By the time Genma turned in his and Raidou's overdue mission reports, and made sure Tsume and Kuromaru were at least alive and somewhat well, he'd been home three days. Well technically three days, although only one was a day where he was awake much. While he was down turning in mission reports and getting his dog-bitten leg and chakra-drained body poked, prodded and inspected, he'd chanced to ask where Haruichi was. Hospital, the medic on duty in the infirmary had told him. Or maybe home on leave. Anyway he got himself screwed up on a mission.

So it was that the next morning, after a leisurely lie in, a breakfast of raw egg over steamed rice, three cups of tea, and some cursing and wincing as he donned his clothes and tried to stretch out a little, Genma headed over to the fine apartments Haruichi and his girlfriend inhabited. He did them the courtesy of showing up in non-threatening civvies--a pair of loose-fit jeans and a too-big pink hoodie--though he wore his hitai-ate, and there were more than a few weapons secreted in those innocuous-looking clothes. And he went to the front door like a polite, well-brought-up young man. Knocked twice sharply, followed it with a staccato burst of three.

Of course he didn't plan on using much polite language, once he managed to get in there. Haruichi's damn tattoo was still scabbed and new, for fuck's sake. He had been back in ANBU what? Twelve hours? Before he had disobeyed the single rule Genma had set out for him as a rookie--Don't go getting yourself killed.

There were definitely some serious words needing to be had with the idiot Hyuuga.

Genma knocked again.

Haruichi's foot twitched as he blinked awake, having been fool enough to nod off while he stared at his newspaper. He blinked again, then shoved his glasses up over his brow and glared at the door - which was sounding off like a drum-kit. Beside him Pika roused sharply and nudged Hoshi to let her know somebody was at the door, prompting her to meet Haruichi's eyes curiously and all three of them to look at the door.

Another rattle of knocks fell on the door and Haruichi sighed once before setting the paper aside and getting to his feet. A few strides later and he'd crossed the small and empty living room, and unhooked the lock.

Then, without even having to use the byakugan he knew who was on the other side of the door. Just knew.

Nevertheless, he opened it anyway.

"Is the building on fire?" he inquired levelly, looking up at Genma inquiringly. "A stampede of buffalo are on their way, perhaps? And you have come to warn us with your urgent hammering upon our door?"

Genma looked at the cast enveloping Haruichi's arm. At the pallor of Haruichi's cheeks. At the sickly bruise half hidden by his hair, and the odd layering of too many tee-shirts over bandages that made his friend look thick waisted and ungainly. He looked, with his arms crossed over his chest and a grim expression on his face. Behind Haruichi, the girl with the wild hair was holding a large sketchbook. There was a newspaper on the floor. A dog. A half-empty cup of coffee.

"Did you not listen to a single thing I said? No, I don't care, actually. You obviously didn't listen to the important thing. Let me the fuck in, it's freezing out here." Genma edged past Haruichi and into the small room.

The girl with the hair was wearing a bright orange sweater and a shockingly short skirt. Nice legs, too, though the sweater hid the rest of her figure. But it was cold, after all. Too bad the sweater was so thick.

Haruichi's eyes rolled automatically as he swung the door shut behind Genma, turned to spot him staring at Hoshi (who was staring right back) and lifted his plaster-bound arm to whack Genma in the back of the head none-too-gently. It took the extra effort, but it was absolutely worth it for the clunking sound alone. "Eyes up, Genma," he snapped, then remembering that Hoshi wouldn't know who this was and that they weren't exactly strangers. For the sake of peace and civility, and also because from the look of things Hoshi could actually kick the snot out of Genma at this particular moment in time, Haruichi thought it was best to act like there was absolutely no way Genma had ever been in the apartment before.

With the cast over his arm he couldn't sign anything very well, but Hoshi could lipread and he could interpret for her (mostly) so there was a good chance this would work. Haruichi stepped between them, noting the very curious look Hoshi was giving this random pink-clad newcomer, and made the introductions. "Hoshi, this is Shiranui Genma. He works with me and is something of a prat. Genma, this is Toshimora Hoshiko. She is my fiancee so watch your tongue around her."

Hoshi tucked her sketchbook under one arm and waved a friendly hand, giving Genma a smile as the sunlight sparkled off the rows of studs in her ears and backlit her hair brightly. They hadn't exactly been expecting guests, so neither of them were dressed to entertain - but that didn't matter if this was a friend of Haruichi's. Hoshi was assuming Genma might fall into that category, despite the looks he was shooting her fiance, because she doubted anybody else would show up at the flat.

Benefit of the doubt was something Hoshi was really rather ready to dispense, it seemed.

The crack to the back of the skull had been, Genma supposed, somewhat deserved. He was doubly annoyed at Haruichi now, for both hitting him, and for being stupid enough to get himself hurt on his first mission enough to get a cast which he then used as a weapon. Although using it as a weapon did show some ingenuity, and Genma figured it had to have hurt whatever bone was being mended. Certainly when he'd bumped a casted injury, on purpose or not, it had hurt like a bitch. And Haruichi wasn't whining. Still, he deserved something for that...

But caught in the sparkle of Hoshi's charm, Genma found himself unable to retaliate just yet. Instead he smiled, a broad, friendly smile, and bowed low. Then straightened, and remembering the woman was deaf, faced her fully, and exaggerated his speech just a little.

