oddsandends | 96th ♫ | they all say that love wins, but I keep losing no matter what I do.

96th ♫ | they all say that love wins, but I keep losing no matter what I do.

Hurt/Comfort - Hurt/comfort is a fan fiction genre that involves the physical pain or emotional distress of one character, who is cared for by another character. The injury, sickness or other kind of hurt allows an exploration of the characters and their relationship.

- Post with Character Name | Series in the subject.
- Others respond. Gen, shipping, smut, everything goes.
- Roll 1-10 at RNG for a scene, play it out and have fun!

1. INJURY. You've been injured. Broken bones or bleeding out or maybe just a tiny little papercut. The choice is yours.
2. SICKNESS. You're sick and laid up in bed, at home or in a hospital. The severity is up to you.
3. FEAR/ANXIETY. Something is happening and you're scared beyond belief.
4. LOSS OF SENSES. Sight, touch, taste, hearing, smell, etc. You've lost some important sense or ability and now you're left to deal with it.
5. DESPAIR. Nothing is good or right anymore and you can't shake the depression. Maybe that friend of yours can help though...
6. BREAKUP. You've been dumped. You need someone to comfort you, possibly by the one who dumped you.
7. MAKE UP. Fight or break up, it's time to makeup.
8. RESCUED. You've just been held captive and/or tortured for however long and finally, someone has come to the rescue.
9. BAD ROMANCE. Fight, cheated on, abused, whatever the case is, someone else can clearly see you need comfort from someone who isn't your terrible lover tonight.
10. LOSS. You've experience a loss of some kind and need help getting through it.
11. INSANITY. You're seeing things that aren't really there, hearing voices, or you're just convinced you're at your wit's end finally and you're going to crack. Maybe someone can give you a helping hand.
12. TIRED. You've had a heard life recently and you're just worn too thin to really care anymore. There's no fight left in you anymore. Can someone help change your mind?
13. ADDICTION. Drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, or any other type of addiction has got you in its grasp. First time or relapse. Will someone be able to save you?
14. INSOMNIA. You can't sleep anymore, no matter how hard you try. Maybe someone can give you company.
15. NIGHTMARES. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, you can't sleep without gruesome, horrible nightmares. Either someone is stuck in your dream with you, witnessing it or they're just waking you up, soothing you out of it.
16. BLACKMAIL. You've been caught doing something you shouldn't and you were blackmailed because of it
17. SEPARATION. You're going to be separated for awhile or were separated for a long time. Either make up for lost time or try to spend every last moment together.
18. VIOLATED. You've been violated in some way. Can include sexual overtones or not. Can someone help you through it?
19. STRANDED. You've been stranded somewhere remote, with no help of anyone finding you for awhile. Can you survive this together?
20. SINS. You're feeling the weight of your sins and guilt clearer than ever. Can someone give you absolution or lessen the ache any?
21. SECRET. It's difficult having to keep that secret of yours, be it a relationship or something you just don't want to share with anybody else. Maybe it's okay to talk about it now though...
22. ADDITION. Babies should be joyous things unless you're in a situation where you know you won't be able to care for them. Either you've adopted or found out you're pregnant.
23. WILDCARD. Anything missing? Make your own, and tell us about it in your top level!.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Uh, right.

[He turns away in a hurry, and although the tape is clearly right on top of everything inside the drawer due to Ryoko needing to periodically redress her wounds, he spends an extra several moments just standing over the it, bandages in hand, stalling. Now that his brain is catching up with his impulses, he really should've just gotten Taeko instead...she's helped patch both him and Matsu up countless times, so she's more experienced and more tactful about not staring.

But it's because he's been patched up so much that he knows he's not completely useless here, either. So after giving her some time to get ready, he finally grabs the tape, taking a long, slow breath and mentally bracing himself. He can't catch himself staring at her wounds again.]

Found it. Are you ready?

[He might've barged in here thoughtlessly but he's at least going to be mindful in these circumstances.]

