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There was someone rummaging through his little clinic slash office’s cupboards noisily. The sound of nails scratching against the cupboard’s wooden surface and the loud clinking of the medicine’s glass bottles as the person pushed the items aside to look deeper into the cabinet greeted Henrik when he dropped by his home office to grab important work documents from his desk to read through at his own leisure in his office.
His lips twisted downwards into a frown as he searched his mind for the most likely culprit amongst his brothers. It couldn’t be Jackie. That man just texted him to tell him that he’s going to be home late since he had to resolve some hero work complications with the police. Marvin would rather swallow needles than go to him for the smallest scratch considering he has his own magic and potion remedies and would only approach him if it was something that his magic could not fix. Chase was currently visiting his children and his ex-wife with whom he was rekindling a relationship.
Mind you, there was a mutual agreement between Stacy and Chase that they could never be married again but their relationship now that it was being mended is shifting more to that of a platonic relationship.
Jameson and Robbie are the best amongst his brothers in terms of approaching him when they need medical attention rather than trying to self-diagnose themselves. Angus was still out on one of his expeditions in the Amazon Forest and told them that he’s going to be gone for around two months. Shawn has locked himself inside his studio claiming that he has heard the voice of the Muses and that he shall not be disturbed… Henrik made a mental note to get Jackie to kick down that stubborn idiot artist’s door and force feed him some nutritional meals and strap him down in his own room’s bed so that he could get some sleep.
…
That left one last person…
“Anti?” Henrik called out while he knocked on the door before opening it with a loud creak.
There was the telling screeching glitchy sound that Anti would always make whenever he was rarely caught off guard. Something fell down the floor with a metallic clatter and his brother started cussing everything that ever existed in this universe out. The doctor quickened his pace to catch the flighty ego before he escaped to god knows where before he found out what Anti was in his office for.
The first thing that drew his attention when Anti’s form came into view was Anti’s blood soaked neck. The previously healed over but inflamed neck cut was painfully gaping open, blood streaming down and soaking Anti’s thankfully black shirt. The second thing that he noticed were the clean bandages that Anti was holding in one of his hands and the medical scissors that was on the floor. That must’ve been what he heard falling down earlier when he surprised Anti with his voice.
“... Were you planning on trying to stitch the wound on your neck on your own again?” Henrik’s turquoise eyes narrowed dangerously at his older brother who bared his sharp teeth defensively back at him.
“So what if I was, Doc?” Anti snapped before leaning down to grab the scissors from the floor.
Henrik huffed in an almost offended manner and strode forward in big, lunging steps and slapped Anti’s hand away from the scissors. Anti jumped back as if his touch electrified him and glared at Henrik for his gall. The doctor ignored his look and picked up the scissors before jerking his head towards the nearby medical chair that his patients used whenever he had to perform medical examinations on them.
“I am the doctor here, Anti.” Henrik sternly said before snagging the bandages from Anti’s hand and tossed it into the little attached metal tray on the chair. “Now sit. I shall be along with you once I have the equipment ready.”
If Anti was a cat, Henrik was sure that his fur would be completely puffed up like an irate Marvin in his fluffy cat form right now. Others would think that Anti would glitch away as a silent ‘Fuck You’ to the doctor’s orders but Henrik knew that once the demon’s defensive nature over being seen as vulnerable and weak has calmed down, he wouldn’t fully mind his younger brother’s help.
Sure enough, after he had sterilized the needle and the scissors and grabbed the roll of surgical thread that he was going to be using to stitch up Anti’s newly reopened old wound, he came back to the examination room and Anti was sitting on the chair picking at the edge of the bleeding wound before Henrik pinched his side to stop him.
“Ow! You seriously need to fucking work on your bedside manners,” Anti yelped at the pinch and made a face at the doctor who rolled his eyes at him.
“Down.” Henrik ordered, his eyes glancing meaningfully at Anti’s hands which the demon sulkily placed in a mockingly dainty manner on his lap.
“Happy now, Doctor Schneeplestein?” Anti sarcastically asked in a feigned innocent tone.
Henrik arched an unimpressed eyebrow at him.
“Very.” The doctor drawled in monotone before he began dabbing a cotton ball soaked with alcohol.
Anti hissed at the painful sting that the cleaning agent brought but kept quiet and merely watched Henrik with an eerily calculative gleam in those glowing green eyes the entire time. To give his younger brother some credit, he didn’t even flinch at the creepy staring and instead focused fully on cleaning up and stitching the wound together.
“Did you have another nightmare?” Henrik suddenly cut the silence.
His older brother’s body fully tensed at his question and those green eyes turned into sharp glaciers that could cut him in half. Henrik calmly bore the weight of that gaze and pushed the needle through one side of the wound and pushed it back out on the opposite side before pulling the skin back together.
“That’s none of your concern, Schneeplestein.” Anti coldly answered.
“It is our family’s concern because it is hurting you,” Henrik rebutted even as he does not look up. “Was it because of the recent skit? The one where you used Chase’s fears against him?”
“Henrik…” The demon growled, a warning in his voice for him to not overstep his boundaries.
The doctor huffed and finally finished closing the wound and locked the stitches so that it does not come off easily. He cut off the leftover bloodstained thread and needle before dropping them off into the metal tray. Henrik grabbed the clean cotton balls and soaked them in alcohol once more before starting to clean Anti’s neck of the drying blood.
“You know that that is not you, correct?” Henrik continued prodding, his tone softening while he began wrapping a fresh roll of bandages around Anti’s neck. The demon’s expression shifted to an apathetic mask but Henrik was not fooled. “You care for Chase and his children and Stacy too much to harm them.”
“I said stop prying into things that you shouldn’t pry into, Henrik.” Anti stood up once Henrik finished covering his neck with bandages. He slid out of the medical chair and stood up with his back turned towards the doctor. “But I’ll give you this one thing, Doc. Thanks for taking care of my neck.”
With those curt words said, he glitched out before Henrik could say another word. Henrik stared at the empty spot with his eyes dark with concern. He should probably text Jack and Chase about what just happened. It had been a while since that scar opened up and bleed that much. Those two were the only ones who could ever push through the stubborn mask that Anti wore on his face.
“Oh Anti,” Henrik sighed to himself while he began cleaning up the items that he used for the spontaneous medical service. “Until when are you going to keep pretending that those nightmares do not affect you so?”