Time is a hypocrite... nothing bad will come of him hiding injuries, right..?
Special shout out to the lovely @akchimp75 (sorry for the tag if you don't want it!)
804 words
Warnings for injuries (not described much but there), stitches (again, not described much, but it's there), lying, and needles.
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He gets back to camp, finding one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight sleeping heroes…
Wild’s curled up next to Twi, the older in wolf form. Hyrule’s next to Legend, one hand grasping the veteran’s tunic. Wars is next to Wind on the other side of camp, his scarf covering both of them like a blanket. Sky’s fast asleep, snuggled in a ridiculous amount of blankets, as if in a nest, and Four’s asleep with a book on his chest.
All perfectly fine.
He gives a relieved breath, sinking down to sit by the fire.
Takes a second to scan over his injuries… then sets off to taking care of himself.
One slow breath, two slow breaths- and he pops his shoulder back into place.
Groans under his breath, but the ache slowly fades as he takes a minute for his vision to return and sips some water.
He takes a deep breath, tying a strip of his blanket around the cut on his am. Watches for a minute, but blood doesn’t seep through it.
Digs through his bag, grabbing his med kit and the stitches in it. No antiseptic, but he’ll manage.
Washes the needle off, shaking his head slightly at himself.
So he takes a slow breath, bunches his shirt up and bites it tightly in his mouth, looking down at his leg. The cut gushing blood.
One. Two. Three. One stitch. Two. Three.
Carefully moving up his calf, hands shaking worse by the minute, he gives himself eight deep tissue sutures, twenty normal ones.
Manages not to wake any of the boys in the process, too.
He lets himself take a few minutes after that, leaning back against his tree and taking a few slow, controlled breaths, wiping his face off.
The wound is nasty- trailing from the top of his ankle halfway up his calf, but no longer in dire need of medical attention.
Blood loss exhausts him, but he can’t let his eyes close.
One more deep breath, then continue.
The wound at his side isn’t nearly as bad as he’d feared- just a scrape, really. He cleans it easily and lets it be for now. His knee throbs, but he sees no damage. On the outside, at least.
Other than that, he’s just banged up. Bruised, battered, sore, but… not going to die.
He has the slightest limp when he walks- it’ll be gone by morning, and if it’s not he can blame his old joints if anyone notices.
His clothing covers any injuries, and the armor will hide it even more, so he won’t have to worry about that, and Wild had said they’re on course to reach town early tomorrow. So he shouldn’t have to worry about fighting again.
He hadn’t used bandages or a potion for the sake of anyone inquiring about missing one, so that’s covered… and no one will notice the stitches. He’ll be fine.
Any soreness that lingers in the morning he’ll be able to push through.
He lets himself settle, but he has no other disturbances for the rest of his watch. No other monsters come near.
Once the moon gets low enough, he takes a slow breath and stands. Aching muscles scream in protest, but he pushes through and gently shakes the captain awake.
Wars wakes easily, squinting blearily at him. “Is it my watch?” He mumbles groggily, rubbing his eyes and sitting up.
“Yeah, good morning.”
“Maybe for you it was. Third watch is the worst.” The captain grumbles lightly, taking his scarf off when Wind refuses to let it go.
They both smile softly, watching the sailor sleep for a moment.
Then Wars stands with a sigh, stretching his arms above his head, moving to the fire he’d just abandoned. “Sleep well, Old Man.”
He winces slightly as he stands. The captain catches it, eyes flicking to him.
“You alright?”
“Of course,” He says easily. “My old man back just isn’t keeping up as well these days.”
Wars gives a smile, shaking his head. “Want me to-”
“That’s alright. I don’t need anything, I’m fine.” He shrugs Wars off before he can finish, and Wars nods unconcernedly.
Part of him feels bad lying to the Captain- they’ve already had talks about trust, but… Wars doesn’t need to worry about him. He’s fine, and he treated his injuries already, so there’s no point in telling anyone. There’s nothing else they can do.
Taking the time to rest so he can heal is unnecessary- he’s mainly just banged up and sore, two bad cuts to worry about. He can walk just fine without injuring himself further.
He doesn’t need any help. He can handle himself.
So he gives Wars one final nod, settling into his bedroll and falling asleep easily past the lingering aches and throbbing of his injuries.
I recently moved to a new city and everything is so different here. I don’t know if this is what being homesick is like but I don’t know a soul here and I live in a flat, classes at uni are simultaneous and being an intrvert isn’t actually helping my case right now. I don’t know if I can anymore
People have driven me to do something I haven't done in 9 years. I hate that I let them do that to me. I am stronger than this. I will pull myself out of this toxic environment. These people are toxic. I need to keep that fact in my mind.
