A/N: Meant to have this up last night, but got too tired, so finished editing it today after work and doing some computer repair work research (I do that on the side of my two part-time jobs)! Hope it was worth the extra day wait!

Letting them talk, Kiba does his best to set out everything he thinks they'll need for now on the clean bag. Realizing he's severely unqualified for this particular job, though, he turns to his packmates. "I don't…know what to do with this," he admits, only a little bit sheepish. "Do you?"

Tsume looks annoyed and disgusted with himself. He really wishes he'd paid more attention to his human underlings in the old world… "N-not really, no..."

Hige crosses his arms and hums as he thinks back, closing his eyes in concentration. "Actually…I might know a thing or two. There were always kids getting hurt in Freeze City, and if it was bad enough, their moms always cleaned and bandaged their wounds with stuff like this. I can't be that bad, at least." He holds out his hands to Kiba. "Let me give it a shot." Sensing their hesitation, he pouts and holds up his hands in his own defense. "Hey, it's better than what you two're offering, right? We gotta do something." A moment later, he sighs softly through his nose and reasons, "Look, I'm not gonna do anything crazy. Hell, you know I wouldn't hurt the kid if my life depended on it." He reaches out again. "Come on, trust me."

Tsume and Kiba lock eyes. This really is the best shot they have, and nervous about these supplies or not, they trust Hige, and they can't let Toboe get worse. They are not losing him again.

Handing over a clean cloth and 'the clear stuff that smells like cleaning supplies' (hydrogen peroxide) as requested, Hige goes about quickly and carefully cleaning around the wound, just to be safe. He winces whenever he causes Toboe any pain, but Tsume gently shushes the boy and holds his hand tighter, and Toboe always calms and leans toward the sound of his voice. Kiba and Hige silently can't help but think it's freakin' adorable.

While pouring the hydrogen peroxide on a clean cloth, Hige warns, "This stuff bubbles up in the worst wounds and makes the kids cry, so it'll probably be painful for him. But from what I heard the moms tell their kids, it keeps it from getting infected and kills anything that might be trying to attack it already, so it's really important." Looking down at Toboe, adoring pride lights his eyes. "The runt's strong, though. He can handle it for sure." Glancing over, he suggests with an encouraging smile, "Hey, Kiba, maybe you should hold his other hand. I'm sure that'll make him feel better."

Kiba blinks, the lightest of unsure-yet-touched blushes on his face, but he nods and goes along with it anyway. He'll do anything to make their youngest feel better. Toboe, sensing his presence, turns his head halfway toward him and seems to relax that much more. Kiba, despite his usual stoic demeanor, all but melts. "It'll be okay, Toboe," he tells him quietly. "We're right here with you."

Positioning the doused towel on the backside of Toboe's wound, wincing when Toboe hisses lightly at even that, Hige cautions, "I don't know how he'll react once it really starts hurting. All the human kids were different. But with a wound like this, we might have to hold him down." A heartbeat, swallow. "Here goes."

The clear liquid splashes all around the wound, moves inside and straight through, soaking the towel underneath with blood and white foam and a horrible stench. Toboe immediately cries out, jerking his leg away on reflex, trying to pull away from the hands holding his, gritting his teeth and clawing at them lightly, but Tsume and Kiba just hold on tighter with both of theirs. Hige keeps hold of his leg, grimacing at what he's seeing with the injury. He thinks he might be sick. "K-keep holding him! Once it stops bubbling, I'll have to rinse it with this stuff that smells like seawater. Then maybe this stuff again if it's still in danger of being infected, but I hope not. If we do, hopefully it's just one more time."

Tsume and Kiba do their best, Hige watching the wound closely. Toboe whimpers and almost sobs, then does, a few pained tears running down his face. Tsume can feel his heart breaking, gritting his teeth and growling low in his throat. He hates this. "Damn it, Hige, how much longer?!" he demands, doing his best not to shout for Toboe's sake, but his patience is wearing thin. It feels like they're torturing the poor kid!

"Just a few—! There!" Hige says, sighing in relief and wiping some sweat from his brow. "It's stopped for sure now." Taking a breath, he picks up the saline solution and looks between the two of them. "We can give him a breather for a minute or we can keep going, rip it off all at once like a Band-aid. This shouldn't burn, I don't think, at least not much, but I don't know if we'll have to use the other stuff again. What d'ya wanna do?"

Tsume's gut twists at the idea of causing Toboe any more pain, but he doesn't want to draw it out either. A shaky exhale. "All at once." His eyes flick to Kiba. "Fearless leader?" There's a hint of mirth in his voice despite the situation.

Kiba gives him a deadpan look. "I'm not the leader, Tsume. We don't have one, remember? And I'm certainly not fearless." Something inside Tsume softens at that. That in itself is proof this isn't the old world. Back there, at least in the beginning, Kiba would have said he wasn't afraid of anything, not even dying. Now...his biggest fear is losing his friends. Again. A heartbeat. "But I'm with Tsume. Rip it off."

Hige nods. "Good. That was my instinct, too." Getting ready to pour, he stares hard at Toboe. "You can do this, kid. Here we go."

