(no subject)
Title: Ave Maris Stella in Fauxbourdon (2/2)
Author: pyro_o
Theme: ostinato (Italian: obstinate)
Fandom: The Prince of Tennis (anime canon)
Warnings: PG. Angst. Character death.
Disclaimer: I don’t own this fandom- it is the creation of Takeshi Konomi. And any information I’ve dug up on Fuji’s illness is derived from Wikipedia and my imagination. I really, really have no idea about this disease- so if anybody has any information, that’d be nice.
Summary: He meets Fuji Syuusuke six weeks before his birthday, with a pale face and eloquent hands. The last half of the miniseries.
It has been a few weeks since Tezuka has been integrated into the program, and fellow students have already taken notice of him. Yukimura Seiichi, for one- already collaborating with Korean and Chinese universities to take on surgical projects- had asked to have lunch with him in a week, with Tezuka’s stoic nod as a reply. Yuuishi Oshitari was already receiving offers of study and employment in various Neurology departments, and had jotted down his private number just yesterday, with a secretive smile and a glint to his glasses.
Is it weird?
“What?”
Having someone like Oshitari-kun want to be your friend.
“I doubt Oshitari wants to be,” Tezuka replied curtly. Oshitari-of-a-Thousand-Skills would not want to befriend just anyone- that man had another agenda, hidden somewhere.
But he seems nice enough.
“So it seems.” Taking the blood pressure cuff off of Fuji’s thin arm, Tezuka quickly wrote down the number and left, bemused.
-----
Tezuka’s workload increases by day, but he always seems to find room to visit certain patients- Ward 57 has a tall doctor-in-training visit Fuji’s room every noontide. He learns that Fuji is there because he cannot walk, but he could speak ‘once upon a time’. He learns that Fuji finds other ways to communicate, through smiles and brief pencil markings. Tezuka learns that Fuji is six to his twenty-four, and that he enjoys eating apples. Fuji teaches him how to sign ‘apple’, and Tezuka is rewarded with a happy, silent laugh.
The next day, Fuji has taken it upon himself to teach Tezuka other words, such as ‘hello’, ‘doctor’, ‘help’, and ‘smile’.
-----
Four weeks to the day that Tezuka was assigned to Fuji’s ward, his charge began to develop a severe cough. Fuji begins to write something down, and motions over to Tezuka to come look, hurry up.
They know what I have.
“That’s a good thing, then.” There was nothing on his face, but the sentence had expressed enough relief.
Not quite. They know what I have, but they don’t know how to treat it. As of now, it’s a chronic illness without a cure. It’s hit my kidneys now.
“What is it?” He didn’t know if it was better to ask, or to keep quiet. But Fuji simply sighed and wrote the characters down, struggling with the first katakana.
Wegener’s granulomatosis.
At this, Tezuka only raised an eyebrow at the name- the disease was more often found in older citizens, he’d thought. But he still nodded, and Fuji kept writing.
This is why I can’t walk, why I can’t hear and why I cough. They say it’s treatable, that it’s bearable, but-
And Fuji’s pencil stopped, the small cylinder rolling across the flat white paper. Tezuka understands, and he picks up the pencil, gently offering it to the boy with heaving shoulders.
This is the desperation of one struck down by a disease unasked for, unwanted and unselfish in its ways to simply want to keep on living. Tezuka doesn’t know what to do, so he just holds up the box of tissues impassively and waits for the shaking to stop.
The dialysis machine is due to arrive soon, Fuji writes with shuddering characters.
Tezuka has always been a man with rock-solid ideals, and his foundation was built on just one concept: to fight for the things he believed in, no matter what the circumstances were. He tears off a little piece of paper from the corner of Fuji-kun’s book of papers and writes something down. Just one sentence: I will support you.
The nurses come in with the machines to help his kidneys- but Tezuka knows better than anyone that it won’t help now, because once the granulomatosis reaches to the kidneys’ it just spells out organ failure. He leaves the room, but not before movement catches his eye- Fuji signs something unfamiliar, and Tezuka sees him drown in the sea of tubes and scrubs.
-----
Tezuka is not permitted to see Fuji- the case is taken out of his hands and there is no longer a valid reason for Tezuka to visit him anymore. Tezuka doesn't know if this is a good thing, the relief of not seeing someone's body die inside-out before his eyes, or a bad thing, because he cannot comfort the bedridden boy who wormed his way into Tezuka's impassive heart.
Organ failure is not, by any means, something pleasant to watch and experience- Fuji's eyes stayed glassy, but open; it breaks something inside Tezuka, when he finally sees Fuji that wintry day in February. Orderlies come to place a rough cloth over Fuji's face, and he is wheeled out in solemn silence.
-----
"Ryuuzaki-sensei?" Tezuka is quiet- this is not, however, the usual stillness that the young medical student keeps.
"Yes?" She turns around and crosses her arms, studying him- Tezuka clears his throat.
"What does..." He fumbles with his hands, and tries to mimic Fuji's swift fingers- "...mean?"
"This?" And she signs it faster, neater- her nimble fingers form blind words and Tezuka nods.
