“It’s nothing,” Wash tried again. “Just a scrape.”
And yet, when Peri lifted the shirt, it stuck a little where the scrape had been bleeding. Peri couldn’t help but stamp his foot, glaring at his boyfriend. “That’s not nothing! You’re bleeding!”
His reaction seemed to surprise Wash, as well as everyone in their vicinity. He wanted to be embarrassed, but he was also mad at Wash for lying. Tears burned his eyes, both angry and hurt, and he turned his face away, swallowing around the lump in his throat.
“Hey, hey…” Wash grabbed his hands, trying to reassure him. “Demons heal fast. I’ll be alright, sweetheart. It’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing,” Peri insisted again, his voice cracking. “You’re hurt.”
Wash seemed at a loss for what to do, which only made it worse. He was the one who was hurt, but because Peri was close to tears, he was just standing there instead of dealing with the problem.
Tugging on their hands laced together, Peri murmured, “Come on. We need to clean it out.”
Wash went willingly enough as Peri dragged him away, and he didn’t comment on Peri’s hovering as they rode the elevatorto the third floor. Their room was at the end of the hall, and Peri pulled him straight into the bathroom before starting the shower. He prepared the cloth and soap while Wash stripped out of his dirty clothes and climbed in, hissing when the water hit his side.
Spinning around so Wash didn’t see the tears in his eyes, Peri stripped out of his own clothes, whispering the protection spell for his wings before scurrying into the shower so he could help Wash clean up.
“What’s this?” Wash queried, hovering a hand close to Peri’s wings, where the spell sparkled gold and white.
“A protection spell,” Peri murmured, his hands shaking as he held the washcloth close to Wash’s side without actually touching it yet. “Fairy wings don’t react well to water. The spell keeps them dry.”
It took a minute for him to work up the courage to press the cloth against Wash’s scrape, and he was glad they were in the shower so Wash couldn’t see the tears streaming down his face. He never wanted to hurt his boyfriend, even by doing something like this. But it needed to be cleaned if it was going to heal without scarring, and Peri had seen dirt in it when he’d looked at it before.
Wash’s hand covered his, his voice warm as he said, “Let me do it.”
“N-No… I can do it,” Peri protested, his voice wobbling despite his best effort.
“Peri… Baby…” Wash cupped his face, forcing him to look up. “It’s okay. Let me do it.”
Reluctantly, he handed off the cloth, squeezing his eyes shut when Wash started scrubbing the scrape. It only took him a few moments, and he never made a single sound of pain or discomfort.
“There. Look. It’s already healing.”
Blinking his eyes open, Peri glanced at the scrape. True enough, the bleeding had stopped, and the scrape looked a lot less angry than it had before. When Peri shot Wash a questioning look, his boyfriend shrugged a shoulder, his smile soft. “I told you, demons heal fast. Thank you for taking care of me, though. I appreciate it.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Peri mumbled, cuddling against Wash’s uninjured side when Wash opened his arms for him to get close.
“You noticed.”
He wasn’t sure Wash had intended for him to hear it, he’d said it so quietly, but when Peri looked up at him, his smile was a little tighter than before, just a hint of pain behind his eyes. Peri remembered the story Elijah had told him about how Wash would come home with bruises and cuts. How many times after Elijah asked him for space did Wash come home hurt, and no one noticed? He hadn’t even flinched when Peri had put the cloth against his side. Was he just used to the pain?
He tried to hold it back, he really did, but the idea broke his heart, and the sobs escaped unbidden. No amount of covering his face would hide the sounds. His shoulders shook in his attempt to hold it all back, but when Wash pulled him closer, wrapping himself around Peri with his head tucked under his chin, the dam broke and he fell apart completely, sobbing against Wash’s chest until his lungs hurt.
“Shhh… I’m okay,” Wash whispered, rubbing his back soothingly.
They couldn’t stay in the water all day, and eventually Wash ushered Peri out of the shower, wiping him down with a fluffy towel before nudging him into bed. Peri went without argument, still sniffling and hiccuping from the sobs. He didn’t settle until they were lying in bed together, Wash wrapped around him again, rubbing gentle fingers along his arm.
“Do you know how the spell works?”
Sniffling and wiping his nose on the tissue Wash had handed him when they climbed into bed, Peri looked up at him. “What?”
Wash gestured to Peri’s wings, and he had that look on his face that Taron called his ‘work face’. It soothed Peri a little, seeing that deep concentration like he was trying to understand the secrets of the universe.
“I don’t. My parents taught me the spell when I was little. I don’t even remember when exactly.”
Wash frowned, his eyes glued to Peri’s wings.
His heart skipped, and he went a little breathless when he offered, “You can touch them if you want…”