“I’m fine. Despite the fact you keep having to rescue me, I’m not a weakling. I can defend myself,” Furi said with venom, pulling away from Syn’s examination.
“Right. That Mr. Miyagi crash course at the Y.” Syn stifled a laugh, but Furi thought it was anything but funny and he let Syn know it.
“Don’t fucking mock me.” Furi stormed past him down the hall. Syn’s footsteps sounded behind him. He’d just caught up with him when he opened the bathroom door.
“Hey, hey, hey,” Syn said in a whisper. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t mocking you, I was teasing you.”
Furi frowned and Syn shook his head. “Let me clarify. Joking after an intensely stressful situation helps to calm me. I need to come down from the high of an adrenaline rush, that’s all that was.”
Furi looked skeptical before finally sighing. “I’m sorry too.” Furi kept his hand in Syn’s and walked backwards down the hall to the living room. “So, did you kill him?”
Syn’s head jerked back as if what Furi said was completely absurd. “Never mind. Forget I said that, I don’t want to talk about him.” Furi moved in closer, placing his hand on Syn’s waist. “Are you okay?”
Syn closed the small space between them, leaving only a couple inches. “I am now.”
Furi grabbed Syn’s right hand, but recoiled slightly when he felt wetness on his own. He looked at his hand, noticing the blood that was smeared across his fingers. Oh my god. Furi picked up Syn’s hand for a closer inspection and winced at the bruised knuckles. Each was an angry purple color, and on a couple of surfaces skin had been broken or scraped off. Syn's entire hand was swollen and no doubt had to be throbbing. Syn shrugged nonchalantly, “It’s alright. It’s just a scratch.”
“Fuck,” Furi whispered. “You sure you didn’t kill him?”
Syn’s coal black eyes were deadly serious. “I wanted to. He better be thankful God was there to stop me.”
“It’s good you listen to the Almighty. Patrick could use a little Jesus in his own life,” Furi added.
Syn busted out laughing. “No, God is my, oh never mind. It’s not important.”
Furi continued to examine Syn’s hand while swallowing hard at the emotion in his throat. He took Syn’s other hand and lead him to the kitchen. “Sit.” He pointed at one of the small dinette chairs in the kitchen. He looked in a couple cabinets before he found one with a bowl in it. He opened the freezer, glad to see that although Syn didn’t have any food, he did have ice trays. Furi cracked and dumped two into the bowl, pulled a beer out the fridge and set both in front of his prizefighter. Grinning to himself, he asked, “Where’s your first aid kit, Champ?”
“Under the sink.” Syn shook his head, watching Furi intently. “So are you back to the nick-names? Refusing to say my name again?”
Ignoring the question. Furi set a few napkins, along with the first kit on the table and pulled out the opposite chair, scooting it closer to Syn, his knees practically between Syn’s parted thighs. “Give me your hand.”
Syn twisted off the top of his beer and shoved his bloody hand into the bowl, hitting the bottom with a thud. Not even wincing at the pain.
“Augh! Jesus H! What the ..." Furi winced while carefully pulling Syn’s hand out the bowl of ice. “I said to give me your hand. Geez, tough guy.”
Syn brought his beer up to his lips and took a long gulp, finishing half the bottle before slamming it back down. “Mmm. Good.”
Furi worked as gently as he could on Syn’s hand, feeling the man’s powerful gaze on him the entire time. It was eerily quiet, not even the sounds of breathing could be heard, despite their close proximity. Furi had cleaned all the blood off his hand and was ready to sanitize the wounds. “This might sting a little,” he said quietly, not looking up. He poured the anti-bacterial wash over the knuckles, and quickly began blowing to try to ease the discomfort. After it finally registered that Syn’s hand hadn’t even twitched, Furi looked up at the amused smile on the man’s gorgeous face. Furi barked an embarrassed laugh, realizing that what he just did wasn’t typical of a grown man. I still blow on something when it burns. “You’re an asshole. Stop looking at me like that. I thought it stung.”
“It did.” Goddamnit, Syn’s voice sounded so mysterious and dangerous. Like a sexy, low rumble that reverberated from deep down in his chest. It drove Furi insane with want. “But you made it feel all better.”
“Fine, go ahead and make fun of me, HeMan.”
Syn tisked. “The nick-names again. Looks like I’ve been demoted.”
After Furi placed a small amount of ointment on the exposed flesh, he put a few cubes of ice in a cloth and placed it gently on the swollen part of the back of Syn’s hand. He looked up into Syn’s eyes before finally speaking, “You really hate nicknames, huh?” A small smile was tugging at the corner of Furi’s lips.