|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 8:02 pm
 |
|
|
 |
Things weren’t supposed to end up like this. All Yuuri wanted to do was get home from his classes, preferably before it started to rain, and without incident.
It had already started raining.
And there had already been an incident.
Typically he was small enough to squeeze through most of the gates that were put up to stop people from slinking around back alleys. It came in handy when he was trying to escape being caught by senshi or knights as Kamacite, and it also came in handy when he spent too long in class and ended up missing the bus home.
Slipping through the iron rungs of the gates was child’s play. He’d done it dozens of times before. And there was a particularly difficult one that had decorative curled iron about two feet from the bottom, but enough space for him to squeeze through if he held his breath. His shoulder bag was always first, and he carefully slid his arm and it through, before stepping over the decorative and rusting spirals, and squeezing the rest of the way.
At least that was how it was supposed to happen.
The sudden boom of thunder overhead made him jump in surprise, his hand slipping from where he held onto the fence for support, and his foot twisted on the already damp ground. Dazed and in pain, Yuuri tried pushing himself up from where he’d fallen onto the pavement, his ankle twisted uncomfortably as it got caught between the curled iron of the fence.
Thunder rolled above again, and heavy drops of rain began to fall. And as if things couldn’t get worse, his bag had slipped just out of reach so he couldn’t grab it without causing his ankle more pain. It probably served him right for being impatient and trying to get home before -
Yuuri cringed as he tensed up at the sound of another crash of thunder, the movement cutting the rusty metal into his ankle. His heart was pounding, and it was starting to rain, and thunder, and his leg hurt, and he just wanted to go home, and he was stuck and -
He could possibly power up…
He could power up and teleport and…
But he could hear the heavy footsteps of someone possibly about to pass the alley, in a hurry to get home, surely. He would just wait until they were gone. Hopefully if he held still they wouldn’t even see him.
He probably looked like a slowly drowning mouse with its foot caught in a trap...
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:58 pm
|
|
|
|
Mentally, Lauri was doing one last check-over his grocery list. He'd picked up a few things and didn't want to have to make yet another run that day - it was inefficient - when thunder split the heavens loud enough that he couldn't help an involuntary flinching, shoulders coming up around his ears. Dammit, it wasn't supposed to start yet...ugh...I should have brought a ******** umbrella... At least his grocery bags were fabric, so he didn't have to worry about them getting soggy and ripping or anything stupid like that.
Lauri's boots thudded along the pavement, splashing in the quickening downpour. Unfortunately for the slowly drowning mouse, the Finn was more observant than most and he was noticed. A rather pitiful, sodden creature. Caught in a grate or a fence or something. Fantastic. But why does he not call for help? Embarrassment? Stupidity? Shock?
With a grumbling sigh, he shifted his two bags to one hand and began walking down the alley to see what was going on with the damp little mouse. "Hey, what happened? That's dangerous--" Ah. There. His leg was still in the fence, the damage wasn't visible yet, but the closer Lauri's long legs brought him the clearer the picture became, even through the rain.
"That looks painful...don't move, I'll help." Lauri picked up what he assumed was the youth's book bag, moving it and his groceries under the dubious protection of an alley awning. It was better than nothing. "You've really ******** yourself, eh?" Seriously, this was a problem now, the metal was biting into skin, there was blood and rain to make things slippery...and the whole lot was one of those 'ornate' bullshit things that caused problems.
"Does it feel broken?" First things first.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 10:20 pm
|
|
|
|
Oh no. Oh no oh no, the footsteps stopped and then changed direction and were heading his way. And a man’s voice was asking him what happened. A man with an accent that Yuuri could have sworn he’d heard before. Recently.
Yuuri turned his head enough to look up at the approaching man, squinting through the thickening rain. There was a name on his tongue, but…
No, this was a different person. Something that felt like disappointment deflated inside Yuuri, and then a strange twist of embarrassment that he was disappointed in the first place.
“I fell,” he said a little dumbly, at a loss for words as he blinked the water out of his eyes. Obviously he fell. That was a stupid thing to say. It was probably a rhetorical question to begin with. Things would have just been easier had he known this person. If it had been -
“I don’t think it’s broken,” he said, knowing he was told to hold still, but he felt like an idiot lying on his stomach in the rain with his foot stuck. “You’re getting wet,” Yuuri said somewhat breathlessly, another obvious thing, “I mean… thank you, but it’s okay. I don’t -”
Don’t what? It wasn’t like he didn’t want help. But he felt guilty for getting someone involved when it was his own fault for getting into this mess.
