ficlets of characters you don't know

winning not-really.

cos i'm a sucker for hurt/comfort and just the general "patching up people" trope

[copy-pasted directly from google docs.]
tw: mentions of like. a lot of blood lmfao. and also guns. and just general Americassery.

He hisses a bit. "Ah– can you–"

"Can I what?" Caro raises an eyebrow and the pain in Richie's side sharpens for a moment. He glares at the wall silently and Caro scoffs, letting up. He's a bit more careful after that, but no one would know.

The two of them were in the kitchen, Richie sitting on the counter and bleeding over the wood and Caro's hands unapologetically. He stumbled in a couple minutes earlier and bled over their carpet, which he looked pretty annoyed at himself about doing, when Joey banished him from the living because it was 'ruining the vibe' and told Caro to go deal with it.

"How'd you anger that many people at once, anyway?"

"I beat them at billiards," he deadpans.

"Sure. You insult them while you did that, too, or?"

"We made a bet that the loser pays the tab."

"So you bought the most expensive thing on the menu?" he guesses.

"And then I threw it at them."

"Why in your right mind did you think that would go over smoothly?"

"I forgot guns were legal in this country."

"Of course, you did."

"Shut up."

He rolls his eyes. "I'm surprised that bullet passed through you."

"I'm surprised it hit me at all."

"I'm not."

Richie scowls at Caro and he smirks smugly in response. "Well, it's fine. I'm not dead and they're sharing a jail cell downtown, so. I win."

"But did you, though? You didn't kill them, you got shot, and now you're banned from that place. Sounds like you lost to me."

"How was I supposed to kill them? With a barstool? The 8 ball? That's too much effort. And I didn't really like that place anyway."

"Hey, Sleazy Pete's is awesome. You're just bitter." He cuts the bandage with a soft snip of his scissors.

"Sleazy Pete's is sleazy. That's why I do stupid things there. There's no consequences."

"Clearly, there's some." Caro grins, poking at the wound.

Richie winces, slapping his hand away. "Stop that."

He turns to wash his hands in the sink. "Yeah. You're cleaning this up, by the way." He gestures to the mess of medical supplies and blood. "Have fun."

"Ugh. I'm gonna take a nap first."

"Sweet dreams."

"Shut up."