Day 47: Sun Room [2nd shift]

[notthistrain]

Cloud knew he should be taking the opportunity to check out the rec field during the day. The fresh air would be a welcome change from the crowded stuffiness the Institute usually provided, and he would have a chance to scope out the area when it wasn't all under the cover of darkness. When offered a choice, however, he remained in the sun room

Comments

[mitase]

If only he had thought to bring his journal with him to breakfast, then Hanatarou might have been able to do something useful for once, even if it was just passing on a map that he'd copied from the bulletin. It had to be difficult for Remy here...someone whose first thought was to cook something probably wasn't really the fighting type, and he could sympathize with that. If he'd run into someone protecting the Sun Room then Hanatarou wouldn't have been in very good shape either.

Spurred on by his determination that if he ran into any other new people he'd be better prepared, he worked up the courage to ask the nurse if he could get his journal from where he'd left it in his room. To his utter surprise she didn't seem either surprised or annoyed by the request -- she only smiled and told him she'd be back in a few minutes. A little stunned by his success, Hanatarou flopped into an empty chair and stared blankly at nothing as he waited for the nurse to return.

[time to talk shop?]

[see_my_back]

It was easy to almost pass right by Hanatarou when the nurse escorted her to the Sun Room. Luckily, she had little intention of going outside in the first place, if only to spite her sensei. However, just seeing the note Sasuke left on the bulletin was enough to leave her smiling. The last time she'd seen Sasuke, he'd been so angry she could hardly see anything left of the person she remembered. But knowing he would consider them allies, even after whatever had upset him had been said, was the first good news she'd heard in days.

So when she spotted the medic staring blankly on the other side of the room, it was like somehow karma was making up for all the shit she'd put up with the last couple of days. Finally! Good things were beginning!

"Hanatarou-san!" she smiled as she jogged the last few steps to come stand near his chair. "I've been meaning to talk to you again. You mind?"

Without waiting for a reply, she pushed one of the nearby chairs closer and set her own journal on her lap once she sat down.

[mitase]

Being greeted with enthusiasm, like someone actually wanted to talk to him, was a little bit surprising. Hanatarou blinked up at Sakura for a moment before giving her a smile that was equal parts shy and friendly. "N-no, I don't...mind." Not that she'd waited for the response, but he really didn't mind talking to her again.

He did mind when the nurse returned and handed him the journal with a rather knowing smile. "I'm glad to see you get along so well with Courtney here," she observed, before finally moving away again.

Hanatarou sank in his chair a little and sighed, then glanced over at Sakura again. "I, um...have the list? Now...?"

[see_my_back]

Sakura rolled her eyes and waited for the nurse to leave. Seriously? What kind of look was that anyway? She let it slide and leaned forward in her chair a little to talk. That Hanatarou had already put together a list was a surprise, but not an unwelcome one. She smiled a little brighter.

"You have it already? That's great!" she nodded. The nurses did tend to hover, but would they care about passing notes? They let things go on the bulletin after all. "Later is fine. I was gonna ask if that was alright actually. You have a few minutes I could look over the list later tonight? I'll be quick. Unless you have somewhere you need to be? I don't wanna hold you up."

[mitase]

"Tonight? Oh, no. I...didn't have anything planned. At all." That didn't mean someone wouldn't ask on the bulletin for healing or anything, like Homura yesterday. But it seemed more and more difficult for Hanatarou to find people who needed any help lately, and the idea of camping outside of the Sun Room every night was starting to sound more appealing.

He set the journal in his lap, resting a hand on the cover as he cast a sideways glance to make sure the nurse wasn't looking at them before continuing. "I just took some of everything I could find, upstairs, and...well, I don't know the names of any of the medicines. Maybe if I could get into the greenhouse again I could make my own, but I think the choices in there are a little limited."

As was the equipment. He never thought he'd miss the 12th Division, but one of them could probably rig up something useful even here. (As long as he didn't have to see how they did it, that would be good.)

