Leashed | • • • | Blue Exorcist

The Makings of a Med Kit

Yukio's POV:

I'd grabbed all that I'd needed, which wasn't much. A box of fingertip bandages, some antibiotic ointment, and some gauze. I wracked my brain for anything else I may need, my eyes wandering over the products in front of me. My gaze settles on a reusable cold compress and my mind flickered back to my fainting episodes. With a sigh, I snatched a box from the shelf and added them to the meager stack in my arms.

With nothing else catching my eyes, I sought out my party, finding my brother in a nearby aisle. He caught sight of me and smiled, telling me to put my stuff in his basket. I nodded and approached, spotting his purchases. "Jesus Christ," I muttered, leaning down on one knee, I placed my pile on the floor and started rifling through his collection. Gauze, dressings, ointments, sterile washes, tender tapes, butterfly strips, and alcohol wipes. With wide eyes I shot my sight up in his direction. He saw my shocked expression and laughed.

"Told ya you'd be surprised." He continued his search and seemed to find what he was looking for. Grabbing a box and tossing it down to the basket below. I read the label and frowned, confused.

"Why do you need kinesiology tape? It's meant for athletes." I grabbed the box and flipped it in my hands. On the back was a picture of a knee with the product advertised, the tape being wrapped in a fairly specific way. The product was supposed to add support to an injured joint and my mind was boggled as to how Rin needed it. I'd seen it used on the field before, but never used it personally.

My twin hummed in response. "You're right, it was designed with athletics in mind." He paused his perusing and knelt down across from me, his blue eyes shining. He seemed to be excited to be teaching me for once. "But think about it: it's supposed to move around with you, so it's super stretchy. When you work out, you get sweaty, so the adhesive is strong. That also means that it's waterproof." He reached his hand out and I put the box in his hands. I watched as he turned the box around and pointed to the bulleted list of design features. "It supposed to hold for hours, and hurts like a bitch when you pull it off. Meaning you don't have to worry about it coming off in the middle of the day."

I gave him a curious look, "why not just use waterproof tape?"

He scoffed, "waterproof my ass. Maybe if you stuck it on a flat, dry wall it'd hold up better. It doesn't hold up to sweat, and it's too rigid to withstand any sort of movement. This," he shook the box in his hand, "is the fucking G.O.A.T of waterproof tape."

I mused over his proclamation, my eyes wandering down to his other purchases. I picked up the tender tape and held it out to him. "Then why'd you grab this." Tender tape was a self adhering dressing. It didn't stick to skin. It was a Velcro-like product. "You said the kinesiology tape hurts to take off, why not just stick with this?"

He nodded in agreement, "yup, it hurts like hell, it's like duct tape for the skin. But that," he referred to the tender tape in my grasp, "doesn't work the greatest around areas like the elbow or shoulder. It tends to bunch up or roll onto itself. And it's hard to adjust it once it's been messed up like that." I watched as he set the kinesiology tape down and pulled up his sleeve. Several inches on marred flesh becoming exposed. I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat at the sight of the long scar that trailed from under the gauze all the way up to his elbow.

His voice broke through my dark thoughts as he pointed to his wrist. "When you move your joints, there's some overlap onto what would usually be flat." To drive his point home, he bent said wrist and placed his finger at the point where the skin wasn't effected. When he straightened his wrist, there was about an inch on skin from his wrist to his finger. "If you used that tape here, it'd just pinch together. Same here," he repeated the same process at his elbow, with a good three inch gap of skin being figuratively effected. "So in those areas and my shoulders, I prefer kinesiology tape,"