I have half a mind, it's cracked and breaking

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

The ragged stump of Ienzo's arm had been a mangled mess. Szayel had carefully trimmed away everything ruined beyond repair, playing conservatively with how much of Ienzo's arm he left behind. He didn't have enough to be useful; all trying to save more of the arm would get anyone would be a higher risk of later complications. In the end, he removed everything left below the shoulder joint, which also gave him enough undamaged skin to cover the amputation wound somewhat tidily. It was still going to be scarred, but at least it wouldn't be twisted and puckered scar tissue on the end of a stump.

The very first thing he'd done, once he'd cut away enough damage to see what he was doing, had been to seal off the blood vessels. Ienzo had lost a lot of blood, and Szayel hadn't needed to get a band around his good arm to know his blood pressure would be dangerously low. Nel had worked on that, feeding drips into his veins and casting curative spells to accelerate his body's own replenishment speed.

Szayel had put aside what he'd removed in a kidney dish, temporarily focused solely on the task at hand. With Lumi hovering over his shoulder, he hadn't expected to get a chance to keep so much sample tissue anyway, but he'd hoped that if he pretended to ignore it then Lumi would also pay it little heed.

Once the obvious wound had been covered Szayel turned to a more detailed examination of Ienzo, a task which required stripping him of most of his clothing. There were parts that seemed as if he'd be bruised and sore, but no other obvious, major injuries seemed apparent, and Szayel couldn't find evidence of any internal injuries that required attending.

Nel carefully applied bandages to Ienzo's arm and up over his shoulder while Szayel cleaned away his things, simply moving them to the back of the infirmary for the time being. He wanted to take the excised tissue and store it, safely, but that would only make things look obvious to his audience. Instead, after moving things out of the way, he returned to Ienzo's bedside, as if he'd only been intending to do that, and gave him a dose of the antidote for the sedatives they'd used.

They needed to see if he was capable of consciousness, after all.

"He's going to need close monitoring," he said, mostly to Nel. "Through the night as well." It might in the least be another chance for him to get his hands on some samples, too.

Comments

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel eyed Ulquiorra, and then rolled his eyes. Ulquiorra had an unfortunate tendency to slip into his home country's ridiculous moon-speak whenever he was insulting people. It wasn't as if it was a reasonable language, like Al Bhed, that could be spoken by anyone with two brain cells to rub together. Using Rozarrian in public was just rude.

"E ryja rymv y seht du pyh myhkiykac E tuh'd cbayg vnus so ehvensyno," he muttered.

[theschemer]

Ienzo looked up at Ulquiorra, eyes dull, but nodded nonetheless. He did as he suggested and managed to push himself up, but it felt unnatural somehow, even though he must have done it hundreds of times when his arm was merely otherwise occupied instead of missing.

It didn't stop him feeling as though he had somehow moved the arm to get up normally the first time, though. In his mind, he had operated it as though it was there, almost felt the fingers move, nearly felt the bed under his missing hand.

He eyed Szayel from behind his hair, understanding him just as easily as he did Ulquiorra. Szayel often used Al Bhed when he thought nobody could understand it, so he didn't see the problem.

[thechillyacademic]

Even heard Ulquiorra speak, but understood nothing of it. It was a language he wasn't sure he'd ever even heard before, but it seemed to make sense to Ienzo, for he responded with a change of tactic. It irritated him slightly that Ienzo had decided to communicate with Ulquiorra in a secret little language, like a schoolchild with things to hide and a mischievous nature, but the fact that it irritated Szayel, who did the same with the sort of rapid, slang-laden Al Bhed it was impossible for all but those with it as a mother tongue to follow, made him smirk.

He looked at Nel as she spoke. She had addressed Ulquiorra, but it didn't really matter.

"Neliel," he said, glancing towards the infirmary door.

It was a look that said 'I need to speak to you', though it wasn't delivered with the sort of ease and deftness that others managed.

[declaregamuza]

Nel looked up at Even. She knew that look. It was a look that said there was something she didn't know, yet, somthing important. She frowned, looking back at Ienzo, and took a moment to tidy a stray lock of his hair back into place. It was a motherly gesture, not merely an affectionate one. She liked Ienzo; he'd been a scared boy in over his head, pressganged into a vicious clan when he'd first arrived, for all he'd tried not to look it. She'd seen what he'd been made to do in Midgar, and her own actions there were something she still hadn't come to terms with. She suspected, for a few reasons, that Ienzo faced the same problem.

He was going to have a hard and treacherous road ahead of him now.

"He can have some water," she advised, looking at Ulquiorra, "just sips for now." Then she stood to make her way towards the infirmary doors.

She spared a glance for Szayel on the way. "Behave yourself," she warned.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel folded his arms, watching Nel and Even move off to have their little parental conversation about their children. That was the air it gave off; mom and dad slipping away for a private chat.

