Pairing: Kadam
Words: 1068
Genre: romance, cheezy movie references
Rating: all audiences
Summary: Adam's idea to recreate a romantic scene from a movie doesn't work out. Written for the '30 words - 30 days' challenge, word of the day: 'suture'.
Suture
"Oh, come on, Kurt. Let's do it. Dance with me."
"Adam, are you crazy? Get down from there! You're going to fall!"
Kurt isn't sure whether to laugh or scold his boyfriend as he perches precariously on top of a fallen tree in Central Park, insisting they practise the mambo dirty-dancing style. Before Kurt can protest, Adam has scampered up and is extending his hand. Any minute now he might even do that Patrick Swayze finger-wiggle thing, and ugh, it was going to be adorable and dorky and Kurt just knows he won't be able to resist – is he really considering ruining his white Doc Martens on a mouldy tree?
"Don't worry, Kurt," Adam insists, "I'll catch you. My balance is perf-"
And just like that, Adam's foot slips off the side of the tree, and there's a split second where he stares at Kurt in mid-air before he yells and disappears from view. Kurt gasps and clasps his hands over his mouth. Visions of Adam lying face-down in the brook unconscious with blood washing down the pebbles flash in front of his eyes, but he can already hear Adam groan and make sounds of scrambling to his feet.
"Adam!" he calls out, "Are you okay? You didn't bruise anything, did you?"
"Just my ego," Adam replies drily, but he winces as he pulls himself up, and Kurt frowns.
"You're bleeding." He steps into the brook (Doc Martens be damned) and holds out his hand, gesturing for Adam to give him hand for inspection. Small trickles of blood are running down Adam's elbow.
"It's nothing," Adam says awkwardly. "I feel ridiculous. I'm glad you didn't come up there, it was a bit trickier than I thought..."
Kurt shrugs, dismissing the issue. He has no interest in telling Adam 'I told you so'- not when he's hurt. "This needs to be cleaned up, maybe even stitched. We should get you to the hospital."
Adam frowns and pulls his hand from Kurt's grip. "It's fine. Honestly. I don't need hospitals." He looks defensive and guarded, and Kurt isn't sure what's going on.
"Okay," he says slowly, keeping an eye on his boyfriend's face, "but it does need to be cleaned up. You cut yourself and there's dirt in it. This is Central Park, not a babbling brook of mineral water. We can go to my place."
Adam nods gratefully, and Kurt saves that information for later. After he's made sure Adam's not going to die of blood poisoning or in need of sutures, he will want to know the story behind that look Adam gave him just now.
Adam grows paler with every subway stop, and as they arrive at the loft, Kurt is half-worried he might have a concussion to go with the cut on his hand. "Okay, sit down, roll up your sleeve, and take off your beanie," he commands. Adam does what he says. His happy-go-lucky attitude of earlier has faded a little, and Kurt is not sure if it's just the pain, embarrassment, or the mention of hospitals.
Adam holds still and bites his lip as Kurt soaks his hand on a bowl of lukewarm water with disinfectant, carefully washing out the bits of dry leaves and dirt from the cut.
"I guess it looked worse than it was," Kurt admits gratefully, but wrapping Adam's hand in gauze all the same.
"You're pretty good at that," Adam says. He had that admiring look on his face again, and Kurt shakes his head. It's not something he needs credit for.
"Practise makes perfect. If I learned one thing from my dumpster dives in high school, it's that every cut, no matter how small, can hurt like a bitch when it gets infected."
Adam frowns a little. "Dumpster dives?"
Kurt shrugs. "I'll tell you some time," he says vaguely, and gets up to inspect Adam's scalp. His boyfriend sighs as Kurt runs his fingers through his blonde hair, checking for blood or a bump, and because of that sound and what it does to Kurt's insides, his fingers may be lingering a bit too long after finding nothing suspicious. Finally, he pulls away and sits down again, shifting his chair closer and taking Adam's uninjured hand. The other man is giving him heart-eyes again, and honestly, could he look even more like a cat wanting to be petted some more? Kurt tells himself to be firm.
"Adam, when I said we should go to the hospital... I got this feeling that something was wrong," he starts. Adam's smile fades a little. "You don't have to tell me," Kurt adds quickly, "I mean, if you don't want to, but-" But if you have some serious deadly wasting disease like cancer or a heart condition that makes you have to visit hospitals a lot and that's why you don't like them and you haven't had the courage to tell me yet now would be a good time before I get too attached- his mind helpfully supplies. Sometimes, Kurt's imagination gets very morbid.
"No, it's fine. It's just... stupid. Superstitious," Adam says, looking down on their intertwined hands. He takes a deep breath and lets it out before speaking. "My granddad... when I was little he went to the hospital for a check-up. They saw something on his lung, did a biopsy..."
Kurt breathes in sharply but doesn't interrupt him.
"It was nothing, but during his stay he got an infection and he was dead one week later," Adam finishes. "I guess I just really want to avoid places like that." He smiles a lop-sided smile at Kurt. "Childish, isn't it?"
Kurt shakes his head. "I understand. I'm sorry about your grandfather. I'm really not that fond of hospitals, myself." If this was anyone else, he might have tried to hide the hurt that flashes over his face at the thought of his mom, and more recently, his dad, but this is Adam, and he already knows about all that stuff, and Kurt feels safe enough to let his guard down.
Adam smiles and squeezes his hand. "Luckily I have you to take care of me. And your dad will get the green light any day now."
Kurt nods gratefully. "Yes. And the next time you want to put your Swayze on, we try the pool first, okay?"
"I seem to recall this nice shirtless scene in the bedroom...Are you ticklish?"
Kurt laughs. Adam's distractions always work.