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Grian gasped as the shot rang in his ears; his ears rang and rang and rang as he pressed his hand against his side where a bullet grazed it, and blood leaked through; his arm came away as red as the spider lilies behind the school, as the patch of blood on his uniform increased, his vision blurred and he stumbled towards his friends. "h-help?" Taurtis and Sam stepped back. One had an expression of terror, and the other had an expression of disgust, "please help?"
Sam grabbed hold of Taurtis's jacket sleeve, the one that didn't have the smoking gun in his hand and tugged him away from the bleeding boy. Grian fell to his knees as he watched them run away from him; Taurtis looked back at him.
Sam did not.
He pressed an arm against the wound, stemming the blood flow and staining his red sweater a deeper hue; his vision blurred, and he started to shiver; he stumbled into the alleyway and slid down against the wall.
He closed his eyes and shuddered; he wondered if this was how he'd die.
He let out a weak yell as he was jolted from the ground and picked up; Grian screamed as something pressed down into his wound, stemming the blood flow further as he tried to twist away from the arm. Somebody hushed him, soothed him with their voice as Grian relaxed into their arms.
"That's it, kid."
Grian hummed and slipped into oblivion.
Grian blinked awake. His side stung as something kept poking it and stretching the skin; he whined and was held down by a pair of hands; he struggled as he screamed at the pain in his side, stabbing and pulling at his skin over and over again.
"Knock him out again!"
"I'm almost done! Keep him still, why don't you?!"
"He's struggling, cut me some slack."
Eventually, the hands pulled away just as Grian slipped away again.
He woke up with a start and a yell as he scrambled back; pain flared in his side as he curled into a ball to protect the wound. "Jesus Christ, kid, scared the heck out of me."
"Don't touch me," Grian growled, but it came out weak and pathetic; he glared at the man as he held his hands up in the air in surrender.
"Alright, alright. You're okay." He soothed as he slowly lowered his hands down and shifted in his seat. Grian eyed him warily before casting furtive glances at the room around him.
He was in a wooden shack of a room; the walls were almost rotted as water leaked into a bucket on the floor; the bed was more of a cot as it creaked with each movement Grian made.
The man in front of him wore a suit and suspenders; his auburn hair was cut short, and his moustache was curled using wax and...oil? He wore bronze goggles atop his head, and his gloves were stained with gunpowder and blood that Grian was sure was too old to be his.
"Who are you?" Grian asked as he put his hands down from their protective position; the man ticked his lips up as he nodded his head in greeting.
"My name's Zee, SystemZee, and I just found you next to my uh shop, bleeding out..." he muttered as he worriedly checked him over slowly.
"My name's Grian..." Grian whispered after a moment of hesitation as Zee hummed.
"Nice to meet you." He smiled.
Grian relaxed further as his hands felt the bandages to his side gently and prodded enough to be just shy of painful.
"Whoever hit you got you good."
Grian blushed and looked down, "I shouldn't have got closer, but he was waving it around like a maniac, I couldn't just let him fire it and hit some random on the street." Grian winced as he pulled on the fresh stitches; he shook his head and sighed as Zee helped him lay back down.
"Who?"
"My friend." Grian looked away with a frown. "I...he...the gun accidentally went off...he ran away", he finished quietly. "What...what am I going to do?! I can't go back there...but I live with them. I don't have anywhere else to go!"
His breathing quickened as Zee stood from his seat, "Hey, hey, we can figure it out... don't worry, calm down."
"How?!" The teenager's voice was high-pitched as he looked at Zee with wild eyes. "I'm going to get hurt again!"
"Hey, listen," Zee whispered as he reached out a hand; Grian gripped the arm for support as he took stuttering breaths. "You rest up, and when you wake up, I'll... I'll teach you how to treat yourself. Stitch yourself up and...and gun safety."
Grian sniffled and swallowed. "But...I don't want to be a burden."
"It won't be a burden." Zee told him softly, "I wouldn't have offered if I thought it'd be a burden."
Grian shook his head, "But I'm really, really stupid; I think you'd be better off leaving me to fend for myself."
"I don't think you're stupid," Zee shook his head and rested a hand on his shoulder, "I think you'd be a good student."
Grian looked away with a blush before he was overtaken by a yawn; Zee tucked him into the cot and bid him goodnight as Grian slept.