"Pleased to meet you at last, Hoshiko-san. Haruichi's said wonderful things about you." Of course she wouldn't remember their first meeting. Genma as anonymous ANBU spook at two in the morning was a far cry from Genma as charming young friend of her fiancé's, right?

Hoshi was more than slightly sure that, while Haruichi would say wonderful things about her, it'd only be if he spoke about her at all. Reticence about himself was a hallmark of Haruichi's character, but Hoshi wasn't above taking a very kind theoretical complement from one of Haruichi's few acquaintances (and possible friend?). So she smiled brightly back to Genma, and signed quickly to Haruichi before she started fixing them a place to sit and have some tea.

While Hoshi closed the window, flicked on their space-heater and did that inexplicable cloth origami she did when she wanted to turn blankets into cushions, Haruichi translated for her and beckoned Genma the short distance to the center of the apartment with his good hand. "Hoshi says 'thank you' and to come in and have some tea and feel free to keep shouting at me as loudly as you like if it's about why my arm is in a cast." Haruichi hissed air out behind his back teeth and gave Genma a pale-eyed glare as Hoshi handed him the hotplate for him to make work. "Personally, given the state I can now see you're in, I don't mind if you do so long as you're good enough to choke on your own hypocrisy."

He fidgeted with the temperamental old hotplate until it finally turned on, then set the full kettle on it and held out his good hand for Hoshi to steady herself on as she settled down to sit crosslegged on her folded blanket, arranged like the other two around the hotplate and beside the space heater. Automatic manners, but she always took his hand. Haruichi spotted the tea paraphernalia sitting next to the warming kettle as he dropped down to sit as well, getting a nudge from Pika as she settled down with her head in her mistresses mini-skirted lap and snorted quietly.

It was a little strange, essentially camping in the middle of their living room, but making anywhere feel like home had been Hoshi's saving grace for many years, and it was more than odd how little Haruichi missed conventional furniture some days.

"I've got nothing to be ashamed of. Least I didn't get myself half drowned! You're supposed to know how to swim, you know." Genma didn't bother hiding the stiffness in his injured leg as he lowered himself to the floor to join his hosts. Haruichi obviously had spotted the limp, or something that made him think Genma was in no position to be criticizing. Maybe the chakra-drain? Could he see that with his Hyuuga eyes?

"And I mean it. What the hell kind of heroics and stupidity did you get involved in that got you so messed up? You're the medic for fuck's sake. You're never supposed to get hurt." The hypocrisy in that little tirade could easily have choked a horse, seeing as technically, Genma was also a medic. But a field medic was nothing like the real thing. Not like Haruichi, he told himself.

"All I know is, you go haring off after Kakashi, next thing I hear you're in hospital and so's he. Of course he's a masochistic little bastard and always gets himself there, and usually half his team. But you shouldn't have gotten hurt."

Having sensed that this was a conversation it was handy to be deaf during, Hoshi had put her focus on preparing and pouring the tea - pausing only to glance at Haruichi's face once in a while to see if anything Shiranui-san was saying had any effect. Beside her, Pika growled at Genma for making a racket... or possibly for caring about Haruichi. Either way, it was barely audible and ceased altogether when her mistress petted her head.

Haruichi, though, wasn't about to be cowed. "All you know is how to pitch a fit, Genma. I went to get Kakashi - just like I'd go to get any of you, being that that is my job - and there was trouble. There is always trouble. I--" He glanced to Hoshi, who looked right back, orange eyes wise to what he was about to say. She gave a soft sigh, signed that 'oh, she had forgotten they had some cookies', and excused herself to wander to the embryonic kitchenette and 'look for things'.

Her fiance quickly took advantage of the offered opportunity, turning to Genma with an edge in his voice that his factual tone didn't disguise.

"I had to kill three Mist shinobi and wound up getting stabbed in the arm. Before that I had a thoroughly trying time keeping Kakashi alive, and that was before we nearly drowned in the subterranean whirlpool cast upon us by the dozen or so enemy nins looking for him. Oh, that was right."

Haruichi's hand whipped out and whacked Genma right across the forehead, just like he'd promised himself he'd get to do. "Just so you know, my armour did not double as a life vest like you suggested it would and it really would have been helpful if it had."

"Ow!" It was always a surprise when Haruichi moved that fast. Although perhaps it was in deference to being in Haruichi's home, with his large dog watching like a hawk, that kept Genma from defending against the blow. It hadn't been but a few days since his last dog bite, after all. He rolled away from Haruichi's strike, rubbing his head, and stared incredulously at his host. "You believed that?" He blinked and laughed. "It was a joke! When I handed you your vest, which by the way, did you not notice how heavy it is? I said that as a joke. What kind of scientist believes something dense enough to block a katana strike could possibly be a flotation device?"

It was almost enough to distract Genma from his tirade against his friend's stupidity. Almost, but not quite.

"Honestly, Haruichi. I know missions can go bad on you. Believe me." He rubbed ruefully at his sore leg. "And I know sometimes you can't help it. But you have arm guards for a reason! You shouldn't take a blade in the forearm. And you have to know how to swim."

A quietly dismissive snort met that. "I'm an ANBU medic, Genma. There are no missions that..." A half-beat of time, then the truth. "Missions have to go bad for me to be involved at all."

He shook his head slightly, and leaned back, propped with unusual casualness on his good arm as he looked over to where Hoshi had done an excellent job of not only pretending to have more pressing concerns than the tale of Haruichi's first mission, but of finding something for them to eat. He watched her turned profile, and the line of her tanned throat for a moment without being able to help himself, then shook his head and looked back to Genma with something closer to guilt slipping behind his eyes than he'd ever have known.

