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Everyone knew one of Karl’s biggest fears. They’d seen it when he got his tattoo, and again when he got vaccinated. They knew needles upset him beyond belief. But they didn’t know any more than that.
They didn’t know that anything to do with hospitals, blood, or injuries made him cringe the same way and nearly have a panic attack. More so, it made him slip too.
Karl had been teaching Sapnap how to skate. Today, in particular, Sapnap had been very set on doing a kickflip. At first, it was funny, Karl would laugh and tell him no while the shorter boy poorly attempted it. But after a couple laughs they moved on, continuing to ride around in circles in front of the house.
It wasn’t till the sky started to get dark Sapnap attempted a kickflip again, and failed miserably.
“Shit,” he muttered, sitting defeated in the ground. His eyes widened in concern though when he looked up to Karl, completely frozen in his spot.
Sapnap has scraped his knee, and it really wasn’t that bad. Just a little bit of blood.
But to Karl, it wasn’t just a small scrape.
All he could focus on was blood and Nick is hurt. His head quickly felt fuzzier, too unclear to focus on anything else. He quickly teared up and started to quietly sob.
“Karl? I’m okay, I promise,” Sapnap tried to console. But Karl shook his head, he dashed back into the house. He found Dream in the kitchen.
“Da— Sap.. he fell.” The little whimpered, falling into Dream’s comforting arms. The blonde frowned, slightly worried that Karl would react so extremely if Sapnap got hurt. “Blood,” he sobbed. Dream only slightly panicked.
“Okay, where is he? Outside?” Dream hummed, Karl fervently nodded. “Alright, you can go find George or Punz or come with me.” Karl took the first option, he couldn’t stand seeing Sapnap’s injury again. Especially if he was still panicking.
George and Punz were easy to find, both chatting away in the next room. They stopped when they heard the small sniffles and noticed Karl peeking around the doorway.
“Karl?” George’s eyebrows furrowed. “Come here!” That was all the little needed to come running in, jumping onto the couch between the two. Karl buried his face in Punz’s shoulder.
“What’s wrong?” They frowned, trying to nudge Karl’s face away so they could look at him.
“S-sappy got hurt… don’t like blood.”
“Awh,” Punz held the little’s face in his palms, lightly wiping tears away. “I’m sure he’s okay darling. Dreamie went to get him, right?” Another nod. Punz just hummed and cradled Karl’s face, placing feather-light kisses on his hair.
George meanwhile was soothingly rubbing the taller boy’s back, trying to give him as much stimulation he could. They knew by now a panicked (and little) Karl needed the touch to be soothed, any form of stimulation would work, but touch and affection were best.
They did their best to distract him until Dream came inside, a bashful Sapnap standing behind him.
“Idiot tried to do a kickflip… I’m taking your skateboard away for a week!” Dream cackled, wheezing harder when Sapnap pouted.
“I just wanted to look cool! The other stuff was lame.” He sighed and made his way to the couch, kneeling in front of Karl. “Angel?” Karl looked up, eyes still teary and his cheeks flushed.
“Sappy…?” His eyes darted down to Sapnap’s knee, which was now covered in a little pokémon band-aid. All the dirt and gravel was cleaned off, he looked okay. “All better?”
“All better, bug, don’t worry.” Karl had removed himself from George and Punz’s hold in favor of jumping into Sapnap’s. The shorter boy smiled fondly. It was endearing that Karl was so worried, even over a small scrape, but Sapnap knew it had to do with his anxiety too. “You did good going and getting Dream, so proud of you.” Karl loved the small praise, making a happy hum and nuzzling into Sapnap’s neck.
Karl refused to let go of Sapnap. So for the rest of the night, he stayed clung to his side, in his lap, or being carried by the Texan. Sapnap didn’t complain, either way, he was totally fine when Karl sat in his lap for dinner and they shared Sapnap’s bowl of ramen.