"He's ugly."
Kirishima immediately frowned at Kaminari's comment and tilted his head to the side as he regarded the human lying on the table. "I think he's kinda pretty," he freely admitted, shrugging his shoulders. Flicking his eyes back up to his friend's face, Kirishima watched and let out a laugh when Kaminari's passive expression shifted into one of disgust.
"Do not start crushing on this thing."
Kirishima gasped; smile gone. "He's not a thing," he scolded without missing a beat, suddenly defensive even though the human very likely couldn't hear them. The red eyes widened when Kaminari's eyebrows rose inquisitively at the lack of denial towards the statement. Kirishima could feel his face heat up uncomfortably, quickly adding, "And I'm not! I just don't think he's ugly. Besides, he basically looks like us." Kaminari laughed mockingly and stepped away from the table to gesture at himself.
"I don't think he can compare to this." Turning away from his friend, Kirishima nodded thoughtfully and grabbed some gloves from the counter of their makeshift medical bay. He threw a pair at his partner, who fumbled but managed to catch the items, and began pulling a pair on himself.
"You're right. Nothing can compare to you," Kirishima teased as he turned back, grin widening at Kaminari's weak glare when he finally captured the redhead's attention. Eventually, Kaminari's resolve broke and grinned back just as fiercely, yanking on his own pair of gloves. Having weathered a friendship for nearly ten years it was hard for either of them to stay seriously mad at each other.
"Damn straight. Okay!" He clapped his hands together loudly, rubbing them together as best he could despite the gloves, "Where do we start?" The two locked eyes unsurely, both of them watching each other's gears turn as they tried to remember the first-aid courses they had barely passed.
"Clean the blood?" Kirishima began slowly, hesitantly, clearing his throat when Kaminari just raised an eyebrow; the tone wasn't very convincing. Good start. "Clean the blood," Kirishima repeated with more conviction, nodding his head in an attempt to convince even himself of the course of action as well. He straightened up into a posture of more authority and waved his hand towards the sink. "Nurse Kaminari, would you kindly get some warm water?"
"Do not," Kaminari warned, grabbing one of the metal bowls from the shelf to fill it regardless. He stopped when he turned the faucet on and turned back to face Kirishima who was gathering up as many clean cloths as he could. "Should we like boil this?" The face Kirishima made indicated that neither of them knew the answer. Trying another route, Kaminari spoke again, "Do you think we have to? How strong are humans?"
Kirishima's jaw flexed as he clenched his teeth in thought. "I think it's fine? It's just water, right? Humans use water all the time!" Kaminari stared at him, expression becoming increasingly exasperated and definitely conveying a very 'I fucking told you this was a bad idea' look. Noticing this, the once authoritative posture Kirishima tried to convey withered as he shrunk back sheepishly. "Don't they?" Kaminari's arms shot up, still holding onto the bowl with one hand and splashing water all over the room behind him.
"I don't know, dude! The only thing I know about humans is that they hate the rest of us!" He dropped the bowl back into the sink with a loud clatter, all while shaking his head, and turned the tap back on. "Whatever. It's fine. If he dies of a brain infection because of the water, we can just dump him out of the airlock and problem solved!" Kirishima wanted to snap right back and return the attitude but held his tongue. At the very least, he couldn't fault his friend for having this reaction. Kaminari was just speaking out of frustration simply because of what he had always been taught. Kirishima had been fed the same information about Earth and humans his whole life, after all, so he could relate on some level.
The planet had really only confirmed that the universe was teeming with life fifty years prior and, after the initial panic, was stuck in what many described as a 'rebellious adolescent' stage. For this reason, the rest of the universe just kept their distance. There had been some contact, of course, between ambassadors, but nothing substantial. It was ultimately decided that the little blue marble of a planet would eventually come around and, until then, they could just float around in peace. After all, the humans were so used to being at the top of everything - of their planet, their solar system, and, although foolish, of the whole universe. It became apparent that not only were they not the only intelligent lifeform around, they were also quite low on the technological advancement scale in the grand scheme of things. Sure, they had invented some pretty impressive creations, but they were nowhere near as advanced as the majority of species out there. This was nothing to be ashamed of and new planets became aware of the rest of the universe all the time. Once those planets reached that specific level of discovery, their intelligence and abilities grew by leaps and bounds with the aid of the rest of the universe. What would normally take decades, now only took years.