[ Though it takes considerably more effort than she would've liked it to, she manages to ease her shirt off, sliding it over her arms than her head – she can't lift her arms up that high just yet. Like this, there's absolute no hiding the rest of her injuries – dark dark impressions down her weak arm that look like Lichtenberg figures and the mottled, mismatched discoloration of his skin that comes with uneven healing.

Somehow, letting someone see all that is what really makes her feel stripped bare. She pulls in a short breath, trying to steady herself, and pointlessly crosses a hand across her chest to try and at least control when she lets go of that dignity. ]

I'm ready.

[ She'll have to be. ]

[Akira turns to face her, taking an even, deep breath and reminding himself not to react any more than he has to. Even so, seeing her arm makes it feel like something's restricting his chest. His instinct, above all, is to run over to her, get a good look at all the damage that's been done to her, and give it back threefold to everyone who's responsible for putting her in a situation to be hurt this badly to begin with.

Instead, he takes another measured, even breath, and approaches her the way he might a hurt animal, quietly and gently, and kneels in front of her. Being this close lets him see all the varying colors of her bruises, the way her ghostly pale skin darkens in twisted, nonsensical ways, bearing witness to the results of everything she's been enduring as a Sentinel pilot.]

...We...should start with this, right?

[He gently touches her wrist, eyes fixed firmly on her face, gauging her reaction.

It'd be easier to read her mind, but to do that in this kind of circumstance seems a bridge too far.]

...Is there any medicine or disinfectant you put on this, or...

[Though he already knows the answer, he thinks.]

[ Though she knows he means well by it, pity stings. It's easier when he's angry on her behalf, even if it comes from the same sort of place. Anger doesn't make her feel quite as small. But when he has that sad, sympathetic look on his face Ryoko just wants to crawl into a hole and never come back out.

It's not Akira's fault. If it's anyone's fault, it's her own for being so needlessly fixated on her pride. Knowing that doesn't make it any easier to sit through. ]

There is fine. [ She's got that clipped, slightly stilted tone she gets when she's trying her very best to keep her voice level, without giving away any of her feelings. ] It's already been cleaned, so... it just needs to be covered.

[ Really, it could probably heal fine without being bandaged, but... Ryoko doesn't want to look at it. And she certainly doesn't want anyone else to see it. ]

[He'll find time to be angry about this later—he always does. Even now, those embers are smoldering in his heart, but...]

We'll make this quick. Let me know if I'm pulling too tightly.

[The best thing he can do is make quick work of it, so she can scrape together her pride again.

He winds the bandage around her arm, well-versed enough in this, at least, to know that being overly careful will just lead to inadequate binding. He goes about a half-width of the bandage upward with every rotation around her arm to make sure that even if it slips a little, or gets a bit loose, there's still plenty of give to make sure the whole thing is covered.

What kind of words would ease her mind at a time like this? Are there any at all that can?]

...The future's lucky to have you. You're this beat up and you're still chomping at the bit to get back home to keep fighting.

[This must be how Taeko feels every time she tells him to stop picking fights—to know that no matter what she says, he'll just keep doing it. But he understands Ryoko's perspective, too, since it seems all too similar to his own.]

You're doing a lot to help, so there's no shame in needing help in return.

[He's always had people to support him, but maybe it's been different for her. Maybe that's why she'd sooner suffer in silence than ask for help. If that's the case...then he'll just have to become her supporter.]

[ Her throat burns a little, as if with the onset of tears but her eyes remain curiously – or maybe, stubbornly – dry. He's being so kind. She usually can't stand it when people are so gentle with her, and coming from Akira now as he's staring down all the ways the Sentinel Project has ripped her to shreds should be the worst of all. But even though it makes her chest tighten, she doesn't want to recoil from it. It's embarrassing, but not humiliating. She's being pitied, yes, but she doesn't feel as pathetic as she'd expected to.

