One might say 'never a dull moment', but in reality there are a fair number of dull moments. It tends to be more of a 'never rains but it pours' sort of existance around ECFH.
Its really not long after Thump-Clatter-Ping is sorted out, when there are texts. Plenty of texts that include such disoncerting phrases as 'broken arm' and end on 'come to ECFH'.
Which is how Naru is waiting for Alexis outside the apartment, and looking far more concerned about him than she ever is for herself going ping.
It is not by bike that Alex arrives this time around, as it turns out. Evidenced by the fact that a cab rolls up over onto the street by the building, and the backdoor opens after a moment to reveal the german boy. With his leather jacket rolled into a bundle underneath one arm, and the other held up by an improvised sling fashioned from what seems to have been his button-up shirt.
And somehow, as if this was completely normal thing to happen, the german boy pads his way on from the cab, and towards Naru, with the most casual greeting of "Yo," provided to her. Clearly NOTHING is wrong.
Naru watches him pull the 'casual' act and she shakes her head a little, giving a roll of her eyes. She comes closer, up on tiptoes to steal a quick kiss. "You're an idiot, you know." An accusation, perhaps, but said with utter affection.
"C'mon, lets go upstairs. Mamo's not home." Naru explains as she holds the door for him, for once not holding his hand, as she directs the pair of them towards the elevators.
"I have *no* idea what you are talking about," Alex claims wryly after the kiss, but willingly follows on after her into the building and the elevator and... so on and so on. "Stuff just sort of happens, you know?" He claims there, in regards to the current state of his arm.
"I am not really in a position to argue about things just sort of happening, at least not without a whole lot of pot-kettle and black commentary going on." Naru points out as she leans on the wall of the elevator and watches him. "What happened? Does it hurt like hell?"
There's a familiar figure waiting in the hall, holding one of the doors open. No having to negotiate opening things while also negotiate guiding an Alexis. Kazuo is apparently one of those people who deals with clothing by buying multiple identical versions of the same outfit. Jeans. Buttondown shirt, top button undone, sleeves rolled up. Wristwatch in dull metallics. No surprises here. SIlence on his part is also not a surprise.
"Baseball bat," is the whole grand story that Alex provides in explanation. "...And yeah. It kinda hurts. A lot. But I'm kinda used to it." That is... probably not such a good thing, actually, but he seems to take it in stride.
And out of the elevator, they come upon the Kazuo. ... As kind of usual, the German gives him a bit of a bemused look initially, right before he offers, "...Evening." Still, just like the arm in improvised sling on his part is perfectly normal.
"And people freak at /me/ for being zen about the pain." Naru tsks softly as she nudges Alexis out into the hallway where Kazuo is loitering. "I am starting to understand so much better." She notes absently in his direction.
Naru gives a gentle nudge in the direction of the apartment. "Do you break bones enough to be used to it, really?"
Kazuo gives a slight shrug to the turn of Naru's head his way. "Baseball bats happen," he answers with his usual deadpan. "So do painkillers, if necessary. But if you managed to get those texts out, someone should be here too soon to be worth bothering. Good evening, Alexis." THe door's still held open. Patiently.
"I only texted *her*," Alex points out and jerks his head towards Naru. Who-- well. She gets a quiet cough from him in response to her last question and he quickly mutters, "No comment..." Perhaps it's best not to give too much of an insight on the pummeling his body has taken in the past.
All that being said though, just the promise of painkillers alone keeps Alex moving along, through the door held by Kazuo, and he asks, "...What kind of doctor are we talking about right now, anyway?"
On cue, there's a thump from the roof. Moments later, there's clattering from the steps leading down from it and there's laughing and exaggeratedly angry pouting going on -- yes pouting is audible sometimes, especially if it's Usagi, who's made it an art form -- and the door over there opens to deposit a very tall boy and a very short girl with very long hair. There are shopping bags, one of which clearly contains books, and one of which is much lighter but also decently bulkier.
"--did buy it!" Mamoru is protesting as he holds the door open for Usagi, "I just got distracted reading it and you tugged me in the middle of a really interesting chapter; I didn't forget, we got there before it closed, didn't we?"
And then he realizes it's not just Kunzite and Naru there, it's Kunzite and Naru and Alexis, which garners "Yo!" and then Alexis' sling, which earns "Damn! What bit you? You want me to get that?"
"That kind of doctor." Naru answers, as Mamoru has the grace and timing to arrive on perfect cue. "Hey there." She waves to the arriving pair as she aims Alexis towards one of the couches. "If you could, that'd be awesome, please Mamo."
Naru gives Alexis a faintly squinted Look at the no comment and a soft 'mm hmmm.' Then again, she is hardly one to talk.
"Mamo-chan!" One could probably hear the pufferfish cheeks from where they sit. "I told, they're limited edition! And because of your stupid book about the potato rebellion of a billion years ago, I was just barely too late to get the one with the hat!"
One could also probably hear her eyes growing in size just as surely as the woe in her voice. "My collection is incompleeeete!"
And then, because she's not really really mad, she latches onto his arm and gives a happy little hum. "But yes, we did. Thank you~!"
Her focus takes a moment to shift from Mamoru to the others, and when her brain catches up with her eyes, she gasps and flutters away from Mamoru to fret around Alexis. "Bandaid-kun! What happened! Oh no!"
The hallway door is closed and locked behind the injured and his party; Kazuo paces in behind them as well, still unhurried and apparently unconcerned. Mamoru receives a silent nod, as if an actual greeting out loud were unnecessary, irrelevant. Usagi he regards for a moment, before taking a detour toward the kitchen. He emerges a moment later with a muffin wrapped in a napkin, which is offered to the fluttering blonde. Possibly in an attempt to lure her out of Mamoru's way for a few moments. "This is the second last of this batch," he informs her gravely. "Mamoru decides what happens to the last one."
