Another Bulge/Manabu request. This time for the prompts "sweet kiss" and "tending an injury."
"Does it help if I tell you it doesn't hurt?" Manabu asked, even as he had to close his right eye yet again with all the blood pouring into it.
He must have been lying for my benefit. There was no way that was true. If it were, then he needed better medical care immediately. "That's good, Manabu," I said, though my grumbling was more apparent than I would have liked.
"It's fine," he insisted. "It's just a little cut."
Head wounds were never just little cuts. They bled like fountains. The glue from the medical kit wasn't holding, and any bandages I'd attempted to apply just soaked through. There was a reason I wasn't the crew's medic.
"Gosh, Captain, relax. I'm not going to bleed to death," he said. I must have looked as stressed as I felt.
I stumbled over a reply, my mouth forming more exasperated noises than anything. "Y-you're not supposed to call me Captain, remember?" I managed. We were supposed to be on vacation. I wasn't Captain or Bulge on vacation, not to him.
That made him laugh, which effectively ruined my attempt to hold my latest patch job. If I'd been in uniform, this would have been much easier. I would have used the same trick Captain Yuuki always did, just tying my cravat around to ease blood flow. But if I'd been in uniform, Yuki would have been around to fix things so I didn't make a mess of them. She was still nearby, but there were several floors between us, and considering Manabu's current state of undress…
The hotel's hand towels would have worked as acceptable bandages, but Manabu stopped me from using them, complaining he didn't want to replace them. That left us with tissues and the cheap first aid kit in the room.
"You're only supposed to be this accident prone on missions," I said as I used another wad of tissues to sop up the blood pooling into his eye.
"Oh, come on. You should know better. You saw me as a kid."
That was true. The first time I'd ever seen him, he was shorter than my hip and covered in adhesive bandages. Fat ones were slapped across his knees and elbows. Smaller ones circled every finger, and the occasional odd one appeared on his face or shins. Admittedly, I didn't like to think about that image of him too often. Remembering our age difference gave me a headache.
It didn't bother him at all, though. "Remember that time you burned yourself on a hot dish or something, and I was the one who put the bandage on you?" He grinned, his eyes distant with the memory.
"You wouldn't let anyone else do it," I said. "Your mother got onto you, but you didn't care."
Swiping the tissues away with one hand, I slapped another taped gauze on with the other. Surely this one would hold.
I still wasn't sure how this had happened. I'd just heard the crash from the bathroom. I'd gone to the door and asked if he was alright. "Yeah," he'd said. "Think I'm bleeding though."
That statement had not prepared me for the sheer volume of blood pouring down his face when I opened the door. He sat on his knees on the floor, a towel half-on him. Other than a slight frown and his winking eye, he seemed unfazed. Only the rubbing alcohol bothered him.
Everything bothered me. As soon as I had this cleaned up, he had to get dressed.
"I think I got it," I said.
"Okay, good. Thanks, Schwan." Without giving me a proper warning, he pressed his lips to mine. He stayed there long enough for my face to betray me with a blush but left too quickly for me to respond.
As I sat there dazed, he popped up to his feet and padded out on his toes, loosely holding the towel around his waist. "We don't want to be late for dinner," he called.
Right, dinner. At least he was still looking forward to it. I'd been aiming for a table for just the two of us. In fact, I'd been aiming for a vacation for just the two of us, but the rest of Sirius found out. They always found out.
Difficult as it was, I had to keep my eyes off Manabu in his nice vest and slacks once we made it to the fancy restaurant downstairs. I didn't need the others giving me more trouble than they already did.
"Whoa, what happened to you?" Louise asked as she spotted the gauze peeking out from under Manabu's bangs.
"Run into something?" Bruce teased.
With the sort of pure, oblivious smile only he could manage, Manabu answered, "oh, I fell in the shower. But no worries, Schwan helped me out."
All eyes turned to me as I looked to the wine list. Everything was so expensive, but it was worth it if it got me drunk enough to forget this.
"Helped you out huh?"
"How sweet."
"Must have been quite a fall."
Next time I took Manabu on vacation, we were going somewhere they couldn't find us.