lucetilogs | THE DEBT OF HOT CHOCOLATE

THE DEBT OF HOT CHOCOLATE

Who: Inugami Kotarou, any sparring partners? and any other people. [Whoever he hits/nearly hits is more than welcome to smack back. Just don't kill him.]
What: Stumbling on an almost-comatose Kotarou-kun.
When: Snow event. Very late in the night. [time skip - many hours from his last journal post.]
Where: Deep in the forest, where there's a small bit of a clearing.
Summary: After a fight, Kotarou wakes up deep in the forest, injured--but he is soon stumbled upon.
Rating: PG?

Weakly, Inugami Kotarou opened his eyes, hazily checking his surroundings. Considering he had been lying face-down in the snow for a while, he found that it was best to wipe all the cold snow and icy water off his face before proceeding with any movements. He looked around carefully, calling out the name of the ~~girl~~ vampire that had forced him to this sad defeat. After a while of no sound, he dragged himself up to rest against the side of the tree closest to him, wincing, breathing shallowly.

Kotarou's back was tingling unpleasantly, and he almost gave up moving. The last hit inflicted on his battered body had to be what knocked him unconscious. He could barely jerk his limbs, but at least the sensation was fading slightly as time passed, granting him some movement. His clothes were soaked with blood and moisture, and Kotarou rubbed his eyes tiredly, wiping off the cut on his cheek. Both his arm and face were bleeding, and every inch of him was burning with pain and aching terribly.... Kotarou pushed himself off the tree and tried to begin his miserable hike back towards the village.

When he stood, however, he fell immediately back on the ground, a yelp cutting through the forest's silence, scaring a solitary bird overhead. Sneezing, Kotarou groaned, spitting out a bit of blood onto an already-bloodstained area snow.

My leg is b-broken. Shit, I'm not gonna be a-able to get back...I'm gonna freeze, I'm gonna freeze, I'm--

With those horrible thoughts in his mind, Kotarou rubbed his eyes again, trying to get the blood to stop dripping into his eye, before he heard a soft noise.

He hadn't expected to be able to rise again, but somehow he flung himself up off the ground, springing forward on his good leg. Aiming towards the figure at the source of the sound, Kotarou drew back his injured arm and slammed his fist forward into the face of his unknown opponent.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Worried about Kotarou after he took quite a while returning (and fed up with trying to sleep), Sheena had left her house quietly, borrowing Julia's coat with a silent apology to the woman, who was asleep. She had followed his likely path - the snow had tapered off a bit, so there was evidence still to follow - and wound up in the forest.

Hearing a scream, she'd followed the sound until she came across the very person she was looking for. She must have made some kind of noise herself, though, because suddenly a fist flew at her face.

Sheena dodged, barely. She caught the hanyou by his shoulder and turned him to face her. "What're you doing?"

Kotarou only yelped again when the hand gripped his shoulder, not hearing the words at all. The pain felt magnified beyond belief, and he instinctively flailed his arms and attacked again in an attempt to escape. Wriggling quickly out of Sheena's hold, Kotarou backed swiftly away with a hiss, stumbling once on ice once again. He didn't stop retreating, however, until he was a safe distance away from Sheena. Quivering both from cold and pain, he uttered a low bark, eyes narrowed.

Only after a long time of silence did he stop and shake his head in bewilderment, managing a trembling smile of disbelief as he rubbed his eye again.

"I-Is that you, S-Sheena-neesan?"

With the words said, Kotarou promptly toppled over with a cry as he shifted a small bit of his weight onto the wrong leg, hands flying to claw at his broken leg.

One of Kotarou's flailing fists caught Sheena in the eye, but she ignored it in favor of backing up, placing some distance between them. From the way he held himself, and how he acted, he was either seriously hurt or a really good liar. Glancing down, Sheena caught sight of the hue of the nearby snow.

The former, then.

"Of course it's me!" She took a few steps closer to him again, holding out a hand to help him up. "You kinda never came back."

"...what?" Hesitating, Kotarou glanced at his sticky hands, muttering an apology for the mess before accepting the hand with a wince. "Oh. I promised you two hot chocolate too...I'm sorry--!"

His gaze suddenly fell on Sheena's eye, and Kotarou's own eyes (or at least, the one that could open properly) widened in horror as he slackened his grip of Sheena's hand.

"Shit--I-I hit you?"

Sheena winced, too, at what she saw now that he was close enough to see clearly. Something really had thrashed him...and then left him here. She didn't know what that thing was...but the surrounding forest suddenly seemed much less peaceful.

"Never mind, it's no big deal. What happened to you? How bad are you hurt?"

Looking ready to kill himself, Kotarou gulped, stare fixed on the floor as he carefully balanced on one shaking leg, clenching his jaw.

