under the same sun
[sick]
summary: Rin was only ever sick twice, and neither time was any easier on Obito.
characters: Obito, Rin, Minato, OC's, Kakashi
rating: T (ehh, maybe K)
note1: i promised fluff. so, here is my attempt at no angst, no one-sided love, and no hopelessly pinning Obito.(okay, well, technically, Obito will always hopelessly pinning over Rin, but at least we get to see some ObiRin friendship. whichbasicallymeansRinistoto allyfallingforObito-maybeprobablywhoknows)!
note2: this was supposed going to be up – like, yesterday, but i had to work later than expected. so, here it is!
\
.
.
.
.
.
/
Rin was only ever sick twice.
The first time, she had unintentionally caught Obito's cold when she leaned over to say something and he accidentally coughed on her. Being advanced in her medical field, she was able to trace it down to that instant (and because Obito was the only person who would cough on someone; Kakashi wore a mask, and she was never in that close of contact with Minato).
He followed her around the entire day when she first confessed to needing a small break due to a minor cold. Apologies flying from his lips in broken sentences, stuttering out words of promised retribution and begging for forgiveness.
She lost her patience with his persistence more than once, but at least he helped with the groceries she was carrying.
And the laundry she was behind on.
And most of the cleaning around her apartment that needed to be done, too.
She utilized his guilt by having him run errands for her throughout the day, while she lounged in bed, recuperating for tomorrow. He didn't seem to mind the small tasks she had him do (asking for more, actually) and Rin only feels a bit guilty when he comes back, tired and worn, still apologizing for something that was bound to happen sooner or later.
That night, she makes dinner (a soup recipe she stole from the library) for them both, and sends him off – with a lot of reluctance on his part - giving him a token of gratification in the form of a hug. He's blushing brightly when she lets go, but doesn't offer much of a fight when she slams the door in his face as yet another apology is beginning to form on his lips.
The second time she was sick, it wasn't his fault.
Going to a different country, shinobi's were aware that the change in environment would undoubtedly cause an illness that needed immediate treatment. They all got shots for different diseases and sicknesses before they graduated from the academy. The shots were routinely updated every five months to make sure that nothing they caught would be brought back to their own village and leaked out to the civilians, who didn't have the ninja's immune system.
During a mission, Rin ate something that had bacteria inside of it, making her get food poisoning. Obito didn't know what the words parasite and salmonella and infection, but from the look on Minato's face as the head-nurse explained it all, he was sure it wasn't anything good.
Peaking around his sensei's broad form, he glanced in the room they brought her to when she suddenly began getting violently ill. Nobody, aside from doctors – all wearing pressed, crisp white coats with matching expressions of detachment and indifference and pale green masks covering their mouths and noses – were allowed inside the room. The only exception being Minato and some nurses, holding bags of medical supplies and vials of clear liquid into the room; their expressions were more telling than the doctors. They all carried unmasked worry in their eyes.
When he sees her, Obito wishes that he could rush in the room and take her hand, comfort her somehow. IVs attached all over her body; she looked…terrible. Pale, with cheeks that were too red, blending into the tattoos on her face; hair tangled and limp, splayed across the sterile pillow; and hands clenching and releasing around the white blanket below her.
He heard the doctor ask his sensei what she might have eaten before this happened, prompting him for specifics. Minato struggled for a moment, running through his head what Rin ordered off the menu at the restaurant they went to. Kakashi didn't know either.
Obito did.
They sat beside each other at the table, her chastising him for giggling at the poor English translated on the sleek brown menu pages. He was the one who recommended the foreign food to her.
"Try the vegetable and chicken casserole."
"She had vegetables and chicken," he spoke urgently, glancing worriedly from the doctor to the pale girl lying on the bed. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Another doctor looked at him for a minute, his eyes cutting through him sharply. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I…I told her to get it…"
The two doctors turned to each other, murmuring quietly once more in hushed voices.
