"I hate spinach." Damian rolled over onto his stomach, slowly pushing himself up onto his elbows. It hurt, but he managed to keep the pain frown showing through too much as he shoved himself onto hands and knees and then muffled the ensuing scream into a deep, pained sigh. "I… um… I think I can change my bandages while you're cooking, if you can tell me where the bathroom is."
"it's through mag's room, but the stuff should be on the coffee table. do you want me to help you to the couch?" he threw off his side of the covers, standing up all at once to get it over with, and raised his eyebrows at the obviously pained damian.
"No," he said, stubborn streak showing through as he forced himself fully onto his knees and made his way slowly to the floor. It wasn't so bad once he was upright, even though his legs felt like they might collapse under him. "No, I'm fine, just… give me a minute."
"alright." juni crossed his arms loosely, waiting patiently for damian to recover enough to walk into the living room.
Damian wandered over as soon as he was able, leaning up against Juniper once he was about halfway to the kitchen for support. "What are you gonna make?"
"not entirely sure yet. maybe omelettes. maybe cereal. depends on the food we have." juniper walked the rest of the way to the kitchen supporting damian, stepping away from him and gesturing to the table they used as an island (that had stools pushed under it).
"you can sit there while i cook."
Damian nodded, pulling out one of the stools before he remembered the bandages. He sighed and hurried into the living room to grab the bandages and gauze, leaving the stool pulled out for him to plop into after his return.
juniper watched him go back, in case he fell or hurt his back, and finally got to work when damian returned unscathed.
he checked the fridge, looking around for a moment before declaring "nice, we have the stuff for omelettes. what kind do you want?"
"I already said I wasn't picky, babe. Just add whatever you have most of and I'll be fine." Damian unwrapped the bandages slowly, struggling with the way it had been fastened behind his shoulders. He managed to fumble it off, wincing as he peeled away the blood-soaked gauze. No matter how often he saw it, the sight of his own blood still made him feel vaguely ill.
"okay. just let me know if you need help." he turned on the stove and got started, glancing over his shoulder to check on damian every so often.
Damian fought back the urge to curl in on himself every time Juniper glanced his way, not sure why he got so flustered but also not willing to let it disturb him. "I'm not gonna drop dead, you know. I've been patching myself up for my whole life, I don't need a babysitter to take care of me." He slapped some gauze over his shoulder a bit too hard, sending a fresh gush of blood into the cloth.
juniper was about to respond when damian made himself bleed even more, causing his expression to drop into light exasperation.
"okay. have fun."
Damian rolled his eyes and blew some of the hair off his forehead with a sigh. "Whatever you say, dad," he muttered, slapping on another layer of gauze and then struggling for a bit until he managed to press some up against the cuts closer to the middle of his back. "I just… It's weird to have someone hovering over me. D'you get that, at the very least?"
"i do get that. do tell me if i get to be too much, though." he went back to cooking quietly.
he's so easy to be worried over, hitting himself with the gauze like that. but independence is familiar to him, so i guess this is best. i need to teach him how to do it properly, though.
"I will. I'm just fidgity 'cause you keep looking over here and it's… weird." He'd covered most of the cuts in gauze by the time he was done talking, so he reached over for the actual bandages and started wrapping himself up. It was a messy job, complicated by the fact that his back twinged warningly every time he stretched his arms and the fact that he couldn't move his arms all the way around his torso. "People try not to look at me most days, I can''t tell if I like it or not."
((get creative with whats in the omelette, its 10pm and im not about to look this shit up))
at this point, juniper had plated the third and last omelette. he opened a drawer for silverware, retrieved a fork and set both the fork and plate down in front of damian.
it looked good, like he had a lot of practice in cooking, and he had thrown some sliced bell peppers on the side.
"that's strange. as long as i've been alive, i've only known people to stare uncomfortably at things they aren't sure about."
"Not if you glare at them long enough," he replied softly before he tucked into the omelet with more enthusiasm than he'd shown all day. The bandages had been tied off messily at his hip, and he fiddled with them with one hand while the other shoveled food into his mouth. "People are pretty keen to avoid you if you've got black eyes more days than not and you seem like you hate the world."
"damn, i could've used that advice in middle and high school." juniper said with a quiet chuckle, picking up a plate to bring to his dad.
"i'll be right back. and… do you want me to retie your bandages? that seems awfully uncomfortable."
"I'll be fine," Damian replied automatically, hand freezing with the knot still caught between his fingers. "I… um… I'm fine with this. All this stuff is so nice anyways, I'm more than happy to just be able to use it."
"alright, but you'll have to let me teach you how to do it more comfortably at some point." juniper offered a smile, turning into magik's room and knocking loudly on the wall once he got inside to wake the man up. they convered in muffled spanish for a bit, ending with laughter and a faint
"shut it, old man, take your food."
Damian smiled back, picking nervously at the bandages as soon as Juniper was gone. Was something wrong with them? Had he wasted all this perfectly good material on a shitty job? Sure, it wasn't the prettiest, but he didn't think it was that bad.
juniper emerged to get his own plate, squinting at it and then leaning down to get some plastic wrap out of a drawer and cover it up. he put it in the fridge and went to sit next to damian.
"you look nervous, love. anything wrong?"
Damian frowned as Juniper packed away his food, snapping out of his trance with a casual shake of his head. He was still fidgeting with the bandages, though not as fervently. "No, not really. Um… I'm sorry, I guess. For wasting your bandages and stuff. I know I shouldn't have used them if I was gonna do a shitty job, I just…"
"i've seen worse jobs. the main concern here is your comfort, anyway. i don't care that you used our supplies. that knot can't be nice to lay on, is my point." he nodded towards damian's food, seeing the empty plate.
"are you done?"
Damian nodded, letting Juniper take his plate. "I'll be fine. I mean, it's not like I'll notice it anyway when my back's all fucked up like this." He shrugged, forcing back a pained noise as he moved the newly reopened wound on his shoulders. His whole body felt like one big searing mess of pain. "And I… um… I get the feeling that you'll be here to help me out if I really need you, so I'm sure I'll be fine."
The following keyboard controls are supported across Notebook.ai. All keyboard controls are disabled when editing a document or notebook page.