Trying to raise your teenage brother was hard. Trying to raise him without letting him find out about your work with the rebellion was even harder. Especially when one of your friends (and most frequent patient) decided to show up at your apartment door covered in blood with the sounds of enforcement droids racing down the street outside.

You quickly pulled him inside before checking to see if there was a trail of blood, only to find Hyuk staring in shock from the main room of the apartment. “Hyuk help him into the kitchen, quickly please, I need to clean his trail.” You moved Ravi to lean against the small table you kept by the door before rushing to grab the mop and quickly pouring a cleaner over it, turning back to the door only to see your brother still standing in the same spot, frozen from shock. “Hyuk! Now!”

You hurried into the corridor, making sure to clean all the blood back to the elevator. You couldn’t do more than that as it would take too long and you would risk potentially getting caught. So you made sure your floor was clean, stopping to clean the blood from your door before walking back into your apartment, thankful the elderly woman who lived across the hall hadn’t heard anything and decided to investigate. You quickly locked the door before heading to the kitchen, glad that your brother at least seemed to have snapped out of his shock and helped Ravi over into one of the chairs.

“Hey kid, could you grab me a glass of water? I’d ask for something stronger but your sister would probably kill me.” You heard Ravi chuckle at Hyuk’s grumbling.

You scoffed in response, moving to drop the mop head in the sink to clean later, pulling out the emergency medical kit from under the sink before walking back over to where Ravi was sitting, ignoring the look Hyuk was giving you. “Okay, I’m not sure I want to know what happened, especially around Hyuk, but where should I start? I can’t even really tell where the blood is coming from right now.”

“Who is he? What’s going on? Shouldn’t he go to the clinic?” You sighed at Hyuk’s questions, ignoring the look from Ravi.

“He’s someone I know. And he can’t go to the clinics so that’s why he’s here. Do me a favor and bring me one of the sheets from the recycle shelf?” You turned your attention back to Ravi, cutting away his pants, as they seemed to be getting darker from what was surely blood.

“No! Tell me what’s going on! You can’t keep treating me like a child! I know you’re hiding things from me. Like what happened to mom and dad, or why we had to move. I’m old enough to know the truth.”

While you knew his outburst was a long time in coming as you both had a bit of a temper, you wished this could have waited at least until you finished patching Ravi back up. You turned to Hyuk, giving him the best stern look that you could muster. “Hyuk, the sheets. I swear I’ll tell you what’s going on, but first I have to take care of Ravi before something happens.” You turned back to Ravi’s leg, completely cutting away the fabric from his pants only to curse at the sight in front of you. Part of the bone had tore through the skin and there were pieces of metal stuck into the skin all over his leg. You glanced up to Ravi’s face with a sigh. “The guy you said made the arm for you, does he do legs too?”

There was a small gagging noise from behind you and you turned to see your brother staring at Ravi’s leg, sheets in hand. “Holy ! How did you walk here? Are you some kind of superhero? Because there’s no way a normal person could walk like that.” You sighed at Hyuk’s questions, motioning to the table. “The bone is through your skin! I can see it!”

You rolled your eyes at the string of questions from your brother, knowing that it was both his own strange fascination and a slight nervous habit. Although Ravi’s chuckle made you frown, motioning to Hyuk again. “Take the scissors and cut the sheet into bandage strips about the width of your hand.” You glanced back up at Ravi, concerned at the sight of him looking like he was losing too much blood by the pallor of his skin. “Ravi! Don’t you pass out on me! Now it’s going to be a little worse than the arm because I don’t have all the tools here, but the enforcement droids aren’t going to give up any time soon. You need to get your engineer friend to start a leg for you because I can’t save it without any of the clinic equipment.”

“You’re going to cut his leg off?! In our kitchen?!” You spun around to glare at your brother for his outburst, praying none of your neighbors heard what he had said.

“Hyuk, keep your voice down! Unless you want to be sent away to a detainment center. And yes, I’m going to have to amputate his leg. There’s too much damage to fix without the clinic’s equipment.” You glanced back to Ravi with a small frown. “I’m sorry.”

Ravi simply shrugged before giving you a small smile. “I wasn’t expecting a miracle. Do what you have to. Besides, it’s not like I doubt you or anything. I am a walking example of your abilities. Well, not quite so much the walking part right now.”

You shook your head, giving him a small laugh. “I’m going to get everything together, call your engineer. You’ll need a prosthetic before I can toss you back out on the streets, and you snore so it better not take forever.”

“I’ll be sure to tell Ken to take his time with it then.” Ravi’s smirk made you shake your head as you walked out of the kitchen, heading for the closet where you kept the tools that you knew would likely send you and Hyuk to one of the harsher detainment centers if anyone found out about them. But you had kept them around just in case of emergency. Of course this wasn’t exactly what you had thought of when you stashed them away.

