Work Text:
Brandon
As the macaron shells are baking in the oven, I get started on chocolate chip cookies. I take a stick of butter out of the fridge and start chopping chocolate, because like Niko loves to say, I am a neat freak and I like all my ingredients ready before I actually start baking. I take one of the sharper knives and start chopping. It's getting warmer and warmer and I start sweating. All of a sudden my hand slips and the knife slices across my left wrist.
Shit.
It's right where I used to cut myself. This looks bad. I run to the sink and blood keeps pouring. I reach out to my right and take a piece of the kitchen towel and put it on. It gets red very quickly and I start moving away from the kitchen and towards the door since we keep a med kit right by it in case Niko gets injured while hes out. I take a plaster and walk towards the living room and sit down on the couch and start putting it on. Right on cue the door opens. I freeze in place and can only stare towards the sound of the door.
Nikolai
I have had one hell of a day and I cannot WAIT to get home to my lotus flower. I had to leave way to early and I didn't wanna wake up my baby, so now Kolya is very pissed at me. I open the door and start walking towards the living room and yell "BABYYYY! I have had a day and I am gonna need some sweets, a bottle of vodka and that as-" My words get cut off as I take in the scene in front of me. Bran is like a statue, caught by that one greek godess whose name I forgot, as he was putting a plaster on his wrist.
His left bleeding wrist.
The same wrist he would cut when he was hiding himself.
What. The. Fuck.
Brandon
I get out of my zone and stare up at Nikolai who looks like he's about to commit homicide. I get up quickly to talk to him but he holds up his hand and I just freeze and stare at him.
"I can explain, I promise" I say.
He looks very unsure of that statement but says "Go on.."
And of course because today really loves messing with me in terms of timing, the timer for the macaron shells go off.
"Okay let me get that really quickly and then I will be back and explain I swear"
His expression changes to a mix of anger and confusion. I run to turn the oven off and as I put on baking gloves I realise I still haven't put the plaster on.
I take out the tray, put it on the stove and run back to the living room to find Nikolai in the exact position I left him in. I go and take the plaster, not caring about cleaning the wound and just put it over my wrist to stop the bleeding. I look back to find Nikolai staring blankly at me and I hate it. It reminds me of when he's on his high and takes those god-awful pills.
"Come with me and I can show you what I was doing Niko"
He looks like he has woken up from the trance and I start walking towards the kitchen again. He follows me without a word and I am getting increasingly worried about his mental state.
Nikolai
I can barely feel anything as I walk behind Brandon further into our home. It's getting warmer as we walk but I pay it no mind. I want to scream, murder and fight until I pass out, but I can't get myself to do it.
He stops at the kitchen and the smell of freshly baked raspberry macaron shells hits my nose. I look at Brandon without saying a word, just waiting for his explanation. He looks really nervous as he walks over to a chopping board and picks up a knife. A bloody knife.
"I hope that you have noticed by now that there is very hot in here and because of that and the fact that I am wearing a sweater made me very hot and sweaty and as I started chopping chocolate for some cookies the knife slipped and sliced my wrist. I promised you I would never cut myself again and I meant it. I promise you Niko." He says so fast I take a couple seconds to register everything he said.
He looks very anxious by my silence and takes my face in his hands.
"Please Niko. I swear I didn't mean to" He says.
The words finally register and I release a breath I didn't realise I was holding. I attack him in a hug that I know is crushing him but he doesn't seem to mind and just hugs me back. Not as hard though, because I'm obviously still the stronger of the two of us. I feel something wet on my face and realise it's tears. He looks up at me and his whole expression changes from relieved to worried as he sees my tears.
"Oh shit I'm so sorry baby" he says as he looks on the verge of a meltdown.
"Its fine I'm just so grateful you didn't go back to your old habits Lotus Flower" I tell him.
"I would finish the macarons and cookies but you look too shaken up. Am I incorrect in guessing that?" He asks
"No. No you're not." I say and start caging him in.
"Alright. I do have some other sweet treats I finished yesterday that you can eat if you want?" He tells me but he is clearly looking at me like he knows I don't care about that anymore.
"I would prefer something less sweet that starts in "your" and ends in "dick"" I tell him
He laughs and the sound is music to my ears. He looks up at me as if contemplating wether to keep checking on me or just comply. He picks the second option. I recognise to look immediatley and pick him up by his thighs and start running to our bedroom while hes laughing.
A couple hours later
Brandon
I look down at Niko who is laying on my chest while I'm raking my hands through his hair. He is drifting off, not fully asleep. I think back to the day we had and I realise I never put the butter back in the fridge. Fuck. I freeze and Niko immediatley looks at me with a mad expression. I quickly resume raking his hair and he calms down again.
I also now realise that the blood I spilt everywhere has probably stained.
Oops.