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“Wha’sthis?”
The words are slippery on Shisui’s tongue. They jumble together, barely coherent as they leave his mouth.
He pokes at something squishy and wet resting against his abdominal muscles.
“That’s your small intestine. Stop touching it.”
“Oh. Fuck.”
He glances up at you through blurry vision, trying to think through the fog of confusion that clouds his senses.
Your eyes are sharp and intense, focusing on the laceration that spreads from one side of his stomach to the other. It’s so deep that some of his organs are visible.
Shisui doesn’t really notice that though. He’s more captivated by the intense, determined look on your face. On the flush of exertion that colors your cheeks so prettily.
He lets out a soft hum as the pleasant tingle of your chakra spreads through his body, soothing the pain and knitting his cells back together.
“You-”
“Don’t talk.”
“Bossy.”
Despite his teasing, the words slip breathlessly past his cracked lips. He grins, revealing teeth stained crimson with coughed up blood.
“Shisui,” you hiss. “If you don’t shut up, every nin in a 10 mile radius is going to hear you and come after us.”
“I’ll take care of ‘em,” he mumbles, but his voice is thick with delirium.
That isn’t a good sign. You hate to rush, but if you don’t finish healing him soon, your lives will only be more at risk.
Leaves rustle behind you, and you turn, whipping out a kunai.
Thankfully, the figure emerging from the darkened trees is wearing the familiar guise of a weasel.
“Itachi.”
He removes his mask, crouching next to you. “How is he?”
“Stable.”
“Enough to move?”
You glance back down at Shisui. The wound is still bleeding, but it isn’t as deep. Still, he’ll need an actual hospital in order to survive the night.
“Yes.”
Itachi reaches down, heaving Shisui over his shoulder. A pained groan rumbles from his chest.
“Be gentle, ‘Tachi.”
Together, you tear through the trees, racing through the dark. The moon is hidden by heavy cloud cover tonight, casting the woods surrounding Konoha into pitch blackness.
“The Kumo nin?”
“Taken care of,” Itachi assures you.
You make it through the front gates of the Leaf village without issue, stopping only briefly to give your identification numbers.
When you arrive at the hospital, Shisui is immediately rushed into surgery. You watch them wheel his barely conscious body away on a gurney, until the medic nin disappear behind a pair of windowless double doors.
Your feet remain planted on the tile, lingering long after they’re gone. Your teeth sink into your lower lip, hard enough that blood begins to well onto your lip.
The shock of cool fingers grasping your hand draws you out of your worried spiral.
“You laid the groundwork,” Itachi murmurs softly. “Now we have to give them time.”
You nod, but concern is still twisting your stomach into knots.
What if he doesn’t make it? What if I didn’t do enough?
“Come,” he urges, tugging you toward the waiting room. “Let’s get some rest while we wait.”
—
Shisui opens his bleary eyes several hours later. The first thing he registers is Itachi, sitting in a wooden chair beside the bed. He’s still in his mission clothes, but his long, black hair is loose and free from its usual tie.
He’s leaning back with his arms crossed, looking bored. “Are you in pain?”
Shisui shakes his head. “Feels like I’m floating.”
“They gave you morphine.”
“Sick…guess that’s what happens when your guts fall out, huh?”
“Your guts were back in place before you even arrived.”
Shisui attempts to think past the fog of the medication. That’s right. You stopped him from bleeding out in the woods.
“Where is she?”
“Hm?”
“Y/n. Where is she?”
Itachi cranes his neck, directing him toward the other side of the room.
You’re curled up on the tiny couch in the corner, wrapped in a thin blanket and snoring softly.
Shisui feels a lump forming in his throat at the sight. Your hair is loose and splayed out around your sleeping face. Dark circles seem to have formed under your eyes. You look completely exhausted.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“She exerted herself to heal you.”
He frowns. “Why didn’t you take her home?”
Itachi’s eyes glint with amusement. “She refused to leave your side.”
Shisui’s mouth twists in frustration.
You’re always doing this, always saving him, as if your own life doesn’t even matter. You race into battle, diving headfirst into the chaos and working yourself to the brink of exhaustion with no thought to what it could cost you.
“She’s so stubborn.”
“Mm,” Itachi agrees. “Much like someone else I know, who ignored my orders and went after those Kumo nin anyway.”
Shisui reaches up, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly. “Sorry.”
“You endangered her too, you know.”
He huffs. “I tried to tell her to stay put.”
“You know she would follow you anywhere.”
Itachi fixes his cousin with an unimpressed stare. Moments like this often highlight the juxtaposition of their relationship. Itachi, despite being the younger cousin, always ends up scolding him for his lack of responsibility.
“But I suppose you’re lucky she did,” he continues. “Otherwise you’d have bled out before we even made it back to the village.”
“I owe her one.”
“You owe her many.”
“Yeah, alright. Guess I deserve that.”
He sits up and begins to push away the thin sheets covering his lower body. Itachi tilts his head, studying Shisui in the way a parent might study a mischievous toddler.
