(C) Shedding Light (Monica/Zrion BC)

[lawna]

"Alright, I could try to help with the laundry, but.. um... like the stove last night I'm not sure I'll know how to run it," she said, scooping up the last of her eggs onto her fork and into her mouth.

"And I don't want anything to happen to Lucky. When I found him, his stuffing was falling out of his leg, so I had to sew it up a little. I don't know where his other eye is either. His is kind of like yours," Monica said, covering up her own right eye, the mirror image of the man sitting across from her.

"Did you hurt it fighting metalheads? Can you still see out of it?" She asked, taking the final slurps of her cup.

[Darkjak87]

Zrion couldn't conceal his grimace as she asked about his eye. Out of all his physical scars, that was the only one that he hadn't really come to peace with. When he had lost his eye, he'd thought his career in the KG was over. What room was there in Haven's Finest for a half-blind man? Even today, he was nervous in battle because he couldn't see on that side, and found himself depending on his squadmates quite a bit to cover his flank. It was a miracle that he hadn't gotten himself hurt last night.

But in the end, it hadn't been over. To his utter shock, after the battle was over, he had been offered a chance to join Special Operations. They told him that he had already proven he was skilled in combat, and that his experience more than made up for his permanent injury. They told him that the training they would give him would make him one of the deadliest warriors in KG history. He'd accepted without much thought on the matter.

"Yeah, Metal Head." He said shortly. "This was during the Battle of Deadtown. A Metal Head Cloaker, one of the big ones that can camouflage themselves, snuck up on me and put my eye out with a claw. I was evacuated from the combat zone, and I was pretty out of it for the next few hours, so I don't really know what happened after that, but when I woke up my eye was bandaged and I was told that it isn't going to get any better, even with green eco. It's blind now, I can't see anything on that side of my body."

He fell silent, but he didn't want to talk about it anymore, so he quickly moved on to another topic. "Don't worry Monica, I'll show you how to use the Laundry machine. I'll do the first load so you can see how to do it, but we've got to clean up the kitchen first, if you're done eating."

[lawna]

If she had to be honest with herself, the story behind Zrion's missing eye horrified her. To be stabbed in the eye by a Metalhead claw, not suspecting. To just open your eyes and not be able to see, the idea boggled her mind.

The Battle of Deadtown, where Zrion had lost his mother, his father, his eye, and Monica would have suspected he would have lost his career as well, but obviously he was still involved with the Krimzon Guard. Monica supposed she had better feel lucky he was, or she would have been ripped apart by a Metalhead herself.

She was thankful for the change of topic and shot Zrion a smile. "Yeah, I'm done, and it was good." She said, standing up with plate and cup in her hand. "Thanks for making it. It would be neat to learn how to actually cook stuff. My mom used to make the best cookies in the world. They were chocolate and peanut butter and if they were still hot all the chocolate chips would stick to my lips, and-"

With a exclamation of surprise, Monica found herself falling, and hit the floor with a harsh melody of breaking glass. She had been heading toward the sink when she tripped on the pant legs that had become unfolded.

She lifted her arm from the floor and trailed blood from a gash on her forearm, a hunk of her breakfast cup protruding from it.

She gently crawled backwards, leaving the circle of broken dishware. She sat beside her chair on the floor and tried to examine her wound, but her eyes were tearing up from the pain.

She twisted her arm in an attempt to better see it, and let out a whimper. She hadn't realized the glass would move as her arm did, and it sent a new shock of pain through her arm.

[Darkjak87]

Zrion had to bite his tongue to avoid cursing rather colorfully, but he didn't hesitate to move over to the counter, where years of justified paranoia had placed a first aid kit under the sink. Zrion grabbed it and immediately moved over to Monica, opening the kit while looking at the wound.

It was bad, but not immediately life threatening. It was obviously painful, but the glass still in the wound was slowing the bleeding. All KG were trained in basic first aid, and the kit included a dose of green eco, so he should be able to handle it.

"Don't worry Monica, you'll be fine." He reassured her. "But don't move your arm, or else it'll move the shard and it might do more damage." He first reached in and pulled out a spray can of disinfectant. "This will sting, but we've got to clean the area first or you might get an infection." He took his time, giving her plenty of warning, and sprayed as little as possible on the area. Then, he pulled a pair of tweezers from the kit.

"I suppose I don't have to tell you why we have to take the glass out. Either way, this will hurt, so prepare yourself." He carefully took a hold of her arm with his left hand, and as gently as possible, clamped the tweezers on the shard with his other one. He started pulling, gritting his teeth as he tried so hard to spare her the agony, but there was little that could be done, short of a shot of morphine.

After about a minute of slow work, Zrion finally managed to extract the glass shard. He used a patch of rubbing alcohol to sterilize the wound itself, and then pulled a needle and thread from the box. "You're gonna need stitches, and after that we'll put some Green Eco on it, which will take care of the rest. Please, hold still."

With that, he set to work stitching up the cut, occasionally using a sterile cloth to wipe the blood off it so that he could see the skin. It took several minutes, but Zrion finished stitching the cut, so that the bleeding was stopped. "Now, that was the hard part." He said, trying to be reassuring. "Now for a dose of green eco..."

Zrion took out the metal container, and popped the top off. He carefully tilted it above the wound, and the green eco flowed out, covering the stitches.

Where the stitches had stopped the bleeding, the green eco healed the skin itself, and got rid of any lingering pain she might have had. Zrion placed the now empty container on the floor, and studied Monica's arm carefully. The wound was healed, thanks to the eco, except for where the stitches entered the skin. The stitches were designed to dissolve after a week, after which the arm would be good as new, and another dose of green eco would remove any additional scarring.

