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The thing was, Harry had been getting pretty good with a knife. A chef's knife, not a cutting people's throat knife. Not that a knife couldn't be both, but the point was he was getting pretty good in the kitchen, thanks to Eliot's tutelage. Still, things happen and the knife slipped. He knew better, of course. It was just that Eliot was so damn distracting, sometimes it was hard to keep his eyes on his work.
"Dammit," Harry grumbled.
Eliot's gruff voice rumbled from across the kitchen. "What did you do now?"
Harry grabbed a dishcloth and wrapped it around his hand. "Nothing." He was supposed to apply pressure or something, right? Ow. He grimaced but kept his mouth closed.
Suddenly, Eliot loomed ominously in front of him. "Let me see."
Harry shook his head and pulled his hand in close to his chest. "It's fine." He hadn't actually looked at it, but it was probably fine. It barely hurt until he started putting pressure on it.
Eliot glared and for a moment Harry let himself enjoy the heat of his gaze. After a couple of beats, he relented, squeezed his eyes shut, and let Eliot examine his hand. Eliot led him a couple of steps to the right, where the sink was if his memory served him. The squeak of the faucet being turned and the water starting to run, confirmed it.
"You can open your eyes, it's just a cut." Eliot gently held Harry's hand under the stream of warm water. "Cuts and burns are all part of the cooking process."
"Really?" Harry opened his eyes. There was a lot less blood than he'd feared.
"Yeah, really." Eliot cleaned the wound and wrapped it with a fresh towel. "Still, you need to be careful. I've seen a guy cut himself down to the bone when he got distracted while slicing open an avocado."
Harry felt the blood drain from his face. "That doesn't sound great."
"It really wasn't." The look on Eliot's face was grim.
Eliot reached up and grabbed a box of bandages from the shelf above. He disinfected and bandaged Harry's finger with a gentleness that he didn't know Eliot had in him. It was a stark contrast to the hitter's gruff exterior. It made him like the man even more and for a moment Harry wished he was brave enough to do something about it.
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