Tweak

InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "creepy man, bad man!!"

Username: 
Password:    
Remember Me
  • Create Account
  • IJ Login
  • OpenID Login
Search by : 
  • View
    • Create Account
    • IJ Login
    • OpenID Login
  • Journal
    • Post
    • Edit Entries
    • Customize Journal
    • Comment Settings
    • Recent Comments
    • Manage Tags
  • Account
    • Manage Account
    • Viewing Options
    • Manage Profile
    • Manage Notifications
    • Manage Pictures
    • Manage Schools
    • Account Status
  • Friends
    • Edit Friends
    • Edit Custom Groups
    • Friends Filter
    • Nudge Friends
    • Invite
    • Create RSS Feed
  • Asylums
    • Post
    • Asylum Invitations
    • Manage Asylums
    • Create Asylum
  • Site
    • Support
    • Upgrade Account
    • FAQs
    • Search By Location
    • Search By Interest
    • Search Randomly

fallen_raidou ([info]fallen_raidou) wrote in [info]fallen_leaves,
@ 2008-02-22 12:27:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current mood:exhausted
Entry tags:genma, mission, raidou

It Takes a Will of Iron [closed to Genma & Raidou]
Follows from It Takes a Lot Out of You

When Raidou woke up, it took him a long moment to really wake up. The first thing he realized was that he was not actually in his own room. The fact that he was lying on his side on a wooden floor was a fairly decent clue. His room didn't have a wooden floor. There was a hand underneath his head, cool fingers pressed gently against his temple. Raidou stiffened, frowned, cracked one eye open, and found himself face to face with Genma.

That would explain the hand.

Raidou became aware of a few things in quick succession. It was dark, his left hand was numb, his shoulder ached abominably, he could actually think clearly, and Genma did not look good. The last was the thing that really grabbed his attention. Raidou's eyes widened as they took in the state of his partner--horribly pale, vomit-covered, and completely dead to the world. The fact that he was breathing in a shallow, raspy way was the only proof Raidou had that Genma wasn't actually dead.

"Kid?" Raidou started up and discovered the reason his left hand was numb was because Genma was lying on it. He tugged his arm out from underneath his friend's lax body and shook it hard, forcing the blood to flow back into his fingers. Thanks to Genma's unique brand of tackle-healing, his right hand at least was fully sensate. Raidou put it to good use by pulling it carefully free from his sling--it hurt, but not enough to even register compared to the howling agony of earlier--and pressing two fingers to Genma's neck, searching out his pulse. It was there, thready and weak, but there.

He just wasn't waking up.

Raidou shook him gently by the shoulder. "Lover boy?" No response. He shook him a little harder. "Mother-medic? Wake the hell up before I run out of nicknames." Still no response. Raidou felt something icy claw him under the breastbone. "Kid. Kid! C'mon, Shiranui, now is not the time to play games." He grabbed Genma's hand and squeezed.

Nothing.

Forget oxygen, panic was his new and special friend. Raidou forced himself to think around the rising tide of fear. Genma was breathing. He was breathing and cool to the touch. He was alive, he just wasn't waking up.

He was covered in vomit.

How the hell long did antidotes last anyway? Raidou let go of Genma to grab at his hip pouches, using his left hand once more now the pins and needles feeling was peaking and falling away to leave him a more dexterous set of fingers then his right hand currently offered. It took him three tries to locate a new vial of Anti-A, and another fumble to produce an empty syringe--Genma being the sensible type who carried several pre-filled and capped ones for instant emergency use. He needed both hands to fill the syringe and find a vein suitable for injection, but only one to pull his friend up and close when he was done. Raidou slid his arm under Genma's shoulders and lifted him up, tugging him into a rough hug that settled Genma's cheek against his armour.

A glance at the bed was enough to confirm the wife was still there, then Raidou devoted his entire attention to his partner. Most of it was already there. "Wake up, wake up, wake up," it became a mantra, repeated until the words lost all meaning. "Don't you dare go anywhere, Genma. Don't you dare."

(Post a new comment)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 12:33 pm UTC (link)
Seconds ticked into minutes as the antidote did its work, neutralizing toxins, freeing up or tying up key molecular receptors, letting chemical and chakra messages flow again. The first sign it was working was the sudden, deep, raspy breath Genma took, the second was a muscular twitch in his torso. The third, and undoubtedly best sign, was when he opened his eyes. He saw white, felt warmth and pain, heard someone saying his name. Raidou saying his name. Wake up, wake up, wake up Genma, Come on wake up

Focus, dammit.

Genma took another deep breath, this time a consciously directed one, and struggled to make sense of where he was. The white resolved into the breastplate of Raidou's uniform. Just above it Genma could see the brown skin and spiral tattoo of Raidou's shoulder, covered in a richly webbed texture of scars.

He felt horrid. And his mouth was full of unpleasant tastes, the room full of unpleasant smells. It was dark. Too dark. Where were they? The details came muzzily into focus, like catfish flickering up to breach the surface of a murky pond. The last thing Genma could remember was lying on the floor, thinking he'd just rest thirty minutes. That had been mid-morning. It was dark now. Not solidly so, but definitely within the penumbra of sunset. That could not be a good thing.

He needed Raidou to tell him what the hell had happened. He needed to wake up, wake up kid, wake UP! Genma!

Honey-brown eyes blinked, drifted shut, opened and focused. Another breath, a wet-sounding cough, a blink. "Rai? Where's the package?"

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 12:35 pm UTC (link)
The little waking jerk that stiffened Genma's body topped any sleek dance move Raidou had ever seen him make. When he opened his eyes, Raidou let out a low breath and redoubled his efforts to get a response, speaking louder when it became clear Genma wasn't all there at first. When he actually spoke, Raidou could've kissed him. But relief always made you want to do crazy things. Instead he let out another shaky breath and felt a smile tug one side of his mouth as Genma proved which one of them had the better mission focus. "Still on the bed," he answered, studying Genma's face. "Still asleep, too. We got lucky."

Really lucky. Neither one of them should have fallen asleep, Raidou least of all. He was back up. He'd taken out another man to be here and now he was falling down on the damn job. Falling asleep on the damn job and letting his partner deal with poison alone.