Earth, ever stubborn, instead put its walls up; sealing itself away and protecting itself from the rest of, well, everything.
"Look," Kirishima started after a tense and lengthy pause, "I know you don't like this. I know humans aren't cooperative and I know we're supposed to stay away from them." Kaminari put the bowl of water down onto the counter with more force than necessary, ignoring the water that sloshed out. Yellow eyes flicked up to meet Kirishima's, defiant but prompting him to continue. "He was going to die if we left him there, and maybe if we return him - slave or prisoner - humans will actually start to trust us." He was met with the most dramatic eye-roll he had ever seen his friend make.
"I know you have this, like, incredible hard-on for adventure and meeting fun, new species, but I really, really , just want to get paid and not die," Kaminari elaborated, his voice annoyed, and pulled off a glove to run his fingers through his hair stressfully. "I just want the money and to go back home without starting an all-out war between planets. Now, I don't want him dead - of course, I don't - but if we come waltzing back with this guy in tow, we aren't going to get paid. If we rescued a Caevem or something maybe it'd be okay, but this will definitely get us off contracts for good! Kiri, we could even get fined or thrown in jail!"
Kaminari didn't pause his rant, eyes widening more and more with each sentence. "Even if we did sneak him past, what would the other humans think when we go to return him!? The Federation can't even get near their solar system without eliciting a hostile reaction! You think two morons can just fly this piece of shit up to them, 'Oh, hey, we found your dude KO'd on some planet. Want him back?' What if they think we made him a slave? What if they think we killed the others!?"
Kirishima let the other ramble frantically, slowly raising his hands in a weak effort to placate his friend. Kaminari finally stopped, shoulders rising and falling with heavy breaths, still staring in disbelief at his friend from across the table. "Are…" Kirishima chose his words cautiously, letting out a soft laugh, "Are you done?"
Kaminari blinked a few times, clearly trying to process the words to decide if he was truly done with the ranting. "I think so," Kaminari breathed out finally, dragging a chair over and flopping down into it roughly, ripping off the other glove. Kirishima pulled his lips into a tight line, trying in vain to swallow back another laugh. His friend was honestly an easy-going guy; things rarely got under his skin as he seemed to brush off most inconveniences. He liked to have fun and didn't mind a bit of trouble, but evidently, this is where he drew the line.
"You thought about this a lot in what? An hour?" Kaminari just nodded tiredly, dropping his head back against the chair to stare miserably up at the ceiling. "How about we look at it this way… We return him to Earth and literally none of what you said happens. Instead, we're heroes !" Kirishima grinned triumphantly with his arms outstretched. When Kaminari lifted his head to look at him with a bored expression, his arms dropped uselessly to his sides and his grin sunk into a frown. "Just— Dude. Heroes. Heroes get girls and money, yeah?" His friend's eyebrows rose just a fraction, but Kirishima could see that he definitely sat up straighter. "Lots of girls and money." The silence returned, but, just like when Kirishima wanted to bring the human with him, he knew that he had won again against Kaminari's better judgement.
"Fine." The blonde peeled himself from the chair to slowly stand up, gesturing for a new pair of gloves. A smile threatened to split Kirishima's face as he tossed him a fresh pair and Kaminari reluctantly pulled them on, all while softly cursing to himself. Before he continued with their very half-assed attempt at first-aid, Kaminari regarded his friend with squinted eyes. He seemed to be happily pulling out all sorts of medical supplies, not a worry to be found on his face. "You're seriously not stressing about this?"
Kirishima's fingers hesitated on a roll of gauze for about half a second but continued to pull it out of the kit. He rose a shoulder in a half-shrug, tilting his head to look back at his friend. He knew Kaminari wasn't being childish and cold-hearted in regards to leaving the human behind. He knew the severity of the situation and he knew the possible repercussions - if this did go badly, it really could end in an actual war; Kaminari wasn't exaggerating during his panicked rambling. But Kirishima also believed that most beings in the universe were driven by the sense of good intentions. He'd have to be careful, sure, and he couldn't just boldly fly on into Earth's solar system, but he wasn't worried about how they would react.
