Strawberry Milkshakes, Chunk 2
Disclaimer: Familiar characters, settings, events, and concepts all belong to Takeshi Konomi.
Note: Sorry the chunks of this aren't exactly cut into neat little chapters - as I mentioned, this started off as an extremely long one-shot. I'm guessing there are about two more chunks after this one.
Sanada might seem a little out of character in his tiny appearance here - it sort of depends on if you think he's a little more relaxed than usual around Yukimura or not.
After Yukimura got his breathing tube out, Sanada informed everyone that he didn't want any visitors for awhile. Yukimura not wanting visitors? That was a shock. Several of them protested, and although no one actually said anything it was obvious that feelings had been hurt, especially after everyone figured out that Sanada and Yanagi were still welcome.
"That's not fair!" Kirihara had risen from the bench where he was sitting, ready to kick something in frustration.
"I don't get it," Jackal confessed. "Yukimura doesn't seem like the kind of person to turn down visitors, especially now that he's doing better."
"It's kind of rude," Marui put in, snapping his gum.
"Just don't bother him," Sanada had finally responded rather testily after hearing everyone's complaints again. "He'll ask for everyone soon enough."
It wasn't until after Sanada left that Yanagi spoke up. "Yukimura can't talk very well yet," he explained. "I don't think he wants very many people to visit him until he can speak more clearly. It shouldn't be too long."
It was about a week. Yukimura was moved out of the ICU and into a regular room by then. With the breathing tube and ventilator gone, he looked a lot more normal. They had walked in and Marui was thrilled to see Yukimura sitting up in bed, smiling and talking with Sanada and Yanagi. Only the feeding tube in his nose was still taped to his face. He seemed tired, but he greeted all of them and thanked them for being patient.
"We should have a cake or something," Marui commented, "To celebrate, you know."
"They aren't letting me eat solid food yet," Yukimura said, looking serious. In fact, he almost looked sorry. Almost. They knew he was probably more sorry that he couldn't eat cake than he was about effectively preventing all the rest of them from celebrating with it.
"That's stupid," Kirihara huffed.
"Cake isn't a solid," Marui tried to reason. "It's more like a…squishy food. Yagyuu, what's that state between solids and liquids?"
"There really isn't one," Yagyuu answered, leaning against the wall slightly. "Cake is a solid."
"I could choke," Yukimura explained, although even Sanada and Yanagi knew that was a quest for everyone's attention. Yukimura probably didn't want some cake get getting more attention than he did. They were all silent for a moment, and then Yukimura smiled pleasantly. "You know what we should do? Why don't you all get ice cream? I can have a shake, like the one Marui brought me once. Maybe they'll even let me taste it this time."
Jackal and Marui agreed to fetch the snacks and dragged a protesting Kirihara along to carry things. By the time they returned from the McDonald's their ice creams were dribbling dangerously in the cardboard holder and Kirihara's hands were covered in vanilla and chocolate.
"My hands are still sticky!" Kirihara whined after wiping his hands off with several McDonald's napkins. He held his soggy ice cream cone in one hand and tried to lick up all the trickles of melted chocolate. "You gave me the crappy one!"
"I paid for yours, so don't complain!" Jackal bit off a piece of sugar cone.
Yanagi swallowed a lick of his vanilla ice cream before stating, "You're the only one who wanted a plain chocolate cone, Akaya. You'd get that one no matter what."
"I wanted a sundae!" Kirihara protested while dripping ice cream onto the floor. Sanada saw the mess but didn't say anything for the time being. He would eventually, Marui knew. Maybe Yukimura's hospital room floor wasn't as important to Sanada as the locker room tiles, but there was definitely no way Kirihara was going to get away with leaving chocolate dribbles there.
Marui ate his own cone with one hand while holding out the other hand to Kirihara. "I'll finish it for you if you want, Akaya."
"And I'll spit on a napkin and clean your face with it," Niou said, earning a nasty look from Kirihara and a frown from Yagyuu.
"Yukimura, that's a disgusting trick," Sanada commented dryly, holding his ice cream in one hand and Yukimura's shake in the other. At Sanada's comment everyone's attention shifted to their captain. Yukimura was quietly sipping some of his melting milkshake through a clear plastic straw while the rest of it went through the tube in his nose. The sight made Marui's stomach do a little flip flop, and from the looks on several of his teammates' faces he was sure he wasn't the only one getting that feeling.
"It's good," Yukimura paused to smile, almost laughing at their reactions. "Thank you for bringing it."
It took awhile for Yukimura to get rid of his feeding tube. They had assumed that after he was given permission to eat real food, he would enthusiastically scarf down the rice porridge and boiled vegetables that came on his tray. He usually ate at least some of it, Yanagi reported, but quit after a few bites and said he wasn't hungry. Marui had a hard time believing that because Yukimura had the skinny arms of a starving third world orphan at the time.
"He hasn't actually eaten food in over a month," Marui said while he and Jackal got off the bus near the hospital. "If I had to go that long without eating, I'd want to eat everything."
"You want to eat everything now," Jackal pointed out.
"You know what I mean!" Marui shoved the door to the hospital open. A whole month with no eating – it would be hell. Absolute hell. He'd have to make a list of foods to eat when he got better or something. How had Yukimura survived it? And why the heck didn't he want to eat like crazy now?
