InsaneJournal

Not Tonight, I Have a Headache [closed to Genma and Aoba]
It had been an adventure trying to get the three of them back to Genma's room on the third floor. It had been difficult enough for Hayate and Aoba to get dressed themselves, being so frozen (Hayate was quite sure his knees would be stiff and achy for hours), but to then get the dazed and irritated (not to mention also frozen) Genma back into his own clothes and up two flights of stairs to his room without incident... And he had Aoba helping him, of all people, though the older tokujou was being oddly friendly. He was dead silent -- odd for Aoba, really -- but still somehow, awkwardly friendly to Hayate. That was definitely a change from the usual duck and run treatment he usually gave the kid.

Hayate silently thanked whatever gods were listening that all of their apartments were clustered together. They just had to get down the hall and around the corner, now...and into Genma's room. That could prove tricky, he realized as he glanced over at Genma. The lanky shinobi was staggering between Hayate and Aoba, who each had an arm around his shoulders, and Hayate had since realized that the man must have hit his head a little too hard on the tiled floor. Judging from the way he couldn't quite walk straight, and the way his irritable ramblings shifted and jumped nonsensically, as if he'd forgotten what he was saying, it was clear that Genma was concussed. A small voice in the back of Hayate's mind pointed out that that could very well have hampered Genma's judgment back in the baths, but he resolutely ignored it. He was concerned for the older shinobi, even if Genma did intimidate him a bit, but that didn't mean that Genma hadn't been wrong.

The fact that Genma was still irritably mumbling ad nauseam about what an asshole Kakashi was, and how much he hurt, made it easier for Hayate to dwell comfortably in his conviction that Genma was simply being immature about the whole ordeal. He sighed tiredly -- at least his teeth had stopped chattering by now -- and they turned the corner.

"Genma-san," he said, with surprising placidity. His tone was quietly comforting, instead of irritated. "Relax. It's over now. You're not the only one who hurts from that, but Aoba-san and I are going to take care of you, all right? We're almost to your apartment."