"Faithful pillar."
Tezuka has no answer.
Author: pyro_o
Theme: ostinato (Italian: obstinate)
Fandom: The Prince of Tennis (anime canon)
Warnings: PG. Angst. Character death.
Disclaimer: I don’t own this fandom- it is the creation of Takeshi Konomi. And any information I’ve dug up on Fuji’s illness is derived from Wikipedia and my imagination. I really, really have no idea about this disease- so if anybody has any information, that’d be nice.
Summary: He meets Fuji Syuusuke six weeks before his birthday, with a pale face and eloquent hands. The last half of the miniseries.
It has been a few weeks since Tezuka has been integrated into the program, and fellow students have already taken notice of him. Yukimura Seiichi, for one- already collaborating with Korean and Chinese universities to take on surgical projects- had asked to have lunch with him in a week, with Tezuka’s stoic nod as a reply. Yuuishi Oshitari was already receiving offers of study and employment in various Neurology departments, and had jotted down his private number just yesterday, with a secretive smile and a glint to his glasses.
Is it weird?
“What?”
Having someone like Oshitari-kun want to be your friend.
“I doubt Oshitari wants to be,” Tezuka replied curtly. Oshitari-of-a-Thousand-Skills would not want to befriend just anyone- that man had another agenda, hidden somewhere.
But he seems nice enough.
“So it seems.” Taking the blood pressure cuff off of Fuji’s thin arm, Tezuka quickly wrote down the number and left, bemused.
-----
Tezuka’s workload increases by day, but he always seems to find room to visit certain patients- Ward 57 has a tall doctor-in-training visit Fuji’s room every noontide. He learns that Fuji is there because he cannot walk, but he could speak ‘once upon a time’. He learns that Fuji finds other ways to communicate, through smiles and brief pencil markings. Tezuka learns that Fuji is six to his twenty-four, and that he enjoys eating apples. Fuji teaches him how to sign ‘apple’, and Tezuka is rewarded with a happy, silent laugh.
The next day, Fuji has taken it upon himself to teach Tezuka other words, such as ‘hello’, ‘doctor’, ‘help’, and ‘smile’.
-----
Four weeks to the day that Tezuka was assigned to Fuji’s ward, his charge began to develop a severe cough. Fuji begins to write something down, and motions over to Tezuka to come look, hurry up.
They know what I have.
“That’s a good thing, then.” There was nothing on his face, but the sentence had expressed enough relief.
Not quite. They know what I have, but they don’t know how to treat it. As of now, it’s a chronic illness without a cure. It’s hit my kidneys now.
“What is it?” He didn’t know if it was better to ask, or to keep quiet. But Fuji simply sighed and wrote the characters down, struggling with the first katakana.
Wegener’s granulomatosis.
At this, Tezuka only raised an eyebrow at the name- the disease was more often found in older citizens, he’d thought. But he still nodded, and Fuji kept writing.
This is why I can’t walk, why I can’t hear and why I cough. They say it’s treatable, that it’s bearable, but-
And Fuji’s pencil stopped, the small cylinder rolling across the flat white paper. Tezuka understands, and he picks up the pencil, gently offering it to the boy with heaving shoulders.
This is the desperation of one struck down by a disease unasked for, unwanted and unselfish in its ways to simply want to keep on living. Tezuka doesn’t know what to do, so he just holds up the box of tissues impassively and waits for the shaking to stop.
The dialysis machine is due to arrive soon, Fuji writes with shuddering characters.
Tezuka has always been a man with rock-solid ideals, and his foundation was built on just one concept: to fight for the things he believed in, no matter what the circumstances were. He tears off a little piece of paper from the corner of Fuji-kun’s book of papers and writes something down. Just one sentence: I will support you.
The nurses come in with the machines to help his kidneys- but Tezuka knows better than anyone that it won’t help now, because once the granulomatosis reaches to the kidneys’ it just spells out organ failure. He leaves the room, but not before movement catches his eye- Fuji signs something unfamiliar, and Tezuka sees him drown in the sea of tubes and scrubs.
-----
Tezuka is not permitted to see Fuji- the case is taken out of his hands and there is no longer a valid reason for Tezuka to visit him anymore. Tezuka doesn't know if this is a good thing, the relief of not seeing someone's body die inside-out before his eyes, or a bad thing, because he cannot comfort the bedridden boy who wormed his way into Tezuka's impassive heart.
Organ failure is not, by any means, something pleasant to watch and experience- Fuji's eyes stayed glassy, but open; it breaks something inside Tezuka, when he finally sees Fuji that wintry day in February. Orderlies come to place a rough cloth over Fuji's face, and he is wheeled out in solemn silence.
-----
"Ryuuzaki-sensei?" Tezuka is quiet- this is not, however, the usual stillness that the young medical student keeps.
"Yes?" She turns around and crosses her arms, studying him- Tezuka clears his throat.
"What does..." He fumbles with his hands, and tries to mimic Fuji's swift fingers- "...mean?"
"This?" And she signs it faster, neater- her nimble fingers form blind words and Tezuka nods.
"Faithful pillar."
Tezuka has no answer.