Even if humans weren't driven by good intentions, Kirishima was. The fact of the matter was that there was a human dying on some remote planet and that human needed his help. Kaminari would argue that it wasn't that black and white, most would argue that in fact, but to Kirishima it was. There was no grey area in the matter. If someone needs help, you help them. Simple.
"I won't ask you to do anything more than necessary," Kirishima promised instead, and he meant it. He knew that this was his choice and he'd only pull Kaminari in as much as he needed. "He needs help and I want to help him, but I don't want you to get all tied up in this. I just need your help right now and I really, really appreciate it." Kaminari audibly groaned when Kirishima stopped talking, expression shifting into something unreadable that made the redhead's heart clench with nerves. The nerves fizzled out quickly when Kaminari reached across the table, extending his fist.
"Don't get sappy, dude." Kirishima beamed vibrantly despite the fake-scowl Kaminari put on his face, bumping their fists together. "Mission: Save Kirishima's Human is a go, I guess."
Kirishima gestured for the bowl of water to be placed between them on the counter, dropping two cloths into it. "Get the plasma cutter to remove those cuffs from his wrists. I'll start cleaning the blood."
They got to work.
It took a while to remove most of the blood from the human's face. Although parts were now flaking off, Kirishima was hesitant to apply much pressure when he couldn't exactly see the damage underneath. The last thing he wanted was to forcefully rip away a scab sealing up a wound. Instead, he found a slow, but a gentler method of wetting the cloth, holding it in place, dabbing lightly, and then rinsing. Wet, hold, dab, rinse, repeat. Kaminari's job was going exceptionally faster; one of the metal cuffs had already clattered to the floor and he was busy cutting through the other one.
Relatively satisfied with his blood-cleaning abilities, and relieved that he only discovered a few cuts and bruises, Kirishima turned his attention to the wound that had him most concerned. The large cut going from the human's temple and back into his hairline was much deeper and much wider than Kirishima had first thought. Now cleaned, though sluggishly bleeding, Kirishima knew that the wound was going to require more work than just some closure bandages.
He gently parted the irritated flesh just a fraction to assess the damage, desperately trying to plan his next step. Did it need to be irrigated? Would stitches be enough? Did they even have a suture kit on their ship? Hopefully Kaminari would know. "Do we have stuff for stit—" Kirishima's sentence stopped when something caught his eye in the gash, and he dabbed at the wound lightly to staunch the fresh flow of blood. His eyes widened when he confirmed that he saw correctly.
Tucked neatly into the wound were three small bundles of twisted wires, emerging from the start of the wound near the human's eye and disappearing back under the skin where the injury ended on his scalp. One of the wires seemed to sag compared to the other two which were pulled taut, but he didn't dare touch it to inspect further. "Holy shit." Kaminari looked up from the cutter with a frown, flicking off the device to move back to the head of the table to see what his friend was suddenly fussing about.
Standing beside Kirishima now, Kaminari could see what his friend was looking at. "Well, shit," he whispered, signalling Kirishima to tilt the human's head more to the side. Kirishima obeyed, knowing his friend was significantly better versed in the world of electronics than he was. The last thing he wanted to do was go poking around and cause something to short-circuit - he was about 85% sure that Kaminari wouldn't let that happen if he investigated. He rested his hand on the human's opposite cheek and placed his other hand against the back of the head, slowly rotating to turn the human to the side as gently as possible. Kaminari reached forward and very lightly parted the wound like Kirishima had done to see the wires better; the thin blue and white cords getting flooded with crimson at the disturbance. He bumped Kirishima out of the way with his shoulder and leaned in for a closer inspection, his fingers pulling away from the wound and lightly pressing into the skin on either side of it. "Dude…"
"What?" Kirishima's voice was more pinched than he would've liked, not at all masking his nerves. Kaminari didn't reply and continued to trace his fingers along the scalp, his expression turning more and more confused. He let go of the human only briefly to remove his gloves, fingers diving right back to feel the skin now unobstructed. "Dude, what?" Kirishima tried again.
