Interesting Instances of an Invalid
Title: Interesting Instances of an Invalid - Ch 3 Thorns in the Thigh
Characters: DG/Cain, Mentions of everyone else
Timeline: Post eclipse
Genre: Comedy/UST (Unresolved Sexual Tension) lol
Rating: R for language, violence, and…well…you know, given the genre ;)
Disclaimer: I don’t own Tin Man
Summary: Unfortunately for Cain, he seems to get injured a lot around a certain Princess. Fortunately for a certain Princess, she is good at taking care of him…whether he wants her to or not.
Previous: Shot in the Shoulder | Blown Through the Branches | Thorns in the Thigh
A/N: This one is dedicated to Rissy James. She knows why <3 lol
So since I left out details on exactly why Cain was at a booby trapped cave last time…you get more background THIS time on why Cain is pants-less…I mean hurt… O.o
TMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTM
The third time DG took care of him was…slightly uncomfortable.
The four of them were out horseback riding when they decided to stop next to a ravine and give their horses a rest.
Cain’s horse, Max, had been giving him trouble all day. Max wanted nothing to do with his directions, and whenever Cain relaxed in the slightest, was almost bucked off. When Cain finally dismounted, Max stepped sideways, forcing the Tin man to step quickly out of the way. Cain grabbed the reins, pulling Max’s head around to look him in the eye.
“Cut it out!” he said angrily, pointing a finger at him. When he turned away to look at the rest of the group, Max body checked him again, this time into the ravine.
As he barrel rolled down the steep decline he heard DG yell his name and caught glimpses of his three friends at the top of the hill. He tried to slow himself but could only succeed in steering himself towards some bushes to stop his fall.
Too bad they were thorny bushes.
He crashed into them with a few sickening cracks of branches, pain lancing into his right leg as some of them bit through his pants and deep into his thigh. His long coat had wrapped around his middle and unfortunately offered him no protection for his legs.
This one…is going to leave a mark.
Glitch came sliding down the bank after him, looking almost graceful. When he slid to a stop next to Cain, he looked him over with concern.
“You alright?” he asked quickly. Thankfully there was not a hint of a smile on his face. Cain shifted to look up at him, squinting.
“I’m in one piece aren’t I?
At that, Glitch grinned.
“Come on, Tin Man, let’s get you untangled.”
They proceeded to pull some of the thorny branches from Cain’s clothing. Thankfully the worst of it was on his lower half and not near his face. They began the slow trek up the hill, Cain limping the best he could considering thorns hindered his every move.
When they finally reached the top, Raw helped him over to a flat spot, the soothing effects of Raw’s touch already working. He absentmindedly looked around for DG and noticed her standing with her face inches from Max’s. He stopped moving, and Glitch and Raw looked up to see what had drawn his attention.
They couldn’t tell if she was saying anything to the horse, or just giving him the stare-down of his life.
When she finally moved, she made her way over to the trio and then turned back to Max with her arms crossed and eyebrows raised. Max’s head sank low and he stepped over to where Cain’s hat lay near the edge of the ravine. He picked it up with his teeth and brought it over to Cain.
Cain stared at him in disbelief.
Max raised the hat to Cain’s chest and looked at him with the saddest and most regretful stare he had ever seen come from an animal.
Cain looked to DG briefly and then back to the peace offering. He took it after a moment, and gave the horse an unsure nod.
Max’s ears flicked forward and his head perked up. He swung is long face towards DG and she nodded in approval. He nickered and then walked over to the other horses, tail twitching happily.
Cain didn’t know what to do first. He knew he was in pain but now thought he was quite possibly delusional.
“…’the hell just happened?” he murmured to nobody in particular.
His eyes finally found DG’s and she was looking quickly between him, Glitch, and Raw. She shrugged.
“What?” she asked, sounding defensive. “He knew what he did was mean…”
Cain could only blink at her. Glitch’s head was twitching which was an indication that he was having one of his rare, silent misfires. Finally, Raw broke the silence.