(Of course it's Makoto's.)
A very dignified (except not really) "Uuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh..." is given as first response to both Mamo and Usagi over their combined questions while the german just sheeeeeepishly stares at the two with some faint uncertainty.
"...Baseball bat..." He eventually repeats for their benefit, only for his eyes to narrow to the general directionof the Mamo right after.
"...What do you mean 'get that for me'."
"OMG," the prince says, eyes widening down at the girl attached to his arm, "I'll get it for you on ebay later. Hat and all. Seeing as it was my fault they probably ran out of it three hours before school was even out..." There's a teasing side-eye, and he bends to kiss the top of Usagi's head before she flutters off to fuss and he drops the bags on the other couch. He gives Kunzite a very quick grin, bright and with something like suppressed laughter behind it, then meanders over.
"Usa can have the last one, too," he says casually as he points down at the couch and looks meaningfully at the German boy, "unless Alexis wants it. There will always be more later. There also might be some frozen in case of emergency in one of the freezers I'm not actually identifying. Sit down, Alex. I'm going to magically heal your arm. But don't worry, I'm also going to medical school next year."
Mamoru gets a tongue sticking out for that! "Bleeeee! Nu-uh, I asked!"
That doesn't, of course, stop the squee and tightening grip on his arm, though. Yay! Her collection will be complete!
Kunzite's distraction is Very effective. And she can tell right away, of course, just who made the muffin.
And, of course, she takes the hint and settles for hovering from afar, floating instead near Kunzite and Naru
And then hearts in her eyes! "Mamo-chan!" She crushes on him all over again!
But he's right. Alexis is the one hurt, he should get first dibs. "I mean, of course Bandaid-kun could have it if he wants. As per the Booboo Accords of the Fifth Grade wait freezers with food I don't know about?!."
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!
"*What* accords?" Alex repeats with a slow blink of his eyes, and a bemused expression that should perhaps qualify for the sweatdrop effect. "...Also my name is Alex..." Not that Usagi is all that likely to listen to him on that matter, but OH WELL.
"Magically heal it," he repeats then in a deadpan tone, and gives an equally deadpan look to the one who originally uttered that string of words. "Right. I almost forgot. That's a *thing*." For whatever reason, he lets out a sigh that sounds vaguely... frustrated...? and only then goes to move on along to the general direction of the nearest seating.
"And you can have the last one. I'm not hungry."
"We haven't inquired," Kunzite comments aside to Usagi, "about whether the baseball bat was independently animated. He might say yes. And yes, we have extra food right now. The barbecue last weekend, remember?"
Maybe that's why he spends so much time staying in one place. Possibly Usagi needs stable anchors to orbit around.
Usagi heaves a woeful sigh. "The barbecue. I wish I'd been able to go!"
Then she's drooping. What's wrong with Bandaid-kun? Sad bunny face.
She looks up at Kunzite with said sad bunny face before she sighs all woeful. "Sorry, Alex-kun..."
DROOOOP
And then, because she's already a sad bunny, she reacts in quite the grumpy manner. "Yeah. It's a thing. A thing not many people choose, and those that do get tricked somehow!"
HRMPH!
Groan. "Fine, fine..." Alex mutters when he finally gets to the couch, and calls out to Usagi's way, "Call me whatever you want, I guess!" He VERY POINTEDLY ignores everything else she says, though, and slumps himself down on the couches.
And immediately winces in pain, what with the motion jostling his broken arm and all.
As Mamoru's crouching in front of Alexis, he gives Usagi an incredibly mischievous sidelong look when she protests the secret freezer situation. Then he glances up at Alex and shrugs one shoulder. "Sorry?" he offers, regarding 'that's a *thing*'. "You probably don't want to have grown up with people thinking you belonged on the X-Files, though, so there are pros and cons to that 'thing'," he adds mildly, then makes an unimpressed face when Alex jostles himself. "Stay still," he says firmly.
And then he reaches up and takes Alex's arm carefully, with an incredibly professional clinical detachment, and the second there's skin contact, the pain...
...vanishes.
"Keep staying still." That's much more preoccupied, but it's a reasonable warning. If things stop hurting, people have a tendency to move them even if they're still broken. See: biting the inside of your lip at the dentist's when your mouth is numb.
The black-haired prince does not, in fact, whammy Alex with the immense inspection he gave him when they shook hands, it should be noted. There is, however, warmth and a feeling of calm and quiet stillness, like sitting on a roof to watch the stars on an early summer night. There's also a visible golden glow around the point of contact, and Endymion's eyes aren't actually looking at anything visible to anyone else.
Finally, "You guys, try and keep him distracted without getting him too excited, this is going to take..." Mamoru grimaces. "Um, a little while. It's not a clean break."
Kunzite gives Mamoru a momentary Look. It translates to 'do you realize that you just told Kunzite to be social and Usagi not to get someone excited.' Mamoru is, however, not looking. Not that he probably needs to be. He lets out a breath, and puts an arm around moping blonde's shoulders for a moment, until she gets preoccupied with muffinry.
Alex, however, gets slightly more of his attention. "So. Was there an actual human being involved in this incident, or just an unfortunate collapse of sporting goods?"
It might not come as a great deal of surprise that Alex's first reaction to the disappearance of pain is to go all "Oh, that was quick," and JUST start to move before Mamoru's curt order quickly reminds him of how anasthesia works.
Magical anasthesia just happens to be that much more effective, see?
So he very quickly slumps himself right back down against the cushions again before he's really even up, with a heavy exhale of breath allowed out.
