A Second Chance

He wanted to growl and snarl like a dog, and almost did that, though thankfully Firefly remembered he wasn't an animal, and so just uttered a few choice curse words under his breath. "You're not my partner." He muttered as he stalked into the room, standing by the bed without looking at Mist. He did this deliberately of course, unwilling to admit to actually being civil for once.

Wordlessly, Firefly unzipped the kit, producing an antiseptic cream, along with a handful of cooling bandages. He had learnt the hardway that even he could be damaged by his own power if he wasn't careful, and so he kept these in the house, just in case. Firefly was not too pleased about having to rub in the cream, but did so gingerly, swiping great swathes of the cream over the burns on Mist's torso.
 
Mist kept extremely still as Firefly touched him. Even though the man was just rubbing cream on Mist's burns, Mist was still uncomfortable with the contact. And that was putting it mildly. Pain aside, Mist had plenty of other reasons to want to slap away Firefly's hand. He managed not to do so by holding tightly onto the sheets of the bed, his knuckles turning white from how tightly he had his fists clenched. His heart was racing, his breathing was uneven, and he was even trembling slightly.
 
Firefly did notice the rather strong reaction to his touch, and frowned a little. He carried on with the treatment though, and didn't look at Mist until he had everything in place. "Y'know, I get that burns hurt, but it's not that bad." He muttered, shaking his head and shooting Mistt a slightly reproachful frown. "Relax, seriously." He didn't have a clue why Mist had reacted so badly. He wasn't very good at making these quite obvious connections, and it was difficult to say whether or not he would care if he did. There was alot that Firefly didn't care about, but then again, if these changes carried on, he might learn to show some compassion.
 
Mist was more or less fine up until Firefly told him to relax. Something inside Mist seemed to snap at that, and he couldn't stop himself from slapping Firefly's hand away with a gasp of, "Don't touch me!"

He realized what he did a moment later, though he was still very much a shaking wreck. Worse than he'd been a few moments ago. "S-Sorry..." he stammered, unable to look at Firefly. "Just forget I did anything... Please..."
 
Taken aback by the sudden motion, as well as by Mist actually daring to touch him, Firefly furrowed his brow. He almost delivered a swift blow to the prone other, but thankfully thought better of it before he actually connected the punch. "What the hell is wrong with you? I'm tying to fucking help you!" He snapped, though his expression quickly became quite broody. He was unsure of himself as it was, without Mist challenging what he did - if only because he was frightened of what might happen.
 
"I'm sorry!" Mist shot back, still shaking. "I can't exactly help it..." He was quite plainly distressed by something, even though he was fighting to keep calm. Or, at least, calmer than he would otherwise be. "Just pay attention to the burn, okay? Don't pay any mind to what I'm doing..." As if Firefly would actually listen. Mist was trying to keep something from becoming more obvious than it already was, and he was failing miserably. All Firefly had to do was think back to the things the inmates and guard had said at the prison and he'd be able to piece together rather quickly just why Mist was having this very bad reaction to having his skin touched.
 
It was slowly beginning to sink in, even if it was a little bit late. Firefly didn't like to think about other peoples' feelings, but the terror that Mist was feeling was so obvious that it was impossible to ignore completely. As he did his best to soothe the burns, doing what he could to ensure they stayed free of infection, which had to be the number one priority, he slowly began to realise why Mist felt as he did. "You poor sod." Firefly eventually muttered, pausing as he did so. He glanced at Mist, for once noticing what someone else felt, as well as knowing why that was. He of course avoided actually saying anything, for the simple reason that he waas embarrassed about it. It was harly a subject for polite conversation.
 
"Don't," Mist said shortly in reply. "Just don't." He hated the way Firefly was looking at him. The realization that he could see in those eyes was like a physical blow to Mist, and he had to look away. It was a topic Mist didn't want to discuss. Ever. He just wanted to forget it happened and move on. Which was much easier said than done. He'd probably be affected by this for the rest of his life, in one way or another.
 
It was difficult to know what to do, or what to say. Firefly was probably the worst person to have been shoved into this situation, though for the time being he was doing some soul searching of his own, which at least ensured he wasn't being a brute that just simply pummelled Mist's emotions. "I don't want to know." He muttered gruffly, distancing himself as much as possible. He was no councillor, and he never would be. Despite this, a small part of him did feel some level of sympathy for the criminal. He was human, and not a complete psychopath afterall.
 
"Good," Mist returned. "Because I am not going to talk about it." To anyone. Even if Firefly actually took Mist to talk with a psychiatrist, Mist wouldn't talk. It was bad enough to live through all of it. He didn't want to relive it. Besides, he highly, highly doubted anyone could make this any better for him.

He looked down at his burn before asking, "Are you done with this yet?" He didn't think he could make himself tolerate anymore touching. It was scaring him enough as it was.
 
