Over the River and Through the Woods (Adventures!AU Book 2)

Ch. 32 Stitches

*gets #58 of 58.1k in OCs and #2 of 826 in original species*
*is fueled and finishes up Ch32*
*yeets at yall*
Now to peace off into the mist again lol.

For real tho, thank yall SO SO much for the rankings! Means the world. I NEVER could have imagined such a ranking this time last year when I was first posting the OtaGS (which is released as a PDF on tumblr now!). Seriously, I keep writing because of yall! (even if Ive been slacking with comment replies)

This chapter... THIS chapter is one of my FAVORITES. By far. Been working on this in bits and pieces since... November? Maybe even October. The title name came from the Shawn Mendes "Stitches" song because I was in my crosshair feels lol
Now, this chapter DOES contain some past emotional wounds of mine but hey, writing is therapeutic. And maybe some of yall went through the same thing.
Anywho, I'll stop rambling and let y'all enjoy! The next chapter probably won't be out for a while since I havent even started, but we shall see!
Have fun with Twiggy! We're about 180k into this slowburn, may as well get some things moving!

Content Warning: Partial non-sexual nudity, emotional scars (social rejection), references to attempted past sexual assault/murder (fic not irl), non-explicit surgical stitching, sexual references, strong language

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My tail twitched uneasily. The fact Crosshair of all people was sewing me up...

Of all the ways I expected to be isolated with him for character development in this fic... a wound bandaging scene was not what I imagined.

With Hunter, yes.

Wrecker, maybe.

Perhaps even Tech!

But Cross?

Nope.

Not in a million years did I expect him to be the one to have to stitch me.

The sniper settled behind me and pulled off his helmet plus his gloves. "Relax. Can't work if you're tense." The heat of his hand hovered over my skin before resting on my left shoulder blade.

I flinched at first at the skin on skin contact before trying to force the tension from my shoulders. Ironically, his hands were probably cleaner without gloves...

"Better."

I rolled my shoulders as another chill went down my spine. "Easy."

"Doin' my best," he retorted. "Use that special bag of yours and summon a water bottle or somethin'."

"Not exactly in the position to get up."

Crosshair grumbled under his breath but retrieved the bag and dropped it beside me while keeping his head turned. "Here."

"Yeah yeah, I'm as happy about this as you are," I muttered before getting out two bottles and pushing them back behind me to the sniper.

"Get a rag."

"Bossy," I huffed but got that too and passed it back to him.

"Bleedin' stopped."

"Fancy shmancy Alphian healin'. Just need it sewed so it don't reopen."

A grunt as he began to clean the wounds. He was... far gentler than I would have imagined him to be. Then again he was a sniper. They, we, could be a rather meticulous and light-handed lot if we wanted.

Wait, was "light-handed" even the right phrase?

Crosshair working on my bare back was skewing my thoughts.