For once, it's Ken who has the more restrained, reasonable reaction. His eyes narrow at the words, but it's a second before he says anything.
"Does Shamal have one?" After all, Shamal was where Chikusa wanted to go first - had preferred it to Ryohei, in fact - and that doesn't count as a hospital. So maybe an x-ray can happen without an actual hospital visit.
But the dark realization is sinking in to Ken that, if they need this machine and they can only get one at a hospital...they'll have to go. Chikusa might refuse it on his own behalf, but Ken won't refuse anything that will fix Chikusa. It may be literally the last thing he ever wants to do, but they've had to endure it before and they can endure it again.
“I’ve never heard of a school having an x-ray machine…” Which, considering that Hibari attends Nami Middle, maybe they should really have one for all the broken bones he gives even other Namimori students because they didn’t follow his rules.
Still. That’s obviously not what Chikusa wants to hear. His fingers dig hard into Ken’s arms, a clear signal that he’s prepared to physically launch himself if need be away from this whole discussion. Logically, he knows that this is what he needs to do. Without his legs, his usefulness to Mukuro-sama plummet, and he’s already for years now felt like it’s been a precarious position to start with. At the same time… Hospitals and the sickly smell of medicine and death, it’s too much. It strikes at something that’s been buried deep inside of him.
Before he can do anything, however, Ryohei slams his fist into his open palm suddenly. “Wait!! I know someone who’s extremely like an x-ray machine! He could probably help!”
Ken curls his body more around Chikusa, although for the first time tonight it's not to protect him. It's a preventative measure, making it so that his own body is in the way of Chikusa trying to leap out of his arms. However bad the hospital is, it's better than Chikusa being maimed for life. Ken will do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn't happen.
"It's okay, Kakipi," he mutters. His voice is tense, but resolute. "If...if you've gotta go to the hospital, I'll go with you, byon. I'll protect you, promise."
For them, this is the equivalent of someone telling the virgin sacrifice that if the sacrifice gets thrown into the volcano, they'll jump in after them.
His head jerks up when Ryohei talks, in his usual overly loud voice. He squints suspiciously at him. "How can someone be like an x-ray machine, byon? Is Shamal coming here?"
If Ken seems wary of this new suggestion, then Chikusa is doubly so. How can someone be like an x-ray machine, and is that even good enough for what needs to be done? It feels like another trap to get him in a hospital, something that’s working him up more and more as he thinks about it.
Half of that is Ken’s fault, for all his partner is doing the best for him. With his legs already broken, Chikusa is helpless enough although that wouldn’t stop him from crawling away or even forcing broken legs to carry himself. When your sense of pain doesn’t work, you become capable of making a lot more ill advised decisions. However, Ken wrapping around him keeps him from doing even that much. Traps him. It far too easily makes him think of being strapped to an operating table, lights blinding him and needles pressing into his skin.
As usual, however, Chikusa keeps all of this hidden by a stony mask, so Ryohei can’t really be blamed for his obliviousness as he beams at the pair. “His eyes are extremely strong,” he promises, like that explains things. “He can see into the human body, or something!” Unfortunately, the details about all of this are probably best given by someone… not Ryohei. “I bet he could see what parts are broken!”
Ken squints at Ryohei. This time it's a squint of confusion, as he tries to work out the logic in his head. "So...can he fix what's broken?" he asks eventually. Fixing Chikusa is what he wants. He doesn't care which of Chikusa's bones are broken so long as someone fixes them.
This time it’s Ryohei who pauses, nose scrunching up as he thinks carefully. “Maybe?” he offers after a moment, clearly very unsure, and Chikusa gives a sigh. Between these two, it’s becoming clear to him that it’s going to take forever to make sense of everything.
“If it means not going to the hospital…”
The acquiescence has Ryohei grin again, and he points up to his bedroom window. “You can wait in my room! It’s extremely bad for neighbors to see bleeding people on our front lawn.” Something he may or may not have had to learn through personal experience.