"And anyway, the arm guards are apparently not well suited to practical use of the jyuuken." They didn't guard the areas of limbs that became exposed using that fighting style, that was for certain. "I'll have to work something out. Adjust my technique or some such."

He wasn't even going to dignify the swimming comment.

Watching Haruichi look at his girlfriend was almost, Genma felt, like an intrusion. He'd never seen that expression on Haruichi's face, that look in his eyes first of adoration, then of something like shame. It was a shocking contrast to the haughty defiance that usually graced his face.

"I know," Genma said, voice softer, less accusing. "It's.... Being on a cleanup crew is never good. Ever." He thought of his own encounters with such teams, both as rescuer, and as the one needing rescue. Cleanup missions were heartbreaking affairs, now matter which side of them you were on. "I don't think I could be the kind of medic you are. I couldn't take it."

At least, though, by the time a retrieval team was sent, there was an awareness that they'd likely be walking into something bad. It wasn't quite as... chaotic... as being caught in a mission suddenly gone insane.

"I guess there aren't too many Hyuuga running around in ANBU. Maybe you could ask Quartermaster to modify the arm guards so they work better for you. I know the Aburame in ANBU have some extra holes drilled and stuff so their bugs can get in and out easily."

There hadn't been any other Hyuuga in ANBU for a long time, but Haruichi thought Genma had a point regardless. There would be something to change to fix it: either in his uniform or in his jutsu. Haruichi's life, his work, it all taught him that one had to learn lessons the first time around because you'd be dead by the end of class otherwise.

That was the only real part of what Genma had just said that he felt like processing right now. The notion that Genma (go anywhere, do anything, hang what state I come back in, Genma) didn't think he could take doing what Haruichi had taken it upon himself to achieve wouldn't settle quietly into the tapestry of heroics, hysterics and half-assedness that made up Shiranui Yumiko's brother's corner of his mind. And he wasn't going to force it right now. It wasn't his way.

So instead he just half-nodded, in acceptance of the change in the meeting's tone if nothing else. "I suppose we'll see how it goes," he said, reaching up with his casted hand to shove some of his hair up off his forehead. He opened his mouth to ask what collossal stupidity Genma himself had gotten involved in to be coming back with a wounded leg and strained chakra coils but didn't get the chance. Hoshi (sensitive to the mood as ever) trotted softly back over, and Haruichi automatically pushed up to his feet to give her a hand to ease down with.

She took one look at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek before sitting down and handing Genma a biscuit plate with a wink and an impish little smile.

Hoshi didn't have to sign it, the message was make yourself at home. Because a home was where he was.

Genma was enough of a ninja to recognize a distraction technique when he saw one. And enough of a man for it to totally work. He smiled at Hoshi, took one of the little black and white cookies, and stuffed it into his grinning face with all the enthusiasm of a four-year-old. After all, your hostess should know you appreciated her efforts, and Genma liked these cookies.

Before the first cookie was even swallowed he'd taken a second. "These are great! They're totally like these ones Yumiko used to get me when I was a kid. There were circus animals on the package, I think." He wondered how well Hoshi could read lips. At least well enough to get that he was happy about the cookies, he was pretty sure, since she smiled gleefully back at him.

"You knew my sister, right, Haru? Yumiko was my sister," he added for Hoshi's benefit, pronouncing the words with exaggerated care. "Can you imagine her liking sweets? But she totally did. She'd get a package for herself and a package for me, and show me what she learned at Academy. That was when I was really little. Like five or something."

"She was a generous person," Haruichi remembered. Generous with her time, her energy and her opinion. Hinaji had admired her for the latter most of all. "And an excellent medic." A fact his continued existence attested to. The scar Genma had stared in shock at a few nights ago had been familiar to Yumiko back when it was new.

A flicker of Yumiko's stern half-frown passed through Haruichi's memory then, causing him to quietly blink it back to the past (not that Genma had ever made that easy, but that was a reflection for another time). Pouring out the tea for the three of them he glanced to Hoshi - who was cheerily munching on her own cookie and clearly enjoying Genma's happiness at the advent of food. The two of them were munching happily, sipping tea, and Haruichi watched them for a very long second.

It was a moment grounded rather spectacularly in the present, even as Genma reminisced about the far past, and Haruichi felt that fact oddly strongly for that moment. A strained pull at the edges of his chest, and a harder beat of his heart. The tattoo scabbing on his arm stung slightly, and he knew then that this was all just because he was being reminded that he was alive. Dragging the whole damnable mission up again and topping that with Genma's shrieking concern and admonishments had reinforced how lucky he was to have survived his first mission as an ANBU.

Hoshi smiled, and scribbled out something for Genma on a scrap of paper - sticking that into his hand when he reached for another cookie. Haruichi watched her eyes flare bright and didn't have to remind himself that he wasn't the only one who was lucky he'd come back.

Genma looked at the note. If you like these, they are really cheap at the market on the corner downstairs, it said. He laughed and grinned at Hoshi. "Thanks! I'll pick some up when I head home." He was careful to enunciate, relieved when the light in her eyes said she'd understood him. He had no idea what it would be like to be deaf and lipread, but lipreading was a ninja's skill, too, and Genma was... well, not very good at it. It was so much easier to cast a sound-enhancing jutsu to eavesdrop, than to try to do it all by sight. Although some people really had the skill. He supposed if he lost his hearing he'd have to pick it up. He hoped that never happened.


