Work Text:
There was a commotion outside his house once again, sword against sword and footsteps, the huffs of out of breath players and yelling, the splash of potions. 4c didn't really think much of it as he continued sorting items, going through his different wooden blocks.
It was very normal, it was lifesteal after all. He was lucky most people considered him harmless and helpless, someone not to kill. It was on purpose of course, but it was still lucky. Most people left him and his house alone, but they still fought around it, left quite the mess most of the time.
He heard a bump against the cobblestone of his house, a body in armor knocking against it. He couldn't tell who was fighting out there, There was some screeching but it really could be any two people, that he could tell atleast, there was only two of them, a one on one fight seemingly.
He continued to ignore the fighting, sorting between the stacks in his chest, before,
He flinched and quickly looked towards his door as it slammed open, standing there panicked and shaking, was KatieGoBrr. She quickly shut the door, before looking at 4c and shaking her head at him rapidly, and then, for some reason, deciding to shut herself in the closet next to the front door, closing herself in.
He sighed, looking away for just a split second, trying to go back to his sorting before once again, His door is slammed open, his head flicking to the door again.
Smileyy stood in the doorway, looking at him. So those were the two fighting. Smileyy looked out of breath slightly but confident as he looked around the house, seemingly huffing when he couldn't find what he was looking for, 4c could only assume that what was Katie.
"4c!" Smileyy grinned at him coming up to the slime, 4c felt confident that the man wouldn't kill him, or at least not right now, 4c was at ten hearts, having recently gotten back up, but no one knew that yet, still thinking him at three. No one gets any hearts from three's until later, it made him feel safer.
"Hi Smileyy" 4c responded as Smileyy softly knocked into the other, almost knocking the smaller down to the ground from where he was sitting on his knees, his hands on 4c's shoulder.
"You wouldn't have happened to seen a player come in, and where they went?" The other lowered his face closer to 4c's. He wanted 4c to sell Katie out, and he did know where Katie was.
"I might have" 4c said, moving his shoulders to make Smileyy's hands fall off, the taller backed off slightly as 4c got up from his sitting.
"She went out the window, I think i saw her running towards Mog's place." He pointed towards his kitchen window, he didn't have glass in his house so it was pretty easy to climb out of.
He saw Smileyy grin as he quickly sprinted out the window, yelling a thanks to the slime and waving him off. He saw the man run off to the superflat base, not looking back. Truly he didn't understand why the new players trusted him to tell the truth but they did, to be fair, it was 50/50 on him actually telling the truth, tho he doubts they've realized that.
4c watched as Smileyy disappeared into the distance trying to find a women who wouldn't be there. He kept looking towards the area for a minute, truly making sure the man was gone.
Assured that it was fine, he turned towards the closet door, It was still closed, which made sense, but normally if someone chose to hide, they'd also want to leave as soon as they realized they could. Tho Katie was new to all of this so maybe she hadn't gotten that instinct yet, Or maybe she'd tunneled down at some point without him hearing, it was unlikely, but he could've missed it.
He walked towards the closet, from behind the door he could hear fast breathing, tho it seemed to be slower then what he heard when Katie first came in through the door. She was definitely still there, he wonders why.
He knocks on the door, "He's gone", he says, and for a moment there's silence before he heres a very sad sounding whimper. He frowns and tilts his head before deciding to speak again, "You can stay in there if you want, but it'd probably be better to come out." He speaks as softly as he can.
He likes scaring the newcomers, there's so many players now that have never been in lifesteal before, some haven't even been in a pvp-based server, so it's pretty easy too, and while Him and Katie joke alot, and he likes teasing and scaring her especially,,, He can tell how scared she is, it isn't something he likes hearing in this way.
Sure, fear was common on the server, but not everyone can handle it the same way the more seasoned players can. He has a hard time actually getting scared by threats and even fights, sure he can get panicked but actual real fear isn't something he feels often, but the few times in the beginning he had… He sort of wished he had someone there for him.
He backed up slightly, before sighing softly and deciding on something, "I'm going to open the door, okay Katie." He said, waiting a few seconds for any disagreement, before taking the handle and opening the door.
In the corner of the closet, tucked tightly into it, was Katie, She looked distressed. It was dark in there, the light from the rest of the house shining in the small closet, so he couldn't see much but but he could still tell that she was shaking, and still see her wide eyes looking at him.
