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Irritated, he scrubs the blood from his other arm.
Farthest thing from fine??
He goes to speak again, but coughs as soon as he opens his mouth. He wipes his face again and looks up to meet her eyes, glaring. He hands her his cloth.
She met his gaze as they traded, giving him the clean one, and raised an eyebrow. "Are there any injuries I should know about or are you just bloody?" she took the soiled cloth to the sink and rinsed it out.
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He pulls his hair up into a pony tail out of his face, ignoring Miki. He pulls his shirt up to clean a cut on his side, wincing as the cloth met the ripped skin. He clenches his jaw.
Augh, no more coughing.
He cusses a little under his breath and yanks his shirt back down, coughing and wiping his face again.
Miki let out a silent whistle when he exposed the cut and brought him a new cloth again. Then she turned to the washer and stopped it, taking his leather jacket out and holding it over the sink so the water could drip off it.
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Ben takes the new cloth and goes to clean his face, pausing to cough every now and then.
Kissa appears in the doorway, silently watching.
"Can I help..?" she quietly says, sounding smaller and quieter than normal. Ben gives her a jerky wavy with his hand.
"Go away." He coughs.
She slowly slips away from the door way, silently making her way up the stairs to retrieve him a shirt.
Miki opened her mouth to stop her, but Kissa left before she could say anything. She rolled her eyes at Ben, though her back was to him, and shook his jacket to get the remaining water off before she started scrubbing it by hand.
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Ben pauses for a moment, staring at the floor before inhaling.
Не должно быть так тяжело дышать.
He rubs his eyes as they start to water from the heat.
Kissa returns with a new shirt, this one black so a blood stain wouldn't bother it much. Under it she holds a roll of gauze.
She stares from the doorway for a moment, not wanting to invade or touch him since he didn't like that, but eventually decides he needs the help. She bends down by him, "We can wrap your wound." she quietly states, setting his shirt on the floor.
Miki brought two more clean washcloths over and handed them to Kissa. "Please help him. He likes you more than he likes me." she took the dirty cloth to the sink and rinsed it, staging a few more before digging through the cabinets for anything else that might help.
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Я бы предпочел это, чем беспокоиться о Вайолет прямо сейчас.
He finally relaxes and gives up. "Whatever." He breathes.
He pulls off his bloody shirt, showing the cut on his side again and a large black and blue bruise across his chest.
Kissa swallows, but wipes his wound with the rag, not knowing what else to really do.
She closes her eyes for a moment.
What did Vi have out the other night for Gabe and Ben???
"Miki? I think Vi uses… peroxide?" She whispers, opening her eyes and looking to Miki for affirmation.
Miki snaps her fingers. "Yes. I think so. It's like a disinfectant." she whipped out her phone and looked it up really fast. "Yeah, peroxide is good for wounds." she found a bottle of it and brought it to Kissa, catching sight of the injury. "D— it, Ben, what did you do??"
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Ben shoots Miki a glare and Kissa takes the peroxide, pouring a little on the rag.
Ben goes to snap back at Miki, but gives a light gasp instead, looking to Kissa who dabs his wound with the peroxide rag.
"Augh, that stings!" He hisses quietly.
She bites her lip, not liking to be the one on the receiving end of his unhappiness, though he wasn't honestly raising his voice or being sharp.
Miki put a hand on Kissa's shoulder, just for a moment, to silently encourage here to keep going. "Yeah, and it'll hurt worse if Vi finds out about it." she said to Ben, raising her eyebrows. "We're trying to help you so shush."
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He gives Miki a sharp glare.
Kissa starts to bandage the wound, avoiding looking at the black bruise across his chest.
"What happened?" she whispers.
He runs a hand through his hair, accidentally freeing a few curls from the pony tail.
"Don't worry." He growls.
Miki took the dirty washcloths away and cleaned them in the sink. "We're so far beyond just worrying right now, Ben." she muttered under her breath. She turned back to them. "Are you hurt anywhere else or is that it?"
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"I'm fine." He states in a low quiet voice, cussing after coughing up a little more blood into his hands.
Kissa goes pale after seeing the blood sprinkled in his hands and hands him a cloth. "Should… should I get.."
He gives her a glare. "Don't even think about it. I'm fine."
Miki planted her hands on her hips. "Benjamin, I will go wake Silver up this minute and have her scan you with her weirdo powers if you don't tell us what else is wrong with you. Why do you keep coughing up blood?"
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"Dammit Miki, keep your voice down." He hisses with a glare. He hovers a hand over his bruise, "It's from this. I'll be fine, it's happened before. I'm not even coughing that much." He whispers.
Kissa gulps.
ow.
