Bandages and Birthday Cards [Kiba and Naruto][AIM log, finished]
Dated the afternoon of March 28th; both parts are played by their respective players. The shortness makes up for the long logs that've been happening recently!
Kiba considered himself really, really lucky that he'd happened to have an extra hour free in the computer labs between classes--if he hadn't seen Sakura's post about her birthday, he'd have felt like fifty-three sorts of cad showing up without a present, without even a fulfillment of his promise. But now that he did know, it was easy enough to buy a card at the school bookstore and swing by the hospital on his way home.
He charmed Naruto's room number out of the volunteer at the reception desk and burst into the tiny room five minutes later, waving a card and a pen in a cheerful hand. "Hey Naruto!"
Naruto had been halfway through fashioning a rope out of strips of hospital blanket under his sheets when Kiba burst in, loud and cheery and a godsend without question. Naruto beamed back, looking a hundred times healthier than he had during Sakura's visit a few days ago, and didn't bother hiding what he was up to.
Hell, Kiba would probably help him!
"Kiba! Hey! What's up?"
"Sakura's birthday's what's up," Kiba said, and dropped down in the chair by Naruto's bed without further ado, waving the card he'd bought in the bookstore. Maybe it wasn't the coolest but it had been the first one he'd seen without gag-inducing flowers or naked guys waving from the front, and it had 21 on it as well--how cool was that?
"Got a card for you to send 'er, 'cause you can't get out," he said. "I'll even deliver it for you. If you promise me first weekend you're outta here, you take her on a date."
"Sakura's birthday!?" Naruto yelped, bolting up in his bed. "Oh damnit and I'm not there and--" The blond paused in his near-panicked rant to give Kiba a confused look. "Promise to take Sakura on a date?" He blinked and gave Kiba a squiffy look. "Why am I promising you what I was gonna do anyway?"
"You were?" Kiba blinked. "I thought--"
Well, that made it a lot easier, at any rate. He uncapped the pen and shoved it into Naruto's hand. "Just write her a message saying you're gonna, okay? 'Cause I gotta look out for her."
His eyes narrowed. "Your intentions are honorable, right?":
Naruto fumbled a bit with the pen (in his left hand, since his right was bandadged and still shot through with IV tubes) and had managed to write "Sakura, happy birt--" when Kiba's question reached his ears.
Said ears, and all the rest of him promptly went neon pink. "OI!" Naruto yelped, shooting Kiba a glare, "Whatcha tryin' to say, huh?"
"I mean you're taking her out 'cause she's a great girl and all, and you're gonna treat her right. No siccing possums on her." Kiba leaned back in his chair and poked thoughtfully at the buttons on the side of Naruto's bed. "I talked to her week or so ago, maybe, an' she's lonely and she needs somebody to look out for her. Needs somebody protecting her 'cause she's smart and she's strong but she's a girl, y'know?"
It was a notion not even Tsume and Hana had managed to beat out of his head. You're the man of the house now, his dad had told him before leaving for the war, and you gotta look after your mom and your sister. And he'd left Kiba with stories of chivalry and knightlihood swimming through his head, and maybe damsels in distress weren't locked up in towers guarded by evil knights anymore, but they were still out there all the same.
The air fell out of Naruto's sails as Kiba sat down. He was way overreacting to that kinda thing lately. Definitely. Probably. Maybe. Okay. Not at all. But he shouldn't do it all the same. Because he wasn't 100% sure what the thing was with him and Sakura at all... wasn't sure what she wanted or what she needed or what he ought to be doing about them being them.
Ah, hell! This was what happened when he was stuck inside with way too much time to think. So instead he kept writing on Sakura's card, tongue stuck out between his teeth as he concentrated to spell the words neatly and right. "Well, yeah... she's tough as anything, Kiba. And smart. And amazing. And... everything. But yeah, she's smart enough to know when she needs friends."
He handed the card back to Kiba, containing a promise to take Sakura out to Ichiraku or for pizza or out to anywhere she wanted on saturday night - and then to a movie if she wanted. All on his dime, as part of her birthday present. And to go and get the rest of her present out from under his bed in Apt 11.
"Can you tell her I wish I was there more than anything, Kiba?" he asked, "I'm working on escaping, but I'm pretty sure she'd go nuts at me if I left before I should... being a med-student and all..."
"They get kinda tetchy when you wanna do something," Kiba agreed wisely. "Nemu pretty much threw a fit when I asked her when I could start learning boxing. And I even waited till I got the fixator off and everything, see?" He jerked his chin down at his right arm, still bound up in a sling but no longer bulging with strange metal apparatus.
"How you gonna get out, anyway?" he asked with evident curiosity. "'f your hand's really bad you might just fall over in the street. How long you stuck here?"
Naruto was glad to see Kiba's arm looking better, even if it made him twinge a lil' bit inside with jealousy. How come Kiba was healthy and running around and could go see Sakura today and he couldn't?
