{Content Warning: Graphic description of a bleeding wound }
The silence was excruciatingly loud.
"Tristan....how did you even survive this?" Skyler turned around to look at him with watery eyes.
Nova didn't know how to respond. In fact, he felt a pang of guilt as he thought, 'Your Tristan didn't survive this...'
Once again, Nova didn't know what to say. This time his body gave him an easy out from addressing the question as he felt his thigh start bleeding profusely. So instead of responding he winced and said "Ow...." and Sky looked down to see the growing blood stain on the trousers.
"It's a miracle you didn't completely bleed out....Tristan... you really have to go to the hospital-"
"NO!" Tristan yelled and backed out of the bathroom, moving away like a wounded animal, everything in him rejecting the word 'hospital' like it was out to kill him.
Skyler hesitated, he regretted bringing up that place and seeing Tristan react like that again but it was just common sense that a wound that made all that blood needed to be treated by a medical professional. Even with his own limited medical knowledge, it was still obvious that this was far too much blood loss and his friend should be passed out by now at the very least....
"....Tristan...you can't go anywhere like that....we have to go there and make sure there's no lasting damage...." Sky said with a gentle and patient tone, omitting the word 'hospital' and speaking softly as if he was trying to feed a stray puppy and coax it into following him.
But this puppy didn't want to go to the vet.
This was the most intense reaction Nova had felt from the Original and that was saying a lot because everything he had felt so far had been strong enough to make him lose control of the body. Nova was beginning to hold some animosity for the man called Tristan- 'You're already dead! Just let me handle the situation because clearly whatever you were doing didn't work!!'
Nova felt his body tremble as tears once again fell from him. All these emotions were incredibly frustrating and he suddenly felt exhausted but at least they were giving him a sense of direction. Now he really wanted to go to the hospital. He continued to look towards this 'best friend' hoping that he would have some way to get him there.
Skyler watched the man, who could be considered very manly and mature looking, suddenly shrink. Tristan's broad shoulders curved inwards as he hugged himself tightly, his legs pressed together and if he was actually a dog Sky was sure his tail would be tucked in between them. He watched him shiver and sob and couldn't help but feel frustrated with whatever had made his best friend like this. Skyler didn't know exactly who it was because Tristan had been telling him less and less about the situation recently but he was certain that it was one of those bastards who did nothing but cause trouble and hurt him and-
Sky sighed,
".....then at least let me see it. Go sit." He acquiesced while pressing on his temple with one hand, thinking about the situation that gave him a headache. His other hand gesturing towards the bed.
'Damn it. He's too nice.' Nova thought, he wanted to figure things out at the hospital but instead he'll have to strip in front of a stranger..... It didn't matter. Nova rebuilt his resolve and once again swallowed his pride. He took off the trousers and sat down. The wound was a bit hidden under the boxer briefs but as he got those halfway off he heard something fall.
A bottle of alcohol that Sky had brought over from the bathroom. He had grabbed the first aid materials quickly, not wanting to stay another second in that room that kept reminding him of how he had truly almost lost his friend this time. But as soon as he walked out all he saw was underwear coming off, centimeters away from revealing what was underneath. The thing he hadn't seen ever since-
"What are you doing!!" Sky was blushing profusely, turning his head away and trying to not see anything while also desperately trying to not want to see everything. "Put that back on!!"
Nova did as he was told. Pulling the underwear up and sitting down again, the motion making him lightheaded before looking up at him with a blank expression,
"....it goes higher up." He stated, bringing Skyler's attention back to the bleeding wound that had soaked through the bandage.
The bashfulness immediately disappeared, the air tensing as he sighed again while making an ugly face as he hadn't known the wound would be that large. Skyler walked over to Tristan, kneeling down next to the man's leg, placing the supplies next to him. His cold and rough hands held the leg steady as he simply rolled the fabric out of the way, pushing it up before starting to unravel the bandage. Nova watched him do this in seconds and thought, '....I'm really not used to this...doing something stupid when there's a simple solution...'
Nova was used to being a system, not the actual transmigrator. It was easy to observe the situation when you could see the room you were in from all angles. Easy to assess a person when they weren't actively talking with, and looking at you. Easy to know what to do when you had the time to think and process things without having to act to the best of your abilities. And obviously, it was much much much easier to get things done when you had a clear task, side missions, and backstory to aid you.
That's why systems and hosts were a package deal. They were partners, regardless of how much some hosts looked down on and took advantage of them, every host needed their system.
....not that any of that mattered to Nova anymore. The main takeaway was that all of his years, decades, centuries, eons, of experience as a system could have never truly prepared him for taking on this role as a Host. Doing this without any assistance was simply setting him up for failure. So that was probably the reason why he was bumbling around like an idiot newbie host, missing important details and making mistakes.....
Because he is now an idiot newbie host.
While Nova had become silently self reflective, Skyler patiently unraveled the stained bandages. His heart dropped the more of the wound he revealed. It was not only long enough to stretch from crease of Tristan's hip down to the middle of his thigh, it was also deep. Shockingly deep. Fatally deep.
Even though the fresh red blood made a river in the wound, the motion of the bandages being removed made it freely flow down, revealing the kind of image that once again might be seen in a horror or true crime movie.
Epidermis, Dermis, Hypodermis, Subcutaneous tissue, fatty tissue, even a hint of muscle.....
Layers of skin were exposed to the open air like a living diagram and Skyler suddenly had a flashback to 7th grade biology, "Arteries and important nerves are located in the dermis...anything below fat would be...."
Deadly. Damaged arteries could make you bleed out easily. Nerve damage could leave someone paralyzed....
The man stood up. A determined look on his face. Nova didn't even notice anything until cold and rough hands touched his neck. There was no time for him to react, he had been knocked out, the culprit immediately pulled out a phone and called 911 while placing his body into a position that wouldn't hurt his neck.
"Hello? I need an ambulance! There was a suicide attempt at ********** I broke the door trying to get to him but he's passed out and I don't know what to do and-"
Skyler answered the questions that needed to be answered and followed the instructions given to him as best as he could but there wasn't much he could do. They told him to wait and he threw the phone down in frustration. Why is he always so useless? Why couldn't Tristan come to him before it got to this point?? He looked at him laying there and couldn't help but imagine finding a dead body when he had broke in earlier. The sadness overwhelmed him.
The man pressed a kiss on the other's forehead, the emotions he had been holding back for the sake of being 'the strong one' coalesced into tears as he waited for the ambulance to come.
"It doesn't matter if you hate me when you wake up. I just want you to live, Tristan...."