“Must take out thorns.”
This inevitably broke everyone from their train of thought and brought it to, well…Cain’s ass.
“I can do it myself,” Cain said quickly.
“Nonsense, some of those are in the back of your leg!” Glitch exclaimed. He started to lift the hem of Cain’s coat. “Here, I’ll just - ”
“Whoa-ho-No!” Cain batted his hand away. He cleared his throat quickly, trying to recover from that wave of panic. “No thanks, Zipperhead, I’ll…I’ll” His mind raced quickly, trying not to dwell on the fact that he had dozens of needle-like objects sticking into him at once. It wasn’t entirely working. Maybe DG could think of some -
Raw suddenly left his side and patted DG on the shoulder.
“Good luck, DG,” he muttered before walking away.
DG’s eyes widened.
“What!?”
Raw looked back, hiding his amusement.
“Cain doesn’t want Raw to help either.”
Before DG could respond again, Glitch had stepped in front of her and clapped his hands on either side of her shoulders. She looked at him, alarmed.
“You can do this,” he said, his face perfectly serious.
DG’s head twitched in an uncertain nod, but he had already released her and followed Raw over to the horses. The two of them led the four horses away and left Cain and DG alone.
“If I had my gun, I’d shoot them both,” Cain muttered solemnly.
DG’s eyes slid over to him, an eyebrow raised in question. His eyes flickered over to her and after analyzing her look he realized how Raw’s comment must have sounded to her.
“I can get them myself…” he muttered, his hand brushing lightly over his leg, igniting a dozen or more pricks of pain.
She watched his motion and nodded slowly.
“Sure…” her tone drew his attention back to her. She had the hint of a knowing look on her face. “You probably should take your time being a human pin cushion…I’ll just be…” She motioned behind her with a thumb, her damn smirk finally appearing.
His neutral face was now decidedly frowning.
Did she have to phrase it like that?
He made an uncomfortable noise in the back of his throat. After a moment of looking anywhere but her, his head tilted towards her with his patented I-hate-this look.
When her smirk had faded into a patient, half smile, he nodded his head for her to follow him and he limped over to where he wanted to lie down.
“Is it just the one leg?” she asked.
“Thankfully…” he grumbled as he kneeled on his good leg, moving to lie down. After he got settled, he moved his coat out of the way and she began looking over his leg.
“Okay…” she said absentmindedly. She tugged on the fabric of his pants around one of the thorns lightly. “Hmmmm…”
That was a negative ‘Hmmmm.’ Why does it have to be a negative ‘Hmmmm’?
“Uhhh…I don’t think…” she trailed off and he looked over her shoulder at him. She gave him an uneasy smile that didn’t last all of half a second before she was looking uncomfortable again. And blushing. “You…mighthavetotakeoff…your…”
She stopped talking as she met his eyes. She heaved a big sigh and motioned at his lower half.
He looked down at his pants and studied the holes. They were barely the size of the thorns. There was no way she could pick them out with the fabric in the way.
Of. Course.
He felt his ears turn pink. He bit back a groan and started kicking off his boots. He had trouble since he couldn’t use all of his leg muscles easily and she ended up pulling his boots off for him. Then she turned away and waited for him to divest himself of his pants.
Which was a long and awkward process in and of itself.
“So…” she said after a minute of him trying to depants himself. He looked up alarmed, but saw she was still facing away from him. “I see two options…”
He grunted. This ought to be good.
“Yeah, and what’s that?”
“I can pick them out by hand or…” she motioned with her hand. “…magic…them out…”
He contemplated the back of her head. While he trusted her with many things…Like doing this in the first place…
“I’d rather you try it the old fashion way first…” he found himself answering.
She shrugged, and mumbled something that he couldn’t quite catch, which he ignored. When he was finally finished, and he had himself covered with either his pants or coat, he gave her the all clear.
