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“I… have never seen anything like this.” Mu Qingfang admits as he stares at his shixiong’s back. Initially, he simply thought he was growing jealous of Liu Qingge’s little excursions with Shen Qingqiu, jealous that he stole their shixiong’s precious time to go slay monsters and put themselves in danger. That had to be what that unsettled feeling in his gut was, he thought at the time, but no. He knew the moment that war god dragged their shixiong into his private office , barely hanging onto his shoulder, that he was dead wrong. He didn’t believe in premonitions, but maybe just this once it was a premonition.
“What!?” Liu Qingge snaps, stopping in his pacing to stare wide-eyed at him, fear and anger lacing his beautiful features. He can’t lie , he’s never seen this before, and he doesn’t really know what to do besides what one does for other plant parasites….
“I will try to remove it.” he warns. Shen Qingqiu hasn’t said a word since they’ve gotten back, instead just choking back pained groans and pitiful whimpers behind gritted teeth. After everything that has happened, after all the pain and suffering, the medic has come to a startling conclusion. Shen Qingqiu has amazing pain tolerance . First the aches after the fever, the wounds from the skinner, the countless wounds from the conference… And now every time they returned, he could only assume their shixiong was hurt in some way. Truly, his ability to hide and handle pain was amazing (and endlessly frustrating). Even now, his expression is somehow steeled and his body suppressing its shaking.
Pain-killers are the first step, it’s easy enough to dig out the pain pills and give them to his shixiong. The effect should be fast acting so Mu Qingfang busies himself with cleaning off a few of the tools he will need. A soft choked off noise when he turns tells him that there was no effect though. That elegant face is still tense with pain, though it seems to have become too much judging by the beads of sweat running down his hairline.
“Liu-shixiong, please leave. This will likely be messy.” he warns as he steps back over to the cot. Murmuring to himself, Mu Qingfang busies himself with helping his shixiong undress, forcing himself to ignore the choked gasps leaving the smaller man when the robes pull on his wounds. It’s easy to see why once they’re pulled away though. There are splatters of blood across the back of his robes, each layer dropping snapped off leaves and vines. It grew through his robes? He shakes them out and sets them to the side. “How do you feel, shixiong?
“ Hurts .” the other man grits out, brow pinched.
“Yes, yes… I will have to make a new mixture, I think the fast acting reagents are not strong enough.” he chatters to fill the air, to distract his shixiong from the pain. Making medicine is a mindless task, one he can do while continuing to chatter (though he normally works in silence). Once it’s on the side to set, though, he’s faced with the nigh insurmountable task of removing the vines. “This will hurt, shixiong... “ he warns as he circles around with his tools. That is likely an understatement. Shen Qingqiu just grunts and braces his hands on the side of the cot, already gripping it so tightly he might shatter the wood.
“Medicine?” the scholar asks, squinting back at him as he brushes a hand across the vines.
“It won’t take effect quickly enough, and we need to get these out now before they burrow too deep. I will need you to stay as still as possible, if any of the root breaks off when I’m removing it, it will grow back.” the medic explains. Embedded in the muscle already. Extremely painful removal. How long did it take them to get back? Those long pale fingers clench even harder on the cot, making it creak. “Being this tense will make it hurt worse.”
“ Do it .” the other man hisses back. Well. Here we go… Grabbing onto the end of the first vine he can clearly get to, Mu Qingfang firmly starts to pull on it. If he weren’t so well trained, he’d feel nauseous at the sight of the vine shifting under the skin. When the vine is pulled from the skin and untangled, he is left with a problem. I’ll need to make incisions to remove it.
“Shen-shixiong, I will need to cut parts of it out.” he warns as he picks up the nearest knife, frowning; “I am going to try to work quickly.”
“Mn.” is the only response he gets in turn. Liu Qingge is getting a piece of my mind when he comes back. That fool, letting our shixiong get hurt like this . He makes the first incision as he mentally berates his Liu-shixiong, gritting his teeth. The first cry leaves Shen Qingqiu’s mouth, a choked sob as his medic brother gently removes the remnants of the first vine. The entire procedure is a blur of bloody incisions and terrible groans and sobs.
