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Rictor shifted slightly, and flinched as the movement pulled at the burned skin. Shatterstar's expression darkened, but he continued to smooth ointment across the red, seeping skin, his touch unfailingly gentle.
"Don't move," he murmued, leaning down and frowning. "It will hurt if you move."
"I know," Rictor gritted out, and forced himself not to pull away as Shatterstar moved on to a new area. Half his ribcage on the right side was burned red and angry, the burn spreading around to his back. Jamie's pet doctor had checked him out and pronounced his burns ugly but not serious, fed him some horse pill, left some goop in a jar with instructions to change the bandages once a day, traded some barbed remarks with Monet, and left. Shatterstar had picked up the jar and given everyone around them a fierce look, and suddenly everyone had remembered that they had somewhere important to be.
Shatterstar put some more salve on his fingertips and rubbed them together to make sure it was evenly distributed. The lidocaine in the cream was starting to take the edge off as Shatterstar resumed his careful work, and Rictor sighed and let himself slump down a little bit. Shatterstar's hands were soothing, the ointment was cold and greasy and felt good against his raw skin.
"You're really good at this, wey," he said. He felt the world go a little swirly as the doc's pain meds zbruptly kicked in, and started to giggle. Shatterstar paused, and then kept going, glaring at Rictor's ribs like they had offended him.
"If you would not get hurt so often," Shatterstar said, and he sounded like his teeth were clenched, "I would not be so good at this." Rictor's vision blurred a little bit, and he started grinning.
Rictor patted Shatterstar's head, and the pain as he moved felt like it was happening to someone far away. Maybe in a different world. The room seemed brighter, or maybe that was just him. Had someone turned up the sun? He squinted against the glare, peered down at Shatterstar. "She was twelve," he said, very reasonably. "What was I supposed to do, just let that crazy fuck get her? He had a flamethrower! That's not cool, Starfish. Not cool."
"Starfish?" Shatterstar lifted his head and gave him an incredulous look. Rictor giggled a bit, helplessly. Shatterstar sighed, and bent back down. "You're high."
"You got it," Rictor said, and stared dreamily at the wall. Pain meds were awesome.