Archive of Our Own

“Hold still.” Henry demanded as he tried to clean the wounds on Patrick's hands, unable to miss how Patrick tried to remove his hands from the spray of the faucet, forcing Henry to hold him in place. “Don't make me call Victor and Belch in here to hold your ass down.”

“You sound like a mother hen—” Patrick remarked as he dealt with the discomfort the burns and water caused him, tensing worse when his hands were removed from the water and alcohol was poured over the fresh burns. “Fuck! Henry!”

“Stop your bitching.” Henry responded as he continued to tend to Patrick's wounds, not bothering to be gentle with him as he knew Patrick had done a lot worse to himself just minutes before. “No one told you to test out that lighter before washing the lighter fluid off your hands.”

In hindsight Henry should have known the second he handed Patrick that massive bottle of lighter fluid that something like this was bound to happen. Patrick had spilled lighter fluid on himself before and thought nothing of it, but this stuff was a bit different. Henry wasn't even sure what the lighter fluid had been cut with, as they mostly used it to burn brush rather than to put in handheld lighters, but Patrick had been confident that it would work, and it did, except it worked a bit too well. Patrick got his lighter working, but the spilled fluid on his skin caught fire with it. The burns were at least in the second degree, and the second Henry saw them, he rushed Patrick inside. His old man would be on his ass in an instant if he saw them, and he didn't want to think about the hell Patrick's parents would raise over them, as unlike Butch, Patrick's parents actually gave a damn about their one and only living child.

“There.. Just.. Don't tell them this happened here.” Henry responded as he secured the bandage on Patrick's hands, doing his absolute best not to show how worried he was, especially when he took into account the visible muscle beneath. “Do you feel okay?”

“Yeah.. Yeah, I'm fine.” Patrick breathed as he flexed his injured hand, choosing to ignore the blood rapidly saturating the bandages that had been applied. “I don't even feel most of them.”

“…Shit.” Henry muttered as panic set in, running a hand through his hair as he opened the bathroom door. “Vic! Get your ass in here!”

Perhaps a few of those burns were a bit deeper than Henry assumed they were. Henry tried not to stress too much as Vic dealt with Patrick's burns the proper way. Apparently the alcohol was a bad move, but it wasn't as if he had a medical license. It was his responsibility to look out for his friends, and he had made shit worse. Patrick needed actual medical attention. He needed more than Vic could provide. Henry didn't want to think about the fallout of this incident, but Patrick was a damn good liar, and his parents believed him because Patrick had made himself out to be the perfect son. No one needed to know the truth. This incident would die with them.