Dammit, he needed to stop being stupid.

"You okay?" He wasn't letting go of Genma, not yet. "I gave you Anti-A again, do you need anything else?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 12:36 pm UTC (link)
On the bed asleep. That was good. She'd need another dose of sleeping powder soon though. Genma coughed again, and felt the thick dryness in his mouth, the awful taste. "Water," he said, and added with a wry look, "A bath."

Oh sweet gods there was definitely some kind of karmic payback at work here, he thought, and tried to push himself away from Raidou. Tried and failed, still too limp, with hands still too benumbed and legs still too shaky to be any use at all. That and there was the fact Raidou clearly had no intention of letting him try to get up yet. He gave his partner a weary smile. "I'll be alright in a minute. Are you okay? How's your head? How long have I been out? How long did you spend trying to wake me up? When did I get the second dose of Anti-A? And damn it feels like I puked my pancreas out."

He ran out of steam before he ran out of questions. Damn, fucking up on a mission like this was really unacceptable.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 12:38 pm UTC (link)
Definitely awake. Raidou snorted quietly as Genma showed he was apparently coherent enough to put together a list of questions and rattled them off without waiting for a reply. He sorted them out when his partner ran out of breath, and organized his answers. "I think a bath is going to have to wait until we get home, but water I can do." He had a canteen somewhere, he definitely remembered packing it. Raidou moved his right hand--his left was busy cradling Genma--carefully to his belt and scowled when he realized he'd moved everything to his left hip for ease of reach. That was probably irony at play. He shifted, moving his arm very cautiously--he had no desire at all to bring back the pain--and felt with his fingertips until he traced something that was the right shape. A slow grab and a bit of jiggling unhooked the canteen from his belt, and Raidou brought it around to hold in front of Genma's face. "Here."

As for the rest of the questions... "I'm okay. Functional definitely. My head's sore, but nothing serious. Really," he added, catching Genma's assessing look. "You got a dose just shy of ten minutes ago, and I don't know how long we were out, I just rejoined the land of the conscious myself. A few hours at least." Raidou glanced at the bed again, checking the wife. "You need to work on your bedside manner, mother medic. As healings go, that one didn't rank in the top ten." Now that the danger of Genma being dead had passed, Raidou was starting to find he had a bit of an ax to grind with his friend. That shoulder grabbing stunt and the black out that had followed was pretty much the definition of a sucker punch.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 12:40 pm UTC (link)
"I..." Genma thought about the circumstances that had led up to their current positions, and found he was perhaps just a touch annoyed himself. He took the sip of water Raidou offered him, and a second, before answering. "Look, ok, it was a fuckup I admit. I shouldn't have gotten sick in the middle of it. But dammit, Raidou. You're compromised and you ran off on your own and tried to carry the woman without me and your making your shoulder..." He eyed the hand holding the canteen and nearly snarled. "Put me the hell down, give me the canteen, and put your arm back in that sling. For fuck's sake, Raidou!"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 12:41 pm UTC (link)
Raidou reigned in his rising temper with a sharp breath through his teeth and a brief struggle with the urge to follow Genma's order to the letter and drop him on his head. Instead he laid Genma down carefully and pulled his arm free. Just as carefully he handed over the canteen and slipped his arm back into the sling, feeling the hot lancing flare of a wound not all the way healed. He was too angry for the pain to register on his face. With his good hand he slid his mask into place, hiding his expression, and got to his feet with the slow and utterly precise movements of a man thinking very hard about each one before he attempted it.

Raidou walked to the bed and glared at the wife's limp body until he was certain he could speak without his voice shaking. He didn't have a whole lot to say. "I know my own limits, even if you don't. If you can walk, get up and let's get this finished." If not... he'd have to think of something else.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 12:45 pm UTC (link)
The absolutely galling thing was that there was nothing Genma could say back to that. Raidou evidently did know his limits, at least better than Genma knew his. And the anger rolling off his friends in waves was hard not to react to. "Don't be an ass, Raidou. I just don't want you to make your arm worse is all," Genma said eventually, and didn't get up. Oh he wanted to, but the Anti-A needed another few minutes to work. He had all he could manage just sipping from the canteen without dropping it or choking.

Damn, this was stupid. Tempers were what got ninja killed. Tempers, mistakes. Fighting with your teammate over a mistake you'd made... and really Genma thought, you could trace all of this fucked-up nonsense back to his mistake in setting off that trap... "Sorry." He ground the word out with a little resistance. But better to keep the lines of communication open. "Sorry, I just.... It's... Aw, sit down a sec, Rai. I'll be good to go in a few more minutes. If she's out, she's out, and if she starts to wake up I'll dose her again."

He sighed heavily and managed to get himself sitting up, leaning back against the bedframe. The idea of eating made his queasy stomach turn flops, but if it was as late as it looked--and a quick check of his watch showed him that it was--then it had been hours and hours since either of them had eaten. Reaching into one of the hip pouches affixed to the scavanged belt brought a pair of foil-wrapped rat bars to hand. He held them out to Raidou.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 12:51 pm UTC (link)
Raidou bit back the ugly desire to snap then don't fucking grab it and wrestled himself back under control, locking down rage and pride and the bruised feelings that matched real bruises. Long missions--not that a week ranked as forever on the timescale--would do this. Leave tempers frayed and teammates snarling at each other when there was no one else to kill. Injuries just compounded that. Working with a forced handicap never made for a sweet disposition.

A sorry from Genma was the best he was going to get and far more then he deserved. Raidou checked the wife's pulse and pinched her neck to make sure she wasn't faking before he turned back to his partner. Genma was sitting up, leaning back against the bed and holding out a ration bar like an olive branch. "She's out," he said finally, annoyed to find his words still brittle, and sat back down. He pushed his mask back aside, took the ration bar, and realized he wouldn't be able to peel the foil away one handed. Raidou sighed and left his arm in its sling, holding the bar back out to his friend. "Can you...?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 12:53 pm UTC (link)
"Yeah," Genma said and carefully opened the bar. It was an interesting ritual of peace offerings between them, but it worked. He wasn't pissed at anyone but himself, really. Well and maybe the client or Intel, because either the client had lied when he estimated the threat, or Intel had failed to gauge the severity. Eleven enemy ninja plus the--how many had they killed at the client's birthday party?--plus them, made this not the sort of mission any sane person would rank as a B.