This liquid, like Hige said, is much gentler than the last, something they're all grateful for. Toboe still grinds his teeth and whimpers a bit, holding their hands a little tighter, but it's most likely from the strange sensation and sensitive area than pain. Unfortunately, Hige doesn't like the look of some white-yellow stuff gathering a little inside the wound, so he picks that away as best he can and then frowns sadly over at Toboe. "We gotta do the other stuff one more time. That stuff I just picked off might mean an infection's already attacking him, but if we kill it now, it should be okay." Unscrewing that bottle, he strokes Toboe's knee. "Sorry, buddy. Hang in there. This should be the last time." He hopes.

This time, as he thought it might be, the screaming is worse, sticks around, and Toboe's fingernails, flickering between them and his real claws when he starts to lose control to his pain and panic, draw blood as they dig into Kiba and Tsume's flesh. They barely feel a thing, though, concentrating on keeping Toboe calm, particularly as the screaming mixes with howling. Even Tsume's having some trouble soothing him this time. The sound of his howl-cries and sobs and the sight and smell of his twisted expression and tears kill them all, but there's nothing else they can do. They have to do this. If they don't…well, they don't want to think about it. They won't think about it. They refuse.

Finally, the bubbling stops after concentrating where Hige saw the icky new stuff before, and Toboe is leagues better for the saline solution afterward. Once Hige dries the area around the wound, keeping the injury itself moist, he applies a smooth gauze pad to protect it and then secures it with rolled gauze.

Kiba and Tsume wait on bated breath for him to finish, Tsume busying himself by wiping away Toboe's tears. "Sorry, runt…" he whispers, hating that they had to hurt him to help him. But he knows Toboe would be grateful, and he knows he'd do it again in a heartbeat if it meant saving the kid's life.

Finally, there's a heavy sigh of relief. "Okay…" Hige breathes, wiping more sweat from his brow. He turns to them with a tired smile. It feels like he can breathe again. "That should do it for now. We'll have to keep an eye on him, just in case, but with any luck, he'll be able to heal fine from here on out. Hopefully, he'll wake up soon, too."

Squeezing Hige's shoulder, Kiba smiles over at him, gratitude shining in his eyes. "Thank you, Hige. That was amazing. Way better than anything I could've done."

Tsume nods, the warmth in his expression, mostly his eyes, catching Hige off guard for a moment. "Same here. Thanks, Hige." His eyes drift to Toboe, now soundly-sleeping, sweeping sweaty bangs from his forehead with gentle fingers. "Maybe now the kid can get some real rest and come back to us."

Hige blinks at the praise for a minute before beaming, a happy pink tinting his cheeks. He nods emphatically. "H-hey, no problem! I just hope it was enough, never mind right! I'm goin' off memory alone here," he chuckles, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish smile, "and from a past life, at that…"

Gesturing toward Toboe's bandaged leg while he tidies up the workspace and sanitizes his hands, just in case, he says, "We'll have to change the dressing often to keep away any chance of infection, especially if we see or smell any signs that it might be wearing out, but this should hold for a while." He exhales again, still relieved, scratching his cheek. "Honestly, I'm just glad it's not something more serious. I don't really know anything about herbs or treating really deadly things like Toboe or the humans might."

Then, that reminding him of something, he snaps his fingers. "Oh, that's right! He clawed your hands, right? Did he get you too deep? I can patch those up while I'm at it, if ya want…"

Hours later, with Toboe still sleeping soundly and his dressing changed once, Tsume and Kiba duck out to go get some air and find some food. Tsume doesn't want to leave Toboe, outright refuses at first, but Kiba and Hige manage to convince him ("Come on, Tsume, you know Toboe wouldn't want you worrying yourself sick! How upset do you think he'd be if he found out you didn't even take care of yourself while he was out?" – "He has a point, Tsume. You know Toboe doesn't like making you worry. He'll be fine with Hige for the few minutes we'll be gone. If anything happens, Hige can call for us." – "…Fine… But only a few minutes. Any longer, and you'll find your own way back" – "Sure. Now let's go").

Not surprisingly at all, they're back in record time. They spread the food between the three of them until they've had enough (making sure to save some for Toboe, of course, just in case he wakes up hungry), and after some additional guilting on Kiba's part (for Tsume's own good, he swears), the oldest wolves bask in the moonlight to gain back some of the strength they've lost today.

It's comfortably cool and quiet and oddly peaceful. It's…pretty nice, actually, Tsume admits to himself.

WHOOSH!

Hearing the sudden rush from behind them, both wolves immediately turn to see Hige in the doorway of the lean-to, the panic on his face making all the hairs on the back of their necks stand on end.

"Guys, I think something's wrong with Toboe!"

A/N: Please note that, while the medical advice for this chapter is not what you should do in a regular situation when you have access to clean water and the like, I figure, since this is a post-apocalyptic world, they might not have access to what they would need, so would need to make do. Also, while Toboe is shown to be the most adept at healing in the show, Hige seems to be pretty observant and something of a people-watcher, at least in Freeze City, so I thought he might make the most sense for the next-best (at least first aid?) healer. If you have any thoughts on that or anything else, would love to hear your feedback! Thanks for reading, as always!