"I was gonna try and use this," he pulled up the rope he was tying out of bedsheets for Kiba to see. "Only now I kinda realize my hand doesn't work and I'd just fall straight down 2 storeys." He groaned in frustration and threw the bundle of cloth out his bed to the floor. "I'm not getting outta here til they let me out. I hate it. Probably won't see daylight til Friday, cos of the blood poisoning and junk."
Naruto shrugged and gave Kiba a brave attempt at a smile. "So, are you guys gonna have a party for her? She deserves one."
Admittedly Kiba didn't know a lot about human medicine--or at least, human medicine beyond bruises and strains and the sort of stuff that could be easily extrapolated from animal medicine--but he didn't think a bite from a possum should really take a week in the hospital to take care of. "You sure they're not just digging for your money?" he asked suspiciously. "'cause they do that. An' you could prolly come home and get treatment just as good as you get here, specially if you're just lying in bed all day. Got a couple doctors in the building, don't we?"
He added belatedly, "I dunno about a party. Only found out today, was hard enough getting the card."
"Well thanks, man. I really mean it... thanks for thinking about her. And me."
Naruto rubbed the back of his head and gave Kiba a wry look. "And the hospital are the ones covering my bills, it's part of the contract we get working here. I know they aren't keeping me here a second longer than they have to."
He frowned and poked the swollen back of his hand, "They say it's not the bites, its the blood poisoning and diseases and junk I got from them."
"I wanna come home... y'know? But I can't really walk more than halfway down the hall just now. When Sakura was here I think I passed out or something, I don't wanna put effort on Tsunade-Lady or Sakura or anybody by coming home before I can take care of myself."
"Guess that makes sense," Kiba admitted. It sure hadn't been fun being sick--or sleepy--at home after he'd first broken his wrist, and he could understand Naruto's determination not to intrude on anyone else.
Still...it had to be dead boring here. He pushed himself up from his chair, retrieving the card and the pen from Naruto, and tucked both of them back into his messenger bag. "I'll come by tomorrow or something and bring you some books and stuff, okay? I got an awesome copy of Le Mort D'Arthur if you promise to take care of it..."
"Ahhh, thanks Kiba," Naruto said gratefully, watching the other guy get to his feet. He had no idea what "Lemore darthur" was, but if Kiba thought it was cool there was a good chance it was interesting. And Naruto needed to practice his reading anyway, couldn't let his schooling slip just cos he wasn't at school.
"And thanks again, for coming. I know you're busy and everything," Naruto said, looking up at his friend's face.
"Give Sakura a hug from me? Tell her I'll be home soon. And I hope she has a great day."
"Sure, I'll tell her," Kiba promised. Here's to hoping he wouldn't forget. He raised his left hand in a sloppy salute--"Get better soon!"--and headed out.
Kiba considered himself really, really lucky that he'd happened to have an extra hour free in the computer labs between classes--if he hadn't seen Sakura's post about her birthday, he'd have felt like fifty-three sorts of cad showing up without a present, without even a fulfillment of his promise. But now that he did know, it was easy enough to buy a card at the school bookstore and swing by the hospital on his way home.
He charmed Naruto's room number out of the volunteer at the reception desk and burst into the tiny room five minutes later, waving a card and a pen in a cheerful hand. "Hey Naruto!"
Naruto had been halfway through fashioning a rope out of strips of hospital blanket under his sheets when Kiba burst in, loud and cheery and a godsend without question. Naruto beamed back, looking a hundred times healthier than he had during Sakura's visit a few days ago, and didn't bother hiding what he was up to.
Hell, Kiba would probably help him!
"Kiba! Hey! What's up?"
"Sakura's birthday's what's up," Kiba said, and dropped down in the chair by Naruto's bed without further ado, waving the card he'd bought in the bookstore. Maybe it wasn't the coolest but it had been the first one he'd seen without gag-inducing flowers or naked guys waving from the front, and it had 21 on it as well--how cool was that?
"Got a card for you to send 'er, 'cause you can't get out," he said. "I'll even deliver it for you. If you promise me first weekend you're outta here, you take her on a date."
"Sakura's birthday!?" Naruto yelped, bolting up in his bed. "Oh damnit and I'm not there and--" The blond paused in his near-panicked rant to give Kiba a confused look. "Promise to take Sakura on a date?" He blinked and gave Kiba a squiffy look. "Why am I promising you what I was gonna do anyway?"
"You were?" Kiba blinked. "I thought--"
Well, that made it a lot easier, at any rate. He uncapped the pen and shoved it into Naruto's hand. "Just write her a message saying you're gonna, okay? 'Cause I gotta look out for her."
His eyes narrowed. "Your intentions are honorable, right?":
Naruto fumbled a bit with the pen (in his left hand, since his right was bandadged and still shot through with IV tubes) and had managed to write "Sakura, happy birt--" when Kiba's question reached his ears.
Said ears, and all the rest of him promptly went neon pink. "OI!" Naruto yelped, shooting Kiba a glare, "Whatcha tryin' to say, huh?"
