Title: Soft Comfort
Author: Kameko-Lullaby
Summary: It wasn't deep but, still. [Ficlet]
Pairings: Slight Abby/Hoagie; 3/5 friendship
Words: 419
Time: 15 minutes

She shifted his face in the cradle of her palms as her eyes flickered over the pale skin, searching for the reason for the wet warmth trickling over her fingers. It had not really been a difficult fight for them to win but, flying broken glass and Hoagie had never shown to be an efficient combination.

With gentle fingertips, she ran her thumb through the hair above his ear after pulling his yellow-tinted sunglasses from his nose. She let a soft yet, annoyed exhale of breath when she felt his face contort into a grimace in her hands. A small, crescent-moon shaped cut was steadily oozing blood above the hollow of his temple. "You have a cut."

The boy in front of her blinked at the sound of her words "Oh, so that was where the blood was comin' from."

She rolled her eyes at his attempt to put some humor into the situation. "I'm fine," Hoagie murmured to her after she began searching through his brown locks for anymore injuries.

"Ya said that 'fore."

"Just a cut," he reminded before letting out a hiss of pain when Abby poked the inflamed area of skin. "That hurts," the dark-skinned girl added before letting her chocolate brown eyes search the empty room surrounding them for any sign of their medic.

"Where is Numbuh Three anyway?"

"Here!" Came the answer and almost directly after a porcelain-skinned Asian girl of sixteen came darting to them from the outlet that was the kitchen. "Numbuh Four cut his knuckles all up and I had to fix them before he… well, fainted."

She dropped to her knees next to Abby, her First-Aid kit rattling at the quick movement. Her lilac eyes took in the size of the tiny gash on the side of the head of the pilot. "That's not so bad," she said with a gentle smile. "I can fix that right up!"

Gathering a cotton ball soaked in a cleansing douse of peroxide and a bandage along with medical tape, the oriental female turned to Numbuh Five who still hovered. "He'll be fine, Abby!" she chirped, placing a hand on her arm in a gesture of condolence.

A quiet and tender look of comfort and understanding passed between the two comrades in that brief moment. Kuki probably knew better then anyone about the tiny knots of worry that formed from a special person getting hurt in combat.

"Yeah," Abby replied giving Kuki a grateful curl of her lips before encasing the sunglasses that lay in her lap between her slender fingers, "Abby knows."

A/N: The spurn of my existence, PLOT. Anyway, this happens just to be a ficlet – over 100 words but, not quite 500. So, I guess it isn't a major deal as long as I didn't mutilate the characters.

You know, I do like fluff but, not bluntly obvious in-your-face fluff. I like read-between-the-lines fluff. It's not over-powering and simply works well. Especially for 2/5, I think.

Not the oneshot I promised but, something to hold you until then.

- Lullaby. :)

Kuki, Abby and Hoagie © Mr. Warburton