You spun around at the feel of a hand on your arm, frowning at Hyuk. “At least tell me who he is. You obviously know each other, and there has to be a reason you’re refusing to go to a clinic. Not to mention the enforcement droids? I’m not a child anymore, Iris.”

“His name is Ravi. I know him from the clinic. He’s ..”

“He’s one of the rebels isn’t he? You’re working with the rebellion.” Hyuk’s voice was soft and you couldn’t tell if he was upset with you or not. You closed your eyes with a sigh before nodding in response to his questions, not wanting to see the look of betrayal on your brother’s face if he decided to hate you. Instead you heard him chuckle softly. You opened your eyes and looked back up to see him grinning at you. “That’s so cool!”

You shook your head, turning back to gathering a few extra things you would need for the operation, trying not to let your mind drift to the high risks of having to improvise like you were. “It’s not cool, Hyuk. It’s dangerous and I don’t want to hear you even thinking of trying to join up or I’ll kill you myself.”

Hyuk laughed as he followed along behind you. “You wouldn’t really kill me. I’m all you have left.” He paused for a moment and you turned back to see him giving you a serious look. “That’s why you joined isn’t it? Because of what happened to-”

“Go make sure Ravi hasn’t passed out yet, I’m almost done. I’m just going to change into some scrubs.” You felt your voice snapping, but you didn’t want to think of your parents. Not when you had to clear your mind to try and do this crazy operation in the middle of the cramped kitchen in your apartment. Letting yourself laugh a little hysterically, you moved to pull out a pair of scrubs from your dresser and quickly started to change, trying to take calming breaths to let your mind clear enough not to overthink and potentially psych yourself out. You could do this.

You walked back out into the kitchen and saw Ravi ending a call on his phone, handing his phone to Hyuk. “Here, kid. If I’m too out of it, give Ken your address when he calls later. He’s on a minor raid.” You raised an eyebrow at Ravi. While you hadn’t met the engineer, you knew that he was more of a lab guy. But if he was out on a raid that must mean the group was spread thinner than you had last heard. “Don’t give me that look. It’s just because he has the engineer credentials and knows what all techno-junk we need.”

You laughed with a shrug. “If you say so. Now, I warned you before but I’m saying it again. This isn’t going to be like the arm. It’s going to be worse and I’m going to be improvising a lot as I go along. I can’t knock you out completely, but please try to avoid screaming. My walls aren’t soundproof here and while the lady across the hall is old, she’s not deaf and I don’t want to try and think of an explanation for any screams.”

“Well there’s always rough .” You turned to Hyuk with a gasp, only to be met with his laughter as he nearly fell over in the floor at his own words. You were about to scold him before he held up a hand, shaking his head as he tried to regain his breath. “I’m joking. That’s why I grabbed this.” He held up an old leather belt of his. “It’s for you to bite down on. I saw it in an old movie in history class at school.” He shrugged, giving a rare show of embarrassment.

“Thanks, kid. And don’t worry, Iris. I know how to keep quiet when I have to. So let’s just get this over with before you let the nerves get to you.” Ravi gave you a reassuring smile and nod before taking the belt from Hyuk and putting it to his mouth, stopping for a moment before turning back to Hyuk. “Kid, you probably want to get out. It’s not going to be pretty.”

You heard Hyuk scoff as you carefully tied on a spare mask you kept just in case of an emergency. “I’m not a kid! And I know it’s going to be gruesome. I can handle it. Besides, what if she needs help with something? Or what if you try to squirm around? Someone has to hold you down. So put the belt in your mouth and shut up.”

Ravi’s laugh burst out and you ignored them and washed your hands quickly. “There’s no doubt he’s your brother, Iris. He’s got the same mouth on him.”

You walked back around to stand by the side of table with the leg you were going to have to cut off was, taking a deep breath. “Just bite on the leather and stop distracting me.” You turned back to Hyuk for a moment. “You don’t have to-”

“I want to watch. Besides, like I said, you might need help. So stop procrastinating and let’s chop off his leg.” Hyuk smiled at you, his normal big grin, and you shook your head, reaching for the tools.

~*~

While the operation had left you exhausted and high strung from nerves, you knew that you would need to stay awake to keep an eye on Ravi to be sure there were no complications, as he had miraculously seemed to make it through the surgery. You had gotten Hyuk to help you move him onto the couch in the main room so you could clean up the kitchen, insisting that your brother keep an eye on him.

The kitchen was a disaster, but cleaning was something that helped to calm you down and after you had finally gotten the majority of the mess cleaned away, you were feeling a little calmer. You started a pot of coffee and went back into the main room to shoo Hyuk off to bed as he still had school in the morning.

