| All the King's Horses and All the King's Men... [closed] |
[Jan. 22nd, 2009|08:58 pm] |
[Takes place March 13th, the day after Connect the Dots, and two days before Ryouma gets off his crutches in The Weight of the World]
"What are you doing?" Tsume watched her familiar warily as he gathered up his puppy plushie and trotted toward the door, tail waving behind him. It had been only two days since he'd been discharged, evidenced by the bandages across his face and head, and she wasn't thrilled at the idea of letting him out of her sight.
"I told Ryouma he could have this puppy back at the hospital, but he forgot it. I just saw him outside." His tail wagged again. "I'll be right back."
Glancing out the window of their apartment, Tsume just catching sight of the tall, dark-haired shinobi as he crutched out toward the training fields. "Kuromaru--" She remembered too well his panic at Ryouma less than a week before.
"It's fine," Kuromaru said with great exasperation. "I was just wounded. I'm okay now. Discharged and everything." And then he was gone down the hall, a shadow slipping along the corridors.
For the four days Kuromaru had remained hospitalized, Tsume had taken him things that smelled like Ryouma. None of that had triggered his panic again. Talking about Ryouma hadn't triggered it. In the two days he'd been home Kuromaru hadn't seen Ryouma--Tsume had purposely avoided the shinobi--but he hadn't seemed bothered, either.
Still Tsume watched, unable not to, as he came out the HQ doors three stories below and skulked along the edge of the building, doing his best to cover his blind spot. She couldn't go after him. After all, he could be right. There hadn't been any more flashbacks. Maybe it was just a wounded thing. Even Tori had suggested that it could heal with time. If he didn't try, they would never know.
None of that stopped Tsume from watching out the window, waiting to see her familiar return. The sun sank lower in the afternoon sky.
The better part of an hour passed before Ryouma appeared, lurching on his crutches as if he refused to be graceful. He was all the way inside before Tsume stopped staring at the tree line.
There was no Kuromaru.
She grabbed her jacket and raced out, ducking through the door to the stairwell and practically flying down. If she'd had the chakra ability, she'd have translocated straight out to the treeline. But she didn't; not with her seven major chakra centers locked off, still, and stitches on the rest.
Outside, the wind nipped at her cheeks and nose, skidding under her coat to wrap long fingers around her torso. She took a breath, checking the air, searching for Kuromaru's scent. She knew it as well as her own children; it wasn't hard to follow. The reek of fear made it that much easier.
She found him by the river, tucked under a spray of branches, belly to the mud. His plush puppy was still clutched in his teeth, his pupils dilated. Carefully, Tsume crouched on the path.
"Kuromaru?"
He whined very softly and let go of the puppy. "Is he gone?"
It wasn't over. She had known it, somewhere deep down, but had hoped. "He's gone," she whispered. "You want to come out?"
He looked at her slowly, his single ear pressed back against his skull. The ruin of the other side, covered by gauze, had begun to bleed where the skin twitched. Tiny spots of red darkened sterile white. "Not really."
She got down on hands and knees, trying to get closer. Her heart hammered. "Okay." Mud squelched between her fingers. Water soaked into her pants. A bird trilled. "What happened?"
He whined again and scooted toward her, large front paws dragging his body. The puppy was crushed under one foreleg, rolled into filth as Kuromaru moved. "I don't know. I got here and he was here and I was going to tell him it was all right and then... I couldn't."
Tsume inched forward, belly to the ground, weight on her elbows. "Because of what happened before?" Neither of them ever had to say what 'before' was, now.
"I don't know! I don't think so. He beat me! Except he didn't challenge me. And how can I protect him if he's stronger? But it was an accident, and I can't challenge him to see which of us is stronger because he didn't do it on purpose. He doesn't want to challenge me. But he beat me. So--so--I don't know what to do."
Branches scratched at her jacket as Tsume pushed under the brittle twigs of the bush. One tangled in her hair. She ignored it, reaching out to thread her fingers through Kuromaru's thick ruff. "You don't have to challenge him. You're still the alpha because he didn't challenge--"
"But he was stronger! The strongest is alpha!"
She paused. He was right, of course. "You could challenge--"
"I can't! It was an accident!" He buried his face in her shoulder, trying to tuck his head under her body.
Tsume wrapped her arms as far around him as she could, resting her cheek on his shoulders. She didn't have an answer for this. If he were a dog he could challenge Ryouma, now the strongest, and rest easy. But he wasn't: he was Inuzuka, and he knew that there was a difference between a fight and an accident. Knew he couldn't punish a person for an accident. Understood that someone hurting him didn't mean they wanted to lead.
"Come home, Kuromaru," she said quietly. "Come inside and we'll figure this out, all right?"
He nodded, whining softly. "Maybe it'll be better when I'm stronger. 'Cause then he won't be more alpha than me, right?"
"Right." He was already stronger than he had been. Being injured had never done this to him before. She didn't say any of that as they squirmed out from under the bush.
"Maybe... maybe I could try tomorrow. It was just an accident, after all. He's not really going to hurt me or challenge me, and I'm really the alpha."
She nodded wordlessly. Alphas didn't need to be reassured. Once they did, they got taken down. Except, Ryouma wasn't going to take Kuromaru down. Which left Kuromaru in limbo.
"Wait a minute!" Her familiar twisted back under the bush. He came out, muddy plushie in his mouth. "Almost forgot." His tail waved, though his ears tucked back uncertainly. "For when we like each other again. For when I'm alpha."
Tsume looked at him steadily, locking apprehension deep in her chest. "Good idea."
But Kuromaru's tail stopped moving, and his head drooped. "We'll be friends again," he mumbled. "I just gotta be whole first." Feet dragging, he slunk past her toward the ANBU building. His shadow rippled across the ground, perfect in its solid darkness. After a long moment, Tsume followed. |
|
|
