| [Feb. 21st, 2010|04:48 am] |
Genma lost himself a little in the parade of emotions passing over Kakashi's poorly-obscured face. He'd thought for half a second, when Kakashi's hand first touched him, that he couldn't breathe--that he might weep. And then the sensation passed, and another breath came, riding on the touch of Kakashi's hand, Kakashi's chakra. Unbroken.
It was the last look of Kakashi's that propelled words into Genma's numb mouth: the desperation--the need he saw in Kakashi's glittering, red-rimmed grey eye. "They fixed it. They said they fixed it. Feels-- feels like they fixed it, at least enough..." He couldn't finish that sentence. But he was still here, still breathing. He could sit up, albeit weakly. He could string a complete sentence together without stuttering. He could feel every muscle, every limb.
Every raw, aching inch of his chakra system.
"I don't know what else they did. I think they did--" Genma turned his head away, felt Kakashi's fingers tighten again, looked back. "They did a lot of things. Knocked me out. Woke me up. Drugs, jutsu. They said they isolated some of the poison that was still there. Might have given me an antidote."
Kakashi winced, and Genma could see the thought -- the same thought he'd had: that poison had been one of Konoha's. A village secret. They'd both have to answer for that. But the wince was just a tiny piece of something much more profound at work on his teammate. Kakashi'd already been subtly trembling, now the tremors turned to outright shakes. Deep breaths. His eye wide, scanning Genma up and down.
It was infectious, that shaking. Genma took a deep, gasping breath of his own, then slowly, carefully, reached out to hold on to Kakashi's arm. His right hand closed around Kakashi's left biceps, obscuring the crimson tattoo. He wanted to fall. Wanted to collapse against the man, to share between them what strength they could muster.
If what Kakashi said was true -- and Genma believed him. Had to believe him -- then Kakashi's insane gamble had saved them both. "They asked a lot of questions about how I got out of here before," he said in a parched whisper. "I told 'em it was magic."
His fingers against Kakashi's skin tapped out a code. You did it. You didn't break. I didn't break, either. |
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