. Stronger Than You was about to start up shortly because Sapphire was racing towards Ruby.

Nasir is on autopilot but he gets the knife wound cleaned and treated. Steven and his friends are back on earth, Steven not wanting to tell Connie what happened, when he is putting the bandage over it. He touches Alexis's hair again, fixing one of the barrettes he put in their hair before he fixes the blanket next.

"That should take care of it for now ..." They could use some orange juice. Possibly a real doctor but- "I'm going to go get you a shirt, alright? Another hoodie too ... Stay awake, alright?" He smiles at Alexis and with one more touch to their hair (they are okay, they are okay, they are unnerving but they are okay) left the kitchen to get the things he said he would.

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

"...think I've heard of it." But they're obediently quiet under Nasir's touch -- it's nice, it's relaxing, and keeping their eyes open is a little less of a struggle when he's talking to them and the show is on in the background. (They fuzz in and out a little, throughout his treatment, losing seconds at a time where they just Don't Think at all but -- that's something to worry about later.)

"Can I go t'sleep soon?" They sound like a child who's been up too long. A scared, timid child. Nothing like their usual pretense.

azuredreams