“I’m sorry, I -” but his words were cut off by another roll of thunder, and Yuuri ducked his forehead against the pavement, arms lifting over his head. This would have been a lot easier had the storm not suddenly started. He wouldn’t have been completely useless as he was now.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 11:10 pm
|
|
|
|
He seemed familiar and then not, like maybe he'd seen him before on a train or bus - or on campus. Perhaps this was someone he'd bumped into or had passing knowledge of as Pasi? It didn't seem that the dark haired youth had knowledge of him, so it didn't seem that whatever may or may not have been there was anything beyond the most surface of interactions, which was fine. That didn't mean he wouldn't assist.
"Good. We will try to keep it that way." 'You're getting wet' was inane as commentary went, but the man was flustered and clearly afraid of the thunder. It would have been cruel to make light of it and Lauri did not believe that he'd ever been cruel without cause. Dismissive, perhaps, but not blatantly cruel - that was a decidedly American trait and not one that he'd ever catered to.
A new life, yes, as Lauri instead of Pasi, but he'd prepared long for this - there were many pages of notes and such about his former life. Not to keep him focused on the past, but to help going forward for the present as smoothly as possible. It had been quite helpful so far.
"I'm going to touch your leg." Lauri crouched near and moved closer, reaching out to put a hand on Yuuri's leg, near where it and the iron met and the blood welled up. "This looks nasty, you've got a pretty bad cut." Rusted bullshit metal, weakened, never treated or sandblasted to keep it neat...garbage upkeep. He would need a tetanus shot, probably. First aid, at the least. That, he could provide, as long as it wasn't broken.
With a light touch, Lauri felt from ankle to metal, feeling the weak spots and realizing he could actually bend the metal away so Yuuri could pull his foot free fairly easily, but that it would scrape further if he did that. Still, it was the easiest way of freeing the mouse.
"I have good news." He turned, pushing wet hair from his face and wiping water out of his eyes, "I can bend the coil to free your ankle.
But it will scrape your ankle further and be painful. It is the quickest way, but also your choice."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 11:57 pm
|
|
|
|
This was stupid. Yuuri felt absolutely pathetic, even though the man was doing his best to be gentle with him. He could hear the man with his foreign accent telling him how he was going to touch his leg, and that it was cut pretty bad, and even though Yuuri had only met the man a couple times before, he couldn’t help but remember the way Pasi spoke to him when he wrapped his hands after Yuuri had burned both of them with hot coffee.
It was just the accent. That was all. That was what Yuuri told himself. The reason why he thought of the crazy man who had carried him to his apartment -
Maybe he could stop by to see how Pasi was doing some time. That would be okay, right? He could at least leave a note thanking him for… introducing him to the two cats at the softball game. No, that would be weird. People didn’t do that. Did they? Was that any weirder than telling Pasi he was just thinking of him because he met a man who reminded him of the other?
There was a long moment in which Yuuri didn’t even realize the man had given him a choice. He was just trying to breathe, to remove himself from that situation completely, to be at home, or soaking in a bath, or anywhere away from here.
“Sorry,” he swallowed thickly, and shifted to glance over his shoulder, his voice a bit shaky as he shivered from the cold of the rain. “Yes. That’s fine. Thank you. It doesn’t hurt that much,” he lied, his hands already balling into fists, nails biting into his palms as he prepared for more pain.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:33 am
|
|
|
|
Ludicrous. Familiar. Ridiculous. Damp Terrified for no good reason. Had he known someone like that before? Without his notes, the connection eluded his grasp almost as well as the youth's rain-and-blood slippery ankle did.
As he waited for the trapped mouse to process and answer, he did his best to be patient, which was just a bit difficult with the rain pounding down his head, his shoulders, and even now - because he was crouched - right down his a**-crack like some sort of water torture device or weirdly broken bidet. Just as Lauri was about to say something or perhaps shake Mr. Mystery Clutz, he seemed to snap out of it all his own.
Obviously, the guy was lying. He was shaking - cold or fear or pain or all of the above mixed - but at least he was being brave about it, so Lauri just shrugged a little and returned his attention the the trapped limb and rusting metal. A moment's more thought and he began unfastening his belt, offering it to Yuuri once he'd taken it off. "Bite down on this, not hands or tongue. Just in case."
Lauri pressed the damp leather into Yuuri's hands and then waited until his instructions had been obediently followed, only then did he return his attention to the trapped ankle. A few moments muttering in Finnish about leverage and he was ready to give it a shot, leaning his entire body against the metal to push it away from Yuuri's skin and using his hands to grasp the coil and hold it back so there was just enough room to wiggle out - if one was willing to lose some skin in the process. "Now- nownow!"
