Work Text:
It was dusk outside. Y/N was sipping a grenadine sirup on the porch of the house she bought and shared with her lover Ash Williams. As he was experienced with monster-killing, she accepted that she stays home while Ash is outside doing a little bit of cleaning, but with his chainsaw and boomstick instead of soapy water and a mop.
At first, she insisted to help Ash in fighting evil but he refused many times, saying with worry, fear and sometimes impatience that he doesn’t want to let her get hurt because of what he had done in the cabin with his friends at 21 years-old.
Y/N was sad and worried sick to let him go out on his own, especially when he came home injured. She later managed to realize that she was helping fighting evil by patching Ash up so he could go back fighting, like a WW1 soldier’s wife waiting for him and working hard to help him keep going.
Y/N was watching the sun set and the sky going darker to the point she could see the beautiful shining stars. She smiled while drinking her syrup through a straw.
She absentmindedly lowered her eyes which locked on a incoming shadow. Her heart skipped a beat, she was very scared but she mustered all of her courage to stand up and yell at the shadow to get lost. She was ready to storm in the house and grab her handgun until she recognized the shadow’s voice calling her name.
« Ash ?? » she called back.
She rushed to his lover and see what kind of wounds he brought along this time, but she stopped in her tracks as he frenetically repeated to not touch him.
« What’s going on ? Are you hurt ? » Y/N asked.
Ash walked more in the porch light with feeble trembling legs. Y/N could see him better and as she was looking at him from the side, she noticed he was standing in a weird but very stiff way. Ash let out a breath in several minuscule puffs before he replied with a slightly shaky voice :
« I’m more than hurt, I’m miserable. My back i-is killing me…! »
Y/N hurried to open the door for Ash.
« It’s ok, it’s ok, I’m going to look at it. Sit down on the stool in the bathroom. » Y/N reassured.
Ash wanted to nod but he was afraid that it could send another wave of pain in his body, so he prefered to keep walking to the bathroom.
The bathroom had been reworked a year ago. As Ash would often come home wounded, she payed workers to upgrade the bathroom and make it bigger so it could also be an infirmery. Closets and drawers were placed on the freshly built walls and were filled with medical supplies.
Y/N hurried to open the bathroom door for Ash before he would struggle too much to do it and waited patiently for him to come in and sit down on the fluffy seat in the middle of the room. This comfy stool was hunted and found by Y/N who learned that taking care of Ash’s wounds could take long, so she thought that Ash should be comfy when she was healing him.
Ash let out a yelp when he brutally sat down the stool as he lost strength in his legs when trying to slowly go down. Y/N put herself in front of Ash and caressed his cheeks.
« My poor baby » she said sadly.
Ash smiled fondly at Y/N’s compassion and sweetness. She always showed romantic and cute gestures to him, whether he was well, ill or injured. It felt so good to feel and know that there still was a place of safety and love to balance the horror he was facing every single day when he was out fighting evil with.
She proceeded to unbutton Ash’s shirt and removing it from his shoulders. When she was trying to take the shirt out of his back, he started to scream.
« Sorry, I’m sorry » Y/N said with tears in her eyes. « I didn’t know it would stick to your back ! »
« Can’t you just let it be and put a bandage over it or something ?? » Ash said a bit harshly through the pain.
« Are you kidding, there must be Deadite brains, snot, goo and everything gross like that ! I don’t want your wound to get infected by these things. You can catch very nasty things from regular animals like foxes or bats, I don’t want to see what you could catch from a Deadite ! »
Ash let out a mix of a grunt and a sigh.
« I’ve always had Deadite brains and guts on me and I didn’t get sick. Oh well, if you think it’s REALLY necessary, go ahead, but do it quickly, like when you’re taking a band-aid off. »
Y/N nodded with a sad pained look on her face. She hated to see Ash in such distress, but she had to do it to treat his wound better and put him back on his feet.
She got closer to Ash, grabbed the hem of his open shirt and started peeling the shirt off his back. She wasn’t sure at first if it was a good idea to rip it off quickly like Ash suggested, but she was slowly changing her mind as she was hearing him let out short screams and pant in between.