Maybe it doesn't always hurt to ask for this sort of help when she needs it. She's already leaning on Akira and everyone here so much just to get back to her own time, but – is it worth going back if she's just going to fall to pieces once she gets there? Is part of letting him help her get back having him help with this, too? ]

... I have to do it. [ Her voice is a little rough. Scratchy. ] Not because anyone's forcing me, but... I couldn't live with myself if I didn't. There were people I wanted to prove myself to, when I first agreed to do it, but now...

[ Now she's seen what the kaiju do – how ruthlessly effective they are at killing people, destroying homes and lives alike – how can she do anything else? ]

Something that's been destroyed can never be put back together the way it was before. That's why it's important to protect the things that are left with everything you have.

[They really are alike. When she says that, he can vividly remember the times he ran into one of Matsu's scuffles, ready to prove how tough he was to the man whose approval he wanted more than anything—and he can remember finally understanding just why Matsu was getting into fights to begin with. It was only when Akira had furiously demanded Matsu stop coddling him because he wanted to protect everyone too that he finally, begrudgingly started to let him help.

He understands exactly what Ryoko means, but it's precisely because of that that he worries sometimes. Because if this amount of pain won't stop her, then he believes her when she says nothing will.

Ah, what a shitty situation. He understands how Matsu must have felt, too, and he can't even ask for advice.]

Yeah, I get it. Getting hurt's fine if it means you're protecting someone else, 'cuz you're tough enough to handle it.

[He tightens the bandage a little, tying it off just below her shoulder. He'll wrap that separately, just to make sure she can still move her arm.]

...But, y'know...that goes for you, too. If you push yourself too far...you'll leave a hole that no one can patch up, since it's shaped perfectly like you.

[Not that he'll even know if, or perhaps more likely, when that happens. The morbid thought is equal parts harrowing and comforting.]

So I hope you'll rely on me a little while you're here. Because I want to protect the things that matter to me too.

... I know.

[ She does, really. She's known it every time she's seen the look on Ei's face every time they'd boarded their Sentinels – the fear and pre-emptive grief of watching someone you love walk into danger and not knowing if they'll walk back out again. There are other pilots – even other compatibles who could take over her number 14 – but she's the only Ryoko Shinonome.

It's hard to remember that, sometimes. Being here with Akira and all the kids at Bright Sparks makes it a little easier, though. ]

I feel like I'm relying on you all too much as it is, though. [ That's... honest. More honest than she means it to be. But when she's already had so many of her protective layers peeled away, it's hard to keep those sorts of things in. ] Not just with staying here... though that can't be easy for Taeko-san. There are... things that happened here before I ever showed my face and because I'm here, you have to go back and look them in the eye again.

That's what you're worried about?

[Akira moves to delicately brush her hair behind her shoulders so he can start the bandages around her head. He needs a little bit more time to work up the nerve to ask her to put the hand across her chest down.]

...It's true that there's been a lot of pretty shitty stuff going on, but that doesn't mean you don't need help. Humans are pretty resilient, y'know. And besides, if I just felt sorry for myself, then...

[It'd be doing Matsu a disservice. Keeping busy and protecting the things that are important to him is the best way to honor his memory, because Matsu died so he could continue to do just that.]

...Well, it's like you said. I just can't sit still.

[He'd like to tell her about Matsu someday, but not when it means making this all about himself and his problems.]

[ She tips her head back a little – her bangs are always in her face but like this, they spill back a little and show exactly what on her head needs to be covered. ]

If there's something that needs to be done and I can do it... then I have to do it. I can't stand leaving things up to chance or fate.

[ She breathes out hard. Not quite a sigh, not quite a laugh. ]

We're a little too much alike, it seems.

[Akira grins down at her as he adjusts her hair a little bit.]

That's fine by me. If I'm gonna be a little too much like someone, it might as well be people I like.

[A few more moments of trying to keep her hair completely out of the way—he'd like to tuck as much of these bandages away behind her bangs to decrease how visible they are, for her sake—before he makes a thoughtful little noise.]