"You think we got lulled into underestimating things by this being a B-rank?" he asked, and offered the peeled meal bar to Raidou. The other one sat still wrapped in his lap. He did need the fuel, but he really didn't need to start vomiting again. Probably better to wait. Take a soldier pill if he had to. Man it was rank in here, with vomit and blood and the luckless chuunin and his severed leg still occupying the corner closest to the hidden staircase. No wonder he still felt on the edge of heaving.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 12:56 pm UTC (link)
"I think we got complacent and stupid," said Raidou bluntly, taking the bar once more and biting off a corner with a nod of thanks. "We were all set for an easy gig and they caught us by the short hairs." He chewed and swallowed, discovering Genma had actually gifted him with one of the very few ration bars that didn't taste like the bastard offspring of drywall and cardboard. "Then we got stupider." Raidou's frown was an impressive thing, drawing his eyebrows sharply down to hawk over dark, unhappy eyes.

"But considering numbers, we got off fairly lightly. And we definitely paid them back for your hip and chemical trip, and my head and shoulder. With interest, even." He took another bite and chewed more slowly this time, feeling the sticky rat bar coat his already dry mouth. "Next time we'll be smarter." Genma had to fix his own injuries first from now on before Raidou would let him get close. That was his new rule.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 12:58 pm UTC (link)
"I still am kind of stunned at how many of them there were," Genma said, and played with the unopened rat bar a little more, swallowing against the unhappy flutter in his gut, before reaching for the canteen again. Water was okay. Water he could tolerate. Water. Maybe some sugar. In his med kit he had a couple more hard candies and a couple of squeeze-packets of liquid-sugar for fast fuel ups in situations like this. When you couldn't trust the ninja you were treating to keep solid food down. It sucked that he was having to think of himself like he would some anonymous casualty.

"Alright. No more fucking up from here on out then. We got all our friends here, but for all we know there are more. Or your garden guy with the brain injury managed to get a message out before he kicked it. Or the lady there has a way of contacting reinforcements. We're tying her up, I'm knocking her out again, and then we'll take her back to Iijima, but we'll keep her under guard. And we will fucking well watch our asses, and tell Iijima to cancel that New Year's party thing. We've assessed the threat. It's a hell of a lot bigger than just some local yakuza-types."

He sighed, pulled out the liquid-sugar and squeezed it into his mouth. Cloying and slightly citrus-flavored, it was enough to almost make him gag again, but the sugar absorbed quickly, and the moment of tense-lipped, white-knuckled willing himself not to vomit passed. Thank the merciful and all seeing Amida, Raidou had given him that second dose of Anti-A, and it was working.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 12:59 pm UTC (link)
Raidou offered a small salute with the hand holding his remaining ration bar. "Good plan," he said, and took a final bite, forcing it down as he watched Genma do the same with his glucose fix. Raidou knew from personal experience exactly how disgusting those liquid sugar packets were. He didn't envy his partner. He waited until Genma had battled with what looked like a fresh surge of nausea and washed his mouth out with a gulp of water, before stealing his canteen back to do the same. Ridding himself of the sickly taste of rat bar.

Raidou pressed the cool metal of the canteen to his forehead, letting the chill ease his sore head and hot skin a little, and thought, mulling over Genma's words. "There were a lot for just a snatch and grab," he agreed, "And a big guard here for just one lord and lady..." He shrugged his good shoulder. "We've got their scrolls, killed their client, snagged the little lady... I'd say as threats go, this one's fairly neutralized. This cell of it at least." More was always a possibility, even if it seemed unlikely. "How're you feeling?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 01:00 pm UTC (link)
"Like I've been sliced up and knocked around, bruised up my ribs, and some asshole poisoned me," Genma answered truthfully. He dropped the empty sugar packet on the floor, shoved the uneaten rat bar back into his pouch and used the bedframe as a support to pull himself to his feet. Legs were working again, good. And hands not so numb. With any luck, by the time the second dose of Anti-A wore off, he'd have metabolized enough of the toxin that more would be unnecessary, which would be a good thing. It worked, but it always wore you out and made you a little feverish.

"Also, I gotta take a leak." Which was a little surprising, given he'd undoubtedly lost more fluids than he'd ingested so far that day. But the body does what the body does, as he remembered hearing from his sister more than a few times. There was a bathroom in the hall, just outside the bedroom door. He made his way haltingly there, admired the deep golden yellow of truly dehydrated piss, and came back feeling a little more like he could accomplish the next bits of their mission.

"How about you? You doing okay?" He leaned against the wall and reached for his kit again. Definitely time for a soldier pill just about now.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 01:02 pm UTC (link)
"Okay might not be the word for it," admitted Raidou, trading a truth for a truth. "I've gotten over the fun part of getting skewered. And concussed. I've learned my lesson, next time I'll dodge." He turned the canteen around, letting the colder metal of the side that hadn't been touching his skin bring its own momentary relief. He felt worked over from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet--most of that was the lingering effects of the sand jutsu he'd run into yesterday, but his battered skull and speared shoulder were definitely adding their own bright keynotes of pain. "You reckon between the two of us we make up one whole working ninja?"

Raidou turned the canteen again, dismayed that the heat of his skin had warmed the metal enough to steal the small bit of comfort he'd been drawing from it. He frowned slightly, surely it shouldn't heat that quick? He opened his mouth to share that small worry when the wife groaned and rolled sideways, effectively derailing his train of thought. Raidou started to his feet.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 01:05 pm UTC (link)
Genma had been on the point of asking Raidou what was wrong with his head when the wife moved. "Back out of radius, Rai," Genma said, and pulled out a second vial of the sleeping powder he'd used on the wife the first time. There was time to calculate a dose this time, not waste it by throwing the whole vial in her face as he'd had to before, and he carefully shook out just the right amount into one cupped, black-gloved hand. Then he leaned in close to the waking woman and gave her a smile. "Hey there darlin', remember us? You have a nice little nap there?"