She blinked at him, small frown on her face, and as he looked fully at her, he could see a red spot on her sleeve, and a cut in the middle of it. Blood was a funny thing, he didn't have it like the others did, but he'd been made to see alot of it in the few years of being apart of this smp.
Katie was hurt, Katie was bleeding, and most likely in pain. That wouldn't do.
"Come'on, Lets get that wound wrapped up" He said as he put his hand out towards her, gesturing at her to take it.
Katie looked at the hand, then at his face, then at the hand again, as she shakily put the hand from the not bleeding arm, in his. He smiled at her as she looked back up at him again, and he softly tugged her out of the closet, leading her to a chair and sitting her down.
She sat, breathing having slowed, tho seemingly still in some sort of shock. 4c went to go get some some his healing supplies, technically it wasn't for him, but he always got some just in case of situations like this.
Getting a bag out of a barrel in his kitchen, he looked out the window again, just checking to see if Smileyy was still somewhere around Mog's base, 4c couldn't see any sign of him tho so he turned back to where Katie was sitting and walked over to sit the bag on the counter next to her.
Katie watched him as he took the wrap out of the bag, then the proper stitching medkit, it wasn't often needed because of health potions but he hadn't been brewing any so he'd hope Katie had one, either way, if it was a deep enough cut, he might still have to stitch it. He would hope it wasn't needed tho.
Setting everything out finally he turned to Katie, eyes less wide then before and looking at him, She looked exhausted. Katie had never been much of a fighter, tho 4c thought she could hold her own outside of the server, against some of the better players, she probably had more of a survival chance running and hiding.
"Gimmie your hand please?" He lent a hand out towards her, gesturing towards the injured arm. She blinked at him and slowly put the hand on his. Using his other hand, he took her thumb out of the hole in the cuff and pulled the sleeve up, revealing a bright red, bloody cut on her forearm, closer to the elbow then her wrist.
"eesh," He let out and Katie looked away from him in presumably maybe shame? He couldn't fully tell. "Katie, Do you have any health pots on you?" He asked and She looked back at him.
There was silence before Katie opened her mouth, then closing it as she opened her inventory with her non-injured arm. He saw her eyes look around something he couldn't see and then saw as she let out a huff and shook her head.
"no, i don't, sorry…" Her voice sounded small, which was very,, it felt bad, almost. He didn't like it, Katie didn't tend to sound like that, it felt unnatural. Tho he guesses being chased and injured could probably do that to you.
"It's alright, i'll just have to stitch you up, and you'll have to get a health pot when you get back to your base." He said already preparing the stitching needle for later. He heard Katie Groan from beside him.
"That's gonna be so embarrassing…" She said and 4c looked at her, she had a grimace on her face and was looking at the roof.
"How's it embarrassing?" He asked, that statement she made didn't fully make sense to him, He can understand not wanting people to know that you lost a fight, but Katie didn't lose, she survived. Sure, she didn't kill Smileyy but even escaping a person can be hard in a place like this.
Katie looked at 4c, then looked at her injured arm, then back at him, her face scrunching up before speaking, "I just,," She sighed, "I'm not a very good player, i think we know that."
"Well i wouldn't say that"
"Shush, I'm not a very good player. I contribute to the team, i know that!" She gestured with her non-injured arm as she spoke, "but… I wasn't even meant to be at spawn and I got attacked and couldn't even do anything to stop it! I'm gonna be taking a resource that could be better used by.. i don't know,, Probably Nom or Woogie…" She seemingly finished talking and looked down at the floor.
"I don't agree on that," He said, and Katie looked at him to squint her eyes, "Truly, listen to me Katie." He took a water bottle and put it on a cloth, "It doesn't really matter if you're not good fighting, You're still a valuable member of the team." He took Katies hand one again, straightening out her arm, which made her wince slightly, "And, You did stop it" He pronounced the 'did' as being more important then the rest, "You came in here, and hid, you got away, you survived, that's not nothing." He started cleaning around the wound, making careful to not be to rough.
There was silence as 4c worked on cleaning the area, Human infections absolutely sucked and he'd hate for Katie to get one.