This might feel a little weird, but bear with me, okay?

[He needs both hands for the bandages, and she can't lift hers above her head, but fortunately, he can move her hair out of the way with his mind, like some third, invisible hand is holding her bangs back so he can wrap her head up the way he wants to.

Whenever Taeko helps patch him up, she always gently prods his head to make sure it's not hurt, but he feels like that's a step he can skip this time. Whatever hit her here hit hard—no wonder she gets headaches.]

...You did go to the hospital after getting these, right...?

[It seems like a stupid question to ask, but he doesn't think a hospital would have let someone in Ryoko's condition out, frankly.]

[ He'd given her a fair warning, but she still starts a little bit – getting used to Akira's powers is still a work in progress and although she's mostly managed it, every now and then they manage to catch her by surprise all over again. She wonders, not for the first time, if when she gets back home Ei will believe her if she actually tells him she ran into a real esper back in this era. ]

I'm... not sure. [ Which she knows sounds Really Concerning, so she clarifies; ] When I woke up after my accident, a few days had already passed since my Sentinel crashed, with me inside it. I'd been bandaged and treated and I was in custody rather than a hospital. But for me to have been treated... I assume they must have taken me to a hospital before trying to interrogate me.

[ Then she gives a derisive little snort. ]

Then again, they were the police. Maybe they just taped me back together hoping I wouldn't fall apart before answering their questions.

[ ryoko shinonome says fuck cops!! ]

[Akira makes a complicated face. His own dad was a cop, but it's not like they've been much use keeping crime down with the Crusaders running amok, especially after the death of the leader of the riot police squad at the hands of one Lawless Matsu.]

Sounds like cops.

[So she's not wrong.]

Why the hell'd they arrest you? If you passed out in your Sentinel and got banged up like this, it seems pretty fuckin' obvious what happened, yeah? Don't even need a detective to figure that out.

[He winds the bandages around her head, trying really hard to strike the balance between "tight enough" and "so tight it gives her another headache." It's...tougher than it looks, and he has to unwind and rewind them a few times until he finds a tautness that seems right.]

My best guess is that they just didn't know what else to do. The Sentinel just appeared out of nowhere and technology like that hadn't been invented yet in the time period I arrived in. So they wanted to question me. Then they decided they didn't like the answers I was giving them, so they held me in custody until I gave them something they did.

[ If she sounds bitter, it's only because she absolutely is. She can tolerate a lot of things but being thought of as a liar is one of the things she truly can't stand. ]

They released me eventually, though. I'm assuming it's because I hadn't actually done anything wrong, so they couldn't hold me there any longer. And after that..

[ She trails off and her expression turns a little... flat, almost. It's the look she gets when she's trying to piece a memory back together but she's not sure where to start. ]

... well, after that, it would have been Morimura who was caring for me.

[ She thinks. ]

Oh...yeah, I guess that would do it. I'm honestly surprised they didn't rope the government in on it.

[But then again, he's biased after watching the government pursue some truly wild science in the name of being completely awful.

He runs his fingers through her hair, to make sure he hasn't accidentally tied any of her bangs up in the bandages and that it's tight enough around the back. It's already a little nostalgic—everything is already, with her, because he never knows when she'll be gone.

And, yeah, maybe he does it more than once. He's just being extra sure, okay?]

Morimura...she's the school nurse, right? I guess she's probably better than any other rando.

[But not great. He doesn't want to drag her somewhere she doesn't want to be, but he really thinks she'd benefit from a trip to the hospital.

He pauses uncomfortably, and the silence extends just long enough to drag a little. He's obviously avoiding asking her to move her good arm.]

...Has it been...I mean, has the pain gotten any worse since you got here? We've been telling you all to take it easy, but it ain't like any of us are medical experts like her.

So you'd hope. I don't actually know how much she knows about medicine, but I'm still mostly in one piece, so she can't be entirely clueless.