Haruichi seemed a little lost in his own thoughts, and Genma was about to drag him back into the conversation when a kestrel with a message scroll tied to its left leg hopped onto the edge of the balcony's rail and pecked at the glass.

"Oh damn. I thought I was off missions. And I know you are. What do you suppose that is?" he asked, indicating the bird.

Haruichi's eyes flicked away from Hoshi at the sound, and when he saw the messenger bird his expression shifted just slightly, responsibility asserting itself in his features. He reached over to gently touch Hoshi's knee, a silent sign not to worry, and then got up to his feet and paced over to the closed glass to allow the bird in.

The sleek brown kestrel held its leg out for him, golden eyes fixed firmly on Haruichi's white ones. He carefully unhooked the scrap of paper, unrolling it with his thumbs and flicking his eyes over the coded message within. Before he was done the bird was gone, hurling itself off into the pale morning brightness with a whistle and a flash of wings, and before it was out the shadow of the apartments Haruichi knew he had to leave.

And so did Hoshi, after taking just one look at him when he turned around. She scribbled a note out and passed it to Genma (--excuse us, please--) and was then up on her own feet, hand on one hip and eyes on Haruichi's. If ever trouble was given a pose - that was it, and didn't Haruichi know it. He picked up his cast-bound arm and did his best to sign despite it, movements slower and clunkier than usual. Still, so far as Hoshi was concerned if he couldn't sign he shouldn't be out the flat so he knew better than to ask her to lipread. Not to mention that he wasn't sure he wanted Genma hearing what he might wind up saying.

~I have to go see a patient at the hospital.~

Her nose scrunched slightly, a tell tale sign of annoyance. ~You just got out of there, Haruichi. You're on leave.~ Her fingers were moving deliberately clearly, but quickly enough to signify her temper on the matter.

He tried not to wince as he shifted his arm. ~Somebody's hurt, Hoshi.~

~You! You're hurt! You're supposed to stay here and heal!~ And now the restraint in her movements was out the window.

~I'll be fine. It's just a consultation.~ Hoshi scowled at that, but he pressed on, wracking his memory for the right signs. ~She just needs to see her own medic.~

~Well I'm sure you'll inspire her with confidence when you show up looking like a breeze could knock you over.~

Haruichi hadn't known until he met Hoshi that somebody could be so sarcastic with a tip of their palm, but when that was clearly supposed to be him tipping over he definitely saw it. And somehow he couldn't help a small smirk of appreciation. ~Thanks for that.~

The scowl vanished, but not the worry in her eyes. ~You're welcome. I have plenty more.~

He tried again. ~I'm her--~ She put her hand out, stopping his fingers. The same as placing her fingers over his lips to hush him. She lifted her free hand, one simple gesture.

~I know.~

Despite himself, Haruichi felt worse for her understanding. His eyes searched hers for a moment, thinking of the best way to leave her here and knowing it almost immediately. ~Keep an eye on Genma for me, he probably shouldn't be...~ She just gave him a glare and he quickly shut himself up. ~...I'll be back in half an hour or so.~

Hoshi rolled her eyes slightly. ~You'd better. Or I'm bringing him with me when I come looking for you.~

Apprehension of the row he'd get from both of them was enough to ensure Haruichi's swift return, so he nodded and let his tired arm drop after his clumsy attempt at the conversation. He looked to Genma, who no doubt knew and understood without having to be told.

"I'll be back soon, Genma. Orders. Can you stay with Hoshi for a while, please? Finish your tea, perhaps."

"I'm pretty sure you're on medical leave, Haruichi," Genma said with something almost like a smile. "But I gather she's already raised that point with you. Don't worry, I won't get her into any trouble while you're gone." The smile broadened into a smirk and a wink. That ought to ensure Haruichi'd hurry back. Might also get him a punch, but sometimes you took a hit for a friend, if it was the right thing to do.

Genma had watched the conversation with quiet interest. Obviously Hoshi was alarmed and angry, and Haruichi was placating but adamant, and some signs were universal. You're hurt. Don't go. I'm fine. Then there were the less obvious things, like when they had each in turn glanced at him while making a little hand gesture he couldn't understand, followed on Haruichi's part by look and stay and Hoshi's more complicated response that included something that might have been carry.

All he could really gather was that he was somehow an object of contention. But then Haruichi had turned and asked him to remain. Did he want Genma to protect Hoshi in his absence? Was he just being a polite host and not kicking him out for decorum's sake? And what had that carry thing of Hoshi's meant? He had only the vaguest of notions.

Turning to Hoshi, he gave her the same flirty wink. "Do you want me to stay and keep you company while Haruichi's off playing doctor?"

If Hoshi hadn't been so irked and ill-settled by the prospect of Haruichi going out she'd probably have had a choice word or two for Genma's proposal, but as it was, the fact that he was kidding with her actually put her a bit at ease. At least she knew for sure Haruichi trusted him, or else her fiance would probably have just tried to kick him off the balcony. She gave Genma a sidelong look and a lifted eyebrow, then a small smile and a nod before vanishing into the bedroom.

Haruichi, for his part, gave Genma a narrow-eyed stare that perhaps did more to give away a spark of jealous protectiveness than to conceal it as he carefully leaned down and picked a coat up off the neatly folded stack by the door. "I'll be back very soon," he reitterated, and doubtless would have said more if Hoshi hadn't just then reappeared with a scarf and a solitary mitten which he was not allowed to depart without.

