[OPEN] CLINIC THREAD - DEATH CITY

[soul_mods]

Characters: OPEN
Location: Horrorspital, Death City
Rating: PG
Time: December 20 onwards
Description: For all your injury needs from all that cavorting around saving Christmas!

Comments

open | dec 20 - 22

[hatedriven]

[the first day they show up Sasuke is a flurry of activity, blowing by people with Sara's unconscious and bleeding body in his arms until the nurses take him away and rush him into surgery.

after that, the boy is at a loss. he'll be standing at odd corners of the hospital, ghosting in and out of Rei's room and then into Sara's room once the king is out of the operating room. he'll be covered in dried blood, his hands and his chest and his clothes, until someone gets him to change and clean himself up. but despite appearances he isn't injured. not physically, at least.]

20th

[adamants]

[ Sakura's been rushing around in an attempt to help at the clinic between her shifts with the Watch and picking up more time from the absences in pairs being abroad. She's tired (an understatement) and would really like to stop for a nap. But-!

Things to be done, right?

She hadn't been expecting to see anyone coming back from being on missions for a little while longer. So while she's reading over a patient chart and bumps into Sasuke, she gives a quiet apology without glancing up. But there's something familiar enough that after taking two steps away from him, she pauses, drops the papers back to the chart and looks over her shoulder; surprised. ]

Sasuke-kun.

[hatedriven]

[the bigger surprise is the fact that Sasuke says nothing in return, no barbed remark to watch where she was going. in fact, the collision almost barely seems to register, a roll of his bare shoulder to let her pass. he doesn't glance back at her. though he slows to a stop a moment after she says his name, it's less in response and more that- he's not sure where he's going, but he certainly doesn't seem to notice, or care, about his own rather macabre-looking state.]

[adamants]

[ It's when Sakura notices the blood that she actually stops lolly-gagging. When another medical personnel walks by, she murmurs the patient name, passes off the chart, and then shifts her focus completely. Once tired and dazed, she immediately steps closer to him, reaches for Sasuke's shoulder. ]

Whose blood is this?

[ She knows it isn't his, knows Sasuke better than that. Even if it was his own, there would be bandages of some design. But there's nothing, just drying red on his clothes that makes her blood run cold, because what if-

What if it's someone she knows, too. What if it's-

It couldn't be Naruto, right? It couldn't. They didn't go together, it couldn't.

Sakura reminds herself to breathe, stare into Sasuke's eyes, unwavering. ]

Will you tell me what happened?

[hatedriven]

[the reaction is violent and the gesture so fast sasuke doesn't realize he's done it until his hand is on her wrist, bruisingly tight, and he's tensed to shove her into the wall. somehow, he stops, in the last moment before he's put the whole of his body into the movement, and stares at her as though he's seeing her for the first time.

Sakura.

Whose blood is this?

he's taking too long to respond, and he hasn't let go of her.]

Saralegui.

[adamants]

Sasuke.

[ And she drops the honorific for the first time, and it feels foreign in her mouth. Like saying his name without it adds some sort of weight to her tongue that she doesn't want to have.

Her voice stays calm, despite that. Despite his grip on her wrist. She doesn't move, doesn't pull away, just stares at him without blinking, without moving.

When the name comes, the familiarity of who it is makes her stomach sink. She's nauseous from the thought. She had never met him, not in person, but she had spent enough time speaking to him that the weight of the answer makes her feel ill.

But it's a concern she needs to push away, because the one in front of her is so much more present and obvious and important to her. ]

You need to get out of those clothes.

[hatedriven]

[something flickers in his eyes, and his gaze refocuses in the moment she says his name out of what he knows as the norm; clarity, sharp as a blade through his chest. his gaze slides to his hand on her wrist, to the dried crimson coating his skin, and his grip twitches away as though he's been burned.

his weapon form. he hadn't been able to keep the madness at bay. he hadn't been strong enough and now-

black eyes snap up, wild, like he doesn't quite comprehend what she's asking.]

It's not important. Sara- [his gaze skitters to the side, down the hall.]

[adamants]

Listen to me.

[ Sakura reaches, takes the hand that had once been gripping her wrist, and rests the other on his shoulder. The blood is drying, at least, but it's everywhere and the smell of it is heavy on his clothes. This isn't where he needs to be, not like this. ]

He's going to be okay, but it isn't going to help for you to stand here soaked in blood and looking around like everyone is a threat to you.

[ Her voice never wavers; a constant calm tone. It's not soothing or sweet, just calm, calmer than she feels right now. ]

I've been with these doctors, the healers here, they're amazing at what they do. Can do things that even I hadn't learned yet at home. You need to believe me that he's going to be okay, and that you being gone for twenty minutes to shower and put on fresh clothes isn't going to harm the situation.

