Warnings: AU, mention of violence, completely made up medical oojits
Pairings: none.
Note: Written for the ficondemand livejournal community June challenge, for jangalain.
Fujimiya Ran was a very talented doctor, all things considered. His marks at medical school had consistently held him at the very top of his class, and normally he would have had his pick of employment opportunities once he graduated.
However, Fujimiya Ran was deaf. This did not prevent him from being an incredibly good doctor, but it prejudiced many institutions against him. Instead of the undoubtedly prestigious position he could have held at any one of Tokyo's hospitals, he found himself running a small neighbourhood clinic with his sister as the receptionist and unofficial nurse.
They made enough to get by, but were hardly rich. Ran's University fees had nearly crippled them, as despite the fact that their parents had been very wealthy, that money had been caught up in legal mumbo-jumbo after their parents had died in an explosion caused by a faulty gas line. As time had passed and it became more and more apparent that he and Aya just weren't going to get their inheritance, Ran had been all set to drop out of school and start work to take care of his sister, but Aya-chan wasn't having it.
"What would be better for us, forging through the hard times so that we can live easily later on, or you dropping out of school to work for a mediocre income for the rest of your life?" she had demanded. "You won't be able to get a good job if you don't go to University, Ran-nii. You know that."
Always weak to his sister's pleas, Ran stayed in school. Unfortunately, however, he had caught an ear infection during his last year of high school which had quickly worsened. Lacking enough money for treatment, the infection obliterated his hearing, and relegated him to a life working twice as hard as he would have had to for the same amount of pay.
Blinking, Ran focussed on the page in front of him, and finished filling out the prescription form for medication which, had he been able to afford it in high school, would have saved his hearing. Handing the slip to his patient, he ushered her out of the door and began closing the practise for the day.
oOo
Late that night, Ran woke to Aya-chan shaking his shoulder. When she saw him looking at her, she communicated in rapid hand gestures that those three were back, and needed immediate attention.
Only pausing long enough to grab his dressing gown, Ran nodded to her and quickly made his way downstairs. Entering the back room, his gaze landed on the bloodied form laid out on the bed and made a beeline for him.
'Those three', as Aya referred to them, only ever came to him late at night, and only ever when one of them was in critical condition. Ran half-suspected that they were connected to the Yakuza in some way, but honestly didn't care so long as they didn't try to drag him into it. This time, the one in need of most attention was Hidaka Ken – last time, it had been Kudou Yohji, and Ran did not want to know how he had received bullet wounds from that particular angle. Hell, he didn't want to know how Kudou had got bullet wounds full stop.
He didn't have time to be daydreaming, however, and quickly went to work on Hidaka. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Aya-chan fussing over Tsukiyono and Kudou, most likely insisting that they tell her if they had any minor wounds so she could treat them.
The first time Ran had come across these three had been while he had been late coming back from a bedridden patient's house. He'd had to park a short walk away from the house, and so in turning a corner, he had quite literally tripped over them.
Tsukiyono and Hidaka had been very badly wounded, and Kudou himself only slightly less so – he'd tried to carry them both with him away from wherever it was they had been, and had only managed to make it so far before he collapsed. It was obvious to Ran what he should do about it, and had managed to fit all three of them in his car before driving as quickly as he dared back to the surgery. When they had woken the next day, Ran had pointedly not asked them anything about how they received their injuries, merely pressed antibiotics on them and ignored Kudou's half-hearted attempts to pay him.
Ever since then the three of them would show up at random intervals in the dead of night with one or more of them very badly injured. A few months ago, Ran had simply given Tsukiyono a copy of the key to the back door, sick and tired of his neighbours obliquely inquiring as to the irregular disturbances late at night.
He sometimes felt frustrated, wondering what he could do to help the three young men other than stitch them up when they were wounded. From the looks he received sometimes, he was sure that his being deaf was the only thing that saved him from being dragged into whatever world it was that gave them these horrible wounds, as he would sometimes walk in on the middle of a conversation that would stop the instant they saw him. It had been touch and go to begin with, when they – Hidaka in particular – seemed to very much doubt that he couldn't hear a word they were saying.
Because of this, Ran made sure to never let on to them that he could read lips passably well. He wasn't great at it, and often things would go over his head, but he had enough proficiency to treat his patients and that was all that mattered, really.
Still . . . despite knowing that it never paid to dwell on 'what ifs', Ran found himself wondering what would have happened to him if he had been able to hear. Would he have been irrevocably drawn into the world the three young men who were so often in need of his aid occupied? What would have happened to Aya? Did his continued involvement with them mean that he was going to end up being dragged into it one day anyway?
Ran didn't know.
The one thing he was sure of, however, was that he was a doctor, and doctors didn't turn patients away. With that in mind, he set to work on Hidaka in earnest.
End