Kamatari winced as the woman prodded his bruised shoulder. He should have seen that punch coming. He was getting too slack about his training. Shaking his head he looked over to where Sano was arguing loudly with Megumi hanging around his neck looking like a gaudy, oversized necklace.
"I'm fine." Kamatari assured the nurse as she continued to poke around. She hit a particularly sore spot and he flinched away.
She pursed her lips, cranky no doubt to have been woken up at this time of night. Her words matched her voice. Sharp. "You are not fine, sir. From what I can see you have broken radius in your left lower arm and three cracked ribs not to mention all the other minor abrasions. So sit back down."
Kamatari rolled his eyes and sat back down primly crossing his legs. If nothing else he could extract slight revenge by completely unnerving the pushy woman. A little smirk spread across his face and he was sure his eyes were glinting evilly.
"'Tari?" He looked down at Megumi. The nurse, thankfully, was on the other side of the room. She was no doubt gathering instruments of torture. For once Kamatari was firmly on Sano's side with this issue. Too bad that bastard Saitoh "insisted". Actually he threatened to grab them both by the hair and drag them in like dead rats.
"What is it honey?" Kamatari answered pleasantly once again looking at her tattered dress. A shopping trip was definitely in order.
She looked down, shyly? That didn't seem very Megumi like. She tended to be rather open and up front if not downright opinionated. He yelped as she suddenly pitched forward and dove to make sure she didn't make an acquaintance with the hard, cold white tile floor. Instead, he did. His ribs screamed in protest as a sharp pain flared through the surrounding nerves. That wasn't what mattered, what mattered was that he had buffered the girl's fall.
Gently securing her shoulders he propped her up on her knees. Her eyelids were fluttering slowly and her mouth was half open rasping out shallow gasps. Only then did he notice the spreading crimson on her hip. Without a thought he flipped up the dress ignoring everything but the angry red flesh.
"Woman, get over here." He ordered loudly starting both his personal hellion and the one tending Sano. Of course, the rooster-head eager to escape the ministrations leapt up with concern and hustled over.
"What's... fuck! When the fuck did that happen?" Sanosuke swore glaring down. "God damn Saitoh. That black hearted bastard! No wonder he dragged our asses down here."
Kamatari agreed with the fuming young man. Saitoh had to have known, but at the risk of looking a complete softy he couldn't have just said it out loud. So instead he insisted his subordinates had to go in positive that Megumi's injury would be discovered.
He had taken a closer look and noticed that the bullet wound was very shallow and bleeding sluggishly. That didn't mean it hurt any less and he was very impressed, as well as surprised, that Megumi hadn't been screaming.
Meanwhile, hellion woman one and two were fussing over the child in shock. Kamatari wondered if they would ever be able to extract the girl out of the massive amount of bandages being wrapped tightly around her leg. One of the ladies slipped painkiller via a syringe into the girl's slender arm. Slowly her cinnamon eyes began to close and within a few minutes she had drifted off into a deep sleep that only medication could induce.
"How could you men let that happen to such an innocent lamb?" Hellion one, as Kamatari had so labeled her, rounded on them. She was short with a pinched face and bleach blond hair. "Honestly! Cruel, evil men."
Kamatari raised an eyebrow amused. How in the world did she become a nurse at one of the Shinsengumi outposts? He wanted to laugh, but considered the state of his ribs.
"What? You crazy old bag, we didn't do that to her!" Sano snarled pushing her away and hovering like a protective mother hen. He gathered the small girl up in his large arms treating her like priceless glass.
He stalked out and Kamatari trailed after him only briefly paying attention to number two bleating that they still needed to be tended. He figured he'd rather take his chances with the wolf than listen to their tirade about evil men. In fact, Saitoh could take lessons from those two. Better yet Kamatari wondered who would win if all three were locked in an itty, bitty room together.
Once they were in the relative safety of the second floor the brown hair boy growled, "Fuck, now how I can I go on a mission?"
"You don't seem to be injured sweetie." Kamatari snickered.
"Not that. All I did was gather a few bruises and a busted lip. I was talking about pip-squeak here. She's hurt."
"Don't worry, I'll take care of her." Kamatari said somberly. He didn't ever want to repeat the evening's events. Next time things wouldn't turn out so lucky.