"Plus," He started again, "using supplies meant to help heal you to, well, heal you," He got to the wound and patted it softly, "sorry," he let out as Katie winced again, harder this time, "using it isn't wasting it, You can always make more, your teammates would rather a healthy Katie then one in pain and injured."
Katie looked at the floor as 4c got the needle, She looked nervous, maybe alittle sad?
"I mean,," She spoke and 4c turned to her, "I guess you're right…" She turned her head to look at him, "You'd probably know better then me anyways,"
"Maybe." He smiled, "I might know a thing or two about lifesteal.", that got a little giggle out of her and 4c felt a bit of pride at it.
"Okay, Katie." He looked at her, "I'm gonna stitch your wound up, It's going to hurt, do you need a moment, or somethin like," he turned towards his bag before turning back, "I actually don't know what people do for this kind of thing, I haven't stitched up someone awake before…"
"Oh goodie, my doctor hasn't done this before…"
"no no!!! I have!!" He said quickly, "Just not on a awake subject before… or on someone without massive pain tolerance…" He said.
Katie giggled at his slight panic and he huffed at her reaction. "Um, I should be fine, Nom's had to do a similar thing before and i was,, fine… mostly," She looked nervous at her own words, "So i should be all good, go ahead doc!" She gave a thumbs up and a grin.
Nodding at her once, He changed the way he was holding her arm to be more steady, grabbing the opposite side of the forearm from the wound instead of just the hand. He took the needle and stabbed it under the skin next to the wound, going through the motions.
He didn't go to fast, but he did try to be quick, He could see Katie gritting her teeth out of the corner of his eye and could hear her breath get quicker before calming down slightly. He truly didn't like seeing people in pain, originally it made it hard to be on the server, but he got over it. He kinda gets that similar old feeling now.
He continued his work, it wasn't to long of a wound luckily so he was able to get it done pretty quickly, He finished the stitch and quickly tied a knot to secure it. He took the scissors from beside him and cut the thread.
"That should be the stitch done!" He smiled and looked at Katie, who breathed a sigh of relief.
He took a second rag from the bag and wet it again, cleaning around the stitch, it having gotten slightly bloody again from the movement. He could see Katie watching as he patted away any water with a dry part of the cloth.
"Alright, time for the bandaging." He said and got the Medical wrap from the table, putting some of it around his hand and then applying it around the stitching tightly. He put enough on that he felt it safe to stop.
He smiled up at Katie as he backed up, "Alright! It should be okay now!".
There was a bit of silence as Katie looked at the wrapping, before looking at him and smiling, "Who knew you'd be such a good medic." She giggled out, taking her non-injured arm and putting her hand on top of his head, ruffling the area as 4c let out a squeak.
"I'm not just gonna leave you hurting, Katie" He said as he backed away enough that she couldn't reach his head anymore, smiling, "I need you to remember to get a healing pot on that tho!" He pointed at her, "Don't think i won't message Nom to make sure."
"ugh, you're such a tattletail sometimes" She sighed dramatically, faking a pout, "don't worry, i will." She said, smiling as she got up from the seat.
"Good, I wish i had one here but sometimes you've just got to work with what you got." 4c said, stretching as he realized how hunched over he'd been during that whole thing.
Katie looked towards the door, squinting slightly as she seemed to be thinking of something, then she turned towards 4c.
"Thank you, really." She sounded sincere as she spoke.
4c looked at her, blinking up, "Of course, I don't think there's a world i wouldn't help you, Katie." He grinned at her and she came towards him and pulled the slime into a hug, it was one handed, as she was trying not to move her injured arm to much, but it was still nice.
She leaned away, smiling as she spoke, "i'm gonna go, my team is probably panicking about where i am…" She said, walking towards the door.
"Alright, Goodluck on your way back." He said and Katie nodded at him as she opened the door, shaking herself slightly before walking out and closing the door behind her. He could hear her start running off.
It wasn't everyday he stitched someone up, he hadn't needed to last season, He had to with Squiddo a couple times in season six, but otherwise, he didn't need to do it on himself, so he didn't end up doing it much at all. It wasn't really something he enjoyed, but it was needed.
4c really didn't like seeing Katie in pain, but he was glad he could be someone she could come to, if she needed somewhere to hide or be stitched up. He'll have to message her later to see if she got home safe. He hoped she did.
