Summary: Fai passes out in the subway, is sent to the hospital, and is diagnosed. The doctor wants to run a retest.
Warnings: Yaoi pairings. KUROFAI! Hospitals, a bit of humor and a bit of angst. Fai being Fai (and hiding things from everyone else). Kurogane being Kurogane (meaning that there will be swearing. Like duh.) Fluff interspersed. THIS IS NOT DEATH-FIC. FAI GETS BETTER.
A/N: This was in response to a prompt given to me by a friend, which is "Fai gets cancer. BUT DOESN'T DIE PLEASE!".
It was a nice world, albeit an expensive one, that they'd landed in this time. The sea could be easily seen from their hotel room, and the sun seemed to be perpetually shining. When they had dumped a load of some of the money they had collected from previous worlds onto the front desk, the receptionist had taken a step back, eyes widening at all the unfamiliar currency. Coincidentally, (or perhaps it was hitsuzen) the clerk seemed to recognize the leftover bag of notes they'd gotten from Watanuki the last time they landed in his shop, and offered to exchange it into the standard currency of the country they were in. ("See, this is yen. You can't use it here, you can only use it in Japan. This is a whole other country altogether.")
Outside, there was a complex maze of tarred roads, concrete pavements, and flashing traffic lights. The clerk had come out from behind the front desk and stood at the doorways of the automatic sliding glass doors as he gestured down the busy main road, saying something about buses, trains, and public transport. He had thrusted a handful of coins into their hands from his own wallet—together with a stack of bills from the front desk that he had 'converted' from the 'yen' they had given him—noticing that they didn't have any small change to spend.
"Here, I'm sure you can read it," he said, looking nervously over his shoulder as he separated a coin from the others with his forefinger, "See, this is a dollar, you can see the one written on it, can't you? The train fare's two dollars each. So you'll need...one, two, three, four, five, six coins. The station's right down the road, if you get lost you can ask for directions."
And then he was scrambling back behind the front desk, eying the manager who was entertaining a wildly gesticulating couple on the other side of the lobby, as he apologized to the man next in long line for the wait.
They had then wandered out of the doors and down the road, looking rather lost until a brown-haired woman in a ruffled blouse and a pencil skirt had emerged from one of the towering skyscrapers, texting busily away on her mobile phone, stilettos clicking loud and fast against the pavement. After a short conversation, she directed them towards the nearest train station, right smack in the middle of all the concrete and glass skyscrapers. It wasn't like the train stations in Lecourt or some of the other worlds they had been to, it was more like the ones in Watanuki's world. It burrowed down underground, and the train shot down a long tunnel, snaking under the bustling city above them.
There had been a row of automated barriers that slammed shut when they attempted to get past it, and made loud beeping noises when they tried to follow another man in. Finally, a bemused staff member emerged from inside a little hut by the barriers and help them purchase a ticket from one of the machines against the wall. The people milling about were pretty nice, readily and politely offering directions when asked, and always willing to redirect them to someone else when they couldn't help. The weather was pleasant—as they noticed when the train emerged from the underground tunnel into the open—and the environment perfectly amiable.
Yet, Kurogane still could not get rid of the dread lingering from that morning. Fai seemed alright, laughing and pointing out of the window with childish excitement, if not a little paler than usual. When he had pointed that out, the blonde had waved his concern off, saying that he was imagining things. But by the time they had missed lunch because they'd gotten lost, and had to ask someone how to get back to the hotel (they had showed her the card with the hotel's address that they'd gotten from the front desk) Kurogane was certain that he wasn't imagining things. Fai seemed to be getting paler and paler despite the bright smile on his face, and he was beginning to pant slightly, which was strange for a man who could run up walls and swing himself through the air as if it were normal to defy gravity the way he did.
"Mage," he called as they exited the train, straining to catch hold of the wizard's arm as they were jostled about by the large crowd, "You should sit down for awhile."
Syaoran was making an abysmal attempt to keep his concern hidden, and Mokona made a miserable noise of concern from under his bag flap, because 'no pets were allowed on the stations and trains'.
"I'm perfectly fine," Fai mumbled breathlessly, paling further even as he said it, "You worry too mu—"
He slumped to the floor at the doorway amidst loud cries of shock and concern.
They had been rushed to a nearby hospital by the station's medical staff, who apparently were there to deal with these sort of happenings. According to them, people commonly fell down the moving stairs (they were called 'escalators') and broke their limbs.
The doctor was strictly professional, speaking with confusing medical terminologies that Kurogane couldn't really understand although Fai—who had woken up as a nurse had stuck a needle in his arm and left it in there—was nodding away in the bed with a serious look on his face, practically drowning in the blue hospital gown the nurses had changed him into. The needle was still stuck in his arm, a transparent tube attached to it that led up to a bag hanging from a metal stand by the side of the bed.
They'd run a series of tests while Fai had been unconscious, and Kurogane was surprised by the speed which the results were back.
