TW: Blood. Like, a lot of blood, and a graphic description as well--

Remus's POV:

"How do I do this?" I muttered under my breath, trying to unwrap the bandages. My voice was panicky, my fingers trembling.

When Janus attempted to sit up, his arms shaking from the effort, I quickly pushed him back down. "No, no, you have to be still!" I cried. "You can't-- you..."

He laughed softly, trying to reach up and grab the bandages from me, but I pulled them out of his reach. "There'ss a-- piece of tape... wrapping around the sstart of the gauze bandag--" he cut himself off, coughing violently as he gasped for air, trying to breathe normally again. 

I froze in panic, then went back to unwrapping the bandages, my efforts redoubled. 

Finally managing to get a strip of gauze off, I looked at Janus, who's breathing had finally calmed back down. "Alright, now you have to take your shirt off, okay?" 

He blinked at me. "And jusst how am I ssupposed to do that, if I have... to sstay still?" He motioned to his bleeding arm and I winced. 

"Oh. Yeah. Um." I placed the bandage down on the stone bench and took a deep breath. "Just... breathe..."

Janus smiled gently. "Are you... talking to yoursself or-- or to me?" He coughed once, the sound rough and loud. "Judging by your expression, darling, it'ss both..."

I made a half-laughing, half-crying sound, smudging away tears as they began to leak out of my eyes. "You can always tell..."

He chuckled. "Let me help. I'll show you... how to apply a bandage, okay?" He struggled to a sitting position, hissing at me when I tried to push him back down. "Jusst follow my directionss."

Hesitating, I looked around. Finally, I slowly nodded. "...okay..."

"Good," he said. "Now let me take my shirt off mysself, alright, it'll be a mess if ssomeone elsse has to do it." Janus waited for my response. "If you sstill don't think I should move, I-- I can let you do it," he explained softly. 

The air seemed to press on me, a feeling of discomfort growing in my throat. "...you can do it," I murmured. "But if it starts to hurt at all, you have to tell me, alright?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Look, everything hurtss right... now. I can tell you if it hurtss more, but other than that..." He made a small movement that might have been a shrug. 

I leaned down, kissing his cheek. "That's fine," I told him. 

Janus took a deep breath and slowly, carefully slipped out of his shirt. Several times, the fabric brushed past his wound and he flinched or tensed up. I almost wanted to grab it, but I kept my promise and didn't move. 

As soon as it was off, he made a face. "It'ss... sso cold!" he complained, hissing loudly and dropping the shirt on the floor as if it was a live spider. "Bleh."

"That's not the problem now!" I laughed. "You're silly." 

He nudged me with his head. "You're ssillier, Remuss," he pointed out. "I can lisst a thoussand things that count as more than just ssilliness, too."

I crossed my arms. "Like what?"

Janus looked at me dryly. "Like that time you tried to eat a chip bag? Not jusst the chipss, but the bag as well, and promptly began choking?"

Rolling my eyes, I unscrewed the bottle of disinfectant. "I am going to ignore that. Now, how the fuck do I do this?" I murmured, examining Janus's shoulder. 

It was, to say the least, horrible. 

Blood so dark it was almost black oozed out of the gash, running in thick red lines down his arm and chest. Some of it had dried, the texture waxy or brittle in places, so it looked akin to a terrible burn. More blood had begun bubbling from the wound, fresh and bright red, contrasting the dark, congealed mess it was dripping down. 

I winced, wanting to look away. 

"It's... really bad," I hinted. "You might not want to look at it."

He waved his hand. "Oh, come on. Just wipe off all the blood and we can see how bad it really is, alright?" His eyes slowly moved to the injury and he made a hissing sound. "That's a... lot of blood."

I nodded. "Um... yeah. Anyway! Onwards to cleaning it up!"

---

After fifteen minutes of washing dried blood off with the bottle of water that had been left for us, I finally picked up the disinfectant again. 

The wound itself wasn't that large, but it had hit a major artery, and so blood was still dribbling out of it even after I had washed away most of the mess. I couldn't get all of it, though, so the scent of blood was everywhere still. 

I poured some of the disinfectant onto my hand and looked cautiously at Janus. "You said I just... kind of poke it softly?"

He sighed. "We would kind of dab it with a cotton ball, but we don't have any. So we have to use something else. In this case, you just scrub at it gently, so it doesn't hurt too much."

Still hesitating, I moved a bit closer. "Are you sure it won't start bleeding really badly again? I don't want to see you with that much blood-- ever."

"It'ss already bleeding again," he pointed out. "It'ss sslowing down, though, sso that's good."

I took a deep, nervous breath and very softly, very slowly swiped at the injury. Janus hissed softly, cursing, and I darted back. He sighed, not moving for a little bit, then opened his eyes again. "Come on, you barely touched the wound."

Pausing, I crossed my arms. "And you flinched. It hurt."

He sat up with some difficulty, wincing as his bad arm shook from the effort. "...yeah, it did, but jusst becausse it hurt doessn't mean it won't help."

I took a deep breath, willing myself to focus. "I know... I'll try again." The bottle of disinfectant was once again turned upside down, letting the thick liquid inside drip onto my hand. 

Bending down, I gently pressed on the wound. I stayed like that for a little bit, watching the skin fizzle and bubble slightly, flinching as blood began to leak out again. Janus, too, gazed at the gash, not saying a word. 

When finally he nodded, I took my hand off and reached for the bandages. "So... how will I have to do this?" I edged, trying not to talk about the ugly injury. "Just... wrap it around the wound?"

(A/N: Halfway through writing this I realized I know how to treat wounds. Oop--) 

He shook his head. "You see that piece of tape that kept the gauze together? Yeah, that." I picked it up, not sure what to do with it. 

"So..." I pressed. "How?"

Janus rubbed his temples. "You wrap the... the gauze around the wound and keep it secure with that tape over there, okay?"

Following his directions carefully, I gently wrapped the bandage around his shoulder. Once, twice, it had been three layors before he nodded. I stuck the tape to the end of the gauze, making sure it was secure before removing my hand. 

I nervously tapped my shoe against the floor. "Was that good?"

What if I messed up? 

I probably did mess up. 

I applied the bandages wrong. 

He just didn't want to correct me.

I did it wrong. 

I didn't do it right.

A thousand ways to say I failed, and I seem determined to find them all. 

I must have shown how I felt on my face, because Janus only smiled. 

He softly wrapped his hand around mine, pulling me down for a kiss. When he drew back, he pressed our foreheads together, still grinning. "Remuss, stop worrying about it. You did wonderful, especially considering we're already shaking with nerves just being here."

I couldn't stop myself from smiling back at him, laughing when he kissed me again. 

But we were soon interrupted by a signature tapping against the wall. 

Ava's voice came through, clear and excited. "Ya'll, this super sweet and all, but I found us a way out. Ya wanna come, or do I gotta drag ya?"

Me and Janus looked at each other, stunned. I turned back to them, my eyes shining. "Yes!"