Zaid's day started okay.

After spending time with Jude cooking, he had been in great spirits. They cooked, things were fun, his heart got way too hopefully in a totally not lame way.


Then, he went to work.


That always seemed to put things down the drain. To start, the morning rush was absolutely insane. He was stuck filling orders up front, he got hit on twice by high school girls--and once by what seemed to be some type of fox mutant--and then he tried getting supplies from the back and pulled a muscle in his already sore side. By the time he was done and heading home, he was dirty, tired, and had a serious case of droopy ears. He was pretty sure he never wanted to see a coffee bean ever again in his life. Screw mocha lattes and half soy disasters. 

Much to his word, he decided to take a new route home, which ended up needing a rather awkward jump over a high fence. While this didn't seem to be much of a challenge this morning, in his tired state, he took a leap, caught his foot, and went smashing into the pavement below with a yelp and a TWAP of terrible pain. 

It was late enough in the evening this particular stretch of sidewalk didn't seem to have anyone nearby, so he did the dignified thing and laid on his back, sniffling in pain, and cursing every type of caffeinated beverage he could thing of. 

"Screw you vanilla chai espresso with whip..." He finished, trying his best to crawl to his feet. Home was only a block away. He could do this, somehow.     

She had found in her many years here that the city tended to throw the most peculiar things at you when you least expected them. And, while she tried to always expect the unexpected due to the nature of her job and affiliation with a certain school, she also found herself constantly surprised by new things playing out before her eyes

Like, say, a floppy eared bunny person spilling over the top of a fence onto the sidewalk. The Greek was a little shocked at first, stood across the street at a red walk signal, with her coffee in one and and her phone in the other. It was her day off (one of the rare ones that actually stayed a day off to boot) and she had been on her way back home from picking up her newest library books and getting her drink.

"Oh!" Uncertain what to do for a moment since she technically wasn't supposed to walk yet, she made the decision to go ahead and jump the gun solely to make sure the other person was alright and pray that there weren't any ticket happy officers around. A short, quick jog led her to the persons side, where she knelt and set her coffee down on the sidewalk. Phone tucked away and snake-braid flipped over her shoulder she gave a quick once over for visible signs of trauma. It had been a pretty bad fall after all!

"Excuse me, are you alright?"

Her eyes fixed on a black eye that stood out like a sore thumb, and she immediately turned to look down the ally where the person had come from. She was expecting someone chasing them, or something. It looked as if they had been running possibly if they injured were anything to go by. Seeing nothing, she turned back and gave it a closer inspection. It wasn't fresh... possibly a few days old if the bruising and color were anything to go by. Her attention turned then to how they were carrying themselves, where there seemed to be pain and tenderness. She fished a little pen light out of her pocket and clicked it on.

"My name is Andrea, i'm a nurse and I just want to check your eyes for a moment to make sure you don't have a concussion." She would wait for consent before preforming the check, and then move onto the possibly more serious injuries.

"If you don't mind me asking... what are the other injuries from?"

Work mode snapped in so fast she was already calculating what other injuries there were that she possibly couldn't see. She remained as calm and pleasant as she could though.

Zaid thought his nose was imagining things when he got the first scent of the stranger by his side. It reminded him a bit of a hospital, although there was a smell of books, and the all too noticeable coffee scent he had come to despise today. With a groan, he rolled over, blinking at the girl in front of him. It was actually quite an accomplishment he didn't look surprised or stare. Her hair looked, different, and her skin was a blue-green color. The eyes looking at him were orange, but seemed kind and caring. Why did they still make his little bunny tail twitch when he saw them, though?

"Uh, I don't think I have a concussion, but I guess you can check. I just...hit my ribs...on an injury." He didn't feel keen to get up quite yet. He wasn't sure if his body or his dignity was aching more from down here.

