Chapter Text
You spent the day out on the deck typing up some research notes you’d been putting off. The weather in Hollow Earth could be a little wonky at times, and you’d feared rain was going to ruin your outside time but it had thankfully held off. Music flowed from the speakers of your laptop as you finished up the last few bullet points.
“Aaaaand done! God I thought I’d be typing forever. Remind me to never write that many notes by hand ever again.” The door to the deck opened behind you, but you were so wrapped up in your work you didn’t hear it.
“When would you like the reminder, love? Next week? Next year?” You heard Trapper call out from behind you. His voice made you jump, and you nearly knocked your cup of soda off the arm of the chair.
“Jesus Trapper!” Your voice involuntarily pitched up as you turned to face him, heart pounding in your chest. Trapper was doing his best to suppress a laugh while you tried to calm yourself down.
“Still jumpy as ever, babe.” He chuckled and stepped onto the deck, shutting the door behind him. Doing your best to ignore the choice of pet name you chugged the last bit of your soda and leaned back, scowling up at him.
“Ha ha very funny. Now that you’ve officially scared me to death, what can I help you with?” He gripped the back of your chair and leaned down so his face was upside down in front of yours. His hair tickled your cheeks and you could feel his breath ghost across your forehead. You weren’t used to being this close to him and it made you nervous, but that could just be the fact that you haven’t been this close to anyone in, well, you couldn’t really remember how long.
“Fancy a hike?” His breath was warm on your face and it smelled like mint with more than a hint of bacon from your shared breakfast.
“Only if you stop breathing your gross bacon breath all over me!” You shot forward to get away from him, in your panic forgetting his head was directly in your escape path. Your nose collided with his forehead with a loud smack! and your glasses went flying. Almost instantly you felt something warm start trickling down your face.
“Oh fuck!” Trapper yelped as he stumbled back. With him no longer in the way your momentum carried you forward off the chair and your knees hit the deck hard. Now facedown the blood started flowing freely from your nose. You groaned in pain as the blood pooled on the deck.
“Trapper?”
“Oh I think I have a concussion.” His voice groaned from behind you.
“Trapper? Trapper I need-”
“God my head...I think I’m seeing double!” He kept carrying on, not registering your voice.
“TRAVIS!” You yelled. It wasn’t often that you used his real name, even when you were in college together. It also wasn’t often that he heard his real name and that’s what finally made him shut up.
“Oh shit! Hey what’s-” Trapper rushed down to your side and his voice faltered when he saw the growing pool of blood. “Fuck mate we gotta get you inside and stop the bleeding. Can you stand? Here let me get you up.” Gently he placed one hand under your armpit and the other he used to drape your opposite arm over his shoulders. “Hey, you still with me love?”
“Y-yeah…jus’ dizzy. Blood…on your shirt…” You let go of your nose to brush blood off the white tank top he always wore under his hawaiian button downs. Unfortunately as you let go of your nose blood started dripping again and you just ended up smearing the blood around. “Oh no…I’m sorry Traps.” With his shirt being a lost cause you resumed pinching.
“Why don’t you just keep that hand on your nose, yeah? Hang on, I gotcha.”
Trapper maneuvered the door open and slowly walked the two of you through the main area of the research station. Very carefully he set you on the couch and ran off to get his med bag. He may be Kong’s vet but he was always prepared for any situation involving an injury.
“Trapper?” The blood had finally stopped and pain was starting to bloom in your general nose and cheek area. Quick footsteps crescendoed behind you as he returned with his supplies. He set them on the floor and knelt between your legs to get a better look at your face.
“Hey! Hey I’m back, you’re okay love. Just had to grab my bag. Let’s take a look at this shall we?” Trapper gingerly took hold of your chin and tilted your face up towards the light. “Ahhh yep. Already looks swollen, definitely gonna be some bruising. Good news is I don’t think it’s broken, just a good old fashioned bang breaking some blood vessels.” He paused and gently touched the bridge of your nose. You winced at the contact, partially from pain and partially from realizing again how close he was to you.
“Did the bleeding stop? And wait, are you okay? We hit heads pretty hard.” You questioned. You were still a little dizzy but you could feel the brain fog starting to go away and your personality slowly returning.
“Bleeding stopped! Just to be safe I’m gonna put some gauze in there to help soak up any that’s left. And get you some painkillers and an ice pack.” He paused. “You know if you didn’t wanna go on the hike you could’ve just said no, you didn’t have to beat me up.”
“Oh fuck off, you were the one who popped up like five inches from my face with nasty bacon breath, what was I supposed to do?” Your comeback was playful but with an air of “I’m joking but I’m serious”. This made him laugh out loud.
“Alright alright truce. Only because you ended up way more hurt than me. Bloody idiot.” He said that last part under his breath, smirking as he carefully wiped the blood from your face and patched up your nose. As bummed as you were about the whole situation you were grateful he wasn’t actually upset, and also a little giddy at being taken care of by him.
Okay so maybe you were more than a little touch starved.
Damn, I guess I’m lonelier than I thought. You hummed to yourself as the thought crossed your mind. It was nice being bandaged up by him, even if the whole thing was your fault. His touch was gentle and careful, but with an air of hesitation. Like he was nervous to touch you.
When Trapper finished dressing your nose he leaned back to admire his work. He took in the sight of you, cheeks flushed nose bandaged hair disheveled, and smiled. As you stared back at him you had a moment like earlier: unable to decipher his expression. You could practically hear the gears turning as he watched you. You involuntarily squirmed, not used to being on the receiving end of a look like that, especially from him. One you couldn’t figure out.
“Um Trapper?” This broke whatever spell was in his brain. He cleared his throat and began cleaning up his supplies. “Did you see where my glasses went? I knocked them off in the middle of all…that.” You gestured vaguely to the deck area.
“Oh! Yeah I think I saw them fly under the table out there. Want me to grab em?”
You nodded and he bounded out towards the deck. Doing your best to fight sleep you called out to him.
“Thank you Traps. You’re being so nice to me after I probably gave you a concussion and almost cracked open your beautiful face.” You yawned and rested your head on the back of the couch. “You’re a good friend.”
By the time Trapper returned you were fully passed out, snoring gently. He set your glasses on the coffee table and flopped down on the opposite end, making sure to give you enough space.
“Beautiful face, huh? Oh I can’t wait to hold that over your head when you wake up.” His eyes fluttered closed and it wasn't long before he also fell into a comfortable sleep.