Scar

Wound

(based on no episode in particular)

Disclaimer: Of course I don't own YGO Zexal, otherwise, IV would be an anti-hero protagonist along with Rio as the heroine, and the anime would be full of dramas instead of card games!

***

"The injuries ranged from first to third degree burns, mostly second. There're also a few gash wounds. The worst one is on the back of his right shoulder. We may need to perform skin-grafting—"

"No." IV cut his brother short.

"I'm not talking to you, IV," V retorted back calmly.

"But I'm the one that'll undergo the procedure. And I said no."

"Do I need to show you the picture of your wounds again?"

IV huffed, suddenly feeling nauseous when images of his open wound danced inside his mind—though he refused to show any sign of it. The first time he had seen them, he couldn't bring himself to swallow his lunch and dinner. He hadn't known a burned skin with gash could look that gruesome. He turned his attention back to the book he was reading, still listening to the voice of his brother and their personal doctor talking in the background.

There wasn't much he could do lately, with the dominant half of his body mostly incapacitated, but lying on the bed all day long. III kept him company most of the time; changing his bandages and cleaning his wounds, even spoon fed him sometimes, when he was feeling particularly vindictive towards the unappetizing choice of meals he was forced to eat.

"It's easy to digest," III had said when he brought him a bowl of warm broth.

"It's savory water. It would go through my stomach in, like, seconds," IV asserted, nose scrunched in disgust. To further prove his point, he snatched the bowl from the tray and downed the yellowy liquid in one go. He handed the empty bowl back to his brother and said, "There, can I eat something, now?"

"You just did."

IV groaned in frustration.

"The doctor doesn't recommend solid food just yet," III reasoned.

"How the hell a couple slices of bacon gonna aggravate my injuries? I'm eating them, not rubbing it on my open wound!"

"Just do as the doctor said, please. We only want what's best for you."

IV scoffed skeptically. "Could've fooled me. One would think he was trying to poison me with all the pills he's been prescribing."

The youngest Arclight boy stopped short on his brother's word. Hearing IV's complaint wasn't unusual, but hearing him throwing witty remarks usually meant something.

"Is there something bothering you, niisama?" III asked carefully.

"Yes, the food!" IV spat.

III sighed. Leave it to his brother to be unreasonably obstinate about something just to spite everyone else. He knew the doctor wouldn't give him anything that would worsen his condition, but his brother always found a way to disagree.

"The doctor said you can eat something a bit more solid, IV-niisama," announced III cheerfully another day, bringing in a small clay pot filled with plain porridge.

IV had refused to eat them the first few times, just because he had imagined something that he could actually eat, and not some watery substance impersonating a food. After a few exchanges of words (argument), III finally gave in and added small slices of chicken meat, and IV finally agreed on eating the slightly bearable dish.