"I'm Zaid." He tried to use his manners, even in the situation. He tried to shift to sit up and flinched again. "The other...oh, the black eye. There was a scuffle, and I took an elbow to the face. And a good kick to the ribs. You know, the usual demeaning treatment big jocks like to throw and dainty bunnies." He tried to flash a smile at the joke and flinched again. Oooofff, don't laugh, that hurts. Then he squinted closer at her. The hair was throwing him off. Was it a trick in the light? His ears twitched again.

A tussle? Hmm. She nodded slightly, but wasn't quite satisfied with the answer. "Well, Zaid, it is a pleasure to meet you... but purely from a medical professional's point of view I should mention that you shouldn't be throwing yourself over any more fences in the future, if that is the case. Have you gotten the injuries looked at already?"

The fact that it hurt so much from moving and laughing wasn't a very good sign in her opinion. Cracked or bruised ribs were difficult to deal with on good days, let alone for those few who refused to allow themselves to rest enough to begin the healing process.

Her snakes, which were still tied back within her braid were, for lack of a better word, freaking out. A scent they didn't often come in contact with was sooo cloose but it was a struggle for them to reach around and see.

All except for sloth, that is.

The big lazy snake flopped his head over her shoulder with all the grace of a dead fish, and flicked his long pink tongue at the male though his little restricting muzzle.

Smelled like meat, to him!

The medical advice was logical, sadly. Zaid had the grace to look sheepish though. ”Well, jumping over fences was part of the plan to avoid more tussles. The idea being, if I pick a new route home I won’t get jumped or have my lunch money stolen. Clearly, people think this is still high school.” He was still laying on the ground. If anyone walked by they might think he was a rather oversized piece of roadkill, spread out to be sacrificed to this orange eyed mutant. Looks were deceiving, thankfully.

Then, he spotted it. The wriggling in her hair took a more solid form in his eyes, and he saw the all too noticeable tongue lash through a teeny tiny muzzle. ”Stars and SNAKES!” his body recoiled before he could stop himself, an awkward attempt to get to his feet, a squeak of pain, and a fresh thud as he toppled back on his fluffy tail. Oh hell, his nose wiggled nervously and his ears flattened.

She’s helping! You judgmental rodent!

”I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to.... oh Stars and aces, I just wasn’t expecting anything to stick it’s tongue out at me. It’s not you! I mean, I guess they’re attached to you, but I’m not usually so fast to assume, but the rabbit, the....I can’t breathe.... rib, rib, definitely hurt a rib! His heart should not be moving that fast. Why oh why did he have to be part rabbit!

”If you want to just.... leave me on the sidewalk, I won’t judge...I’m sorry!” he tugged his hood over his head and hid his face in embarrassment.

The Greek frowned at the mention of being jumped. A tussle was a tussle and she wasn't going to assume anything at first. But being jumped was pretty clear. The city still had a long way to go.

And then, snakes!

He recoiled. She recoiled. Sloth was jostled back over her shoulder with a hiss of protest. She blinked at him wide-eyed for a movement before reeling herself back in. "No, it is okay! Really, it is okay. Focus on breathing slow and steady or you will put more strain on your ribs." She showed him using her hand as a guide to push a slow breath out and pull a slow breath back in.

"I'm not going to go anywhere until I know that you are ok. Where were you headed? I can help you get there, or I can call someone else to help if you would like." She kept her tone patient, not a trace of hurt in her face. She was used to people reacting a certain way to her snakes so it didn't bother her all that much any more.

"Really, with an injury such as that you should be seen by a professional as quickly as possible. If you had a fracture you could end up with a full break without treatment." She stood and offered to help him stand from a comfortable distance from him. If he accepted she would be right there, if not she would't be forcing any discomfort on him.

"The snakes are all muzzled, if that helps. They cannot hurt you."

Breathe.... that was easier said than done when your heart took off like a horse in a race track. He shut his eyes and tried to focus. Don’t think about the snakes attached to the girl’s head. This was perfectly normal. You have dealt with worse. Uh, right? What was worse than snakes attached to someone’s head?