Coincidently, Yukimura had a tray of food in front of him when they arrived. He glanced up at them when they arrived, smiling a little and leaning away from the tray. "Hi Marui, Jackal."
"Hey, Yukimura," Marui returned, making his way to the bed to inspect the tray of food. He hadn't been exposed to much hospital food, but it didn't look as bad as he'd heard. He'd imagined piles of unidentifiable goop and dried out meat and rice, but the the stuff in front of Yukimura definitely looked edible. Definitely. Everything came in little dishes on a bright paper placemat – it looked like there was okayu with pickled ume and some kind of soup and carrot, along with fruit and a yogurt dessert. Yukimura hadn't touched any of it. The only thing he seemed remotely interested in was the three glasses with straws lined up in front of him. Marui picked up the dish of rice porridge. "This okayu looks kind of good."
"You can probably have it," Yukimura answered in between sips of milk. He brushed his fingers over the call light next to him on the bed. "I'll ask the nurse."
Marui caught Jackal's frown and quickly set the dish back down. "I don't want it, Yukimura! I meant that you should eat it because it looks good!" The truth was a little bit of both – Yukimura should eat the okayu and pickle, but if he really couldn't, it wasn't like Marui was going to turn it down. It would be a sin to throw away perfectly good pickled ume, after all, even if it was hospital ume.
"I'm not going to eat it," Yukimura shrugged a little and leaned forward so he could continue drinking his milk. When the nurse came in to find out what he wanted, he glanced towards Marui and Jackal. "Would it be all right for my friends to eat what's left on my tray?"
The nurse stepped over and glanced at all of the dishes. "Yukimura-kun, you didn't eat anything yet. If you can wait a little while, I'll come and help you."
"Really, I'm done," Yukimura shook his head. "I don't want any of it."
"There's yogurt." The nurse peeled the top off of the container and stirred it with the spoon on Yukimura's tray, but he shook his head when she held it out to him. Marui got the impression that Yukimura sometimes drove his nurses to desperation, because after trying to convince him to eat some of the okayu and the carrots the nurse finally sighed. "Yukimura-kun, your friends can have what's here, but I want you to drink a shake then."
"All right," Yukimura agreed, nodding. Marui almost let out a sigh of relief, because listening to Yukimura and his nurse fussing hadn't exactly been his idea of a nice visit. Jackal didn't seem to mind too much, but Jackal could put up with almost anything. Yukimura leaned back after the nurse left, tilting his head towards his tray a little. "You can go ahead and eat it now."
Jackal had to be offered the yogurt several times before he agreed to eat it, but Marui didn't even bother to politely refuse. He sat down on the side of Yukimura's bed and found the chopsticks on the tray. Yukimura's sadly rejected pickle was deliciously salty – maybe hospitals knew at least something about food. Unfortunately, the rest of the meal was less than fabulous: the okayu's consistency was all wrong, the carrots were too soft, and the few noodles in the soup were tasteless and sticky. Yukimura's nurse came back in just as Marui was searching through the noodles for another mushroom. She set a paper cup down on his tray, unwrapping a straw. "I'd like you to finish at least half of that, Yukimura-kun. Take as long as you need."
Marui leaned to look into the cup. The nurse's version of a strawberry shake seemed significantly different than Marui's. Significantly different in a sad, gross way. The stuff in the cup was a darker pink than a regular milkshake and it was rather melted and lumpy.
"Thank you," Yukimura said to the nurse, already leaning forward to sip on the straw. Marui resisted the urge to grab it away and dump it down the sink.
"That milkshake is all wrong," Marui critiqued after the nurse left, watching the level go steadily down as Yukimura continued to drink it.
Even Jackal seemed to think it was messed up enough to comment on. He tossed the empty yogurt container into the waste paper basket. "Marui and I will go and get you a real one if you want."
"They'd want me to drink this anyway," Yukimura said, taking a break. He swallowed whatever was left in his mouth and pushed his head back into the pillows behind him. "They mix Ensure into it. It's really not bad."
"Gross! No wonder it looked messed up." Marui picked up the cup off of Yukimura's tray and looked at the contents again. He swirled it around a little before setting it down again. "Even your hospital food is better than that stuff." If all they gave Yukimura was less than appetizing hospital food and Ensure-tainted milkshakes, then it was no huge surprise that he wasn't eating anything. The solution wasn't that difficult to determine. Marui slid off of the bed. "Tell you what. Next time we come, we'll bring you something really good. Jackal's mom makes really delicious coconut tapioca stuff. And – oh – there's this one place near the park that makes a soup with these soft dumplings that fall apart in your mouth."
Yukimura glanced at his disgusting shake and then at Marui. "I appreciate it, but…"
"It's not a problem," Marui interrupted, retrieving his coat. "I love picking out food. I'll find you something perfect; I promise."
"He will," Jackal put in as he pulled on his own coat. "He'll taste test it and everything."
Marui nodded and searched his coat pockets for gum. "Don't worry about it, Yukimura. I really want to do this. It'll be fun. And I promise it won't wreck my tennis or something stupid like that."
"All right, but only if it's no trouble." Yukimura finally nodded, watching as he and Jackal got ready to leave. "Thank you."
"No trouble at all," Marui grinned and headed for the door before looking over his shoulder at Jackal. "Do you think we have time to stop at that soup place?"
