InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Keep your kitty purring!"

fallen_waki (fallen_waki) wrote in fallen_leaves,
@ 2009-04-29 16:40:00

Make Me Better [Closed to Waki, Tsume, and Kuromaru]
[Takes place March 23, about an hour after Carry Me Home]

Waki pulled his gloves off, twining them together absently. Rhuemy eyes remained trained on his patient.

His patent stared at him with a one-eyed golden gaze. His patient's familiar stared at him with a two-eyed blue gaze. Neither of them blinked.

"Well." He dropped his gloves in the waste bin and tucked hands covered in veins, like blue worms over skinny tendons and arthritis-inflamed knuckles, into the pockets of his lab coat. He turned and looked at the dog. It sat on the examining table, tongue pale though he'd regained some of the weight he'd lost. Scars knotted across one eye socket and the opposite ear. Scars that had been created by a brilliantly crafted rot-jutsu, and a leap into friendly fire. The decay had nearly killed the animal, crippling his pathways. The treatment had used up all the chakra he had to spare. He wouldn't have survived the most effective surgical strike: they'd gone with a less effective one, and hoped it would work.

It hadn't.

Waki didn't beat around the bush. "We didn't get all the rot."

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fallen_tsume
2009-04-29 06:45 pm UTC (link)

"Of course we did," Tsume snapped, panic transmuting into anger. "You said--"

The look he turned on her silenced her outburst.

"If they don't get it all, he won't live. It will grow every time he uses his chakra. Maybe fast. Maybe slow. Maybe it'll take one jump where he tries to boost himself, forgetting he can't pull on his pathways. Maybe it'll take years."

They hadn't gotten all the rot.

"You must be mistaken," she tried again, speaking softly. "He's been fine for weeks." At Waki's raised eyebrows, she corrected, "Days, then. He's been fine." And how he had been before had no bearing on how he was now.

Kuromaru whined and settled his muzzle on his paws. "Do I have to come back to the hospital?"

No, Tsume didn't say, her lips a thin line. But we might have to stop being ninja. You might die, slowly and painfully. If they brought that Hyuuga in here to cut their pathways permanently... She had a kunai.

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fallen_waki
2009-04-29 06:47 pm UTC (link)

"Yes. But temporarily. Actually, this is good." Waki smiled at them both. The woman was staring at him like she was going to go for his throat at any second. That was all right. He was pretty sure he could take her. She was little.

At least, he could scream shrilly enough to hurt her ears, and that was almost as good.

"Before, we were flushing chemical chakra into him and scooping it out in the hopes we would get the rot. Now it's right there. Pinpointed. It'll be delicate surgery, but since it's not growing very rapidly we have time to get it out before it gets bad. And we know where it is."

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	fallen_tsume 2009-04-29 06:50 pm UTC (link)
	Tsume stopped breathing. More surgery. But they knew where it was. Delicate surgery, but then it would be gone. Kuromaru would be all right. Her legs felt weak. "Our pathways--" she began when she could think again. But Waki waved one gnarled hand dismissively and, reeling too much to take offense, she stopped to listen. (Reply to this)

fallen_waki
2009-04-29 06:50 pm UTC (link)

"They haven't been entirely reconnected. I'm going to get the doggie into surgery as soon as there's a room available. He should be able to go home tonight. I want you both to rest, because your chakra will be low again, and the doggie is to come back in daily for a chakra-sweep for the next week, but I think you'll be fine."

The dog was growling quietly, looking annoyed. Waki felt in his pockets, but he was out of pills. Taking a tongue depressor from a jar, he offered that instead.

The dog just looked at it.

"Here, puppy puppy. It's a chew toy."

That single gold eye flicked to his owner, and he whined. Waki shrugged and tucked the tongue depressor into his pocket.

"I want you both to stay here. A nurse will come in to prep him in a moment." He leaned in to the woman and whispered, "I notice he's still intact. We could take care of any marking problems for you while you're here. It won't change his ferociousness in the field, and the dog shelter will thank you." They were overrun, anyway.