”I live...about a block away. There’s really not anyone to call.” hell-to the-no he was going to have anyone call Jude. Other than that his only phone contact was probably Javier. That also did not sound like someone to involve in this. ”I don’t really have insurance for this sort of thing, and generally speaking, not everyone wants to treat a bunny. I’ve been referred to a veterinarian before, but this doesn’t involve my ears or tail. Pretty sure ribs fall under human specialists.”

With all the courage he could muster, he accepted the help up. That was what type of person he was. He may be absolutely terrified of snakes in his bunny jeans, but he would never, could never, allow himself to make decisions about someone based on their mutation. Snakes didn’t mean bad people. The snakes are muzzled.

Actually, that helped. He forced the bunny side of his brain to take notice of the muzzles. A snake couldn’t bite this way, so he was safe. A few wobbly steps and he reached for her arm, feeling winded from the effort. ”If you take a right up ahead, it’s the third building. I’ll have to trouble you after all. Do they uh, have names? Or do I refer to you all as Andrea?” it was a mild effort for truce with the wrigglys.

Her frown deepened again when he let her know he had been told to visit a vet before. Oh... if she could weasel out the names of who had done that to him before the night was over she'd have their licenses shut down before the week was through. What kinda cruel, malpractice was that!?

Gritting back her deepening anger at the treatment of Zaid, she helped him up to his feet with well practiced care. "Well, not that I can speak for whatever cruel manner of a person you were unfortunate enough to meet first, but my practice does no such thing. I am well versed in the care of injuries such as yours, and if you will allow me to I can help treat you." She paused, "Also, if you can try and remember where you were seen last would you be willing to send me the info later? The board would love to hear about such obvious mistreatment."

She made sure to get a secure grip on him, adjusting to help relieve pressure on his wounds if she could. "Actually... when I was young and had just acquired them I had decided to name them after the seven sins." She laughed quietly, still a little embarrassed by that. "The big white one is Sloth. He is the laziest of them all."

Said snake had curled back up within her braid moodily. She felt him tense when she spoke his name. "There is also Avarice, Gula, lust, Ira, vanagloria, and Hubris."

She helped him along at a pace that was comfortable with the directions he had given. Her coffee left behind, forgotten due to more important things at hand.

Zaid noticed the slight tension when he talked about his previous doctor visit. Was she actually upset for him? That seemed surprising, coming from a stranger. To him it, that suggestion just felt silly at the time; he never even took the time to be offended. He wondered if more of his life had been just him naively accepting whatever happened.

”I should have an office name somewhere at home... my parents kept most the files together when they were around, and I just sort of kept up with the practice. It wasn’t anything big at the time, just an ear infection. So I didn’t think it was them being rude. They are rabbit ears, I mean.” it just felt like a fact to him.

While they walked, he listened to the snake names. This also made him feel better about the wrigglers, as he now called them in his head. Wrigglers sounded cuter than snakes, and made him flinch less.

”Ah, Sloth would be the one who keeps eyeing me like a snack then...” he mused. They would have to come to terms with that since they were in close proximity. He was not food, despite his fluffy ears and tail. ”They are nice names. I don’t think anything is bad about that. I mean, plenty of anime characters are named after the seven deadly sins.” he kept trying to talk, forgetting his injury. This was killing his interest in conversation.

At his building, he pointed out the elevator and got them to the right floor. Thankfully his door wasn’t too far along. ”I appreciate the help. Do I need an appointment where you work or...? You look like you were on your day off. I seem to have interfered with that.”

Her eyebrows shot up while he was talking as she was genuinely confused. Was was an Anime? "I am afraid I do not know what this Anime is. A show? Book? How many characters are in it? What is it about?" She flushed slightly in embarrassment. "For all my world knowledge of medicine and classical writing, I fear I lack a grasp on a lot of modern forms of entertainment."

This was the comic books situation all over again!

She glanced around in mild interest as they went along. She had walked along this way many time and passed this exact building but had never realized it was apartments.

"Oh, do not worry about an appointment. I have work supplies in my bag here for most minor injuries. I should have most of what I would need on me to at least get you patched up enough you can move without constant pain." She patted her bag with her free hand.

