Chapter 14
They had been looking for the rest of them after an explosion. It had been a huge explosion, enough to cause the Earth to open and what few Eternals were near that town to be completely separated one from the other. Now they had no idea what had happened to anyone else, if they were okay, or even what that explosion had been, and their ears were ringing.
Kingo had somehow managed to shield Sprite (her powers might be great, but her body was tiny) and they'd made it mostly unscathed. After helping a handful of humans that had been near them and making sure they were both whole and unexploded, they started looking for the others, because some of them seemed to have been thrown miles and miles up in the sky and beyond the edge of the town, towards the beach next to it. They had to regroup, they had to find out what had happened to the others, what had happened in general, how many casualties there had been and if it had anything to do with the deviants or it was just human or earth stuff they didn't have to interfere with.
And they went to the beach, because Sprite thought that she'd seen something, possibly someone's body being thrown there and it was possibly one of them. It was a bit hard to move when they were still feeling the after effects of the explosion themselves, the ringing ears, that odd vibrating sensation in their chest, all of that, maybe finding the person would give them something to do that would distract from the discomfort.
They found someone, and it was certainly one of them. Someone with dark clothes and a leg bent in a weird way, someone laying face down and bleeding onto the sand.
Druig.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Kingo cursed as he went to check on their resident sour guy. Druig may not be his favourite one of the bunch, and maybe he had jokingly threatened to do bad things to him, but actually seeing him hurt... Poor Druig. He looked so helpless in the sand.
"Is he dead?" Sprite honestly didn't think she would ever be worried about Druig. He brought little to the team (in her opinion), he was mean sometimes, was able to read people a bit too well and, you know, sarcasm was her thing. No one was allowed to steal that, much less sass Kingo. That was her brand. (Also Ikaris didn't like him so she didn't either)
But seeing him like this, thinking he could be dead... You can dislike a brother and still don't want anything bad to happen to him. Also Makkari was weirdly close to him, and if he was dead... She was one of the most powerful ones of their little team, having her unhinged was probably not great.
"He's not, but he doesn't sound great." Kingo was talking about Druig's breathing, that sounded ragged and wheezy and wrong. The blood was coming from a deep gash on his side, which they should probably bandage once they got him up on his feet. Which wasn't going to be an easy task. Druig wasn't the biggest of them, but he wasn't small, either.
"hey, hey... Druig? you with us??"
Druig's face was also a bit cut up, on his forehead, on his lips, on his cheeks. He must have been really close to the explosion.
"Ajak?? Makkari??" Sprite shouted at the wind. Ajak would be able to heal him and Makkari could just find Ajak for them and bring her in a second. But there was no answer.
Druig was answering but it wasn't great. Just some little sounds of pain and distress that they had never heard coming from the mind controller. He looked quite bad, really.
"Sprite, can you help me get him up?"
"I don't know, can I?"
"We all the strength of a Eternal, right?"
And then there was another voice.
"If I get up...will you...stop....talking..."
Kingo smiled
"Druig!! Druig buddy, so good to hear your voice! Can you, can you get up? I'll help you."
The task was not easy, and Druig had to put most of his weight in Kingo... and when he put any on his mangled leg he let out a scream of pain. Agonising, raw. Loud.
"Well, at least if someone's around they'll surely hear that." Sprite said, which seemed a bit too casual for the situation they were in.
"Wow, that's so helpful, Sprite. Our..." Friend? Brother? co-worker? What exactly were they? "Druig is in excruciating pain and instead of finding any way to help, you're just being fun about it!"
"Stop...screaming..."
Druig looked awfully pale and he was bleeding everywhere and Sprite was being no help and Kingo didn't want to freak out. But how could he not? Druig looked awful and they had no idea where Ajak was and the others were and Druig couldn't even walk.
But they had to move, right? There was no Ajak and no one to help here and Druig was losing blood and...
"We should probably bandage at least the on his side, right? is the one bleeding the worst."
"Yeah, yeah, I can do that while you hold him upright."
Sprite ripped some cloth from her pants (they had been wearing civilian clothes that morning) (not great to avoid injuries). And went to him, looking him in the eyes, even though his were unfocused and dazed. But he was there somewhere, behind all that pain. Druig was always there, despite everything. That was something you could count on.
"Ok, Druig, buddy, I'm going to bandage your wound and it's going to hurt, ok? But it's just to help. Please don't mind control me."
Kingo made a face as he held on to his half-conscious... Druig.
"You think he can do it to us? Not just the humans?"
"Oh, I know it." Sprite said, figuring out a way in which she could be done quick and not hurt him too much. She would never admit it, of course, but she actually didn't want Druig to suffer. He was... tolerable, he knew what it was to not have offensive powers and he was...well he was more fun than some of the others. More dangerous, too. But that was part of why she appreciated him, he could be so much worse, and yet..."One time I saw Thena and Ikaris about to rip each other's head off. And our boy Dru's eyes shone a little bit and suddenly she decided that "since they were working together, it was better to reach an understanding" that wasn't maturity, it was him. He just chooses not to use it on us, normally."
"Huh. well, thanks for that."
"You're...welcome."
Then Sprite secured the bandages with a knot and Druig's eyes were closed, a couple of tears escaping.
"I never thought I would feel this bad for Druig of all people, you know? He always feels so...aloof and distant. Just in a corner, eating whatever. Why don't you join us more, bud?" maybe Kingo was trying to distract his friend from the pain while Sprite continued calling for Ajak and Makkari. Not that he cared that much. But maybe he did a little.
"Hurts." Druig muttered, trying to stay awake.
"Joining us more metaphorically is hurting for you or just now physically you're hurting?"
Druig's breathing was wheezy and awful, and Ajak was nowhere to be found.
"Both." He said in a whisper, with a small thread of voice.
"We have to find the others, there's no way around it. We have to move."
And this was not easy, because every time Druig put his leg on the floor, or everytime they moved it, he screamed or groaned, and seemed closer to passing out. Not good. At some point, barely ten steps in and mostly out of it after enduring too much agony from his leg, he just whispered "why do you keep hurting me?" And it was a bit too much, wasn't it? Kingo never thought he would miss the smartass, brooding, asks too many questions and makes you question your life version of Druig, but lost in pain Druig was even worse.
"All right, that's enough." Aaaand he took him, bridal style in his arms. Which was a good thing, since he promptly passed out from all the jostling of his leg and other wounds.
"He looks so harmless and vulnerable and soft." Sprite said. "It feels so wrong."
It really did. Kingo was looking at him, all unconscious and bloody... Thought of what few jokes they've shared, the knowing looks, the dots he'd connected before anyone else ever had. Having Druig actually wasn't bad. And having him passed out in your arms...it really felt wrong.
Luckily, they ran into Makkari a bit later, and she brought Ajak who healed all of his injuries. And suddenly he was back to his old self, wondering why they hadn't known about this, asking if it may having an ambush, asking if there was any food around.
Kingo and Sprite breathed, relieved. Maybe smiled to themselves.
They would never admit it, because they were team Ikaris all the way, but...they also did love Druig, the awake, annoying Druig, in their own way.
And maybe, just maybe, they didn't want him to be hurt.
(Ok, not just maybe) (but shuuush, it's a secret)