. [ Stitched Relationship ].

(TW! This snippet has mentions of closing a wound by sewing. No graphic details or anything, but thought I warn it just in case.)

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A small part of Sweden dearly wanted to ask Finland how he had even ended up with a wound like this in the first place, but the majority of him was just worried. As nations none of them were unfamiliar with all kind of different wounds and injuries, but Sweden didn't think it would ever stop to hurt to see a new wound on Finland's body. Years of peace had at least blessed Sweden with not being forced to see any new additions to Finland's "collection" for a long time, but perhaps that was also what made Sweden even more worried to see the new slash across Finland's lower back.

"Are you sure about this? It's going to hurt," Sweden warned softly while he carefully dabbed the wound with alcohol to disinfect it, shortly followed by a "sorry" as Finland let out a hiss of pain as the alcohol repeatedly touched the wound.

Sweden was thankful he had at least already sent up Sealand and Ladonia up to their room with the orders to not come anywhere close to the main bathroom until he or Finland gave them the clear. The slash across Finland lower back was fairly thin but deep, and with the help of the full-body mirror in the bathroom Finland had quickly concluded the wound would need to be sewn closed before it was infected. To be honest Sweden was just glad the wound hadn't been deep or close enough to affect Finland's spine – that would have been a more difficult mess to fix on the bathroom floor at home.

"Nothing worse than I have dealt with before," Finland reminded him, breaking Sweden out of his thoughts with his answer to Sweden's earlier question.
"Besides, it's not like I can go to the hospital with this anyway."

"True," Sweden reluctantly admitted.

Didn't mean Sweden had to like it, but Finland had a point. There would be far too many questions when a wound which likely should have taken several months for a human to fully heal only needed 2-3 weeks for Finland. In the long run it was easier if Sweden just sew the wound together now – it wasn't like this would have been the first time he did something similar to a fellow nation either.

"I'm surprised you haven't asked how I got injured yet," Finland admitted then, between hisses of pain while Sweden began to sew the wound, all the while still sounding far too cheerful for someone who had a slash across his lower back.

To that Sweden could only shrug. Of course he wanted to know how Finland even got injured in the first place, but...

"Wasn't sure you wanted me to know. You looked embarrassed when you asked me to help you."

"Well, to be fair I was only embarrassed because what happened was so stupid. That, and how the wound ended up in a place where I couldn't properly clean or sew it myself after my own idiocy gave me it."

"You don't need to tell me what happened if you don't want to. Just..." Sweden murmured as he got a small flashback of how Finland had come inside his workshop with bloodied clothes and sheepishly asked if Sweden could help him.

Likely sensing how much he had worried Sweden, Finland turned his head slightly to look at Sweden from where he laid on his stomach on the bathroom floor.

"I'm sorry for worrying you, Sví."

"Mm."

"I mean it."

"I know."

Didn't make it easier, but Sweden did know Finland hadn't meant to scare him like that.

A silence fell over them for a while after that, while Sweden concentrated on carefully sewing the wound together. Then, once Sweden was finished with everything and had dressed the wound with clean bandages, Sweden eventually allowed Finland to slowly sit up on the bathroom floor to face him.

"Thank you," Finland told him with a small smile and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I promise I'll be more careful next time."

Sweden, who hadn't been prepared for the kiss, blushed bright red.

"Sounds good."

Finland laughed at his expression and then carefully stood up while trying to not stretch the stitches.

"Well then, can I leave the cleaning to you while I try to convince our children that I'm not about to die?"

"Sure," Sweden chuckled. "Tell them dinner will be ready in an hour while you're at it, too."

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(A/N: Finland got the wound because he fell down from the roof and managed to get partly caught on something. How he didn't also break every bone in his body upon landing is a mystery Finland still doesn't know the answer to, but he's not about to let Sweden find out he got the injury because he tried to fix the TV-antenna by himself.) xD

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