Title: Kimi Wa Ore No Chiisana Hikari (You Are My Little Light)
Pairing: Ratio x Birthday
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I own nothing. A piece who came to me all by itself in record time! [Source of illustration picture:
ゆた]
From the outside they might look like the stereotypical ‘we-only-work-together-because-we-have-to-pair’, consisting of the stoic, rational bastard who loathes showing emotion and the outgoing, always happy pervert, supposed to frequently clash, the stoic one scolding the happy one for not doing his job properly.
And while Ratio actually had to scold Birthday atleast a few times a day, it was usually for things like eating in his car and putting his feet on the table.
From the point of view of their friends and colleagues they might look like the odd pair who work well together because of childhood friendship, using playful banter to get at each other because that’s how friendship works.
But at the end of the day, when Ratio catches a fainting Birthday the moment they get within the four walls of their home, he knows they are anything but a stereotypical couple of colleagues and childhood friends.
He carries the light body of his most treasured person and sullenly notices he has lost weight again.
At this point Ratio always whispers a prayer. A prayer requesting for nothing more than having Birthday only needing some rest this night.
Ratio has learned a long time ago that there is no god.
As the younger one goes into a coughing fit in his arms and splatters his lab coat in crimson he silently curses his own foolishness.
He turns around in the middle of the stairs and heads for the basement. Into a room he has had to use more and more frequently the past few months.
While the rest of the house is eerily silent, the room in the basement is covered in a blanket of hums and buzzing. Fluorescent lights, tubes, machines and wires all singing and whirring in unison.
He softly lowers the younger one onto the quite frankly terrifying looking hybrid operating table and bed in the middle of the room and gently removes most of his clothing, all in the span of 30 seconds.
He has done this so many times he has lost count.
Soft whimpering and shallow breaths are coming from Birthday as he clutches his chest and tears glisten in his eyes. Ratio knows he's faking it, that it is actually a hundred times worse than what it looks like.
He knows Birthday wants nothing more than to go into ear-splitting screams and spasms, but he doesn't, because he is always putting on bravado in front of him.
The doctor grits his teeth and curses as he heads for the specific cabinet reserved only for the worst episodes.
The needle is thick and long and the dose could potentially be a killer, but he has to administer it.
Birthday doesn't even register the needle being pushed into his spine via his lower back, a testament to how much pain he's actually in.
The doctor hooks him up to two different IV-drips and several monitor wires and again Birthday doesn't even crinkle an eyebrow as the needles push into the veins of both his hands.
He picks up a blanket and covers the trembling body before sitting down in a chair beside him.
As he strokes away sweaty hair and leans in to kiss the younger's forehead, Ratio can feel a hand shoot up and grab his coat. The grip is weak but it means he still has fighting spirit left. Birthday has cracked one eye open and his lips are moving, but without a sound coming forth, he is too tired.
Ratio doesn't need sound to understand. With the barest hint of a smile, he strokes the other's chin gently and whispers into the room.
"I know. I love you too."
With a small, barely there smile, Birthday closes his one open eye and drifts off into slumber.
Ratio checks the screen with all of his possible vitals before letting out a sigh of relief. Birthday is going to make it for another day.
For a split second he debates with himself whether to use his Minimum or not, but he decides against it.
He knows, he just can't bear to see.
Strapping on a wristband with a complex looking alarm device onto it, he quietly exits the room and heads upstairs.
When finally in the livingroom and as silence envelops him, he barely has time to rid himself of his blood-stained lab coat before he collapses onto the couch, burying his face in his hands and lets out a cracked sob as all the fears he has held in today comes out.
He might be a stoic bastard at work, to his colleagues, customers and everyone else in between, but he has no choice in the matter. He has to keep up his composure, always stay calm and calculated and ready. He cannot afford a slip up, a slip up might cost his most precious person his life.
The silence is only disturbed by a faint beeping coming from Ratio's wristband. He looks at it solemnly, an icon of a small heart amongst the otherwise complex list of vitals, beating at an even pace in synch with the beeping.
It might be because he is crazy, it might be because he is a doctor, but he finds it soothing to listen to.
Birthday's heartbeat, the one thing he truly and honestly lives for. The one thing that is currently keeping them both alive.
A yawn escapes his mouth and he suddenly notices how sleepy he is himself. He really should get upstair to his bed but his eyes are so heavy and all his energy is gone. He is asleep the moment his head hits the pillows in the corner of the couch.
In the wee hours of morning, soft footsteps can be heard and a blanket gets draped over the sleeping form of the doctor. A kiss is planted to his cheek he drowsily registers and he swears he can hear a gentle voice far away.
“Thank you.”
He smiles before drifting back into slumber, a more peaceful look adorning his face this time.