Ken growls. "Just bring somebody who can fix him, stupid!" He scoops Chikusa up off the ground, like he weighs nothing. "Shamal, your x-ray guy, you and your box, your scrawny boss, a surgeon, whoever! All of them at once, byon! Just figure out how to fix him!"
And then - somehow, in a way perhaps known only to Ken because he moves too rapidly and Chikusa's body in his arms makes any clear view impossible - Ken scrambles up the side of the house to Ryohei's window and is through it, Chikusa still held against him. Ken lays him carefully, almost reverentially, on Ryohei's bed, and if Chikusa's getting blood on his sheets then Ken cares even less about that than he would at any other time, and at any other time he wouldn't care at all.
There's only the pause of a moment before Ken's climbing onto the bed with Chikusa, wrapping his arms around him and curling up against his side.
Everything happens in such a blur, but it doesn’t matter to Chikusa. The only thing that matters to him is that Ken is still by his side, still able to be felt and then seen and then felt again. Sure, his legs are still a mess, but Chikusa doesn’t care- he’ll survive. Already, he’s certain that he’s even in better condition than before thanks to what little healing Ryohei did to him before the subject of his knees came up.
Once Ken has settled against him, Chikusa curls his fingers along his neck. “...You’d really come with me to a hospital?”
"Duh," Ken mutters, even as his face presses into its usual spot against Chikusa's neck, nose nuzzled against his skin. His fear and anger and distaste at the idea is evident in his voice, but his answer was entirely without hesitation. "Who'd make sure they don't do bad stuff to you if I wasn't there?"
He simply breathes for a moment, warm air against Chikusa's neck. "...if the dumb sports guy doesn't find anything better, we might have to. You gotta get fixed, byon. I'll look out for you, though."
Ken is in no position to be criticizing Ryohei's intelligence, honestly.
What parts of his body still aren’t shattered and broken- most of it, now, Ryohei managed that much above the waist- go further stiff at the idea. There’s not even any way to verbalize it, to solidify his thoughts and emotions with words. Or perhaps that isn’t true… but it’s what he feels in that moment, thinking of chemical smells and needles and straps binding him to gurneys. Helplessness.
Ken knows it, too. Perhaps he doesn’t need to tell him anything at all.
“I don’t want them to touch me,” he mutters into Ken’s hair regardless. Even for his own good, he doesn’t want to be in that kind of position again.
"I know, byon," Ken says, lips moving against Chikusa's skin. It could almost be mistaken for kissing. "I don't want them to touch you, either." The same tension from Chikusa's own body is practically thrumming through Ken's. "But...I want you to get better more than I don't trust them."
He wants Chikusa to get better more than anything.
"You'll be safe this time. I'll make sure they don't do anything that isn't making you better, Kakipi."
On one hand, that is reassuring. Ken would tear down a building in Kong Channel before letting anything harm him. Chikusa has seen him do the same for Mukuro at an idle gesture, and if Ken is dedicated to protecting him with even a fraction of that….
Yet there’s a flaw. “How would you know?” Chikusa mutters, taking a deep breath. “They could mention things, and you’d have no idea if they were good for me or not.”
“They could lie,” Chikusa counters, faster than he’d usually respond, his fingers kneading Ken’s shirt. “They could lie and you wouldn’t know.” Maybe all of this is paranoia, but he doesn’t care. Instead, he tries to curl into Ken’s body more, as much as his shattered legs will allow.
"Mukuro-sama would know if they're lying, byon," Ken says stubbornly. "And I can smell when people are lying!" This is...something of an exaggeration, although it's true that Ken's senses and instincts are sharp. Even if he doesn't know much about first aid, much less complex medical procedures, it'd be hard for a doctor to get even a necessary one past him, much less convince Ken that something harmful was safe and required. "Besides, if they did anything bad to you, I'd rip 'em to pieces, byon. I don't think they're that stupid."
Finally, that seems to be enough to quiet Chikusa's pessimism. He falls quiet, laying against Ken and focusing on his breath. He's still scared, remembering too easily cold tile beneath his palms and lights shining brightly into his eyes as injections pierced thin skin, but... Arguing with Ken has helped. Perhaps is the reason he did so in the first place, knowing his partner wouldn't stop for anything.