A few seconds later he was kitted out and over the threshold, but Hoshi still kissed his cheek instead of letting him say 'bye' - and let him feel a little of her temper in the touch. And then he was gone, and Hoshi was closing the door and sitting down next to her dog and looking at Genma. She made a faltering attempt at a normal, even-handed smile, but then sighed in aggravation and scrawled on her notepad before passing it to him.

--If he tries to do any jutsu he's going to faint. Again.--

Genma wisely kept out of the way while Haruichi and Hoshi said their goodbyes. He didn't even bother to give Haruichi a parting warning not to be an idiot. The man was going to the hospital, after all. If he looked too unstable, his colleagues would undoubtedly tie him down and buff him up before they let him come home.

Hoshi, though, looked really worried. She was trying to pretend she wasn't, for all of thirty seconds. And then her facade fell apart and she passed Genma that note. He read it at a glance, then read it again.

"He fainted? When? He did a jutsu and it made him lose consciousness?" That was worrying. She had good reason to be worried if that was happening. "Do they know about this? The other medics, I mean?"

Having said something, now Hoshi couldn't really stop herself from elaborating. This was one of Haruichi's (extremely few) friends, and he was in the secret ops too, or else Haruichi wouldn't have told him about the mission he'd just come back from. So she nodded, and picked up her pen and wrote a little more, much more calmly this time - though she had to force herself to concentrate on nicely shaped characters and the clarity of her words.

--He passed out once at the hospital, just standing up. And once here when he tried to practice a jutsu, yesterday. I think he looks a lot better today, though. And yes, the hospital knows about the first time. They said it was normal and it'd stop. He's just tired, but Haruichi doesn't ever stop pushing himself, you know? --

He probably did know. He'd known him longer than she had, of that Hoshi had no doubt. Still... she was angry at a situation that wouldn't let her sick fiance just rest in peace for a day, and at him for just going along with it when he'd fight if he felt like it. She frowned down at her tea, then scratched Pika's ears and gave her the cookie off of Haruichi's setting. Take that, Haruichi-sensei.

Hoshi's writing was really quite elegant, even when she was writing in haste. And now that she was taking the time to gather her thoughts and form her words, it really bloomed. She could be a calligrapher, Genma thought. She could work in docs and forgeries, if they needed money. Although her status as an immigrant might be an obstacle. But she was allowed inside the village, living with a man who was ANBU, Hyuuga clan, and a doctor. If that didn't show Konoha trusted her, not much would.

"He was chakra depleted. It's pretty common, after a hard mission. I am, too, right now, actually. I'm sure they won't ask him to do any jutsu, if they know about it. Although he's an idiot for casting jutsu when he knows he's in that state. But he's always an idiot about things like this."

Genma's eyes stayed on Hoshi's face. He wasn't entirely sure she really understood him. "You know about chakra, right?" he asked, and reached for the paper and wrote the characters for 'chakra' in carefully precise script.

Peering down at the paper, seeing the signs, Hoshi properly understood the word for what it was on Genma's lips. She looked up at him and performed the sign for it, a touch of fingers to her stomach, splaying out in a little five-point firework to symbolise the energies. It was how the monks had done it back in the Temple, and it seemed to fit the same idea as the supernatural energy that allowed Haruichi and other ninjas to do such outstanding (and dangerous) things so long as they concentrated and stayed strong.

Chakra. She didn't have to think back to remember Haruichi showing her a bright, pale light on his palm - and how it had tingled, or fizzed, or warmed, or rippled around her fingertips as she touched it. And the smile she'd caught on Haruichi's face as he'd watched her wonder. There'd been no such happiness on his face yesterday as he'd tried to get his healing green light to shimmer on his palms; only concern which gave way to a sort of bereft unhappiness right before he'd just fallen back onto the pillow in bed and stayed that way for hours. There'd been nothing supernatural about that, it'd been excruciatingly human to watch him try and fail and fall.

She took a breath, shaking her head out the moment's memory and looking at Genma with a small shrug of her shoulders. He was right, they wouldn't let him try at the hospital. And he'd said he was coming right back.

--Haruichi showed me, once. I didn't know it could make him so sick to use it up. That doesn't happen often, does it? I know Hatake-san was really hurt but there was only one of him. What if there are more hurt people next time and he faints like that in a field or something?--

Hoshi couldn't even begin to admit how much the thought scared her, just seeing Haruichi so still and defenseless was a shock - because he was always awake and alert and attentive and defensive and if he had that taken away from him she didn't know what might happen to him. Her orange eyes met Genma's, hoping hard that he'd know and have an answer he could give her.

Genma repeated the sign she'd made, twisted fingers and scarred hand splayed out over his navel. "Chakra. You have it too, you know." He made the sign again and pointed to her. She'd probably laugh at him trying to sign when he knew she could read lips, but somehow it seemed like the right thing to do. "Everyone has it, but only some people can gather and channel it. Ninja. Medics. If you can channel it, you can overuse it. That's what makes you sick. And if you're already tired or hurt or sick, then it's easier to use it up too fast, or to use it poorly."

She didn't look reassured. He wasn't saying this right.

"Missions aren't always that bad. Haruichi's a good doctor. And Hatake was low on chakra to begin with, so it took more of Haruichi's chakra than usual to get him stable." He was sure of that, without even knowing the details of the mission. Kakashi was an arrogant prick and he wasted his chakra down to the nub over and over again.