"...anemia, and proteinuria. We'll have you do an ultrasound scan just to confirm that there isn't anything seriously wrong, and if there isn't then you should be out by tomorrow," the doctor squinted at the clipboard at the bottom of Fai's bed, "Any medical condition I should know about?"
"Eh?" Fai said, "I don't think so?"
"Ah," the doctor said, writing down something and checking his watch, "Alright then. I should be going. I have a surgery to perform at three. The nurses should bring you to get your ultrasound done at about five."
And with that the doctor was gone.
Kurogane turned to the blonde as soon as that long white coat vanished around the doorway of the ward.
"What the hell did he say?"
Fai shrugged.
"No idea."
"But you were nodding!"
"That doesn't mean that I was actually listening to him, Kuro-silly."
A nurse giggled from the doorway, looking sheepish as they all started and turned to look at her.
"Sorry," she said, "I brought lunch. A very late lunch."
She pushed in a cart, with strangely only two plates.
"No food before scanning. Sorry, Mister err..." she quickly checked the clipboard, "Flourite."
"Fai's fine," Fai insisted with a dazzling grin.
"Alright then, Fai-san. I'm Kobato," the young woman told him, hands entwined sweetly in front of her, "As for what the doctor said..."
The nurse ducked down and read the clipboard with a small frown of concentration on her face.
"Anemia," she announced, "like low blood levels. High BUN, meaning there's excess urea in your blood, and also proteinuria, meaning protein in urine. Could be indicative of a problem with your kidneys so...Ah!"
She straightened up and smiled sweetly at them.
"You'll be going for a scan at five, to see if there's something wrong with your kidneys."
Some of the brunette's explanatin still flew right through his head, but it was better than the doctor's, and Kurogane sort of appreciated the effort anyway. The girl was a lot like Sakura. She hooked a bag onto the metal stand and attached the tube coming out of Fai's arm to it.
"Glucose," she explained, "like liquid food, injected straight into you so that you don't have to eat."
She smiled a close-eyed smile at them one last time, then wheeled her tray over to the next bed, chatting animately to the patient.
Another male nurse, in the very likeness of Sakura's brother, brought a wheelchair at five. Fai had shot him a bemused look as he stood from the bed unaided, leaving the book he had been reading on the bedside table. The front cover read: 'The Wizard of Oz'.
"I can walk fine?"
The nurse shrugged offhandedly.
"Protocol," Touya explained drily, "a lot of this is protocol. Which is shit because most of the time people coming here don't have anything seriously wrong with them, but the doctors order CT scans and charge patients an arm and a leg for having them diagnose that there isn't anything wrong with them."
"We have to pay?"
The youth looked at them incredulously as he directed Fai to wheel the metal stand along as he walked, pushing the unoccupied wheelchair beside him as they left the ward.
"Of course you have you pay," he scoffed, "There's no free lunch here."
Fai frowned, an almost unnoticeable straining of lines, and lowered his gaze to the floor thoughtfully. Anybody else wouldn't have noticed the frown, but Kurogane was far from anybody else. He'd watched the mage's face enough that he knew his subtle tells like the back of his hand. In fact, he probably knew Fai's face even better than the back of his hand. The back of his hand was far more uninteresting that Fai's face. Not that he thought Fai was good-looking or anything! Kurogane's eyes were drawn inexplicably to the elegant sweep of his lowered lashes over slightly freckled cheeks, the delicate hollow of his cheek, angled jaw, long nose...
Okay. So Fai was gorgeous, happy? Kurogane was a man who knew how to appreciate aesthetics (A voice that sounded disturbingly like Tomoyo began to disagree in his head. He ignored it), and if he watched the damn idiot more often than most, it was with the same attitude as a critic reviewing a piece of art. That was all.
"Kuro-chi is staring at me again."
Kurogane spluttered. Again? There was no again! This was a one-off thing; he had better things to do than stare at Fai. And if he stared, it purely because he knew how to appreciate aesthetics! (The Tomoyo-sounding voice continued to disagree. He continued to ignore it.)
"It's because you're frowning like it's the end of the world or something!" he yelled defensively, scowling as several nurses popped their heads out of the nearby wards to shush him disapprovingly.
"Kuro-drama is exaggerating," Fai teased. At Kurogane's prompting cock of an eyebrow (go on, out with it), the glitter in his eyes subsided somewhat. He looked down again with an almost self-deprecating smile, "It's just... we don't have enough money for this, Kuro-sama."
Kurogane knocked him upside the head, lightly, affectionately. Fai's new truthfulness was refreshing; he felt the corner of his lips lift up despite himself. Fai flashed a smile in return, a sweet one that crinkled his eyes at the corner, and his blue eyes shine with a gentle twinkle. Before the ninja could reply, Sakura's brother made a sharp turn into a lift lobby, leading them into the lift. Kurogane didn't like lifts. They made his ears pop and his stomach lurch unpleasantly, and whenever the doors opened again they weren't in the same place anymore. He turned and told Fai so, and the blonde's eyes positively gleamed with mirth as the doors began to slide open.