[ She says it flippantly, with the air of a joke, but there really is no laugh to be had when she looks like this. For all the bitterness she has about Morimura, Ryoko doesn't doubt that she would have been treated as well as Morimura could manage, if only for the sheer clinical pragmatism of keeping her healthy enough to eventually get back into her Sentinel.

Still, though. However carefully Morimura would have strung her back together, she can't imagine that she ever would have done it with enough actual care as Akira is right now. It's still embarrassing, but... it's tolerable. ]

It's been... fine since getting here, though. [ 'Fine', presumably, in the way that Ryoko often means it, which is to say not actually fine but managable. ] For the most part, there's nothing that puts as much strain on my body as shifting, or piloting the Sentinel. There are still some days where it hurts worse than others, but... I'm managing.

[ ... Ryoko is also, unfortunately, transparently avoiding the point of having to let him actually finish helping her. ]

[He keeps stroking her hair while she talks, well past the point that he can still keep up the pretense that he's making sure the bandages are right.]

As long as it isn't getting worse. If it does, though, let someone know.

[Another long pause before he finally takes a step backward, letting her hair run through his fingers one more time, the beginning of a grimace on his face.]

...Do you...want to turn around? Could you sit on the bed that way? Maybe tuck your knees up, or...

[Even now, he's scrambling trying to think of ways to preserve her modesty, though it's not like he has any alternative suggestions. Her chest has to get bandaged one way or another.]

[ Right to the end, he's trying to spare her any embarrassment. This might have been neater and quicker if she'd asked Taeko – but something about Akira's slightly awkward, fumbling kindness sets her at ease in a different way she doesn't think Taeko, for all her own gentleness, would have been able to manage. After a moment, Ryoko sighs and blows up into her bangs to flutter them up off her forehead. ]

It's– [ fine, she almost says, before realizing what he might think if she goes and reaches for her favourite word. So she pauses and tries again. ] It's alright. If I couldn't trust you with this, who could I trust?

[ Akira's been her ally since the moment she arrived here, after all and that's only gotten more true. She can rely on him for this. Ryoko swallows and then with a little more brisk bravado than is probably necessary she sets both hands to either side of her on the bed and gives a short, sharp nod. ]

I can't lift them much further than my chest but – tell me when you need to me to lift or move my arms. If you need to know exactly where needs bandaging, just ask.

[Trust. Despite being so short, it's one of the heaviest words that exists. It hits him right in the chest, like it's just landed very suddenly on a seesaw his heart had been on the other side of. She'd been so wary of everything and everyone when she arrived, Akira included, and he's never begrudged her for it given the circumstances. But it had felt a little bad, knowing she couldn't trust him. To hear her finally use the word is...]

......Thanks, Ryoko. For trusting me. I won't make you regret it.

[Despite trying to remain as calm about the situation as possible, Akira can't help but have the fleeting thought that she's beautiful.]

Okay. We'll start...from here.

[He delicately touches the lowest part of her ribcage, gently trying to figure out how tender her injuries are. This is another area he can't wrap too tightly.]

...Do you know if any if these are broken?

[Her ribs, he means.]

[ She doesn't flinch at his touch, thankfully, but she is tense - despite trying her best not to be, she's so tightly coiled she feels like she's not far from popping. ]

Not as far as I know. I have pain there sometimes, but not much - I think it's mostly muscular strain there. There's not much about it I can do but let it heal by itself.

[ She's faintly aware that she really shouldn't sound so casual about this but she's long since made her peace with all the ways her body's been split apart. It's the jigsawing the whole thing back together that's always been the hard part. ]

The worst of it is my sternum, I think. From what I remember... when the Sentinel crashed, I hit the controls hard.

[ Hard is an understatement - going off the bruising, it looks like a small truck rammed into her chest. The ugly red laceration across her collarbone, at least, looks clean even if the area itself looks sore. ]

It's healing. It just gets... uncooperative, sometimes.

