Chapter Text
“Fucking shit!”
Jia Xu and Yuan Fang whipped around to find Xun Yu on the ground with half of his leg through the floor. “Shit! Shit, that hurts!”
“Zhou Yu, go get Master Zhong,” Jia Xu ordered without even glancing at his shidi as he rushed to Xun Yu’s side. Zhou Yu obeyed without question and took off back the way they had all come. As the other Geniuses crowded around Xun Yu, Jia Xu and Yuan Fang shooed them away.
“Come on, you brats, give Second Brother some space!” Jia Xu ordered as Yuan Fang knelt down beside Xun Yu, carefully reaching out a hand to touch his shoulder.
“Xun Yu, are you alright?”
“Do I look alright to you?” Xun Yu growled, surprising his disciple brothers with his out-of-character ferocity. Jia Xu pretended not to notice the tears pooling in his eyes.
“I’m… going to take that as a no,” Yuan Fang said after a moment, eyes still wide with surprise as he drew his hand back.
Jia Xu looked at where the wooden plank had snapped in half, which had caused Xun Yu to fall through leg-first. The wood was dark, almost black, and the inside was splintering and mulchy. “It looks like the floorboard is rotten,” he said. “What rotten luck - sorry, my bad.”
“Can you get up, Second Brother?” Zhuge Liang asked from the crowd of four onlookers, speaking loudly to be heard over the stifled giggles of the other Geniuses.
“I could get up with help, but -“ Xun Yu winced and let out a soft noise of pain as he experimentally shifted his leg, “- I would need support once I’m on my feet.”
“Jia Xu, help me pull him up, and Xun Yu, put your arm around my shoulder - good grip? Okay, one, two, three -“
With a huff, Yuan Fang and Jia Xu pulled Xun Yu out of the floor by his armpits, and Yuan Fang took on his shidi’s weight as he walked Xun Yu to his bedroom, which luckily for them was just around the corner.
“Careful, walk slowly,” Yuan Fang said as he helped Xun Yu hop along, holding back a situationally inappropriate giggle as Xun Yu cursed both the Heavens and the school’s flooring under his breath. Jia Xu hurried ahead of them to open the door and helped Yuan Fang sit Xun Yu down on the edge of his bed. Just as they did so, Zhong Yao hurried through the doorway, Zhou Yu right behind him.
“Fifth, go and get Hua Tuo from Master Water Mirror’s study.”
Already recovered from his first sprint and still eager to help, Zhou Yu took off again.
“This might hurt,” Zhong Yao said to Xun Yu as he carefully lifted the boy’s right leg up onto the chair. Xun Yu did his best to stifle his whimpers, biting his tongue as his teacher reached out to push the leg of his trousers up to his knees. His ankle was already swollen and turning purple. “First, get the others to stop crowding around.”
Yuan Fang did as told, shoving his petulant shidimen out of the room, save for Jia Xu, and shutting the door in their faces. With the younger Geniuses no longer watching, Xun Yu finally let the tears flow.
“While you’re in pain right now,” Zhong Yao said in a reassuring tone, “it looks like nothing more than a broken ankle.”
“Master Zhong, it hurts so much,” Xun Yu whined through gritted teeth as he wiped furiously at his face with his sleeves.
Yuan Fang and Jia Xu glanced at each other, both of them uncomfortable with seeing Xun Yu in such a state. The Second Genius was shy and soft-spoken, yes, but certainly not a crier. Even when he got hurt, he tended to brush himself off and get right back up, so seeing him like this…
After a few more minutes of quiet crying from Xun Yu, Hua Tuo hurried through the doorway, a bag slung over his shoulder. He quickly shut the door behind him before any of the younger boys could wriggle their way into the room.
“Oh, Xun-di,” Hua Tuo sighed sympathetically as Zhong Yao stepped back, giving him some room to work. “What happened?”
“Second Brother fell through a rotten floorboard,” Jia Xu told him, “and First Brother and I lifted him out. First Brother helped him to his bed so that he didn’t have to walk on his bad leg.”
“Mm. It’s good that he hasn’t put any weight on it. Sorry, this might hurt,” Hua Tuo said as he lightly touched the darkest and most swollen spot. Xun Yu hissed. “Does it hurt over here?” the young doctor asked as he touched a different spot.
“Yes, but not as bad as before.”
“Okay. Here?”
“Yes, a little bit.”
“Alright.” Hua Tuo rummaged through his bag and pulled out a small bottle, carefully pouring some of the ointment onto his hands and quickly rubbing them together.
“Hua-dage, what is that?” Xun Yu asked, scrunching his nose in displeasure. “It smells… awful.”
