Summary: There is no lab error. A government official offers sponsorship on the condition that Fai allows them to study him for a possible mutations of the disease. Fai accepts on the condition that they get a better ward. Kurogane is not happy.
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!".
The time seemed to trickle by, like an hourglass, except grain by small grain of the finest sand at a time.
The ward had been mostly quiet until they had come; shouting, snarling, and Fai's melodious laughter filling the room. But now, it was so silent once again that the other patients and nurses were glancing concernedly over at them. Syaoran was huddled in a small plastic chair in between Fai's bed and the window looking out into the hospital's garden, a miserably small splatter of green within the prison of the white hospital walls. Kurogane was leaning against said window with his arms folded across his chest, not meeting their eyes. Mokona had come out of hiding, because none of them were in any state to care who saw her anymore, and was cuddled up in Fai's lap, whispering softly to him. 'The Wizard of Oz' lay forgotten beside a pitcher of water on the bedside table.
When the doctor walked in, all heads turned towards him; the nurses because normally the doctor only came to the wards twice a day, at designated hours. It was not the designated hour. The travelers because they were expecting the results of Fai's 'biopsy'. And the rest of the patients because that was where everyone was looking. The doctor faltered momentarily at the doorway, looking visibly unnerved by the stares, before he crossed the room.
"The same was observed this time around," the doctor said softly, hesitating before adding a shockingly genuine, "I'm sorry."
"Does this mean Fai is going to die?" Mokona asked in a small voice, sounding heartbreakingly lost.
The doctor blinked at Mokona, confusion and curiosity clouding his features. Kurogane's impatient throat-clearing brought him back to the question.
"If we do not begin treatment immediately, it is very much likely," answered the doctor, "the rate of growth seems to have increased from yesterday. The cells found in the abnormal growth is unlike anything seen up till now. It is entirely possible that this may be a whole new mutation of cancer. I would recommend that the patient immediately commence chemotherapy, if that's alright with you?"
There was a moment of silence before anybody answered.
"What is it that defines cancer?" asked Fai, looking thoughtfully into his palms, folded neatly on his lap.
"Well, in your case," the doctor began manner-of-factly, "it's the exponential growth of your kidneys. More specifically, the tubules, where your missing kidney ought to be."
"Rapid growth?" Fai repeated, eyebrows shooting up.
"Yes, meaning that there is abnormally rapid tissue growth occurring in your kidneys."
"Oh... I see..." Fai lowered his gaze back down into his palms for a moment longer before a stunningly wide grin split across his face, "But I'm afraid that we simply do not have the sort of money to pay for this 'chemotherapy'. In fact, we can barely pay for our hotel!"
Syaoran's jaw dropped and Mokona stared incredulously at the blonde at his 180 degree skidding swerve in demeanor, and his completely inappropriate answer to the doctor's announcement of his almost certain death.
Kurogane was not quite so passive.
A nurse screamed as the ninja punched a hole through the window with his metal fist, not that anyone else would know—apart from his traveling companions—due to the synthetic skin covering the tangled wires and thick cables.
"What the fuck, mage?" he yelled, "Do you want to die? I don't care if the treatment's gonna drive us broke, I'll work a day and nightshift if I bloody well have to."
"I will as well, Fai-san," interjected Syaoran solemnly.
"But you can't," the doctor interrupted, "You're underage! And the law states that—"
"It doesn't matter," Syaoran insisted, flinty determination so unnervingly firm in his stance that the doctor fell silent, "I'll do it illegally if I have to."
"Mokona too!"
Before the doctor could say anything to that, the patient in question cut into the conversation with an airy laugh.
"Kuro-daddy, this is all completely unnecessary! I—"
Syaoran and Mokona promptly erupted into passionate protests as Kurogane exploded into enraged shouting over Fai's insistent dismissals and the doctor's incredulous ranting in the background.
"Silence!"
Everybody fell silent at the authoritative command. A severe looking woman stood at the door, lips pursed into a thin line and stilettos—so sharp they looked as if they could be used as an impromptu instrument of murder—clacking decisively against the tiled floor as she strode across the room.
"There will be no issue of money or a lack thereof here," she began, holding up a hand as Fai began to protest, "I've been informed of a suspected mutation of pre-existing cancer into one much deadlier than what we have today." She turned towards Fai's cot, "You are in denial," she said bluntly, pointing a manicured talon at the wizard in question, "but that doesn't change the fact that you are definitely going to die if no action is taken immediately."
"Actually," the doctor interrupted, "In medical terms you can never say definitely because—"
The doctor shrank back at the look on the woman's face.
"Your treatment will be sponsored by the government," the woman continued, ignoring the collective gasps around the room, "But only on the condition that you allow extra tests to be conducted, and the results to be used for scientific research."
