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Katarina sighed through her nose, frowning down at the medicine bottle in her hand. Half a year of it and her hand still trembled at the thought. Ridiculous.
Movement on the bed behind her. Katarina barely began to look back over her shoulder when Sarah draped herself over Katarina’s back, hugging her loosely around the neck.
“Lie back down, it’s too early to be up,” she grumbled into Kat’s shoulder blade. Katarina chuckled, leaning back into her as she rolled the bottle between her hands. Sarah hummed at the contact, snuggling closer, still mostly asleep.
“Didn’t mean to wake you. Just be a few minutes, doll, go back to sleep. I’ll be right back.”
“Mm...” Sarah finally raised her head, resting her chin on Katarina’s shoulder. “What’s up?” Then, a second later: “Oh. That today?”
“Yep, stab day.” She turned her head to steal a little peck on the lips.
“And you sound so enthused about it.”
Katarina snorted, reaching over to grab her toiletries bag from the nightstand with Sarah still half hanging off her. “You ever seen the needles they got me using? Fuck no I’m not enthused.”
“Even though it’s given you this nice-ass jawline?” Sarah cupped her cheek in one hand, dragging her closer to press an intentionally loud, wet kiss to her jaw just to make Kat scoff out a laugh, grinning despite herself as she pried Sarah off her.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know you love the jawline you fucking chaser.”
“Hey!”
“Can’t say I disagree with you though,” Katarina spoke up over Sarah’s incredulous bark of laughter. “Which like, I guess makes sense because it’s kinda why I started taking it in the first place. And still take it. Even though I have to stab myself with this—” she pulled out one of her syringes “—bigass... fucking thing.”
Sarah gave a low whistle. “Damn, thought for a second you were pulling out a screwdriver. The hell gauge they have you on?”
“It—” Katarina paused, holding it up and squinting in the dark. “Okay, well, this one’s actually not the stabby one, this is the bottle one.” She reached back into her bag, looking closer this time. “Okay, here’s the bitch.” She waggled the 21-gauge in Sarah’s direction.
A grimace. “That one ain’t much better.”
“Don’t I know it.” She dropped the packaged needle back into the bag, grumbling. “Was meant to take it last night, actually, but I forgot.”
“You forgot?”
“I was distracted, sue me.” She bounced her leg restlessly, frowning down at the offending bottle. “...need to take it this morning though. Otherwise I’m off-schedule.”
Sarah snorted, sliding back down onto the bed to stretch mightily. “Okay, so take it.”
“I’m gonna!” Katarina snapped, not moving otherwise.
A beat.
“Oh my god, you’re being such a baby,” Sarah snorted. “Here, just hand it over, I’ll do it.”
Katarina squinted down at her, frowning, uncertain how to take that. “So you can stab me right in a vein and have me limping all morning? I think the fuck not.”
“I know how to give shots!”
“Why the fuck would you know that?”
Sarah tossed an incredulous hand in the air. “Because one of the birth control options I tried before settling on the IUD was an injection, you shitass.”
“Oh.” Then, as the words caught up to her: “Aren’t those subcutaneous?”
“Depends on the type I think. Mine wasn’t.”
Katarina looked down at the toiletries bag in her lap for a long moment. She sighed. “...You’d really think I’d be used to it by now, honestly.”
“Meh. Monkey brain really really opposed to stabbing yourself. And having to watch it while you do it. Budge over and gimme the bag.”
So Katarina budged over and gave her the bag.
Sarah swung her legs over the side of the bed as she pulled herself into a seated position on the edge. A quick detour to reach over and fumble with turning on the lamp. Then, efficient as ever, she started methodically removing and lining up her supplies: bottle. Syringe. Needles. Sterilizing wipes.
“Okay you’ve got me stumped on this one,” Sarah admitted, squinting at the hard plastic tube she’d pulled out of the bag next.
Katarina barely glanced over, more concerned with steeling her nerves so her hands would stop shaking. “Sharps container.”
“Oh, how pragmatic. I just threw mine away.”
“They’re used needles, Fortune.”