Those orange eyes implored him. Orange eyes that were eerily reminiscent of the eyes he'd had to cut from a child of some minor clan from Rain. Maybe Hoshi's cousin? He didn't dare follow that train of thought any further.

"Haruichi's strong." He reached out an hand to touch Hoshi's shoulder. "He's just a typical medic. Has no idea how to be a patient. I'm the same way. It's why he thinks I'm an idiot."

Hoshi couldn't help a small resigned sigh for that, though she edged it around a brave smile. Typical medic? Maybe they all fretted and pushed like Haruichi did, and got so very serious about the slightest hint of responsibility. Was Genma like that? She found herself believing that he could be, among the many other things he probably had to be. Right now, though, he was a sounding board she hadn't known she needed for the ideas she had about Haruichi's work. Not to mention the toll she only now saw that it took. Ordinarily she'd never have said a word, but 'ordinary' was probably long gone now and so she had to know how to find her way in Haruichi's world.

And most importantly of all he said Haruichi was strong. Hoshi had been worrying, and feeling guilty for worrying, about the way she could see her beloved wasn't like the others. He'd come home bruised and beaten from training with his peers every time back in December; but it seemed that in the field as a medic he was strong in the ways that mattered more.

She was very grateful for those two words, then, and for his kind touch to her shoulder. The odd sort of loneliness she'd sometimes felt about being new to all of this seemed to pull back from around her chest, and he was probably why.

Her hand found her paper, and characters were etched onto it with care and quick strokes before it was passed to him again.

--He really can't think you're too stupid, since you matter to him. He's just prickly, and you're right about him being a clueless patient. He can't even stop himself from being a doctor when he has tubes up his nose. I hope you aren't that bad.--

Genma blinked at the note. He mattered to Haruichi? Well he supposed he did, in the way all Haruichi's patients mattered to him. But maybe Hoshi was right. Who else did Haruichi ever invite into his home. Who else even knew where that home was?

"I'm not a doctor like him," he said. "I'm just a field medic. I can't fix people the way Haruichi does. But my sister could. Haruichi knew her." He smiled and reached for another cookie. "Maybe that's why he's nice to me." Although nice was a relative term. Still, for some value of nice, Haruichi was more so to Genma than anyone much else.

"Anyway, it's... When a buddy's life is on the line, you go all out for them. Me, Haruichi... All of us. It's what we do."

Those orange eyes still haunted him. He couldn't shake the memory of that little girl in her yellow kimono stained crimson. "You're not from Fire Country, are you?"

With a tiny internal sigh, Hoshi supposed that going 'all out' was exactly what Haruichi always did. He only did it without any show and as a matter of course, and that was why Hoshi doubted he would ever simply learn to take a situation at half-speed. Genma saying that it was how the ANBU behaved just gave her the feeling that that was where he'd learned to be that way, though she doubted spending that time with the medics as a kid had given him any ideas about taking it easy.

And then her thinking about that was cut very short by Genma's question, and the way he was peering at her from over the top of his cookie. She'd been watching his face carefully, his lips most of all, and she could percieve the lack of rhetoric and the certainty in his question. It made her toes twitch in just a little, and set Pika to opening one sleepy eye and staring over at Genma quietly.

She shook her head, told the truth (Haruichi had said they could never lie if the question came up) and decided against writing anything down on the subject. She lifted her hands and made her fingertips mimic the fall of water droplets. It was as close to onomatopoeia as sign language could come, and if Genma had picked up 'chakra' he would know 'rain' when he saw it.

Though suddenly she wished Haruichi was here. Not that she was afraid of Genma, or doubted him; but Haruichi always knew what to do when people's faces changed if they found out where she came from.

Rain. Rain falling. Or maybe tears. Maybe both. That war-torn country was certainly a place where tears were as common as raindrops. It was also the place where Genma had encountered orange eyes before. He nodded, slowly. "Haruichi and you met when he was on a mission there?" That seemed as good a guess as any. Likely she was a refugee. Likely an orphan. What else could persuade a person to pick up and leave her home altogether, especially a deaf person, unless her ties to her home were irreversibly broken?

He hoped he wasn't the one who'd killed her family. Although he was sure he'd gotten all of the orange-eyed targets on his list: ninja with a rogue bloodline. He'd cut out their eyes and brought them back to Konoha. And Hoshi wasn't a ninja. Didn't have a chakra signature like one.

But Karma was a bitch like that sometimes.

"Bet you made his mission a lot sweeter than it otherwise would have been. You like living here so far?"

So relieved by Genma's understated reaction to her original nationality, Hoshi just blushed at the mention of Haruichi's mission, bit the corner of her lip and smiled. She picked up her pen and wrote out a new note for her guest, picking up her tea and taking another sip as he read it.

--I got him into so much trouble with his Captains on that mission. But it was decided I could come back with him anyway, and I'm glad I could. It's safe and beautiful in Konoha. People trust each other. And this is where Haruichi comes from. We even have a home.--

And drawn beneath the words was a thumbnail sketch of two figures and a dog, in sparse but true little lines showing them standing by the unmistakable arch of the West Gate - his hands in his pockets, and her arm linked through his. A definitive little depiction of a family, and a place to call home.