The woman blinked, and the look that crossed her face was more than enough to condemn her as far as Genma was concerned. She might have been repulsed by his bloodied, vomited-upon self, but if she really thought Genma and Raidou were on her side, as she should have if she'd actually be kidnapped, she should have been delighted to see them. What she was, obviously, was very, very afraid. She tried to cover it with a hasty but terribly false show of gratitude at being rescued.

"Sorry, tiger-lady," Genma said, and his smile widened. "You already showed your true colors. Time to take another nap." He raised his hand and blew the powder at her, she coughed and sneezed, muttered an outraged syllable of protest, and went limp again. He straightened up, put away the rest of his poison and glanced at Raidou. He looked slightly ill.

"That's her out. You didn't inhale any, did you? You really ought to have at least partial immunity to this stuff, we use it so often." He backed up a pace, to be closer to Raidou. "Rai? Seriously. You okay?"

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 01:08 pm UTC (link)
Genma really was like a big kid with his chemistry set, thought Raidou as he took a hasty step back, getting out of range. He got giddy over it, gleeful in the way some shinobi got over blood, and others liked it when they got to hold onto a pretty civilian for a bit. There were missions that ran that way sometimes, where the coin was good enough, or the reason noble enough, that Konoha's Black Ops would find themselves ordered to deliver a warning with broken bones. Or worse. Raidou never volunteered for that class of mission, but some ninja did. Some ninja lived for it.

Genma and his poisons weren’t that foul, but sometimes he got close to the line. Raidou didn't feel like smiling much currently, but some of the tension trickled away when the wife proved her loyalties. Or lack of them. That was one small thing resolved.

He took a step back as Genma drew closer, and then another. Not retreating so much as fetching his back up against a wall, steadying himself. Sweat beaded his forehead and gathered in the hollow of his collarbones, running off overheated skin. His shoulders were bare, but the rest of his armour was tight-fitting and confining. Trapping heat. He wanted to strip both gloves off. Lose his mask and his chest plate and his shirt. He wanted his canteen to be cold enough again to do some good. "Feel hot," he said finally, and marveled at how inadequate the word was.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 01:10 pm UTC (link)
When Raidou backed away, Genma blinked. Something was wrong, seriously wrong with that reaction. When he saw it was so that Raidou could brace against the wall, his heart sank deep and cold, like a heavy stone through the surface of a frozen pond. "Hot?" he echoed. He could see the confirmation in Raidou's face without having to unfasten his left glove at the wrist, detaching it from the long sleeve and baring his hand. Could see the feverish glaze in Raidou's dark brown eyes, the red flush to his skin. He reached up to touch anyway, wincing at the searing heat in his friend's sweaty brow.

It had to be infection in that shoulder. Had to be. "How's your shoulder feeling? Is it hurting more? Can I take a look?" What they'd do right now about that he wasn't sure. Clean it up a little, rebandage it, give Raidou a dose of antipyretics and a soldier pill, maybe something for pain, and head back, he guessed. If there was infection brewing, which there had to be, they could do salt-water soaks back at Iijima's place. But really what Raidou needed was antibiotics.

"Sit," Genma said, and held out an arm for Raidou to grasp, to steady himself. "I'll get you some colder water to take some medicine with." What exact set of deities had they pissed off to warrant this complication now, he wondered ernestly.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 01:13 pm UTC (link)
The last time he'd protested a healing, they'd both ended up spark out for six hours. Raidou wasn't about to make the same mistake twice in one mission. He grasped Genma's arm at the elbow, angling his own not to brush Genma's hand, and used that hold to keep himself for collapsing sideways as he slid down the wall, letting his legs fold up beneath him. "Maybe half a ninja," he muttered, letting go of Genma. "Or a full civilian. We could be a genin."

His head was starting to pick up an ugly rhythm again. When had he last forced down a painkiller? He needed to do that again. Possibly a bottleful, if he could manage that without walking into the light. Raidou dragged a gloved hand over his forehead, trying to wipe away sweat, and winced when he realized he'd managed to smear an unholy combination of blood and vomit onto his face. He wanted to take his gloves off. Both gloves, and the sling. But Genma would get seven colours of wrathful if he so much as breathed on his shoulder. Raidou used his teeth to strip his left glove off, managed to unfasten his armguard through a similar process, letting them fall to one side. Even the warm, rank air in the wife's temporary bedroom felt like a gift as it brushed over his bare skin. He let his head fall back to rest against the wall, and snapped the catches on his body armour next.

He was too hot, he needed to be cooler. It made sense.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 01:17 pm UTC (link)
"Fuck, Raidou, don't get delirious on me." Genma said with despair and set about helping Raidou with removing his armor. It was better than letting him tear up that shoulder more. Then he repeated the jutsu he'd used to get in through the hot chimney, dropping the air temperature around them precipitously. "Hang on Rai. Don't go out on me here, okay?"

His own canteen was still mostly full, so he pulled it up, unscrewed the cap, and handed it to Raidou. "Drink. You need water." Then he picked up Raidou's discarded canteen and tipped it, shaking water droplets over his friend. Damn this was just not good. More handseals and a Genma clone stood there at the ready. Genma handed it the now empty canteen. "Go fill this from the tap in the bathroom and bring it back" he said.

Meds were next. Raidou needed meds. Or maybe he needed his head checked again. Head injuries could cause temperature instabilities. "Gonna check your head out, alright? You okay?" He didn't wait for an answer before bringing his hands up to cradle Raidou's skull.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 01:18 pm UTC (link)
"I'm not delirious," Raidou protested as Genma doused him and forced him to drink all at once. Not that it took a whole lot of persuasion for him to gulp several mouthfuls and let a splash wash some of the filth from his face. Genma's cold justu made him shiver as his wet shirt gathered a glazed layer of thin ice that cracked when he moved. "I'm just too hot. s'different."

