Three Parts Good Day, One Part Bad Company (Leigo)

[Aehra]

Aehra looked around dazedly, and then slowly lifted her eyes to take in the old building. With all the excitement, she'd managed to forget that the Infirmary was a part of the University of Zeltiva, and even the few previous visits after fights gone bad did nothing to mask the wonder that came over her every time she realized this. The tall granite structures were nothing less than awe-inspiring in her eyes, reaching for the endless blue skies as though the clouds held some secret that even the scholars inside its walls could not take hold of. That Aehra's frowned-upon activities had quite often brought her so close to her dream was an irony that was never lost on the girl. She entered the building, gratefully sitting down on a low wooden bench just inside the door. Further inside, many medics bustled between cheap cots, frantically trying to treat an influx of patients. Judging from everyone's scarlet-flushed cheeks, Aehra guessed that it was the fever that had been spreading quickly throughout the city. She'd avoided it so far herself, and hoped that she'd get through this encounter without contracting it. She patted the spot next to her on the bench. "C'mon, Sparks, we ent gonna be seen for a while."

[Leigo]

Leigo’s every hair stood on end at the girl’s antics, but he simply squeezed a smile to frame his teeth and sat down. Still a bit sulking because of the constant name calling, the boy was half expecting the familiar to add something idiotic like ‘well she really likes you’ or a statement of equal irony. That comment never came – Onuo after all wasn’t the one to dabble too much in Leigo’s personal life except when it concerned him directly. They were really still a mystery to one another, or Leigo could only hope so. It would surely be tragic for his own familiar to know him better than he did it. “Would it really kill you to just call me Leigo?” the boy finally asked holding back all of the initial irritation he felt. She was too childish for his tastes, but then again, just how old was she?

[Aehra]

Aehra flinched at the boy's sharpness, and all of the fear that had fled after the fight came flooding back in a dizzying rush, even seeming to drain the room around them of its warmth. This boy could conjure fire from his fingertips and had killed a man not half an hour earlier; she berated herself silently for letting herself forget that for even one second. She forced a smile on her face. If there was one thing she'd learned from a year of brawling in the streets, it was that you never, ever showed a threat that you were afraid. She patted the seat next to her again. "Right then, Leigo. Still gotta sit down, don'tcha?" She glanced down at his ribs. "Where'd they hitcha, anyhow? Saw 'em get a good kick right in here, yeah?" She reached forward, meaning to brush her hand across his abdomen, but caught herself just in time and ended up waving her hand with a good foot of space between it and Leigo.

[Leigo]

Leigo thought that the girl perhaps flinched at his comment. Well, no harm in disagreeing – or so he figured. This girl, Aehra, might’ve been a somewhat insolent brat, but he found her interesting. That had to count for something. Moving his behind slowly across the bench without ever standing up, the blond dragged himself closer to the girl just like she seemed to want. However when her hand reached out to touch his ribs or whatever was down there, Leigo thought he would have to scare her again. Likely simply grabbing her hand and shoving it away would’ve been enough. The boy would never know as the girl stopped herself just in time. And then she asked another one of those silly questions. “I suppose.” He kept brief, acting tough. Weakness was still a weakness, no matter whose eyes he had shown it. “How about you – does it hurt much?” what did he care? He wasn’t the medic. Still, the question remained. The boy would never wave his hand at her, mostly because he found that notion uncomfortable and partially because he knew where they had hit her too.

[Aehra]

