InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "This little piggy went to mark"

Akiyama Rina (fallen_rina) wrote in fallen_leaves,
@ 2009-08-29 22:40:00

Entry tags:

genma, rina

Almost Not Alone [Genma, Rina]
[Takes place on the 3rd of April, one day after After the Rain, five days after Meet You on the Other Side, and about five years after Got That Mountain to Climb.]

It was almost a rule, that Genma always had to screw up all of her hard work whenever she wasn't there to fix it. Turning up the water from 'hot' to 'scorching,' Rina poured another handful of shampoo and tried desperately to scrub all the branches out of her hair.

One week. One week she'd been gone, and this was the kind of thing he got up to. How did he manage it? She'd been looking forward to a nice, relaxing shower ever since she'd crossed back over the border, and instead here she was, frantically scrubbing her skin off along with the grime.

Ducking her head under the spray for the fifth time, she forcefully widened her eyes, not letting them close. When she closed them, all she could see was--

Don't think about it. The note said it wasn't as bad this time.

No sense worrying until she got there, anyway--right, as if thinking that ever helps--and they wouldn't let her into the hospital until she was clean. Dragging her fingers roughly through her hair again, searching for dirt and debris, she ended up with just a handful of pale, gleaming strands.

Finally.

The water ran clear now, instead of red-black with ink and unidentified blood. Rinsing her hair one more time, she shut it off gingerly, using her fingertips so the layer of grime she'd left on the knobs wouldn't transfer back to her hands again.

Housekeeping could deal with the dirt; she didn't have time.

She'd brought two towels, so the second one stayed clean. Wrapping herself up in it, she scooped up her filthy uniform with the other, and dashed back across the hall to her room, scrounging a few bare threads of chakra from who-knows-where to deactivate the seals on her door. A pair of sweats and a t-shirt took no time at all to pull on, paired with a set of ninja sandals, and then it was only an instant more for her to snatch up her spare seals-kit. Not even bothering to wring out her dripping hair, she slammed back out the door again seconds after she'd gone in.

The hospital was only next door; even that seemed too far away. But she didn't have enough chakra left to translocate, so she'd just have to run.

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fallen_senbon
2009-08-30 05:55 am UTC (link)

When the staff had come to take Raidou away for debridement of his burns, Genma had smiled and told Raidou he'd be fine. Especially since a nurse had shown up at just that moment with a syringe full of painkillers and two tablets of whatever dope they'd had him on since his debriefing. That had been over a day ago, and Genma was quite sure the syrupy quality of his thinking had everything to do with his visit from the Hyuuga debriefer and later from Kotoe-san, and the drugs they'd decided to give him as a result.

They'd found him curled into as close to a fetal ball as his injuries would allow, when they'd come in after that debriefing. He'd been using every trick available to him, including draining what little chakra he'd managed to recover, to keep from nodding off. Sleep meant dreams, and dreams meant... Things he wasn't thinking about.

The drugs had been, he could see if he looked at it objectively, inevitable. It didn't make it any easier to swallow them, or to accept that the psych staff thought he was nuts. He wasn't nuts. Just a little rattled. Same as Raidou. Who wouldn't be, after a mission like theirs?

Genma had finally relented and taken the drugs when Raidou had looked him in the eye and told him it was all right. And later Genma had touched Raidou's hand and told Raidou it was all right. And as long as they were both there making it all right, it was.

It was a lot harder for it to be all right when Raidou was off being tortured by the very medical staff who were trying to help him.

Genma had enough medical background to understand exactly why they were taking Raidou away to the burn unit for his dressing changes--with burns you needed as sterile an environment as an operating room. And he knew they were really going out of their way to make it possible for him and Raidou to be within each other's sights at all times.

When they'd come to take him, Raidou had joked about getting a shot of the good stuff, and Genma had seen the fear in his eyes. And Genma had joked about Raidou being a wuss, and tried to project something like strength. He'd looked Raidou in the eye and told him everything would be fine, and he'd be right here when Raidou got back.

Then he'd gotten his injection and watched the clock, and gotten more and more restless with each passing minute. He kicked at the sheets and picked at the tape on his abdomen, and twisted and flexed until his movement overrode the pain medicine and his side hurt. Possibly he should have actually taken the tablets, he thought, instead of tonguing them and spitting them out when the nurse left. But he was sick and tired of being treated like a psych case, and he was damned if he was going to let them drug him into oblivion when Raidou needed him. Which Raidou would, when they brought him back.

They could at least have had the decency to tell him how long this was going to take. Damn, what he really wanted was a cigarette and some coffee.

And Raidou to come back.

And be all right.

Really all right.

When the door to the room whispered open, he jerked to attention, hissing in pain at the movement. "Fuck! It's about fucking time. Rai--"

It wasn't Raidou.

And fuck that had hurt.