Public appearances, snappy dressing, and playing doctor

Chapter 5: Public appearances, snappy dressing, and playing doctor
==Text==
Newt jolts to consciousness when a sharp elbow jabs him in the ribs. "Get up, Geiszler," Hermann snarls. "I'm late taking my medications and we need to be ready for a press conference this morning."
"Awww … ," Newt whines, "five more minutes." He buries his head under his pillow.
"No. Get up." Newt's negative response is muffled. A wicked smile grows on Hermann's face. Very deliberately, he begins to flap his wings, which both strips Newt of his covering and pushes waves of cool air across his back.
"Ah! Stop it!" he yelps, removing the pillow to make sure Hermann hears him. "I'm going to freeze to death!"
"You most certainly will not. You will, however, be much more comfortable if you get out of bed," Hermann says reasonably without stilling his wings.
"Ugh. Fine, you sadist," Newt huffs and drags himself to his feet. Hermann allows himself a smug smile as he follows Newt to the edge of the mattress, but he wobbles badly getting to his feet. He beats his wings to help maintain his balance. He straightens and has his cane in hand before Newt can extend a steadying hand. Newt lets his hand hang there pointlessly for a moment before using it to rub the back of his neck. "I have to run back to my place for my public appearance clothes," he says. "Meet you here when I'm ready so we can make our grand entrance together?" Hermann nods and is rewarded with a high-wattage smile.
He locks the door after Newt skips down the hall. He leans his forehead against the cool metal and pulls his wings closely around himself. "I cannot allow myself to become used to this," he murmurs. "It can only end badly."
Hermann binds his wings and dons the PPDC blue suit and tie he reserves for occasions like this. He feels exposed and vulnerable without his sweater and checks his outline in the mirror repeatedly. Twice he strips off his shirts and jacket to tighten the binder, only stopping when his wings joints are nearly hyperflexed under the restraint. They'll be painfully sore later, but he would stretch them thoroughly and it would ease. Hermann hunches his shoulders and studies himself again. He is satisfied that any oddity of his shape would be marked down to poor posture.
He fiddles with the knot in his tie until a knock sounds at the door. He opens it to reveal Newt, who wears a pressed white shirt to Hermann's complete astonishment. Aside from the crisp crease in his collar, Newt looks as he does most days: boots, jeans, skinny tie, and carefully manicured bedhead.
"Maybe I should have a key," he says with a grin. Hermann sniffs noncommittally. "You look sharp today. Where've you been hiding the last five years, handsome?" At Newt's playful remark, Hermann scowls.
"Honestly, Newton," Hermann says, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "Let me knot your tie properly since you seem utterly incapable of doing so."
"What? It looks fine." Hermann's deft fingers undo the strangled knot at Newt's throat and rapidly re-tie the fabric into a different shape. "What sort of boring thing did you do to me, dude?" Newt examines himself in the mirror. "That's a crazy knot. I've never seen it before."
"It's called a Trinity. What do you think?"
"You and me and Kodachi make three … ," Newt says quietly as he turns and heads for the door.
Hermann falls into step beside him. "What are you nattering about?" he asks.
"Just a little rhyme about the three of us who saved the world."
"It required more than three people, Newton, and exactly who or what is Kodachi?"
"It’s what I named the baby kaiju we Drifted with. Tendo put it in the records, even," Newt says before pausing for effect. "So, technically, you were wrong. There were two triple events." From there the conversation devolves into a fairly good-natured argument which continues until a communications tech clips microphones to their collars.
The press conference turns into a day-long gauntlet of interviews, presentations, and meaningless social interaction with strangers. After reciting what he’s allowed to say about the final day of the war for what must be the thirtieth time, Newt’s energy starts to flag. From across the room he notices Hermann’s exhaustion and begins to work his way through the crowd of suits and ties toward the edge of the room and his lab partner.
A tall man paying too much attention to his date bumps solidly into Hermann, who loses his balance and falls against the wall at his back. A look of pain flashes across his face before he composes his features to accept the couple's helping hands and profuse apologies.
Newt elbows a path through the last several yards between himself and Hermann. "You okay?" he asks.
Hermann's voice is tight as he responds. "Perfectly fine."
"Ready to bail? I've had enough." Hermann looks stunned and Newt shrugs. "Even I have limits. Don't tell anyone." He raises his voice and addresses the small crowd that has gathered to talk to the two scientists. "Sorry, folks. We heroes have another pressing engagement. Have your people call our people. Goodnight!" He links his arm with Hermann's and they stroll out, waving to an envious Tendo Choi as they go.
Back in his quarters, Hermann quickly sheds his jacket, tie, and shirts. Newt stares as he fumbles with the buckles of the binder. "Shit, dude. You put that on too tight. You're going to hurt yourself doing that."
