| All We Know Is Distance [Ryouma and Ginta] | [Jun. 15th, 2009|10:37 pm] |
The message was waiting when Ryouma came home, pleasantly tired and only slightly splattered with drying black slime and blood that wasn't his. He shoved back his ram-faced mask and leaned hipshot against the mission desk, grinning cheerfully down at Reiko. "Guess who didn't even get scratched this time, eh? You can put 'COMPLETE VICTORY' in that little box up at the top. It was glorious. They didn't even--"
"Ryouma-kun," Reiko said very quietly, "you need to go to the hospital."
He blinked down at her. "Shuuhei isn't colicky anymore, is he? I know it's awful hard stayin' up all night with a crying baby, but I didn't think you could go deaf. None of this blood's mine, all right?"
Reiko pulled a sticky-note off his file folder and held it out. Ryouma didn't move to take it; after writing up half a dozen mission reports for him in the past three months, she should know it was her job to read. She sighed, her round, pretty face creasing. "Damn Shiratori should've done the dirty work himself," she murmured, and crumpled the sticky-note. "Hatake Kakashi is in the hospital. Sakamoto Ginta's grandmother sent word for you to come..." She trailed off. "Ryouma-kun?"
Ryouma stumbled at the brink of horror and wrenched himself back. "Hospital. Right. I could've guessed. Kakashi and Ginta together, right? Double the idiocy, no wonder... Am I supposed to be bringing flowers or a Get Well Soon card or what? Why didn't Kakashi send word? If they both got themselves hurt I'm gonna to laugh so hard..."
"I'm sorry, Ryouma-kun," Reiko whispered. "Sakamoto-san is in critical condition. Hatake-san is in a coma."
The world didn't swing. He was a little surprised that he felt like it should have. Of course Kakashi had gotten hurt; he got hurt all the time, mostly rescuing other people. He'd probably saved Ginta this time, and sacrificed himself to do it. But it couldn't be that bad. He was Sharingan no Kakashi, wasn't he? ANBU's golden boy, first page in the Bingo Book, racing the wind with a fistful of lightning.
And Ryouma hadn't been there to watch his back.
"Thanks," he said, and translocated into the hospital lobby.
He caught barely a glimpse of startled nurses and jumpy ninja before he flickered out again, straight upstairs to the fourth floor ANBU waiting room. Rat-mask and hawk-mask tensed on either side of the doors, then relaxed as they saw the ram still perched on the side of his head and the ruined red spiral inked into his arm. "Tousaki-san," the rat-masked man said; he didn't sound surprised. Ryouma didn't recognize either the mask or the voice, which meant they'd been told to keep an eye out for him. Good. It saved arguing.
"I'm here for Hatake Kakashi," he said. "And--and Sakamoto Ginta."
Rat nodded. "Sign in there," he said, pointing to the woman seated at the desk in the corner.
Ryouma'd never come as a visitor before. He fumbled his way through the process, stripping off his arm-guards and reeking gloves, smearing the ink-pad and paper with flecks of black and rust-brown as he gave his thumb-print, blotting the ink as he scribbled his name. "Rooms 410 and 411," the woman said, wrinkling her nose at her newly perfumed paper. "In the ICU. Stop at the nurse's station to clean up before you touch anything."
For once, Ryouma obeyed without question.
The nurses let him trade his bloody gear for a clean pair of badly fitting scrubs, helped him scrape the first layer of skin off his arms and the dried black gunk from underneath his fingernails. He almost wished he could keep the smell; Kakashi might recognize it. But Kakashi wasn't recognizing anything, right now.
The nurses left him just inside Kakashi's hospital room. Ginta was across the hall, they said; Ryouma nodded without really hearing. He couldn't look away from dead-white skin blotted purple with bruises and scribbled black with seals, bandages cutting white swaths over shoulders and hand and temple, silver-white hair crusted red at the roots. Kakashi's face was naked. Ryouma found a tissue in a box by the door, and masked him. The soft material barely fluttered as Kakashi breathed.
Ryouma scrubbed at his face with both hands. "You bastard," he whispered. And then, louder: "You bastard! You weren't supposed to do this to me!" |
|