A snort issued out of the rooster-head and Kamatari bristled, insulted. This wasn't teasing. Sanosuke actually thought he would let something happen to little Meg!
"Not like I don't trust you freak, but you didn't do a bang up job tonight, did you?" Those burned. "At least you have a heart unlike he who is the biggest prick..."
The so-called biggest prick chose that moment to melt out of the shadows giving both of them a nasty shock to the system.
"Change of plan. We are leaving. Now." Saitoh hissed to Sanosuke. He was suited up with his usual mission gear: a hidden handgun, a visible pistol, his sword, and a hidden knife. His navy clothing fit his lean form perfectly leaving little to suggestion. Too bad he's such a shit, Kamatari thought to himself.
Sano gave a questioning look before grudgingly handing the still sleeping child over to Kamatari. The cross dresser received her gracefully even though her slight form bore down on his broken lower arm. He shifted her to a more comfortable position wondering why the normally loud fist boy wasn't pitching a hissy.
The two silently walked out leaving Kamatari with the child. He looked down at her worried what she would say when she woke and Sano was gone. And where was he to put her anyway? She usually slept in the young man's room, but he only had one futon. He certainly wasn't going to even think about sharing. That was just a bit too much even for him.
I guess I'll be snoozing on the floor, Kamatari sighed padding down the darkened halls. His feet barely made a scuffing noise on the floors and it was eerily quiet for a lock down. Shrugging he entered his humble lodging. Make up was lined up like valiant soldiers on his vanity and various garments littered the room in a shower of silk. Okay, so he wasn't all that tidy.
Dumping a wad of dirty clothes off the futon he released Megumi looking down at her critically. After a moment he reached to straighten her limbs into what looked to be a comfortable position. Then he rooted around for a clean blanket. Not something that usually resided in his room.
With a sigh of disgust he tromped out the door to see if Sano's room was still unlocked. Knowing the careless behavior of the young man he wouldn't doubt it in the slightest.
Returning from his conquest with his intended treasure he felt something was wrong. Very wrong.
Hurrying his pace he practically ran the last few yards. The door, which he had carefully shut behind him, now lay wide open. Staring into the dark room he knew that Megumi wouldn't be in it. He also had the startling revelation that he had been duped. The little fox hadn't been sleeping at all!
He also had a very good idea of where she was going.
A/N: Grumbles. ATTENTION TO ALL WHO READ TDTI (The Drifter and Town Insanity). Since I'm NOT allowed to put up an author thingy giving you a heads up, TDTI won't be updated until next week. I'm working on a monsterous CHRISTMAS special >:) as well as the next chapter involving Sano al-natural, Father Aoshi, and Megumi ^^;;;
Reviewers:
MsJadey: *stares for a moment then pounces* Oh oh oh, you are one of my favorite S/S writers. *sheepish grin* Sorry, I had to get that out of my system O.o;; Oh, and you get a cookie (::), but *shh* you're broadcasting my faults to the whole world. Now they know that it's not truly basic grammer (like commas), that they must watch out for! Yes, the evil flow. My Mother has knocked on me so many times... Well, all I can say is it's gotten a ton better than it used to be. I have plenty of practice! And I'm going to take a writing course in college *unamused look* that covers stuff like that (supposidely, we'll see).
Fyyrrose: That same. And you know I'm much worse than you are, I've had plenty of people to practice on. I'll be nice to him eventually, not CHB or FKB or RCP, but maybe RL? Geez, and we all thought it was really Kenshin who had the split persona ^__^;; YOU shouldn't be allowed in the mall at all. Esp. not with a cc and the devil's own will. Snake O.o;; I thought you preferred the scorpian *grins* Then again, I was thinking wolverine. I would normally feel sorry for Kikiyo, but since I helped devise the torture I think that would be oxymoronic. Is that a word? *passes barf bag* You know I don't mess with K/K, as much as you'd love me to. Brand KL on my forehead and cue Miss Independent! For I shall not kill her >:) now that you've sent the package. Next time I suggest making me promise... then again, if it's under duress it's not valid ^___________________^
MissBehavin: *twitch* An excellant point.
Wistful-Eyes: Hiko is just too fun to use to mess with poor Kenny's mind.