Kido had broken her ankle.
It was a silly, stupid accident; she'd been running from Kano, who teased her relentlessly while shaking a frilly skirt in her direction, and she'd tried escaping out the front door. She'd been going to quick, however, and she slipped while darting down the stone stairs, nailing her shoulder on the railing and successfully twisting her ankle around to a painful position while she fell. Though she reassured the rest of the Dan that she was fine and that they didn't have enough money to take another trip to the hospital (there'd been a scare where Hibiya had fallen out of his window to get away from Momo; he'd only broken his arm, luckily, though he still wore the cast with a grumpy expression plastered on his face at all times), they still took her there. And now she had a stupid cast on, shielding her cleanly broken bone. How wonderful.
"That dumbass," Kido grumbled, lazily flipping through the channels on the TV in the base's living room. Shintaro sat beside her on the beat-up sofa, eyes half-shut with a can of Coca Cola in hand. The majority of the Dan was out elsewhere, with it being such a bright and sunny day; Momo had dragged Hibiya out to a park and Konoha had tagged along, and Seto had promised Mary to a picnic. Kano was off who knows where (and he was smart enough not to stay in the base, because if Kido laid her eyes on him, she'd get up and snap his neck even with the throbbing pain in her ankle), Ene had gone into Momo's phone, and so it was just herself and Shintaro. Alone.
"It kind of was your fault, though," Shintaro mumbled tiredly. Kido shot a venomous glare at him. He yawned and leaned over to where his head lay on Kido's tense shoulder. "You didn't have to be so overdramatic…"
"Get off of me," she huffed, tempted to throw the TV remote at the former NEET's head. He reeked of soda and artificial sweets, an unnatural scent she wasn't used to that made her feel dizzy. "You should probably go take a shower. You smell horrible."
"You don't like soda? How are you human?" He chuckled lightly, but abruptly stopped when his eyes landed on a red marker on the floor. It was surrounded by other packs of crayons and sharpies, all from Mary's collection whenever she liked to doodle and mess around with them in her abundant spare time. Kido arched an eyebrow, but said nothing as the boy darted off the couch and snatched it from the tiled floor.
"I'll sign your cast for you," Shintaro said happily. Kido blinked.
"No."
"Why not?" He shot her one of his awkward, creepy smiles as he made his way back to her, snapping the cap off and tossing it away carelessly. He bent down on the floor and poised the marker above Kido's ankle. She kicked his cheek with her uninjured leg.
"I said no," she muttered. "You'll probably write something stupid." He laughed quietly.
"Exactly." And before she could wriggle away or kick him again, he began signing his name on her cast. She blushed heavily, but did nothing as he scribbled across the white cast.
"Stupid," she mumbled, looking away with a red face. He hummed as he wrote more on her cast, and she was horrified when she looked at it again. Small, crudely drawn red hearts adorned it, all surrounding Shintaro's sloppy signature. Kido raised her hand to slap him.
"Hey!" He raised his arms in defense, though he cringed at her raised hand. "…They'd find out about us anyway. And if anyone asks, you can say it's a joke."
"That's not the point." She sighed and ran her fingers through her green hair, praying that the redness on her face was fading away by now. She knew it wasn't, deep down, because she could feel Shintaro eyeing her victoriously. "…You're a dumb dork." She smiled gently to herself when he clambered back up onto the couch and lay down on her side, wrapping his arm around her form and pressing a kiss to her cheek.
"I'm your dork, though. You can't ever resist this NEET."
"If you don't shut up, you'll be a dead dork."