And then KAzuo's question draws a long blink from him.
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
The german boy starts sweating bullets. ". . . Stuff... uh... happened." Right then.
"'Stuff.'"
It is entirely unfair that Kazuo is at most a couple of years older than Alexis, and yet, somehow, can still sound like a twenty-year teacher who's raised teenagers of his own on top of it. In one word. He doesn't even narrow his eyes. Hell, he doesn't even blink.
Usagi is, of course, busy looking for those aforementioned freezers while eating the muffin. She doesn't leave the living room, of course, because that would be rude.
With a sigh, she gives up. For now.
She's methodically licking and nibbling at the wrapper, because it's a Makoto muffin.
Distract him, huh?
She looks up at Kunzite and shrugs, because even she doesn't buy the stuff! Pff!
"How do you pronounce...um. Aleckusus?"
There. Distracting, not necessarily about to set him off in an agitated state of boy.
"Yeah," says Alex with a firm nod sent to Kazuo.
<FLASHBACK>
A metal baseball bat is swung horizontally through the air with the typical force of a practiced batter, aimed towards Alexis' head, and the german boy's arm snaps up as a barrier into the bat's trajectory.
CRACK.
<FLASHBACK END>
"Stuff."
As inexplicable as Usagi might be, Alex might actually be somewhat grateful of her coming along there to keep his mind SOMEWHAT occupied while he has to stay COMPLETELY STILL.
"Uh..." Even if it is just to have to explain his name. "...It's, uh. Ah-leck-sis. Um. It's kind of hard, I guess, so 'Ah-leks' is fine, really..." Beat. "...Or Bandaid-kun if you *really* want."
"...huh, someone tried to perform neurosurgery on him with a baseball bat, actually, and his arm got in the way," Mamoru says absently, speaking up out of goddamn nowhere as he works, steadily and painstakingly, on regrowing bone and trying to convince tissue to reabsorb splinters. "Who'd you piss off?"
"Probably someone I knew in high school," Kazuo mutters. Under his breath. ... Mostly under his breath, anyway.
Usagi sets out to prove just how deplorable her accent in anything not Japanese is. "Well, you might want me to, Areksisu. Areksu. Yeah, this is why I went with Bandaid-kun, yuo jerk."
She blinks at Mamoru. "Owie!"
And then Kunzite gets large, sad unny eyes directed at him! Mean high school people!
"How am I the jerk here?!" Alex snaps. "It ain't my fault, is it? Pbbbhbhbhtb!" Yes, he sticks his tongue out at Usagi. PBBTBTBT!
His eyes go snapping at Mamoru once more, however, and his eyes widen out a bit in surprise. "How did you...?" He starts, but then cuts himself off when he realizes that, somehow, that is actually a pretty stupid question in this situation.
...And the new question is answered with a quiet murmur of, "....Some guys."
The gangers in question didn't actually have Yakuza connections, thankfully. NOT AS FAR AS HE KNOWS ANYWAY.
"Dunno, Kunzite, the guy didn't look like he was a hundred and two," Mamoru says cheerfully, because he's in the middle of delicate proceedings and knows any revenge on him will have to wait. He'll just start stacking the offenses. But then he briefly focuses on Alexis' face, and he has the grace to look somewhat sheepish. "Sorry, man, you replayed it basically right in front of me. I'm not digging or anything. Normally I have that kind of thing blocked off, but I can't if I'm going to keep this from hurting."
He squints down at the arm again, and his mouth twists into a frown. "Which it... really, really, really would right now. By the way, I'm not going to be able to get the whole thing, but I can definitely get it to the point where you can just splint it for like a week. Bones take a lot of work."
Kazuo eyes sad bunny eyes with much the same faintly-bemused expression Alexis uses on him. What? Did he do something? Did he ...
... strangle Mamoru? No, no, he has an unbroken record on that front, it'd be a shame to end the streak.
"I trust I'll get a better description when you're not busy," Kazuo says idly to Mamoru instead. That he doesn't immediately move to start hunting through the house's medical supplies probably doesn't suggest his annoyance to anyone who doesn't actually live there.
To certain bunny ears, Kunzite, you made it sound like baseball bats aimed at you in high school was common practice!
She doesn't say anything about it, though, because Alex! "I didn't say it was your fault, I said you were a jerk! BLEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
She perks up a little. "Oh yeah! That splint? Mamo-chan got it to where I didn't need it for very long!
"HOW AM I A JERK?!" Alex continues with Usagi and SQUUUUUIIIINTS at the bunny. Er. Girl. Take your pick, then.
ANYWAY. Back to Mamoru (after a very suspicious glance sent to Kazuo, mind you). "... I would *like* to say this person didn't seem like an elderly citizen but who knows with you magic lot, I guess," he mutters, and rolls the shoulder that his UNINJURED arm is attached to. "I also punched him in the nose right after so." And also maybe took the bat and used it on his friends but he decides maybe it's best not to mention that.
And then he immediately realizes that Mamoru probably saw that memory and gives him a sheepish look. He doesn't *say* anything, but that particular look is maybe asking for some graceful silence in regards to *his* violent habits. Especially while Naru is in hearing distance.
"That was a hairline fracture," Mamoru tells Usagi regretfully. "This got splintered. It's really messy. He'll really need the splint, and probably painkillers. Which means no drinking and no fighting while you're recovering," he adds to Alexis, sighing a little and sitting back on his heels as he continues to work. "And I'll need to check it out again when you want to take the splint off to make sure it's not doing anything stupid, so really don't get in any fights."
His blue eyes meet Alex's, and it's easy to tell: he won't tattle. But he'll be a doctor about it.