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Grian started to grow up under Zee's tutelage and got into his business with an energy that made Zee smile; he learned quickly; with a steady hand, Zee taught the boy how to stitch and thread the needle through the skin and pulled it tight to help the wound heal, he taught the boy how to sterilise the needle and thread and how to make his own.
It was a cruel world, and he wanted to make sure Grian knew how to traverse it. He just hadn't expected Grian to use it so soon.
Grian threw the door to his shop open as he pulled his bleeding leg through it; Zee quickly got up and scooped him into his arms, telling himself that it was part of the course as Grian reached for the medkit to bring it with them, he sighed as he flipped it open, looking away from Zee as his hands shook from the pain.
"Here, let me—"
"I want to do it myself; you won't be around me forever to get me out of my messes," Grian whispered as the minute shake of his hand turned into tremours.
Zee swallowed his protests as he ducked his head down and moved to sit behind him. "Hey... it's alright." Zee's calm voice stopped his shaking as Grian breathed in a deep breath; he carefully threaded the needle and started stitching himself up, stitch, stitch, stitch, over and over again as the skin slowly came together.
He finished with a tug and a cut; breathing out a sigh of relief, he fell back against Zee's chest and looked at him. "Good job." Zee smiled and patted his shoulder. Grian felt warmth build in his chest as he smiled; Zee carried him into the guest room and placed him on the bed. "Goodnight, kid."
"But I have to get back—"
"I'll drive you to school in the morning, don't worry."
"I... okay..."
Zee smiled and turned the lights off before he left.
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It's been years since then; Grian's hand only became steadier and steadier as he grew up and moved away from Zee and high school; he often called, checking up on him whenever he had the time and sneaking away from hermitcraft to go to a cafe with him to catch up face to face.
He missed his life with Zee, but he could admit just as easily that the Hermits were an amazing family to him.
Grian sighed as he sat back in the bed of the hotel room. They were staying in the HUB while Xisuma got the new world ready for them to explore and build to their heart's content. He usually roomed with Mumbo or Scar, but now he decided to switch it up and roomed with Doc and Iskall.
He's regretting it now; they talked Redstone jargon as they unloaded their packs and traded insights about the mechanics in their eyes. Grian was far more interested in the latter as his father had a clockwork heart that ticks in time with his heartbeat, but he'd understand if that was too rudimentary for Doc and Iskall.
"I'm just saying having thermal imaging is better than having an x-ray in your eye," Iskall argued as Doc scoffed.
Grian fiddled with his goggles as he looked through them; there was a ticking to them that was designed to tick at the same pace as Zee's heart; he closed his eyes to listen to the ticking and the argument that was slowly increasing in volume.
"Grian, what do you think?"
"hm?" Grian hummed and turned his head to the two older men.
"Which is better? Thermal vision or X-ray vision?" Iskall asked again as Doc stewed by the wall.
Grian pondered a bit, biting his lip as he looked between them, "Uhh, I don't know, for what exactly?" Grian asked as he was distracted by a fraying stitch on his goggles.
Iskall huffed in amusement as Doc answered, "For our bionic eyes."
Grian got up and took out a mini suture kit he kept under his bed to start fixing the stitch with a stronger thread; he hummed soon after, "Isn't there a lot of good qualities for each? Thermal vision is good for detecting heat signatures and all, but that's only if there's enough of a difference in heat to detect, and X-ray's good for looking through objects and stuff, but to an extent before you mistake bones for copper."
Grian smiled as he finished stitching his goggles up, "If you want my opinion, though, I would suggest going for night vision, but I don't want Xisuma getting mad at me for taking away one of the excuses he has for getting you to go to bed."
Grian set his goggles back on his head and looked into a mirror. His brows furrowed when he noticed the odd silence coming from Doc and the slight laughter he heard from Iskall. He blushed when he realised what Grian had ranted about.
"How do you know all that?" Doc asked, bafflement in his eyes as Iskall kept snickering.
"I mean, here and there," Grian looked around the room before he set his eyes on his goggles, "I had to learn how to work these out, yeah?"
Doc shook himself out of his reverie as he and Iskall stepped closer to look at his goggles; it was the first time he handed them out so willingly as he watched their gentle hands trace over the wiring hidden behind the seam of his stitching, the avian couldn't help but think how glad Grian was that he'd been shot that day.