Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ A ship in the fog ❯ Damages ( Chapter 7 )

A/N: I don't know the first thing about medical stuff, so I wrote this at the best of my knowledge. I apologize for any strangeness and hope it won't interfere with the story. And keep in mind that this is going on circa 1820...

 

Disclaimer : I don't own Fruits Basket

 

 

 

Chapter 7 - Damages

 

 

Sitting at the front of the ship, Yuki and Haru were conversing. In all the years the two-toned boy had known him, it was the first time Yuki was truly acting as a friend towards him. Even when he had fallen head over toe in love with him, Haru couldn't remember his silver haired cousin being this kind. And this open, he thought, smiling. I've never heard him laugh before. At the sound of Yuki's silver laugh, Haru laughed too.

 

A few seconds later, they heard a loud thud. Momiji, holding a tray with Haru's medicine and two cups of tea, bleached, all trace of blood leaving his childish face. The tray fell from his hands as he cried out and sprinted towards the direction of the sound.

 

Yuki stood and turned around. "What's going on?" Haru asked him, concerned with Momiji's reaction. His cousin frowned. "I don't know exactly. Shigure, Hatori, and Momiji are standing in the way. Wait. Akito and Kureno are there too. They are leaving the deck, and Akito seems to be extremely satisfied with something."

 

Haru had a bad feeling about this whole thing. "Let's see what this is all about." He rose shakily. Nodding, Yuki put his arm around his cousin's waist to support him, and they walked as fast as they could towards the small crowd.

 

Coming near, they heard Momiji sobbing, Shigure speaking with a husky voice, and saw Hatori kneeling. When they reached Shigure's side, Yuki had to hold Haru up, because the legs of the two-toned boy gave way beneath him. The purple haired boy was shocked himself. Kyo was lying in a growing pool of blood.

 

Hatori was busying himself, trying his best to stop the stream of blood coming from the redhead. He had already applied a tourniquet around the boy's arm, above the torn skin where some bones were sticking out. Yuki noted that Kyo's left leg made a strange angle, and that he had an open wound on the head, reaching his eye. Weakening, Yuki set Haru down gently on his knees.

 

"Shigure, Momiji, a stretcher, now." Hatori ordered them, without looking back. "Yuki, splints, in my room, the brown bag near the sink. Fast." Glad to be told what to do, they all hurried away, leaving a stunned Haru with the doctor.

 

"Hatsuharu, I'll need your help too. Take these." Hatori held out a pile of gauze. “And press down your hand there." He put Haru's hand firmly on the open gash on Kyo's head. The two-toned boy did what he was told.

 

Yuki came back with the splints a moment later, and Hatori took them to secure Kyo's left leg. While trying to catch his breath, Yuki looked down at Haru, who was slowly stroking the red hair with his free hand. Silent tears were sliding down his pale cheeks. Kyo's the one who found him. Did these two…? The purple haired boy's thoughts were interrupted by the return of Shigure and Momiji.

 

They set the stretcher on the ground and waited for the doctor to tell them what to do next. Hatori took more bandages from his bag for the head. He delicately removed Haru's hand from where it was and pretended not to see the tears that were dripping on the red hair. Once finished with the head, the doctor put Kyo's hands carefully over his chest and settled the stretcher very close. "Yuki, Shigure, go to the other side of Kyo. Momiji, stand by me. Slip your hands under him. Good. Be careful, and don't touch his arms. We have to lift him up at the same time. One, two, three, go." They quickly moved the boy from the deck to the stretcher. Shigure and Momiji lifted the stretcher up and followed Hatori down.

 

They had all disappeared for a few minutes before Haru noticed it. Still kneeling, he looked at his hand covered with blood. It was already drying between his fingers, turning darker. The two-toned boy was pulled out of his reverie when he felt a light hand on his shoulder. "Come." Yuki's voice was soft, as if he were scared to bring him back to reality. "I don't want you to catch a cold. Remember, you are still convalescing." Haru took the offered hand and got back on his feet. He felt Yuki put his arm around his waist and walk with him towards the ladder. No, he thought, Yuki has never acted this friendly with me. He appreciated the change, but…

 

Noticing his cousin had zoned out again, Yuki stayed silent. Leading them both to his own cabin, he was thinking about what had just happened and what he had just seen. He would never say it out loud, but he was a bit worried for the redhead. They grew up apart and had nothing in common anymore. Let's face it; they probably couldn't even hold a decent conversation. The abruptness of Kyo's every move irritated him to no end, and his loudness was beyond annoying. Yet, he had been his very first friend. The redhead didn't deserve this.