"Okay. Administer antibiotics, then?" The one who spoke to Obito said, while the other nodded.
He turned away and walked back into the room, shutting the door behind him.
"What's going on?" Minato asked. "What's wrong with Rin?"
Turning his sharp gaze to their group, the doctor spoke clearly and quietly, hand relaxing on the clipboard he was holding. The name on the front read Rin in simple block text. "She has food poisoning. Salmonella - it's a bacteria found in unwashed fruits and vegetables and uncooked meats."
"How did she get it though? We all ate there!" Obito furrowed his brow, glaring at the closed-door behind the doctor.
"The person who prepared her food must not have washed and cooked it thoroughly. We need to send a health inspector to the establishment immediately." Something must have shown on Obito's face, as he instantly began reassuring them. "Don't worry. She'll be fine. We'll keep her overnight, giving her antibiotics and keeping her hydrated. She'll be able to go home tomorrow morning."
Minato quickly intervened, nodding graciously. "Thank-you."
The doctor nodded once, evenly, and then began walking down the hall.
It took Minato several times to coax Obito into moving from his perch beside Rin's door, even then it was through bribery and the threat of security being called on him. He didn't move until the nurse told him that he wouldn't be allowed back if he didn't go now.
His grandmother always told him that the best way to make someone who's sick feel better is to make homemade soup and tuck them in with a warm afghan. In the small hotel they're staying at, nothing stood out that would take care of the 'warm quilt' part of her suggestion. Thin covers with tacky patterns (he thinks they're meant to ward people off from stealing them) and even thinner sheets are all the small hotel offers. The hospital blankets didn't seem that comfortable to him.
Rin wouldn't be comfortable sleeping on that.
He couldn't sleep anyway – tossing and turning, thinking about Rin dying or Rin waking up to nothing but an impersonal room and no comfort – and tugged on his boots.
It was three in the morning, and he stood at the exit of the hotel, clutching a small bag of money, looking for any venues that were open.
When Rin wakes up the next morning, she's wrapped in a pink and red dotted quilt that wasn't there before and a sleeping Obito curled in the chair beside her bed (who wasn't there before either). On the little table beside her bed, there was a small Styrofoam container with her name hastily scribbled in Obito's writing.
Reaching over, she pulled the warm container on her lap and peeled the lid back.
The same soup she made all those years ago was inside the container. She could see improperly sliced chunks of celery and carrots that immediately let her know Obito was the one who hastily made it.
("Mmm! Rin-chan! What's in this?" She tried not feel repulsed by the chewed bits of soup she could see each time he opened his mouth.
"Ah, carrots, celery, shiitake mushrooms, beets, udon noodles, chicken, and broth."
"It's so good, Rin-chan!")
Rin smiled softly at the sight, glancing at him and reaching over to gently pushing back onyx locks that fell in front of his face.
"Thank you, Obito-kun," she says to herself, placing the soup aside and brings the quilt around his shoulders before lying back down on the bed.
One eye peeked open when Rin's breathing evened out, and Obito smiled. "You're welcome, Rin-chan."
omake:
It took Obito three hours to hunt down all the ingredients for the soup – which he was going on by memory – and all the money he had in his pockets to buy the quilt at four in the morning.
It was worth it though; Rin thanked him and called him Obito-kun.
(Not to mention the look on Kakashi's and Minato's faces when they came to check on Rin that morning and found him lying beside her bed huddled under the same quilt.)
/
.
.
.
.
.
\
note3: okay, so i lied. there was some angst (not a lot but...eh) – why? because without it, i tend to make a mockery of the romance genre with my feeble attempts to piece together something that doesn't make people cringe and say, 'parmesan, swiss, cheddar, feta, and cottage…gees, that's a lot of cheese.'
note4: the next chapter – which will be pseudo-angst/lots of lovely-blah-blah-blah, and Rin will her time in the spotlight! – will be posted on Saturday, mmmkay.*
*if you know the reference, then you are the most amazing person ever. EVER.