"I mean you're taking her out 'cause she's a great girl and all, and you're gonna treat her right. No siccing possums on her." Kiba leaned back in his chair and poked thoughtfully at the buttons on the side of Naruto's bed. "I talked to her week or so ago, maybe, an' she's lonely and she needs somebody to look out for her. Needs somebody protecting her 'cause she's smart and she's strong but she's a girl, y'know?"
It was a notion not even Tsume and Hana had managed to beat out of his head. You're the man of the house now, his dad had told him before leaving for the war, and you gotta look after your mom and your sister. And he'd left Kiba with stories of chivalry and knightlihood swimming through his head, and maybe damsels in distress weren't locked up in towers guarded by evil knights anymore, but they were still out there all the same.
The air fell out of Naruto's sails as Kiba sat down. He was way overreacting to that kinda thing lately. Definitely. Probably. Maybe. Okay. Not at all. But he shouldn't do it all the same. Because he wasn't 100% sure what the thing was with him and Sakura at all... wasn't sure what she wanted or what she needed or what he ought to be doing about them being them.
Ah, hell! This was what happened when he was stuck inside with way too much time to think. So instead he kept writing on Sakura's card, tongue stuck out between his teeth as he concentrated to spell the words neatly and right. "Well, yeah... she's tough as anything, Kiba. And smart. And amazing. And... everything. But yeah, she's smart enough to know when she needs friends."
He handed the card back to Kiba, containing a promise to take Sakura out to Ichiraku or for pizza or out to anywhere she wanted on saturday night - and then to a movie if she wanted. All on his dime, as part of her birthday present. And to go and get the rest of her present out from under his bed in Apt 11.
"Can you tell her I wish I was there more than anything, Kiba?" he asked, "I'm working on escaping, but I'm pretty sure she'd go nuts at me if I left before I should... being a med-student and all..."
"They get kinda tetchy when you wanna do something," Kiba agreed wisely. "Nemu pretty much threw a fit when I asked her when I could start learning boxing. And I even waited till I got the fixator off and everything, see?" He jerked his chin down at his right arm, still bound up in a sling but no longer bulging with strange metal apparatus.
"How you gonna get out, anyway?" he asked with evident curiosity. "'f your hand's really bad you might just fall over in the street. How long you stuck here?"
Naruto was glad to see Kiba's arm looking better, even if it made him twinge a lil' bit inside with jealousy. How come Kiba was healthy and running around and could go see Sakura today and he couldn't?
"I was gonna try and use this," he pulled up the rope he was tying out of bedsheets for Kiba to see. "Only now I kinda realize my hand doesn't work and I'd just fall straight down 2 storeys." He groaned in frustration and threw the bundle of cloth out his bed to the floor. "I'm not getting outta here til they let me out. I hate it. Probably won't see daylight til Friday, cos of the blood poisoning and junk."
Naruto shrugged and gave Kiba a brave attempt at a smile. "So, are you guys gonna have a party for her? She deserves one."
Admittedly Kiba didn't know a lot about human medicine--or at least, human medicine beyond bruises and strains and the sort of stuff that could be easily extrapolated from animal medicine--but he didn't think a bite from a possum should really take a week in the hospital to take care of. "You sure they're not just digging for your money?" he asked suspiciously. "'cause they do that. An' you could prolly come home and get treatment just as good as you get here, specially if you're just lying in bed all day. Got a couple doctors in the building, don't we?"
He added belatedly, "I dunno about a party. Only found out today, was hard enough getting the card."
"Well thanks, man. I really mean it... thanks for thinking about her. And me."
Naruto rubbed the back of his head and gave Kiba a wry look. "And the hospital are the ones covering my bills, it's part of the contract we get working here. I know they aren't keeping me here a second longer than they have to."
He frowned and poked the swollen back of his hand, "They say it's not the bites, its the blood poisoning and diseases and junk I got from them."
"I wanna come home... y'know? But I can't really walk more than halfway down the hall just now. When Sakura was here I think I passed out or something, I don't wanna put effort on Tsunade-Lady or Sakura or anybody by coming home before I can take care of myself."
"Guess that makes sense," Kiba admitted. It sure hadn't been fun being sick--or sleepy--at home after he'd first broken his wrist, and he could understand Naruto's determination not to intrude on anyone else.
Still...it had to be dead boring here. He pushed himself up from his chair, retrieving the card and the pen from Naruto, and tucked both of them back into his messenger bag. "I'll come by tomorrow or something and bring you some books and stuff, okay? I got an awesome copy of Le Mort D'Arthur if you promise to take care of it..."
"Ahhh, thanks Kiba," Naruto said gratefully, watching the other guy get to his feet. He had no idea what "Lemore darthur" was, but if Kiba thought it was cool there was a good chance it was interesting. And Naruto needed to practice his reading anyway, couldn't let his schooling slip just cos he wasn't at school.
"And thanks again, for coming. I know you're busy and everything," Naruto said, looking up at his friend's face.
"Give Sakura a hug from me? Tell her I'll be home soon. And I hope she has a great day."
"Sure, I'll tell her," Kiba promised. Here's to hoping he wouldn't forget. He raised his left hand in a sloppy salute--"Get better soon!"--and headed out.