"I assure you, I'm fine." The binder falls away and Hermann slowly spreads his wings. He hisses and pulls the right against his back, color draining from his face. Newt looks at him with concern.
"You did hurt yourself."
"It is a cramp." He tries to open the wing again, this time whimpering as pain forces him to retract it.
"That's not a cramp, dude. Let me take a look at it."
"Newton, I'm fine," Hermann snaps.
Newt climbs onto the desktop behind his friend to get a better view of the injured limb. He pushes his fingers through the russet feathers along the wing's leading edge, probing for the sore spot. Hermann cries out and twists away when Newt touches the notch midway along the radius.
"It's broken, Hermann. Simple break, but you need to have this set."
"Then set it, Doctor."
"What?" Newt's voice cracks in disbelief.
"Set. It," he says through gritted teeth.
Newt holds up his hands. "Whoawhoawhoa! I'm not that kind of doctor!"
"You are the closest to one who is available to me."
"Hermann, don't be an idiot. Let's get the real doctor."
"You set the bone or it will not be set at all. It will heal regardless." Hermann sounds much too reasonable about his statement.
"Please don't ask me to do this," Newt begs. Hermann only stares implacably in response. "You are the most stubborn, dumbest genius I've ever seen." He runs his fingers through his hair. "Let me figure out the best way to stabilize it and get some supplies from the lab. Don't … move too much before I get back. You might pull it further out of place."
He's really going to make me do this, Newt thinks as he searches through veterinary medicine websites for the information he needs. I can't just leave it to heal in its own. If he keeps acting like nothing's wrong, it'll only get worse. He might end up with a bum wing to match his bad leg. He might anyway if I screw this up. At least I’m pretty good under pressure.
Newt returns from the lab with an armful of supplies. He gestures for Hermann to sit in the desk chair and drops his materials onto the work surface. "This might help a little. It's a numbing gel I use when I get burned. I don't have any real anesthetic." He pulls on a pair of gloves and saturates the feathers near the break with gel, hoping enough of it will reach Hermann’s skin to make what’s coming next hurt a little less. Newt takes a deep breath and tries to relax the tremor out of his hands and pulse. "On one. Three … two … one."
He presses his thumbs against the mismatched edges of the bone until he feels them click into proper alignment. Hermann lets out the breath he'd been holding and wipes tears from the corners of his eyes. "I'm going to splint it and wrap you up now. This tape might damage some of your feathers, but I don't have anything better to hold it in place while you heal." He lays the thin metal strut he liberated from one of his worktables along the broken bone and secures it with numerous strips of sticky medical tape, then wraps gauze around the wing in a figure-eight. Finally, he winds the last of the fabric around Hermann's chest, gently pinning his wing in place. "Is this pinching at all? Can you move it?" Hermann shakes his head.
Newt collapses flat on the bed. After a moment, he props himself up on his elbow to stare at Hermann. "Don't you dare ask me if you can wear the binder over this. You can't. I won't let you. I'm your doctor and those are my orders," he declares.
"How am I supposed to go about my work unbound?"
"I can wrap the other one for you in the morning and you can dress like you normally do. Or you can stay in here and work with your tablet or on paper. n Now, pretend you're a good patient and take your pain medication and let me help you change for bed. I know you use your wings for balance, so I'm helping. You're not breaking anything else today." Hermann scowls. "What pills do you normally take and how many of each?" Hermann lists what turns out to be a small handful of capsules that he swallows in a single gulp with water.
As Hermann grumbles and the analgesics obviously begin kick in, Newt helps him change into his sleepwear and keeps a close watch on him as he shuffles to the bed. "You're kinda fragile, aren't you?" he asks. "You torqued a bone and all it took was a bump to snap it."
"My bones are hollow, Newton. They break easily," Hermann says as he arranges himself on the mattress.
Newt stops and stares. "Hollow? And how easily is 'easily'?"
"One fractures nearly every time I have a hard fall. It is so common I hardly notice any but the worst." Newt gapes, for once speechless. "Perhaps now you understand my insistence on keeping footpaths clear and dry."
"How much pain are you in all the time, Hermann?" Newt asks softly.
Hermann sighs. "You saw my prescription shelf when you retrieved my evening pills. What others might term 'considerable', I accept as normal."
"Jesus, Hermann. You are way too used to suffering. We’ve got to do something about that," he says as he eases himself into bed.
"We take what life sees fit to give us, Newton." He turns his face to the wall. "There’s no other choice. Goodnight."
As Newt dozes off, he feels Hermann drape his uninjured wing across his back and swears he hears the man whisper ‘thank you’.
==Meta==
I’d never seen a Trinity knot before and thought it was pretty cool and rare enough to make everyone happy.
Now looking at seven chapters, minimum, but they played nice as I worked today, so that's something.
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