"Anyway, I was teasing Kunzite, he's twenty four." Glance. "Twenty five?" Look back at Alex. "So if the guy was maybe twenty-one or twenty-two, it's possible he was in school with Kazuo. Probably be a good thing to check out. Doubt they're magic, but gangers are gangers" (wow if he pissed off the whole gang) "and if someone gets the drop on you, we have to cope with Naru wearing black and never smiling for ten years."
He's starting to sound tired, and his brow furrows; the dim gold glow gets brighter. He doesn't look at Kunzite, but addresses him anyway. "I'll show you in a bit, yeah. Sorry. Can you find a splint or a brace or-- something, I don't know."
Naru is good at quiet, and watching and letting the rest of them interrogate Alex on the fight, and distract him and patch him up. Absolutely in hearing distance, not so very far away actually, no matter that she's good at lurking. There's a little roll of her eyes at the jerk accusations going back and forth between him and Usagi. She's folded her arms across her as she watches, and her voice is quiet "No one gets to go splat, I'm selfish about keeping the whole pack of you."
"Twenty-five," Kazuo confirms. There are definite differences, if subtle ones, between the way people look at nineteen and at twenty-five. Kazuo does not look three years out of university. Then again, at least it's not a hundred and two. He exhales, and adds, "The Fabled Boyfriend will need to tell someone whether he can -- and wants to -- deal with codeine or not." And then he moves to go and find a splint or a brace or ... something.
Alex gets the full force of the Sad Bunny Eyes. "Stop being mean!" She is, of course, not talking about the jerk stuff right now. Just the whole magic thing! Ug! Rood!
She jerks a bit in response to Mamoru and blinks at him. "Do you think he can? Not fight?"
SHE HAS HEARD STORIES!
She sulks at Naru and squiggles her toe in the carpet. "He started it..."
And then again she's just LOOKING at Kunzite. Because, twenty-five? Really?
"Well I can't ride my bike with one arm anyway," grumbles Alex unhappily. "So I might as well take the heavy painkillers too at that point. You know I can't *promise* anything about the fighting though, right?" And somehow he finds *that* unreasonable? That might be less surprising to Mamoru, though, since he might be able to sense that, somehow, the idea of pissing off an entire gang doesn't even sound like that unusual of a scenario to Alex.
This is probably a bit worrisome when it comes to someone who's only just closing on being seventeen.
"...They were just some punks bullying a girl anyway. I'm not sure they're gonna try to be a problem. For a while, anyway." And again, he neglects to mention that the reason for that is that they're probably needing doctors, too. And again, Mamoru can probably literally see right through him.
...Of course that is probably moot if they have buddies to tattle to, but Alex may not have immediately taken that into account.
Aaaaand Usagi promptly gets a scoff from him and an insistent, "I'm not being mean." He *is*, however, being a little grumpy about magic, but also not very self-conscious about it.
"Actually we've kind of been jerks about this stuff to him," Mamoru kind of mumbles in Usagi's direction; he reaches up to mash his hair out of his face with the heel of one hand. "So he's a little entitled to be rude back. I hope he can avoid fighting, though, I mean-- there's only so much I can do." He exhales through his teeth and closes his eyes, and the glow fades. He does not remove his hand from Alex's arm, though. "And I also really hope you deal okay with codeine. There are a lot of splinters, and if you went to a hospital, not only would you be in a cast for a couple months, you'd need surgery and possibly a pin. You might want to hit up Asclepius after me, and then maybe Dr. Shelby, to see if they can help speed it along too. I'm really serious about no fighting for the next week. I'd rather no fighting for a couple of weeks, but a week -- especially if you see the others -- is probably okay? It's only partly healed, but it's in place and there's still a lot to re-knit. Do not take the splint off for the next week. Do not."
A beat. "I am not letting go of you until you have a heavy duty painkiller. I don't care if you strong-manned your way in here, you were a little shocky and that's gone now and I did a lot of stuff there, so it's really really really going to hurt when I let go."
"A lack of fighting now means that you heal properly and can fight properly later." Naru points out reasonably as she looks between Alexis and Usagi. "And no matter how much you get used to pain, it still sucks. I expect fighting with it half healed is going to hurt like stupid."
Naru is not getting in the middle of the 'mean' or 'jerk' or any other comments between the two, that is not a fight she is getting in the middle of, that way is a lose-lose prospect for her.
"I can see if Asclepius is free tomorrow, cause I expect letting the trauma from all the fiddling you did settle will help make it easier for him." Naru comments thoughtfully as she moves over closer, while Kunzite is off finding a splint and good drugs. "I swear, Endy, you need to keep some, y'know."
Welcome to the wonderful world of foam-lined vinyl-wrapped metal and plastic, Alexis Raskoph. Kazuo returns with something that looks more like it belongs on a factory robot than on a human being, but it does start sorting out properly with a little untangling. Kazuo also returns with an anonymous white pill and a glass of water, which are probably more immediately helpful. "If you can manage till we get this on him --" he says to Mamoru, not helping Naru's cause in the slightest. At least damning Alexis's arm to the thing will be a good deal faster than the last broken bones they had to deal with in the apartment.
... all parties present at both are probably trying not to think that.
(And yes, Usa, twenty-five.)
Alexis just gets another HMPH from her, but then she's all wide eyed and genuinely all confused. "But...I wasn't bein' a jerk about magic...?"
Was she?
Oh dear!
She's just cranky because Alex is all grr magic and Usagi's all hmph about it!
Woe...
Her eyebrows do raise a bit at Mamoru's increasing talky speed. Hmmmm.
Well, he IS stubborn.
So, with a yawn, she stretches! "Yawn! Sleepy me! Mamo-chan, I'mma go be all snuggly in your bed."