"For any meds you might need I can refer to you someone, as I cannot write out prescriptions while not on the clock... but if you do end up needing them I can help you get in to someone tomorrow at the latest for a proper prescription." She winked slightly, "And do not worry about payment of any sort. I am doing this off the clock and of my own free will because you needed help. I can even help you with with the meds if they are needed."

Once inside, she would find a place to help him sit down and set her bag down as well.

"I will have to ask you to remove your shirt if you can. I need to be able to see the injury clearly. I will also need to feel it, but I promise to be gentle. I should be able to feel if there are any obvious breaks or pieces of bone out of place."

She would set about pulling on a fresh set of clean gloves.

Andrea didn’t know what anime was. Zaid felt genuinely bewildered by this. He was, after all, Japanese. ”Anime is just Japanese animation. It’s cartoons, but a lot of the time it’s more adult. I guess I figured everyone has seen some anime in their life. That’s just me assuming though.” he blushed. He was bad about making assumptions it seemed.

”The art style usually has very big eyes, simplified faces and stuff. You’d know it when you saw it,” he explained.

Zaid let her into his apartment, glad at least today it was cleaner. His bed was unmade, but that was normal. At least he got another chair in here this time. The loft was not large, with posters and nerdy nick-Nacks littered about. ”There’s not a ton of room, sorry. New York isn’t known for its spacious living quarters. You can put your bag here—“ he gestured to a table, moving his Hufflepuff mug out of the way.

Then she needed him to remove his shirt. Well, that made sense, as awkward as it was. He obediently slithered free of the hoodie and shirt, managing not to lift his arm too much and activate the injury. He had pale skin that made the bruising on his side stand out with shades of purple, blue and green, different areas in different phases of healing. He was toned, fit thanks to his bunny metabolism, which made him less embarrassed by this. He was more nervous by her reaction when she found out someone did this to him and it wasn’t an accident. He didn’t know if getting kicked in the ribs left different bruising than normal. He didn’t make a habit of checking.

”I still feel like I owe you for this... You didn’t have to help me.” she was even offering to help him find medicine. It...kind of felt like having a mom around again.

She made a little face of genuine interest as he explained it, and had the decency to blush a little darker at being in the dark about it for so long. "I.. have probably see something of it somewhere, but I don't tend to get my nose out of my current lineup of books enough to keep up with most other forms of entertainment." She chuckled slightly, "I'm only now really looking into comics and such because a friend recommended some."

She would have to make time to look into it again, just as before. Maybe it would end up being like the few Drisney films that she has seen in her life? Wholesome and family friendly content she could enjoy for years to come!

She only briefly glanced around his apartment in order to orient herself, not wanting to stare at anything too long and invade his privacy more than she already had. "Oh, I know alright. It took me months to find one with enough room for my book collection that wasn't half a mortgage a month." She chuckled. With new gloves on him him having removed his upper clothes, she turned back to face him and stilled. The patterning on his injury was pretty bad. Possibly from more than one hard blow. The color variation spoke volumes of what had happened and she was suddenly unsure of how much good she could do in this environment. She tried to warm her hands up a little by keeping them clasped together for a moment as she worried about what to do.

"Oh, Zaid... you poor thing." Chewing on her bottom lip, she turned back to her bag and withdrew a few things, her fingers hovered over her transfusion equipment, tucked away in it's separate little bag. "Just with a visual check on that I can say that it is bad. Whoever jumped up meant to cause great harm."

Gloves a little warmer, she reached out to gently start to prod at the wound. "What level of pain would you consider yourself at right now? One being no pain at all, and 10 being severe?"

She would feel along each of his ribs with his arm down, and then request for him to lift it as high as he could without severe pain. Then she would check his ribs again. A few more small tests later she sat back on her heels with a frown.

"Zaid, i'll be honest with you. Your injury is more sever than I can treat in this environment with typical methods. Some dressing most likely won't help enough to give you bad full range of motion. The black eye will heal slowly on it's own and doesn't concern me much from how it looks, but your ribs..." She brought out her little transfusion pouch and moved to settle herself somewhere near him so she could be comfortable. Unzipping it, she pulled out her self made transfusion card, with all of her blood type information and the most current dates of her last testing.

