Day 12. Finale of the 4-part series starting with "The Best Things in Life"... But can be read as a stand-alone complex. It's semi-necessary for story progression purposes, but can be skipped since it's somewhat angst. The holiday spirit part comes at the end.
Title :: Worth More Than Gold
Rating :: PG [angst!]
Summary :: AU. Some things are worth even more. Set directly after Unexpected Tragedies and All. (They're 10 and 11.)
Iruka woke with a muzzy head, the ceiling overhead dotted with whimsical tiles depicting a train puffing its way in an eternal loop around the room. There was something stuck to his face and his body ached all over with a strange ghostly sensation he couldn't quite focus on. His mouth felt cottony, but he couldn't get up the energy to move. He felt at once heavy and light and it bothered him.
He blinked a little at the softly glowing blue light attached to a box with jagged panels of illuminated lines scrolling across its surface, bracketing by numbers. An EKG machine?
A soft whisper of sound caught his attention but before he could focus on what it was, he felt himself slip back into oblivion.
He fought briefly to the surface again when he heard the sound of a bed being rolled into the room, but he couldn't quite battle free of the cotton that padded his brain and he slipped away again. This happened several more times throughout the night.
When he finally came awake again, it was daytime. The sallow gray light filtered in through gauzy yellow curtains to turn the room a wash of cheery sunny tones. An empty bed was next to him; rumpled as if someone had slept in it and disappeared at dawn like a specter.
In the room across the hall, the occupants of the two beds there were still fast asleep. Kotetsu lay sprawled across his covers, limbs thrown wide to the corners and his mouth agape and drooling. A long bandage bisected his face, crossing the bridge of his nose. In the other bed, Izumo lay like a doll; heavily sedated with a thick padding taped over his right eye. An IV hung from an EEG machine at his side, steadily dosing him with narcotics.
Kotetsu snorted and woke himself up, blinking and groaning in pain.
"Ko-kun?" Iruka called out croakily, body still heavy and weak.
"Iru-kun?" Kotetsu called back, sliding off his bed and almost kissing the floor as his knees went weak. His IV bag toppled off its stand and fell next to him.
"Oh honestly, you two," cried a familiar voice from the hall. Kotetsu cringed as Yoshino's head popped around the corner and she glared.
The nursing student was surprisingly gentle as she helped Kotetsu settle into a wheelchair, though she surprised him when she strapped his IV bag to his head with a stern "keep your head up" before wheeling him to Iruka's room. She showed Iruka how to adjust his bed so he could sit up without sliding down and warned them she'd return to separate them in fifteen minutes.
Izumo finally came to a few hours later and though he wanted to, couldn't be moved. A Hyuuga from the ophthalmology department came to see him then and stayed with him for a long time before leaving without saying anything to Iruka or Kotetsu who tried in vain to listen at the door without success. The boy was almost crying when his friends piled weakly through the door to gawk at his bandages.
A mask-adorned Kushina came from her room down the hall to shoo Iruka back to his room, her chest rattling with a wet cough. It sounded like the dunk in the river had caused her pleurisy to flare. If it was pneumonia instead, she could be in for some serious trouble. Her immune system had never been all that strong.
The boy cast her a worried glance as she tucked him back into bed, a funny elf hat stuck to the IV bag she had bound to her head. She winked at him at patted him on the head. He didn't think he was tired, but within minutes, he was dead to the world.
It was dark the next time he awoke. The ceiling was splattered with multicolored stars dancing slowly across its surface. He could hear a soft mumble of voices outside his room and his head lolled tiredly to the side as he blinked at the little Christmas tree on a rotating stand next to him, a small pile of get-well-soon cards piled up beneath it.
"Just go ahead if you want to," a low voice murmured. Iruka perked up.
"You don't have to, but––" it continued.
"I want to," a quiet voice cut the first one off.
Iruka's eyelashes fluttered down as the door to his room slid open and a familiar spiky-haired silhouette walked in. Kakashi.