“Meh.” Sarah raised the medicine bottle with a critical eye, squinting at the fine print. “Does this say how much your dose is and I just can’t read or what?”
“Doesn’t say. But it’s half a CC.”
“Oh you meant like low dose.”
Katarina snorted. “Yeah, I’m not looking to actually turn into my fucking father, thanks.”
“For which we’re all grateful.” Sarah swiped over the top of the bottle with a sterilizing pad and set about screwing the first needle on the syringe. “Not positive how good the five o’clock shadow would look on you.”
The flippant comment did make Katarina laugh. “Bitch.”
“You love it.”
Katarina watched in silence as Sarah drew back the plunger before sinking the needle into the bottle and inverting the whole thing. “Oh you actually do like the whole... thing with it, huh.”
Sarah flashed her a dazzling grin in the early-morning lamp-light. “Best practices, sweetheart.”
“Man, whatever. As long as it makes it into the tube.”
Sarah made a face as she pulled the plunger back. “Oh, that is just an awful texture, isn’t it?”
“It’s literally so fucking bad.” To say nothing of the fucking smell any time the needle dripped. Katarina still wasn’t sure how it was possible to concoct a liquid that was just not pleasant in any form or fashion. Piltie tech at its finest, she supposed.
But with the medicine pulled and Sarah setting about swapping needles, Kat felt her stomach jolt unhappily again.
“Sharps container,” she halfheartedly reminded as Sarah got the 18-gauge off.
“Yeah yeah.”
“Don’t ‘yeah yeah’ me, that needle is ugly.”
“Hm, can’t argue there.” So she put the used needle into her sharps container. Then the scarcely-smaller needle screwed into place, and Sarah was holding the syringe to the light with a critical eye, flicking the housing a few times to check for bubbles. She gave Katarina a stern, serious look that didn’t quite fully make it to her eyes. “Bend over and drop trou.”
The ridiculousness of the order in her no-nonsense ‘captain’ voice was enough to send Katarina into a cackling fit. “You are absolutely the fuck not sticking that into my ass you fucking freak!”
Sarah’s facade cracked easily, and then she was snickering maniacally, herself. “Ah, well, worth a sh—well.” She smirked at her own unintentional joke. “Ha. Nah but seriously, roll up your boxers on that side, Kitty-Kat.”
Kat wasn’t convinced her boxers fell low enough to be in the way, but she complied anyway. Best not to argue with women wielding low gauge needles. She leaned back on her hands, giving Sarah room to wipe down her thigh with the chill of a sanitizing pad. The pressure of her free hand on Katarina’s knee was enough of a comfort to focus on for a moment.
“Alright, deep breath in.” Patronizing from nearly anyone else, but a kindness from Sarah: Katarina took a deep breath in. “And... breathe out.” The breath didn’t stop her momentary wince as the needle slid home, muscle twinging in protest. “There we go, that’s a good boy.”
Katarina knew she blushed at that, and she hated it, and she hated that she knew she did it at all, but small mercies, Sarah was busy with her injection and didn’t notice.
Sarah stroked her outer thigh with her free hand as she patiently lowered the syringe plunger, a kind attempt at a distraction even though the discomfort was a little too immediate for it. She could appreciate the thought anyway. Sarah was, perhaps, a little slower with the injection than Katarina might’ve been on her own, but that wasn’t particularly surprising—not a lot of people would be used to the viscosity. It’d taken Katarina a few weeks, herself.
Then Sarah was kissing the corner of her mouth—“All done.”—and the sharp pressure of the needle was gone, leaving the dull ache of injection in its place. Katarina huffed a breath out, leaning into Sarah’s side as she tossed the second needle.
“See?” Sarah teased, curling back into her to rub soothingly over Katarina’s thigh, massaging her injection into the muscle. “Nothing to it, you fucking drama queen.”
“Whatever.” Katarina turned her head anyway, kissing her properly, soft and warm. Sarah’s lips curled into a small smile against hers. “But uh. Thanks anyway, angel.”
“Anytime, baby.”