Aehra shrugged. "I've had worse, plenty a'times." She didn't glance at the boy at her side, but imagined that he had a humorously exaggerated look up surprise upon his face. It was certainly bound to be more entertaining than the passive expression she was sure he really wore. "A few times." She paused and squirmed on the bench. "Fine, one time. But it was much worse. Terrible." No sooner had she spoken these words than a tall, scrawny man poked his head through and into the room, glancing around until his eyes skittered to a halt while he took in the two on the bench. He squinted at them, scrunching his already upturned nose childishly. "You again." Aehra grinned, happy for the distraction. The medic-- who she imagined was a student at the University, although she'd never actually asked before-- had treated her in her past two visits, and always managed to tangle his own feet together and stumble. On the last, particularly memorable, visit, he'd managed to do so when he was only trying to kneel down and apply a cloth wrap to her bruised shin."My pleasure as always, Trips." Trips huffed and waved regally for them to follow. "Come on, then. Can't imagine what you've been up to this time, Aehra." He left the room without another word, and Aehra follow dutifully. She glanced over her shoulder at Leigo and shot him a small grin. "You heard the man, Sp-- Leigo." The near-miss threw her off-guard, and she found herself struggling to refrain from using nicknames with the wizard. "Come on," she added quietly.

[Leigo]

He could feel the Aehra squirming as she squeezed out the truth. Bit by bit, her grand telling wound down to that one thing that one time scenario. Still it was far from pleasant knowing anyone, let alone a girl, ever had to go through something like that. Even ten times less than what he could imagine it had been sounded too much. Before he could tell her anything, not that he had anything to say, an awkward man appeared. The girl knew him and so she followed after he waved at them to do so. Wasting no time, Leigo too obeyed. The boy thought he could hear her calling the medic Trips, well whatever nickname that was, he suddenly felt a bit more fondly of his. At least his didn’t point to a balance defect. As scared as Aehra might’ve been, he didn’t really like kids and so he found no reason to walk on eggs around her. Certain that she almost called him by that irritating nickname again, Leigo made no move to reveal he had heard that. They needed to see the medic – that should ease his mind a bit. If it really needed to happen, they could always speak more after that.

[Aehra]

The room they were ushered into was small and sparsely decorated. One cot was pressed snugly against the back corner, and the other wall housed a short cabinet covered in bandages and squat jars of ointments varying somewhat in color. The medic let the other two in before him. He pressed his fingers lightly at the space between Aehra's shoulder blades, steering her towards the decorated cabinet. He tutted disapprovingly and gripped her forearms lightly, lifting them and bringing her elbows up into a better light. They were the most obvious injury, she imagined, being bloody and raw, but the sharp pang that shot through her ribs at the motion was far more painful. Trips tutted again and released Aehra's arms, which she gratefully dropped to her side. Trips turned around briefly to grab a long roll of gauze and a short jar filled halfway with a mostly-clear ointment tinged slightly pink. He inclined his head slightly towards a large bucket pressed against the wall, filled with water. "Clean 'em up." Aehra did as she was told, moving slowly so as not to tug on her ribs again. Despite her best efforts, the same stab of pain raced through her when she reached into the bucket's cold water for the thin cloth. She sucked in a deep breath (producing yet another pang) and tried to go about washing her elbows as quickly as possible. A low whine managed to escape through her clenched teeth, but she was soon turning back to the medic and holding her elbows up for him to wrap. The medic frowned not unkindly at her when she returned to his side. He dabbed his fingers into the jar and lightly applied the thick substance onto her bright red skin, shushing soothingly when she was unable to keep another whine at bay. The sting lingered even when he moved his hands and wrapped the gauze around her elbows, although it had faded to a dull buzz by the time the bandaging was tied off. "Your ribs, then?" Before Aehra had a chance to put her arms down, Trips darted his hand out, his fingers flitting lightly down her side, and Aehra jerked backwards, slamming her arms to her side without a thought edgewise. She clenched her teeth and nodded her head at Leigo. "Get 'im first. Burnt 'is hands up somethin' fierce."

[Leigo]

Leigo observed how Trips handled Aehra. To say he was entertained would’ve been an understatement. For all her toughness out there, she still managed to whine like a child when facing a physician. He supposed he was like that at one time too. Just how old was she? Or was a more fitting question how young? The medic soon turned to the boy as per the girl’s instructions. Needless to say, Leigo didn’t take kindly to this. In a no discussion voice Trips probably heard many times in his insignificant life, the boy demanded. “Ladies first” there was no point arguing with Leigo once his mind was set. Not only would he not let the doctor touch him until he was done but he wouldn’t let Aehra leave either. She needed to be tended to so someone with expertise could tell him there’s nothing to worry about. Nodding sparsely, Trips stuck his hand into another one of those smelly ointments and turned back to Aehra. “Lift up your shirt.” Good, it seemed the medic wasn’t one of those with a voiced opinion on every matter.

