Chapter 13
I tried to focus on my very important mana potion making, but it was impossible. My curiosity was overflowing, and my patience had trickled to nothing.
Carefully not looking at the brooding man sitting in the corner of my clinic, I asked, "Ryota? Hurt? Leg okay?" A part of me couldn't help but worry that the reattached limb was paining him somehow, and the surly warrior was just hesitating to say something.
"No. It's fine."
I tried to keep the impatience from my voice as I asked, "Why sit here then?"
The silence stretched on for a very, very long time before Ryota finally responded.
"I like someone."
Oh. Oh this was not what I was expecting at all. Wait…he couldn't be talking about me, could he?
The panic must have been obvious on my face because Ryota snorted and clarified, "Not you." He looked offended when I sighed and relaxed with relief. Oops. I coughed and gave him a sheepish sort of smile.
I hurried to move the topic back to his crush. "They like you too?"
I almost dropped a bowl on my foot when I saw Ryota's ears flush pink. He muttered something under his breath before giving a curt nod.
"That's wonderful! Congratulations!" The man just grunted, fidgeting with the bandages wrapped around his hands. He was clearly besotted, and I tampered down my urge to coo at him. So shy! So precious! I swallowed down a giggle and instead placed on my professional face.
"What's wrong then?"
Ryota deflated, as he seemed to remember his conundrum. "I don't know what I should give as a courting gift."
"Izuna nii-san?"
"Yes?"
"If you like someone, what is good gift?" I paused, recalling the specific phrase Ryota had used. "Good courting gift?"
I froze, staring at Izuna's expression that had inexplicably morphed to one of pure shock.
"Who?" he wheezed out.
"Uh…Ryota—" I didn't get the chance to finish my sentence before Izuna had disappeared with a swirl of leaves. Ugh. I hated when he did that. I grabbed the broom and carefully swept all the foliage out of the house.
It turned out the person Ryota was in love with was a sweet young woman named Narumi. I peeked out from behind a tree as Ryota gruffly handed her a beautiful scarf. At Narumi's urging, Ryota carefully wrapped the scarf around her neck, and they walked away hand in hand.
Giving myself a mental pat on the back for a job well done, I turned to return to the clinic only to find Izuna and Madara staring at me with grave expressions. Pity was in their gazes? In two large strides, Madara was suddenly in front of me. I squeaked with surprise when he tenderly wrapped me up into a hug, burrowing my face into his shoulder.
"Imouto. I'm sorry."
Huh?
"It's okay Imouto. You can cry, no one will judge you."
HUH?
My nose itched terribly under my mask and I couldn't help but to scrunch my nose to try and relieve it.
"Hime-sama? Are you okay?" Mitsuo eyed me carefully, his gaze flickering from what were likely bags under my eyes, to my disheveled greasy hair, to my trembling hands resting on Hikaru's chest.
I didn't pause my chanting to answer Mitsuo and my head felt too heavy for me to nod or shake it in response. Instead, I focused all my energy into painstakingly reducing the inflammation in Hikaru's tiny bronchioles and inducing coughs to dislodge all the mucus from the baby's lungs. Again. This was the fourth time I had needed to do this for Hikaru in the last two days.
Mina sat stiffly at Hikaru's side. From what little I could see of her face with her mask on Mina looked serene, but I knew it was far from the truth. After losing her husband just weeks after finding out about her pregnancy, Hikaru was all she had left of him. I knew that she was terrified in truth.
The cold that had swept through the clan had hit young and old. On one hand it was fairly mild, giving the average person only a mild cough and runny nose. On the other hand, for the infants it was bronchiolitis and that meant babies gasping for air.
Due to a combination of my healing and the recent tentative peace that had come about from people apparently thinking the Uchiha and Senju were allied, or soon to be allied, there had been a baby boom. This however meant that when the cold came, I was soon swamped with wheezing newborns.
I desperately wished there was another healer who could help me. I futilely wished that there was an alchemist here who could create a medicine to open airways, so I didn't have to constantly jump from one baby to another to provide breathing treatments.
