"Mav, you have to keep pressure on the wound." Iceman gently pushed away the hand that Maverick had lifted towards Ice's hair, pressing it firm against the bloodied cloth covering Maverick's shoulder.

"But'yer hair's s'soft," Mav slurred, making another wobbly effort at reaching for Ice's hair.

"No," Ice said, fixing a firm glare on Maverick. Mav's hand flinched back, and settled slightly away from where Ice wanted it. "You can play with my hair as much as you want when I've finished with your leg," Ice said, ignoring Maverick's put-out expression in favor of readjusting Mav's hand again, "but for now you need to keep pressure on that bandage, because I need both of my hands to put on the splint." He was using one hand to immobilize the leg while he tried to reason with Maverick, but properly bracing and wrapping the probable break would be flat out impossible if one of his hands was occupied by applying pressure to the sluggishly-but-persistently bleeding cut.

Maverick schooled his face into his best puppy-dog-eyes expression, and stared up at Ice.

Well, two could play that game.

"Please, Mav," Iceman said, softening his voice and laying his hand over Mav's- half to apply pressure while Maverick wasn't, and half to ensure he had Maverick's attention- "for me?" Ice smiled gently, and laced his fingers through Maverick's.

Ice was seriously considering resorting to bribery when Mav looked at him, eyes wide open- and pupils blown open, Iceman noted with some concern- and nodded. "OK, Ice," Maverick said, and pressed down onto the bandage under his hand, letting his eyes slide shut as he did so.

Iceman retracted his own hand from Maverick's shoulder, and waited for a moment. When he was satisfied that Maverick wasn't about to ease up on the pressure, he turned his attention back to Maverick's leg, which had taken most of the impact when Maverick had slipped down the side of the rocks.

Hiking would be easy, Mav had said. Hiking would be fun, Mav had said. Hiking would be relaxing, Mav had said.

So far, hiking had been none of those things. After half a day of trudging through poorly-maintained backwoods paths while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and flies, they had stumbled upon a clearing that overlooked the top of a waterfall.

Mav, over-eager to take in the view, had promptly slipped and fallen down the waterfall, injuring himself in an assortment of ways and nearly giving Ice a heart attack in the process.

Iceman had climbed down the steep slope beside the thankfully-short waterfall as quickly as possible, and had been immensely grateful to find Maverick already on the shore, alive and conscious, though soaking wet and covered in an assortment of injuries of varying severity.

One of which being the injured leg that Ice was doing his best to splint now. Ice had packed a first aid kit, of course, but from a number of factors, including a slight distortion under Mav's skin, he was pretty sure Maverick had managed to fracture his tibia at the very least, if not break it outright. The splints in his kit, likely created with wrist injuries in mind, hadn't been long enough for what he needed, but with the dense greenery around them it hadn't been overly difficult to find and break off a straight branch to use in their stead.

However, even with a splint of suitable length, applying it properly was proving to be difficult- using gauze to secure the top part above the suspected break had been easy enough, but the suspected break was far enough down that it was impossible to wrap the gauze below it without wrapping Maverick's ankle as well, and Maverick's ankle and foot were moving around seemingly of their own volition as Maverick squirmed in discomfort.

"Mav," Ice said, holding Maverick's foot in place, "You have to stop moving or you could make it worse."

"Hurts," Mav said, voice breathy. His free hand was clenched into a fist so tight that the knuckles were white, and his hand was trembling. "I don't wanna go hiking again, Ice." And then there were tears leaking out of Mav's eyes, and yeah, if Ice hadn't been certain that Maverick had a concussion before, he definitely was now.

Maverick turned his head to the side in an ineffectual attempt at hiding his face from Ice, and sucked in a deep breath that could have been either a gasp of pain or the start of a sob.

Ice hesitated for a moment, reluctant to leave the splint partially applied, before giving in and reaching for his bag.

"Do you think you could swallow some Tylenol?" Ice asked, already reaching into the pocket where it was kept. He kept his eyes on Maverick as he felt around in the bag, first pulling out Aspirin- quickly shoved back in, as a blood thinner was the last thing Maverick needed right now- and then acetaminophen.

A moment later, Maverick finally nodded, eyes still closed, and Iceman moved to kneel beside Maverick's head.

"Dry or with water?" Iceman asked, gently helping Maverick sit up slightly to lean against Iceman's side, positioning him in a way that put pressure on the wound without Maverick or Iceman having to keep a hand over it. Maverick had no signs of any neck or back injuries, thankfully, since Iceman's somewhat basic first aid kit wasn't equipped to deal with anything that severe. And until Iceman could figure out how to get a signal in the dense line trees, no other help was coming any time soon.

Ice's sister knew they had gone hiking, of course, as did some of the other pilots at Top Gun, but none of them were expecting a check-in until nightfall. Hopefully more hikers would wander past before then. Or better yet, some EMTs, preferably with a stretcher at hand.

"Dry," Maverick said, blinking slowly before focusing an unsteady gaze on the blister pack in Iceman's hand.

Ice popped out two pills, and placed them both into Maverick's mouth.

Maverick swallowed, and Iceman moved to set him back down on the sand.

"Stay," Mav said, pressing his head firmly into Ice's side.

"Mav, your leg-"

"Jus' for a bit," Mav cut him off, "Please."

Iceman looked at Maverick's leg, considering. It was in a good position, so long as Maverick could keep it still, elevated slightly by a rolled up emergency blanket from Maverick's backpack. The splint could wait a few more minutes, especially since it would be easier for Maverick to keep still if they gave the painkillers a few minutes to start working.

"Alright," he agreed, running a free hand through Maverick's hair, "but only until the medicine starts to work. Ok?"

"Thanks, Ice. Luv'you."

Ice darted a look up at the path, old habits dying hard even years after they were no longer necessary.

This was the first time Iceman was disappointed to realize no one was around, however.

"I love you, too," he said, pressing a gentle kiss into Maverick's hair.

Iceman glanced at his watch; still a few hours of daylight left, plenty of chance for more hikers to walk by who would be able to get a message out. But the last place Iceman was sure had phone service was the base of the mountain, at least a three hour hike from where they were now.

Three hours down to the base, however long it took for a rescue team to get to the mountain, and another three hours for them to reach the waterfall where Iceman and Maverick where trapped, and then more to take Maverick down on a stretcher. By Iceman's estimate it would be at least 12 hours before Maverick got any proper medical attention, and that was if someone happened across them soon. Realistically, Iceman expected it would be a fair bit longer, especially if no one walked by before the time that Iceman's sister would be expecting a check-in anyway.

Iceman looked back to Maverick; the Tylenol seemed to have started working, at least. Maverick looked less pained, insofar as he had stopped squirming around. Iceman would give the medicine a few more minutes to fully settle in before attaching the rest of the splint. It's not like they were going anywhere even once the splint was on; Maverick wasn't exactly heavy, but Iceman didn't like his odds of being able to get Maverick back up that slope without jostling Maverick's leg further, and at least down here they were reasonably well protected from any wind or weather that might occur overnight.

Iceman could probably attach another one of the emergency blankets to some of the branches overhead and form a makeshift tent to give them some shade from the sun if the clouds broke, but for now he stayed where he was, intent on letting Maverick rest against him until something necessitated that one of them move, and keeping a sharp eye on the trail above them all the while.