-- If I Go To Hell, Will You Come With Me? --
As Yumi began to wrap the bandages - starting at Shishio's feet and working her way up - the doctor slipped out of the room.
"He's leaving without being paid?" Shishio asked curiously, once the old man was gone.
"Oh, he'll take his payment, alright..." Yumi replied with a sarcastic smirk. "From his favorite girl."
Well, this was a brothel, after all. And since the girls had no money of their own, the doctor was compensated for his services with their services.
Out loud, he commented, "Which obviously isn't you." Just to see what she would say.
"He doesn't like dealing with me," Yumi said, and this time the smirk accompanying her words was an odd combination of smug and playful.
"I'm sure he would enjoy it it more if you didn't make it so difficult for him," Shishio said. Because it had quickly become obvious that she was a difficult woman.
"How did this happen, anyway?" Yumi changed the subject, tapping her fingers lightly against the charred flesh of his thigh.
Shishio related the story of who and what he'd been during the revolution and of how he'd become what he was now. He was about to tell her about how Sojiro had joined him when-
"You'll have to stop talking now, so I can do your face."
He complied, wondering if she'd been listening at all or had only asked him about his wounds to distract him from the previous subject.
He was interested to see that her expression was one of concentration - with no visible trace of disgust - as she carefully applied the bandages to his face and head.
"There," she said, tying off the last bandage. "You can talk again now." When he didn't immediately respond, she prompted him, "You said you were being hunted by the police when you met the boy...?"
Ah, so she had been listening after all. And what's more, she actually seemed interested in hearing the rest of it.
Shishio stood for a moment to put on his kimono. When he sat back down, Yumi moved to sit beside him - so they were no longer in the awkwardly close face-to-face position that they'd been in while she'd been applying the bandages.
He glanced at her. She seemed to be waiting for him to speak. So he continued the tale of his travels from where he'd left off.
"And that's how we ended up here," Shishio concluded his long-winded explanation.
And, not a moment after he'd finished speaking, he felt Yumi's head drop onto his shoulder. He looked down at her and realized - with a slight sense of disappointment - that she was not getting cuddly with him. She had fallen asleep.
-to be continued-
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