"You're staring...do you want the water or something?" Hani lifted himself up as if to get out. Levi was jerked back to reality, strangely disappointed to notice that the younger man was still wearing underpants.

"No," Levi shook his head quickly and guiltily, "you carry on, I'm perfectly comfortable over here with Ethel."

"Alright," Hani nodded brightly before grinning again, "but are you sure your camel's not dead yet?"

"Fuck off kid," Levi snorted, closing his eyes to prevent himself from noticeably staring anymore and reclining his neck fully back along Ethel's short, coarse hair. He knew that they should probably get moving again soon, but it couldn't hurt to let Hani splash around in the pool a little bit more.

"OW!"

Maybe not then

Levi cracked open his eyes, half expecting Hani to have tripped up on a rock climbing out of the water or something. However the younger man appeared to be nowhere visible, causing Levi to jump up with a panicked expression.

"Hani?" Levi called out. "Hani, where the hell are you?"

"Here," came back a weak reply. Levi jogged forwards to round a large boulder on the far side of the oasis. Hani was slumped by its side holding up a still struggling scorpion between his left thumb and forefinger, he was grimacing in disgust.

"Fucker was swimming in the pool with me," Hani sighed, flicking the scorpion away towards the bushes.

"Hani!" Levi shouted, sprinting forwards to stamp on the scorpion with his boot.

"Hey!" Hani protested indignantly. "You didn't need to kill it - that'll anger the sand gods."

"Don't tell me you believe in that desert nonsense?" Levi huffed, wrinkling his nose as he crouched down to inspect the now flattened scorpion. It was clearly a young one of its kind, only about three inches long. Levi had seen this particular species grow up to eight inches.

"You believe in cloud lore," Hani sniffed.

"You know you're lucky this thing didn't sting you," Levi mused, rubbing his hand thoughtfully across his chin. "It's a Sabe scorpion, you can tell from these triple red dots. What the hell were you thinking letting it loose back in the camp? It could have crawled into one of our packs."

"Um Levi..."

"They like small dark spaces these fuckers, particularly venomous-"

"Levi!" Hani interrupted, causing the older man to turn round with a frown to where Hani was suddenly looking very pale, staring back at Levi with wide dark eyes.

"It - it did sting me. That's how I found it," Hani stammered.

"Shit," Levi hissed, quickly rising to his feet and hurrying back to Hani, pushing the younger man's hands away from where they were rubbing something red and pussing on his leg.

"Did you not think to mention this immediately?" Levi exclaimed irritably, his scars already starting to burn and itch at having allowed Hani to get hurt - potentially fatally.

"I've been stung by scorpions before!" Hani protested, but there was no heat to his voice, just a slight waver of panic.

"Let me guess," Levi growled, "Muna dealt with it."

"No," Hani snapped, "I did. I've just never been stung by a freaking Sabe scorpion before okay? I hadn't even heard of....what are you doing?" Hani croaked.

He suddenly sounded very hoarse as Levi continued his task of locking his lips around the swollen puncture mark on Hani's calf. Levi gripped either side of the younger man's leg tightly so as to squeeze as much of the venom as possible towards his sucking mouth before he turned, spat and then repeated the process.

"Ow - shit that hurts!" Hani yelped, trying to drag his leg back vainly as Levi's grip on his still damp skin only tightened. Levi could taste the venom on his tongue as he drew it out of Hani's body. It tasted like almonds that had gone sour and the last thing he wanted to do was get any down his throat so he turned to spit again.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Hani groaned, leaning his head back against the rock and limply allowing Levi to continue sucking his leg.

Levi frowned, he knew Hani wasn’t referring to Levi's table manners right now and if Hani was already experiencing nausea then Levi needed to work fast before more venom could get into the bloodstream.

Levi started to squeeze and massage Hani's leg, forcing the blood to pump cleanly faster, drawing the soiled parts up to his lips. Eventually, Levi realised he had done as much as he could and he drew back.

The skin around Hani's right calf looked terrible, there were teeth marks and a myriad of bruised and broken blood vessels from the intensity of Levi's sucking. But Levi knew at least none of the veins seemed visibly darkened from venom - a tell tale sign of Sabe poisoning.

"So, doctor," Hani croaked, although he still managed to sound sarcastic, "what's the prognosis?"

"You'll live, kitten," Levi huffed. He moved down to the edge of the water and attempted to gargle the almond taste out of his mouth.

"Then so will you I guess," Hani said softly behind him, making Levi tense momentarily.

"Yes, well just be a bit more fucking careful next time okay?" Levi felt tired and irritable already now and the day had only barely started.

"I couldn't see the scorpion underwater could I?" Hani shouted back angrily as Levi turned around to see the younger man hobbling to his feet, leaning against the rock.

"We should have been on the move hours ago," Levi replied woodenly, starting to walk back to where his things are spread out around Ethel.

"You were asleep!" Hani yelled after him. "I was the one who got up early! Fine, next time I'll just fucking wake you up."

"You do that," Levi retorted grouchily, not even really sure why he was so angry. Perhaps some of the venom had gotten into his own body and was playing with his head? He started to repack his belongings and attach them to the camels, doing his best to ignore Hani's muttering from the other side of the pool. Most of it seemed to consist of insulting Levi at any rate.