“Alright, let’s get this over with.”
When she turned around she looked everywhere but him. She made her way around behind him and knelt by his leg. He heard her take a deep breath to calm herself.
What the hell did she have to be nervous about? She isn’t the one hurt or pants-less!
And then her cool fingertips were on his thigh and his skin felt like it was electrified. His muscles clenched without thinking and pain lanced up from his leg at the movement.
“I…relax, Cain…Being tense isn’t going to help anything.”
And neither is brushing her right hand in a comforting motion on back of his knee, just below where the thorns started.
He fought the urge to blush and did his best to relax. He waited while she moved her right hand up and placed her fingertips around the first thorn. She tried to grab a hold of it between her thumb and index fingernails of her left hand while her other hand to put even pressure around the thorn, and held his skin back.
There were a few moments of discomfort until she finally got a good grip on it. Then she slowly pulled it out and Cain winced at the sensation. It hadn’t necessarily hurt, but it was definitely not pleasant.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he answered quickly, eager for this to be done.
She repeated the same process and methodically moved from right to left, moving higher and higher up his leg. He watched her progress over his shoulder, trying not to stare her down though. At one point she rested her right hand on his leg, almost bracing herself as she shifted over to continue working. Cain slightly shifted his leg away, alarmed at how close she -
“Sorry…” she muttered, and returned to the last few that were…umm…very high. Their eyes met briefly, and he managed to shake his head like it wasn’t a big deal.
Holy hell that was close.
And while this was highly embarrassing because it was DG, there was also no WAY he’d be able to handle going through something like this with Glitch or Raw. Glitch would be trying to talk the whole time and Raw just…Raw just doesn’t need any excuses to ‘Feel’ what he was feeling.
He was definitely the one doing the blushing today.
TMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTM
A/N: This one OBVIOUSLY threatened to be very very very long…and I almost cut out a lot of the first half, but…but…but then I’d be cutting stuff out…Which I Don’t…Do… *shifty eyes* And the length makes up for the long wait, right? :D
Characters: DG/Cain, Mentions of everyone else
Timeline: Post eclipse
Genre: Comedy/UST (Unresolved Sexual Tension) lol
Rating: R for language, violence, and…well…you know, given the genre ;)
Disclaimer: I don’t own Tin Man
Summary: Unfortunately for Cain, he seems to get injured a lot around a certain Princess. Fortunately for a certain Princess, she is good at taking care of him…whether he wants her to or not.
Previous: Shot in the Shoulder | Blown Through the Branches | Thorns in the Thigh
A/N: This one is dedicated to Rissy James. She knows why <3 lol
So since I left out details on exactly why Cain was at a booby trapped cave last time…you get more background THIS time on why Cain is pants-less…I mean hurt… O.o
TMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTM
The third time DG took care of him was…slightly uncomfortable.
The four of them were out horseback riding when they decided to stop next to a ravine and give their horses a rest.
Cain’s horse, Max, had been giving him trouble all day. Max wanted nothing to do with his directions, and whenever Cain relaxed in the slightest, was almost bucked off. When Cain finally dismounted, Max stepped sideways, forcing the Tin man to step quickly out of the way. Cain grabbed the reins, pulling Max’s head around to look him in the eye.
“Cut it out!” he said angrily, pointing a finger at him. When he turned away to look at the rest of the group, Max body checked him again, this time into the ravine.
As he barrel rolled down the steep decline he heard DG yell his name and caught glimpses of his three friends at the top of the hill. He tried to slow himself but could only succeed in steering himself towards some bushes to stop his fall.
Too bad they were thorny bushes.
He crashed into them with a few sickening cracks of branches, pain lancing into his right leg as some of them bit through his pants and deep into his thigh. His long coat had wrapped around his middle and unfortunately offered him no protection for his legs.
This one…is going to leave a mark.
Glitch came sliding down the bank after him, looking almost graceful. When he slid to a stop next to Cain, he looked him over with concern.