Genma's hands cupped his skull for what felt like the twentieth time this mission, and Raidou cursed himself for his inability to dodge faster. He'd been looking at the wife, he remembered, when he'd taken that original head crack. She'd screamed, he'd jerked around to make sure she wasn't getting butchered and breaking the client's heart, and a Suna-nin had taken exception to him having continued cognitive function. With a club. Raidou directed a hot glare at the woman on the bed and shivered hard. "This is all your damn fault," he said, aware he was treading the line that bordered sulky and not caring.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 01:20 pm UTC (link)
"You're treading the line," Genma said. "Taking off your armour mid-mission because you're hot isn't exactly a lucid response." He threaded chakra in through Raidou's skull in little waves, working on feeling out where the damage was, finding only a general sort of minor swelling, the residue of a healing concussion. Thank gods they'd finally caught at least one break here, and there wasn't some clot or bleeding going on. He pulled his hands away to cast the inflammation-reducing jutsu again, took hold of Raidou's head again, pushing the chakra in. He was careful how he husbanded it, but even so he could feel the drain. As soon as he was finished with this, he'd take a chakra pill, and get one into Raidou.

"Feel better?" he asked, searching his friend's face, not yet releasing his hold on his head, even when he dropped the chakra flow. Chakra pills, antipyretics, check the shoulder... It was hard to keep on track when you were so tired it hurt.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 01:21 pm UTC (link)
Raidou let out a breath as things sharpened into focus slightly, granting him some clarity. "At least I didn't take it off mid-fight," he pointed out finally. As silver linings went, that was grasping at straws. Genma's hands were cold against his forehead, long fingers wrapped around to press the pads against Raidou's left temple. He could feel the harder skin of calluses and the softer touch where there were none.

For a long, long moment Raidou wanted to do nothing more but sit there with Genma's hand keeping him steady and the wall keeping him upright. He didn't want to sleep or think or speak or do anything but just be. Rest. But that was worse then simply giving up, that was being lazy about it, too.

Raidou knew he was fevered, he could feel it as keenly as he could his own exhaustion. Genma's exhaustion. They needed to get the hell out of here and get somewhere safe where they could rest. Iijima's estate was the closest thing they had to a safe house, and it also had the advantage of containing the end of their current objective: get the wife home.

Raidou lifted his hand and wrapped his fingers carefully around Genma's wrist, feeling the flex of tendons under his grip and the sharp edge of bone. "We need to get moving," he said seriously, focusing as best he could. "I feel lousy, and you look it, but if we stick around someone's going to come and take our heads off. Let's get the hell gone."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 01:24 pm UTC (link)
"Yeah," Genma agreed, and let Raidou pull his hands away. "Alright soldier pills for both of us. And you're getting some anti-fever shit in you." He reached into his med kit and brought out that pill case. It rattled less full then when they had started, but with any luck they'd be able to keep going after this. After taking out this little wasps' nest of enemy ninja, they had to be at least mostly in the clear. And Raidou's kit had pills still. And they'd lifted at least one medkit off the dead Suna ninja. They undoubtedly had something similar.

He plucked out two of the spherical brown soldier pills and popped one into his mouth, crunching down on it, clenching his throat against the gorge the bitter flavor brought surging up. More of a muscular contraction than anything, because good gods there was no way there was anything left in his system to vomit with, even if he'd let the impulse take control. He squinched his eyes shut, made a low sound in his throat, opened his eyes again and sighed, blinking back tears that sprang up from the effort not to start puking again.

Raidou's sharp look told him that hadn't filled his comrade with confidence. "I'm alright. Just the taste, you know? It's the stupid poison." The way it was hanging on, despite anti-toxin and time convinced him he'd definitely be dead six times over without the immunities he'd build up. "Take yours with water. And these." He handed Raidou two tablets of ASA. Old school remedy, but damned effective against fever. And the soldier pill.

Already the one he'd taken was working. Alertness rising, and strength. He didn't feel so damned week, and that was a blessed relief. The clone had come back with the water, Genma realized, and he took the canteen from it, not caring whose bottle was whose anymore, and drank deeply, thirstily.

"I'll pop up another one and the clones can carry the bitch," he said, letting his anger at the wife speak plainly for itself. Raidou was right, petulant and peevish though it may be. This whole fucking fiasco was her fault. Her soul could apologize to the families of all those dead Suna ninja, too. They may have been enemies while they were alive, but dead, well... they looked a whole hell of a lot more like colleagues who were on the unlucky side of the equation that day.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 01:26 pm UTC (link)
Raidou took his eyes off Genma only when he was certain the man wasn't about to retch again, and swallowed his three pills down with a single gulp of water. He took another long drink after that and had to force himself to stop--a stomachful of water would make a miserable running companion, and he couldn't afford anything else slowing him down.

And he had to put his armour back on.

Raidou concealed a sigh and reached for his glove, dragging it on with a combination of luck and teeth. Genma had to help him with the chestplate and the arm guard, which was frustrating for both parties. Every movement hurt something for one of them, if not both of them. And Raidou was really tired of hurting.

The solider pill kicked in roughly around the time he slid his mask back into place, letting the weight of it across his face steady him in the way neither the wall or even Genma's hand could. He was still too hot, sweaty and burned feeling inside his skin, but he was also thinking in straight lines once more. His current line of thought ran towards get up, get moving, get back to Iijima's.

Getting up was going to be fun. Raidou gathered his legs underneath him, grabbed hold of the wall with his good hand, and made a determined effort to do it without pitching over onto his face.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 01:28 pm UTC (link)
When Raidou was armoured and on his feet, albeit unsteadily there, Genma pushed himself up too. His hip flared to life with violent passion. He ignored it. He was tired of it. Tired of things hurting. Tired of poisons. Tired of worry. Tired. At least the chakra pill supplied him with the raw stuff he needed to construct a second clone and set the two he had now to the task of carrying the wife. Let them hurt, although he'd feel the drain on his chakra. At least he wouldn't feel the pain.

The trip back out of the house, fallen dark and silent with the setting sun, was almost eerie. At the door Genma stopped and glanced back. They were leaving the place absolutely littered with corpses. Corpses of ninja that were theoretically allies to Konoha. And between the two of them, they'd left enough evidence of themselves it was possible someone would recognize Konoha's hand in this.