[Aehra]

Aehra allowed herself a short huff of annoyance before lifting her cotton shirt and tucking it just above her ribcage. If she was honest with herself, she supposed that she should have been more annoyed with the arrogance that Leigo seemed to be putting off. She suspected that she was so used to only seeing false confidence and bravado that she now assumed any display of cockiness to be only a front. Her train of thought was stopped abruptly when Trips's fingers danced up and down Aehra's ribs, and her legs shook with the effort she was making to keep still in spite of the pain it caused. Trips hummed noncommittally and dabbed a bit of a different ointment onto her side. She wasn't entirely sure what a paste could do for a wound that wasn't on the skin, but the sharp cold of it numbed her side pleasantly, and she opted out of chasing the issue. Trips wrapped a long strip of gauze around her middle three, four, five times before tying it off in the center of her stomach. He signaled for Aehra to drop her shirt, and she did so. The medic narrowed his eyes at the girl, analyzing her for other wounds. After a bit, his eyes settled at her neck. He stooped to get a closer look at it, and something about his face worried Aehra. "How bad's it? Can't see my own neck for nothin'." Trips tutted and lifted his head to meet Aehra's gaze. "Well, you're talking and breathing just fine, so it's probably nothing serious. You've got nasty bruising all around, though." Aehra gave him a faint smile. She'd expected as much. The medic nodded once at her and then turned to Leigo. "Give me your hands."

[Leigo]

Perhaps Leigo would’ve felt bad for acting as he did in another set of circumstances. Not this time. Aehra acted like a child for the most part so he treated her like one – for the most part. While Trips, smiling at the thought of nickname catching on, did what he could to ease the girl’s ailments, Leigo didn’t turn away his gaze. It might’ve been shameful, but there was enough of that for one day. He was there to check if she was alright, not to act like a senior citizen. The girl seemed annoyed by his mannerisms, but that was of little significance to the boy. Instead of reacting in any way, he made sure Trips was done before reaching out just one of his hands. The left one was the actually burned one, and if there were burn marks on the right hand, Leigo couldn’t feel the pain. That was reason enough to withhold it for the time being. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t go anywhere for now, girl” he made his words barely louder than a whisper, but he knew she would be listening “We need to talk…” whatever was going through Leigo’s head didn’t seem troublesome enough to be shared with the girl just yet. “She said hands” Trips denoted before raising an eyebrow. Not letting himself get sidetracked, the boy pushed his left fist further in front of the physician “Just one.” Leigo thought he could hear the man sighing before he proceeded to do whatever it was doctors did to make people better. First he rubbed the burns with something smelly and then he added something that barely smelled any better. Soon the man would finish it by tying off a bandage. While waiting for Trips to do his business, Leigo tried breathing deeply. He found pains, some sharper than others, reducing his abdomen. Just like before, he knew that if there was indeed a cracked rib, Trips here wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. It was much the same way for bruises, the doctor might oil him up like a duck, but that would help things only barely. Besides, he wasn’t getting undressed for something so insignificant. Opening up a small sack of coins, Leigo pushed the other hand in front of the man as well. “Take what we owe you and know we’re grateful for your services” it wasn’t really a grateful tone, but give him a break, he was trying. “That’d be all, doc!” he finished before turning to Aehra. “Come on. Let’s go.” Keeping it brief, he left the room before anyone had a chance to reply to what he had just said. The girl didn’t have to follow him, but the boy supposed she was smart enough to know he would just come back and drag her out if that indeed happened. Didn’t you forget something? I’m in no mood for games today. You never told the man how you two got all those injuries. So what? So what if he asks the girl? There the mechanical conversation ended. Only barely worried, Leigo was still confident. Aehra was too scared of him to say much, or so he thought.