>>1063012Suisei hung her coat on a hook and picked up her grocery bags to ferry them off to the kitchen. Passing by Aqua's room, she decided to stop and check in, though, and set them beside the door, walking in without knocking, as usual. It was quiet outside, so she wasn't streaming, probably sleeping or —
Her chair was empty. The monitor was still on, asking if one'd like to keep spectating or requeue. Her relatively new keyboard, still shining with red neon light, smelled strongly of apple juice, the rest of which was splattered across the desk, beside a tall glass laying on its side. Her heart racing, Suisei heard a faint noise to the left — and there she was, curled up in a corner. Sobbing and cutting. Again.
Letting out a gasp, Sui got to Aqua in two jumps, hit her up the head and wrestled the awful thing from her hands. A folding pocket knife. Where did the stupid girl even get one? Suisei casually threw it against a wall, and it made a notch in the wallpaper. Aqua made an "uuuuu"-sounding noise and feebly reached for it, before bursting into tears. "G-give it back...", she mumbled. "I want... my... I want back..." Suisei hugged her tight and let her stay like that for a while, before standing up and pulling her by the wrist. "Come. You need help."
You could describe it as dragging, but Aqua was so physically frail that all resistance she could muster was trying to pull her arm out of Suisei's hand on their walk to the kitchen. Suisei shoved the dirty dishes out of the way, grabbed Aqua's hands from the back, and carefully washed the cuts under cold water. Dressing the wounds was next. The first aid kit was on the fridge, out of Aqua's reach but always at hand.
Cotton swabs to put on some iodine — of course there were better disinfectants, but iodine stung, and it needed to sting. Where a normal adult would suck air through their teeth, Aqua started crying like a baby when a drop of brown liquid touched her damaged flesh. Mmmmm. Best not to get distracted. Bandages were at hand, but scissors were in Suisei's bag, and she had to go grab them. That was a bit of a downside to living with Aqua, but Suisei treated it as just another challenge to consider. Nothing sharp where she could reach, nothing dangerous. No scissors, no needles, no forks. No razors — you don't know how much of an oxymoron the phrase "safety razor" is, until you see for yourself. Certainly no knives.
Where did she get the knife? Did Suisei forget one in her old bags? An old coat? Failed to triple-check, failed to account for Aqua ruffling through the clothes in the wardrobe, looking for a snack, finding something more... Stupid, stupid, stupid, worthless moron, murderer, imbecile, sadistic bastard, torturer, could have just handed her over the knife yourself and told her to have a go at it, same result, should have been you, should... Sidetracked again! She finished tying the bandages, still having her sit on her lap, and started idly playing with Aqua's twintail. "So. Tell me what happened, and I probably won't get mad."
Aqua has never been particularly eloquent, and definitely not when put on the spot like that after a nervous breakdown. This part didn't really have a goal other than making her more nervous — Sui already guessed the gist anyway. Went to the kitchen to pour a glass of apple juice, took it back to the room, forgot about it, knocked it over and fried her new keyboard in the middle of a match, felt so awful that she took out a knife and started cutting. Aqua never said "cutting" or "harming" or "hurting", it was always euphemistic, just "that" and "need". She has been stuttering and mumbling about the situation for a few minutes before Suisei angrily interrupted her. "Is that it? A keyboard? You did this to yourself over a fucking keyboard?"
No, obviously not. That was fairly obvious, but if Aqua ever had a spine to object here, she certainly has long since lost it, and Suisei made a point out of dismissing the valid underlying concern. The truth is, Aqua has always been clumsy, and it didn't help that her right forearm had the... thing. Vertical line. Along, not across like all the others. That one was a serious attempt. Nothing made Suisei more angry at herself than this gnarly reminder of failure as a caretaker. They almost lost each other! The very thought was not actually scary, it was more of a void. She knew what she would do if that were to ever happen, she didn't believe in beautiful suicides. She would be gone from this world immediately, as little of her body left as possible. Trains get ever swifter these days.
cont.