[He doesn't know what the controls of the Sentinel look like—the indentation looks like it may have been clear enough to actually make it out at some point, though it's just a splotchy mess now. But when he tries to imagine it, Ryoko slumped over them, unconscious, it makes him feel ill. I'm glad you're okay bubbles up in his throat, but it's such a comically insensitive thing to say when she isn't okay, not really, and he doesn't want to have to explain why that's his kneejerk reaction to it.

If anything, the clinical way she talks about it is great at keeping him from getting too emotional, too.]

Let me know if it's too tight. You gotta be able to breathe.

[He starts carefully winding the bandages around her ribs, wincing a little in sympathy every time he has to brush his fingers along a particularly nasty bruise. He's trying not to look at her face too often, since he figures it must be embarrassing enough already, but he does steal glances occasionally, just in case she's trying to hide any pain.]

I can probably shake Doc Tobei down for some pain pills or something. Or maybe, I dunno, I've never tried it before but if I can make people see things, then...

[Maybe he can screw with their other senses, too. Though he's hesitant to test something like that out on Ryoko, honestly.]

[ Her face stays surprisingly level – it doesn't stray towards that stiff, blank look she gets when she's trying to keep her expression neutral so either the bruises are old enough to not hurt or her pain tolerance is... concerningly high. ]

Mm... I wouldn't mind the pills. But... maybe this is strange, but I don't want to ignore the pain too much. It's unpleasant, but like this, I can tell when something's wrong instead of just forcing myself to continue and making things worse.

[ And they both know she's stubborn enough for that. ]

... I appreciate it, though. But I really am alright most of the time. I can manage.

...No offense, Ryoko, but would you have asked for help if I hadn't happened to knock?

[Maybe she would have, but...he's sure it would've been a lot of unnecessary pain while she hesitated to do it.]

It's not like I don't get it, but...

[He'll just have to work harder to earn her trust. So she can call for him with no hesitation whatsoever. She's a precious friend of his, now, and it would be nice if she came to think of him as the same.]

...It just seems like right now you're putting yourself through it a little bit, too. Out of concern for wanting to be a burden, or pride, or something else, I don't know, but...just try to make sure that kind of pain only goes on as long as absolutely necessary.

[He continues to wrap the bandages around her chest, barely pausing for a moment before continuing it past her ribcage and over her breasts. It's only a big deal if he makes it one.]

...Lift your arms just a little, alright? Like you're shrugging.

[He just needs enough space to get his hand between her chest and her forearms.]

I would've said something eventually.

[ She's aware of just how little that eventually is doing for her point – and just how much she's proving his point by appending it like that. She's quiet after that for a while, just doing as he says to make patching her up a little easier. She isn't usually the type to be cowed by scolding but his words make a prickle of something like shame come to life in her stomach.

Maybe it does come down to pride, as much as she wants to believe she's more level-headed than that. But maybe after everything else she's lost, she's a little more desperate to hold onto the little she has left than she'd thought.

Eventually, she finally speaks up again. ]

I'll talk to Doctor Tobei. And... if there's anything else you think you can do, I'm happy to try it.

[ If only because it'll ease Akira's worries, more than anything else. ]

[The silence is just long enough for Akira to wonder if he hasn't overstepped his boundaries, and he's more than a little relieved when she finally responds.]

...You're not really used to having people in your corner, huh?

[It's a bitter question, the only possible conclusion he can come to after watching her skittishly back away from kindness when it's offered to her and the almost mournful way she comes around to accepting it. Like she's doing something she shouldn't.

He checks the fit of the bandages by circling an arm around her and inspecting the tautness of them on her back. It's almost akin to giving her a hug.]

Well, I'm there whether you like it or not. And if it looks like you're in pain, I'll just annoy the hell out of you until you tell me. Nobody likes it when their friends are hurt, right?

[He's still got to wrap her sternum and neck after he makes the necessary adjustments here, but so far he's been doing alright. It's probably not as good as Ryoko can do herself when she's well, but definitely a competent patching-up.]

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