She gives Naru a hug and a cheek smooch.
AND OF COURSE A HUG FOR KUNZITE.
Hey. It may have only been a fracture but it hurt like the dickens! She was allowed some squirmy flails!
"Who?" Alex asks of the first name provided, and then repeats once over "Who?!" with the second. Oh, great. More and more names he has never heard before.
STill, he lets out a sigh and tosses an actually-apologetic look to the way of Usagi. "...Sorry," he mumbles. "I just kinda... been thrust into this, you know? In a way, anyway. And-- Eh." Obviously there's MORE to it going on in his head, but he doesn't seem very eager to get into it.
And Mamoru gets a quiet sigh, too - after a few moments spent in studying the other man with slightly-narrowed eyes - and he mutters to him in turn, "I'll *do my best*."
The instant Kazuo approaches, Alex reaches for the provided pill and water with his still-good hand. The pill is thus swallowed quickly with the help of the water, and the glass is immediately set down to free his hand-- for the express purpose of slapping that same hand down on Mamoru's wrist.
"...You're feeling it instead, aren't you?" He asks with a wry tone and an apologetic smile both. "Take a break." And despite the fact that hte painkillers have had literally *no time* to try and settle in yet (a fact he is probably conscious of considering he's already grittting his teeth together in preparation), he actually tries to yank Mamo's hand off of his arm.
This is probably gonna hurt like hell.
"I am keeping some," Mamoru insists, "I could keep going after a breather but I'm not gonna. I promised." He rubs his nose with his other hand, and just sits there for a moment, holding Alex's arm in place and listening. "Mm," he agrees to Kunzite, and then he gives Usagi the biggest woeful eyes. "Okay...and no, you weren't, but half the people at the barbeque were, myself included..."
He capitulates really easily, actually. A much smaller voice, "Can I have a kiss first?"
Then he turns to look at Alex, eyes wide. "Not all of it! I promise I'm nowhere near that stoic. I make faces when I'm hurt. And I complain. And I make sure everyone around me knows it. I-- oh god don't do th-- oooooh, damn."
He's not about to grab the arm he just got done trying to keep Alex from jarring. No. He is going to full-body wince in sympathy instead.
"Kunzite!" What. 'Make him stop'? That never works.
She sighs and nods. "It's okay. But it's just...most of us weren't exactly giving time to adjust to the water. We were...thrown in. So I understand, just..."
Shrug. And she turns to go.
Usagi pauses halfway out before turning to Mamoru at his request, eyebrows raised.
They don't last long. She all but skips over to give him a long, sweet kiss.
"Snuggly Bunnies are waiting, just so you don't go trying to stubborn things out~."
Skip, skip, skip!
"Goodnight Usagi." Naru replies to her, quick hug before she leaves and then returns to give Mamo a proper smooch.
"Oh bloody /hell/." Naru mutters with solid amount of emphasis as she realizes what Alexis is doing just a blink or two after Alexis tries to remove Mamoru, and adding /another/ person into potential jarring of a fragile arm makes her pull her arm back as not to get mixed up in.
"That is going to make getting the splint on suck a whole lot." Naru looks to Mamoru and then to Kunzite and then back to Alexis. She takes a slow breath and then closes her eyes a moment. "Might want to let the pain drugs kick in a bit more first."
Kazuo glances up at Alexis, and his bland expression somehow manages to get ... more so. "Well," he says. "If you want the closest thing you have to a doctor not to be able to be sure that you won't give yourself nerve damage in the next week, by all means, continue. I'm sure you don't need to be able to close that hand that badly."
That was way more than Alex expected, tell the truth. And so the initial surge of the returning pain - sans the dampening from shock and adrenaline both - hits him completely off-guard.
It's to the point that when his back jolts into an arch, his head tilts far back and his mouth gapes wide open, there's not even a sound. Not so much because he's stubborning his way through the pain enough to not make a sound, but because *his brain can't catch up quickly enough to let his throat create any sound*.
"Gagh--"
Somehow, the german still somehow manages to keep himself from trashing about the couch from the pain when his muscles leave the deadlock, even if there is more than enough trembling visible and he's left into panting heavily.
"Guh-- do me a favor..." He grumbles then, past the heavy breaths, while his good hand reaches about for the leather jacket he left bundled on the other end. "Tone down... the... sass and... get that stuff on my arm..." The jacket's yanked over by the sleeve, and the leather fabric there is brought between his teeth to bite down HARD on.
Agonized sweat runs along the boy's brow, and his eyes flick to find those of Mamoru's. Even with all that, the stubbornness is visible in his greens.
A certain high school senior gets his toes curled for him with his girlfriend's kiss goodnight, but then god damn, Alexis. Mamoru scowls and takes his glasses off, leaning to put them on the end table. "Idiot," he says through his teeth, and he reaches forward and grabs Alex's ankle. "Stay goddamned still. You can have all the pain back as soon as your stupid arm is immobile. He's not kidding about nerve damage. And I'm not kidding about there being only so much I can do. Don't waste what I've already done, or I swear on all that's good and holy that you're just going to the hospital and you can have a bloody cast and some surgery and a metal bolt through your ulna for the rest of your life."
"I work for one person in this room," Kazuo says conversationally to Alexis. "You're lucky enough not to be it."
Which means that, yes, he's waiting.
And the moment the syllable stay is out of Mamoru's mouth? Then Kazuo is moving. ... He has done this before. He has, patently, done this recently. The only wasted breath is when he might ordinarily be checking to see if adjustments are necessary, and even then it's not asking questions; he just says aside to Mamoru, once, "Show me."
