Cigarette Burns and Humiliation

Brienne and Daniel had gotten Eli this far. St. Mungo's was real busy tonight, especially the emergency room. Shoot.

Daniel went up to the counter, taking Eli with him. Brienne surveyed the emergency room and the injuries. They were surprisingly minor. They'd get waited on in no time, it seemed.

The admittance station had no line, and the nurse there didn't seem busy. She was scribbling some notes on a form. She looked up and saw the trio waiting.

"Can I help you?"

Brienne took over the situation. "Yes, yes you can, actually. My friend has a burn, and it won't heal with a regular Episkey. It was caused by a cigarette."

"Name of your friend"

"Krum, Elijah Krum"

She asked other random questions, which she couldn't answer. Instead, Elijah had to answer these questions. Daniel massaged the boy's shoulders to keep him from tensing up too much.

The admittance nurse did up the form, and put a bracelet on Elijah which confirmed he was in cue. Now it was time for the waiting. Brienne picked some comfy-looking seats in the triage area of the Emergency Room and waited for Elijah to be called in.

(Got Eli's permission here too)

This wasn’t fair. He hated hospitals at the best of times but for goodness sake. Did no one have anywhere to be at the middle of the night? He was a sodding Krum! If he spread his name about surely he’d get some kind of treatment faster. Eli was stressed. The burn hadn’t bled. It hadn’t bled even after the onslaught Brienne had given it. That wasn’t good, Eli figured but he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do about it. Robert would fix it. He had to. But then again it was only his left hand. It wasn’t as if he had much use for it but he needed his fingers. Elijah just wanted to go to sleep somewhere or on someone. He didn’t care. Too much thinking, over analysing of things and mental stress always wore him out physically. He didn’t know what it was but his body couldn’t handle it.

He sighed sadly and followed Daniel up to the desk. Someone bumped his shoulder on the way there and he glared at the careless person. He hated it when he felt helpless. He didn’t like it at all. He needed to be in control of himself otherwise anything could happen to him. The wayward artist was brought back to planet earth when he heard his name and he looked at Daniel then to the dopey nurse behind the desk. Oh didn’t she look familiar. “How are you, Sadie?” he asked weakly. The nurse glared at him and he bit his tongue from saying anything else. Sadie never liked him but he wasn’t going to go into that. Suddenly the woman became all business and Eli felt Daniel’s hands began to work his shoulders as question after question was thrown at him but it was one that really drew him up short.

“I don’t think the state of my daughter’s health is your business you stupid cow.” He growled out, his frustration reaching its peak. “And don’t you dare start lecturing me about your own daughter. She came to me; it wasn’t the other way around. You always seem to forget that.” He said the last part snidely and Sadie huffed, clearly taken aback by the Bulgarian’s sharpness. She then proceeded to slap around a bit, firing more questions at him that he answered without another problem. When she’d locked the bracelet around his wrist he felt relieved. At least this meant that eventually he’d get seen to. Elijah just hoped Jen would come and speed up the process. Irate mercenaries with guns always did speed up slow processes.

Elijah walked over to the seats that Brienne had picked out and all but fell into his one. He tipped his head back and rested it against the spine of the chair. “What is it with women following me everywhere? I can’t even be hurt without having some bloody psycho involved. She wants my sodding balls mounted above her fireplace.” He muttered the last part mostly to himself but it was free to be taken up. However, he didn’t really want to discuss that despite bringing it up himself.

(I've decided to do word colors ONLY in the really major threads, like the dance itself)

Brienne shrugged.

"So, Eli...uh" she was really bad at small talk. Really bad.

"Spit it out, Brienne, we all know you like him. Don't try and small talk".

"Wha?"

"You know what I mean."

"Shut up, Daniel. When we get home, your head will join the heads of the animals and trespassers above the fireplace, got it?"

"You won't make good on that threat. You love me too much".

"I said shut up! Or I'll use you for gun and bow practice. I'm getting a little rusty from the lack of hunting I've been doing. Now, are you willing to still push me until I make good on that threat?"

"No, ma'am".

Brienne then turned her attention to Eli, "Don't mind him, he's an ass towards me when he gets into stressful moods. A couple of threats always straightens that out in a real hurry."

Several more people had been called into the different rooms. Only a few more people left and Eli would be called in. This would certainly be a fun wait for both Brienne and Daniel, maybe not Eli though. Brienne steered the conversation in a different direction.

