Taming the Wild

Help!

Getting down the stairs in a hurry with a bleeding gun wound on your shoulder was not an easy task at all. The brunette stumbled with a painful groan and almost fell a few times but he did not give up, he couldn't give up. Too much was at stake. The pain was unbearable, making him lose consciousness but he persevered. His legs were taking him to the only place he knew he would feel safe - Erik's shop. Only Erik could provide the right amount of comforting and safety that Charles needed right now. Not to mention that he instinctively felt that Erik would know what to do with gun wounds.

He was stumbling all the way, his good hand grasping his shoulder tightly, trying to stop the blood with a handkerchief. This, of course, was useless, but Charles' brain wasn't thinking very well right now. The blood turned the cloth red and did the same even to his shirt, but luckily it was already in a darker colour, so the blood didn't show.

All Charles wanted was to get to Erik before the pain makes him faint.

Luckily he managed to hide the blood to avoid drawing attention to himself on the street. He didn't want them to give Sebastian Shaw further directions as to where he was headed. Now most of the passers-by probably thought he was drunk.

He looked up and an almost happy sigh escaped his lips. Finally the blacksmith's shop! Charles felt relief as he swung the door open with a loud bang and hang himself on it for a moment, gazing at Erik with blurry eyes.

"Why are you here?" Erik growled angrily. He seemed grumpy and pissed, almost like he had woken up on the wrong site of his bed, the young teacher's mind faintly registered, but he couldn't really think about that right now.

"Help..." Charles breathed out, panting and holding his shoulder with a painful shudder, shutting the door close with whatever strength he had left.

Erik was still concentrating on rearranging the horseshoes on his counter, not even glancing at Charles.

"I saw you and your friend this morning." the blacksmith said, his voice sounded distant, bitter, biting and hurt "I'm pretty sure he could be of better help to you than me." The older one spat, trying not to look towards the younger man.

"What the hell are you talking about? Just help me!" Charles whined, tears escaping his eyes, making them blood shot.

He was feeling faint and weak, his legs gave nearly up to carry his weight, obviously caused by the loss of blood. Slowly the blue-eyed man slid down the wall, sitting on the floor to pant and rest there for a moment. His hand clawing around his wound, where blood still was oozing out of it.

Finally Erik turned his head to Charles with a frown, but when he looked at the younger one his face paled. "Charles! What's wrong with you?"

The blacksmith let the horseshoes slip out of his hands and thump on the floor. He rushed to Charles, falling on his knees to examine him.

"My sh-shoulder..." Charles mouthed and his face twisted in pain as the blacksmith slowly removed Charles' hand from the wound.

"You've been shot!" Lehnsherr gasped with wide eyes.

He removed Charles' jacket and tore his shirt to bare the teacher's shoulder so he could properly examine the wound. The blood flow hadn't stopped and it got everywhere so Erik quickly brought water and towels, beginning to clean it while Charles was slipping in and out of consciousness.

"Hold on, Charles! Just stay with me, alright?" he could hear Erik's soothing voice from a distance as if listening to him through cotton in his ears.

His mouth was dry, his tongue glued on the ceiling of his mouth. He couldn't feel anything around him - only blurred light and the reassuring feeling of Erik's presence. He tried to smile, it was a very gentle smile. Yes, everything was better with him around.