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The fight was going well, Raven would say. The new X-Men, though young, were holding their own against the formless skin-toned blobs that were still somehow able to hold swords. Big, slashy, pirate swords. Swords that hurt, she’d found out. Luckily she’d only gotten scratched a few times with thin, surface-level cuts, and she’d returned every blow twofold. Oddly enough, they bled red, which made Raven increasingly weirded out, but she killed them anyway. They were attacking innocent people, with no apparent agenda. They had to be stopped.
Hank wasn’t as fortunate as Raven when it came to getting hit. He was practically covered in blood to such an alarming degree that Raven had to pull him aside.
“Hank, are you okay? You’re bleeding all over?” she said worriedly, fingers parsing through the fur on his forearms where a lot of the blood was concentrated. He shook her off.
“I’m fine,” he responded, but it became more of a growl. Raven couldn’t tell if that was because he was in his beast form or because of exertion.
“Are you sure? Because I think the others can handle it from here--”
“I’ve got it, Raven, I can keep going. It’s not my blood, I promise,” he assured her.
Hank was a ferocious fighter when he was the Beast, but Raven was skeptical. It was a lot of blood…but she looked into his eyes and couldn’t see a lie there.
“Okay.” She brought a hand up to rest on his shoulder. “Be safe out there.”
And they returned to the fray.
Raven was too focused on fighting to look for Hank in the middle of it. It was only after all of the blobs were taken care of that she tried to locate him. Her eyes scanned over the younger kids: Scott was being helped to his feet by Jean, rubbing his eyes, Kurt examined his tail, Ororo touched back down, and Peter shook some blood off of his jacket. Hank was nowhere to be seen. Except--there! A spot of blue on the other side of an overturned car.
“Hank?” she called, and when he didn’t move, she lithely stepped her way through the rubble over to him.
He was lying on the ground, blinking languidly. She took that as a good sign; at least he was conscious.
“Hank, what happened? Where are you hurt?” she asked, already combing through his fur trying to find the worst of it. If it was possible, he was coated in more blood, some of it already matting. What she hadn’t found in her short sweep earlier was clearly evident to her now: Hank had some serious gashes across his chest and arms that were still bleeding steadily.
“In my defense,” he muttered when she glared at him. “I genuinely didn’t think I’d gotten hit.”
“Come on you big dummy, we’re getting you back on the jet.”
She hooked one arm beneath him and lifted him upward, getting an alarming yelp. Together, they hobbled toward the jet, the younger ones falling in line behind them.
Once there, Raven laid him down on the medical cot they had bolted to a wall and examined him more closely. It appeared he wasn’t going to bleed out in the next few minutes, so she quickly retreated to the cockpit to get the jet fired up. She needed to teach some of the kids how to fly the thing. Jean definitely. Scott maybe. Peter, most certainly not. Then she set it on autopilot and returned to Hank’s side.
The kids were smart and had taken the initiative to run some wet clothes across his skin, removing a great deal of blood. Raven could see what she was working with.
“You idiot, what do you mean you didn’t think you’d gotten injured?” she sighed and pulled a needle and suture thread.
“Disinfect the area first.”
She glared at him and pulled the alcohol out from under the cot.
“I was getting to that.”
“Sorry.”
“Just shut up and let me work.”
“Aye aye.”
She wasn’t as good of a doctor as Hank, but she’d gotten enough experience over the years patching up her and others’ wounds that she was pretty good at it. She ran a cotton swab with alcohol on it over the first and most alarming of his wounds, not caring when he winced. Suited him right for scaring her like that. She carefully threaded the needle and wasted no time in plunging it into the torn skin, working quickly to bring the two edges of the wound together. Beneath her hands, Hank grunted in pain. Again, served him right.
By the time they were halfway back to the mansion, she had finished all the big ticket items and had moved on to bandaging and treating the smaller cuts. Hank was able to sit up to let her get at the one on his back with the help of some pain meds, and the two of them sat on the cot while she worked.
“I can get yours when you’re done,” Hank murmured after she spread another white bandage across a gash on his shoulder. All she could see was the back of his neck and some of the fur that always seemed to spontaneously grow on his chin whenever he changed forms. It just disappeared when he took his shots and transformed back into a human. Raven had always found it intriguing.
“There’s not a lot for you to do there, plus, I can get most of them myself.”
“You’re doing all this for me; it just feels right that I return the favor.”
“Hank, you really don’t--”
“Raven.”
She paused. Something in his voice had changed, and made her more inclined to say--
“Fine then.”
So when she had placed the last bandage on his arm, Hank turned around so they were facing each other.
“Thank you Raven,” he said softly. “I admit that I am an idiot.”
“Thank you for admitting you’re an idiot,” she replied, the hint of a smile on her lips.
Hank nodded and rummaged through the supplies between them so he could work on her own injuries. She’d watched him do it so many times, but every time she felt caught off guard by the gentle focus with which he set about it; the way a slight crease formed in between his eyebrows. Absentmindedly, she reached a finger up and smoothed it out.
He met her gaze inquisitively. Looking around the jet, all the others seemed to be preoccupied with their own selves, so she impulsively darted up to press a kiss to his cheek.
“That’s for not getting too hurt,” she whispered, and let a playful smile cross her face. She also loved the way Hank’s mouth fell open lopsidedly whenever he was taken by surprise. “There’s more where that came from once you’re a little better.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“When do you think that’ll be, doctor?” he asked. Even with their flirting, he was still gently rubbing away blood and sweat to patch her up.
“You’ll know,” she said playfully.
“I look forward to it.” He too cast a glance around the plane’s cabin before leaning forward slightly to kiss her jaw. “There’s more where that came from once you’re a little better.”
“Careful doctor, there are children in the room,” she muttered.
“Well I am an idiot after all,” he whispered with a cocky grin.