Frankie was doing her usual rounds of the school, walking to stop thinking, a habit she had got into since coming back after break. She spotted the younger boy, recognising him vaguely. She wasn't one to take much notice, except he looked a little lost. Maybe even agitated? Making a bee line for him she gave him a friendly smile.
"You lost?" She asked him, raising a curious eyebrow at the strong smell of bleach coming off him. "Have you had a potions accident?"
Brian looked up a the girl came up to him. Potions accident? Why would she think that? Did he smell funny?
He turning his head to sniff his jacket curiously, frowning when the only smell to greet him was the faint remnants of bleach. That was weird, why would she think he'd had a potion's accident?
"No," he said after a moment, shaking his head. "I don't now what happened." Or rather, he didn't know how he'd started bleeding.
Frankie cocked her head, wondering what to do. Was this kid crazy? Very possible. "Well it's just uh, you smell like a hospital. Like bleach." She looked down and pointed at his red raw hands.
"I- I was cleaning. There where, there where germs and, and...." He looked down at his hands, frowning as he stared at them. "I-I-I think I cleaned them too much."
It was a believable assumption, and something he had done before. He didn't always think about what he was doing to himself, really. "I don't know...."
Okay, he was clearly derranged. "You cleaned..too much?" Frankie echoed his words and smiled. I mean, it wouldn't hurt to try and help the kid. "What's your name? I can probably fix those if you don't want to show the nurse." She nodded at his hands again and began to walk in the direction of Sonnier.
"...Yeah." He stared at her a moment, unsure about going into Sonnier at first. But then, what could really go wrong? Well, except for Ben catching sight of him. That probably wouldn't go well.
"My name is Brian. Brian Redd." He spoke up as he followed her, watching her curiously. He wasn't much of a talker, really, but she seemed nice enough. "You won't tell Ben, will you?"
Ben? Who the fuck was- oh. "Ben..Redd? Is that your brother?" She waited for him to fall into step beside her and shook her head. "I wont tell him, I don't see him much."
They reached the dorms, Frankie opened the door to Sonnier for Brian so he didn't bleed over everything. "I'm Frankie, by the way. I wont shake your hand" she joked as she led him to her room. It was always quiet in Sonnier and there was no one around to nose on them.
"Y-yes." Who else would he be talking about, he wondered. But then, Frankie might not know Ben, even though they were in the same house. Or maybe she called him something else, the way most of Lalaurie called him 'Barry' for some reason.
"Hello, Frankie." He smiled a little as he followed her into the dorm, silently thankful that she didn't want to shake his hand- blood or not. "W-what year are you?"
They stopped in front of her door, where she entered first. "I'm in 12th, what about you?" He couldn't have been more than a sophomore.
She disappeared into her ensuite, where there was some crashing around until she emerged with a simple healing potion and some gauze (something her mother always insisted she have "for emergencies").
"This might sting. I could use my wand but I think this is safer." She smiled at Brian again and beckoned him over. "Is that okay?"
"I'm a freshman," he answered, following her into her room with wide eyes. She was a junior? He was in a junior's room? That was really impressive! He wasn't allowed in Ben's room, which he supposed wasn't a big loss.
While she rummaged about, he turned about in her room carefully taking in the whole scene around him. Maybe it was a bit ridiculous, but he wanted to remember this experience. Except...that picture on the wall wasn't straight. It dipped to the side just slightly, and Brian couldn't help but focus on it. He was about ready to reach out and tip it the other way when Frankie reappeared.
"Huh?" He blinked, pulling his attention away from the picture with some effort. "Uh...do-do you have gloves?"
Frankie was momentarily confused. Gloves? She opened and closed her mouth before just settling on a simple "no". It was starting to click that he wasn't entirely normal. The cleaning, the bleachy smell, the gloves. Maybe he didn't want to get sick.
"I can uh, wash my hands? You can watch me do it. I don't have- what are they called? Cooties?"
"Uh...you have to use a lot of disinfectant. B-But Ben has gloves. You could ask him. He has gloves and disinfectant." Though that would probably involve telling Ben why she needed them.
"I'm not worried about cooties...but you shouldn't touch someone else's blood. It isn't sanitary."
