warintheextreme | [For Takatora]

[For Takatora]

One of the general rules about being acquaintances with Kureshima Takatora is that you don't interrupt him when he's spending quality time with his younger brother.

Tonight, Takatora has actually left the office in the early afternoon, and isn't scheduled to return until early the next morning. That means time with Mitsuzane, and that means no interruptions, for anything.

Which I normally have no problem with, I'm perfectly capable of working through the night with or without Takatora's looming presence foisting coffee and assorted vending food upon me.

But tonight has already proven to be abnormal as these nights go, and the anomalous readings that are coming from some of the sensors deeper in Helheim are not the kind of stuff I can ignore, or desire to leave waiting for hours until morning and Takatora's return to 'on call'.

Besides, I'm not hardly so helpless as he sometimes seems to think I am, though I suppose that is entirely my own fault, seeing the amount of secrets I keep from him.

I arm myself. I've kept this bow and quiver of arrows at hand for going on eight years now, and I still practice occasionally, though not nearly with the frequency I used to as a child.

Then I escort myself down into the secondary, central lab, where the Crack is held open through various ways and means. At this time of night, there's only one guard on duty, and he's not bold enough to try and stand in my way as I step through the Crack and into Helheim.

And it's all going remarkably well! I find the sensors that are returning the anomalous readings, and find that the data is not unusual, but simply corrupted. The sensors were malfunctioning, that is all. I have them all fixed before anything goes particularly amiss, and am returning to the Crack when the unthinkable happens.

It's not a totally overwhelming number of Inves by any means. My aim is impeccable, it always was, and my reflexes are still good but my speed is significantly marred from where it once was, and my pull strength is vastly diminished due to lack of practice and training. Still, I'm holding my own quite well, each arrow finds it's mark, even if some of them are only slowing the monsters down...

I'm actually within sight of the Crack when I hear a snapping over me, and don't manage to look up in time to see the wide falling branch that strikes me in the head.

Now things are starting to look down.

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"Time at home with Mitsuzane or not, I do not want you risking your life like this."

Once his wound has been cleaned, and I have applied gauze and wrappings where needed, I set about cleaning the blood from myself, as well as from Ryouma. He's more than a little bit of a shut in, but I know appearances still matter somewhat to him.

I meet his gaze after this is finished, glaring. "How often do you go into Helheim without my knowledge?"

He takes the time to bandage my head and all, and then he comes around and crouches beside the couch and takes up my hands and starts cleaning the blood from them.

"See? It's not as bad as you thought, after all." If it was worse, he would have insisted on calling a medic, or in a worst case scenario, an ambulance. "Head wounds. They bleed a lot, but it's hardly anything at all."

I close my eyes while he cleans my hands, but then I can feel him glaring at me, so I squint one eye open to peer at him. "Honestly?"

Yes, head wounds bleed a lot, they can also be very serious, even if the injury would be considered a small one anywhere else on the body.

But his vision has clarity to it, as well as his speech patterns. I will refrain from calling for outside assistance. This time, at least.

"Of course honestly." There's a soft growl to my words, low, serious. Almost deadly. "Why would I even ask, if I wanted you to lie to me?"

I smirk at him and close my eyes again. "Well, you could be asking out of a terribly misplaced sense of responsibility for me and my actions. I'm not a child, Takatora, and I can make my own decisions."

I sigh, squinting my eye open again. "But if you must know, tonight was the first time it has ever come up."

I want to strangle him. Again.

Of course I take responsibility for him. He is part of my team. Part of my staff.

Also a... a very dear friend.

Not a child, no. But his safety is still my responsibility. As mine is his, in many ways.

I let out a slow sigh of relief at his answer, my shoulders relaxing minutely.

"Ryouma," I speak softly, still gazing at him. "What were you trying to prove?"

Hm, that feels a little different. He's not glaring at me quite as harshly anymore. It's more of a... gaze, really. He's staring at me, like he thinks I'm going to melt or disintegrate or otherwise immediately disappear.

I blink a few times, clear my throat, and then look away, angling my head back a bit and closing my eyes with a sigh.

"I wasn't trying to prove anything, Takatora. Honestly. There were anomalous data readings, I couldn't let it wait, and I didn't want to interrupt you. It went poorly. That's it."

I reach out, making to touch his bandage, or hair, or something. But my hand ends up on his cheek, fingertips vaguely tracing the line of his jaw.

Protective.

Also respectful.