The rain made everything slippery, the rusted edges cut into calloused hands, orange and pink and dark brown flowing in rivulets from Lauri's hands on the wrought iron, but he held it until Yuuri was free before letting go and stumbling away to hands and knees next to him. Gross. His hands would need disinfecting, as would the mouse's ankle. Sigh.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 8:19 am
|
|
|
|
Yuuri stared, startled and much more nervous now that he was being handed the stranger’s belt to bite. Was it really going to be that much more painful?? Maybe it would be better if they waited and found out a better way to get his leg out -
No, the sooner his leg was out, the sooner this man could go about his business. He didn’t have to stop to help but he did, so the least Yuuri could do was allow him to free his ankle the fastest way possible.
Shakily, Yuuri took the belt and somewhat hesitantly put it into his mouth to bite down on. The pain was there, but it was masked by the cold of the rain and bite of metal. As soon as that was disturbed, it was as though a whole new wave of pain washed over him, and Yuuri felt his whole body tense as he cried out around the belt, his hands reaching to grasp at the leather too so as not to cut his palms with his short nails.
He heard the order to pull his leg free as though the man’s voice was muffled, the shock of pain settling heavily as he blinked away the haze of darkness and tears that sprung to his eyes as he pulled his ankle free.
“Thank you thank you... thank you,” he mumbled almost incoherently as he pulled the belt from his mouth once the worst of the pain had passed, and he rolled over onto his back, his eyes fluttering shut against the rain and haze and he was just going to rest for a moment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 8:50 am
|
|
|
|
It seemed the drowning mousey was tougher than he seemed, which was good. Lauri knelt on the wet ground, raw hands stinging as he reached to take his now-bite scarred belt back. He wasn't going to bother looping it back through his belt-loops, but having to deal with a loose belt along with everything else was just one thing too many to fuss with; so while Yuuri was mumbling thanks while on his back, the Finn whipped the belt expertly back into place. The new bite marks only made it snag on the soaked denim once or twice, which was fine, right?
"Are you--" A good look said that asking if the man was okay was stupid and also pointless, he was obviously not. He was in some sort of swoon. Lauri swore softly in Finnish, looking down at the raw meat of his palms as the rain hit and pooled pink; gravel was embedded now but most of the rust had been washed out, which was nice. I will need tetanus shot too, ******** this. I wonder when I had my last booster as Pasi...
Resigned to his fate, he picked up Yuuri's wet school bag and his own groceries and distributed them in a manner that would make it easy to carry along with the 'larger' cargo of a fainting man. "I hope you are as light as you look, little mouse..." Ready now, Lauri knelt once more beside the rain-soaked Asian and scooped him up in a princess carry. It would have been far easier to chuck Yuuri across his shoulder like a sack of potatoes in a fireman's carry, but he didn't want vomit down his back, nor did he want him to panic, so a largely more inconvenient carry it was.
All the way back to the warehouse he'd converted to a home and workspace where he could dump the wet bags before grumpily carting the mouse up a series of stairs and through several doors to a brightly lit, modern style bathroom where he would be set upon the closed lid of the toilet.
It was the best place to doctor an injury - after all, that's where he kept the full first-aid kit. It was also - currently - the only fully furnished full bathroom in the warehouse, being attached to his personal bed-space. There was a half bath at ground level that he had for work that was also furnished, but he had yet to kit out the entirety of his space - it was a work in progress for a variety of reasons.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 9:08 am
|
|
|
|
The shock of pain seemed to overtake his senses for longer than he intended. From what he thought was only going to be a few seconds of closing his eyes and regaining his bearings had turned into much longer. There were a couple times, as thunder rolled overhead, that he tensed and opened his eyes for a moment, but it wasn’t until the cool rain stopped falling, and he’d obviously been taken inside somewhere, that consciousness began to drift back as a more solid thing.
Had the man actually carried him there?? There was a strange twist in his stomach at the deja vu he felt. But it wasn’t really deja vu. This had happened before, under different circumstances. Another man with an accent after Yuuri had burned him with coffee had carried him back to his apartment to tend. But this was different. This was a different man and he’d taken him to….
A hospital? It was difficult to tell. The ceiling looked high, and the rooms were bright.
And it wasn’t really until Yuuri was being set down onto the closed toilet lid did he really seem to comprehend that this man had carried him somewhere. A modern, possibly freshly remodeled bathroom.
But even as his heart pounded in his chest, anxiety of being in a strange place trying to overwhelm him, before he could open his mouth to ask where he was, Yuuri caught sight of the man’s hands.
They looked bloody and raw. Had he hurt himself trying to free him?