"I-I'm gonna have a heck of a time trying to get out of here with my...," he stopped to catch a breath of air, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. "My stupid, stupid legs, and.... Why are you out here?"

"Looking for you." There was no sense making up some kind of excuse, especially now that she'd found him. "You've been gone for hours."

She was starting to think it might not have been the best idea to come alone, though. Already the burst of energy that had gotten her out of the house and here was fading, and she started to shiver despite wearing the coat. She could feel her focus wavering, too, and forced herself to ignore it. There were more important things to deal with right now.

"What did this to you, Kotarou?"

"I have? Oh--right. But, still, you're sick, and--"

Sneezing, he brushed a little bit of some remaining water off his face, wiggling his ears.

"It's cold outside. We should get back..."

Exactly how they would manage that, he wasn't sure. Grimacing, he rubbed at his back, wanting to fall back down and go to sleep instead. Sleep...Kotarou could feel his eyelids droop slightly as the cold burned his eyes and skin.

"Yeah, we should. ...I'm not gonna be able to do that if you fall asleep," she added, louder, to get his attention. "You hurt your leg, obviously, but if you can stay with it enough to use the other one we can be back to the village pretty quick."

He couldn't fall asleep. It was too risky, and Sheena didn't know if she'd be able to carry him back.

At the raised volume, Kotarou amazed himself to find that he had leaned a bit onto Sheena, already dozing. Hastily pulling away, he rubbed his arms, staring out at the trees ahead.

"Oh, right!"

Gritting his teeth, he took a wobbly step forward before blinking slowly at Sheena, still sleepy, ""

With another silent apology to Julia, Sheena shrugged off the borrowed coat and put it over Kotarou's shoulders. Trying not to injure him further, she put one arm around his shoulders as well, allowing him to lean against her if he needed to while they walked.

She had already given some thought to where they might go, once they got back to the village. Itsuki was currently using the boy's bed, after all. Added to that was his condition; Sheena had some experience dealing with minor injuries, but Kotarou had been seriously thrashed. ...She'd have to think of something.

"How's that?"

"I'm fine, you shouldn't give me the jacket--I'm gonna bleed all over it...but thanks anyways."

Wincing at every movement he made, Kotarou's fingers tightened around his hold of Sheena's shirt, eyes half-lidded. After a while, his head began to fall forward again, and though he forced his leg to keep hobbling, he began to cling closer to Sheena, stifling a yawn.

"Yeah, well, I'll wash it then."

As they walked, she felt him shift to lean against her more, and she heard his yawn. Of course he was tired - he'd been beaten up and left out in the cold for a few hours - but she couldn't let him fall asleep.

The chill of the night made her shiver even worse now, and she was running out of energy pretty quickly.

"You still didn't tell me how you ended up like this," she said with a gentle nudge.

Even though he felt guilty, Kotarou couldn't help but snuggling into the coat, deciding to walk along with his eyes closed. As long as he was walking by Sheena, he wouldn't walk into a tree, Kotarou figured.

"I...it was just a fight."

At least the pain was going away a bit. Sucking absently on his bottom lip as he held onto Sheena, he mumbled out a weak, ""

"Huh?" She stopped walking, turning a bit so she faced him. "What do you mean? We can't just stop out here, we'll both freeze."

Not for the first time in the past few days, Sheena found herself wishing for her summoning abilities. With them she could have at least done something, made it warmer or gotten them back faster. By herself, she felt pretty powerless.

"We don't have that much farther to go."

"Darn," he wrinkled his nose, blowing on his fingers. Kotarou resumed his plodding and hobbling, trying not to slip on ice, but not really looking where he was walking either.

Maybe he could use kanka or something of the sort. After a few tries, Kotarou stopped, shivering.

Stupid Luceti, stupid Filial magic limits, stupid Malnosso--

At least, his hands were a bit warmer from him straining to accomplish his goal, though, admittedly, not by much. Deciding to chatter away to keep himself awake, he tugged on Sheena's arm, smiling slightly.

"Y'know, once, Negi and I were put in this really cold snowy place for a week, a-and we still passed the stupid test without dying. Wish I could..."

"You wish you could what?"

The snow was picking up again, Sheena noticed. She didn't say anything, though; perhaps if she ignored it, pretended she didn't know, it would go away. She took a breath, and the combination of cold air and her condition caused her to start coughing. She stopped walking until the coughing subsided.

Truthfully, Sheena could feel herself losing it. Every step was shaky, now, and her face and fingers were numb.

"Summoning, transformation, kanka, ki, maybe magic. Even if we both nearly died last time. Just anything would be...Nee-san? H-hey!"

Hastily, Kotarou dropped his grip on Sheena, pulling off the coat and tugging it over the girl. He helplessly patted her back to see if it would help with the coughing, pressing his (hopefully still somewhat warm) hand against her forehead.