For who knows how long, he stays where he is, clinging to Ken like his life depends on it, but soon, the sound of the front door opening and closing can be heard. Even louder, however, are a pair of voices, one that is completely recognizable as Ryohei's. In Ken's arms, Chikusa goes tense again, not sure what to expect.
Ken hears the voices even before the door opens, and he shifts his body reflexively so that his torso is half-over Chikusa's own, like he's determined that anything at all that might want to get to Chikusa will have to get through him first. His eyes lock on the door, and the growl in his throat is low and quiet enough that only Chikusa will really hear it, but it throbs through his whole body with the intensity of it.
He doesn't know who Ryohei got to help them, but they're going to have to meet Ken's approval before he lets them anywhere near Chikusa.
For all that it’s low, Ken’s growling is strangely reassuring. Chikusa focuses on it, even as it’s impossible for him to ignore the stomping of feet coming up the stairs. Immediately, Sasagawa is smashing open the door again- and sporting a few new bruises and a split lip, rather proudly at that. “I got him here!” he announces cheerfully, like he hasn’t taken a few fists to the face. Wary, Chikusa watches as another teenager the same age as Sasagawa steps in: moss green hair that falls neatly around his face but is otherwise kept short, a pair of glasses not too unlike Chikusa’s own, and a neat black uniform in a similar military style to Kokuyo’s. He’s sporting what appears to be a black eye and a bruised jaw.
“You didn’t explain anything, you brash idiot!” he snaps at Sasagawa before turning his head to actually focus on the pair of dirty, blood teenagers on the bed. There’s a blink, but it doesn’t seem like it’s so much at their state as it is simply them being there at all.
Ignoring his friend’s confusion, Ryohei comes over and beams at Ken. “His eyes are extremely like x-rays, so we don’t have to go to the hospital!”
The growling stops, though that's less Ken's hostility level lowering and more uncertainty and confusion taking greater prominence. He glances between Ryohei and the newcomer briefly, before his eyes settle for the moment on Ryohei.
"Can he fix Kakipii up?" Even Ken can cotton onto the fact that seeing where someone is broken and being able to put them back together are not necessarily synonymous skillsets.
“Extremely not!” Ryohei answers with ill-placed pride, and Chikusa sighs, eyes going up to the ceiling in the manner of a person stuck in a room full of jackasses and unable to leave because he has broken legs preventing exactly that. “But I will! Extreme team effort!”
….It’s actually not a bad idea, especially coming from someone like Ryohei.
Even Ken growls briefly a what he, too, initially perceives as Ryohei being a dumbass. But once the Sun guardian clarifies, he frowns a little, giving Chikusa a questioning look as though asking him to assess the wisdom of the plan. Is this okay?, his eyes ask.
Chikusa would still much rather be elsewhere, and it’s probably obvious in the way his eyes flick away from Ken’s gaze or that of anyone else’s in the room. It puts him on edge in some way, one that he doesn’t like to think about, but after a second, he finally gives a nod. Ken won’t let him go until this is fixed, and if they’re already here anyway…
There’s a triumphant whoop from Ryohei, and he immediately barges over to invade what little space was available on and around the bed to start with. His- companion? Acquaintance? Chikusa isn’t sure yet- is a little slower, but probably because Ken was growling not ten seconds before.
Ken grudgingly shifts himself off of Chikusa's body, but stays right next to him on the bed, crouched and watching Ryohei and the other boy with a sort of tense wariness. He still doesn't trust them, clearly - or at least isn't trusting them by choice - but it's not like the Kokuyo gang has ever trusted anyone outside themselves.
His hand finds Chikusa's, without thinking.
"Who're you, anyway?" he aks after a few moments, eyes locked on the X-ray guy. At least Ryohei he sort of knows.
Just as unthinkingly, Chikusa’s fingers wrap around his.
In the meantime, the boy with green hair proudly juts his thumb at himself. “I am Aoba Koyo, of the proud Family of-”
“Isn’t his name the dumbest!?”