"We have to burn it," he said, and gave Raidou a weary sigh. "I can go back in and pour some accelerant on the upper floors, leave a few exploding tags. I don't care if they know it was arson, they just can't know who set the fire."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 01:29 pm UTC (link)
Genma was right. Raidou gave him an utterly weary look through the narrow slits cut in his mask, and forbid himself to sit down. If he sat down he didn't think he'd be able to get back on his feet again. That was the key to getting home; never stopping, never wavering, never falling, never failing. You just kept going until you reached the end of the line.

"Put the wife down and send a clone," he said, bracing a hand against the rough brick wall. "If a tag sets off one of their traps, better a clone bites it then you." A clone could move faster then either one of them currently. And if a clone went, Genma didn't have to leave Raidou's sight.

From this angle, if he turned very slightly, he could look down the path and see the dead jounin by the garden shed. Raidou traded Genma a sigh for a sigh. "Probably need to toss him back in the house, too."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 01:51 pm UTC (link)
Raidou had a good point. Several of them actually. Genma nodded, and his clones put the wife down in the dead winter grass. There was snow here and there, but mostly cold, bare, brown, dead vegetation. He stood next to Raidou, leaning against the same wall, and handed one clone a roll of exploding notes, watched the other go to fetch the dead ninja in the garden. When that one came back, toting the dead body in a fireman's carry, Genma handed it another handful of tags. It disappeared into the darkened house with its tools and burden.

There was a sound from the upper floor of a tag igniting, and a flare of light in an upper window. Soon more, as the clones swept through, setting strategic fires. There was a bigger explosion and Genma felt the chakra jolt of a clone evaporating. "Shit, lost one," he said. Well he could create another for carrying the woman.

The remaining clone came back out at last, soot-covered and looking almost as tired as the real Genma waiting for it. Genma raised his hands, invoked a new clone and glanced at the house. There were fires burning in every room. By morning it would just be an ornate shell.

"Alright, I think we're done. You good?" he asked, giving Raidou a nudge. The clones picked up the unconscious woman and headed for the gate.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 02:13 pm UTC (link)
Raidou started very slightly, coming out of something that wasn't quite a doze. A fever haze, most likely. It left his head filled with damp pink fog that reflected the light from the burning building. He glanced up to see the flames, watching the brief dance of fire before the smoke rose up, choking and thick, and obscured the light. They needed to move quickly now. That black cloud was a beacon for anyone in the area. "'m good," he said, determined for it to be true.

He fell into step a few paces behind Genma, hanging back slightly to deliberately guard his partner's back and widen their combined view of the surroundings. If there was a fight, their best option was to cut and run and hope their pursuer snapped a hamstring, but Raidou stuck to his accustomed role anyway. Willing to provide a distraction to any enemy at the very least.

The wife hung like a rice sack between the two clones, slender body bouncing slightly as they jogged. The four of them--he, Genma, and the two clones--kept to an even place. A distance eating lope that stretched calf and thigh muscles without wearing at the joints. A speed they could, hopefully, maintain.

After a while Raidou's field of vision narrowed to a small patch on the back of Genma's left shoulder. He ran and trusted in his partner to lead the way. To get them back. Raidou stuck to the line and thought of nothing else at all.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 02:27 pm UTC (link)
For once things went their way. No ninja attacked them. No thugs appeared to avenge the fallen. The ran unimpeded all the way back to Iijima's mansion. And there they delivered the wife and their story. It was perhaps their weary, blood and gore covered, obviously drained to their limits appearance as much as anything that convinced Iijima the were telling him the truth. That and the bits and pieces of evidence they brought back with them. The little roster list Genma had stolen from that hidden bedroom of who was invited to Iijima's party, and who would be substituted on the catering staff. The few bits of identifying material from the dead ninja that they could show the client without revealing their Sunagakure source. That was a detail for the Hokage, not their client. All he needed to know was that his rival across town had liased with his faithless wife. They'd plotted. They'd hired ninja from somewhere other than Konoha. A lot of ninja. And two of Konoha's black ops had foiled the plot.

It didn't take a lot to convince him to cancel the New Year's party. And didn't take a lot to convince him to let them keep his wife sedated and restrained. Genma was careful with his knot tying, not to cut her delicate skin. He bound her, tied her to her bed, and left her there, setting two of Iijimi's civilian bodyguards the task of keeping her from leaving, and three more to patrolling the perimeter.

Then finally, what seemed like a hundred years from when they'd left it, they found themselves back in their nursery. All Genma wanted was to lie down. He felt sick to the core, shaking from the drain, and aching from the none-too-tender mercies of the Anti-A's side effects. But Raidou needed that shoulder wound cleaned. At least cleaned. What he really needed was antibiotics, and while Genma had poison antidotes, pain meds, soldier pills, fever drugs, antihistamines, sleeping pills, and blood pills, he had no antibiotics.

He did strip off his fouled uniform, and helped Raidou out of his. Showers would be nice, but he wasn't sure he had the energy for one. "Rai," he said, and sat heavily on the floor next to his friend. "I'm gonna get a bowl of hot salt water and some garlic, and clean your shoulder. You're not gonna like it, but I have to do it. It's that or cauterize it, and I don't trust my chakra control enough right now not to damage you worse than I'd be helping."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 02:41 pm UTC (link)
The futon closest to the door still had Genma's blood on it. Raidou stared at the brownish streaks without any real comprehension, weary eyes following the swirl and splatter his partner had left pressed into the thin mattress the night before. He couldn't believe they had only left that morning; it seemed like so much longer. He’d followed Genma the whole way back, a shadow to his friend's shadow. Ghosted behind him and stood silent while Genma had explained everything to Iijima and laid out their evidence, moved again when Genma had switched rooms to bind the wife and order the guard, and moved one final time when had Genma led them back to the nursery.

Genma had said "sit". Raidou had dropped like a headshot victim.