"You're sick..."

Catching her breath, Sheena looked at Kotarou, almost deadpan. "Yeah, I noticed." She handed him back the coat, shaking her head. "You kinda need it more than I do."

Something about what he said caught her interest, though. "...Summoning? Someone else can...do that?"

He held the coat uselessly in his hands, mouth open to refuse, before biting his lip and slipping back into the coat. As much as he wanted to hand it back, Kotarou found himself longing for whatever warmth was in it.

"I'm an inugami-tsukai, which basically means I can summon, use, and command those dog-gods. They're kinda cute~ "

"Huh. I didn't know there were summoners on other worlds."

She started walking again, still holding onto Kotarou's shoulders so he didn't stumble. Now that she was sure they were close to the village, she would need to think of somewhere she could take him.

"I'm fine," she insisted, though her appearance and constant shivering said otherwise. "Do you know anyone who could heal you, Kotarou?"

"Really? I've seen a few people do demon summons, shikigami summons, and then there were other types like spirits.... Most of those people aren't specifically summoners too. More like magic-users."

Sniffling, he tilted his head back slightly to watch her.

"Not really, actually. Can't I just go home? I gotta make that hot chocolate I promised you two."

"You can't just go home with injuries like that!" Sheena coughed again, but brought it under control quickly. The arm that wasn't around Kotarou clutched her stomach, though she continued to walk as though nothing was happening. "And the hot chocolate isn't that important right now. Really. Itsuki can live--"

She stumbled, whether on ice or just from exhaustion, somehow maintaining her balance and not toppling them both into the snow.

"...without it."

"B-but I'm fine, and I promised--careful! W-we're almost there, right?"

Kotarou's hand squeezed Sheena's arm anxiously, wide eyes watching her face. If the girl got hurt again, the entire thing would be his fault for making her go after him.

""

"Your leg's broken, isn't it? That's not fine." She looked at him again, shaking her head. "Not to mention the rest of you. Can you even see out of that other eye?"

She ignored his muttered comments, for the moment. She knew she shouldn't be there either, but there was no use dwelling on that now.

"We're almost there. I just...can't think of anywhere for us to go."

"Yes. ...Well, um, actually, I haven't tried. I don't wanna have anyone poking around at me."

The next words almost horrified him. Here he thought that he could just go home and sleep, but.... Kotarou let out a sigh, scraping some of the blood off his face.

"That's the village there, right?"

"Yeah, I think so. Nowhere else around here'd have lights like that."

She could pick out the two taller community housing buildings, as well as the houses she knew near the river. ...That gave her an idea.

"I know where we can go. We can't just leave you hurt like that, Kotarou."

"Where are we going?"

He stopped in mid-scrape, blinking around him. To him, he couldn't find anywhere to go besides into the community housing building. The stinging in his body was wearing off, but his fatigue was increasing instead. Yawning, Kotarou squeezed his eyes shut, pushing his palms tiredly against them.

"To that clinic that a couple people opened. ...It's the only place I can think of."

Anything else she might have said was cut off by another burst of coughing. She actually dropped to one knee this time; even when it stopped, she didn't stand back up right away. When she finally did get up again, she was visibly shaking.

"C-Come on, let's go."

The coughing startled him again, but all Kotarou was capable of doing was helplessly patting her back, face twisted in worry.

"Yeah. We should hurry..."

Trying not to put as much weight on Sheena this time, Kotarou managed a weak smile that was obviously supposed to show encouragement.

"We gotta keep going, and it's just a little bit off..."

"I-It's on the other side of the village from here."

They passed the first few silent houses, their occupants probably long asleep. The village seemed incalculably larger, somehow, now that they had to walk through the entire thing. Still, they were close. They could make it.

And then maybe she could go home and sleep.

"We'll be fine."

Even so, he could hear the uncertainty in his voice and he anxiously tugged on a strand of hair. Though, after a while, Kotarou's eyes dropped shut, and he was past worrying, instead just walking and trying to sleep at the same time.

We're almost there, we're almost there, we're almost there...

Before Kotarou knew it himself, he was asleep, forgetting all about trying to stay awake to avoid other dangers.

She felt Kotarou slump against her before she really knew what had happened. She caught him before he could slide down into the snow, at least.

He's asleep...and it'll just take time to wake him up again. I hope you're not really heavy, kid.

With that thought, and yet another silent apology (though to whom, she wasn't sure), she carefully picked Kotarou up front-style, one arm around his shoulders and the other under his knees.

And that was how they would arrive at the clinic door, barring any unforseen events.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

THE DEBT OF HOT CHOCOLATE

Sheena's breaking all sorts of rules but...

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject