Hey guys MT here!
I. Am. So. Extremely. Sorry!
I got SO backed up with crap to do because of all my procrastination. I waited until the last minute to do FOUR projects for my classes AND I had to do make-up work AND I had some tests and it's just been a bloody nightmare.
Good thing, though, is that you'll be getting a double chapter today to make-up for the last two weeks!
Anyways, ENJOY!
UPDATED 7/8/15
Chapter 20
"Soul, I can walk, I really don't need a wheelchair," said Maka, annoyed that Soul was continuing to baby her.
"Yeah you do. Doc said that the goo drained you so bad that your muscles were weakened a lot. If you start pushing yourself, you might collapse, so we're using the wheelchair," explained Soul, causing Maka to pout. She absolutely hated being babied. Granted, Soul was adorable when he hovered over her but it was annoying and a hit to her pride to be so useless.
"Either ways, how do you plan on getting me to the Death Room while I'm in a wheel chair? Do you know how many steps there are? You'll never be able to carry me and the wheelchair," said Maka, smirking because she knew she had won the argument.
"Actually," began Soul, causing Maka's smile to fade at the confident look in his eyes. "Little Miss Know-it-all didn't seem to know about the ramp Kid had installed a week after we returned to school."
"W-What? There's no ramp, Soul. If there had been any construction for one, I would have seen it," said Maka, frowning at him at his excuse.
"No you wouldn't have, actually. It's on the east side of the school and isn't very big. He had it installed to help disabled students continue to attend classes. I only found out about it because, before one of my Death Scythe training sessions, a kid in a wheelchair needed help getting up it because he wasn't strong enough," explained Soul. Maka looked at him, confused, until she suddenly felt a sharp incline, causing her to gasp.
When Maka looked away from Soul, she realized that they had, indeed, reached the ramp which she hadn't realized existed. It had a fair incline, not really possible for a student to roll themselves up and would obviously need assistance. The ramp went up all the way to Shibusen, winding back and forth in a zigzag pattern.
"I can't believe you weren't just using this as an excuse to take care of me," said Maka, bluntly, causing Soul to chuckle.
"Now, now Meister. I would never lie to you. In fact, I might have tried to convince Kid to make this just so I didn't have to," chuckled Soul, causing Maka to roll her eyes and smirk.
"Anyways~, hurry up so we can report to Kid. I want to get home so I can take a shower. The plane ride was hell and I was too jet-lagged to take a shower last night or this morning," complained Maka, earning another chuckle from Soul. He muttered out a 'Yes, meister' and continued the trek.
"Ah~ finally home!" said Maka, happily, as Soul rolled her into their apartment. The check-in with Kid had been relatively quick as Maka had explained everything in detail while also condensing it. Going down the ramp had also been much faster, and much more dangerous, as they kind of just rolled down the sections of the ramp.
"Maka, do you want me to help you change the bandage, today?" asked Soul, a bit worried.
"No, Soul, I can do it. At least let me do something so I don't feel like a total waste of space," said Maka, sternly while rolling her eyes. Maka had been released from the hospital the day after she had woken up because she had been much more energetic than was expected. They had given her antibiotics to deal with any infection in her arm and she had been changing her bandages. A week later, they were comfortable to travel and the situation had been completely dealt with so they had gone back home, arriving the night before.
"Alright, I'll roll you in front of the bathroom and hand you a change of clothes," said Soul as he rolled Maka across the living room towards the bathroom. He stopped in front of the bathroom and helped her get up, Maka wobbling a bit from the sudden use of her legs. "You okay?"
"I'm fine," said Maka, reassuringly. She leaned in to give Soul a peck on the cheek and smiled at him. "I have such a good boyfriend."
"Hm…I don't know if that can be said about my girlfri-," mocked Soul before being interrupted by a jab to the rib. "Ow, I'm kidding!"
Maka smirked and rolled her eyes at him before she entered the bathroom and sat on the toilet. Soul prepared all the things she would need to clean her wound and redress it after her shower before leaving to collect some clothes. He left them in a neat pile on the bathroom counter and left.
"Okay," Maka sighed, relieved when she heard the TV turn on to some sports game. Soul usually became entranced by the sweaty men playing games and probably wouldn't hear what was about to come. Maka pulled her arm out of her sling and began to peel off the outer bandages. When she pulled them off, she revealed another layer of bandages beneath them that were soaked in blood and an unhealthy brown. "Crap, it's getting worse. Soul's going to kill me if he found out I've been doing a bad job on cleaning the wound."
She glided her fingers over the bandages and glanced at them, seeing the fresh blood that coated her finger tips, causing her to hiss in mock pain. This was going to hurt, and by this, she meant pulling off the bandage. She usually changed her bandage after Soul had gone to sleep because they shared a small hotel and the walls were anything but sound-proof. Now, though, she had to do it during the day since she had made the mistake of complaining about wanting to take a shower earlier.
Maka cut the side with the least blood using some scissors and put them down before she slid her fingers to the edge of the bandage, taking a calming breath before beginning to pull the bandage back. She hit a snag, which could only be assumed as the blood soaked bandage fusing with the scab that covered her newly opened wound, which had been stitched but she had accidentally opened it during the first cleaning and couldn't work up the courage to tell Soul.
She winced as she tugged at it, trying to pull it off and failing to do so. She turned her arm around and attempted the other side, feeling similar pain and facing the same difficulties.