He'd endured the removal of his armour, and the well-worn agony that short procedure had pulled from his shoulder. He thought that was possibly all he could take right now. He wanted to sleep. Genma needed to sleep. This room was safe. Everything else could wait until later.

Raidou lifted his chin, looking up to find Genma's golden-brown eyes, and shook his head. "Later. Jus' wanna sle'p." His eyelids were already sliding closed, hiding hot, glazed irises.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 03:01 pm UTC (link)
More that anything Genma wanted to give in and do as Raidou asked. Just let him sleep. Not torture him prodding at an infected inflamed wound. And more than anything he knew if he did that, with Raidou already feverish, he might be making the one mistake on this mission he could never forgive himself for. "'m sorry, Rai. I really am. It can't wait. But you can sleep while I get the stuff, okay?"

He helped Raidou lie down, covering him with a light sheet. Raidou barely resisted the pull of gravity enough to keep from simply collapsing. That more than anything alarmed Genma. He'd seen Raidou tired, he'd seen Raidou ill. But he'd never seen him quite this flattened without it being a sign things were nearly catastrophic.

Getting the hot salt water and several cloves of garlic from Iijima's kitchen was a simple task. He sat next to Raidou again, crushing the garlic into a paste, then finally, when he had everything ready, leaned over his sleeping friend. He was going to wake him up to hurt him. It made him feel sick.

"Rai, stay asleep if you want," he said softly. "I'm gonna clean the wound now." Carefully, so very very carefully, he unwound the bandages. He wasn't surprised when Raidou's eyes flicked open. "Shit, I need to give you something for pain before I do this," Genma said, feeling like an idiot. How simple a thing, how unbelievable he'd omit that crucial step. How terribly tired he was.

He didn't give Raidou a choice, injecting him with the same powerful cocktail he'd used the night previously. While he waited for it to take effect he looked at the exposed wound. So much nastier looking now, red and streaky and oozing a creamy fluid. "Shit, Raidou. You don't do things by halves, do you?"

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 03:22 pm UTC (link)
Raidou barely noticed the tiny flare of the needle prick, it was blotted out by the solar fire in his shoulder eating its way down to the joint. He was so hot and so tired, but now that he was awake the heat outplayed the exhaustion, keeping him firmly on the wrong side of conscious. Raidou licked dry lips and pulled in a breath between his teeth, trying not to whimper. Fever did that to you. Heightened the senses, boosting them up to a level where a papercut was agony, and a through and through sword wound was beyond devastating. It was like the end of the world happening just to the right of his jaw, curled under the shelf of his collarbone. Armageddon nailed through on the point of a kodachi. Raidou made a soft, pained noise and shut his eyes.

"Nev'r," he agreed faintly, as the drug filled his mouth with the taste of metal. "S'no fun... tha' way." He couldn't stay in the dark, it wasn't comforting. It was just dark--black and alone. He dragged his eyes open a crack and looked through his eyelashes at Genma, struggling to focus on the indistinct blur that was his face. He tried to move his left hand, to stretch out and catch hold, but the world was blurring and slipping away, falling out of reach. "H'rts," he groaned softly, even as the painkillers wore the edge away, turning everything numb.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 04:04 pm UTC (link)
"I know. Know it hurts. I'm sorry, Raidou." Genma saw the flailing hand and reached for it, closing his own fingers around Raidou's too-warm ones. When Raidou's hand tightened just a little, for a moment Genma had to hold his breath, take several deep ones, look at Raidou's pale, flushed, pained face, and remember what he was doing. Remember where he was. And where he wasn't.

And then it was clear that the pain meds had taken hold. The sharp crease between Raidou's eyebrows flattened, his breathing slowed. Genma offered a brief, silent prayer that it would stay that way, picked up a soft wad of gauze, dipped it in the steaming water, and began to carefully, as gently as possible, cleanse away the foulness crusting the wound. The trouble was, gentleness was NOT what they needed. What they needed was to scrub the scab off, the puss out, to make it bleed again, fresh and hot, and flush out the infection.

"Sorry, Rai. I'm really, really sorry," he whispered, and worked steadily harder. Never once letting go of Raidou's hand.

When Raidou tensed, Genma kept scrubbing. When he groaned, with wide open eyes and a rigid, jerking motion away from him, Genma hung on and kept scrubbing. When Raidou whimpered and tugged on his hand, Genma almost cried in sympathy, almost jerked his hand away, but he did neither. He said only, "Shh, it's almost over, I'm almost done, hang on, Raidou." And he left his fingers in Raidou's grip, not thinking about bones splintered and twisted and crushed.... Not thinking about that, until the blood was running clean and red and Raidou's whimpering had subsided and finally, finally, Genma could do no more.

"Done. I'm done," he whispered, drooping with exhaustion until his forehead nearly touched Raidou's. "Just need to bandage it."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 04:28 pm UTC (link)
Shackled by the bonds of the drug Genma had tipped into his veins, Raidou could do nothing but sag with miserable relief and feel the slide of salty garlic water mix with bright new blood and drip down his collarbones to add a new lilt to the pattern already bled into the futon. He didn't think he'd be cooking with garlic for a good long while. If he'd been capable of it, he might have given into the urge to draw his legs up and pull his hands in, curling away from the world to hide in the scant protection of his own body. But as it was, he could barely gather the energy to jerk away or towards his friend turned tormenter turned comforter.

It had been necessary; he knew that in the distant part of his mind that was still dealing in logic. But thinking that and living it were two entirely different things.

Genma's hand was still curled around his. Cold, slender fingers tangled with Raidou's strong, brown ones. Though he couldn't've said who was hanging on to who.

Genma's hand.

Raidou tried to relax his grip, but he had one link to his friend that didn't hurt, and giving that up was a test of willpower Raidou didn't think he had the honest strength for. He turned his head fractionally, suddenly face to face with Genma, and flinched very slightly before he relaxed.

There was something he needed to say.