"Glad we're on the same page." Firefly muttered, putting the last of the bandages in place. They would keep out infection, and of course help keep the core temperature of this reluctant patient at a normal level. "Finished. So you can stop complaining." He said curtly, standing up quickly, quickly enough to feel a little dizzy for a second. This day just got better and better.

"Look, if you're not going to go batshit crazy, call me if you need something." It wasn't the most sensitive offer, but it was a far better scenario than could have been expected.
 
"I won't," Mist said with a frown. He wasn't going to call Firefly for anything. At least, he didn't intend to. What he intended to do was sleep. He felt exhausted, and he needed his rest now.

He didn't even wait for Firefly to leave before closing his eyes, a clear sign of his exhaustion. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep, which was unusual for him. Usually it took a while, if it happened at all. This time, though, he was out almost as soon as he'd closed his eyes.
 
After everything that had happened, Firefly too felt quite tired. He was nowhere near as exhausted as Mist was, but he was still feeling the toll of the day quite well. Due to this, he headed into the bathroom, where he showered for nearly half an hour. He was a man that usually took a grand total of ten minutes from getting out of bed, into the shower and out of the door. Once his skin was sufficiently pruned, Firefly headed to bed himself, falling asleep at almost the second his head hit the pillow. It just remained to be seen how he would be feeling in the morning.
 
Firefly would probably not be in the best of moods when he awoke. Mostly because Mist didn't have an easy night. He rested peacefully for about an hour before he started to have seriously bad nightmares. And he didn't keep them to himself. He started off quietly enough, tossing about on the bed and giving the occasional whimper or groan. That soon escalated into screaming in his sleep, which would make it very, very hard for Firefly to keep sleeping.
 
For a long time, Firefly tried and failed to block out the sounds of Mist screaming and wailing in his sleep. It wasn't too much fun at all, and eventually he reverted back to his usual self. Anger incarnate. In the darkness, the man went to his sock drawer, trudged down the hallway to the room in which Mist was saying, and unceremoniously deposited a pair of socks in his mouth. "Shut the fuck up." He said plainly, assuming that the sudden intrusion would have woken him up. The only change in him was the fact that he didn't immediately retreat again, he actually bothered to ask, "What the hell is wrong?" He'd never heard anyone scream like that, man or woman.
 
Mist woke up as soon as something unfamiliar and unpleasant was shoved in his mouth. Of course, this had resulted in him waking up in a state of terror. He quickly removed the socks from his mouth--ew--before throwing them across the room. He seemed even more panicked than he had earlier with the burn cream, his fear fed by the nightmare and the attempt at gagging him.

"Fucking hell..." he keened, ignoring Firefly completely as he buried his face in his hands. He'd had nightmares in prison, and he'd hoped they'd go away now that he wasn't in that place anymore.
 
"Shut up. I've got lots of socks, you know." He knew that it was kind of difficult to control ones nightmares, but he was tired, and even more cranky than usual. He just wanted to get a good nights sleep. Really, that wasn't so much to ask, although continuously gagging someone with (thankfully clean) socks was perhaps a little bit drastic.

Now that the ground rules had been laid down, Firefly stalked back to his own room, laying himself down on his bed, curling up in a tight ball that was hardly befitting for a man of his stature. He slept like this surprisingly often, and had always done so. It wasn't the most manly thing in the world, but it made him feel better.
 
Mist was still freaking out even after Firefly left, though he was trying very hard to pull himself back together. That wasn't going over very well, though. Not at all. He was practically sobbing as he curled up on the bed, ignoring the pain from his burn. What did that pain matter when Mist was in such a terrible state?

He eventually did calm down, but it took hours. By that point there really wasn't any point in trying to go back to sleep. Besides, Mist was afraid of having another nightmare. Instead, he went down to the kitchen to get a glass of water. As if that would help.
 
Ah, sweet silence. Of course, Firefly was oblivious to how difficult Mist was finding the night, and he was selfish enough not to have done anything about it even if he had noticed. Well, he might have tried the sock trick again, but that was about it. Sleep was important, and so he was going to take as much as he could get. Come morning, maybe he'd pay more attention to Mist.

He hopped out of bed early in the morning, he had always been an early riser. There he found Mist, looking slightly worse for wear, which really wasn't surprising, considering all that had happened. "Shouldn't you be in bed?" He questioned, raising an eyebrow. He was sslightly suspicious that maybe he'd been up stealing stuff, although by now he was rational enough to know that Mist wasn't quite that stupid.
 
Mist didn't answer Firefly. He just kept sipping at his glass of water, looking a bit pale after his rough night. There was no point in saying anything to Firefly. The man was just going to be uncaring and rude to Mist, and so Mist wasn't even going to bother with him. He was in no mood for it. He was extremely tired, but he refused to go back to sleep. He didn't want to have another nightmare, especially since Firefly seemed to think shoving a sock in his mouth to shut him up was an acceptable way of dealing with Mist's screaming.
 
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