Hey y'all. Here I am... with another new fic... influenced by Florence once more... (Florence Welsh owns my soul) Hope you enjoy!

Kagome exited the hospital, several events from the day haunting her. She had deep, heavy bags under her eyes. She stood outside of the entrance of the hospital for a few moments, looking up at the sky. The moon was large and beautiful, almost full. The miko wished she could appreciate the beauty of the night sky right now… she was too sullen and dead inside. Her mind was ringing with the sounds of that mother's sobs, the sight of the blood on her hands and the ringing of the heart monitor flatlining. She had done everything she could.. but… Tears welled in Kagome's eyes and she did her best to blink them away. She needed to get home before she could let her emotions take over.

Letting out a sigh, Kagome ran a hand over her face and made her way down the sidewalk. Her apartment wasn't too far away, she just had to go down a couple streets, though she could take two alleyways to make it quicker. She might take that option, now that she thought about it. She wanted to get home quickly so she could grieve in peace, thank the gods she didn't have another shift tomorrow. The sky began to darken then, causing her to look up. Clouds were beginning to roll in, and with a quick check of the weather app on her phone, it was due to rain soon. "Aw, shit." she grumbled. She had forgotten it was scheduled to rain tonight… she hadn't brought an umbrella with her. Well.. she supposed it was good she was already planning on taking the shorter route home.

The miko soon came across the alleyway she was looking for and quickly entered. This one was relatively short and led into a narrow side street. She kept a fast pace, not wanting to get caught in the rain that was to come, and eager to have some alone time where she could wallow. She walked along the side street for a while before turning into the last alleyway before she'd reach the street she lived on. This alley was quite a bit longer, and she'd be lying if she said she hadn't been somewhat scared going down it the first couple times at night. But nothing had ever happened, and it wasn't a shady area or anything as far as she knew, so she quickly got used to it and wasn't scared anymore.

As she turned the corner and started to enter the alleyway, she saw a figure sitting down and resting against a wall. She paused, a hint of fear trying to claw its way into her heart. She swallowed it down, steeling herself. It was probably just a drunk. She kept this in mind as she started her trek down the alley. She kept her eyes on the figure, not wanting to take her eyes off them. She didn't have much energy to work with, meaning she was limited on how much of her reiki she could wield in case this person was a threat. However, she reflexively flexed her right hand, just in case…

But as she drew closer, she realized that something was wrong. The light illuminating onto the figure revealed that this man was injured. He was curling in on himself and she could see the blood. Her heart started pounding as she broke out into a sprint, quickly approaching the man. At her hastened approach, the man turned his head to look at her, glaring. She heard a snarl come from him and only faltered for a moment before continuing her approach.

"Hey hey hey, it's alright. I'm a doctor." she said, holding her hands out in front of her, showing that she was no threat to him. As she came up next to him, she dropped to her knees beside him, not feeling the pain from said action as she was now in Go Mode™. It was then that she felt the aura of youki surrounding him, which made sense as to why he had snarled. She kept this information in mind as she coaxed the youkai to let her examine his injuries.

He looked her over skeptically, his icy blue eyes looking her up and down. As he tried to gauge whether or not to trust her, she took the time to look over what she could. The youkai had long black hair that was tied up into a ponytail, a disheveled one at that. He had some bruises on his face, one of his cheeks swollen. He was likely in a fist fight of some sort. Her eyes shifted down his body, noting that there were blood splatters near the collar of his shirt. As her eyes trailed further down, they widened at the sight of such a large blood stain near his abdomen. She couldn't see the injury itself, as he had his hand covering it. Was it a stab wound? A gunshot wound? Either way.. she didn't have any of her tools and this was an unsanitary environment. Her hand itched for her phone.

She pulled it out, unlocking it and getting ready to dial as she spoke. "Look, I think I'm going to have to call an ambulance or something. I know you're a youkai and all but that's a lot of blood and-" She had only managed to type in the first 1, having had trouble with thumbprint recognition when it was snatched out of her hand. Her eyebrows furrowed together in a mix of confusion and anger. "Hey! What the-"

"You're not callin' anybody." he snarled.

