Ruthari Week 2022 Day 2 - Hurt

Accidents At The Forge

Ethari was always careful in the forge.

He always put his tools where they belonged, kept sharp objects at least a couple inches from the edge of the tables they were on so they wouldn't fall and stab someone's foot and right away picked up every single object that dropped to the floor, as small as it may be, to avoid the chance of tripping on it later.

So how did he end up on the ground, cradling his hand against his chest, the skin an angry red color and starting to blister?

By tripping not over an object but over his own damn feet.

Somehow, after a quick trip to the bathroom, he had been in too much a hurry to get back to work and ended up tripping and after stumbling had instinctively tried to catch himself from falling and ended up grabbing onto a hot piece of metal that he had been been planning to make into a shield.

The metal had still been burning hot end so ended up burning the elf.

He was honestly lucky the whole thing hadn't fallen on him.

Then again, real luck would have been this situation not happening at all.

He had no idea for him long he sat there in agony before the door opened.

'Great, someone to see how incompetent I really am with getting this stupid injury. Just what I needed.' he thought to himself with gritted teeth.

However, instead of some random elf he ended up hearing a familiar voice calling, "Ethari?"

"Runaan?" he called back, blinking away tears to see his husband standing in the doorway, turquoise eyes wide as they took in his miserable state.

"Are you alright? What happened? Let me see your hand." he quickly crossed the room to kneel next to Ethari.

Gently, far more gently than one would expect from an assassin, he peeled Ethari's non-injured hand away from the burned one and gasped.

"Did you cool this with water yet?" he asked but Ethari was too stunned at suddenly having by his husband at his side to answer.

"I'll take that as a 'no'. Come on." Runaan carefully pulled him to his feet and took him the the faucet.

After making sure the water was not too hot or too cold he made Ethari hold his hand under it.

The sudden cooler sensation shocked Ethari our of his stupor as he hissed.

"I know, I know it hurts but please bear with it for now, dear. We need to cool this burn as best as we can." Runaan told him, his voice soft and soothing.

"W-Why are you hear? What about your training? You guys are usually still at it for at least another two hours." Ethari finally managed to ask in a mix of genuine curiosity and in an effort to keep himself distracted from the pain.

"Ethari." Runaan looked at him with a stern face. "Training ended more than an hour ago. I came here because you weren't home yet and figured you got caught up in a new project or something, but instead I found you like this. Have you been sitting on the floor with a burned hand for at least three hours without doing anything to treat it?"

"I-I wanted to but it hurt too much to move. I'm sorry." Ethari's voice cracked as he looked down in shame, knowing that yes, he should have at least done the basics instead of just sitting around uselessly.

"No, don't apologise. I can only imagine how it must feel. Is the water at least helping a little?" Runaan lifted Ethari's chin with a finger so they were eye to eye again.

"I little bit, yes." Ethari nodded.

They stayed like that for a another minute before Runaan turned the water off.

"Better?" he asked.

"I mean, it still hurts but a lot less. I think this the the best water will do." Ethari answered, grimacing at the state his hand was in.

"Here, let me." his husband grabbed a towel and carefully dried his hand, barely touching the skin bur just enough to take the water off.

When he was done he tossed the towel away and made Ethari sit on his on a stool.

"Wait here." he instructed as he went to get the first-aid kit Ethari kept around in case accidents happened.

Upon returning he grabbed another stool and sat in front if his husband.

"It's a good thing we recently stocked up on Sun's Tear salve." he mused as he grabbed the jar.

"Hand." he held out his own hand and Ethari obediently gave him his burned one for Runaan to start spreading the healing salve on.

"So what happened for you to end up like this?" he asked as he worked and Ethari sighed.

He knew his husband would ask again.

"I tripped and ended up falling and burning my hand." he told him.

"Tripped? On what? You always make sure there's nothing to trip over." Runaan looked at him.

"Except my own big feet." Ethari huffed. "I'm such a dumb clutz sometimes."

"Hey, now. Don't be like that. It was an accident." Runaan lightly scolded but Ethari didn't ease up.

"What? You think you're the only one who that happens to? Remember that bruise on my shoulder last week? I ended up getting that after I tripped myself while sparring and Skor was able to land a blow on me." he told, making Ethari perk up.

"That was because you tripped?" he asked, earning a scoff.

"Why does that seem to strange to you? I'm just an elf like you and and anyone else. Look, it's unfortunate that this happened but there's no need to start talking negatively about yourself. I can't have that since you'll be talking negatively about the elf I love." Runaan told him, ghosting a finger along Ethari's jaw.

"Right, sorry. I guess I was just embarrassed." Ethari grinned shyly.

"How so? Did you think I'd laugh at your situation or something?" Runaan made an exagerated pout. "I would have thought my husband wouldn't think of me to be that low."

"Right, you're right! I'm sorry! You're much too sweet for that, darling. Come here." Ethari laughed as he leaned forward to place a peck on his husband's mouth, earning a grin.

"Almost done. I just need to put a bandage on it." he said before wrapping the hand securely, making sure the bandages weren't too tight or too lose.

"And now the final touch." he announced before bringing Ethari's hand to his mouth and pressing a sweet kiss on the palm.

"It feels much better already." Ethari giggled, making Runaan chuckle as he put the supplies away.

As he was putting the first-aid kit away Ethari approached him and hugged him from behind.

"Thanks for patching me up." he whispered.

"You're always the one patching me up. Of course I'd help you." Runaan whispered back as he leaned into the embrace.

"I still appriciate it, though."

"Anything for you."

They stayed like that for a while before finally pulling away to start walking home.

The End

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