[tw: bodily injury]

Gnawing viciously at the binding still on his wrists, Lee nearly lost his balance as Donovan grabbed him by his shoulders.

"You idiot, what are you going to do to them in this state?" A single curl of hair had fallen from Donovan’s prim hairline, his forehead slick with sweat from running after their trail and the following fight. Nevertheless, Lee didn't notice as at last he scrabbled a thumb free and then the rest.

Putting up his hands in triumph, skin scratched and raw, he tried to run after them again, "Tada! I have hands now. Let's go before they get away!"

“You’re bleeding!”

“Obviously!” Lee exclaimed, but let out a hiss of pain as Donovan pulled him by the remaining cuff of rope around his wrist.

“You’re bleeding- stop it!” Donovan’s voice carried a strange inflection as he gripped Lee’s arm to still him, finally garnishing the man’s attention. Quelling his adrenaline, Leilani felt the inkling of searing pain across his stomach as it leached into his nerves.

“Oh, I’m bleeding… oh gods, I’m bleeding.”

Donovan scoffed at his late reaction, assessing the bloom of red on Lee’s clothes with an unusually upturned brow. With hesitation, he hovered above the ragged fringe of the torn cloth.

“May I?”

Lee didn’t respond immediately, his face pale as a cold sweat turned his nape and palms clammy. Uncertainty wracked his voice, “Ah, um. Yes?” His nerves overcoming any possible curiosity, he turned away as Donovan peeled the sticky, crimson fabric from the wound. As fresh air swept in to burn the opened skin, Lee bit his lip to contain a noise of displeasure.

Donovan grimaced as he could see the blood still oozing from the wound, though it wasn’t as deep as he had feared. Raking from a lower rib in an arch over Leilani’s belly button, Seigle’s dagger had only just snagged the surface flesh of his opponent. Life threatening or not, however, the bleeding had to be stopped.

“I need something to close it.”

“Didn’t you think to bring your poultice and bandages?” Lee jeered, but as a shock of pain rippled with his chuckle, he sucked in a breath,”My shirt is done for anyways, couldn’t you use it?”

“It’s not particularly clean?”

Climbing trees and tumbling in the dirt hadn’t been kind to Leilani’s clothes, but he shook his head anyways,”Better than nothing, let’s just make this quick if you don’t mind.”

Donovan opened his mouth to protest, but in seeing Lee’s ragged expression, he sighed, “Okay.”

Opting to start from where the cloth had already torn, he ripped the gap wider until it released at the hem, leaving him with a wide, awkward piece of cloth. Folding it over itself, it was just enough to cover the wound, but the problem remained of how it would stay there on the long journey back to the inn. Sensing a pause, Lee glanced at Don while still managing to not look at his own injury.

“Is it not enough? Should I take the whole thing off?”

A strange expression flickered on Donovan’s face, but he quickly dismissed it,”No, that shouldn’t be necessary.” To Leilani’s surprise, he reached for his own belt, instead.

It was a delicate thing, decorated in as much filigree as his dagger, with silver fastening and caps on the ends of the leather. Donovan circled it around Lee’s waist quietly, only speaking up to request he hold the cloth in place. As gentle as he was as he tightened the belt in place, it was the final straw for Lee to allow a small whimper to escape, the sharp pain he had grown accustomed to roaring into a dull ache.

Donovan lifted his hands up, “Is it too tight? Should I loosen it a notch?”

“N-no, no, it’s fine. Just hurts.” Lee slowed his breathing as he adjusted to the sensation, noting to himself the belt rested two inches smaller than where Don wore it.