+: being led back to bed with patient whispers for stabbed Jake?? 🥺
"Jake, what are you doing?"
Jake squints a little harder without turning around. The world has soft edges, blurs together. It's a wall between him and a strange mix of pain and numbness he doesn't want to think too much about. "Checking."
Kauri hums from the doorway, steps into the kitchen. "Checking for what?" His hand moves, casually affectionate, touching Jake's back and drifting down his spine.
"Milk." Jake's mouth moves slow, or his brain does, right now. He isn't sure he can handle more than one word at once.
"Well, you will probably struggle to find milk there, since you are currently looking at the cans-of-stuff cabinet." Kauri's voice is gently teasing, and when he takes Jake by his good arm, Jake lets himself be slowly turned around. "I can get you some milk if you want. Come on, you need to be in bed."
"N, no," Jake mumbles, staring down at his own bare feet. "Gravy."
"Jake. You have the use of a single hand and like two braincells working right now. I can make you biscuits and gravy if you want, yeah?"
Kauri gently leads him across the floor, and Jake takes one step and then another, slowly. His feet shuffle more than lift.
Jake shakes his head. "Antoni," He says. His arm sits useless in the sling, taking the weight and pressure off his healing shoulder. The haze is nice. He can tell his shoulder hurts but he's so very far away from the feeling.
"Pffft, nobody trusts my cooking." Kauri laughs, unbothered, and helps him back to the fold-out bed in the living room. "Fine, fine. Ant it is. Here we go... Back to bed, Jake Stanton. Listen to your nurse."
Jake lays back, and looks up at Kauri with a faint smile. "... Outfit?"
Kauri laughs louder, now, and Jake warms to the sound. "Maybe once you're off the good painkillers we can talk."