You spent the night trying to focus on the pages of a book you had been reading, but your mind didn’t seem to be focusing on the words. After a few hours, you gave up trying to read and simply set the book to the side, keeping your eyes on Ravi.

“You know it’s kind of hard to sleep when you’re staring at me like that.” Ravi’s voice was hoarse and you jumped, causing him to chuckle softly. “It’s okay. I just couldn’t sleep. Did Ken call to get the address?”

You moved to check a few things now that he was awake, trying to ignore the worry in the back of your mind about the many worst case scenarios that could happen. “Yeah, Hyuk gave him the address. He said he would stop by after the raid to get some measurements or such before he could start on the actual prosthetic. Whatever that means.”

Ravi chuckled and nodded. “Good. Even if he’s a little quirky, he’s the best out there. I don’t trust just anyone, after all.”

You scoffed before moving to help him sit up slightly then holding a glass of water up for him. “Shut up and drink. If you die after I went through all that trouble, I’m going to bring you back to life just to kill you myself.”

There was a soft knock at the door and you frowned before shifting Ravi to lay back on the couch before quickly covering him with a blanket, motioning for him to act like he was simply asleep. You crept to the door, peeking through the sight hole frowning slightly at the sight of a guy standing outside of your door. He glanced around the hall in a nervous gesture and you took a breath before opening the door, giving him a slight frown. “Who are you and what do you want?”

The guy on the other side of the door jumped before turning back to you and pausing as he stared. You felt your face heat as you glared at him. Although that was when you noticed a streak of what looked to be grease on his cheek just under his glasses and you raised an eyebrow, causing him to break from what seemed to be the shocked stupor he was in. “Oh, sorry. I’m Ken. You are Iris right? I didn’t get the wrong door?”

You sighed before reaching and grabbing his arm to pull him into the apartment and quickly shutting and locking the door behind him. When you turned back to him, you found him staring again and you frowned. “Why do you keep staring at me? I couldn’t leave you out in the hallway, my neighbors can be a little meddlesome at times.”

“You’re beautiful. I’m sorry for staring. I just-”

You scoffed and stormed off into the main room again, going to pull the cover off Ravi, giving him a glare. “Your engineer is crazy. I don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, but he’s here now. I’m getting some more coffee.” You turned to go back into the kitchen, only to bump into Ken, nearly falling to the floor.

Ken smiled down at you before moving to reach and brush his thumb against your forehead before ducking his head slightly. “You had a bit of blood.”

You rolled your eyes, feeling the exhaustion and stress wearing your patience thin. “And you have grease on your face. I know I’m a mess right now, but then again I had an emergency dropped on my doorstep. Now if you don’t move so I can get my coffee I’ll personally make you wish you had never joined up.”

Ravi’s laughter echoed from the couch behind you as you stepped around Ken to head into the kitchen, his voice following you. “She’s a feisty one isn’t she? If she wasn’t exhausted you might have gotten to see the better side of her. Of course, if you’re already staring after her like that, it’s probably a hopeless cause regardless.”

You scoffed to yourself, pouring a cup of coffee and drinking it straight, not able to hear Ken’s response, if he had anything to say. Of course you weren’t sure what Ravi was up to, but you could almost bet it wasn’t anything good. Finishing off the cup, you set it in the sink before walking back into the main room. Ken had knelt down on the floor in front of the couch and was doing something with a few tools, seemingly oblivious to you having walked back in.

“If you’re going to be here for a bit, I need to shower. Don’t let him move around and try not to poke around on his leg too much. If I come back and something has happened I’m blaming you.” You pointed at Ken with a frown before turning and going into your bedroom.

A quick shower and clean pajamas seemed to be just what you needed to help feel a little better, and when you walked back out into the main room a few minutes later, you sighed seeing that things were pretty similar to how you had left them. You crossed to lean over and check a few things with Ravi’s leg, trying to stay out of Ken’s way.

When you pulled back, you turned to Ken with a small sigh. “I’m sorry for snapping at you. Would you like some coffee? I can’t offer much more than that, I’m afraid, unless you want water.” You gave a small laugh as he spun around to look up at you, hitting his arm on the small table behind him.

Ravi burst out laughing and you turned to scowl at him for a moment, although he didn’t seem the least phased by it. “How about in repayment for both of you helping me out, I’ll give you this. Go out on a date and have all the hot monkey you want, and we can consider us even?” You spun back to face Ravi, but slipped slightly and lost your balance, falling over onto Ken, who quickly moved to catch you. Although that only caused Ravi to laugh even harder. “Look at you, already falling for him.”