Battle Injury- Yukio
In a simple training mission Yukio finds himself sick and injured. In fear of worrying the Exwires, he tires to play it down like its nothing, but not without consequences.
"I'm fine." Yukio hissed out, gripping his arm in pain. Red hot blood gushing between his finger tips.
Rin narrowed his eyes, searching his brothers face for any sign of a lie. Though not buying it, Rin glances over his shoulder and sees his friends are still fending off a small group of Grindylow.
"Are you sure?" Rin pressed.
Yukio nods, "Positive."
Rin turns away, albeit reluctantly, and renters the fray.
Watching them fight, Yukio mentally curses at himself.
He slipped up and got distracted. His momentary distraction had gotten him bitten by a rather large Grindylow. Though the wound stung, his pride stung more.
By the time he had gotten his arm to stop bleeding the exwires had already finished off the remaining Grindylow.
Seeing that their teacher was hurt, they made their way over to Yukio.
"Oi Teach, you alright?" Bon asked.
"I'm quite alright. I was just caught off guard. It was a small bite and the chances of infection are relatively low." Yukio answered in a slightly monotonous voice.
He removed his glasses and cleaned them on his coat. Putting them back on, he looks at the Suns poison. 'Midday already.' He thought to himself.
"Let's get somewhere dry and patch up any injuries before continuing." He said while gesturing to the knee-deep water they're in.
They grabbed their backpacks from the small hollow log they had put them in.
His arm was no longer just stinging, but it had a itchy-burning sensation too. He began rubbing it, trying to sooth it.
Walking back the way they had come, the group started having light conversations to pass the time.
Yukio glances back to Rin who is just a step behind him, "Yonemura, you looked strong today. Good job."
"Yonemura..?" Rin repeated in a quizzical voice.
"Pfft, you getting tired teach?" Shima joked.
Yukio looks at Shima with a slightly confused face, "What?"
Mistaking his teachers confusion for feigning innocence, Shima let out a bark of laughter.
"You said Yonemura instead of Rin." Izumo cut in.
Yukio hesitates mid-step, "Ah, did I?" Inclining his head toward Rin he continued, "Sorry about that."
He felt the burning sensation in his arm intensify and tried to ignore it. The constant itching and burning was beginning to annoy him. The pounding in his head was also getting worse. When had he gotten a headache? He rubbed gently his where it burned.
Suddenly Shima's voice cut the silence like a whip, "Gah, this reception is horrible!" He cried while holding his phone above his head.
"We're in the middle of nowhere. What did you expect?" Izumo snapped, with barely concealed disgust.
No one could argue with her.
After about fifteen minutes of silence, Yukio stood still.
"Alright, this is good." Yukio announced while removing his pack from his shoulders.
Rin grabs him by the arm, stopping him from taking his pack off. "What on Earth are you doing?" Rin inquired.
"Preparing to sett up camp. What else would I be doing?" Yukio replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Bon looks at Yukio incredulously, "Camp? Here? Are you kidding? First of all, we're knee-deep in the middle of a bog. Second, we still have hours of daylight left! It's barely noon."
Yukio pauses before replying, as if considering what Bon had said.
After a few moments of silence he looked up at the sky and replied "Oh, yes. You're right."
Yukio continued staring at the sky, as if transfixed by something unseen to the others.
Rin tightens his grip on Yukio's arm, trying to drag back his attention.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Rin asked, his eyes not leaving his brother.
Something about what Rin said triggered Yukio to act like he'd been burned by a hot iron. He wrenched his arm from his brothers grasp and snapped "Of course I am!"
He took a few steps away from Rin, splashing water as he did.
"You guys are the problem! 'No don't set up the tent Yukio' and 'It's too early for camp'" Yukio took his pack off his back and thrust it into Rin's arms.
"If you're so smart, do it yourself. Oh wait, you'll just do that anyways and get everyone seriously injured or worse, killed!" Yukio shouted.
The comment felt like a slap to the face. Rin dropped the pack that Yukio had given him, landing in the water with a small splash.
He grabbed Yukio by the arm, unbeknownst to him that it was the same arm that had gotten bitten earlier that day and forced Yukio to look him in the eye.
"What has gotten into you?" Rin demanded, looking Yukio in the eye.
But something felt off. He peered slightly at Yukio's face and noticed that his eyes looked hazy and unfocused. Feverish.
Rin let go of his brother's arm, trying to feel his forehead for a temperature.
As he lessened his grip of the arm Yukio pulled away but when he did, he felt waves of nausea and vertigo crash over him. He stared to stumble away but tripped over a tree root.
Rin raced forward and caught him. He felt Yukio go limp in his arms and carried him over to the other exwires who were completely stunned.
He gently touched his brothers face and felt unsurprised to feel heat radiating from it.
He looked at the others and said "It looks like he has a fever."
"There's was a landing a little while back, we could set up some tents so he has some shade. I'll carry your pack." Izumo suggested and then added "You'll have to carry him."
"Where's the medical bag?" Neko asked.
Rin felt his stomach drop. As Yukio was the only official exorcist and a doctor, he generally carried it with him.
Anxiously Rin voiced, "Yukio had it. You don't think..?" He trailed off, leaving the question up in the air.
Bon grabbed the bag that Rin had just minutes ago, tossed aside into the water. Raising it to eye level, they all saw the medic insignia. The bag was absolutely saturated with water.
"Shit.." Bon muttered. Rin found himself nodding in agreement, this was bad.
"We might be able to salvage some of the supplies." Neko sighed. He knew the chances
of that were unlikely, but they'd have to try.
