thatwaslucky | Somewhere in the Outer Rim- Thursday

Somewhere in the Outer Rim- Thursday

Occasionally when Rey went home, she found herself in the middle of a situation. And sometimes trying to diffuse the situation- say, between two groups fighting to control a small city via violence and intimidation- you maybe took a little stabbing to the side before having to finish the fight even if most of them got away.

"Sometimes" also meant that it was the first time this had ever happened, and because she knew (was pretty sure) it wasn't life-threatening, she was more annoyed at herself than anything. And that she'd gotten through shenanigans without being gross and was now going to have to wash blood out of her clothes.

Once the authorities came for the two that Rey had subdued, she headed back for where the Falcon was berthed, where she went straight for the medkit that they kept in the lounge. Some people might consider a doctor, but those people also hadn't had an entire lifetime of treating their own injuries and were therefore normal people. Everything was fine!

[For that guy who would probably disagree!]

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Probably? Probably? Oh, Rey, if Adrian could read narrative right now...!

Fortunately for everybody, Adrian could not, so he was only normal levels of appalled when he turned around and saw Rey. Or, rather, saw Rey bleeding. His pleased announcement about the state of their meal was completely forgotten - the entire meal was forgotten - as he rushed over to her. "What happened?" he yelped, looking her over with worried, frantic eyes, trying to see where else she might have been hurt. "How deep is it?" His fingers were cramping in an effort to not just tug her shirt up and see for himself.

"It's not deep," she said, "and there's nothing vital there. It's okay."

The wound was about an inch wide, probably a little deeper than she assumed it was, but it was in a spit right above her hip that probably kept her clear of any organs being damaged.

"Let me see?" he said, frowning. "Healing witch and all. How long ago did it happen? Is it still bleeding?"

Listen, he was trying not to fuss and to be supportive, but if it were still bleeding, he was going to have to upgrade his Concern to Distress.

"Why don't you sit down, I can bring the medkit to you, and we can figure out what you need from there?"

She did lift her shirt and pull down her waistband enough to let him see it. It was still bleeding, though she'd stuffed cloth on it to staunch it.

"Maybe half an hour? I can get it," she said, reflexively.

"Half an hour?" Adrian sputtered, looking at Rey like she had started speaking Huttese. "If it's not that bad of a cut, it should have started clotting already. Unless you ran here at a dead sprint while stretching--" He shook his head. "We need to get this cleaned and bandaged."

And maybe a little bit of magic'd. Shh. He was allowed to cheat sometimes.

"I had to wait for backup, I wasn't exactly looking at the time," she said, and this had to be the first time he'd ever heard her be irritated. At least it was at the situation, not him. "I've probably taken care of worse."

She hadn't. She got hurt rarely.

"Well, luckily enough, you don't have to take care of this one," Adrian said, also a little snippier than his usual wont. But then, he really didn't like how much her stab wound was bleeding. "Doesn't it hurt? Getting stabbed is notoriously not fun! Even if you've been hurt loads of other times before, so just sit."

While he tried to figure out how to read Galactic Standard, it was fine.

"Of course it hurts, I got stabbed. It's minor, it's fine," she insisted. Not sitting. Like a mature adult.

And when she got the medkit she was fully intending to use it herself, because she was secretly a little freaked out about this.

"I'm so tempted to go out and get stabbed just so I can come back and tell you it's minor and nothing to worry about," Adrian muttered. "Why are you being so stubborn about this? Let me help you, that's why I'm here, so if you would just please sit down."

"Because I can do it, that's why," she argued. Also it hurt less if she was unnecessarily angry even if she really needed to just get this taken care of.

That wasn't science, Rey! And this was from the witch.

"Rey," he said, sounding incredibly aggrieved, "I love you, but if you don't sit down and let me help you staunch the bleeding--what? Why are you looking at me like like that?"

Was she about to faint?

It was because while it wasn't like she didn't know, she'd genuinely thought they wouldn't say it until it was too late and she spent the rest of her life wishing she'd said it a million times.

It also kind of stunned her into taking a seat at the end of the djarik table bench.

"Thank you," Adrian said, certainly looking for all the world like he hadn't noticed anything particularly amiss or earthshaking. But then, his attention was far more on Rey's injury than anything coming out of his mouth.

Um. Sorry about that. Not the confession people dreamed about.

"Now let me see? I can clean it out and examine it and see what kind of treatment it needs." Since, you know, it was still bleeding.

It could be worse!

Both the injury and the confession.

She did adjust her shirt so he could see, and said, "I love you, too."

"Huh?" Adrian looked up at her, expression caught between confusion, surprise, and concern, with a warm layer of happiness beneath it all. "Wait, are you starting to feel dizzy? Faint?"

He was doing just great at this.

"No."

Though she was beginning to realize how much she'd been drawing on the Force now that she wouldn't, and she wouldn't tell Anakin how she'd been doing that while picking a fight.

"Did you hear me?" she checked.

"I did," Adrian said, and you know, she was bleeding and he probably wasn't supposed to be wearing a slightly goofy smile, but tell that to the one trying to take over his face. "Which was why I'm checking in. In case this is some kind of 'last chance before you die to your injuries' kind of thing."

He looked down at her wound, putting pressure on it, then back up to her. "I love you, too," he said. "Wait. You said 'too,' too."

She probably shouldn't smile while bleeding (and wincing a little at the pressure), and yet.

"You did start it," she told him.

"I did?" Adrian asked, his hand stilling briefly as he ran through the last few minutes of their conversation in his head. "Oh. I...did."

He looked back up to her, eyes soft. "Well...I do. Bound to come out sooner or later."

"I should have said it sooner," Rey admitted.

All right, that sounded a bit 'last chance before you die.'

Yeah, Adrian was looking alarmed again.

"Because trying to deny and suppress emotions goes against the way we want to live our lives?" he asked, mostly to make sure he didn't need to crank the worry knob up more.

"Actually, yes," she said. "Very much so."

And there was more there, the fear that saying it would be a sign that this had gone too far and it would be the beginning of the end, as if this hadn't surpassed casual pretty fast.

"And because I love saying it."

Adrian's eyes softened, and he leaned up to kiss her. "I love hearing it," he admitted. "And watching your face as you say it. And... pretty much everything about you. I'd say I tried not to, but that isn't particularly true, either."

It was going to hurt either way when he left. Why had they fought this so hard anyway?"

Rey leaned in as if to kiss him again, realized that hurt right now, and decided it had to wait a minute.

"I made no attempt," she told him. "It just happened. Of course it was going to happen."

"We really talked a good game about it not happening," Adrian said, hands gentle over her skin as he began to clean and treat her wound.

Rey watched him, and for as much as she'd fought it, she appreciated that he was still taking care of her anyway. (And hadn't gone off to get stabbed himself to prove a point.) She still wasn't inclined to accept help like this, but... there was never a chance Adrian wouldn't do it.

"I've never been so glad to fail at something."

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Somewhere in the Outer Rim- Thursday

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