Chapter 5 - Hold still

- "Silver!! Ahh..." Shadow grunted and moaned, and Silver entered the room as fast as he could. Shadow was sitting on the bed, grabbing his bandaged leg tightly.

- "Let me see that!" He tried to touch Shadow but the injured hedgehog would just move away from him.

- "It fucking hurts!! Yesterday... th-the same thing happened yesterday... fuck!!"

- "If it hurts so much then it may be infected, I have to see it!"

- "But...!!"

- "Shadow, I know what I'm doing, just let me see it! I won't touch you, c'mon!"

- "Swear it!"

- "I swear I won't touch you, now let me see it."

Shadow started taking the bandage off while trying to hold back some moans and curses along with them. Once Silver could see, he understood.

- "Shadow, these wounds are badly infected, and they're pretty deep too" – now Silver looked more worried than before, if possible, while staring at the three long, deep parallel cuts in Shadow's flesh. –"I have to do something about it... or it will get worse and I don't think you would stand that..."

- "How bad is it??"

- "Depends on how long you wait... if you don't do anything at all you could end up... well, losing your leg!" – Silver wasn't too sure about that but if that made Shadow cooperate then he was ready to lie a bit. Maybe he wouldn't lose his entire leg, but it would definitely result badly damaged for a very long time, let alone leaving three long scars.

- "You like your leg, don't you?" – Shadow just looked down -" Then, please, let me disinfect it. I know you can endure that."

- "...Ok, ok, just do it!! Aahh, but please be quick.. Aahh I can't stand it!!"

- "I'll grab my stuff" Silver ran out of the room and brought his medical kit. He first checked Shadow's temperature by putting his hand on Shadow's forehead, ignoring a defensive grunt and two threatening fangs. He felt very hot, as Silver had expeted. He cleaned his hands with some gel sanitizer and got ready to clean the wound.

- "Try to hold still now..."

When the first wet tissue touched the wound, Shadow immediately yelled a howling scream of pain, then started moaning and cursing loudly. Silver hadn't even started. As he worked on the wound, Shadow's eyes remained tightly shut but his moaning didn't cease, the tiniest tears forming under his thin eyelashes. He had bent over, panting hard and grabbing the sheets almost to the point of tearing them. But he didn't move his leg from its place. Silver looked around for something for Shadow to bite, but found anything. The shouts were making him feel a knot in his stomach and in his desperation he extended his left arm.

- "Here, bite this" Shadow didn't look and just opened his mouth. He bit on something warm and soft but resistant enough, and his shouting was somewhat muffled. His breathing was hard but that seemed to ease the pain a bit, or at least made it bearable. Silver continued to clean the wound as fast as he could, and after some minutes that seemed like hours, once he was done and needed it back, he took his left hand out from Shadow's mouth. Its minor knuckles where warm, wet and purple where the teeth had pressed, and some blood had come out too. He cleaned the blood and Shadow's saliva with an alcohol-based wipe wincing a bit in the process, and took some new bandages to cover Shadow's wounds. The black hedgehog was panting heavily but had stopped his moans.

Some iodine later, the wounds were bandaged again. Shadow was panting still but not so heavily, and Silver was caressing his own left hand, which still hurt a bit. They stayed like that for about a minute, Shadow lying on the bed with his eyes closed, and Silver sitting by his side. Then Shadow spoke.

- "Thank you. ... Damn that hurt. ...but it feels better now. You made the pain ease."

- "That leg protected me. It's just fair that I do the same, isn't it? Now you should only take some ibuprofene to lower your temperature..." He looked for some in his backpack.

- "... I'm sorry I made you stay. But I don't regret it. You sure know about this medical stuff."

- "I'm glad you're better now. Please take this medicine for the fever and try to sleep. It won't hurt like that again, guaranteed." Wow, he is talking more than usual. And what's with that polite attitude? 'Thank you'? 'I'm sorry'?? I don't recognize him anymore. Where has he hidden the real Shadow? Silver felt happy inside. Like a parent who had just made his child feel safe from all harm or something. He had been right about wanting to see the wound all along. Now he was trying hard not to say 'I told you so'.

Shadow opened his eyes and looked at Silver. He took the pill and the glass at his side to drink some water with that, while still looking at him. He noticed his lightly wounded hand. "Was that... what I was biting?"

- "...it was... but don't worry, it'll be fine soon." Shadow took Silver's hand in his and leaned in closer to see the marks on it. Then he just squeezed it lightly. He could still recall perfectly the pain he had suffered and how the biting had seemed to dim it. Feeling like he had to say something, he just repeated "Thanks." He just didn't know what else to say. Silver just blushed a bit. "It was nothing, you're making me blush. It's not like you being so kind all of a sudden." – "It's not like people caring about me at all either." Shadow let go of Silver's hand. That was unexpected, Silver wasn't sure of what to reply. – "You should go to sleep, you must be tired. I want to sleep now, too." – added the black hedgehog. Silver stood up and turned off the light, so that the moonlight could take its place. "Have a good sleep" – he said and left from Shadow's room.

Wow. So Shadow had a docile side? He suddenly felt like the mouse who took the thorn out from the lion's paw. This thought made him smile as he laid down in his bed. In the other room Shadow stared at the half moon outside the window. "Maria..." Looks like I still can be cared about after all...