"It might be a little unorthodox, but another facet of my mutation allows me to heal with my blood. I have preformed these kinds of transfusions only a handful of times for emergencies, but... I am not very open with it yet." She was focused on his face as she held out the info card for him to take.

"If you agree to it, I can have you healed up fully within the hour. If not, the most I can do is some stiff bandages and a recommendation to visit me at a clinic the next time I am working."

Zaid felt a little embarrassed when she looked at his injuries, especially when he heard the concern in her voice. Well, there went a hit to his ego. If he was tougher he wouldn't have been beat up in the first place. He flinched when she asked him to define his pain level. "Um, maybe a 5? It doesn't hurt as much until I move or you poke me." he explained.

As she inspected he followed instructions, failing more when she tried to get him to lift his arm. He couldn't stop himself from yelping and giving up somewhere mid-shoulder. The whole exam made him want to go to bed and just try to sleep it off. This was draining his willpower to exist in the world.

Then there was the verdict: there wasn't a lot she could do to help. His ears drooped until she brought out the transfusion kit, and then he was more confused than anything.

"Healing blood? I mean, being healing in an hour sounds better, but, are there any side effects?" He was taught to be wary of blood, especially working in a kitchen. It was a giant bio-hazard anytime someone injured themselves. She had a detailed card though that confirmed her blood as safe, so that was reassuring. Still, was it a risk he should take? She was a stranger, after all.

"Will it just work on my ribs?" He didn't want to sound conceited, but he was hoping his face would heal too. A certain face came to mind when he asked this question. He just wanted to look cute again. It was odd how earlier in the week he hated being treated like he was cute, and now he kind of missed it. It made a difference when you were trying to attract the interest of a friend though. Friend, still a friend. He just had to keep telling himself this was not a silly little crush.

She shook her head in response to him. "To my knowledge from the few times I have used it, there are no side effects save for accelerated healing."

She gestured to his ribs for her second response. "Your ribs might start to heal up first, but as my blood mingles with yours and is pumped through your body it will work on any other injuries you might have. It should rid you of that black eye too." The Greek smiled, trying to make the situation a little less awkward. "I only use this option is the situation is dire enough...and with you not having insurance and such a serious injury, I felt the scales tipped enough to offer it."

She did pause for a second though, a little nervousness of her own creeping into her voice.

"I do have one request... I need you to promise me that under no circumstance will you tell another soul about what I can do. All strangeness aside, there are still bad people in this city would would do great harm upon others in order to have anything that might prolong their life or heal them from an injury of their own making. I do not wish to put anyone in danger, nor have myself become a target if I can help it."

Yes, she knew that he was a stranger with injuries he had said were inflicted from being jumped. Yes, she was putting an awful lot of trust in someone she rightfully didn't know... But her gut was telling her she could, so she would trust it.

"That is my only request in repayment for my services."

The earnest request made Zaid pause and consider what she was actually asking to do. On the one hand, he could be healed and no one would be the wiser he pretty much cracked a rib trying to do parkour. His face would be fine, injuries gone, and he could work with no issues. On the other, promising never to tell anyone seemed to run a new risk. ”Andrea, as nice as your offer is, maybe it’s safer if we don’t.” he hung his head, feeling a bit upset by the revelation he had.

”These guys came back for me once already. And yeah, they ended up with some broken bones. But if they saw I was walking around unharmed after KNOWING I should at least have some injury, wouldn’t they get suspicious? If anyone linked it back to you, that would put you at risk. I just don’t want the wrong people digging into things and endangering you. A little bruising is worth dealing with so you don’t get hurt.”

Then he realized he might upset her. So he quickly tried to continue. ”I really do appreciate the offer though! And if you could like, help with the meds, I mean, that would help still. But I may just have to heal the slow way. I have tomorrow off, I can rest at home. And I’ll get Layne to let me hide in the back on Monday.”