Genma smiled, because what else could he do when faced with something that cute. Although being he was Genma, there were always options. He glanced up at Hoshi with a twinkle in his eye. "So you actually stole our dear Haruichi's precious virginity? And on a mission! You dangerous minx, you." He laughed and leaned back as a precaution against the slap that might be coming. But instinct told him that Hoshi was perhaps a little more on the fun-loving side of life than her mate, so maybe he'd be safe.

"You know mission captains usually turn a blind eye to that sort of thing unless it's really disruptive. They must have liked you a whole lot if you interfered enough to catch their attention and they still let you come back with them."

Hoshi's honey-coloured skin definitely reddened when she realized what Genma had just said, but it didn't stop her from managing to take her hand down from her cheek and sign at Genma - which made a nice cover for giving her guest a nippy little kick with one bare foot at the same time.

All things said it was probably better Genma couldn't (yet) make out what she unthinkingly signed at him, and she snatched her hands down to write on another bit of paper - but there was no mistaking the smug tilt she couldn't keep out of her smile as she did.

--I think the cat was out of the bag the first time Haruichi got back at four in the morning. Especially since he was only supposed to be going to the temple for evening prayers. Honda-taichou told me she probably would have killed him if she hadn't been laughing so hard at his excuse. I'm sort of certain that only Haruichi would try and get away with saying he'd been waylaid by an "anatomical study" when he was sneaking back into the inn right before dawn with ink all over his clothes from tripping over my easel.--

Though that last part had been kind of her fault for... erh... being such a distraction to such a sure-footed man. Hoshi nearly laughed just remembering the whole thing.

"Kinky," Genma said with an easy smile. "Haruichi said you were an artist, but I never guessed you did body painting. Do you do tattoos, too?" He laughed and rubbed his leg where her heel had struck, glad she'd kicked the uninjured one. He supposed he had deserved it, though not terribly much. She was the one who was telling tales, after all, and the flash in her eyes definitely said he was right about her having a bright fire inside her silence.

He shifted a little, sipped some more tea. For some reason, maybe it was the stillness of Hoshi's muteness, he found himself unsure how to carry the conversation. Or maybe he was just tired. Three days' rest ought to have been enough, but somehow he found he still wanted to sleep all the time. Since Raidou had been sleeping a lot, too, he figured it was just that it really had been that punishing of a mission, but damn, it was annoying.

The dog choose that moment to yawn, and Genma couldn't help himself when the contagion hit him: his face split open and he gulped air, eyes squinting shut, then opening wide. Unsurprisingly Hoshi was looking right at him. He ducked his head and blushed. "It's not the company, I promise."

His hostess didn't doubt him, she knew that look. Haruichi had come home wearing it a few times already, and when Genma's red-cheeked face peered back she had the same quietly sympathetic half-smile on her face that her fiance would receive.

She reached over to ruffle Pika's ears, and then sketched out another note for her guest.

--If we had a couch you could have a nap on it. You look like somebody should be yelling at you for leaving your flat, too.--

After passing it to him, and letting him read it, Hoshi held up a hand to sign for him to stay put for a moment. She was pretty certain he could understand that, and at any rate her meaning was clear when she padded through to the bedroom and came back with a cushion for him.

--Have a rest if you want. It'll work out nicely. When Haruichi comes back, he'll have to stay inside and look after you, being your doctor and everything.--

Genma smiled ruefully at the two notes. "I'm fine, really. I should maybe take some vitamins or something, but its just, you know. After effects of a mission." As soon as he'd said it, Genma wanted to take his words back. He gave Hoshi his most reassuring look. "Not all missions are tiring. I mean they're tiring but they're really, most of them you're fine after a night's rest. I just happened to have one that was more tiring than usual. It won't be like this for Haruichi."

Great, now he was getting tongue-tied and stupid? He definitely needed to go home and get some sleep. Maybe there had been something in those cookies.

"I'll stop by the hospital on my way home and make sure Haruichi's okay, and send him home if he's still there," he offered, and started to rise. All went well until he put his weight on the leg Kuromaru had bitten, and suddenly lack-of-chakra-stores plus healing-dog-bite resulted in falling-ninja. He caught himself with a quickly outstretched hand, slamming against the wall, but not before he'd managed to upset the tea tray and scatter cookies across the tatami.

Thank gods Haruichi isn't here, he thought.

Colossally unperturbed, Hoshi and Pika both sat there and looked up at Genma. Ignored the upturned tea service and cookie carnage, and merely watched the man who'd shown up at their door to yell at Haruichi for being injured crunch himself into a wall because his leg wouldn't take his weight.

They both just sat there and looked up at him, and two faces never more in the world ever said "I told you so" without resorting to words.

But Pika took pity on Genma before Hoshi was going to, and shuffled over to his side to headbutt him in the knee before setting about hoovering up the tasty crumbs on the floor. Hoshi hopped up to her feet, looped her arms behind her back, and peered up at Genma with perfect wordless expression in her bright orange eyes.

He could sit down and rest, or she could sit on him and make him. And what Haruichi would say if he came home to that scene, she was perfectly willing to risk.

"Um..." Genma shifted nervously, watching the dog happily devouring the spilt cookies. He wasn't quite sure if that nudge had been more of a 'sit before you fall, fool' gesture or an 'it's okay, we love you even though you're kind of dumb'. Probably it was really a silent combination of both, plus 'move, please, you are obstructing the cookies which, being on the floor, are now rightfully mine.' Dogs were enigmatic that way.