“Ginger juice and raw onion juice. I know it smells quite nasty, but it’ll help reduce the swelling and pain. Afterwards, I’ll wrap your ankle and add a splint. I’ll be around the school for the next week or so, but you should be fine even after I leave as long as you’re careful with yourself.”
When the young man finished rubbing the stinky liquid over Xun Yu’s ankle, he wiped his hand on a cloth and pulled a stretchy length of fabric out of his bag. “This’ll hurt, but I have to wrap your ankle tightly or it won’t do any good.”
Xun Yu nodded, steeling his nerves, but after just a few of the tight loops around his ankle, the pain was almost too much to bear. He reached a hand out, making a grabbing motion towards Jia Xu. The younger boy understood the wordless request and quickly sat next to his shixiong on the bed to let him grip his hand in a circulation-cutting hold.
Jia Xu willed himself to not wince at the pain, knowing that Xun Yu’s agony was far worse than this. Besides, who was it that had helped him make sense of his first lecture? Who was it that had washed and bandaged his elbow the first time he’d scraped it? Who was it that had held him when he’d cried after receiving news of his younger brother’s passing back home?
“There you go, that’s the worst of it,” Hua Tuo said after another minute or so of wrapping, tying a tight knot at the end of the bandage. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“No, Hua-dage,” Xun Yu murmured, eyes teary as he loosened his iron grip on Jia Xu’s hand - though he didn’t fully let his shidi’s hand go.
“Good. Yuan-di, pass me those two wooden bars,” Hua Tuo directed as he looked through his bag again, pulling out a length of rolled-up string. “Zhong-shushu, watch what I do closely - Yuan-di and Jia-di, too, for good measure.”
Hua Tuo carefully aligned the sticks along Xun Yu’s ankle, then had Zhong Yao hold them in place as he bit off a long piece of the string and tied a few snug loops around the bars. He did this four more times, going up the lengths of the sticks, ensuring that they were perfectly snug and wouldn’t move.
“This will keep the bones in place so that they heal properly, it’s called a splint. The break isn’t too bad, so you should be back to normal within a couple of months. I’m going to write up a simple prescription that the kitchen can make for you to help reduce pain within the first few weeks - and don’t put any weight on it, alright?”
Xun Yu nodded and said, “Yes, Hua-dage. Thank you for your help.”
“Good. Zhong-shushu, there’s probably crutches stored somewhere in the school, yes? Come help me find them. Xun-di, you should get some rest. You two,” Hua Tuo continued, nodding towards Yuan Fang and Jia Xu, “help him lie down and make sure his foot is elevated.”
As he left with Hua Tuo, Zhong Yao shoved the younger Geniuses away from the door despite their clamouring and protests, informing them that they were absolutely not to enter their shixiong’s room for the time being, and that if they disobeyed, even the Heavens would be unable to help them.
When the door was shut and the room relatively quiet, Yuan Fang helped Xun Yu move his splinted leg from the chair up onto his bed, while Jia Xu gathered some of the unused blankets in the closet.
“Sorry, Second Brother,” Jia Xu said as Xun Yu winced when he put the bundle of blankets under his foot.
“It’s - it’s fine. Could you pass me that ribbon?”
“Is there anything else you need?” Yuan Fang asked, handing Xun Yu the wide yellow ribbon from the desk.
“No, I think I’m fine…” Xun Yu said as he tied his hair back into a low ponytail.
“Second Brother,” Jia Xu pushed, “I know it must feel strange to be the one being helped, rather than helping, but if you need anything, you really should say so.”
Xun Yu pursed his lips as he looked down at his lap, wringing his hands. He said quietly, “…I’m not used to asking any of you for help.”
“You should do it more often, dummy,” Yuan Fang said. “You help us all the time. We don’t mind helping you for once.”
Xun Yu continued to fidget with his hands as he said, “I do want one thing - Jia Xu, come sit next to me.”
Jia Xu hesitantly sat down next to Xun Yu, not sure what he would be asked to do - he certainly didn’t expect his shixiong’s arms to suddenly wrap around his neck in a tight, suffocating hug. “Thank you,” Xun Yu murmured into long, dark hair. Knowing that Jia Xu wasn’t the most touchy-feely person, he showed mercy and released him quickly. “First Brother, you too!”
Yuan Fang frowned, but before he could protest, Jia Xu had grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him down onto the bed next to Xun Yu, who quickly grabbed the older boy in a similarly suffocating embrace.
“Xun Yu,” Yuan Fang whined in a petulant tone akin to a child being asked to eat vegetables, and to his relief, Xun Yu let him go.
Both Yuan Fang and Jia Xu frowned, cheeks pink, as Xun Yu smiled brightly at them. “Wake me up for dinner, will you?”
“Yeah, sure,” Yuan Fang muttered, face still flushed as he and Jia Xu closed the door behind them.