He wrinkled his nose and sneered.

"Quit trying to be the mother you'll never be," he spat, "it's tedious."

[tozasemurcielago]

Ulquiorra watched, impassively, waiting for Nel to move, for Even to move, for the moment to pass. There was a weight in the air that had nothing to do with anyone's reiatsu, and Ulquiorra didn't know what to do about it. The weight in the air pressed down in his chest, pulled at his throat and his limbs, and Ulquiorra didn't know what to do about that, either.

"If you wish for water, you can get it yourself," he said, a statement of fact that wasn't a command or an admonishment, said for Ienzo's ears only. Ienzo-san was injured, not incapable, and Ulquiorra wasn't going to sit like Nel and tend and coddle him as if that would make it better. His arm was gone; he needed to learn to do things without it, not have them done for him. "You don't require me to nurse you."

Ulquiorra took a step closer to Ienzo-san. The weight in the room hadn't lifted, and he looked down at the bed, at Ienzo-san's fingers against the sheet. "Whatever you do require of me," he said, "you need only ask."

[theschemer]

Ienzo didn't consider Ulquiorra's words to be as cold as Nel might have. He had a feeling she might have admonished him for saying them, as if him being waited on now was going to somehow make the next few days, or weeks, or years easier.

So he nodded, leaning over to the side with the arm still attached to grab the glass. His mouth was dry, and his head still ached, and he wanted to drink the entire glassful, but Nel had said that he was only permitted sips, so he sipped. He sipped and then replaced the glass where it belonged. It was room temperature, so there was no ring of condensation sitting on the tray where the glass sat.

Ulquiorra looked sadder than usual. Ienzo wondered if he blamed himself. It wasn't his fault. He couldn't remember ...

... he scowled at the vague, fuzzy memory of a flash of red, the scream of something strange ...

... but he knew it wasn't his fault, that he hadn't done it. He knew Ulquiorra well enough to know he would have done anything to stop anything bad happening to him, he took his job seriously and, lately, his friendship.

He reached out for him, but stopped. The arm moved at the shoulder, the muscle following what it remembered of reaching, but it hurt, and there was no hand to complete the movement. He frowned.

[tozasemurcielago]

Ulquiorra watched Ienzo-san take the glass, take a sip, and then replace the glass. He gave a small nod of satisfaction. Ienzo-san was listening, his faculties unhindered despite the sedatives.

He saw the movement in Ienzo-san's shoulder, and the frown across his face that followed. Functioning with only one arm would be a steep and difficult learning curve. There was no avoiding that fact. It would take him many months of practice, of training, before he stopped trying to use his missing arm, and instead compensated with the rest of his movement.

That was just for his daily life. His alchemy would have to change entirely.

Ulquiorra sighed, softly. So much of Ienzo-san's life and abilities would change, would need to change.

"I wasn't sufficient to protect you," he said, not looking at Ienzo as he spoke. "I do not know if I would have been able to evacuate you if I hadn't tried to hold it back. No matter what I did, it was determined to kill you," he explained. It was too late now to wonder if he could have got Ienzo-san out of there before he was injured if he'd released immediately, grabbed Ienzo-san, and flown, but he'd never anticipated meeting something that didn't so much as flinch at a cero to the face. "Even with a second release, saving your life was all I could do. I'm sorry."

[theschemer]

He didn't look at him either, taking the explanation with a nod. Ienzo knew that it would have been something like that, Ulquiorra was never lax in his duties. He had done all he could have been expected to do, but he had still lost his arm. It wasn't his fault.

He looked up at the apology and, this time, reached out for him with the hand he still had.

He wasn't going to hold it against him, that wasn't fair. He had been the target, not Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra had saved his life. An arm was a small price to pay for survival.

[tozasemurcielago]

Ulquiorra saw the movement of Ienzo-san's arm, and expected him to reach for his glass again. Instead, the arm came towards him, and Ulquiorra's eyes widened as cool, pink fingers found his own, warmer grey ones. Something tightened uncomfortably in his chest, and Ulquiorra held his breath against it, lost in unfamiliar territory.

It hurt. His chest hurt, his throat hurt. Ulquiorra swallowed, shook his head, and took Ienzo-san's hand, pushing that feeling away and down. Whatever it was, it was unpleasant and useless. It would serve neither of them to indulge in it.

"You should rest for now, Ienzo-san," he said, after he'd regained his usual composure, "we can think of how to proceed later."

How to proceed. Where to start, when there was so much Ienzo-san would have to learn to do over again.

[theschemer]

Ienzo closed his eyes and squeezed Ulquiorra's hand. He took a deeper breath and nodded, looking up at his friend again, unable to really hide the feelings of hopelessness he couldn't seem to shake. He squeezed his hand again, for the second time, and let go.

Rest would probably help. It certainly wouldn't hurt.