“Sasagawa, why you-!”
“My legs….” Chikusa gives the reminder with a dull tone as the two look like they’re two seconds away from a brawl right there in the room, his dead eyed stare saying how much he regrets a whole lot of things right now. After an exchange of shoulder punches that look like they hurt, Aoba finally crouches down besides the bed. There’s a moment’s hesitance before he reaches up and removes the glasses on his face. Something in his pupils becomes sharper, more intense, and his brow furrows as he looks over Chikusa’s legs.
“The bones are definitely broken, a huge weak spot… Some aren’t pointed the right way, I think. But…. There’s all this blue…”
"Blue?" Ken repeats, frowning as he settles himself on the bed beside Chikusa, chin resting on Chikusa's chest as he watches Aoba. It appears he's relaxed enough not to be instantly battle-ready, though he's not so trusting that he's not paying close attention to everything Aoba and Ryohei do to his partner.
He glances at Ryohei. "How're you guys gonna make Kakipii's bones point the right way again?" That's a pressing concern. He knows enough about broken bones to know that if they heal together wrong, it'll be a big problem.
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badliifechoiice22016-01-08 10:36 am
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"Does Shamal have one?" After all, Shamal was where Chikusa wanted to go first - had preferred it to Ryohei, in fact - and that doesn't count as a hospital. So maybe an x-ray can happen without an actual hospital visit.
But the dark realization is sinking in to Ken that, if they need this machine and they can only get one at a hospital...they'll have to go. Chikusa might refuse it on his own behalf, but Ken won't refuse anything that will fix Chikusa. It may be literally the last thing he ever wants to do, but they've had to endure it before and they can endure it again.
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Still. That’s obviously not what Chikusa wants to hear. His fingers dig hard into Ken’s arms, a clear signal that he’s prepared to physically launch himself if need be away from this whole discussion. Logically, he knows that this is what he needs to do. Without his legs, his usefulness to Mukuro-sama plummet, and he’s already for years now felt like it’s been a precarious position to start with. At the same time… Hospitals and the sickly smell of medicine and death, it’s too much. It strikes at something that’s been buried deep inside of him.
Before he can do anything, however, Ryohei slams his fist into his open palm suddenly. “Wait!! I know someone who’s extremely like an x-ray machine! He could probably help!”
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"It's okay, Kakipi," he mutters. His voice is tense, but resolute. "If...if you've gotta go to the hospital, I'll go with you, byon. I'll protect you, promise."
For them, this is the equivalent of someone telling the virgin sacrifice that if the sacrifice gets thrown into the volcano, they'll jump in after them.
His head jerks up when Ryohei talks, in his usual overly loud voice. He squints suspiciously at him. "How can someone be like an x-ray machine, byon? Is Shamal coming here?"
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Half of that is Ken’s fault, for all his partner is doing the best for him. With his legs already broken, Chikusa is helpless enough although that wouldn’t stop him from crawling away or even forcing broken legs to carry himself. When your sense of pain doesn’t work, you become capable of making a lot more ill advised decisions. However, Ken wrapping around him keeps him from doing even that much. Traps him. It far too easily makes him think of being strapped to an operating table, lights blinding him and needles pressing into his skin.
As usual, however, Chikusa keeps all of this hidden by a stony mask, so Ryohei can’t really be blamed for his obliviousness as he beams at the pair. “His eyes are extremely strong,” he promises, like that explains things. “He can see into the human body, or something!” Unfortunately, the details about all of this are probably best given by someone… not Ryohei. “I bet he could see what parts are broken!”
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“If it means not going to the hospital…”
The acquiescence has Ryohei grin again, and he points up to his bedroom window. “You can wait in my room! It’s extremely bad for neighbors to see bleeding people on our front lawn.” Something he may or may not have had to learn through personal experience.
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And then - somehow, in a way perhaps known only to Ken because he moves too rapidly and Chikusa's body in his arms makes any clear view impossible - Ken scrambles up the side of the house to Ryohei's window and is through it, Chikusa still held against him. Ken lays him carefully, almost reverentially, on Ryohei's bed, and if Chikusa's getting blood on his sheets then Ken cares even less about that than he would at any other time, and at any other time he wouldn't care at all.