[see_my_back]

It was kind of surprising that no one took the healers here seriously. Not to mention frustrating. Here she was, not only battle-trained and ready to fight, but with plenty of medical studies and healing chakras to boot! Even if she wasn't at the top of her game, she could still make it work and whether it was a fight or a difficult mission, she wanted to be on the front lines, making a difference! Instead they were stuck fetching books and medicine or playing clean up on the off chance they actually found someone who'd been injured

[mitase]

"I...yes, I wish I could, um, do something more." Hanatarou lowered his eyes to his lap, remembering the conversation with Remy earlier -- his friend had needed a healer and nobody had been around. And there were so many others who ventured into dangerous places at night and never found help. "I mean, last night I didn't really do anything useful, and I've seen people who were hurt and could've used help

[see_my_back]

"I'll get you a copy then, when I finish studying," she assured him.

Though she hadn't actually run into anyone last night in need of help, she knew what it felt like to hear that her friends had been hurt and that she hadn't been there to do anything for them. He had a point though. While the idea of a centralized clinic was good, if someone was hurt badly enough, they wouldn't be able to get there anyway. They either had to choose somewhere easier to access or assign a healer to specific groups or locations. Which honestly was probably going to be complicated no matter what way you looked at it.

"I'm not sure how to fix any of it," she admitted, flipping through the pages of her journal. "But if things are gonna change, we can't just sit back and hope they'll get better. I'll have to talk to a few people, but I think I'll see what I can come up with. Do you know of any other healers? Or how many we have here to help out?"

[mitase]

"Okay. Thank you." Hanatarou's smile was losing a little bit of the shyness by now, though it was still very much present. "Where did you find, um, books like that? Are there more?" Maybe he could go find some books of his own and wouldn't have to bother her.

"But, um, well. I thought...well, maybe if there were healers who, who were near some of the most dangerous areas, in case someone needed help. Like, mobile paramedic squads." It was kind of like what he'd done back at home, except the members of his squad usually forgot he was there. And there wouldn't be nearly as many people. "I...there's another healer, I saw on the board, but...I don't know them."

[see_my_back]

"There was a whole library up on the second floor," she nodded, flipping through the notes she'd made thus far in her journal. While it hadn't been hard to obtain, the company was definitely lacking. "If you head up the stairs by the dorms, it'll be the hallway right in front of you. I can sketch you up a map if you want."

Not that she minded much either way doing the work. This kind of bookwormish stuff was what she thrived on. Not only was she good at it, she actually enjoyed it, much to some of her classmates' disbelief

[mitase]

"Oh, I...have a map," Hanatarou replied, opening his own journal and flipping to the page where he'd copied a map off the board one day. The stairs by the dorms, hallway in front -- oh. There? Maybe he should go take a look some time. There could be other places down that hallway he'd never looked at, and they could have interesting or useful things too.

He glanced up again at her comment, a little hesitant and halfway surprised that she hadn't immediately said it was a terrible idea or laughed at him or something. "You...think so?" he asked, not bothering to try to hide his reaction. "I mean, it...I've heard about so many people getting hurt, and there aren't enough healers for every group to have one with them, but I, I don't want to spend more nights just sitting around waiting for people." Sometimes it was good to wait in the clinic, he supposed, but when nobody could get to the clinic

[see_my_back]

Sakura leaned forward in her seat to better look at his map. He seemed to have found the right spot, so she didn't feel the need to point it out. It was too bad he was such a quiet guy, Hanatarou seemed to have a lot of good ideas and, Sakura assumed, medical knowledge and skill to go with it. He didn't look terribly sturdy, but one couldn't always judge on looks alone

[mitase]

Hanatarou jotted a small note on the map in his journal, giving an absent nod as he did. A whole library of books that could maybe explain the equipment here would be invaluable -- he'd already found enough to assure him there was very little equipment that he was used to, and he needed to find equivalents that he could work with. The medicines he'd picked up could be very useful, if only he knew how to use them and in what dosage