Fai blinked, opening his mouth dazedly, about to protest further.
"Your accommodation and your friend's accommodation will also be paid for."
Fai's mouth snapped shut.
"Alright then," he agreed as he stretched languidly across his pillow like a cat, a lazy grin spreading slowly across his face, "But I won't take too kindly to being cut open and dissected by mad scientists."
The woman smirked.
"There'll be none of that. You won't have to undergo anything that barbaric. You will get a private ward and first-class accommodations will be arranged for your friends within your ward."
Fai's grin looked positively feline as he held out his hand to shake on it.
"You got yourself a deal."
They had been moved into a large new ward. If one were to be precise about it, it wasn't so much a ward than an entire hotel suite built into the hospital. There were two rooms, a small one with a single bed and an attached toilet, and a bigger one with a wide hospital cot (looking much comfier than the one in the previous ward) and an even bigger attached toilet with bars along the wars for Fai to support himself with should the need arise. There was a sofa set and a dining table in the sitting room, together with what they had learnt in previous worlds was called a 'television'. There was more than enough space for a second bed to be pushed into Fai's room alongside the sofa by the window (it would be better for someone to be with the patient at all times, said the doctor) and the place was air-conditioned.
"Hyuu~!" Fai 'whistled' as they walked into the room, pointedly ignoring the wheelchair being wheeled alongside him—he wasn't an invalid yet—and Kurogane felt like punching him, "What a nice ward they've given us. Ne, Kuro-kicchi?"
"Mage," he ground out, "You agreed to let them experiment on your body just for better accommodations and free treatment?"
"Well, that's one, money, two, accommodations, and three, job-hunting, problems down," Fai shrugged off-handedly as he fluffed up his pillows, "I think it was a rather good deal. Oh! And they also promised not to cut me up like a lab-rat, so they're pretty much paying me to receive treatment. What's not to like?"
Kurogane barely restrained himself from lifting the mage's scrawny frame from the bed by his skinny neck. Instead, he slammed his hand into the bed-frame by his blonde head.
"What happens if... when. When they find out that you're—" A demon? A monster? Vampire? Not human? Fai glared at him, daring him to finish his sentence, "—not like them. When they find out you're not like them. They're not gonna mind slicing up to see what if you look the same on the inside."
"That's not going to happen."
"You can't say for sure."
Fai sighed.
"Well, if they find out then we can run. I have magic, you have your big, bad sword, and Mokona has the ability to send us into a whole other dimension."
"Then how about that damned can—" Kurogane stumbled over the foreign terminology for a short moment before giving up. He was a ninja, not a goddamned doctor!
"That thing!" he yelled frustratedly, "That thing growing inside you!"
"Ma~ Kuro-daddy," Fai drawled, sounding very amused, "Should you really be talking about our baby like that?"
It took him a second to get Fai's reference to his exclamation, but when he did he felt fury coil dangerously in his gut, curdling like sour milk.
"This is serious, Fai," he spat out the blonde's name with something akin to disgust, voice dropping into a low, dangerous snarl as his fingers curled into the collar of that ugly hospital gown despite himself, "You're going to die and you don't give a fucking shit."
Fai smiled coldly as he hung from the hand fisted at his collar, lifting him bodily off the sheets.
"What would you like me to do, ne?" he said drily, sarcastically, "Abort the baby?"
Kurogane snarled and raised him higher of the bed, other hand fisting by his side.
"Kurogane-san!"
He dropped the mage back into the bed with a cry of fury at Syaoran's startled cry, instead turning and smashing his fist into the wall.
His real one.
A/N: Ahhh! I cannot stand the shortness of my chapters! But I think this would be the most appropriate place to stop the chapter. Sigh, I will mention again that this was supposed to be one whole one-shot. A monster one like my last one-shot. But maybe not as big of a monster because that particular one-shot was 19k+ words! Well, then again I cannot predict precisely how many words this will end up to be. I've written the end, but there's this huge blank gap between here and the end, haha. I don't usually write my fics in order. I tend to skip all over the place. Anyway, oh no! Kurogane and Fai are fighting! Well, not to worry dear readers, I am hopelessly unable to break my own heart and thus they will make up in the next chapter. I suppose people who have read my other stories would have realized that I have this terrible tendency to have very short scenes (separated by line-breaks) so I'll prove to you how hopelessly hopeless I am by revealing that they make up in the very first 'section' of the next chapter OTL. I just cannot bear to drag their fight out. And aha! Chemotherapy starts in the next chapter! If you spot any typos, please tell me and I will correct it. I have much less type to edit now that school have started, so I'd really appreciate some extra eyes around. Thank you to all those who have reviewed!
Reviews inspire me, so please review!