As they started trekking to the impromptu campsite, Rin readjusted Yukio on his back and felt surprised to find his brother was totally limp.
Once they got there, they immediately got into action. Bon and Shima's were pitching the tents, Sheimi and Izumo started getting a fire ready and Neko was rummaging through the medical pack trying to find what was still usable and clean.
Neko glanced up at met Rin's eyes. He jogged over and rolled out a bedroll.
"Set him here," He said gently "We'll have to take a look at his arm."
Rin laid him down as gently as he could.
They removed Yukio's coat, carefully manipulating his injured arm. Rolling up the sleeve, Rin nearly gagged at what he saw.
The area around the Grindylow bite was completely swollen. The bite itself had turned an off yellow color and was oozing a sticky substance. It's infected.
"Neko?" He asked, getting Neko's attention.
"Yes?"
"What do we have for infections?" He asked, panic raising in his voice.
Neko frowned a little, pulling the medical bag towards him, he reached in and grabbed a small tube.
"Antibiotics. Only this and save a few others things are dry. The bandages are completely soaked."
Rin felt sick, guilt twisting in his stomach. If only he hadn't tossed aside the bag. If he had noticed that his brother was sick sooner.
Bon, who had just finished pitching the tents walk over.
"How's it lookin'?" He asked Neko, inclining his head towards Yukio.
"Not so good. We have some antibiotics but nothing to keep it covered or clean."
He glanced at the bite on his teachers arm and said "Well, we'll just have to work with what he have."
Bon ran to the tent and returned with and extra shirt. He started to cut it into small strips.
"We can keep it covered with these. And rinse it with this-" he raised a small canteen. Though it wasn't much, it would have to do.
He took his canteen and poured water in the wound, hoping to wash out and debris. It must have stung because as the water trickled on the wound, Yukio groaned in pain. Rin ran his fingers through his brother hair, trying to sooth him.
They applied the antibiotics and wrapped the strips of cloth over the bite. They, along with Shima, watched grabbed a corner of the bedroll and carried Yukio into one of the tents, placing him down gently.
"Can't we call someone?" Sheimi asked.
Shima sighed, "Still no reception."
A grim silence passed over the group. It was starting to get dark when Rin finally spoke up.
"We'll take turns watching him. You guys go ahead and get some sleep, I'll take first watch."
They nodded gratefully and retired to the tents for some much-needed shut-eye.
Rin settled in Yukio's tent and pulled his knees to his chest.
Yukio tossed and turned for what felt like forever, Rin would occasionally sit him up and coax him into drinking water. It wasn't much, but he'd take what he could get. Rin checked his phone every hour and reapplied the antibiotics and dressing, hoping for the best.
A while after darkness took the sky, Rin found himself beginning to nod off.
Shaking himself awake, he checked his phone and saw it was about time to change the bandaging for the last time on his shift.
He looked at Yukio's face and felt alarm course through his veins. Yukio still had a feverish tint to his face. He had hoped the fever would have broken by now.
He gently peeled the bandage away, feeling hopeful that the antibiotics were working. But as he removed the dressing his heart missed a beat. It looked worse. It was more swollen than before.
"What do I do..?" He whispered to any God or deity that would listen.
He reapplied some more antibiotics, put a fresh bandage on and hoped for the best. What else could he do?
Feeling sleep ebbing away at him, he walked over to the tent where Bon, Neko, and Shima slept.
He shook Bon, who stirred instantly.
Bon blearily rubbed his eyes "Wha..?"
"It's your watch." Replied Rin, who was unsure how much longer he could stay conscious,
That woke Bin up instantly. He hauled himself up, only stopping to stretch his legs. Rin took his stop in the tent.
"How is he?" Bon whispered.
"I dunno. He's arm wasn't looking very good. I just reapplied the antibiotics so he shouldn't need any for a while." Rin yawned.
The second Rin lay his head on the ground, he felt sleep beckoning him away.
If Bon had said anything in return, Rin wasn't awake to hear it.
When Rin awoke, he was surprised to hear laughter and conversation through camp. Looking around he realized that he was the only one of the guys still sleeping.
He groggily stretched his arms and unzipped the tent and was instantly blinded by the sun. Blocking the sun out of his eyes, he crawled out of the tent.
Glancing at the girls tent, he saw that it's also unzipped and vacant. Bon, Shima, and Neko were in the middle of a conversation so he slipped away unseen to Yukio's tent.
He was slightly surprised to see both Sheimi and Izumo sitting on either side of Yukio, like the others, involved in conversation.
His body flooded with relief when he saw that, though exhausted, his brother was awake and talking.
As though just noticing Rin, Izumo looked at him and said "His fever broke last night. His arm looked pretty nasty up until early this morning. After that, it seemed to get better. It looks slightly inflamed but other than that, it seems like it's healing."
Rin nodded. His mind latching on the word 'healing'.
He sat himself by Yukio's feet. "How are you feeling?" He asked Yukio.
"Exhausted, but otherwise alright. Thank you for watching over me. All of you."
Rin felt slightly stunned at Yukio's words. He hadn't expected him to thank him. He was just doing his job as an older brother.
About to say something witty, he saw Yukio's eyes flutter shut and decided to hold his tongue.
He sat there in silence for a bit before saying,
"You're welcome."
A/N: I ended that a bit fluffier than intended.. Oh well.
If you have a character that you'd like to see hurt, leave it in the comments! I will be rotating through most of the characters so no one gets left out, but I'd happily place someone on the top of the list if you'd them next!