[Open] Another important life lesson

[windsofdaytime]

Characters: Kiryuu Kaoru, everyone who wanted to log with her, everyone else
Content: Kaoru's been injured fighting a pig. This is the result.
Setting: Serenity's infirmary
Time: After pig stuff
Warnings: Injuries, nihilism, extreme naivete, and whatever you bring with you.

Comments

[takemesir]

Zoë pushed the door to the infirmary open, stepping inside. She'd heard that one of the ship's youngest had gotten hurt during the pig hunt doing something truly stupid, and she'd decided to pop in for a word. She was a bit concerned, to say the least.

"How you feeling?" she asked as she stepped inside.

[windsofdaytime]

Kaoru tilted her head. The light in the infirmary somehow made her look even more pale, a feat once thought impossible without copious amounts of makeup or walking into a pile of flour. She blinked up at the woman.

"Hurt," she replied without much intonation, "but passable."

[takemesir]

Zoë raised an eyebrow. Lord, but this girl was creepy. The light certainly didn't help, but there was just something off about her.

Still, wasn't the girl's fault, though. Zoë pulled up a chair, and sat by the edge of the bed. "That's our doctor, for you," she said. "He'll get you back on your feet in no time, you just hang tight and let him know if there's anything you need, alright?"

[windsofdaytime]

"Okay." She thought for a second. "Those pigs were strong. The lunch woman said that they weren't normal pigs. What are normal pigs like?"

[takemesir]

"Normal pigs? Uh, they're about yea big at most," she said, gesturing with her hands. "Sometimes a bit bigger, especially wild ones. Boars can be nasty, but nothing like that."

[windsofdaytime]

"That's small," Kaoru said, still with the same lack of expression in her voice. "So that's why everyone was surprised. They were large and angry, but other than that, they were easy to fight." She didn't seem to notice the bloodstain on her side getting bigger as she said that.

[takemesir]

Zoë, on the other hand, did notice the spreading blood stain. She'd seen enough field medics at work (and enough people bleeding out) to know what bleed-through meant: the bandage needed replacing before it got nasty.

"Sweetie, you're bleeding through," she said.

[windsofdaytime]

"I am?" She looked down. "Oh. That means I need another bandage, right?"

[takemesir]

"That's right," Zoë said, standing up. She moved to close the curtains around them, for privacy. "I can take care of that for you, ain't no need to bother the doctor for a bandage change." She'd done it before, when there weren't doctor available. It wasn't pleasant, but she knew what she was doing.

"Take the gown off while I get washed up, will you?" she asked.

[windsofdaytime]

"All right." Kaoru twitched her arms at the sides and pulled herself up into a sitting position, then pulled the white gown off and dumped it onto the floor.

[takemesir]

Zoë gave her hands a through washing. Didn't want to give the poor girl an infection on top of everything else. Drying her hands off, she stepped back to the bedside.

"Well, at least you ain't shy," she joked as she stood behind her, reaching for the edge of the bandage. "Now, this is gonna hurt a bit, as I pull it off. If it gets too bad, you let me know, alright?"

[windsofdaytime]

"Why would I be?", she asked with a slight headtilt. "Okay. But I should be fine."

[takemesir]

"I'm just teasing, Kaoru," she said as she started peeling the bandage off, being sure to pull the skin away from the bandage instead of the other way around. "Lot of girls your age would be a bit more hesitant to take their clothes off, is all."

As she peeled away the wrapping, the wound came into view. It was a nasty-looking thing and no question about it. She winced a little at the sight.

Thankfully, it didn't look infected, just unfortunate. Zoë's seen much worse. Kaoru was lucky to come out as well as she did.

[windsofdaytime]

"Oh. Why?", Kaoru asked. She remained blank-faced as the bandage came off, even as bits of it peeled off blood clots. It did look painful, but trying to pick a fight with a giant angry pig would do that to a person.

[takemesir]

Why? Zoë blinked. She'd never figured on have to explain that.

"Well, that's why you wear clothes, isn't it? To cover up your private bits."

She pulled the last of the bandage off and deposited it, along with the discarded robe, in the bin. Then she returned to the sink to wash her hands again. Sanitation between each step of this was important.

[windsofdaytime]

"Oh." Kaoru blinked. "Isn't it because of the cold?" The laboratory she'd grown up in had been cold. Outside was cold, too, sometimes. But when it was hot, people still wore clothes. That must have been the other reason, then.