+ Fallacy, a 100themes Challenge +
Sarehptar
Theme: 21, Fortitude
Characters: Avis, Kaistern
Pairing: If you looked at it with a microscope, it might be Kaistern/Kharl (...Yummy. XD)
Warnings: Medical randomness and too much sentimentality
Need to Know Info: None
Title Provider: Not Standing Alone (Alexz Johnson)
Not Standing Alone, Not Standing Around, While They Sit There and Wait Until I Lose My Ground
Fortitude: mental and emotional strength in facing difficulty, adversity, danger, or temptation.
The man's pale skin is strangely warm when it should be quite cold. Yes, he had just taken off his coat, but the room is frigid, and the air outside is not much warmer. By all means, goosebumps should have been rising already over his shoulders and arms. He stays warm, despite the cold hands that dart carefully over his skin. Avis Rara's delicate hands are perpetually frozen, whether they are inside thick gloves or not—today they are bare, and that makes the touch only more shocking. It is not something the doctor likes, but it is something he cannot change. The albino man shivers where ice-white fingers trace his festering wound.
"You should have gotten this treated earlier," the doctor murmurs slowly, still not trusting his full voice around this man. There is always a chance that somehow, some part of the hatred he feels will spill through his lips.
"It doesn't matter," Kaistern dismisses him, and there is note of disinterest in that voice that stirs something inside Avis.
"You could die from an infection like this." The doctor tries his hardest to force concern into his words but fails, and all that comes across with them is cruel fact.
"I won't die yet," the white-haired Dragon says, "not until…" He does not finish, and he does not flinch when the blond doctor presses gingerly on the swollen cut. He does not need to finish, because Kharl can do it for him. Not until Rath returns. That is what they are all waiting for in the end, isn't it? Waiting to see red eyes and a warm smile, and maybe he'll come back nursing injuries from another demon hunt, and maybe Avis will treat him, and maybe everything will be all right. And maybe it won't.
"He'll come home to us soon." But there is no conviction in Avis's half smile, and Kaistern would not believe even if there was.
"I know he will," the albino answers; his eyes betray the lie. For a moment, Avis is not sure if he should feel camaraderie or dislike. He settles for something in between, some sort of apathy, because he understands the man sitting on his table, and cannot stand that. The doctor's hands flutter like fledgling birds, and for a moment, he feels as if they don't belong to him at all. The long pale fingers pull chemicals from his cabinets—his mind doesn't know whether they are the right ones, but his hands seem to.
"I'm going to numb you to stop the pain."
"If only you could." The Dragon laughs once, wry and cruel, and he is not thinking of cuts or infections, but deeper scars that Avis knows too well and cannot heal. The blond doctor applies the gel quickly and waits as it turns a sickly orange, a sign that the entire drug has gone into the man's bloodstream. With careful pinches, he lances the swollen green laceration and extracts the pus. It is a deep cut, almost to the bone, and the Alchemist cannot help but wonder who exactly gave it to him. He does not bother to ask.
With careful, deft fingers, he stitches the wound closed and thinks. It would be so easy to tear this man to shreds right now. The creature is fragile, weak, ruled by his heart… but he was the one who halted Kharl that cold morning in the mountains. He was the one who held Rath so close and sounded so desperate. For a moment, Avis wonders which of them is truly weaker—and the answer turns bitter on his tongue.
"Finished," he murmurs, and pats the wound once, though he knows the man can't feel it. Swiftly, the albino pulls his shirt back on; he is the only one in this castle who doesn't seem fond of layers and drapes. With a quiet "thank you" that also serves as a "good-bye", the Blue Dragon Officer crosses the room. Before he can leave the doorway, the doctor calls out slowly to him.
"I think… we are holding up well." It is a lie, and they both know it: without Rath, this castle is crumbling face by face.
Kharl and Kaistern are barely standing.
The Blue Dragon Officer gives him one wan smile, and is gone.
Next up: Theme 22, Mother Nature
"I'm just too curious for my own good," Avis chuckles. The Faerie smiles in return, suddenly as open and inviting as every member of his species.
"Are you interested in Faeries, Rara-sensei?"