"Can you tilt him up?" Kaminari asked instead. Despite the lack of answers, Kirishima did as he was instructed all while trying to be as careful as possible. The movement wasn't much, but it was enough for Kaminari to duck down even farther to look at the back of the human's head, right near the hairline. "He's got some cybernetics? Or something?" The blonde finally explained as he straightened up and he began running his fingers against the skin again in the same way he was before.
Kirishima could've guessed that. He had seen the wires first, after all. When he pointed that out, Kaminari just shook his head. "No, not just the wires. They attach to something near his eye under his skin. Maybe some kind of circuit board? Something flat." The fingers tucked back into the ash-blonde hair still matted with blood, fumbling around. "And then they go all the way back to a port of some kind, at the back of his head. I've never seen anything like this." Kaminari looked up to his friend's puzzled expression, shoving Kirishima out of the way again, but this time it was so he could be the one supporting the human's head. "Look."
Kirishima didn't know why he was nervous, but he was. Kaminari literally had just told him what to expect and yet he could still feel his heart thrumming rapidly. Humans, as far as he knew, as far as anyone knew, weren't electronic. So, what did he really get them into? Despite the nerves, he shuffled over and leaned down to assume Kaminari's previous position, squinting at the back of the human's head. Sure enough, nestled at the base of the skull was a circular port about an inch in diameter. It was empty; the inside lined with silver metal with a small brass notch at the bottom.
"What does it do?" Kirishima asked, immediately wanting to kick his own teeth in at the stupidity of the question. Kaminari thankfully didn't call him out on it, but his expression conveyed that he was having the same thought.
"Maybe he's some kind of escaped experiment…" Kaminari trailed off, yellow eyes growing larger as a thought made itself known in his head. "Hold his head, I wanna try something!" The voice was too excitable for Kirishima to be comfortable, but, seeing as he wasn't the one with the affinity for electronic devices, he did as he was told. Curious eyes watched his friend as the human's hair was parted to reveal the port better. Kaminari pulled his one of his hands back, fingers twitching just barely, and it took a grand total of two seconds for Kirishima to realize that he was charging himself up.
"What the fuck are you doing!?" Kirishima squawked, slapping his friend's hand away with probably more force than necessary. A small shock shot between the two when their skin met, resembling that of a very weak zap of static. Kaminari immediately looked offended, cradling his uninjured hand dramatically to his chest. "You could've fried his brain!"
"I was just going to see if I could activate whatever he's got going on! I wasn't going to kill him!"
"You don't know that!" Kirishima subconsciously increased his grip on the human protectively; his one hand was still supporting the head, but his other one had now wound its way around the human's shoulders. "We don't know what those wires do and we don't even know how weak these guys even are," Kirishima tried to explain after calming down from his initial outburst. "Those other humans were all dead without any severe injuries… What if all it takes is just a tiny jolt of something and their bodies completely shut down?" Kaminari clicked his tongue against his teeth while he inspected his most definitely uninjured hand, and finally met Kirishima's gaze.
"Then they shouldn't be out in, I don't know, space ," Kaminari retorted bitterly, folding his arms against his chest. Kirishima opened his mouth to reply - he wanted to say no shit, that's why they were trying to bring the human back - but before he could even utter a word, he felt the human tense.
And then he shifted.
Kirishima's hands reflexively tightened their hold, but his brain instantly panicked. He had to make a conscious effort to slowly pull back from the human when he started to sit himself up opposed to forcefully dropping him like a pan fresh from the oven. He was vaguely aware of Kaminari saying things, but all Kirishima could do was stare in a mixture of shock and amazement as the figure pushed himself fully into a sitting position; his arms shaking with exhaustion or pain or fear - maybe all three. He reluctantly pulled his hands away from where he was holding the human's arms but kept them outstretched just in case he needed some more support. Kirishima held his breath.
The human's eyes remained closed as he raised trembling fingers to the wound on the side of his head. He flinched with a hiss and cursed something in an unfamiliar language, his hand jerking away so suddenly that Kirishima was worried he'd lose his balance. "Hey," he said softly, fighting desperately to keep his voice calm and steady despite feeling the exact opposite, "let's not touch that, okay?" Closed eyes scrunched tighter in pain, but they finally cracked open.