Maka was a tough girl. She could probably handle forms of pain worse than any other girl in her class, save that masochistic girl who sat in the back. This, though, was worse because she was the perpetrator of said pain. There was no way she could just rip the bandage off. She shuddered at the thought of both the pain in doing that, the blood that would probably pour out, and the shouting/scolding Soul would give her before rushing her to the hospital where she will look like an enormous idiot.
She took the scissors and snipped the other side, creating two large bandages covering opposite side of her arm. She then tried to peel it again from random edges, wincing in pain and whimpering as she saw fresh blood pouring from her arm onto the floor. She would have to clean that up before Soul came in.
Then, something scared her and she jumped, yanking at the bandage in the process. She hissed in pain and her attention turned to the door, which had been knocked on.
"Maka, you okay? I can feel some of the pain over the wavelength. Do you need help?" asked Soul, causing Maka to cuss. She had forgotten to weaken their background Resonance so he wouldn't notice it. Pain is one of the few things that translates very well over soul wavelengths. Useful when your partner is injured? One hundred percent. When you're trying to hide an infection gone wrong from your partner? Not really.
"I-I'm alright, Soul. Just stung a little when I poured the alcohol," lied Maka. Prior to lying, Maka almost completely killed the background Resonance to hide any hints to her lie. Sadly, Soul is easy to arouse suspicion from.
"Maka, if you're having trouble tell me. I know why you killed the Resonance, I'm not stupid," said Soul, the patience in his voice quickly, and noticeably, dissipating.
"Soul, it's nothing to worry about, I'm fine, I promise," said Maka, reassuringly. Silence ensued and Maka mentally cheered in victory that she was able to successfully lie to Soul without him getting angry. Her excitement, though, was quickly dashed when she heard the lock to the bathroom door click.
Shit! It was silent because he went to get the bathroom key! thought Maka, panicking greatly now. She couldn't let Soul see her arm like this. He'd kill her!
Soul opened the door as Maka struggled to get the clean bandage she had taken off first and wrap it around her arm. When he walked in, the first thing he did was eye her, looking for signs of distress. When he found none other than her surprised expression, he glanced around the room, finding the small pool of fresh blood on the floor. He frowned at her and pointed to the blood, causing her to look away, embarrassed.
"I'm gonna give you ten seconds to give me a good reason as to why I shouldn't get mad and I might consider being gentle when I forcefully clean your wounds," said Soul, threateningly. Maka shuddered a bit, remembering the one time she pissed Soul off while he was cleaning out one of her wounds. He had given no mercy as he thoroughly cleaned her wound with a wet rag, drawing more blood than it had originally secreted. "Nine…"
"O-Okay! M-My wound reopened a while ago and I was afraid you'd be mad at me so I didn't tell you. It's also the reason why I've been so insistent on cleaning it myself, so you wouldn't find out!" shouted Maka, hoping it was a valid excuse and leaving out the part about her complete inability to properly clean out her wound with her left hand.
"Hm…" Soul said as he thought about whether that was a good reason or not. Apparently it wasn't even close, because he strut over to her and yanked her arm away from her. He tossed the clean bandage away and his eyes widened when he saw the blood-soaked bandage underneath. "Maka…are you fucking crazy? This is how people can lose an arm!"
"Soul it's not that bad…" said Maka, sheepishly, trying to calm him down. Though what he said is true. If an infection gets bad enough, you could possibly need an amputation.
"Maka, it's that bad. Now get over here," said Soul as he yanked her over to the shower. He set the water to the maximum temperature and transformed his fingers into small scythe which he used to lightly graze the cloth of the bandage, slicing into it just enough to cut it. He did that in a crisscross pattern along the length of both sides of the bandage while the water heated up. When steam began to fill the bathroom, Soul, being rough again, yanked Maka's arm under the water with no warning, causing her to hiss at the sudden blistering heat. Soul turned the heat down to a more tolerable level when he saw the pained look on her face and twisted her arm around under the hot water. Blood mixed with the water as it dripped off Maka's arm and was plainly visible as Soul flipped her arm back and forth, making sure to properly soak both sides of the bandage. He dragged his scythe fingers along the bandage again, cutting more of the cloth. He had cut it so much by then that pieces of it began to fall off, making it easier for him to peel off the bandage.
What was under the bandage was even more hideous. The scab was bleeding from multiple sections and puss was mixed with the blood and fused with the scab.
"Dammnit Maka…the entire scab is infected. I'm gonna have to pull it off and disinfect the wound so a clean scab can form," said Soul, almost to himself. Maka watched him as he worked, wincing when he tugged at the scab. He transformed his fingers to scythes again and began to scratch at the scab, cutting into it and drawing fresh blood. He hissed before running the scab under the shower again, hoping that the hot water would soften it.
Maka watched as Soul fiddled with the scab, wincing when he tugged too hard, and watching him, curiously. He looked like a little kid as he fiddled with the scab, her winces like the rings from Operation. She watched as he managed to pick off chunks of the scab and, when he was nearly finished, he spoke again.
"You know this is gonna leave a scar," said Soul, his eyes not straying from her arm as he cleaned off the last of the scab.
"I know, but I guess that's what I deserve," said Maka, nonchalantly. Soul looked up at her face, his eyes piercing into hers with seriousness and concern.
"You are never doing this again. If you do, I will make Kid force you into early retirement," said Soul, sternly. Maka nodded and Soul grinned his signature grin. "Good."
Afterward, silence ensued again, and Soul continued to work.
So? What did you guys think?
I actually got the idea for the scab thing from a Fairy Tail fanfic I read, though I made it more cute than hot. I absolutely loved the idea and thought it could be used here in this story.
Anyways, go ahead to the next chapter and Review to let me know what you guys thought!