"Well I can't just leave you here to bleed out and die!" she snapped.

He laughed at that, but winced soon after, pressing tighter onto his wound. "I'm a youkai, lady. I'll be fine."

Kagome set her jaw, anger lighting a fire in her. "I don't care if you're a youkai or not. My job is to help people, and I don't care what you say, but this is bad!"

"Well I ain't goin' to a damn hospital." he snapped.

She rolled her eyes at that. "Fine, whatever. Just.. come on. I've got things laying around my apartment, I guess. Just.. let's hurry." she grumbled.

With that, Kagome got up and started to pull the youkai up as well. Seeing that he wasn't going to be able to change her mind, the youkai grumbled, handed her phone back, and helped her out the best he could. She told him to keep the pressure on his wound and he grumbled a bit under his breath, doing as she said. They then carried on their way out of the alley, keeping a slow pace so as not to jostle the youkai's wound too much. It took them a while to reach Kagome's apartment, the rain starting to come down in a drizzle as they approached the building. The trip up the stairs was…. a thing, and it took forever.

They eventually arrived at her door and she pulled out her keys and unlocked it. The two then shuffled inside and took their shoes off at the entrance. She helped him lean against the wall momentarily as she turned to close and lock the door. The youkai hissed in pain, wanting to remove his hand from the wound, but knowing it would be a bad idea to piss off the doctor taking care of him. With the door now locked, Kagome turned back to the youkai and led him into the living area. She sat him down on the floor, leaning him back against the wall before taking off.

Kagome rushed around the small apartment, gathering up all the items she could find that she knew she'd need. She then ran back into the living area, throwing everything down onto the table. She spread out several towels onto the floor and then started to organize her things on the table nearby. Once everything was all set up, she approached the youkai once again and helped him over to the small setup she had.

"I'm going to have to take off your shirt and jacket, okay? Does the shirt have any sentimental value to you or can I...?" Kagome mimicked a cutting motion with scissors using her hand.

The youkai rolled his eyes. "Snip away, I guess." he grumbled.

Kagome nodded and helped him slip off the leather jacket he had on, tossing it to the side. She would likely need to clean it; she wasn't sure if there was blood on it or not... With the jacket off, Kagome reached for the scissors on the table and snipped off his white T-shirt. She was shocked at what lay beneath. Tattoos. Intricately detailed tattoos depicting wolves, the moon, and lilies decorated the youkai's arms and part of his chest. Oh god dammit. I swear to GOD if this is what I think it is... Kagome did her best to erase this train of thought, quickly focusing her attention to the wound on the right side of the youkai's lower abdomen. She gave a quick warning to the youkai before moving his hand away to look at it.

As soon as the hand was removed, blood began to ooze out and she frowned. It looked to be like a deep stab wound, just as she had thought. She moved his hand back and got up to walk into the kitchen, washing her hands. "So, what happened? I need to know so I can give you the proper treatment." she said, scrubbing up to her elbows. She didn't have a brush to scrub properly, nor time to do the full 10 minutes, but she figured this would do. If he got an infection, she'd take him to the hospital, whether he liked it or not.

The youkai watched her thoughtfully. He still wasn't sure if he could trust her, but she hadn't done anything to hurt him. She was a miko too, a powerful one at that, so it would be easy for her to just purify him and get it over with. He let out a sigh and directed his gaze at the ceiling. "Let's just say I got into a fight with some people and one of them pulled out a knife." he said.

Kagome sighed and dried off her hands and arms with a couple of paper towels. Well, she would have to work with that, she supposed. "Did you see what kind of knife it was?" she asked, approaching the youkai once more, putting on some disposable gloves as she did so.

"No."

Of course not. She frowned and reached for one of the cloths she had laid out on the table. She grabbed a bottle of saline solution and poured some of it onto the cloth. The youkai was watching her every move, and honestly she couldn't blame him. "This is probably going to hurt, but I need to clean the wound." she said. He nodded and that's when she had him remove his hand. She took the bottle of the saline solution and poured some of it into the wound. The youkai below her hissed in pain, but she ignored it. She then reached with her cloth and began to clean the outside of the wound.