Hoshi's look, on the other hand, was unmistakable. She might not be a ninja herself, but Genma'd seen that expression cross a kunoichi's face more than once in a battle or a spar. It was a look that said, 'I can take you down, and I know it. And you know it.' The sad thing was, Genma had to agree.

Of course that was partly because he wouldn't dream of using anything resembling lethal force, even if Hoshi did decide to tackle him. But really, with women, when they wanted you to do something, it was usually a better idea to just go along with it. He'd learned that from his sisters quite well.

"Sorry." He would never consider using chakra against Hoshi, but he was far from above using it on himself to get his leg to behave as he lowered himself back to the floor. He could feel the drain of even that little usage, like an ache so deep it was hard to pinpoint.

He leaned over to right a tipped over teacup, glad it had been nearly empty, and glanced up at Hoshi again, with an expression that probably hadn't graced his face since he'd been sixteen and trying to get out of trouble with Yumiko.

Hoshi just waved her hand a little, an understated gesture that said not to worry about it. She wasn't above noticing the glimpse of placation on her guest's face as he looked up at her, but since he wasn't going to try and hobble out the door there was nothing to worry about and she wasn't going to press him. She easily righted the tipped cups, stacked the saucers with nimble fingers and left Pika's over-eager snuffling nose to seek out any and all crumbs that may have been making bids for freedom.

Then she shrugged just a little, maybe giving away just how young she was in the movement, and looked at Genma for a moment before putting pen to paper again.

--Don't be sorry. Take care of yourself, or failing that, let somebody else do it. I'm going to marry Haruichi, you know. I'm going to be helping look after you guys, too.--

She passed him the paper, with a small pre-emptive smile, and then cleared away the dishes to their corner for cleaning later. Hoshi wondered if Kakashi-san had realized that, either; that when it came to being back in Konoha she was going to be...

Well, if it was Haruichi's life to take care of them (like he'd just proven so clearly to her) then she was going to help. Help Haruichi and help them, as much as she was able. They looked like they needed it, and she felt like she did, too.

"I guess if you can..." Genma stopped, realizing Hoshi wasn't part of the conversation until she faced him again. He offered her a sheepish smile. "I guess if you can keep Haruichi under control, I can consent to your interfering," he said. "I actually expected I'd get out of your hair before he really got a chance to say anything. I mean, I come back from missions tired all the time, it's just part of the job."

The skepticism in Hoshi's eyes could have curdled milk.

"See I'm really fi..." A yawn split Genma's words. "...ine. Really." Except he was seriously tired now. Enough so that the idea of curling up on that cushion that Hoshi was pointing at emphatically seemed like a decent idea.

Well, he reasoned with himself, why not? If Hoshi needed him, she could wake him up in an instant. Leaving her alone when he'd promised Haruichi he'd stay was unchivalrous to say the least. She'd be safer with him here, even if he was asleep. And if he was resting, even in the wrong apartment, Haruichi could hardly yell at him for not following doctor's orders, could he? That was actually the deciding point, since if Haruichi was at the hospital, he would undoubtedly look up Genma's most recent treatment notes and then come back all fired up about how visiting friend's didn't count as refrain[ing] from unnecessary exertion until chakra stores are measured at fifty-percent of capacity or better. Pt. cautioned to expect three-to-five days inactivity before resuming training.

Or however the notes in his chart had been worded. Not that Genma had looked...

Half an hour later, Pika's ears perked up once more and she eyed the door expectantly as Haruichi stepped in. The dog watched her mistress's mate stop short in the doorway, blink once at the scene, and then quietly close the door behind himself. His eyes went from Hoshi, who was the very picture of diligence on a break; having fallen into a doze with her chin propped against her knee and her sketchbook skewed under her right hand... over to Genma, who was the very epitome of unconscious; being as he was asleep on the floor and tucked up in various blankets. Between the pair, Pika herself was stretched out with her head on Hoshi's thigh and cookie crumbs on her snout.

Haruichi sighed quietly and checked the window was tightly closed, turned up the space heater, and sat down with his back to the wall next to Hoshi. He gently tugged her up with his good hand, making sure she was a little more comfortable and a little more warm as she sleepily settled beside him. Her sketchbook knocked against his toe, and he glimpsed a charmingly inked doodle of Genma cocooned in blankets, face peeping out, with a trail of zzzzz's whispering up into the air from his snoring nose.

His involuntary spark of laughter at the drawing woke Hoshi up - not the sound, but the twinge in his chest and shoulder - and earned him a sleepy-eyed glare with about enough ill will in it to make a mouse blink. It only made him find it funnier, which only got him a prod in the stomach, and Pika snorted quietly as she watched the two humans silently play-fight (Haruichi the former, Hoshi the latter) and eventually settle down even more closely together. Held in her fiance's arms, Hoshi stretched one bare leg out to snag a nudged quilt with her toe and tug it back over Genma's arm, giving the unconscious young man a smile as she did. Genma, for his part, was apparently too asleep to notice anything going on around him and even if he hadn't been - he was probably smart enough not to let on.

As she curled back up Hoshi gave him a prod in the knee, and Haruichi knew she was still mad at him even as she tucked her head against his chest. Haruichi just closed his eyes and tightened his arm around her shoulder gently. She could be as furious with him as she liked, and he'd diplomatically refrain from pointing out that she'd been doing his job for him right here at home in his absence.

Probably doing it brilliantly, too. Haruichi was quite sure of that as he left Pika in charge of his lethargic little homestead and let his exhaustion carry him back to sleep. Happily home.