Work Text:
“I'm okay, I promise,” Xisuma said, sighing. He was doing his best to ignore the uncomfortable sensation of the overworld’s air against his leg, where his suit and leggings had been torn.
“Shashwam, you are bleeding all over the place. I don't think that qualifies as okay,” Keralis pointed out.
“It's not that bad…”
“Doesn't matter, you're hurt. Please. Let me help.”
Xisuma sighed again, but allowed Keralis to lead him through his own base, to his room.
Usually, X would've been able to get out of something like this, but not with Keralis.
You see, usually, the others couldn't force him to accept help even if they wanted to, because in order for a hermit to help him, they had to be able to survive the deep end-like conditions he’d coded his room to, because unless he was there, he couldn't remove his helmet, and by extension his suit.
There were, however, a few exceptions to that. Grian could breathe in the void, and so could Pearl he assumed, based on what the Watchers had done to them, as well as Joe, though he wasn't sure why Joe was able to breathe in the void, but as the man himself would probably say, that's just the Joe Hills Difference.
And of course, Keralis was also one of those exceptions. Ancient, eldritch Keralis. It’d be weirder if he wasn’t an exception, honestly.
As soon as they'd entered Xisuma's room, Keralis was staring him down once again.
“Helmet off,” he demanded, arms crossed in front of his chest. “Suit too.”
X reached up to release the seal of his helmet and pulled it off, setting it on a shelf by the door. He then removed his suit, wincing as he pulled it over the wound on his leg, and tossed it into a corner for him to fix later, leaving him in a simple long-sleeve undershirt and leggings.
“I can fix this myself, you know,” he said rather quietly.
“You haven’t even looked at it yet,” Keralis replied. “And anyway, even if you can, why do that when I can do it for you?”
He grabbed Xisuma’s arm and led him over to his bed, making him sit down, and propping him up against the pile of pillows at the top of the bed before moving toward the foot of the bed.
“I'm gonna roll up your legging,” he warned, but Xisuma still jumped a bit when he touched his leg. He didn’t think anything of it, though, attributing it to the fact that it probably hurt.
Xisuma tried to think of other things, to ignore the pain of the fabric rubbing over whatever he’d done to his leg, but his thoughts just kept coming back to where Keralis was holding his leg.
“Shashwammy! This is bad! You said it wasn't that bad,” Keralis looked at him accusingly, and he glanced away.
“Is it really that bad?”
“You have a gouge in your leg. It is in fact that bad. Where are your potions? Do you have bandages?” Keralis demanded.
Xisuma pointed to a chest over against the wall. “Should be in that one, might be the one next to it though.”
Keralis got up and walked over, digging through the contents of the chest and pulling out a healing potion. He couldn’t find any bandages and turned to the next chest, and was relieved to find them quickly, along with a few soft cloths.
Bringing everything back over, he set it on the bed. He picked up a cloth and wiped the blood from around the wound, before moving on to the wound itself.
Xisuma gritted his teeth together as Keralis gently dabbed at the wound, soaking up blood, and did his best not to pull his leg away.
“Sorry,” Keralis said, placing his free hand on X’s knee briefly, before leaning over to grab the healing potion and a clean cloth, setting the dirty one aside.
He carefully poured some of the healing potion onto the cloth and then put his hand back on Xisuma’s knee, this time putting a little pressure. Healing potions burned, and he didn’t want his leg moving around.
“Ready?” he asked, looking over towards Xisuma’s face.
Xisuma didn’t answer.
“Shashwam?” he said a bit louder. “You okay?”
Xisuma blinked and shook his head slightly, as if he’d been staring off into space for a while.
“Yeah, yeah. Sorry. I’m good,” he said.
Keralis looked at him a bit longer, but couldn’t figure out what was off, so he nodded and turned back to Xisuma’s leg.
He gently started applying the potion to his leg, and sure enough, X tried to pull his leg away, a small gasp of pain escaping him.
“Sorry, sorry,” Keralis said softly, holding onto him tighter and continuing.
Healing potions were great, but they really did hurt. Xisuma squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore the pain, but he couldn’t keep his attention off of it, or off of where Keralis was tightly holding his leg.
He wasn’t sure how long it took, but it felt like ages.
“There,” Keralis said, finally pulling away, and Xisuma let out a sigh of relief, tense muscles finally relaxing a bit.
Keralis let go of his leg and grabbed the bandage, wrapping it tightly around the mostly-healed wound to protect it.
“Thanks, Keralis,” Xisuma said as the other man grabbed the leftover cloths and bandages from the bed and brought them back over to the chest they’d been in.
“Of course!” Keralis said, making his way back to the bed.
Xisuma started to stand up, but was immediately stopped, Keralis standing in front of him with a stern expression on his face.
“No no, where do you think you’re going?”
“To finish up my project?” Xisuma answered hesitantly.
“Ah-ah, I don’t think so. It is late, and you are healing. You need to rest,” Keralis said.
Xisuma sighed, but sat back down on the bed, knowing he wasn’t going to win that argument.
“Rest, okay?” Keralis said softly. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Keralis reached over and pulled him into a hug, and he felt himself tense up. Keralis noticed immediately, of course.
“Shashwam?”
He didn’t respond, couldn't. He wasn’t sure what he'd say even if he could.
Keralis pulled away to look at him, and he felt like he couldn't breathe, for just a moment.
He looked into X's eyes, trying to read the thoughts behind them. Some amount of his desperation must've shone through because Keralis’ expression softened and Xisuma quickly found himself pulled into another tighter hug.
He wrapped his arms around the other man tightly, gripping the back of his shirt and trying to hold himself together.
He felt as one of Keralis’ hands came up to cradle the back of his head, tucking his face into his neck.
“Oh, you should have told me,” he said softly.
“I didn't know,” Xisuma choked out. “I didn't know.”
And he really hadn't. Sure, he'd felt… off, lately, but why would he have suspected this? The Hermits, at least a good chunk of them, were a touchy bunch. He was constantly hugging people, but it seemed the suit made more of a difference than he'd previously realized.
Keralis didn't say anything for a long moment, just holding onto him tightly.
“You’re shaking,” he finally said softly, sitting on the bed next to him and pulling the other man up onto his lap, holding him tighter.
“Oh. Sorry,” he whispered.
“No, you don’t need to apologize, Shashwam. Why are you apologizing?” he asked.
Xisuma didn’t answer, just shaking his head slightly. He didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t sure why he’d apologized, and he was too distracted by the hug to form an answer.
Keralis seemed to understand that. “Okay,” he said quietly. “I’ve got you.”
The silence that followed probably should’ve felt awkward, but it didn’t. X was content to stay where he was, tightly held against Keralis, and the other man didn’t seem to mind either.
After a while, Keralis shifted his hand up to card his fingers through Xisuma’s hair, and the last bit of tension finally left him as he let himself melt impossibly closer to Keralis. This was good, this was safe.
“There we go,” Keralis whispered, resting his chin on Xisuma’s head. “Feeling better?”
“Yeah,” Xisuma managed.
“Good. I’m glad.” He tightened his arm around him, making it clear that he wasn’t trying to go anywhere. Keralis wasn’t planning on leaving for a while. “Still wanna get up and work on your project?” he asked, teasing.
Xisuma cracked a small smile, shaking his head. “Gonna have to do better than that if you wanna get me out of here,” he said.
“Well, then it’s a good thing I wasn’t planning on either of us going anywhere.”
X nodded, finally releasing his grip on Keralis’ shirt, keeping his arms around him. He clearly wasn’t about to pull away.
Keralis smiled, leaning down and pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “I’ve got you.”