"That should do it." He announced. "How does it feel?"

[lawna]

Through out the whole ordeal, Monica tried to keep still while Zrion tended to her wound. She bit her lip and would sometimes jerk involuntarily, but Zrion's vice-like grip kept from delaying his efforts.

Once the green eco had been released onto her arm, she felt immediately better, but not cured as Zephan had made her feel last night.

"It's a lot better," Monica said, swallowing the tears that had welled at the pain of the repair.

She gently twisted her arm to spy the black stitches in her arm. "I'm sorry I fell. I'm not sure what happened."

That's when she saw the lack of foot at the end of her leg, covered by the large gray sweatpants. She hastily rolled them again with a quick, "Sorry, I should have been more careful. And the dishes are all broken."

She sighed, feeling ridiculous that such an easy job had resulted in such chaos.

[Darkjak87]

"Nonsense Monica, it was through no fault of your own. It just means that we need to hurry up and get shopping doesn't it?" He said, giving her a smile, and probably the first genuine one he had so far. "And don't worry any about the dishes, it's not like I don't have more or anything. Have a seat over there so you don't cut yourself on the glass while I sweep this up."

He stood up and moved over to the closet, retrieving a broom and dustpan. He carefully swept all the broken glass into a pile, and then swept it into the pan, before dumping it in the trash. He returned them to the closet and went back into the kitchen. "On the bright side, there's less dishes to wash now." he said, chuckling. "It won't take but a second."

He went to the sink next and turned on the hot water. He used a sponge to clean the grease off the pans, and then finished up by washing his own plate and silverware. He turned off the water, and left the dishes in the rack to dry.

"Alright then, now I've got something to help you with those pants." He went to the kitchen and pulled out a spool of string. He measured out a long piece, and used a knife to cut it into two pieces. He handed them to Monica. "Tie the legs up with these, so they won't slip down again, but don't do it too tightly, or you might lose circulation."

[lawna]

Monica was relieved Zrion didn't make too much of a fuss about the damaged property, and she swelled up at the reassuring smile that lit hiss face. He was in a good mood, and Monica would suspect he would tease her about it later, if Zrion was the teasing type.

She rose herself from the floor and sat in her breakfast chair, tapping her dangling feet softly on the floor. She would have helped Zrion sweep or wash the dishes, but the thought of cut up bare feet was an unattractive one, and she didn't feel that she could risk another scene involving broken dishes, so she waited and watched Zrion take care of his house.

When the dishes were done, Zrion produced the spool of thread and Monica did as she was told, tying the knots firm and snugly. She stood up, twisted her ankles, and lifted her legs, making sure she had plenty of room to move around.

With that done, shopping hanging over her head like a wonderful incentive, she gathered her clothes and stated, "OK, now it's time to get these washed. You're going to show me how? Let's see if I can do that job better." She added quietly. She knew patience only spread so far, and she didn't want to test the Krimzon Guardsmen.

[Darkjak87]

"I'm sure you'll do fine, Monica, it's really easy once you know how to run it." He gestured at her to follow him, and proceeded down the hallway. He stopped at a door on the right side, and opened it, revealing a small closet that somehow had a dryer and washing machine crammed into it. He opened the washing machine and tossed Monica's clothes into it. "Now, give me a moment to gather up all the laundry and I'll show you how to run it." He proceeded down the hall to his room, basket in hand, and he emptied the hamper into it. He repeated the same with the bathroom, and returned with the overflowing basket, clearly having a bit of trouble holding all the clothes in it.

He dropped the basket to the floor with a loud smack, and started tossing clothes into the washing machine. "First thing to remember," he said while he worked, "is to always wash white clothes separately from colored clothes. Second is, when washing colored clothes, to wash lights and darks separately. Thirdly, use Bleach on whites, but not on colors. Use detergent for colors. Fourthly, always check the tags and make sure you know what water temperature to use. Hot water can shrink some fabrics. If in doubt, always use cold."

He filled the machine up to capacity, and pushed the half-full basket to the side with his foot. He added some laundry detergent and closed the lid, made sure Monica was watching, then turned the dial to the appropriate wash cycle. He set the temperature to cold/cold, and turned it on, the sound of gushing water telling them it was working.

"That'll take about 30 minutes to finish. Any questions?"

[lawna]

She was glad he asked, because she wasn't sure if she wouldn't seem stupid if she asked him to repeat what he said.

"Why do you have to separate all the colors? And why do you have to change the temperature? Shouldn't the water be hot to make the clothes clean? And let me make sure..." Monica reached passed Zrion, and with some climbing, reaching and stretching, she managed to get her fingers around the knobs.

The foreign machine then started up with a noise, and there were some shaking. She abruptly stepped away from the machine, hoping she handed actually moved the knobs. Monica resisted the urge to raise the lid to see what was going on in there.

"I didn't do that did I?" She asked, mentally chalking up another job she messed up that day.

[Darkjak87]

He chuckled at her antics. "No, it starts by itself after it fills up with water. To answer your questions, you have to separate the colors because the dyes in the clothes tend to fade with time, and they end up in the water in small amounts with each wash. Because of that, white clothes tend to get stained with those colors, and dark colors become lighter and vice versa. Hot water does work better for cleaning clothes, you're right about that, but it can shrink clothes sometimes, especially cotton and wool. Cold water doesn't work as well but it's safer to use with those fabrics, and since there are a lot of T-shirts in there, it was the better choice."