Being a Doctor is Hard

[colonial]

Characters: America, open
Setting: infirmary
Format: action
Summary: America fails at bandages.
Warnings: shouldn't be anything particularly bad

[America hadn't gotten out of the monster attacks completely unscathed--following England when he insisted on running off to the higher, more dangerous levels had been difficult, and while a lot of the things he could throw or punch, he hadn't gotten off quite scot-free, as the claw marks on his chest showed.

Not that he'd showed them to anyone; England would be mad and make that sad face and anyway he was fine! America just had to sneak down to bandage them now and then, that's all. Not that he was particularly good at bandaging himself up. Unsure of when enough was enough and how to cut them off, it's not long before he's rolling around on the floor, his chest and legs and left arm encased in enough bandages to make him look like a mummy.

He squirms in an ineffectual circle hopelessly.]

Comments

[silentsacrifice]

[Itachi really doesn't want to be around people in his current state. His illness has been acting up recently, he supposes because of the stress of the earlier attack on the tower. Normally, he'd be content to wait it out in his dorm room, or in some uninhabited corner of the place. Much to his displeasure, those sorts of areas have been hard to find lately. His lungs are burning and the taste of the blood he'd been coughing up earlier is still thick on his tongue, and he's hoping to find some painkillers at least.

What he finds instead is a little wriggling ball of bandages on the floor of the infirmary.

A child? He's seen some fairly young people in the tower, but never anyone as small as this boy. He crouches down beside him, a neutral expression on his face.]

Do you need some help?

[colonial]

[America regards the man with a certain amount of wariness, as he does any stranger he comes across. Still, the people here have seemed fairly nice so far.]

I was putting bandages on. [He explains this as if he still thinks he's doing a reasonable job of it.]

[silentsacrifice]

I see.

[Though his expression doesn't change, there's a softness in Itachi's eyes. He holds a hand out, equally cautious - this doesn't seem like a trick or a trap, but the tower's got him on-guard even more than usual, which is saying something.

He takes part of the bandage between two of his fingers.]

You've done a good job so far, but perhaps we should wrap them just a bit tighter? It'll keep you from getting infected.

[colonial]

[America inches forward to touch the man's hand--ready to withdraw it if he has to, but curious as most children are.]

I only needed a little bit but then the end ran away and I had to catch it.

[silentsacrifice]

[Itachi lets the child touch him, ready to strike out if he has to. But the tiny hand doesn't turn into some clawed monstrosity, and he relaxes a bit more.]

It's all right. Medical equipment can be tricky to handle.

[He inwardly berates himself for acting the way he is, but he can't stop himself. When he looks at the child - wide-eyed and tentative, trying so hard to take care of himself - all he can think of is Sasuke when he was that age. And the thought of his little brother being trapped in such an awful place makes his blood boil, so he can't in all good consciousness let this child be without giving him some help.

It's a small favor, but it might make up for some of the bad things he's done in his life.]

Here. Let's find the end of it.

[He casts his eyes downward, looking for the end of the bandage so that he can get the kid wrapped up properly. The sooner he does that, he tells himself, the sooner he can walk away, good deed done, and stop fussing over him.]