| [Oct. 5th, 2010|07:42 pm] |
Haruichi didn't miss that who they were talking about went from 'I' to 'we' in the half-gasped silences between Genma's words. His focus, however, remained on Genma and on keeping his own eyes steady and still.
"Take your time with it," Haruichi advised, somehow unrelieved to hear that Genma believed he was doing better. It likely had something to do with the way it reminded his medic that he had been absent while things had been worse than they were. "It's a substantial jump, moving from being sized for a toe-tag to being here."
The machine whirred, clicked, and began its routine again. Haruichi didn't have to take stock of anything to recognize this situation as an old routine for the pair of them either. How many times had Genma come back to HQ in bits? How many times had he never left the building to get himself into a state? Not as many as the others, but as with all the agents, Haruichi believed one time was too many.
Sometime later, staring sleeplessly out of the window at home, Haruichi would wonder if part of his anger at times like these came from the automatic revelation that he couldn't deal with it. Even if it was just as instantly smothered by the reality that he was there, and he'd be there again, and evidently he could cope with watching the others come back like this, or worse - it still seemed to happen. A jab of doubt, too deep inside for him to reach; just as he was too deep in with ANBU.
In that moment, though, he simply shephered Genma's brown eyes and what he could of the other man's attention to someplace else. Someplace familiar.
"Are you on solid food yet?" The state of his neck was ambivalent about that much, for certain. "Hoshi will want to sneak something edible in here for you." |
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