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m awake now. I’m getting out of here.”
“The medics wanted to keep you overnight for observation.”
“Sucks for them.”
“You’re still high.”
Shisui snorts. “I feel fine.”
As if to emphasize his point, he swings his legs over the edge of the stiff mattress.
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head, Itachi,” he says with a grin. “I’ll be back in the field by tomor-“
As his bare feet hit the tiled floor, Shisui swears someone tilts the world on its axis just to spite him. The dizziness crashes over him like a tidal wave, swift and powerful, as it knocks him off his feet.
Itachi sighs distantly as he falls flat on his face.
“Shisui?” That definitely isn’t Itachi’s voice. “You’re not supposed to be up!”
He rolls onto his back with a pained groan. You’re kneeling over him now, eyeing him with the cutest look. It seems to be a perfect mixture of worry and annoyance.
“Sorry.” He reaches up, rubbing at his head sheepishly. “Can’t stop falling for you, I guess.”
You roll your eyes, but you can’t hide the relief on your face. If Shisui is up to his usual antics, which often include flirting with anything that moves, that’s a good sign.
You reach up, running your fingers over the bump forming on his scalp. He sighs in contentment as your medical chakra weaves over his skin, dulling the throbbing pain.
“Y/n,” Itachi warns softly. “Don’t exert yourself any more than you have to.”
“Yeah. Really, I’m fine.”
But he finds himself leaning closer anyway, practically nuzzling your hand like an attention-starved cat. The feel of your chakra is familiar, soothing even.
Though he’d never admit it, Shisui sometimes feigns a headache so he can rest his head in your lap and do the same thing. He knows it’s wrong, but he can’t help it. It’s an addiction. You’re an addiction.
“Lay off, both of you,” you grumble. “I know my limits, unlike some people.”
Shisui flushes under your accusatory gaze.
“Hey! I had the guy until his two buddies showed up!”
“Save it,” you mutter, pulling your hand away. “If you ever do that again, I’m leaving your sorry ass for dead.”
“You’d never.” Shisui grins. “You love me too much.”
A blush blossoms onto your cheeks. He thinks it’s the prettiest thing he’s ever seen.
”Just get back in bed.”
“But-“
“Shisui,” you warn. Your voice has dropped to a low growl, and he gulps at the sound.
You can be scary when you want to be. You’re capable of scrambling his nerves. Of cutting off the blood flow in his legs.
He reluctantly sinks back down onto the mattress, folding his hands behind his head. At the same time, Itachi rises from the chair as his bedside.
“I still have to turn in the mission report.”
You frown. “Can’t it wait?”
“Not unless we want a disciplinary hearing in our future.”
“It’s fine,” Shisui chimes in. “We can spend some quality time together, just you and me.”
You roll your eyes, but you sink back down onto the couch nonetheless. Itachi leaves with a quick goodbye, and then you and Shisui are alone.
“You should rest.”
He raises an eyebrow. “You should rest. Itachi said you used up a lot of chakra healing me.”
You shrug. “I guess.”
Shisui’s dark brow furrows. The way he’s looking at you is so odd, more serious than you’ve ever seen him.
“You put my guts back together.”
“It was nothing.”
Shisui suddenly pushes himself up on the pillows.
“It wasn’t nothing. You saved my life.”
There’s an edge to his voice that you don’t quite understand.
“Do you have any idea how special that is?”
The only response you can give is a weak shake of your head. You would have done the same for any one of your teammates. That’s your job, as the medic.
“All of us, we pretty much do the same thing, right? Stab, kill, wake up and do it all over again the next day. But you…you can do something that no one else on the team can. You save people.”
“I guess I’ve never really seen it like that.”
“You have no idea how amazing you are,” he continues. “You’re fucking perfect.”
Your breath catches in your throat.
He’s suddenly too aware of the flush on your cheeks, of the startled, starry look in your eyes. That’s when Shisui realizes he’s said too much.
He reaches up, rubbing at the back of his neck as he lets out a forced chuckle.
“Sorry. I’m still high, I guess.”
You glance down at your sandals, growing redder by the second. “Right. You should sleep it off.”
He pauses as he takes in the slight downturn of your lips. He’s said the wrong thing. Again.
You rise from the couch and head for the door.
“Where are you going?” He asks.
His voice sounds small and soft, like a child’s. You flash him a reassuring smile, but it doesn’t quite meet your eyes.
“Just grabbing some tea. I’ll be back right back.”
Shisui settles onto the bed as you let the door fall shut behind you. He groans, pressing a lumpy pillow over his face to muffle the sound.
Shisui, for all his flirting and charisma, can never figure out the right way to tell you how he feels. Words slip out from time to time, but they’re never the right ones.
I’m never going to be able to tell her, he thinks miserably.
You’re his best friend. The most steady, consistent thing in his life other than Itachi, and he’s hopelessly in love with you.
Shisui settles back against the mattress and sighs.
One day, he swears to himself. One day I’ll find the right words.