As she cleaned it, she frowned at seeing how deep it went. It was definitely a longer blade on the knife. Once it was as clean as it was gonna get, she put the cloth on top of the wound and pressed down on it, using one hand to rummage through her things on the table. "So.. what's your name?" she asked.

He raised an eyebrow at her question. "Kouga.."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Kouga. I'm Kagome and I'll-" she caught herself before she autopiloted into her usual speech when greeting a patient for the first time. She let out a sigh, giving her head a slight shake. "Sorry, I autopiloted there for a moment." That caused a chuckle to escape from Kouga. She smiled a bit and finally found the needle and thread she had been looking for. She got Kouga to apply pressure to his wound as she threaded the needle. "I apologize for not having anything to dull the pain for you… will you be able to handle it?" she asked.

He laughed at that, but winced shortly after. "Please, I think if I can handle getting stabbed then I can handle some stitches." he said, a wicked grin on his face.

Kagome chuckled, rolling her eyes. "Alright Mr. Tough Guy. You'd be surprised, though." she teased. Once she was ready, she removed his hand and the cloth and began to stitch him up. True to his word, he seemed to be handling it pretty well, almost as if he didn't really mind it. It surprised her a little.

"You don't have to answer.. but I'm curious." She paused, focusing on her stitching for a moment before asking her question. "Are you part of the yakuza?" she asked, her voice a whisper.

He was silent for several moments. "Yes." Kagome nodded, a slight frown on her face. He eyed her curiously. "Would you have still helped me if you had known from the beginning?" he asked.

"Yes." she replied without a single moment of hesitation. Kouga was surprised at her quick answer, eyebrows raised and eyes wide. "It's my job to help people. I don't really care who you are, no one deserves to suffer." She paused for a moment there. "Well… I mean.. there are some people that deserve to suffer I suppose, but you're not one of them." she said, giving him a small smile. He looked up at her, still in shock. She had gone back to focusing on her stitch work, but he couldn't take his eyes off her. He felt something stirring in him, but he didn't really know what it was.

Before too long, she had finished stitching up his wound and had taped down multiple pieces of gauze, the first layer being soaked in more of the saline solution. One she was done, she got up to take her gloves off and wash her hands, getting rid of the blood. "You're welcome to stay. In fact, I insist that you do so I can keep an eye on your wound. If it gets bad though, you better believe I'm taking you to the hospital." she called from the kitchen.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." he replied. Kouga was still laying down on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. He wasn't sure if he should move or not, waiting for her instructions on the matter. Once Kagome was done washing her hands, she entered the living area once more and helped Kouga off the floor and moved him to the couch.

"It's not much, but I can get you some blankets and pillows if you'd like." she offered. He nodded, and Kagome was gone again. He took this time to glance around her apartment. It was relatively small, though he supposed that was due to it being a one bedroom. One thing that confused him was how barren it was. Sure, there was furniture, but there was practically no personality anywhere. There were no plants, no pictures.. nothing. It was… sterile. Maybe her bedroom was more decorated.. or at least he hoped. How could anyone live in a space with no character?

The miko returned before too long, carrying several pillows and a dark blue blanket. She then proceeded to help prop him up with the pillows and once she was done with that, she placed the blanket over him. "Now, I'll probably be checking on you every few hours or so, mostly to see how the stitches are holding and if your wound needs redressing. I'll try my best not to wake you up, but I can't make any promises." she said with a small chuckle.

"Sounds good, doc." Kouga replied, smirking up at her. Kagome rolled her eyes, wished him a good night, then left the room. As soon as Kagome was in her room, she let out a sigh and leaned back against the door. Her exhaustion, along with the guilt and depression, hit her full force now that she was in the privacy of her room. She could feel tears welling in her eyes as her mind brought her back to earlier in the day. It felt like her heart was being squeezed and she brought a hand up to her chest to try and soothe the pain. Before she was too far gone, however, she pulled out her phone and set a timer to go off in 2 hours. She had a new patient to take care of, and she needed to stay on top of things.