"Well, anyway, I was going to ask how your finger was feeling now".

Elijah groaned quietly to himself. The last thing he truly needed was for them to bicker and talk about fireplaces because the threat of Sadie castrating him and putting the crown jewels above her fireplace was what freaked him out about the whole mounting things on walls. Elijah just chose not to listen to them. Instead he let his mind drift into Nachash’s. He’d left the snake at home to look after Fauve. From what he could find the girl hadn’t been any trouble but she hadn’t been happy about Eli not being there to tuck her in. That he did feel guilty about but he’d make it up to her somehow. Of course, when he asks what he could do and she’d want him to paint her. Five-hundred times he’d told her no and yet she still pressed for it.

“Bloody brilliant,” He said stonily. “It’s one thing burning the skin off of your hand but another is finding that the hospital you go to is filled with people that would love to see you six feet under.” He opened his eyes and tipped his head forward, meeting Brienne’s gaze. “People, you ask? When there was only one. One is all it takes.” He tipped his head back onto the chair and sighed. “Bloody Sadie and her sodding sister...honestly,” He looked sideways at Daniel and smirked. “To be gay must be a very, very nice relief.” He joked.

Eli held his hand in front of his face and pulled the ice bag off. He ignored the cubes that tumbled onto his lap and he looked at the skin. He was grim. How he hadn’t noticed was beyond him. It stretched most of the way up the insides of the two fingers. The further up you got the more sensitive the skin was so how come he didn’t feel it? “Well mate, I either already had nerve damage in those fingers or your hands are brilliant.” He chuckled, dropping his hand down and letting it rest on his thigh.

"Well, not really a relief. Men can be just as bad. Stan's ex wanted to rape me, castrate me and make sure I never saw the light of day ever again. He hated me just because he was a jerkoff that couldn't keep his busy hands away from Stanley when he didn't want it. I know what it's like when someone wants to harm you" Daniel said. He felt tired.

Brienne slumped over the chair, "We'll be called in very soon. A couple people just left the rooms, and more got admitted in the rooms." She glanced over at Sadie, then back at Eli. This guy seemed to make others angry easily.

"What I wouldn't give for a peaceful night with a great guy. Maybe more than that. It seems though that whatever nights with men that I have are with Daniel, and they are anything but peaceful." Brienne could literally hear the ticking of the clock and other sounds that happened to break the eerie silence that would otherwise taken over if the room wasn't so crowded.

All he wanted to do was sleep now or work out how to irritate someone else. It would be just his like that Ella would pick him up and give him a load of verbal bashing like her sister did. He didn’t know exactly what he’d done wrong to those stupid women; he’d merely help out a friend in need...sort of. She’d had a rebellious stage, that wasn’t his fault and neither was everything else. One woman he didn’t mind seeing was Hannah. He had no connections to her per se but she worked under Robert so if he could convince her that it was an excellent idea to let him in then he could make it home in time to avoid his father. Either that or home in time to retrieve Fauve and have enough hours to find somewhere else to crash for the night. Paris would take too long so he was voting Julia.

“Don’t you just love possessiveness and jealousy? It makes everything much more fun unless you’re on the receiving end of both. Unless of course they’d rather inflict bodily harm. I don’t know why they always want to castrate me of all people,” Elijah yawned. “If any of them had even half a brain they’d take the hands.” He shrugged and idly wondered how this would affect everything he did. Piano, although he was spectacularly crap, would be affected no doubt as would other musical instruments. But then there was his art...that he couldn’t really say what would go wrong.

Elijah lifted his head up and watched. He couldn’t see Robert and he couldn’t see Khaat but he could see Hannah and that was what interested him the most. The Bulgarian quickly got out of his seat and sped over to where the nurse was standing by one of the pillars. Elijah pulled her by the waist and leaned himself up against the pillar, pulling her to him. “Hello sweetheart,” He purred, leaning down to place a few kisses across her neck. “Do you want to tell me where you boss is?” It was at that point Hannah pulled away from him, span around and threw a well placed hand at his cheek. It was only after that she realised who it was. “Oh Jesus Christ, Krum! Why did you scare me like that? Oh god I’m sorry...look I’ll go and get you some paper for the wait, eh? Oh Merlin..”