“You alright?” he asked quickly. Thankfully there was not a hint of a smile on his face. Cain shifted to look up at him, squinting.
“I’m in one piece aren’t I?
At that, Glitch grinned.
“Come on, Tin Man, let’s get you untangled.”
They proceeded to pull some of the thorny branches from Cain’s clothing. Thankfully the worst of it was on his lower half and not near his face. They began the slow trek up the hill, Cain limping the best he could considering thorns hindered his every move.
When they finally reached the top, Raw helped him over to a flat spot, the soothing effects of Raw’s touch already working. He absentmindedly looked around for DG and noticed her standing with her face inches from Max’s. He stopped moving, and Glitch and Raw looked up to see what had drawn his attention.
They couldn’t tell if she was saying anything to the horse, or just giving him the stare-down of his life.
When she finally moved, she made her way over to the trio and then turned back to Max with her arms crossed and eyebrows raised. Max’s head sank low and he stepped over to where Cain’s hat lay near the edge of the ravine. He picked it up with his teeth and brought it over to Cain.
Cain stared at him in disbelief.
Max raised the hat to Cain’s chest and looked at him with the saddest and most regretful stare he had ever seen come from an animal.
Cain looked to DG briefly and then back to the peace offering. He took it after a moment, and gave the horse an unsure nod.
Max’s ears flicked forward and his head perked up. He swung is long face towards DG and she nodded in approval. He nickered and then walked over to the other horses, tail twitching happily.
Cain didn’t know what to do first. He knew he was in pain but now thought he was quite possibly delusional.
“…’the hell just happened?” he murmured to nobody in particular.
His eyes finally found DG’s and she was looking quickly between him, Glitch, and Raw. She shrugged.
“What?” she asked, sounding defensive. “He knew what he did was mean…”
Cain could only blink at her. Glitch’s head was twitching which was an indication that he was having one of his rare, silent misfires. Finally, Raw broke the silence.
“Must take out thorns.”
This inevitably broke everyone from their train of thought and brought it to, well…Cain’s ass.
“I can do it myself,” Cain said quickly.
“Nonsense, some of those are in the back of your leg!” Glitch exclaimed. He started to lift the hem of Cain’s coat. “Here, I’ll just - ”
“Whoa-ho-No!” Cain batted his hand away. He cleared his throat quickly, trying to recover from that wave of panic. “No thanks, Zipperhead, I’ll…I’ll” His mind raced quickly, trying not to dwell on the fact that he had dozens of needle-like objects sticking into him at once. It wasn’t entirely working. Maybe DG could think of some -
Raw suddenly left his side and patted DG on the shoulder.
“Good luck, DG,” he muttered before walking away.
DG’s eyes widened.
“What!?”
Raw looked back, hiding his amusement.
“Cain doesn’t want Raw to help either.”
Before DG could respond again, Glitch had stepped in front of her and clapped his hands on either side of her shoulders. She looked at him, alarmed.
“You can do this,” he said, his face perfectly serious.
DG’s head twitched in an uncertain nod, but he had already released her and followed Raw over to the horses. The two of them led the four horses away and left Cain and DG alone.
“If I had my gun, I’d shoot them both,” Cain muttered solemnly.
DG’s eyes slid over to him, an eyebrow raised in question. His eyes flickered over to her and after analyzing her look he realized how Raw’s comment must have sounded to her.
“I can get them myself…” he muttered, his hand brushing lightly over his leg, igniting a dozen or more pricks of pain.
She watched his motion and nodded slowly.
“Sure…” her tone drew his attention back to her. She had the hint of a knowing look on her face. “You probably should take your time being a human pin cushion…I’ll just be…” She motioned behind her with a thumb, her damn smirk finally appearing.
His neutral face was now decidedly frowning.
Did she have to phrase it like that?
