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.--