The Soul's Fire

Chapter 17

       Not even wincing as blood proceeded to gush from the newly-afflicted wound on her shoulder, Masha shoved the metal pipe away from Lithuania, glared at a horrified Russia, and dragged the Baltic out of the office by the wrist, slamming the door behind her.
Once she had dragged Lithuania a sufficient distance from Russia's office, she collapsed against the wall, drawing a deep shuddering breath and clutching her shoulder as the blood continued to pour out of it.
"Masha, are you okay?" Lithuania asked worriedly, even though he was bleeding too.
"I don't care about me," she mumbled through labored breathing, allowing him to support her and continuing downstairs. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he said impatiently. "But you're bleeding out."
"And you would be bleeding out if I hadn't jumped in front of you," she pointed out, her already white skin slowly paling further as her blood soaked through her inconveniently white dress.
"Thanks for doing it, but you shouldn't have," he frowned, half-dragging her into the kitchen and helping her sit down in a kitchen chair.
She rolled her eyes and shook her head, but winced in pain and quickly stopped.
As Lithuania was searching the cupboards for bandages, Estonia came in.
"Masha!" he exclaimed. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, perfect," she grimaced, sliding the sleeves of her dress down off her shoulder.
"I found the bandages," Lithuania said, coming back over. "Here, now hold still, and we'll have you fixed up in no time."

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Russia knew he was crying, but he couldn't help it. He had hurt Masha badly, and now she would hate him. He didn't want her to hate him, he liked her.
He looked up at a soft tap on the door.
"Mister Russia?" Masha's voice called. "Are you in there?"