Diamonds Droog
You were rushing to grab the sweater when your ankle caught the corner of the sofa, twisting and bringing you tumbling down with a shriek. You landed with a hard thud, arms landing at painful angles and head bouncing against the floor. There was almost a kind of audible fuzz for a few seconds, and you closed your eyes to try and adjust. When you opened your eyes you were welcomed to the familiar dersite mug of a friend, red diamond clear as day on his jacket pocket.
"You alright?" He asked. His cold carapacian hand was on your cheek, and his small eyes were almost filled with worry.
"Yeah..." You grumbled, pulling your arms up and against yourself while staying seated on the floor.
"Aren't you normally more graceful than that?" Droog asked, a smile trying to make it's way across his features.
"Aren't you normally not the type to enter a friend's house through a window?" You asked, recognizing the familiar breeze drifting from the window beside the door.
"Touché." He was normally never this relaxed, with the rest of the midnight crew Droog was always focused, prim and proper. Between the two of you he could relax a little, although his insistence on perfect manners most of the time drove you crazy. "Are you sure you're alright?"
You were about to nod as his hand settled on your elbow. "Don't lie to me." He said, his voice quieter than normal. You didn't even need to look down to remember the scratch tracks trailing up and down your forearms.
"Droog, I'm fine." You spoke, before being interrupted.
"______, I said don't lie to me." His voice sounded hurt. "This is serious, this is-" He seemed to be looking for the right words. "This is messed up."
"I deserve it." You replied flatly, drawing your knees up to your chest.
"What?! No way!" He adjusted the way he was sitting, now with his legs crossed and hands on his knees. "Missy, you do not deserve anything like that. Much less the feeling that you do." He was actually more expressive than you originally gave him credit for. "Can I at least get you fixed up? We can finish talking about this later.”
You shook your head. "I don't want to. I want to be alone."
"As much as it pains me to overlook your wants, your safety comes before anything else." He stood up, and extended his hand down to you. "Shall we? Or will I have to pick you up?"
You could tell from the tone in his voice that he was completely serious, and you complied. Droog pulled you to your feet with a certain class, you were actually expecting to be spun around as if in a ballroom. His hand moved from holding yours to gently hovering around your waist, and it made you feel even more like some kind of princess.
He knew his way decently around the house, leading you to the bathroom with the largest first aid kit. He had been in the bathroom a handful of times; just back from a job, bleeding heavily, hat gone, shell shattered in a few places. He was so weak in those moments. Weak, but he still came to you for help. Now though, as he sat you down on the closed toilet lid, you realized he would be the one dressing your wounds.
His hands moved quickly and carefully, cleaning and wrapping your forearms tight, but not too tight. “You aren’t allowed to do this anymore, you hear?” You shook your head in response.
“This is how I get through the day Droog, I need to do it.”
“The only thing you need to do is call me up when you start feeling like this.” His voice was quiet again, and when you looked up at him confused, his normally small and beady eyes seemed to be filled with something you couldn’t place. “Any excuse to get away from Slick when he’s being a dumbass is welcome, especially if I get to hang around you and be useful.” His carapacian hand rested on your bandaged forearms, a settling weight that made the pain slowly disappear. “So no more of this.”
“I think if you’ll be around to help I can manage.” You spoke, tears pricking in edges of your eyes as you stood up from the toilet lid, moving to gently hug Droog. He hugged back, a small chuckle reverberating from inside his shell that did stupid shit to your chest. After resting your head on his shoulder, you looked up to lock eyes with him, and steal a gentle but sincere kiss. Diamonds were always your favorite suit.