"You created this driver so that we could be protected within Helheim, so that we could safely harness the power of the lock seeds," I swallow hard, but hide it with a turn of my head and a cough into my free hand.

"Calll me, if ever something like this occurs again."

My eyes open wide when his hand settles on my cheek.

"Takatora..."

I'm really not sure what to say. The touch is much more gentle than I suppose I'd ever given Takatora credit for, with anyone other than his brother, anyway.

"We send people in there without Drivers all the time." I remind him. "Even when you're not there. This wasn't supposed to be any different."

Still, he's being so tender.

"I will."

"They stay within boundaries, they... they know to call on me when there is trouble."

There is an odd lump within my throat, and I do my best to swallow it down.

I am being gentle with him, as I would be my brother. But also firm, just as firm.

He is not my brother. There is a difference, in my actions, in my speech.

"You are not them."

"They are not as highly ranked as I am," I grumble. "They're not in charge. They know nothing..."

His voice has a waver in it. I've never heard that particular tone before.

He's staring to frighten me, and I sit up a little, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Takatora. Were you injured?"

I stare at him for a long moment, trying to sort out why he may be asking me such a question.

Did I appear to be injured? I thought I was fairly efficient in dispatching the Inves as they attacked.

I'm really not sure why he is so concerned. His face so earnest, his hand gripping at my shoulder.

I reach over, and rest my hand lightly on top of his.

"I'm uninjured." My voice is so soft, I barely even recognize it myself.

We lock gazes and simply stare each other down for a moment, and for a moment there I'm almost positive that he is injured, even if he ends up denying it to try to keep the focus of this event on me and my indiscretions.

But the tone of his voice makes me rethink this hypothesis. Like he is truly trying to reassure me.

"I'm sorry." I say softly, finally tearing my eyes away from his. "I'm concussed."

I can't tell if he's apologizing for being concerned, or if these two statements stand on their own independently, and he is apologizing for going into Helheim on his own.

"What if I had not been informed in time to get to you?" My voice is still soft now, less accusatory, more concerned. "What if you had been rendered unconscious in Helheim without anyone's knowledge?"

He could have died. And we would have lost out best scientist.

I would have lost my old friend.

We're back to that again, huh? I chuckle softly and close my eyes, turning my head away from him. Not to shut him out. I'm just tired. The adrenaline has all but worn off now.

"I suppose that would have been a terrible thing indeed, but that's not what happened, Takatora. Don't worry about 'what if', it's a waste of time. I told you I won't let it happen again."

I find myself reaching out and brushing his messed hair out of his face, my fingertips lingering over his cheekbone. After a moment I cup his cheek, and turn his face back to mine. I search his eyes, check the state of his pupils.

"You should eat something, or at least drink some water." I glance up at the bandage covering his head wound. "And pain killers would perhaps also be helpful."

I feel his fingertips brushing at my cheek as he pushes my hair back, then tries to angle my face back around. I don't want to open my eyes again, I feel as though, if I engage or respond, he'll just start yelling at me some more.

But his hand is gentle and I give up, opening my eyes and letting him examine me to the best of his ability.

"I'm not in pain, Takatora. I would accept some water, though."

I do not believe him, but I won't fight with him on this. I am reluctant to leave his side, but I make my way across my office to my desk, and retrieve a bottle of water and a few aspirin from my drawers.

Yggdrasil and its employees often causes headaches in one way or another; I like to be prepared.

I return to him with the pills and water, pressing them into his hand in a way that indicates I will not let him get away with not taking them.

We settle back into our usual dance, where I say something that he doesn't agree with, or that he does agree with but not enough to acknowledge me aloud, and then he moves away silently to retreieve whatever I inadvertantly requested.

It's not coffee this time, it's a bottle of water and, I realize with a smirk as he presses them into my hand, some painkillers.

"Fine, fine. They can't hurt, right?" I take the pills and have drained the bottle before I even realized it.

I smile slightly when he accepts the aspirin, but it quickly dies as I watch him drain the entire bottle of water in one go, concern and a bit of anger welling up within me again.

"Perhaps food would do you some good." I am near physically fighting keeping my voice calm now, I'm still very angry with him, and so very concerned.

I glance up at him again as I try to hand the bottle back, but he's just glaring at me again, his face flat and blank, which usually indicates barely concealed annoyance or anger. I know his face well.

"I'm not hungry, Takatora." I say firmly, and it's true.

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[For Takatora]

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