 

Yuki seated his cousin on the more comfortable armchair of the bedroom. Haru was still deep in his thoughts, his gray eyes unfocused and half-closed. The purple haired boy looked at him as if it were for the first time. Of course, he didn't like Haru that way, but he noticed how sexy he looked right then, with his white ruffled hair, his fair delicate features, his slenderness… and his half-open black shirt. The purple haired boy resisted the sudden urge to slip his hand into the opening. Shaking his head, he went to the door. His hand on the handle, he looked back at Haru, who hadn`t moved. His always-placid demeanor was comforting, and, for the first time, Yuki thought that one must feel safe while in those strong arms. Shaking his head again, he left the room, closing the door behind him silently.

 

In the hallway, Yuki met a worried Tohru. Obviously, the poor girl was still clueless about what had just happened over her head, or else she would be hyperventilating.

 

"Dinner is about to be served, do you know where everyone is?" she asked him, wringing her hands.

 

"Well, Hatori is… busy, Haru is resting in my room, I don't know where Akito and Kureno are, and I was looking for Shigure." Yuki answered her. He would have liked to be a little warmer, a little more open with her, but he just couldn't. And right now wasn't a really good time. Lame excuse! Said his little inner voice.

 

"Oh. M. Akito isn't feeling too well, and M. Kureno is staying with him, so they won't be eating with us. Do you know what happened earlier? We heard a loud noise." she added, after some thoughts.

 

"Well, um, there has been, um, a little incident with one of the seamen. Hatori is taking care of him."

 

"Oooh!" She covered her mouth with both hands, "I hope he will be all right!”

 

Yuki smiled, but didn't answer. “If you would excuse me, Miss Honda, I need to find Shigure.”

 

“Why of course, I'm sorry!” She went back to the dining room where Kisa and Hiro were waiting for her. Well, Kisa was. Hiro was hoping the girl had somehow fallen overboard.

 

At the same moment, a few cabins down, Hatori was working relentlessly. He had cut down the redhead's shirt and pants with scissors and was forcing himself to take care of the boy's injuries one at a time, because thinking of his general condition disheartened him. He first settled to work on Kyo's arm. He cleaned the torn skin and, taking a deep breath, pulled on the wrist and the elbow, so that the bones fell back in line within the gaping wound. The break wasn't clean, and, even if the wound healed well, this arm would stay weak. The doctor thought about securing the bones with a metal pin, but the flesh already looked so irritated that he preferred stitching it together and using splints to prevent the limb from being displaced.

 

Mopping his brow, Hatori moved to Kyo's shoulder. The doctor guessed that the cut had been made prior to the boy's fall, probably by a sharp knife with a narrow blade. -Probably by Akito himself. And that had probably caused the redhead to fall, because the doctor knew that Kyo had gone up and down that mast dozens of times before without problem. Once again, Hatori cleaned the wound and made a few stitches. No muscle or bone had been touched, but the injury must have hurt nonetheless. He was surprised Kyo had been able to climb his way up and almost all the way down with a shoulder like this.

 

Fortunately, the head looked a lot worse than it actually was. There was no skull fracture, but a three-inch rip running from the top to the left eye. Working slowly and patiently, Hatori cleaned, stitched, and bandaged the tanned skin.

 

The broken leg was secured with splints and bandaged tight. Hatori finished by looking at the boy's chest. Except for a few broken ribs, that he bandaged too, everything seemed fine there. He guessed that large bruises would appear soon, but there was nothing he could do for that.

 

Washing the blood from his hands, Hatori looked at Kyo's face. It was pale and tense and covered with a thin layer of sweat. When he wakes up, the pain will be incredible. He thought. …If he wakes up. He cleaned the place and carefully lifted the redhead. Kyo used to be loud and strong, yet at this moment, he seemed so small in the doctor's arms. He was gently set on a fresh white sheet and tucked in. Hatori moved his armchair near the bed and lit a cigarette. For the second time since the ship had left port, he prepared himself for a long, long night.

 

Up on the deck, Momiji was standing with a seawater bucket and a mop in hand. Unfortunately for him, that was the moment Ayame chose to make his great appearance. The thundering words he was about to say—about how he couldn't deny the ship's passengers his precious presence any longer—died on his lips at the sight of the bloodied floor. He turned an interesting shade of green and hurried back down to his cabin. Sniffing, the sea boy began to sweep the remaining traces of the accident.