With Fever 'Cross His Brow

by the mighty mighty m

disclaimer: I don't own them. Not a single one. So tragic, but it is the truth.

Anotsu watches the girl through slit eyes, the fever has reduced her to a blur but he can still see her shape bending over the campfire. He knows that there's nothing she can do to help and he's told her so, but she insists on trying. Her medical skills are practically nonexistent, her only advantage her persistence. And Rin is very persistent.

Anotsu remembers Eiku Shizuma, and even though Anotsu didn't approve of poison, he said at the beginning that the Itto-ryu was about results. Dead was dead, no matter how it got that way. But Shizuma hadn't come back and the Asano girl's yojimbo is still alive and probably in better shape than him.

Anotsu wonders if the girl was the reason Manji survived the poison.

His chapped lips part, she is beside him with water before he can rasp out a word. "Did you-" she brings the cup to his mouth and gently tips back his head so he can drink. "Did you play nurse for your Manji too?"

She doesn't answer him, just pours more water in his mouth that he's too weak to spit out, the business of swallowing effectively silencing him. No matter, Rin's actions had told Anotsu enough. He'd never been the object of such adoration, but that didn't mean didn't know it when he saw it. and with each other in constant company, with the rush that came after battle, he could see how love would come in.'

Anotsu understands it, but his heart aches for the girl. A girl so soft, so sweet, so helpless, such a girl might have Manji for a time. For a night, for a few nights, but not forever. And little girls like Rin want forever. And Manji, who has forever, is not going to give it.