He made an uncomfortable noise in the back of his throat. After a moment of looking anywhere but her, his head tilted towards her with his patented I-hate-this look.
When her smirk had faded into a patient, half smile, he nodded his head for her to follow him and he limped over to where he wanted to lie down.
“Is it just the one leg?” she asked.
“Thankfully…” he grumbled as he kneeled on his good leg, moving to lie down. After he got settled, he moved his coat out of the way and she began looking over his leg.
“Okay…” she said absentmindedly. She tugged on the fabric of his pants around one of the thorns lightly. “Hmmmm…”
That was a negative ‘Hmmmm.’ Why does it have to be a negative ‘Hmmmm’?
“Uhhh…I don’t think…” she trailed off and he looked over her shoulder at him. She gave him an uneasy smile that didn’t last all of half a second before she was looking uncomfortable again. And blushing. “You…mighthavetotakeoff…your…”
She stopped talking as she met his eyes. She heaved a big sigh and motioned at his lower half.
He looked down at his pants and studied the holes. They were barely the size of the thorns. There was no way she could pick them out with the fabric in the way.
Of. Course.
He felt his ears turn pink. He bit back a groan and started kicking off his boots. He had trouble since he couldn’t use all of his leg muscles easily and she ended up pulling his boots off for him. Then she turned away and waited for him to divest himself of his pants.
Which was a long and awkward process in and of itself.
“So…” she said after a minute of him trying to depants himself. He looked up alarmed, but saw she was still facing away from him. “I see two options…”
He grunted. This ought to be good.
“Yeah, and what’s that?”
“I can pick them out by hand or…” she motioned with her hand. “…magic…them out…”
He contemplated the back of her head. While he trusted her with many things…Like doing this in the first place…
“I’d rather you try it the old fashion way first…” he found himself answering.
She shrugged, and mumbled something that he couldn’t quite catch, which he ignored. When he was finally finished, and he had himself covered with either his pants or coat, he gave her the all clear.
“Alright, let’s get this over with.”
When she turned around she looked everywhere but him. She made her way around behind him and knelt by his leg. He heard her take a deep breath to calm herself.
What the hell did she have to be nervous about? She isn’t the one hurt or pants-less!
And then her cool fingertips were on his thigh and his skin felt like it was electrified. His muscles clenched without thinking and pain lanced up from his leg at the movement.
“I…relax, Cain…Being tense isn’t going to help anything.”
And neither is brushing her right hand in a comforting motion on back of his knee, just below where the thorns started.
He fought the urge to blush and did his best to relax. He waited while she moved her right hand up and placed her fingertips around the first thorn. She tried to grab a hold of it between her thumb and index fingernails of her left hand while her other hand to put even pressure around the thorn, and held his skin back.
There were a few moments of discomfort until she finally got a good grip on it. Then she slowly pulled it out and Cain winced at the sensation. It hadn’t necessarily hurt, but it was definitely not pleasant.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he answered quickly, eager for this to be done.
She repeated the same process and methodically moved from right to left, moving higher and higher up his leg. He watched her progress over his shoulder, trying not to stare her down though. At one point she rested her right hand on his leg, almost bracing herself as she shifted over to continue working. Cain slightly shifted his leg away, alarmed at how close she -
“Sorry…” she muttered, and returned to the last few that were…umm…very high. Their eyes met briefly, and he managed to shake his head like it wasn’t a big deal.
Holy hell that was close.
And while this was highly embarrassing because it was DG, there was also no WAY he’d be able to handle going through something like this with Glitch or Raw. Glitch would be trying to talk the whole time and Raw just…Raw just doesn’t need any excuses to ‘Feel’ what he was feeling.
He was definitely the one doing the blushing today.
TMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTMTM
A/N: This one OBVIOUSLY threatened to be very very very long…and I almost cut out a lot of the first half, but…but…but then I’d be cutting stuff out…Which I Don’t…Do… *shifty eyes* And the length makes up for the long wait, right? :D