[hatedriven]

[that was true. he wasn't helping, the duty had been handed over to the medics. and it wasn't that he'd forgotten, or didn't believe in their skills, but it was difficult when all he could think was the blood and all he could smell was copper. he wiped one palm on the stained white of his trousers without looking at his hand, but being as he wiped it on a spot that wasn't clean, it didn't do anything.

sasuke shrugged her hand off and took a step back. he wasn't sure whether her tone was soothing, or if it made him want to lash out even more, and it made his expression harden.]

[adamants]

[ Sakura watches him, chooses her next words carefully. Even with the separation of years, despite everything at home, she still knows him. Knows parts of him. She can still read him and knows how to react.

So it takes her a moment to speak. Part of it is that she wants to give him a moment of silence to sort through whatever it is that he's thinking of; another part of her is slightly apprehensive in what she's about to say. But-

She figures it's one of the only ways to get through to him. ]

Is this what you want Sara to wake up to? No one wants to see their partner covered in their blood when they wake up in recovery. He'll want to know that you were at least clear headed enough to take care of yourself, too.

[ At least she would assume so, from what she knows of Saralegui. ]

[hatedriven]

It's Saralegui.

[he doesn't like to be called Sara, the thought strikes him at a distance, the same way he realizes he'd called him that more than once in the passed six hours. but Sasuke closes his eyes, tries to collect himself, and instead is assaulted once more with the image of the young king bleeding out at his feet. by the flash of a katana in the uchiha district. by nin bodies and his parents staring eyes. of Rei, pale on the hospital bed and breath so shallow that seemed like it could stop any moment

[adamants]

[ It's immediate. The realization that settles over her and makes her realize that this isn't working. The calm that she's forcing out of her tone and in her movements isn't helping, isn't doing what she wants it to do. This isn't Naruto or Ino or someone else from home and the startling realization that Sasuke still has the potential to be who (what) he is back home is one that makes her pause.

She watches him, silent. There's no more words of attempted comfort, no voice offering to quell the thoughts that are raging through his mind and making him feel like this.

But she knows what will help. This doesn't, but something will. She had been so bent set a month ago to find him and kill him, she's sparred with him in training enough to know that she can do this. And by the physical outburst, she can only assume that it's what he needs right now.

Sakura reaches up, pushes his hand from the wall, narrows her eyes. ]

If you need to tear something down, at least let it be something that can fight back.

[ Like me. ]

Outside.

[hatedriven]

[it jars him. maybe because the press isn't gentle, isn't coaxing, doesn't treat him with pity. it isn't the embrace the other nin had used, or what he would have expected of the Sakura he knew- but it's firm, assertive, and his hand drops from the wall in the same moment his attention comes around to face her.

she's challenging him. she's challenging me.

the need rushes through him fast and hard, the want for an outlet. one he'd learned to exact on his own in their world, one he might have taken out on Naruto here. the emotion is so strong that, for a moment, it washes out the sick panic that rises in the wake of Sara and Rei, and he thinks he has no idea who this girl is, this powerful young nin who came from a war he had all but instigated.

black eyes narrow. i'll destroy you.]

You think you can take me? [he doesn't think before the words are out: mechanical, practiced response. but Sasuke pushes passed her and knows she'll follow.]

[adamants]

[ Sakura exhales slowly, waits for him to walk by her before she allows her shoulders to relax. The exhaustion that had once been settling down into every muscle seems to dissipate quickly, a mere memory in her joints as she straightens her posture and turns to follow him.

It sets her on edge, makes her fingers twitch at her sides, an impending confrontation that maybe both of them need to invest themselves in. For vastly different reasons, of course, but a focus they both need and crave and want so desperately.

She knows that she can't beat him; that's an acceptable fact. But she also knows, at the same time, that she can take him and keep up. The way her hands ache for a contact that isn't a soft embrace or a reassuring touch. Because hasn't she spent so much time doing that already? The outlet of something physical burns across her skin, and it feels like this can't happen soon enough. ]

[hatedriven]

[sasuke moves through the corridor not unlike as he has since arriving back in death city, distanced, distracted. but now his thoughts boomerang wildly, between what he'd just been through, what it had reminded him of, and the promise of a fight. the promise of something to take his frustration and his fear out on.

they've barely cleared the hospital door when Sasuke whirls on her, charges with bloodied, clenched fists. he isn't like the boy she fight in morning training, there's something wild about him; like a wounded animal.]

[adamants]

[ There's part of her that expected it; that knew he would launch into it as soon as they broke into the open air. But a different part of her, one that still couldn't let go of the Sasuke in the past, was anticipating him to wait until they cleared the surroundings and didn't have anyone around. So-

She doesn't quite avoid it. Instead she moves with him, meets the force with her own to absorb whatever blow he might throw. It's then that she ducks, dips down and around him. She needs to get him away from where people might get in the way, where they might try to separate this. Because the last thing they need is collateral. ]