She forcefully closed her eyes and mentally prepared herself to tear the shirt down. After she took a breath, she yanked the shirt down off his back. Ash let out a more strident scream and, as quickly as Y/N ripping the shirt off, threw his head against the crook of her collarbone and grabbed her arms tightly. Y/N bolted her eyes open at the sudden touch. She relaxed a bit before she looked down Ash with sympathy while he was screaming into her blouse and breathing hard into it. His breaths felt like hot wind on her body.
She gently caressed his hair, letting him take his time to catch his breath before they could continue. Once his breathing got quieter, she still caressed his hair before she moved her head to speak softly in his ear :
« Are you good ? »
Ash softly panted a bit before he answered.
« Yes. What’s next ? »
Y/N stood up and got behind Ash to inspect his wound. It looked like he had pieces of skin ripped off, showing red spots of blood and very sensitive underskin everywhere.
« Oh my, it looks awful. » Y/N muttered.
Ash heard her.
« You’ve seen worse, h-heh, right ? You can do something about it, you always have » he said nervously.
Y/N wanted to say that no, she haven’t seen worse because this was the worse injury he even brought home. It was worse in a case where Ash couldn’t walk properly and would scream very loudly at the smallest touch.
Y/N put her finger on her chin to think more about what she could do to treat these cuts. She went to the closets to fetch some bandages as soon as she knew how she could pull it off.
« Well, I’m going to apply antibacteria patches on your back and wrap your torso with bandages to keep them in place and protect them. »
Ash nodded once with preoccupied eyes. « That’s it ? Then it’s over ? »
« Then it’s over. I could still give you pain medication if you need some. » Y/N reassured with a very small smile.
« Ok... » Ash huffed in well hidden dread, « if this is what you must do to heal me. »
Y/N got back to work. She washed her hands with great meticulousness and proceeded to carefully deploy the patches. Before she put them on Ash’s back, she warned him so he could brace himself to the oncoming pain. She heard him take a breath between his teeth and placed the patches.
Ash’s body got instantly tense. He threw his head back with bolted shut eyes and a widely open mouth that let out a horrific scream. He tried to arch his back inward as if he was trying to escape the further pushing of the patch on him, but Y/N had to chase it in order to place them correctly with more force.
While refraining herself from crying, she tried to numb her own emotions so she could keep working efficiently and finish it sooner. Ash then tried to smother his scream by grunting and moaning through his forcefully closed mouth. His hands, his flesh one and metal one, were squeezing his knees. He felt another pain, a better one than the one he was feeling on his back, on his right knee under his crushing squeezing hand.
During the seconds Y/N took to take another patch, Ash had the clarity to realize he risked breaking his knee if he kept squeezing it. He didn’t want to give another injury to Y/N for her to heal, especially an injury caused by something dumb. An idea then popped in his head.
« W-wait, Y/N, stop, stop ! » Ash pleaded in a slightly breathless voice.
« Do you want to take a breather ? » Y/N asked.
« Yeah, why not, but I mostly need something to squeeze. I’m squeezing my knees and I’m afraid my prosthetic hand would crush my knee and I don’t want to give you more work to do. »
He chuckled at the end of his last sentence. Y/N kissed her boyfriend’s head before she asked :
« You’re right, how would you fight Deadites with a messed up knee ? » she chuckled too to match Ash’s tendency to joke in stressful situations despite her sadness. « What do you need ? »
« A pillow, a plushie, your boss’ head, anything. » he replied.
Y/N laughed a bit at Ash’s last suggestion. She ruffled his hair a little before she left to look for something soft but strong enough for Ash to go through the pain with his hands. In the living-room, she chose a hard decorative cushion that would suit Ash’s powerful right hand. She still hoped he wouldn’t unintentionally destroy it.
She walked back in the bathroom and gave the cushion to Ash.
« Thanks » he said softly.
« You’re welcome, Ash » Y/N replied before she kissed him on the lips. Ash returned the kind gesture.
Y/N washed her hands again to remove all the possibly harmless bacteria that could in spite of everything infect Ash’s wound.
« Ok, here we go again » Y/N warned before she placed another patch.
Ash let out a bestial grunt deep from his throat. His head twitched when he tried to not move it too much. He had his cushion glued to his chest and squeezed between his hands. He grew restless as Y/N kept putting patches on his wound. He would bite the cushion, breathe heavily into it or scream into it.
