The book of snippets

First Aid

He sprays a little antiseptic on the inside of the jacket and bundles some of it into resembling a cooton pad.

(the inside of a jacket is made form worsted wool, it is soft and also non-synthetic)

He helps vetri take out his shirt and gently starting dabbing the wound.

He has to be mindful not only of the dabbing, but also the other parts of the jacket touching vetri's wound especially the zip.

This could have been a lot better with an efficient first aid box.

"How does Vadivu, being my compounder, not maintain a good first aid box?" Maaran mutters.

Vetri looks at him and says, "Well we use it a lot and we can't always stock it up."

Maaran stops for a moment and gently says, "You could've asked me."

Maaran and Vetri both know that the sentence implies more than it says.

'You could've come to me instead of staying away.'

'You could've told me the truth ealier.'

'I could've helped, could've taken care of you.'

(See note 1)

Maaran sees anger rising in Vetri when he huffs and says, "No... not happening."

Maaran himself gets angry now and shouts, "Why? Vadivu helped you. I am a doctor myself.. I could have helped. I'd rather be useful than protected."

Vetri looks up at him, his eyes burning with intensity when he says, "I didn't need you to be useful... I needed you to be safe, mom and dad are already dead..."

Maaran might be vexed but he is still a doctor and he knows when his patient is getting anxious and anxiety is always bad.

So, keeping aside all the frustration and vexation, he smiles and gets on with fixing the wound.

~~~~~

After Vetri's inevitable capture which is actually a surrender and his even more inevitable escape....

He makes it clear to Maaran and the rest of his make shift family, that stability is not in his nature but an unhealthy obsession towards dark knighting is.

So, he goes on errands every now and then while keeping the police off his trial. This and his revealed identity makes it more difficult to perform errands, which means sometimes vetri gets injured during them.

He also makes it quite clear that Maaran and Anu are the only doctors he trusts in the entire country.

Which means that even if he gets stabbed or gets shot, he does the first aid himself, then throws off the trail and comes to Maaran.

Which is the reason why Maaran is pulling out, what could be the clumsiest stitches he has seen in his entire life.

Vetri has the audacity to casually ask, "enna bro romba kaduppa iruka pola?"
(what's the matter bro? You look upset!)