Yeah, Kirishima's heart certainly didn't stop when he was met with startling red eyes. Sure, he had red eyes, too. He'd seen red eyes every day of his life! But these eyes were burning bright despite the discomfort the human was in; a rich and deep crimson that rivaled the heat of a fire and made Kirishima falter when they locked with his. He felt his heart stutter in his chest when his brain finally kicked back in and willed the feeling away, trying to put on his most reassuring smile. "You're safe. How do you feel?" The fiery eyes stared at him in a daze, the human's face not changing in expression. Kirishima waited nervously, smile falling just a little.
"He probably doesn't speak Universal," Kaminari suggested. Having nearly forgotten that Kaminari was in the room, the words jolted Kirishima. His friend was most likely correct. If Earth sealed themselves away, the chances of anyone knowing Universal was slim.
"Can you understand me?" Again, nothing.
Kirishima shifted his gaze to Kaminari when he didn't get a response. He was about to ask for some more guidance when the human surged towards him, teeth bared. A fist connected with the side of his face and, while he did feel it, it was the human who recoiled with a yelp of pain. He flexed his now reddened hand, a string of violent words neither Kirishima nor Kaminari could understand spilling forth from his mouth. Kirishima wanted to fret over him, to make sure the hand was okay, but before he could do anything the human was lunging at him again.
Only this time he fell short, body dropping to the ground and off of the table with a loud smack. Kirishima stumbled back in confusion, noting the twitching muscles of the human and seeing Kaminari standing significantly closer with a hand outstretched.
"Holy shit! Did you tase him!?"
"He broke his hand on your dumb rock face!" Kaminari snapped back defensively, his voice and demeanor expressing one of fear rather than anger. "We should've used restraints! I told you we should've used restraints!"
Kirishima shook his head and knelt beside the body on the ground. He placed his hands tentatively on the now still back, fingers scrabbling for a pulse on the human's neck. Relieved at the fluttering against his fingertips, Kirishima shot an exasperated glare at Kaminari. "He was probably just scared, dude! It's not like he hurt me." Kaminari sputtered when Kirishima picked up the human, stepping backward to put more space between himself and the being that just attacked his friend - twice.
"He was scared?"
Kirishima placed the human back onto the tabletop, eyeing his friend stubbornly. "Yes. The last thing he probably remembers is almost dying. So now he wakes up in a strange place, with strangers hovering around him, probably in a lot of pain - I'd freak out too!"
Kaminari scrubbed his face in frustration and groaned loudly into his palms. Kirishima looked in his friend's direction and was instantly slammed with guilt. While he truly believed the human simply acted on impulse, in the end it was Kaminari who was doing them a favour - not the other way around. The last thing he wanted to do was make Kaminari more uncomfortable than he already was and seeing the thing you were told to stay away from for your life attempt to attack your best friend was probably the farthest thing from comforting. Letting out a long sigh, Kirishima willed himself to calm down and nodded. "Actually, you're right. I'm sorry." Kaminari pulled his hands away from his face, eyeing Kirishima suspiciously as he waited for him to continue the apology. "We don't know the guy and it's probably best if we… If I don't take any more chances."
"I want to help you," Kaminari stressed to his friend, his shoulders sagging in relief at Kirishima's words, "You know I love you, dude, and you know I love doing stupid shit with you, but this guy isn't safe. I will help you help him , but if we're going to do that we can't have him roaming around like a feral beast. We can't treat him like us. Not right now, not with everything you're putting on the line by even attempting this."
Kirishima turned his attention to the human on the table as Kaminari spoke. Passed out the human looked harmless and it tugged at Kirishima's heart to even consider treating him like a wild animal. He wanted to convince Kaminari to give the human one more chance - to let him wake up in an area of the ship that wasn't so uncomfortable and crowded with medical supplies - but the serious look his normally carefree friend had on his face immediately ended that thought. Reluctantly, Kirishima nodded his head and faced Kaminari properly. "I'll use the restraints, see what I can do about his wound, and clean him up a bit more. Then I'll move him to my room for the time being. You can get our ship set back on course."
This was important to him. He wanted to believe that no matter how small the action was in the end, it'd be at least an attempt to bridge the gap between humans and everyone else. But if that action, let alone the human, happened to hurt Kaminari or anyone else he loved in the process, would it even be worth it?