« Poor, poor Ashley » Y/N was saying in her head with pity.
Ash lifted his head from the cushion and struggled to take a breath. His chest quivered, so did his shoulders. His head twitched a bit and his breathing was quiet but shallow and it had trouble to fill Ash’s lungs completely, as if there were obstacles to slow it down.
« I feel dizzy... » he managed to say.
« I’m almost done, I promise » Y/N said, « one last patch to apply. »
Ash forcefully breathed a bit rapidely and hard before he dove his head back into his cushion to scream and groan. Y/N forced herself to not make her work shoddier as she was looking forward to get this over with. Once she finally applied the last antibacteria patch, she bent over closer to Ash’s ear to tell him the good news :
« It’s over, I finished putting the patches on. The bandage wrapping shouldn’t be painful for now. »
Ash slowly lifted his head from the cushion with a line of drool connecting his slightly opened mouth to the now destoyed decorative object. His eyelids felt heavy. He was so tired.
« My hands and feet feel numb. »
« It must be the effects of hyperventilation » Y/N explained. « You inhale too much O2, you feel funny in the head, the limbs and… I guess everywhere else. » Y/N chuckled a bit at the last statement. « Just breathe out more slowly and it should be fine. »
« Ok Miss Enstein » Ash said with a smirk. « You’re the smart one. The only chemical stuff I know is gunpowder, and only because I had to read about it to make gunpower in the Dark Ages to fight my evil twin’s hoard of skeleton soldiers. »
Despite knowing everything about Ash’s crazy adventures, she is still impressed by the fact he managed to travel back in time and meet the legendary King Arthur. And medieval Deadites.
Y/N took the bandages she had prepared on a tray before and started to wrap her boyfriend’s torso with it. He groaned a bit when the bandages touched the patches, therefore the wounds, but otherwise he looked fine. He kept trying to control his breathing as he was wrapped in bandages. Y/N had started to relax and even smile when she knew the end of the procedure was coming. After she was done, Ash had calmed down completely.
« And voilà » Y/N said with a bigger smile, « all done ! »
« You truly are a great nurse » Ash said with a cocky smile, although he said this with relief and gratefulness.
« Always for my favorite person in the world » Y/N claimed as she looked for painkillers and a glass to fill water in.
She filled the glass at the sink and gave it to Ash along with a small pill. Ash wanted to yank it down his mouth while throwing his head at the back like he usually did but he knew he had to move way less with his back injury. So instead, he brought the pill between his fingers gently to his mouth and took some gulps of water.
Y/N walked back to Ash and took the glass from his hand and put it back on the sink. Ash started to speak :
« It may be psychological but I feel better already. »
Y/N hugged her lover carefully. Ash hugged her back and put his head on whatever part of Y/N he could put it onto.
« Say » Ash spoke again, « what were you drinking when I got home ? »
« Grenadine syrup, darling. » Y/N answered before she kissed his forehead.
« Can you pour me a glass, please ? » Ash asked while looking at her girlfriend with semi-puppy eyes.
Y/N chuckled and caressed Ash’s face.
« Of course, honey. Go get dressed while I pour you some. » her smile faded as she said the next sentence : « if you have a hard time to move, you call me, alright ? »
« Roger, Nurse Y/N » Ash said while he did a shoddy military salute as he tried to not hurt himself more when moving a bit too much.
Y/N went to the kitchen while Ash was going to the bedroom. Y/N was prepping his glass by adding a bottom of syrup and poured water in the remaining space. She went to the bathroom and waited for a minute or two for Ash to get dressed. He moved slower like he did a bit in the bathroom earlier. The bandages were so well attached he didn’t want to botch them by tearing them down by being clumsier.
He got out of the room in his white and blue striped grandpa-style pajamas. He and Y/N put their jackets and warm shoes on and walked outside. They sat on the nice wicker chairs with cushions that are great for lazing around. Ash sat carefully down and sighed in happiness at the thought of relaxing with a nice glass of fresh grenadine syrup and watching the stars. The couple clinked their glasses together, looked each other in the eyes tenderly, and looked up the stars. The wind was mild and kind, the sky was clear enough for the moonlight to lighten the relaxed content faces of the power couple. It was a beautiful tender night.