Miki crossed her arms and surveyed him skeptically. "You got a cut in your side and so that equals coughing up blood? Ben, do you even know how anatomy works? If you're coughing up blood it's because you're bleeding in your intestines or your stomach or your lungs or something. You don't get it from a poke in your ribs. How did you get that cut anyway? That doesn't look like a normal motorcycle scrape up."
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Irritated, he coughs again, this time without any blood. "Miki, not the cut. Augh, you're so stupid." He rubs his forehead. "My bruise you idiot."
He doesn't bother to answer how he got the wounds and swallows, inhaling again as Kissa finishes wrapping his side.
Miki pressed a hand to her forehead. "Ben, you shouldn't be bleeding internally from a bruise either." She sighed, closing her eyes. Maybe we should get Vi just to make sure he's not dying.
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Kissa stands. "I'm gonna look this up and see if I can do anything else." She calmly lies, heading upstairs for her phone, but slowly turning the knob to Violet's room instead.
Ben rubs his bandage, clenching his jaw. "Miki, I'm fine. I'm not dying you dramaqueen." He grumbles quietly.
Miki took a deep, slow breath. "I never said you were dying, you idiot. But you're the one insisting that coughing up blood is no big deal."
"What's going on??" Silver's voice squeaked from the doorway. "Why is there blood??"
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Ben purses his lips and gives the floor a wide-eyed glare. He turns to look at Sil, "Shh, Vi is sleeping. I'm fine."
Kissa slowly approaches Violet, sleeping on the bed. He hair is in a long braid on the pillow behind her, and her face is streaked with dry tears. She pauses.
"Violet?" She whispers. "Vi?"
Her eyes blink open and she creases her brow, halfway propping herself up. "Kissa? Whats wrong, Love?"
Miki dropped her hand and closed her eyes, capturing a moment of calm before turning to Silver. "Ben was–"
"What happened?" Silver said, coming forward and kneeling beside Ben's chair. "Why are you–" she lifted her hand, hovering it in front of his chest. She didn't need to see the bruise or the cut. "What happened?" she asked, her worried tone turning to anxious frustration.
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Ben wipes his still-bloody hands on his pants and sighs. "It's nothing. Nothing happened. 'm fine." He states in irritation.
"It's-" Kissa closes her mouth and swallows. "Ben is coughing up blood."
Violet's face goes pale and she's still for half a second before climbing out of bed and swinging on her robe, double knotting the tie so it wouldn't come loose. "Where is he?"
Silver rose to her feet, hands balled at her sides in frustration. "Ben!" she yelled. "What is going on??"
Miki sighed and closed her eyes again. Here we go.
"You and Violet fought in the kitchen and then you go storming off and don't come back until… until… the middle of the night and you're all beat up and your FREAKING LUNGS ARE BRUISED." Silver shrieked. "Ben, how do you freaking bruise your lungs on a motorcycle?? Do NOT tell me everything is fine because it's NOT and I'm so tired of everyone getting hurt and no one telling anyone what's going on!" Hot angry tears spilled down her cheeks as she glared at him.
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Violet follows Silvers screams to the Laundry room, not needing Kissa to lead her. Ben avoids eye contact with Silver and stares at the floor to the right of him, clenching his jaw.
Violet clicks on the kitchen light, spilling some light into the laundry room and comes to the door way. "Silver, please!" She pleads before pushing past her to Ben.
She slips her hands on his cheeks, turning his face towards her. Her eyes wander from his face down to the bruise on his chest and the lopsided bandage on his side.
Tears well up in her eyes and he avoids eye contact, staring down.
She inhales, gulping, and lets go of his face, looking over the bruise. "My word, Ben." she whispers sadly under her breath as she kneels in front of him.
Miki put her hands on Silver's shoulders as the younger girl gasped for breath, chest heaving. "I just want to know what's going on." she sobbed. "You never tell us anything, Ben, and you tell us to not go outside or you'll get mad and then you leave for hours and come back like this and… and… and you don't tell us anything!" she wailed.
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Ben coughs a little, wiping his mouth. He stares at the ground, his vision blurred.
Vi tries to block out Silver's wails and slowly removes the bandage. She clenches her jaw. "Ben, what is this?" she looks up to see him blinking blankly at the ground.
Kissa stands to the side, staring at his bloody hair.
Miki rubbed her forehead and patted Silver's arm. "Come on, babe, let's–" Silver lifted her hand but Miki grabbed her wrist before she could do anything. "Sil. No. Come on." Without letting her go she dragged her out of the laundry room and out to the kitchen. "Sit." she said, pushing her onto a barstool.
"Miki–" Silver started.
"Nope." Miki cut her off. "Nope, nope. Neither of us are getting any answers in there and Ben deserves to be left to Violet's mercy." she began to bang around with some pots and pans.
Silver watched her for a minute, wiping her face. "What are you doing?" she asked.