“Your hands,” he mumbled shakily, still feeling rather woozy, but was at least capable of sitting up at the moment. “You’re hurt.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 9:27 am
|
|
|
|
"Shh." Okay so perhaps he'd made an error in bringing the soaking wet, injured mouse to his home while he was drifting in and out of consciousness. That was weird, wasn't it? Had he done things like that before? Lauri believed he had, that his personality had been that...dominant and forward. That strange. But still. "I brought you here to clean your ankle. I should have taken you to the emergency room..."
Words, the man was mumbling something about hands - was he talking about Lauri's hands? Yes, he was. "Eh? Oh, this? It's not much. The metal was rusty, that is all. Some iodine is all I need. Your ankle will take more, I think." But even more than that, they both needed to dry off. Yuuri was trembling from the cold and Lauri could feel it seeping into his bones.
"You are soaked, you need to dry off. Then we will get your ankle sorted." He went to a recessed part of the wall and pushed firmly, leaving a pinkish smudge behind as he opened a door to reveal a neatly folded pile of fluffy towels in slate. Two were taken out and set down beside Yuuri, and another taken out and unfolded to use on Lauri's own shoulder-length hair. "I am Lauri. Lauri Virtainen."
A moment later and he was peeling out of his socks, shoes already removed downstairs (apparently) and then removing his shirt, belt, underwear, and jeans and dropping everything but the belt into the hamper. Once he was naked - with his back to Yuuri, he wrapped the towel he'd been using around his waist loosely, "Excuse me. I will bring dry clothes."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 1:51 pm
|
|
|
|
The voiced regret of not taking him to an emergency room was quickly met with a too furious shake of Yuuri’s head, which made everything all the more dizzy.
“Thank you. That wouldn’t have been necessary. I’m glad you didn’t,” he said, his hands twisting nervously together before lifting to clutch at his soaked sweater and shirt, pressing his fingers over his too quick heart. Of course, even with him being glad he wasn’t at an emergency room, he wasn’t quite sure where he was now.
Was he in this man’s apartment? It seemed too big to be an apartment. A house then?
Yuuri watched with growing curiosity as the man pressed his hand against the wall, only to reveal towels hidden behind it. What exactly was this place? A place with hidden closets and bright lights and modern fixtures?
“Yuuri Matsunaga,” he introduced himself in turn, taking the soft towel so he could lift it to press against his face, mopping up some of the rain. It was only when he pulled the towel away again that he realized he was staring at Lauri’s bared backside.
His eyes widened, and he couldn’t stop the flustered squeak from escaping as he quickly buried his face back into the towel, his cheeks and ears and throat turning red with embarrassment. He supposed it wasn’t that foreign of a concept to strip off one’s clothing, especially when one was unfairly attractive. Adrien did stuff like that, too.
And even though it was just a moment, it was obvious from what Yuuri saw that Pasi was well muscled and toned and probably modeled after some statue of a god somewhere.
“Okay,” was the muffled response as Lauri excused himself, and Yuuri just sat on the toilet, shivering a little as he waited.
Or at least waited for a few moments.
He lowered the towel once more to frown at himself for being ridiculous. There wasn’t anything wrong with seeing people naked. He just… had always been more modest about his body. And his body wasn’t that great, so why should he feel comfortable pulling his clothes off in front of someone?? That’s all. It was not because he wanted to look longer and felt like a pervert for it. At least with his boyfriend, well… he was his boyfriend and he had an excuse to stare. A stranger? Not so much.
Pushing himself up, Yuuri tried to balance on his good right leg, and then gingerly lowered his bad leg to the ground to see how it felt with pressure, only to hiss and hobble and have to grab onto the counter so he wouldn’t topple over. The pain wasn’t the worst he’d felt, but there was a painful stabbing sensation that made sweat break out across his brow, and drained his energy.
But this was okay. He could at least move, right? He might need to rest for a day, but he should be fine. He would just call Adrien to pick him up and that would be fine. He didn’t need to waste this man’s time any more than he had. And he felt horrible that Lauri ended up getting hurt, even though he said it was nothing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:23 pm
|
|
|
|
He was going to change out of his clothes! He just… didn’t know if Lauri would be coming back soon, and he didn’t want to be in the middle of getting undressed when he came back because he would rather not get undressed in front of him. He barely got undressed in front of his boyfriend.
Yuuri jumped in surprise when Lauri did indeed make his way back into the bathroom, and he stared with wide, terrified eyes at the approaching man. He shrunk away, backed into the corner of the room.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he gasped, his hands shakily reaching for the hem of his wet shirt as he cowered against the cabinet and the wall, but paused before pulling at his shirt and reached down for the fastenings of his pants, and then paused again.
