[unrecorded]

[caroflower]

Caro is able to shoo Weyoun away earlier than usual today, so she packs up some food and heads over to Walter's. Hopefully this means there's enough time to see about Walter's scar. Caro would like to get that done with already.

So here she is knocking on Walter's door, a couple hours earlier than she normally might. It's even earlier than they'd anticipated, so she hopes he's actually awake. Well, she can hear Bourbon at least.

And hey, she even has something other than stew for once.

Comments

[caroflower]

Caro leans in to start drawing where Walter had indicated the day before... only to find a very faint outline already there. How helpful. "Huh," she says mostly to herself, "looks like the Capitol didn't do that thorough a job after all."

Before she can think about it too much, she starts tracing over the very faint scar with the pen. She blushes again anyway. Knock it off, Caro.

[illdrinktothat]

Walter isn't really prepared for the sensation of being drawn on. It's... tingly and weird. He has to clench his jaw and not think about that. And also not laugh, because that is apparently also a thing going on here. It'd fuck up her drawing.

He glances over his back briefly after it feels like she's mostly done with the drawing on him part. "How's it going, sweetheart?"

[caroflower]

Caro tries not to think too hard about having both her hands on Walter's back-- drawing with her left and sort of uselessly balancing with her right, like how she'd hold the paper down to keep it from moving, if she were drawing on paper. She can at least file it away to consider later. Right now she has a job to do.

"Almost done." She focuses on her drawing, because she's pretty sure she'd blush again if she made eye contact right now. No point in just giving Walter more ammunition.

[illdrinktothat]

Walter's trying really hard to not think about Caro's hands on his back. Honestly, he's trying to not think much about her at all at the moment. It's a little tougher than expected.

"Good." And he rests his chin on his arms and bites down on his tongue a bit because goddamn that sort of tickles.

[caroflower]

"Okay." Caro takes a step back and looks over her pen work. "It looks good to me, do you want to check it in a mirror before I start?"

She'd like confirmation that she's drawn it okay, but she also hopes she doesn't have to deal with more of Walter's shirtlessness. Not in this context anyway.

[illdrinktothat]

Walter actually... hadn't thought about that. "Er. Yeah."

That's something that requires he get up and exit the room to find a mirror (and field Bourbon who immediately thinks it's time for attention). The bathroom's not far - and it doesn't take a ton of craning his neck around to inspect her work. The lines are even and symmetrical enough, and it follows along the old scars fairly accurately. It doesn't take particularly long before he decides it meets his standards, and he has to return to the kitchen. He's smart enough to lock Bourbon in the bathroom as he leaves, though.

Walter gives Caro a nod as he returns, settling back into his chair as he was just a few minutes previously. "We're good."

[caroflower]

Caro washes her hands and double checks the supplies while Walter's gone. She nods and ducks her head when he comes back and sits down again. "Okay."

She picks up the knife and leans in, running her fingers over the ink lines one last time. "All right, I'm starting." And then she makes the first cut.

It's... not as difficult as she was afraid it would be. She pauses a moment to make sure Walter's all right and doesn't need her to correct her technique or anything. "Okay?"

[illdrinktothat]

Walter inhales sharply when she starts tracing her fingers over the lines. It's difficult not to react much to that, really; he's vaguely thankful when that's followed up by fairly immediate, sharp pain. It doesn't take a lot to even his breathing out again when he can focus on the cutting. That's something he can actually deal with pretty damn well. It's easier to distance himself from his body when it's pain he's experiencing.

He spares a glance over his shoulder at her question. He manages a half-smile with relative ease. "I'm fine."

[caroflower]

"Okay. Let me know if you're not." And with that, Caro gets to work.

She cuts very carefully. Not too deep, but it does need to scar. Between the various lessons from Walter before her Games, the reading she did on her own, and the refresher he gave her yesterday, she has a pretty good idea of what she should be doing. The reality is just... different. Slicing into Walter is difficult, but ultimately maybe not as tough for her as it should be. She tries to focus solely on the work she's doing, and she mostly succeeds.

When Caro's about halfway done, she pauses again. "Do you need a break?"

[illdrinktothat]

Walter rests his chin on his arms, closing his eyes when she starts cutting. There's no real ignoring that kind of pain; it's not the worst he's ever experienced, but it's immediate and the sort of sharp that isn't going to dull or fade any time soon. He's dealt with pain before, though. Years of being a veritable punching bag... and then everything the Order did. Everything they prepared him for. He breathes in slowly through his nose, out through his mouth, and lets the pain wash through him as much as he can. It's just the flesh. He can separate himself from the flesh.

The talking momentarily snaps him out of his concentration. He shakes his head once. "Keep going, I'm alright."

[caroflower]

"All right." Caro kind of expected that answer, so she hadn't even straightened up. She gets back to work, cutting carefully but quickly. The second half seems to take longer, but that's probably because she has to wipe blood away more often.

Finally, she's done. She mops up more blood and holds the towel against Walter's back. "Can you hand me the bandages? Or do you want to look it over first?"

[illdrinktothat]

It's not terribly hard for Walter to slip back into that same sort of focus, once she's gone back to working on him. There seems to be more bleeding now but he's relatively assured it's nothing serious, it's just the amount of cutting that's been done so far moreso than there being any particularly severe bleeding.

"I'm going to trust you on this one, sweetheart. I'll inspect it when it's done bleeding." He actually laughs a little under his breath, before leaning forward to grab the bandages and handing them back to her. It's enough that even he winces a little, and he's grateful she can't see it.

[caroflower]

"I'll try not to let that go to my head." Caro makes another dumb face he can't even see, and then bandages him up. That's a little tricky too, but she's had more practice with bandages than with slicing into people.

"There," she says finally. "Done." She gives his shoulder a brief squeeze before making a beeline over to the kitchen sink to wash her hands.

[illdrinktothat]

"Good. Wouldn't want you to go and get all cocky about it." While he appreciates the shoulder squeeze (and he doesn't even want to think about that) it does sting a bit, thankfully not all that much. He knows he is going to be one sore motherfucker for quite some time after this though.

He's not feeling the worst of the soreness yet when he stands and finds his shirt again - that'll come later. For now it's still the residual sharpness, and he definitely feels it when he has to stretch to pull his shirt back over his head. He knows he winces again. Hopefully, she's too busy washing up to see it.

"Thanks," He says finally, once he's clothed again.

[caroflower]

Caro keeps herself busy at the sink until she's pretty sure Walter is wearing a shirt again. Then she turns and asks, "Should we let Bourbon out of kitty prison and maybe eat that food I brought?" She pauses, apparently deep in thought. "Or we could eat first. Might be nice not to have to defend my dinner."

She's not really sure what else to say or do right now, so slightly awkward small talk it is. She can mostly keep herself from fussing over Walter now that she's done cutting him up, but it's tough.

[illdrinktothat]

"She can cool her heels in the bathroom for a while longer." Walter can't even feel bad about it. That cat is such a spoiled little shit, she can deal with being left out this time. Not to mention, he'd like to be able to eat a meal without Bourbon climbing him like a goddamn tree.

It's... a little awkward, so instead of sitting back down right away he goes about finding himself a drink.

[caroflower]

Caro clears away the rest of the towels and bandages and cleans off and deposits the knife, and then brings the food over to the table.

"It's something other than stew for once," she says, smiling a little. She's slowly expanding her cooking repertoire, thanks in part to Weyoun.