The gray-haired boy hopped on the empty bed next to Iruka's, cradling something in his arms. He kicked his feet for a bit and stared at the ground.
"Hey, Iruka," he mumbled. Iruka tried to control his breathing, to pretend he was still asleep.
"I know you're not sleeping," the boy continued. "I'm sorry you got hurt. But Minato-kun said that your stitches will heal without too much scarring and that you and Kotetsu-kun are lucky that you didn't lose your eyes."
Kakashi paused and kicked aimlessly again.
"Hyuuga-sensei––one of them anyway––said that Izumo-kun won't lose his eye and that he should be able to see again with some surgeries, so don't worry so much," he said quietly.
Iruka curled into his pillow, fists tight.
"And the foxes you liked so much, Inuzuka-sensei said she'll take care of them until you come out of hospital so just think about getting better, okay," Kakashi mumbled. He took a deep breath.
"About your parents––"
"Don't talk about it!" Iruka shouted, bolting upright, eyes bright. "I know everything was my fault!"
"It was an accident," Kakashi protested, not meeting the boy's eyes.
"None of this would have happened if me'n Izumo-kun'n Ko-kun had just stayed in school like we were supposed to. It's my fault," Iruka sobbed, pulling the sheets over his head.
The corner of his bed dipped as Kakashi climbed up and Iruka shifted away, not wanting him near. Part of him ached to be hugged, but Kakashi didn't do hugs and nobody would want to touch him anyhow; not after what he had done.
Kakashi sighed and was quiet for a long time while Iruka huddled in the corner of the bed. After long moments, the sheet slid down and frustrated red-rimmed eyes peeked out to glare at him.
"Well?" Iruka demanded, waiting for Kakashi to just go away and abandon him like he deserved.
Kakashi shrugged.
"It's not your fault," he repeated prosaically. "And nobody blames you. You may not remember it, but you've been here for a week already and everyone's been to see you."
Iruka blinked.
"School's already gone on break," Kakashi went on, fiddling with whatever was in his hands. "And Christmas is almost here."
Iruka's face fell at the mention of Christmas; at the thought of his parents and how terrible things were going to be.
"We'll have the foxes at my house by then," Kakashi said haltingly. "Inuzuka-sensei will bring them over soon."
"And my parents said you can spend Christmas with us." He paused. "That is, if you want to."
"I don't––" Iruka stuttered through a choked breath.
"Maybe Santa will even come," Kakashi added grudgingly. "If you still even believe in that faker."
Iruka didn't say anything and instead, twisted the sheets between his fingers and nibbled worryingly at his lip.
"Here, take this," Kakashi muttered awkwardly, shoving the thing he'd been fiddling with into Iruka's lap before hopping off the bed.
"It'll make you feel better," he promised, shuffling awkwardly out the door.
Iruka dumbly felt the object in his hands and pressed a switch on the flat part. Kakashi's precious light-up model of The Brain––the one he'd had since he was four-years-old–glowed in the gloom. A post-it note was stuck to the frontal lobe and Iruka squinted to read it, smiling weakly at the childish scrawl.
Happy early Christmas, Iruka.
From, Santa's Helper
NOTES
pleurisy – an inflammation of the lung lining. (If you can guess what disease Kushina has, I can't give you a physical prize but I can … write more! ノ(*´∇`)ノ)
EKG/ECG machine – (electrocardiogram) reads the electric activity in your heart (i.e. heart beats and pulses) Victims of severe hypothermia have depressed vitals and risk of heart failure and suppression is very high and must be monitored.
EEG machine – (electroencephalograph) reads your brain waves via electrodes stuck to your face and scalp. It helps monitor for things like seizures and brain activity. Izumo underwent drastic emergency facial/cranial surgery so... my excuse, lol.
IV bags on the head – yes you can do this and yes there are some hospitals in Asia that will do this instead of using an IV stand because they're cheap it's easier for mobility purposes
