Spring Forward, Fall Back (Alucard x Chubby! Reader)

Chapter 94 - Devil Forgemasters And Their Distractions

Hector P.O.V.

I fought to stay still as one of the women cleaned and dressed my hand, each and every dab at the missing digit feeling as though I'd stabbed it into dying embers of a campfire. The woman, however, had a look on her face that screamed she was sorry every time she had to swipe at the raw wound before she relaxed and took up the bandages.

"I hope I didn't hurt you too much," she said softly as she gathered a bit of bandage to create a cushioned pad for the end of my missing finger.

"Pain is the least of my worries," I said honestly, "and its no less than I deserve."

"Why would you say such a thing?" she said, her head shooting up to allow her eyes to glare into my soul.

"Because it was my creations that aided that bitch, forgive my language," I said angrily. She began to shrink away when I hurriedly said, "I'm not angry with you. I'm angry with myself. That woman tricked me into doing her bidding and-"

"She tricked you, so you shouldn't feel so bad about yourself," the woman said to me as she prepared the bandage. "You may have thought what you were doing was the better thing at the time, but when you figured out it wasn't, did you continue to do things willingly?"

"No. I-"

"Well then shut up," she snapped shortly. "You weren't doing things willingly, so, while what you did may have hurt people, you didn't do things of your own accord. So stop kicking yourself for everything you messed up on, or I'll takeover the kicking." She slowly began to wrap my hand, keeping a careful eye on how tight the bandage was and ensuring that my skin didn't change colors. I looked at her face as she worked, seeing the small creases of her brow as she worked, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. The chuckling slowly wound up into laughter while I saw a smirk growing on her face before she chuckled to herself.

"I don't doubt you would begin kicking me. I'm trying not to imagine it, but I'm finding very difficult not to." This time, she laughed.

"I was actually waiting for you to argue more," she chuckled. "You seem like the type of person to argue until you turn blue in the face." Her description had me tilting my head in confusion.

"I'm normally not one to argue," I tried to insinuate. "I'm normally quite soft-hearted and easy to talk to. I'm not one to start arguments and-"

"See?" she said after a small snort of mirth. "There you go arguing again."

"I'm not arguing, I'm simply stating a fact," I...argued. Dammit.

"Yes, you are," she laughed, "and that's alright. At least you've gotten out of that mood you were in before." I found that a small smile had settled itself on my lips even as this woman wound bandages around my injured finger. Smiling through the pain, I guess. I suppose I should ask the name of my nurse...

"My name is Mara, by the way," she said without looking up. I looked at her with surprise.

"I was just about to ask you your name. Are you able to read my mind or something?" She started to smile wider, if that was possible, and then a chuckle escaped.

"No, I can't read your mind," she said. "You're just simple enough to figure out. It won't be much longer before you try to argue you aren't as simple as I think, I'll say you are, we'll get into another argument, which you will say you're just stating more facts, and we'll be back around where you tell me your name. So, why don't we just skip to the part where you tell me your name in return?"

"It's Hector," I said quickly. A chuckle escaped me before I said, "And I am not simple." She rolled her eyes and laughed joining my own chuckle. Something so silly as this conversation made me feel so much better, easily overcoming my guilt and making me realize I may have added some danger to the situation, but I wasn't fully to blame.