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fallen_tsume
2009-04-29 06:52 pm UTC (link)

Tsume tried not to let a near-hysterical giggle escape while Kuromaru pushed upright, single ear slicked back against his head. In what she bet he thought was a subtle move, he tried to cover his genitals with all four paws, and his tail.

"He's proven himself for Inuzuka stud purposes," she murmured back, lips twitching.

"It's not funny," Kuromaru growled.

He was going to be all right. Surgery, pinpointed, removal, home. Everything seemed grand. Tsume snickered.

"I seem to recall someone skipping a gynecology appointment for, oh, the last eleven years," Kuromaru snapped.

Tsume whipped around to glare at him.

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fallen_waki
2009-04-29 06:52 pm UTC (link)

Waki checked his file. "He's right!"

The woman glared at him.

He shrugged. "Well, if you get cancer of the labia don't complain to me. I tried. Big, oozing, open sores. Disgusting. Puts a damper on your sex life."

She was still glaring.

With another fatalistic shrug, he tucked the file under his arm and headed out the door. "Surgery soon. Don't eat anything," he called back as it closed behind him.

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fallen_tsume
2009-04-29 06:54 pm UTC (link)

Tsume waited until she was sure Waki was really gone, then turned to hit Kuromaru's shoulder. "Whose side are you on, anyway?"

"Getting neutered isn't funny!"

"I wouldn't have let him really." She settled herself on the hospital bed, leaning into a furry shoulder. Okay. He was going to be okay. She was going to be okay.

For the first time since they'd returned from that disaster of a mission, she could breathe again. She had an answer. She had the best answer. They hadn't ended their career in a slow, messy death. It would take time to get back to full strength--but they would get back to full strength. It was only a matter of patience.

Tsume wasn't very good at patience. But now she was going to have the chance to learn.

"Aw, black-faced Wolf," Kuromaru grumbled.

"Hm?" She wrapped one arm around his back, the other across his chest, and curled her feet up beside her.

"They were going to serve lamb tonight in the cafeteria. I was going to get the bones. Now I won't be able to."

Tsume smiled and tucked her face into inky fur. White hairs sprinkled through the black, coalescing into a point in the middle of his chest. She wondered when that had happened, and how much white he would get. "I'll get you lamb tomorrow. All the lamb you can eat."

She felt him straighten beneath her. "Really?"

"Really."

"'Cause I can eat a lot of lamb."

Her smile was slow, satisfied. "I know."

"A whole lot of lamb."

"Mm hm."

"All right." His front paws lifted and fell, a tiny little dance. "I'm gonna eat so much lamb. You won't be able to believe all the lamb I can eat."

The laughter took her unawares--and there was no hysteria to it, this time.

"Maybe I'll make a lamb necklace. Ohhh, I hope they come for me soon." Another little dance, and the thump of his tail wagging. "When I wake up we should go to the butcher and get me a whole lamb. Maybe two."

Her arms tightened, face buried in his ruff. "We will."

"And I can have a hat from the fur!"

"I think that's going a little far." He needed a bath. His coat was oily and dirty. Tsume didn't care. She kept holding on, curled on the bed against him.

"I don't! I love lamb. And when I have all my chakra again, I'm going boar-hunting. You can come. Maybe Pakkun, too, because it would be funny to watch his little legs try and keep up. Maybe I will show him all my lamb. But I won't share it. I don't have to share it, right?"

"Right."

"Oh, good. Maybe I will eat five lambs. In front of Pakkun! And Ryouma!" His whole body writhed with delight. "Do I have to share with Ryouma?"

"Nope."

"Even though he's alpha?"

"Even though he's alpha." Tsume tightened her grip, feeling strong, if lean, muscle coil under his filthy coat, knowing that his chakra was painfully low--and it didn't matter. They were going to be just fine. She laughed and tightened her grip. "Five lambs is pretty decadent."

"And what I can't finish, I'll bury for later!"

At that moment, she didn't even mind that he would try to bury it in her bed. The joy was that he'd be alive to do so. With another breath, she felt the anger and anxiety and fear, carried since she'd heard her familiar scream and driven his wolfen shape from the battlefield, melt away.

Lamb sounded good.

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