... and the questions become unnecessary. Nothing about this is comfortable. But it could be a lot worse. And it could be a whole lot slower.
And yet, even after the pain is forced away again, what is the tone in Alex's expression?
Frustration.
The leather sleeve is spat out of his mouth with a *pthuu* and thankfully for all involved, he does actually elect to stay still now. "...Just do it quick," he insists then, in a low mutter that ends in a grunt.
Wether Mamoru is fortunate or unfortunate for being awfully privy to Alex's motivation here remains up to the Prince himself.
And show Kunzite Mamoru does. Here and here, potential nerve damage from where abruptly tensed muscle pulled at fragile half-knit bone, there, potential fracture blisters from where the splinters re-aggravated the soft tissue, there and here, where the velcro needs to be tight and where it's going to have to be tightened later.
Mamoru's own expression is grim, and he makes it clear -- the empathy here is a two way street -- that he has negative sympathy for Alexis' reasoning at this very moment.
Yes, he's taking some of the pain, no, it's not that much as most of it's being sent back along the ether, grounded; yes, he appreciates that Alexis wants to spare him his pain; no, that is not helpful at this time; yes, sometimes one has to suck it up and acknowledge that sometimes people have to do things for you--
--and furthermore, it is better for Mamoru to tank a little bit of Alexis' pain now than Mamoru having to cope with Alexis being in a lot of pain for a very long time when he could have done something about it.
"This is what I do," he tells Alex sharply, out loud. "This is what I'm for. It's not for you. It's for Naru, and it's for me. Neither you nor I give much of a rat's ass about physical pain, and both of us want to spare other people from having to see ours, deal with ours, cope with ours. So believe me, I understand. But you need to understand that Naru gives a lot more than a damn about you, and when people care about you, your pain is already their pain. So if you want to avoid this in the future, don't piss off gangs. Or if you do, get better at running. Maybe invest in some plate armor."
"Be grateful he's giving you the short version of that lecture." Kunzite shifts one of the fastenings, pulling loose a wrinkle in the foam that would've started causing trouble in a couple of days; tightens it again, careful, stops. "Don't ask about the long version." Another test, and another, and it's as good as it's going to get, isn't it; he lets his hands fall away. "That's going to loosen as the swelling goes down, which will probably happen fast once it starts. Check it morning and night, tighten it carefully when you need to. If you get any burning or numbness in your fingers, come back and let Mamoru look at it again. If you take it off early, it's your own fault if you stab yourself in an artery with a bone splinter."
"...Sometimes things just happen," Alex mutters and tosses his eyes sideways to set onto some far-off wall of the room. Which is basically his way of saying 'sometimes running isn't an option'.
"..It's not like I don't appreciate getting to skip out on two months of recovery," he murmur then, a little quieter -- even if his lower lip is jutting out a bit momentarily. "...So, thanks. But you understand, don't you?"
Mamoru gives Kunzite a sidelong look, but then the corner of his mouth twitches. The long version of that lecture is very long. He finishes up what he's doing, reducing inflammation as much as he can without compromising anything else, and he looks up at Alex again.
The corners of his eyes soften slightly, and his expression gets a little wry. "Yeah," he says simply.
Then he looks away, eyes falling to the splint. "I've gotten that lecture more times than I care to admit. I get it."
A beat. "I'm gonna let go now."
He lets go.
Kunzite glances aside at Mamoru, and doesn't say anything. Which is a fairly open clue that Kunzite is still occasionally getting that lecture.
Probably the long version.
He turns aside to counting out pills and packaging them with the folded paper that's the usage directions. Between the last set of shattered bones and the alien plant issues, they don't have much left, but it'll be available to blunt what's left of the worst.
If Alexis admits to needing it.
Maybe the codeine has started to take some effect, or maybe Alexis has just mentally prepared himself much better than before, but the reaction to Mamoru's hand leaving his ankle prompts am uch more subdued reaction from him than before -- even if he does noticably twitch and briefly grit his teeth together when the waves of pain wash over his nerves from within the broken arm.
"Ghhhh-- Not... always so simple, I guess..." He mutters past his teeth, and after arching his back for a moment, he makes a conscious effort to just try to relax against the couch, even if he's still dripping with agonized pain. At least the knowledge that this is only going to be temporary makes him feel a little better about this.
"...Is it okay," he says then, quietly, and his eyes drop down to the lap. "...If I stay here over the night?"
"I get a variation on the lecture on a regular basis." Naru comments. She's still there, but she's apparently not overly distraught about Mamo talking at her with her being there.
Naru winces a little as Alex gets back to full dollop of pain, even with a bit of dulling from codeine.
Mamoru gets somewhat laboriously to his feet, then brushes off his knees. He smiles lopsidedly down at Alex. "Sure, that's fine. There's plenty of room here. Just pick any room that doesn't look lived in and doesn't have one of Naru's paintings hanging on the wall."
Then he leans over and messes up Naru's hair, and then he starts heading in the direction Usagi left. As he goes, his fingertips trail across the back of Kunzite's head, sifting through white hair and letting it fall. "The lecture's important for everyone in this crowd. Good guys are too good for their own good. See you tomorrow."
He vanishes through a doorway.
"The same room as last time might be easiest to find," Kazuo notes to Alexis. No particular enforcement there, though, twice over when Mamoru's ruffling his hair. Dignity is not so much a thing that comes with living in this place. Kazuo shakes his head slightly after, and rises to his feet. "If you need anything to get through the night -- or the morning -- say the word. Naru?" Apparently 'will you be staying, too?' is too many syllables; he's exhausted his quota, or something.