There's only the pause of a moment before Ken's climbing onto the bed with Chikusa, wrapping his arms around him and curling up against his side.
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Everything happens in such a blur, but it doesn’t matter to Chikusa. The only thing that matters to him is that Ken is still by his side, still able to be felt and then seen and then felt again. Sure, his legs are still a mess, but Chikusa doesn’t care- he’ll survive. Already, he’s certain that he’s even in better condition than before thanks to what little healing Ryohei did to him before the subject of his knees came up.
Once Ken has settled against him, Chikusa curls his fingers along his neck. “...You’d really come with me to a hospital?”
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He simply breathes for a moment, warm air against Chikusa's neck. "...if the dumb sports guy doesn't find anything better, we might have to. You gotta get fixed, byon. I'll look out for you, though."
Ken is in no position to be criticizing Ryohei's intelligence, honestly.
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Or perhaps that isn’t true… but it’s what he feels in that moment, thinking of chemical smells and needles and straps binding him to gurneys. Helplessness.
Ken knows it, too. Perhaps he doesn’t need to tell him anything at all.
“I don’t want them to touch me,” he mutters into Ken’s hair regardless. Even for his own good, he doesn’t want to be in that kind of position again.
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He wants Chikusa to get better more than anything.
"You'll be safe this time. I'll make sure they don't do anything that isn't making you better, Kakipi."
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Yet there’s a flaw. “How would you know?” Chikusa mutters, taking a deep breath. “They could mention things, and you’d have no idea if they were good for me or not.”
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For who knows how long, he stays where he is, clinging to Ken like his life depends on it, but soon, the sound of the front door opening and closing can be heard. Even louder, however, are a pair of voices, one that is completely recognizable as Ryohei's. In Ken's arms, Chikusa goes tense again, not sure what to expect.
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He doesn't know who Ryohei got to help them, but they're going to have to meet Ken's approval before he lets them anywhere near Chikusa.
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“You didn’t explain anything, you brash idiot!” he snaps at Sasagawa before turning his head to actually focus on the pair of dirty, blood teenagers on the bed. There’s a blink, but it doesn’t seem like it’s so much at their state as it is simply them being there at all.
Ignoring his friend’s confusion, Ryohei comes over and beams at Ken. “His eyes are extremely like x-rays, so we don’t have to go to the hospital!”
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"Can he fix Kakipii up?" Even Ken can cotton onto the fact that seeing where someone is broken and being able to put them back together are not necessarily synonymous skillsets.
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….It’s actually not a bad idea, especially coming from someone like Ryohei.
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There’s a triumphant whoop from Ryohei, and he immediately barges over to invade what little space was available on and around the bed to start with. His- companion? Acquaintance? Chikusa isn’t sure yet- is a little slower, but probably because Ken was growling not ten seconds before.
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His hand finds Chikusa's, without thinking.
"Who're you, anyway?" he aks after a few moments, eyes locked on the X-ray guy. At least Ryohei he sort of knows.
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In the meantime, the boy with green hair proudly juts his thumb at himself. “I am Aoba Koyo, of the proud Family of-”
“Isn’t his name the dumbest!?”
“Sasagawa, why you-!”
“My legs….” Chikusa gives the reminder with a dull tone as the two look like they’re two seconds away from a brawl right there in the room, his dead eyed stare saying how much he regrets a whole lot of things right now. After an exchange of shoulder punches that look like they hurt, Aoba finally crouches down besides the bed. There’s a moment’s hesitance before he reaches up and removes the glasses on his face. Something in his pupils becomes sharper, more intense, and his brow furrows as he looks over Chikusa’s legs.
“The bones are definitely broken, a huge weak spot… Some aren’t pointed the right way, I think. But…. There’s all this blue…”
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He glances at Ryohei. "How're you guys gonna make Kakipii's bones point the right way again?" That's a pressing concern. He knows enough about broken bones to know that if they heal together wrong, it'll be a big problem.
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