Lightning takes a wound during battle and with Hope the only person around to help it will take all his power to care for her.
"Ow! Dammit Hope come on!" Lightning winced as Hope poked and prodded at a large wound on her right shoulder blade.
Lightning sat on a small ledge, her GC jacket lay strewn on the ground with a large tear on the back from where she was scratched. Her brown sweater was pulled down below her shoulders to expose the wound and her pink hair pulled to the side to avoid the blood. She glanced around the Gapra Whitewood on the lookout for any soldiers but they had seen none so far.
"Sorry Light but I have to get it out. That thing left something in there." Hope replied as he examined a large piece of what used to be the animals claw stuck deep in her back.
Blood dripped dangerously from the wound staining Hope's hands in red. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand as he examined closer.
"It left what!?" she asked, her panic getting the better of her. She tried desperately to look over at what Hope was doing but the scratch was out of her sight all the while attempting to keep up what little clothing she had covering her.
"Stop squirming. I need you still Light."
"What did it leave? You tell me right now Hope." She said threateningly.
Hope groaned in aggravation as she continued to try and peer over her shoulder.
"Well it—it looks like a piece of that thing's claw might have broken off and lodged in there." He said tapping the foreign object curiously with his finger.
Lightning groaned in pain, her teeth clenched firmly as Hope continued to clean the wound. He held her steady with a hand on her shoulder while he wiped gently at the three ugly gashes with a rag now already stained a dark crimson.
"I'm sorry Light." Hope suddenly said, his focus still on nursing Lightning.
The apology caught her off guard.
"What?"
"I'm sorry. If only I'd been stronger you wouldn't have had to throw yourself in front of that thing to protect me. This shouldn't have happened."
FLASHBACK
The Peacekeeper roared obnoxiously as it charged clumsily and indiscriminately at hope, top speed.
"Ahhh! Light it's gonna get me!" he squealed in a high voice.
END FLASHBACK
"Yeah, you're probably right." She said dryly.
"That's not how it happened Light!" Hope exclaimed impatiently.
"Yes it was. You tripped over your shoelace and the thing nearly bit your head off."
He threw his foot in front of Lightning's line of sight.
"I don't have shoelaces."
"Then you tripped on yourself. What difference does it make?"
"Well from what I remember the only reason it attacked us in the first place was because you just had to have that apple hanging right above the sleeping thing."
"Hey! Apples are rare these days Mr." she shot back in defense.
"Well I don't know where you got the idea that stealing an apple over a sleeping beast would end well. now you got this ugly scratch."
"I got my apple." she said contently, the small red fruit sitting next to her. She looked at it with a sort of childish fondness, a small twinkle of joy in her eyes.
"We also lost a chance for some decent meat for a change since you completely overkilled it."
He pointed over towards the dead creature. It's mouth lay open impossibly wide with Lightning's gunblade sticking out from its head as well as several other large metal bars protruding from various body parts. It must have been skewered at least fifteen times thanks to the woman's fierceness.
"Had to make sure it was dead. Can't be too careful when it comes to survival."
"I'm pretty sure you had it when you stabbed it's brain with your gunblade Ligthning."
"Just get back to business will you? this isn't exactly comfortable you know." she complained.
"I blame you and your apple fetish." Hope said simply.
Lightning grumbled to herself, unable to actually admit it was her fault they ended up in this situation she remained quiet so as not to push the issue on any further.
"So can you get it out or not?" she was getting impatient at being forced to sit for such a long period of time when they should be moving, getting as much distance between them and the Whitewood as possible.
"Yes, yes, just sit still for one second please."
He wrapped an arm around Lightning to keep her steady then got a good grip on the leftover animal appendage.
"Okay ready?" he asked.
"Will you just-OW!"
She was cut off as Hope suddenly and completely without warning pulled out the small claw, then quickly covered the wound with a bandage to halt the bleeding.
She stiffened and slowly turned to meet Hope's eyes.
"That hurt you little creep." she growled through clenched teeth.
Hope just set the object aside and taped the bandage to her back.
"You're a soldier. You can take it." he said very matter-of-factly. "Here take a look at this."
He thrust the claw into Lightning's view. She took it in hand and observed it.
"Okay where's the rest of it?" she asked.
"The rest of what?" he looked around, puzzled.
"The rest of this. there must have been more than this little thing." she held it up between her fingers waving it in front of his eyes.
"No that's it. Just that one little bit."
Immedietly she felt her pride take an embarrassing hit.
"Just this? This minute little speck is all that there was in the first place?" she asked getting more and more pissed off at the situation.
It was no bigger than the size of a small arrowhead and not even nearly as sharp as one. She glared down at the small object. Hope was still busy taping up the bandage to her shoulder.
"Well it sure was a pain getting out anyway." he said.
Suddenly Lightning got to her feet, pulling her sweater up and trudged over to the dead animal to retrieve her gunblade as well as her torn up GC jacket.
"Hey! Careful Light. That wound is still fresh you know."
Not paying any attention to him she pulled her blade free from the carcass and holstered it all in one fluid motion, as if her injury didn't even exist anymore.
"Let's go. We've already lost too much time." she said pulling her jacket back on and plucking up the apple still resting on the ledge where she had been sitting just moments before.
"Um, o-okay Light." Hope responded confused over her sudden grumpy mood. Well, she'd always been grumpy in Hopes opinion but this time she seemed more grumpy than usual.
Not sure at what was bugging the pink haired woman he followed, though kept a safe distance.