This was okay, this man wasn’t being mean, he was just large and had saved him from a horrible situation so Yuuri kind of owed him, didn’t he? He could have left him to freeze in the rain but he hadn’t. He was trying to take care of him, and Yuuri was doing nothing but making things difficult.
Face flushed red, Yuuri tugged at his pants so he could get them down his legs, struggling a little as he tried to step out of them with his injured ankle. He hissed and whimpered pathetically in pain, which only caused his face to flush even darker and had to blink away the welling of tears before they could hopefully be noticed.
But this man had to understand, right? He was in a strange place with a strange person and in pain and cold and already scared because all of this was unfamiliar and he was being told he had no sense and, and… that was a horrible excuse. Yuuri swallowed thickly, avoiding eye contact with Lauri as he reached over for the pair of pants, which he knew was going to be way too big on him.
He just didn’t want to be kicked out into the rain while it was still storming.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:43 pm
|
|
|
|
Okay, so...maybe he'd over-done it. Yuuri was obviously terrified. Lauri had not read the situation correctly. Yuuri was in pain, he was afraid of the storm, he was in a strange place with a man double his size that he didn't know ordering him to get naked. Okay. Okay. It looked bad. Was bad. Clearly, post corruption Lauri had some things to work out, his observational skills were less sharp than they had been, it was only to be expected - after all, he'd lost entirely his English skills for a week and a half.
But why did he hesitate more on his shirt than his pants?
For a moment, Lauri felt bad. He'd ******** this up royally - if Yuuri had been one of the Pack, Kat would have ******** beat his a** for being so heavy-handed with him. He looked at the floor, damp hair falling to hide his face, "No. I pushed too much.
"You're scared. This is not normal." Yuuri struggled out of soaked pants, hurting himself further; tears caught in the bright lighting of the modern bathroom and the Finn's sharp eyes. "Yuuri."
Maybe he would terrify him more, maybe not. But he'd done his patient a wrong and had to try to rectify it - when he'd been upset, his mother had always calmed him by blotting out the world, so perhaps he could do the same. Lauri reached for Yuuri and pulled him against his chest in a very uncomfortable, personal space invading hug, one big hand resting gently against Yuuri's damp hair. "You're okay, Yuuri.
"I promise, you are safe here." How did Americans do this so often? Lauri hated it, the intimate invasion of his personal space, but....he was trying to calm his 'guest', who's heart he could feel racing under the wet cloth soaking his once-dry shirt. But they couldn't get going on this whole tend-the-injured until Yuuri had ******** calmed down so...they were stuck like this for the moment.
To soothe himself - and maybe Yuuri a bit too - he muttered about coffee and burns and stupid dogs and all sorts of garbage...in Finnish, so that Yuuri wouldn't understand. It made him feel childish but also slightly better about having another person he wasn't actively trying to ******** up in his personal space.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 8:02 pm
|
|
|
|
This was turning into a very strange evening. Ankle mangled, soaking wet, being scolded by his rescuer that he needed to change out of his clothes, and now Lauri was moving forward, reaching for him and -
Pulling him into a hug?
Yuuri immediately tensed, his eyes still wide as he held very still, not wanting to do anything that would make him look ungrateful, or rude, or anything that might upset the other man. Yuuri still owed him, after all. He would still be stuck in that fence if Lauri hadn’t saved him.
There was nothing he could think to say in response. Most people liked to hear something being said in response to offers of comfort, right? Yuuri couldn’t think of anything. All he wanted was for his heart to calm and for Lauri not to kick him out just yet. Mostly because it was warm and he didn’t want Adrien fussing over him if he showed off his injured ankle to him.
And yet, the reassurances seemed to work. For the most part. The tension slowly melted away, although Yuuri did nothing to return the hug given to him. He kept his hands by his side, but he allowed himself to relax a little in Lauri’s well muscled arms (not that he was trying to think about how he’d just seen him naked, more or less).
The Finnish helped too. He didn’t know the language, but it helped him to place the accent. Yuuri had been around Europe enough to recognize a lot of the languages, even if he couldn’t speak them.
“I’m okay,” he said after a while, his voice still quiet and a bit shaky from the cold. “I’m sorry, I know you’re just trying to help me. Thank you. I’ll… finish getting changed,” he offered, wondering just how uncomfortable it was for Lauri to hug him like this.
Even though he probably didn’t mean to, there was still a tension there that Yuuri could sense from the other. Was he pushing himself for Yuuri’s sake? It seemed ridiculous, and yet entirely possible.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