Raidou leaned forward slightly, letting his too-hot forehead rest against Genma's too-cool one. "N'th'n t' be s'rry abou'." He breathed in, a hard sharp inhale. "Ki'k y'r ass wh'n I c'n get'p."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 05:09 pm UTC (link)
"Hold you to that," Genma said. He didn't let go. He didn't move. "And if you're still this sick tomorrow, I'm ending the mission, loading you up on a turnip cart and taking you back home." Actually it wouldn't be a turnip cart, that would be much too slow. It would be his own back, running on chakra pills and fumes and desperation.

But that decision could wait until tomorrow.

He forced himself to sit up. to reach one-handed for his med-kit and the thick antisceptic salve he coated the wound with, and the bandage. Forced himself to stay upright while he rebandaged Raidou's shoulder, offering what little comfort he could with that hand hold. And then he was finished, really finished. There was nothing more to do for Raidou but let him sleep and wait and pray. Genma could do all three of those, unhappily, but he could do them.

The muscle cramps were coming back again. And the queasy feeling. He glanced down at his hip, still sporting the previous day's bandage, and dark with dried blood. Well dried meant it had bled and stopped bleeding. Good enough. It could wait. He reached for his watch and his hand shook so hard he dropped it twice before he picked it up successfully. Nearly ten at night. He'd really hoped he was done with this poison, but it looked like not.

Another dose of Anti-A couldn't wait. He found the syringe prefilled with it still in his medkit. Raidou undoubtedly wouldn't have known which one to choose, so there it remained, waiting for him now. It was the work of a moment to shove the needle into his bare, bandaged thigh, one-handed- and depress the plunger. Not bothering with an intravenous delivery this time. too much effort, and he didn't want to let go of Raidou. It burned like the poison it was there to neutralize, sharp and contagious to the gashes on his hip concealed under that bandage, so that his hand on Raidou's tightened this time, and his feet arched, toes curled, tension raced along every limb.

When he could breathe again, when he'd got used to it, or it had subsided, he was surprised to find Raidou's eyes still open, Watching him.

He still hadn't let go.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-22 05:21 pm UTC (link)
The grip of hand against hand--for all that it meant--wasn't anything special. It was just a rasp of dirty, callused palm against dirty, callused palm, bloody fingers tangled together with no particular order. They both had grit caked under short, broken nails. Except it was special. It was a hold and a hug and a life-line wrapped up in fifty-four mostly broken-healed bones and separated by two sheathes of skin. It was sort of everything, fixed around one point held between them.

Raidou watched Genma pale and shake and keep himself together through another attack by the acid still in his veins, and didn't have the energy to hate himself for not being able to move. Genma's fingers clenched around his, not enough to even graze the edge of a hurt, but enough for Raidou to know he was in real pain. The drug crowded the edge of his vision with black, narrowing his worldview until all he could see was Genma. Raidou didn't care so much, Genma was all he needed to look at anyway.

Talking was beyond his reach now. Raidou's eyes flickered momentarily, dropping to lock on the hold they had between them before shifting back up to Genma's face. His fingers flexed slightly, and then his thumb drew a line over the back of Genma's knuckles. A curving slow sweep from one side of his hand to the other, as carefully as he could manage. It meant nothing beyond I'm still here.

That was sort of everything, really.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_senbon
2008-02-22 06:03 pm UTC (link)
Sometimes there are moments when you least expect them, of divinity, even in the most profane of situations. Moments when you recognize some essential truth about existence. The Buddhists had a word for it: satori. A transient feeling of enlightenment, a moment of understanding your own Buddha nature and the Way of All and Nothing. Sometimes that moment comes watching a leaf fall, or after long hours of deep meditation. And sometimes it comes--this time it came--in a single, gentle touch. A sweeping caress of a rough-skinned thumb over knobby, scarred knuckles.

It was everything.

Genma looked at Raidou, met his eyes, and found he couldn't speak anymore either. There was just a look and a touch and a shared pulse. Shared soul.

For a moment.

Eventually the moment passed, and Genma had to breathe. Had to feel the chill of sitting shirtless for so long, the trembling of overworked muscles, the burn of healing lacerations and ache of deep bruises. He looked at his futon, and the gulf of space separating it from Raidou's and couldn't stand the distance.

"Rai, don't go anywhere," he said, and pulled away at last, crawled over to tug the thin futon closer, next to, touching. He pulled it close enough, and then he gingerly lay down, shaking again, nearly as shaky as Raidou had been. He pulled blankets up over himself, over Raidou, and snaked his hand out again, towards his friend. Touch. He needed that touch. He found Raidou's hand or Raidou found his, and there was another moment of gut-wrenching terror as Raidou's fingers engaged with his own, and then it was over. And they were safe. At least a little. At least until morning. At least for now.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-27 03:42 pm UTC (link)
Raidou couldn't say where the hell would I go? when Genma pulled away, but he thought it, watching his partner move with half-closed eyes. He felt oddly adrift without Genma's hand in his, cast lose. It was a childish desire. In the six months Raidou had known Genma he'd barely touched his hands, let alone held them. He'd made a point of it, the same way Genma had made a point of not touching his scars. They'd learned each others boundaries and respected them. And now one had been breached and Raidou didn't know where he stood anymore. Or lay, as the case may be. It was too hard to think around the seeping fog filling his head with warmth and his mind with fuzz, so he folded up the thought and put it aside.

Which was when Genma pulled his bed over, lay down next to him, and offered his hand again. He was shaking. Raidou didn't hesitate, he spread his fingers out and slipped them gently through the gaps between Genma's, making a stronger hold this time. He felt rather then saw Genma tense, and waited, ready to let go. Ready to step back into the status quo. Ready to-- Genma relaxed, Raidou breathed.

And they were holding hands.

Genma was there. He was right there. Raidou could feel him even when he closed his eyes.

The painkillers spun their slow dance through his blood and dragged him slowly into sleep. Raidou held on long enough to see Genma's eyes close. Hear his breathing deepen and even out, slowing into a peaceful rhythm. He held on long enough to watch over his friend as he finally let go without ever loosening his grip.

Genma slept. Raidou was just a pace behind.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_raidou
2008-02-27 03:43 pm UTC (link)
Continues in It Takes a Strong Sense of Irony

(Reply to this) (Parent)

Home | Site Map | Manage Account | TOS | Privacy | Support | FAQs