InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I'm not crazy, I'm special"

fallen_ginta (fallen_ginta) wrote in fallen_leaves,
@ 2008-10-24 19:41:00

Entry tags:

ginta, ryouma

If the Door's Still Open [closed to Ginta and Ryouma]
[Takes place the day after Just Promise to Keep Your Heart Broken and Heaven Forbid You End Up Alone]

The same medics who had discharged Ginta only an hour before were the ones to respond to Kakashi's clone. They found Ginta chakra-depleted and limp in the hall outside Kakashi's room, and couldn't understand how they'd managed to miss such a severe chakra deficit. It meant Ginta had no choice in the matter--he was admitted to the locked ANBU ward for tests and observation. He was there for a day and half before they finally let him go home.

Thirty-six hours was a lot of time to think about something. A lot of time especially if you didn't have any convenient distractions, as Ginta didn't. At first he'd sat shockingly still while medics examined him in the hall outside Kakashi's hospital room. Remained shockingly silent for hours, unable to sleep, in his own hospital bed on the locked ANBU floor after that. His silence, in fact, had so concerned the medics that they'd called in psych. It was uncharacteristic, they said. A sign that something was perhaps seriously wrong with Sakamoto-san.

Ginta was a good actor, though. And he recovered quickly. By morning he was winking at the male nurses, trying to set up dates for the females, acting like he hadn't a care in the world. It was enough to convince the brown-eyed woman from psych and the stern-faced Intel agent with the scarred lip that he was fine. Just suffering from overexertion on his mission. That he'd failed to report his ankle injury and the bruising evidence of a choke hold in a fight because he'd been tired and wanted to go home. Not because he'd been hiding anything.

No one even suspected that choking had happened well after the ninja he'd fought on his mission was dead.

Ginta kept up his cheery façade with impeccable skill whenever anyone was there to see him. He even managed to convince himself, some of the time, that everything was fine. As soon as he was alone, though, the situation with Kakashi played over and over in his head. The similarities to fights with Tomoya, that was what really shocked him. That he could feel that devastated and out of control with someone he didn't love. Someone who meant almost nothing to him. He didn't understand it. And not understanding it just made him more angry.

Kakashi. Fuck him, who needed him? He wanted Ginta to stay away? Fine. That was no hardship at all.

Ryouma, though... Ryouma. He was Ginta's friend first. Before Kakashi ever came along and fucked things up. This was all Kakashi's fault, but he was god damned if he was going to let Kakashi ruin his friendship with Ryouma. Or break Ryouma's heart. Or fuck with his heart.

At 0900, a day after Ryouma and Tsume and Kakashi were sent home to recuperate, according to the nurses he'd pestered relentlessly for information, Ginta was set loose with a brace on his ankle and a pair of crutches he promised with nearly convincing sincerity to use. He was told to take his meds, rest, and stay away from caffeine and other stimulants, as his chakra depletion was blamed on overuse of soldier pills. The medic who signed his discharge papers told him he'd be assigned back to missions within a week, provided his ankle healed and his chakra rebounded.

The first thing Ginta did, when he was completely free, was go get coffee. There was a new place not far from HQ. He and Ryouma had talked about checking the new place out. In fact they'd had a date, hadn't they? For as soon as they were both in town with no meetings or missions to interfere? Ginta sat at a table by himself, sipping a caramel almond mocha latte something or other, and watched the customers coming in and out.

He tried not to think about the fact he didn't know a single one of them. Or that he was supposed to be here with a friend. A friend who would really like this coffee.

At 1200, he got up, limped home, stopped in his apartment just long enough to change into grey jeans and a red sweater, and brush his teeth. Then he headed down the hall. Ryouma's door was shut. Silent. He hesitated there for almost two full minutes before he finally knocked.

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fallen_ryouma
2008-10-24 09:49 pm UTC (link)

"G'way," Ryouma mumbled into his pillow.

Something licked his ear.

He rolled over and stared up into a sharply pointed, silky-furred face. Shiba licked his nose, and bounced. And yapped.

Ryouma winced. "I thought we kinda agreed to get along, last night. You still planning on busting my eardrums?"

The tiny dog tilted her nose in the air, offended, and bounded off the bed. She strutted across the floor, took her stance in front of the door, and yapped.

"All right, I get the point!" Ryouma scrambled through the tousled sheets and across the cold right side of the bed, where the dent in the pillow had already begun to fade. He had a very vague memory of Tsume leaving as soon as the room was light enough for him to blurrily see her face as she said goodbye; he couldn't remember if he'd even said anything before he collapsed back into sleep. Maybe that sleeping pill hadn't been a good idea, after all.

But he hadn't done anything. He knew that for sure.

He hit the floor with one bare foot, scrabbled for his crutch, and shoved himself up to his feet. Foot. Whatever. His braced knee ached, even when he put no weight on it; he tried to ignore it, and hobbled for the door.

If he'd expected anyone, it would have been Kakashi, come to retrieve his dog. Maybe Raidou or Genma, wondering if the rumors were true and he hadn't died after all. Maybe even one of the administrative chuunin, reminding him that he wasn't registered as having a summons and pets weren't technically allowed in HQ...

It was Ginta. Short, pale, bruised, bandaged, and--leaning on crutches?

"The hell?" Ryouma said blankly. He scrubbed his free hand over his face and up through his messy hair. "Look, this copy-cat thing really isn't cool. Just 'cause I go get myself banged up is no reason for you to do it, too. I thought you're supposed to be the awesome one?"