I had barely slept in the last week and the only reason I was able to keep this up was the ample stock of mana potions. I ignored the fact that though my mana might be continuously full, my mental and physical state could soon collapse.
Thankfully, most of the babies had recovered past needing breathing treatments and only Hikaru and Kagami were left.
Finished with my spell, I lowered my hands and shuffled around to check up on Kagami. His parents were curled up on either side of the baby but immediately shifted out of the way when they saw me approach. To my relief, his breathing was doing much better.
The world seemed to tilt as I tried to make my way to my cot. Mitsuo grabbed me before I embarrassingly faceplanted and I made a mental note to thank him when I wasn't so damn tired. I curled into my blanket and—
"Imouto…Sophie…drink."
Something wet trickled past my lips and scrapped my throat like knives. No, it hurt. I felt something cold on my forehead and I hated it. I was cold. My teeth were chattering. It was so cold.
"Hikaru…Kagami…need me…to breathe...patients."
"Hush. They're fine. Sleep Sophie. Rest."
"Why…are you talking…funny?"
My head felt like it was stuffed full of cotton, my mouth tasted bitter, and my eyes felt glued shut. No, just crusted shut with eye boogers, I realized as I rubbed them. I blinked the gross sleep out of my eyes and blearily focused on the black wall right in front of my face.
It took me a stupid amount of time to realize that the wall was moving rhythmically, and that it was actually someone's chest rising up and down with breaths.
What? My gaze flew up and locked eyes with Madara's tired dark orbs. He reached out and his rough hand landed on my forehead. A smile curled the corner of his lips and eyes.
"Your fever broke. Thank kami."
A hand reached out from behind me and nudged Madara's out of the way so that they could check my forehead themself.
"Fucking finally. Thank the fuck—"
"Izuna. Language." Madara scolded.
It was slowly dawning on me that the two brothers…my brothers…had slept at my side while I was sick. The image of baby Kagami sandwiched between his parents flashed in my mind and I felt a lump in my throat and a burning behind my eyes.
I would have to talk to someone about dedicating a space to grow clovers like the space we already had for growing morning glory. It felt like I was always traveling further and further from the village center as the wild clover supply depleted due to creating mana potions.
I glanced up and checked the blanket where I had left Kagami playing with some toy kunai. The blanket was empty! Sophie you are the worst babysitter ever, my mind screeched as I frantically looked around for the errant child.
My heart rate spiked when I saw Kagami crawl with an impressive speed toward the tall grass in front of the river that makes up the back of the village. There could be snakes in there! Or venomous spiders or monsters! I scrambled up and sprinted to Kagami, scooping him up right before he entered the grass.
"Close call Hime-sama," chuckled a voice.
I screeched, falling back on to my bottom in surprise as Fumiya's head popped out of the grass.
"What you doing!"
Laughing, the man stood up fully and reached out to give me a hand up.
"Patrolling. There's no wall on this side of the village so we always have people guarding this area." Fumiya reached down and patted Kagami's head. Giving me one last smile, he disappeared.
A part of me relaxed as I realized that the tall grass was a lot safer than I had originally assumed. I doubted Fumiya would let any dangerous beast live if he came across them on his patrol.
Placing Kagami back on the blanket, I gave him a stern talking to. He received my lecture with a giggle and spit bubble, so I doubted he was very repentant. Once I was sure he was sufficiently distracted with his toys, I turned back to my clover gathering.
Oh! I blinked in surprise at a black bunny that had unexpectedly appeared. My heart twinged with guilt as I remembered that the mana potion needed rabbit's blood. I wondered if it was one of the rabbits that had escaped the enclosure? I crouched down.
"Hello Mr. Rabbit. Where did you come from?"
The rabbit sat up on its haunches and turned to look at me with startling yellow eyes.
A/N: Sorry for the wait everyone. I unfortunately got covid (asymptomatic!), but on the bright side I finally get some time to write. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Every comment, like, follow, view makes my day.