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She sat on her bed with legs crossed to the best of her ability, hands folded in her lap, and Fleece curled at the end of it.
The ribbon keeping her bells together twisted around one of her wrists comfortingly and the bells themselves were held between both hands to keep them silent, eyes taking in the scenery of each set of flowers around her room, when there was a knock on the frame of her open door.
"Graecie?"
A thin frame wearing a black cloak and had dark hair swiped to one side nearly covering one of his purple eyes asked.
"Oh, hi Avid! You can come in, it's okay."
He hesitated for a few seconds more, then tucked fists into pockets.
"Thanks, ah, thanks."
Fleece picked her head up and sniffed the air for a moment, gaging Avis's presence, then settled back into sleep after realizing it wasn't a threat.
"Mhm! Did you need something?"
"Oh, I, uh. I just wanted to, you know, make sure you're doing okay? Cause today was kinda, a lot."
"Ah, oh! Thank you. I'm, I'm okay, thank you."
"Yeah, I, yeah. Um. I'm not really good at, well, really any of this. But. Are you *really* okay?"
"Oh! Yes? Yes, I'm, yes. Sorry. I'm okay. Why?"
Graecie fidgeted with the bells still between her palms.
Silent, like hide and seek, only different.
Which she was good at, so good at, no one in the Flock ever could find her, that's how good she was.
Avid adjusted in place for a moment, he did that sometimes, maybe he was nervous.
He wasn't wearing, or even holding, his mask though.
"You um, your eyes."
"My eyes?"
"They just uh, look a little red. I just thought maybe you'd been crying. So, um."
"Oh. Um. I, I was, earlier. But not anymore, so um. I'm okay, yes, I'm sorry."
"No, it's okay! Sorry, it's okay. I just was checking I guess."
Graecie nodded, smiling softly, then made the tiniest barely there if you weren't paying attention you'd miss it wince.
And Avid, as it turned out, was in fact paying attention.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, sorry!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes? Yes!"
"No, I. Are you hurt?"
Avid walked a little closer to the bed, and Graecie curled her shoulders in a little more.
"Only, only a little. Or, okay, um. More than a, a little. But I'm okay, really!"
"Can I ask what happened?"
"The um, the doppelgänger."
"They hurt you?"
"When you guys were trying to, um, get rid of them. And they were chasing me, and they um. They."
She kept the bells closed in one hand, and motioned to the middle of her stomach with the other.
"Oh, and do you, do you have anything? Like, I think you probably do cause, cause there's not blood on your dress. But, um."
"I, yeah. I do. Sun Guard gave me some um, some bandages earlier."
"Do they need anything, like, to be replaced, or?"
"I don't, I don't know. Probably? But I don't, I, um."
Graecie put her hands together again, starting to hyperventilate a little.
Oh, and Avid was, well, kind of way out of his element, but.
"Hey, no, hey."
Tears formed on her waterlines again, and she crossed her arms lightly in a self hug.
"You're, you're okay. It's gonna be okay. It's, I don't. Deep breaths, yeah, just breathe. Come on, in and out slow, there you go."
And slowly but surely, Graecie did, her breathing calmed and her tears slowed, but her hands still shook a bit.
"I'm sorry, I'm okay, I'm sorry."
"No you're, it's, don't be sorry. I, um, I can, if you want, um."
Graecie looked from the tops of her eyes to Avid curiously.
"I can, I can replace them, for you?"
"Oh, um."
"I mean, only if it's okay and you want me to, you can say no."
"No, I. I don't think I, can? So you um, yes, yes please."
"Oh! Yeah, um, yeah. Cool. Do you want me to, uh, I don't."
He motioned to the front of her dress and looked anywhere else.
"Ah. I, um. I have buttons? I can, so you don't, yeah."
"Yeah, I, yeah, okay, sure."
It was slow and her hands shook the whole time and Graecie did her very best to keep the bells in place and not ring, but she did it.
And then there was a section four buttons wide of a square of bandage surrounded by a bit of exposed skin.
"Okay, can I, uh."
Avid took a step closer to the bed and sat on the edge, Graecie nodded before pulling her white dress a bit further open for him.
"Just, just tell me if anything hurts or uh, I'm doing something wrong, or you just, need a break."
"Mhm."
He took the section of tape off one end of her pale skin, part of the bandage covering the gauze loosening.
Avid looked at Graecie's face to gage her emotions, couldn't find any sign of resistance, so he took off the second piece of tape, letting the rest of the bandage fall, only the gauze remained.
"Still doing okay?"
"Yes."
"Alright, uh, alright."
Very gently, he took a corner of the gauze pad, and lifted it away from the injury.
It only stuck a little bit to the stab wound underneath, which was expected, he hummed sympathetically in response as her muscles tensed.
"Sorry."
"No, it's okay, I'm okay."
"I, you're. Okay, yeah. You're okay."
The stab was deep, but not dangerously so.
Still painful, probably absolutely, but the injury level wasn't concerningly so.
It was red, mostly from blood that had spread when the bandage was first placed, but it still actively ran a bit, there were no other colors to indicate any sign of infection, thankfully.
"I need to, um, I should clean this a little. Just like, around it. Before I put anything else on."
"Okay, that's okay. Do you have anything?"
"Yeah, I think so, uh."
Avid rummaged around his backpack and found a piece of cloth and a water bottle.
"This'll work for now?"
"Mhm."
"Okay. I'm gonna, I'll do my best to just wipe around the, the injury itself. Alright?"
Graecie took in and held a small breath, then nodded..
He poured some water over the cloth and used the corner of it to clean her skin, keeping his word of only cleaning the surrounding area, then hesitated but still held the cloth.
"I just need to, uh, I won't rub or anything, I just wanna press this against the stab once to, uh, stop it, because it's still bleeding just a little, if that's okay."
She avoided eye contact and nodded softly.
Avid touched a corner of the cloth over the wound, covering it gently, and Gracie whimpered.
Fleece picked her head up again and looked directly at the two of them.
"We're okay, girl, we're okay. Sorry, I'm, sorry. I'm done. I just, had to do that for a second. But we're good, you, you did it, you did good."
Her voice was softer than usual, she sounded exhausted.
"Thank you."
"Can I, I can put fresh bandage on, now."
"Yes please."
So he did, he reached for the fresh gauze pads and roll of bandage and tape Graecie took from her bag earlier, recovering the injury.
"Would you like me to uh, do your buttons, or."
She wasn't shaking nearly as much now, and she reached between them to redo the buttons of her dress without a word.
"Okay, you, okay, um."
He said after she was finished, not yet leaving, still sitting on the edge of her bed, but motioning a hand back towards the door.
"You um, you're probably tired, after everything today, so I can, you know."
"Avid?"
"Yeah?"
Graecie opened her fist and let the bells fall from her palm, the red ribbon also falling from around her wrist.
And then she lifted both hands and arms to put them behind Avid s upper torso, head against the cloak covering his chest, she was hugging him.
"Thank you."
"Oh, um, okay. We're, we're okay. We'll be okay."
Avid very slow and awkward lifted his hands to reciprocate, only to waist level though, wrapping them around her.
He could do this for a little bit, if that's what she wanted, if that's what made her feel better.
He still didn't let go even when he started to hear Graecie's breathing slow and felt her head bury further against his chest as she succumbed to everything from the day.