"Yeah, that... is probably best..." Alex agres quietly, and with a heavy, pained breath exhaled out, he leans himself right back agianst the cushions of the bed again -- with just the faintest of trembles running along his body, too. "I'll... hold off on the meds for now, though. Last thing we need is... me overdosing, right...?"
Naru is ruffled and there's a fond smile and a quiet 'thank you' to Mamoru as he does it. Probably not for the ruffling, at a guess. She turns to Kunzite and nods to his unspoken query. Clearly she doesnt actually /need/ the words, per se, she can answer without them. She'll be staying too.
"I'll wake you up when you can have more of them." Naru comments quietly to Alex, making it clear that her plans include playing nursemaid. She glances back to Kunzite. "I think I can find most boring things around here. Thank you."
"I was thinking of more mundane things," Kazuo notes, and inclines his head to Naru before passing off the packet of pills and directions to her, rather than to Alexis. "He'll need to drink as much as he can, tonight; he should eat later if he can, and don't let him skip breakfast. The early stages are mostly protein-based, but he's probably gone through most of the available calcium in his body, so if it's not replenished he'll be pulling it out of the rest of his bones and teeth. Good luck."
That apparently passes for a goodnight from him, given that he turns to leave the pair of them alone.
"So a whole lot of milk and everything else," Alex mutters with a quiet, pained chuckle. He stares off to the direction of the ceiling for a while, and eventually turns his head sidewards, to try to seek out the visage of Naru with his eyes. "...So I get my own personal nurse now, then?"
"Milk, yogurt.. there's others too, I'm sure." Naru rests her head on the back of the couch, curling up as it settles to just the two of them, and the apartment gets quiet. "Your own personal nurse." Naru confirms with a touch of a smirk. "I'm expecting this one to be more of a pain than when you were drunk, if only because of the pain." She takes a slow breath and lets it out in a sigh. "I figure letting the pain meds kick in a bit more before you try and get up is probably wise."
"At least I have full control of all my thoughts this time around," Alex points out with a wry chuckle -- even if that might not seem terribly accurate given all the circumstances that lead up to this particular point in the situation. "I wasn't exactly planning on getting up for a while 'less I needed to, either. So there you go."
"Mostly at least. I know I generally get stupid when I hurt enough." Naru points out and then smiles a touch. "We will want to go to bed at some point, cause I know I'd rather have the option of sleeping through people moving through the living room.. if we actually manage anything as sanity recovering as sleeping." She reaches a hand out to brush her fingers across his cheek. "Should I be steeling myself to get many of these phone calls?"
"That could be taking a little while," Alex points out in turn, ruefully -- what iwth all the pain and all. "WE'll just have to wait and see how long the meds take to take effect before I can actually think about standing up. I don't really feel like sleeping on the couch-- bad for the back, you know."
The hand he leans his head against, and slowly allows his eyes to drift shut. "I hope not," he murmurs. "But you know. Stuff happens. I'll just have to get better."
"I don't think your back's complaints would even register over the screaming your arm is doing." Naru comments lightly, shifting just a little to better lean lightly on him.
"Stuff happens." Naru agrees softly. "I'm not usually on the healthy side of the equation. I think I've almost come down off the adrenaline." She takes another slow breath and lets her own eyes close. "At this rate, you're going to end up with me coming with you to keep you in one piece."
"You really want to get in the middle of street fights with me, though?" Alex asks mostly-jokingly, and he ever-so-carefully shifts himself along atop the couch and draws his uninjured arm just as carefully over and around Naru with a quiet sigh of content. Apparently this seems to put him at ease. Or maybe the codeine is just kicking in. Or maybe both.
"Middle? No. Alongside? If it keeps you closer to being in one piece.. then yes." Naru answers, not really joking. She moves as he does, to be able to curl up against him. Her sigh is just as content, complete with a quiet comment. "I didn't want to curl up close, in case more of you hurt than just your arm."
Naru lets her eyes close again, relaxed in against him. She's tired, her days are long, but she's awake yet. "In all the myriad of ways I've gotten myself chewed on by things, I don't think I've ever broken anything. Supernaturals are more insidious in their attacks."
"I'd honestly rather not risk you like that," Alex insists in a quiet murmur, and reaches his arm further downwards along her to try and reach for her hands -- or at least offer his hand to her, since it's the limb isn't long enough to reach all the way down there while wrapped around her shoulders too. "It's bad enough that I have to get hurt, you know? And I'm at least used to dealing with bruises and broken bones and--" He decides perhaps not to continue that particular line of thought.
"Generally, the point of having two of us is so that neither of us gets broken. Bruises arne't so bad." Naru shifts a little to be able to take his hand, while still all curled up against his uninjured side.
"I'm used to getting energy drained, that doesnt phase me much anymore." Naru notes. "I haven't been thrown into anything in a while, which is a nice change. I hate the crap that gets into my head. I'd take a lot of things, broken bones included, before I want to face another wraith." She gives his hand a squeeze. "I /get it/ about getting hurt. I just try not to provoke it too often, it happens enough without prodding."
"Just," says Alex, and lets out a heavy sigh.
"You know why I keep getting into fights?" He asks of Naru, then, wistully. "I mean... Sometimes I get into fights just because I need to let out some steam, but, I mean..." He bites down at his lower lip, lightly, and his hand squeezes at hers, uncertainly.
Naru is quiet, squeezing his hand gently and letting that sigh and silence settle as she waits for him to continue. She tips her head up, to open her eyes and look up at him, watching that uncertainty and responding to it with another little nuzzle in next to him. Silent reminder that she's not going anywhere, as she watches him.
"...You know," he lets out then, along with a rueful chuckle rumbling up along his chest. "I was kind of expecting you to make some kind of guess there." WIth that, he tips his head downwards, to meet the nuzzle by brushing his nose against her hair briefly. "...Usually, I just... do it so someone else doesn't get hurt. Lot of thugs and bullies to go around."