“Shixiong stayed very still during all of that… Thank you for your patience.” Mu Qingfang comments as he blots up the streams of blood across pale jade skin, taking an extra minute to clean each of the incisions before he begins to sew them shut. To stay so still, shixiong would have had to keep himself completely tense throughout the entire procedure… It’s a wonder he didn’t pass out, really. “Shixiong?”
“I’m fine.” Shen Qingqiu says, sounding distinctly not fine. That scholarly voice is so hoarse and tense it makes Mu Qingfang’s heart shake. Luckily, slathering on medicine and bandaging the wounds is easy and comparatively painless.
“It would be best if Shen-shixiong rests, I can give you some medicine to help.”
“No, it’s fine. I just… I just want to lie down.” Shen Qingqiu shakes his head and, with immense effort, holds his arms out. Without thinking twice, the medic circles around the cot and gently embraces his scholar brother, using an arm under his behind to pick him up.
“Shixiong can sleep in my bed.” he says as he carries him through the back door of his office, in the closet he uses as a bedroom when he has too much work to leave alone. To his surprise, when he goes to lay his shixiong down, the other man clutches his shoulders with the most pitiful whimper. “...Does shixiong want me to keep him company?”
“Please…” the other whispers. It takes some effort to lay the both of them down comfortably with Shen Qingqiu’s wound, he sits with the other in his lap and lays back, letting the smaller man rest on top of him so he doesn’t put pressure on his wounds. He tries his best to keep his hand on the lower part of his shixiong’s back to avoid the wounds littered across his shoulder blades and spine. The lingering silence almost fools Mu Qingfang after a while. Almost . He’s too trained to not notice the small hitches of his shixiong’s breath, shivering so strong it almost shakes his body as well, the way his scholar brother clutches his robes.
The sobs that begin to escape Shen Qingqiu break the silence, startling hiccups and gasps for air breaking up the pitiful cries that he attempts to muffle in his shidi’s robes and neck. All the medic can do is rub the small of his back and whisper soft reassurances in his ear, knowing full well it will do nothing to quell the pain. Liu Qingge is going to get quite a few words over this . He knows it’s unreasonable to blame the other man, but his reason is suffering right now, detrimented by those shaking sobs and desperation.
Shen Qingqiu cries himself to sleep some short time before the first light of dawn, too tired to keep his strong hold on his medic’s robes.
When Shen Qingqiu blinks awake, he’s immediately distressed by how cold the bed is. Where’s Mu-shidi? He thinks before he can really register the waves of tension and spiritual energy rolling into the small room from the office. Wrapping the blankets around himself, the scholar tries to get up. He almost collapses when he tries to put weight on his legs, having to lean heavily on the wall to make it into the other room. What he finds, though, saps all the energy from his legs, leaving him sliding down the wall onto the floor.
Both Liu Qingge and Mu Qingfang are there, as expected after what happened yesterday, but…. Liu-shidi is kneeling, head bowed and shoulders tense as Mu Qingfang stands over him, looking positively murderous as he spreads his (frankly immense) spiritual energy around the room. Or, rather, they were like that. Qingge’s head snaps up the moment Shen Qingqiu appears in the doorway, eyes red rimmed and sparkling with unshed tears. Mu Qingfang turns at about the same time, dodging the way Liu Qingge lunges over to the other. Qingfang is reasonable enough to power-walk over, kneeling on the other side of their shixiong.
“Qingqiu... “ the war lord breathes, hand shaking as he reaches to take the scholar’s hand.
“Shen-shixiong should not be up, he needs to rest.” Mu Qingfang tuts.
“Were you threatening your shixiong?!” Shen Qingqiu breaks past their concern with his own bemusement, eyes wide as he stares at the other two men. Nevermind his wounds, his Mu-shidi looked terrifying like that! Who knew the medic could even do that!?
“Ah….” Mu Qingfang looks at the other peak lord, frowning.
“Yeah he was.” Liu Qingge admits, like a bastard; “I shouldn’t have brought you…”
“I can handle wounds, shidi.”
“Trust me, we know.” Liu Qingge sighs.