Sebastian and Hawke: “Wiggle your fingers. I need to make sure it’s not broken.”? :D?
<3 <3
Set Scene: The Wounded Coast, sun high in the sky, in a clearing surrounded by trees. Sebastian and Garrett Hawke out hunting, two rogues, ambushed by bandits that are quickly dispatched, but not quick enough.
//
“Wiggle your fingers. I need to make sure it’s not broken.”
Garrett tries. Maker, he tries, but his movements stutter at the elbow and explode into pain. He tries to bite back the cry of pain, tries--
“It’s alright, Hawke.” Sebastian’s Starkhaven drawl had always been something of a comfort, a reminder of easier times. Now it’s like music to Garrett’s ears, warm and comforting, even better. “Easy.” His fingers hover near Garrett’s cradled elbow, his useless wrist, bent at a troubling angle where it had caught a bandit’s shield in the ambush. “Let me see.”
“Just-- wait,” gasps Garrett, surprised at the breath missing from his throat. “It hurts.” He realises, “It is. It’s broken.”
“I know.” Sebastian sets his fingers, ever so gently, on the skin on his arm. “We’ll get it braced, slung up, and we’ll take the walk back to Kirkwall nice and slow.”
“That-- that sounds good,” he agrees, managing a smile. Sebastian doesn’t look concerned, as steely as ever, but worry rings through behind his eyes, in the rumble of his deep voice. Maybe it helps. Maybe it doesn’t.
Sebastian fashions him a brace out of two arrows, the arrowheads pulled off -- a task he knows will take hours to re-do. And a brace out of the leather in Hawke’s pack, coarse but will do the job. A little like them.
“On three.” Sebastian’s voice is not as slow now. His hands are on Hawke’s arm, his eyes holding Garrett’s gaze. “One, two--” Crack.
Garrett doesn’t even try to stop the scream this time, the clearing turning white as the pain runs up and down his arm, blinding and hot. “It’s okay, Hawke, it’s okay. It’s done.” Sebastian is holding his good shoulder, squeezing it tight. His gaze is piercing, strong.
It carries him through lifting his arm into the makeshift sling, and Sebastian helping him to his feet. He’s a little wobbly, but Sebastian is steady, firm. He loops Hawke’s good arm around his shoulders and Garrett leans into his side instantly, grateful for the relief. His legs are shaky, tired.
His heart is all the opposite.
“Come on, Hawke,” says Sebastian, in his ear. “Let’s go home.”













