| [Feb. 21st, 2010|05:09 am] |
Kakashi leaned wordlessly across and inhaled without putting his hands anywhere near Genma's. A chaotic melody of scents met his nose -- everything in the bundle Genma had just unwrapped, the jagged tangle from Genma's own skin, the cold stone surroundings -- he frowned and pushed himself wearily onto hands and knees, getting closer.
Genma gave him a funny look. Kakashi reflected that he probably looked a lot like a bruised hunting hound, stretched out and sniffing.
"Shut up," he said, and put his head right over the bottle-neck. Genma had cracked the factory seal; there weren't any obvious needles marks in the plastic cap. Kakashi breathed in.
Water -- just water -- cool, clean, and mouthwatering. He checked once again, just to be sure, and then drew back before he snatched the prize away from Genma. His head thumped a lurching beat of want.
"I think it's okay," he croaked, and ripped into his own bundle. "It's not like there aren't easier ways to drug us -- they could just throw in a gas-grenade and close the door."
Genma made a rasping noise of agreement, like a verbal wince, and then went abruptly quiet. Water glugged and gurgled. Kakashi didn't have to look up to know that his teammate was engaged in trying to drown himself in the most pleasant way possible.
"Don't choke," he muttered, and let out a breath when he found two water bottles in his own stash, identical to Genma's. Kakashi's blanket-wrapped kit was almost exactly the same: ration bars, pitifully few medical supplies, toothbrush, toothpaste, and a comb which Kakashi stared blankly at, then tossed aside. A flat pillow. And one crucial difference.
Folded at the bottom, neat and pressed and smelling of laundry detergent, was a mask.
His mask. Stripped away by a medic countless hours ago, and, Kakashi had assumed, destroyed. But there were marks he recognized, little nicks in the tough cloth, a ragged pulled stitch in the hem, and it was his.
His hand hesitated. It was also a beautifully orchestrated gesture from Iwa, as if they could take it away and give it back and expect him to be grateful. As if he was that easily manipulated.
But it was his mask.
Kakashi touched it once, then yanked his hand away and picked up a water bottle instead. He snapped the cap off, sniffed the neck once -- it smelled just the same as Genma's -- and threw a long, angry, wildly relieving gulp of water down his parched throat. It tasted like nirvana. His headache eased back, just a little; his stomach clenched around the first thing he'd put into it in almost two days.
Kakashi pressed the cold bottle momentarily to the back of his neck. Then he put his mask on. |
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