Well, she defintely wasn't going to knock on Ben's door and ask to borrow something. She hadn't even spoken to him this year, perhaps even longer than that.
Frankie was stumped for a second before brightening up. "Oh! How about this.." She started crashing around in her desk until she found a pair of gloves. Grabbing her wand she set them down and muttered a few spells. Firstly they went pink, then fuzzy before finally taking on the latex consistency of a surgeon's gloves. She snapped them on and showed Brian.
"How about it? Otherwise I'm taking you to the nurse."
He watched as she transfigured the gloves, gawking for a moment before nodding. He supposed they would be good enough, and it was better than the nurse.
"A-alright." He slowly held out his hands for her, pulling the gloves he'd been wearing off. They looked worse then they really were. He'd cut his left hand on the tap, and his skin was red and a bit swollen from being in contact with the bleach. But it wasn't nearly the worst he'd ever done to himself in the name of cleaning.
Frankie winced and clucked her tongue like a mother hen when he took the gloves off. She uncorked the potion and squeezed some into her hands. It was whit, and more of a cream than a liquid.
"It's probably cold. And it'll sting" she warned him before grabbing one of his hands and spreading the potion gently over the redness. "It wont work straight away but you should be fine by tomorrow" she added, her eyes flicking up to read his face. She hadn't really bargained on how awkward it would be to be rubbing cream into a freshman's hands in her bedroom and she cleared her throat quietly.
"So did you have detention or something? Did they make you clean the caludrons? Pendragon can be a real bitch sometimes."
She was tutting him like his mother would, which was vaguely comforting. He took the potion with ease, smiling a little at Frankie as she doctored his hands. "Thank you," he even added after a moment.
But then she asked how he'd done this, and he hesitated. He could lie and say he'd gotten detention, but then he imagined the first person that she asked about him and detention would laugh. Brian would die before being given detention. There were sickly people that got detention!
"Uh...no...I, uh...my roommate sneezed, and I had to clean the room. He might have had a cold, and it would have been really bad if I caught it too. Then we both could die." He winced a little as he said it, knowing how ridiculous it sounded out loud. "I had to..."
Frankie listened to his explanation quietly until he trailed off, at which point she nodded, finally understanding a little. Well, not really understanding. Mess wasn't something that concerned her, her room at home looked like a bombsite. This room was only clean and tidy because of common courtesy. Rowan probably wouldn't like Frankie's old underwear strewn about the place.
"Well, if you had to..then you had to" she said, trying not to sound sorry for Brian. "Who's your roomie?" She tried to change the conversation.
"Alexander van Rensselaer, he is my roommmate. He gets upset when I clean everything." He frowned, though, looking away. "I think everyone does. But, it is healthy to be clean, so..."
He paused, tilting his head to the side. "Um, y-you're nice."
Once she was sure his left hand was sufficiently covered in the goop, Frankie took some gauze and began wrapping it. Her heart went out to Brian a little, he must have some deep rooted problems to behave like that. That's what they always said in books anyway.
"No offense Brian, but this doesn't look exactly healthy" she said gently, squeezing his hand slightly and not meeting his eyes. She smiled despite herself at his compliment.
"I am?" She laughed and shook her head. "You're nice too" she said right back.
He nodded at her, swallowing as he watched her treat his hand. "I know," he said quietly, hanging his head. "I...I have this thing. If...If I don't do things a certain way, I think...I think bad things will happen. So...I have to do them." She didn't, at least, seem like the type to make fun of him for it.
She had assumed that by now, but it was still upsetting to hear someone explain it. "Okay" she said plainly. The last thing this kid needed was being told what he was doing was wrong. She began wrapping clean, white bandages around his hands carefully.
"People might get sick and die, or someone might break in and murder them. You...you just don't know what could happen! So I have to do it, I have to even though I don't want to. Because if people get hurt it'll be my fault then." He nodded, then, watching her wrap his hands in bandages.
"Anyone else? Who's been hurt before" she pushed, asking it casually as she sealed the bandages in place and straightened up. Admiring her handiwork, Frankie felt a bit proud and smiled at Brian.
She pointed at her bed. "Sit. I'll make you some tea" she offered.
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