Naru smiles up at him. "And I've learned that if I want a real answer, dont provide guesses that you'll happily pass off as answers you think I'll like better." She grins brightly and relaxes anew against him. "To me, though.. you're the someone else who I dont want to see getting hurt. I dont' really want random people getting bullied or harassed.. no.. but I worry about my vigilante. You're not disposible. I worry all the more about what's going to go after you next, because of me."
"*Usually* I fare good enough I don't get hurt beyond a few bruises," Alex claims -- at least he's not lying about the bruises part, especially with him basically having a perpetually broken nose.
He does let out a wistful sigh soon enough, however. "...I guess I should ask for some kind of brief about what kind of things could be coming after us, though," he mutters. "...So I'll actually know what I *shouldn't* do."
"I'm really fond of you not getting cracked open too often." Naru comments with another squeeze of his hand and a slow relaxed sigh. Content. Sleepy. "Soon, I'm going to go to bed or else I really will be asleep on the couch." She points out softly.
It's a few moments of quiet before Naru considers her answer to that. "So far, I can think of two that are devistating at a touch. Noise, which are like the cofee shop guy, but more so are fatal at a touch. Please don't punch them. Wraiths are not fatal, but if they get you good.. they're one of my nightmares. I hate them, I'm fairly biased." She considers a moment and then adds. "I've a list. Categorized and ranked on all the things that have tried to chew on me. I'll show you when we're awake sometime."
There's another pause, where Naru might even be starting to doze off and then she adds. "And if a freaky white dog-rat /thing/ offers you a wish or a contract.. don't agree. No matter how tempting."
"A... White... dog-rat..." Alex repeats in confusion, and lifts his head upwards from Naru just enough that he can actually look down at her instead, eyes narrowing slowly. "...That offers wishes or contracts. What... is that supposed to be, exactly?"
Naru looks just as relaxed as ever, her eyes still closed as she mmms softly and nods. It's a few moments before she opens her eyes to watch him look down at her. "Kyubey. I've never met him, I dont think you will either, but you wanted to know what might turn up.. he might turn up. I got warned against him.. three or four times, I think, by various people. I'm passing that warning on to you." She nods, as if that is just as normal as anything and snuggles in again, her eyes closing.
"...Is that supposed to be like some case of a devil's deal, or something?" Alex asks with a faint frown of thoughtful concern. His nose wrinkles, and his head tips back down again with a quiet sigh. "...Was that what Usagi meant about some people getting tricked, then?" Beat. "Why *wouldn't* I meet him, actually?"
"Very much like a devils' deal." Naru nods in agreement and mmmms softly. "I missed Usagi saying about people getting tricked, but it would fit into that too, yes." She opens an eye to look up at him a moment. "Traditionally, he only approaches girls. Apparently he's been weird lately though, and I don't know the details, but I figured better safe than sorry on the warning."
For some reason or another, Alex's eyes narrow again from hearing that much. He remains in thoughtful silence for a moment, and then, of all things, he asks; "So, what. He's a sexist devil?"
"Apparently?" Naru gives a little shrug. "Seriously m'dear, I know very little about Kyubey. I'm under the impression he is particular, apparently he's got a fetish or something. I dunno." She closes her eyes again. "Those who have made contracts with him are not terribly fond of him."
"I am not sure I want to know much more," Alex mutters with a faint tremble, and shifts slightly along the couch and against Naru. "I think I'm good to move," he murmurs. "Should we go find that room?"
"I don't usually either." Naru admits as she stretches a little at his words about moving. She takes a moment, comfortable and reluctant to move, no matter that moving is a better bet. "Before I fall asleep on the couch? Lets."
Naru uncurls and leans up to steal a brief kiss before sliding to her feet fully and offers him a hand if he wants a hand up. "Hopefully you can sleep."
The guest room in question isn't very far, at least, and while spartan, comfortable enough.
"I'm gonna be honest there might be a pretty decent chance I will unintentionally roll over while sleeping and then wake up screaming but *what are you gonna do*." Somehow Alex keeps himself *completely* nonchalant about that prospect.
The fact that he's going to be having Naru nearby through the night probably helps things in his mind, though.
"As long as I dont roll over onto your sore arm.." Naru points out with a touch of a smile. "If you wake up screaming, I expect I will wake up with a start, and then get you more pain meds."
Naru is tired enough to just crawl into bed without a whole lot of fanfare, choosing the side where she's least likely to end up rolling into Alex's still healing arm. Her eyes already closed as she stretches out briefly before coming to settle close with Alex when he joins her.
And as it turns out, Alex is tired enough to just go nonchalantly settling onto the bed. Late evening and a broken arm will kind of take the energy out of you, as one might imagine. He *does* have to settle there very carefully because of the arm - by way of sitting down at the edge and then carefully scooting onto his back while gently tugging at his sore arm to make sure it doesn't jostle any which way - but he does eventually manage to settle next to the redhead, where his unbroken arm spreads over towards her in apparent invitation.
Tired on two sides, and half of them sore and hopped up on pain meds tends to do wonders for cutting through potential shy. Even if it's not their first time sleeping in the same bed. Not even their second.
Naru barely opens her eyes as she snuggles in close, accepting that invitation to drape over him casually as they surrender to sleep.
It is quiet for quite some time, at least on Naru's side of the equation. Peaceful, even and relaxed.
At least until it isn't. Peaceful sleeping gives way to Naru tense in her sleep, curling up close to Alex first before thrashing her way into rolling away from him, her breathing no longer that slow relaxed rhythm of sleep.