The odd thing was that Elijah wasn’t nearly as insulted as he should have been and bemusedly waved after the busy-body nurse. He chuckled to himself and played idly with his jaw for a few moments before she returned with a large sketch pad and some pencils in her hand. “Are you sure you’re alright? I really didn’t - to be fair it was your own fault and I-” Eli held up a hand to stop her from babbling and took the things from her. He pressed a kiss to her cheek and whispered, “Just please get Robert as soon as possible. If I can’t move my fingers because this is taking so damn long then I don’t care who it is that runs this hospital, friends or not, I’m suing.” Hannah glared at him and stalked off almost immediately after he finished.

Elijah returned to the chairs and slumped back into his. He threw one leg over the other and rested the pad on his thigh. He picked out one of the pencils and idly began to sketch. What he was sketching he had yet to decide but it would appear soon. With a sigh he threw his head back onto the back of the chair and continued to draw. “I forgot how immensely I dislike hospitals.”

Brienne stared over at the sketching Eli was doing. She was an artist, herself, though not as talented. She sorta wondered sometimes if she was an artist at all. She decided to try massage, as she was bored out of her skull. Daniel was able to work with his hands, she had some talent in writing and drawing which meant she must have had some ability with her hands as well. She started at the neck area.

Daniel looked over, "Brienne, you're doing it wrong" he giggled. "Move your fingers like so", he demonstrated by massaging his own thigh. Brienne mimicked the movements, moving down slowly until she reached the man's shoulders.

Hannah’s intentions had been honourable. Apparently she knew the artist along with everyone else; better than himself it seemed as well. He knew he got antsy and frustrated when he was bored but he didn’t think the nurse knew unless Sadie had been making snide remarks as per usual. It was odd but Eli felt slightly comforted even if he was still het up. The artist opened his eyes and tipped his head forward so he could watch what he was doing. He inspected what he’d done and looked up, looking for whatever he’d been sketching. His eyebrows knitted together in confusion and he dropped his eyes to the page. No, there was nothing over there. With a small sigh, Elijah traced his pencil over some of the lines and over the curve of the eyes he’d unconsciously been drawing.

The Bulgarian glanced up to see Brienne hovering above him and he raised an eyebrow questioningly at her. But the silent question was answered swiftly when he felt her fingers began to work his neck. A small smile tugged at the sides of his lips and he returned to the sketch. Elijah usually took a backseat in most of his drawings and just let his mind and hands do whatever they wanted to do. In this case it was a portrait of someone but the features weren’t defined enough for him to tell who. When he figured out whom it was he could do some of the work. From experience, even his mind needed an artist’s touch when it was trying to draw.

Elijah looked over at Daniel and gave the other man a slight smile. Brienne didn’t exactly have the same touch but a massage was a massage and he wasn’t going to complain about it because it was unwinding him. “Not that I mind the massages,” He smirked. “But do you two know something about me I don’t?”

"Well, Brienne has always admired you and so have I", Daniel said, grinning sheepishly. Brienne scowled, he wasn't going to rest until she was humiliated. In front of her crush. In the middle of the Emergency Room at St. Mungo's, where a breakdown might upset other patients.

Brienne continued working the man's neck and shoulders. She enjoyed it as much as he probably did. Suddenly, impure thoughts flooded her brain, she put a damper on them when she thought of something funny and allowed herself to laugh. What did she think of, exactly? The time when she was playing Assassin's Creed with Luna, and how much they both cussed out Altair when he didn't want to co-operate.

Elijah couldn’t help himself. These people were insane. He snorted a little too loudly and continued to draw. “Don’t admire me. Admire a Quidditch star or something. I don’t lead people down paths they can necessarily get themselves off of.” Any normal Muggle would have said drugs or at least thought it and a wizard would have said potions no doubt. Elijah did neither, that was Rob, but it wouldn’t have been too farfetched. The only time he ever supported potion use, illegal or not, would be when one of the models had a non-desirable artist that had picked her for some paintings. Camille kept a stash in her apartment as far as he knew.

Any normal day Elijah probably would have taken the admiration and ran with it. But now he was tired, hungry and really just wanted to be seen to. The Slytherin sighed and looked up, desperately seeking out a familiar face. What he would have given to see Jen by the doors...well, he didn’t know what he would have given but it was a hell of a lot. But she wasn’t by the doors. Eli’s heart leapt when he spotted the dark haired woman by the desk and a grin spread across his face. “God I love connections...” He mumbled, allowing himself to enjoy the massage.