-:-
These curses are surprisingly easy to learn.
-Michael Cunningham.

Sneaking along the hallways at night on the cruiser was more often then not looking for an invitation to be decked by one of his team members in the grounds of "Oh, but I thought you were an intruder" despite the lights still being just bright enough, even during rest turns, to see in front of them and know for a fact that he was not an enemy.

He really should count his blessings that such events had dimmed down since Mekt had joined; Hunter and Tyr didn't go out of their way to give Ron-Karr a hard time, Esper was focusing her barbs and attitudes towards Mekt himself and Wave was... well, Wave was herself; quiet, creepy, without much of a personality as long as the shapeshifter kept out of her way in battle and didn't annoy her off duty.

It felt like woolgathering, wandering into the cruiser's command central to check on the newest recruit when he should have been sleeping, not on shift to man the control station and keep both eye and ear open for something that could turn them a profit, but...

Well, Ron-Karr was actually not one to wish Tyr's wrath on anyone and had this little nagging voice in the back of his mind keeping him up with thoughts of that crack that had sounded when Tyr had launched Mekt into a wall (the sound was the usual of mortal, living mass hitting something solid, but there had also been a wet squish that made Ron-Karr think of cracked eggs falling from a tree onto solid rocks decorating sidewalks) and followed up by breaking all the fingers in his left hand with his creepy prosthetic in tandem with punching him in the face with his fist until Mekt had enough and shocked their leader until he was standing at least five feet from him.

Inter-team disputes happened plenty in the LSV, but this was a new level of viciousness on Tyr's part. Ron-Karr couldn't help but think that Esper pressing in with, "So, since it was his brother that made the mess, is it within reason to have him pay for the damages or...?" was an awful way to rub in the events of the last twenty-four hours and place blame where it wasn't really appropriate.

It wasn't like Mekt hadn't tried to calm things down before they had escalated with Lightning Lad shocking Tyr. And it wasn't like it was his fault that the Legion had shown up when they did to make the uncomfortable situation that much harder on everyone.

And what was Mekt actually supposed to do when Garth had been pinned and at his mercy? Sides and opinions as they were, they were still brothers and, Ron-Karr being no fool even if he was a little naive, could tell right from the time the LSV recruited Mekt that he just wasn't that cold blooded.

There was actually a lot of blood to clean up, but then, Mekt was used to that by now.

From what Ron-Karr could tell, anyway.

The older boy sat in the dark pit of the high ceiling room with the absently flickering light of the monitors making him seem only half in and out of their reality, fingers skimming over the bruises like black and blue paint as if the skittery appendages were laying down kisses that nobody else would give him to make him better. The red blotches and splashes on the torn handkerchief in the hand not sporting a makeshift brace and many not-quite clean bandages (where he'd gotten them, Ron-Karr could only imagine; maybe he'd made them himself, it wasn't impossible to assume as he was actually good at getting things he needed) made the shapeshifter's stomach drop almost physically and his pace slowed for a quarter of a moment, before he made himself known and gathered speed.

Mekt obviously did not expect to see the younger up and about and sparked almost defensively at his appearance from the dark into half-light, but didn't lash out when he saw the look on Ron-Karr's face.

The emotion of worry was something Ron-Karr would probably be known for only after he died, but he didn't like it when other people suffered. It couldn't be helped.

"Are you still bleeding?"

A/N: Okay, truly, this is almost entirely for the anon(s) that requested this on Tumblr, but also, in a way, since I've received multiple blessings in the way of reviews, this can be considered a gift to a guest by the name of Maggie that pleases me and makes me happy tremendously with each visit. Very much thank you all.