"Kuro-puppy," he called as he started to wheel the metal stand out along with him, looking very much amused, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
Kurogane and Syaoran just stared blankly as the mage and their nurse broke down into raucous laughter.
"Well, you seem to be missing something important here," the doctor said, pursing his lips as the ultrasound appeared on the screen, "Care to tell me why you didn't inform me of this?"
"Missing something?" Kurogane exploded.
"A kidney," the doctor elaborated, "Your friend is missing a kidney."
"Oh!" Fai said suddenly, blue eyes widening as understanding lit his face, "I'd forgotten about that."
"Forgotten?" Kurogane spluttered incredulously, "How do you forget about something like that?"
"Well, you know, Kuro-youngling," Fai said breezily, "When you're as old as I am, you tend to forget little things like that."
"Little?"
The doctor looked a cross between amused and disapproving as their familiar banter ensued.
"Erm, doctor..." called a radiologist tentatively, staring intently at the screen, "I think you should look at this."
Syaoran moved around the bed to gaze curiously over the doctor's shoulder at the blurry screen as the two adults continued arguing in the background. The doctor and the radiologists were speaking in low voices, gesturing towards a spot on the screen. The boy made a shushing motion towards his companions, trying to listen in on the quiet conversation happening in front of him.
"Is there something wrong, doctor?"
The doctor looked solemn as he turned to face them.
"An abnormal growth has been discovered in your kidneys. It might be cancerous, we cannot be certain yet. We are going to run a kidney biopsy to determine the nature of the abnormality. Is that alright with you?"
Fai blinked.
"Erm," he began tentatively, "Sure?"
They had later wheeled Fai into a room that smelled strongly of sterilizers, despite his protests that he could walk perfectly fine, thank you very much. The blonde had quietened as the doctor whipped out a long, thick needle, blue eyes widening.
"Nuh uh," he had said, backing away, eyes wider than Kurogane had ever seen them, "There is no way you are putting that in me. It's too big. It won't fit. It'll hurt."
Kurogane pointedly did not think dirty thoughts.
The results came first thing in the morning, even though the doctor had said it would probably arrive earliest the night after.
"Possibly cancer," he has said, looking mightily bewildered, "exponential cell growth, but cell structure unlike anything I've ever seen before."
"Possibly?" Kurogane repeated, "How about either a yes or a no?"
"It's the strangest thing I've seen in my life," the doctor all but exploded into a long rant that they understood less than half of, "I had some other pathologists come from other hospitals to take a look at the tissue sample."
The three travelers exchanged bemused glances as the previously composed doctor ranted and gesticulated wildly.
"It was growing. In front of my eyes! No, it must be a lab error, I—we just don't know what to make of it!"
"So," interrupted Fai, "Am I gonna die?"
The doctor froze mid-rant.
"If the presumably cancerous tumor continues to grow at its current rate," began the doctor carefully, "there is a high chance of mortality."
The room was silent.
"But of course, we can attempt to prevent further spread of growth," the doctor added so hastily that Kurogane wondered what their faces must have looked like at that moment, "In fact, it might just be a lab error. It is unlikely for such rapid growth to occur naturally... or even unnaturally for that matter."
"So what are we going to do now?" asked Syaoran in a small voice.
The doctor paused.
"If you haven't eaten breakfast, we are going to perform another biopsy in fifteen minutes, just to make sure there is no error with the sample we took the last time. I will tell the lab that this is an emergency, so the results should be in by this afternoon. Then we'll decide what to do from there."
That somehow didn't sound very reassuring.
A/N: Gahhh! Thank you for the reviews! (Is it just me or do I have this strange thing for writing Kurogane-in-denial?) I'm sorry I haven't replied yet (to those to left signed reviews) but school really has been busy! I'll get around to doing it right after posting this. And to misere I only have this to say. IT'S TIME TO ENABLE YOUR PM SO THAT I CAN THANK YOU FOR YOUR WONDERFUL REVIEWS. (Your review on The Stroke of Midnight? That made. my. day. This is me (/`A`)/ worshipping you (_`A`)_ ) And the amount of faves I've gotten makes me want to jump off a building. (not in a bad way, but in a freaking good way) YOU PEOPLE FAVED A PROLOGUE? *faints* I don't know if I'll live up to your faves in the following chapters. OTL Anyway, the chapters will all be pretty short, because if I go ahead and do my usual 7k words per chapter, then I'll never get around to posting chapters up. School really is hectic, sigh. Sorry if there's mistakes, or if the language isn't flowy. I haven't really had that much time to do as much editing as I generally do.
OH! And lastly, thank you all those people who've been like reviewing every single one of my stories. It's good to see you people again ^^. I WILL ADD OIL (chinese direct translation: jia you, sort of like ganbatte) TO UPDATE *u*b.
Reviewers are my inspiration, so REVIEW!