"All right, Miaomiao, you already cried your heart out back in the Underground Palace and had us all helping you pick up pearls. You can't make Hayley help this time too, can you?"
Dick grinned and cracked a joke.
"Careful-cry too much and our little fish will turn into dried fish~"
Miaomiao glared at him. There was little anger in her eyes, only resentment that Dick had gone out with Melinda without taking her along.
"If you'd agreed to bring me from the start, you wouldn't have ended up with all these injuries... They must hurt so much..."
As she spoke, Miaomiao carefully cleaned the scrapes and bruises covering Dick's body.
The worst were two large gashes on his back and arm, left by a vampire's nails, each well over ten centimeters long. Only Dick's quick dodge had kept them from going too deep. Smaller wounds covered the rest of his body.
Fortunately, Pandora had wanted to turn Nightwing and use him for her own ends, so she had ordered him taken alive. Otherwise, Dick might have suffered far worse than these wounds.
As the antiseptic touched his broken skin, a sharp sting shot through him. Dick immediately grimaced, his back tensing slightly as he deliberately softened his breathing.
"Hurts, doesn't it? Let's see if you dare play the hero again!"
Despite her words, Miaomiao's touch grew gentler still. She had little experience treating wounds, so she could only follow Dick's instructions and work slowly, bit by bit. She resolved to find some way to help him properly recover afterward.
Mm, pearl milk tea and pearl baths were good for that.
During a pause in the treatment, Dick opened his communicator and connected to Barbara's channel again.
"You finally called." Barbara let out a small breath of relief. "What exactly