Chapter Three
Dr. Karasu looked up as Kaiba exited the room, and burst into laughter.
"Mutou threw up on me!"
"I can see that!" The doctor calmed at Kaiba's thunderous expression. "It's not that poor boy's fault. You're an idiot. What on earth possessed you to bring him such solid food?" Dr. Karasu eyed the discernible chunks of beef and vegetable dripping down the front of Kaiba's clothes.
Kaiba bristled. "He hadn't eaten for several days..."
Dr. Karasu nodded, damping his amusement down even further. "Add that to the fact he's just been through a drug allergy ordeal and solid food is the last thing he can cope with right now. He's going to have to be weaned back onto solid food. I'm sure vomiting on you was the last thing on Mr. Mutou's list of 'things to do, today'."
Kaiba stopped scowling and sighed, accepting that it hadn't been Yugi's fault.
"Go, get cleaned up while I see to my patient. If you would be so helpful, please ask someone from the kitchen to bring a cup of clear broth. I can give you an update of his condition in about an hour. I'll page you before I leave."
Kaiba nodded and turned to walk away. He didn't notice the rueful, discreetly sympathetic shake of the doctor's head, or the fond and indulgent smile Dr. Karasu beamed at him behind his back.
-- -- -- --
Yugi looked up as the door opened. Adding to his embarrassment and general misery at the 'soup incident', the discomfort in his hands was smoothly and swiftly advancing up the pain scale. He was relieved that it wasn't Seto Kaiba returning. A middle-aged man in a well-tailored business suit closed the door behind himself. "I am happy to see you awake and aware, Mr. Mutou. I am Dr. Karasu. Seto Kaiba has retained my services on your behalf."
Yugi nodded. To his surprise the doctor removed his suit jacket and placed it carefully on the back of the chair. He crossed the room to a closet artfully concealed among the wood paneling of the room. Yugi hadn't even realized it was there until the doctor opened the door, retrieved a white coat, put it on, then washed his hands in a sink behind the door, just out of Yugi's sight.
"Let's get you cleaned up from Mr. Kaiba's well-intentioned, but completely ill-advised, attempt to feed you." The doctor winked at Yugi, who found a smile creeping across his face despite himself.
"Good! There's no reason for you to be so grim!"
Yugi didn't want to argue with the nice doctor, but he felt distressingly weak. The few moments of sitting on the bed with his legs dangling over one side, then the other, while the doctor stripped and remade the bed more or less under him wiped out his energy. He could barely remain sitting up while the doctor gently whisked pleasantly fresh-scented wipes across his face, neck, chest, back, and upper arms before helping him into a clean hospital gown. Tears did spring to his eyes when the doctor removed the bandages on his left hand to evaluate how his wounds were healing and change the dressing. Noticing his stillness, the doctor shot a swift glance into Yugi's face, turned up his own wrist, and looked at his watch.
"Forgive me," Dr. Karasu murmured. He placed Yugi's rebandaged hand down on the bed, darted to the closet, unlocked a cabinet set inside and withdrew a bottle and a syringe. He measured a dose and injected it into the med-port on the catheter in Yugi's elbow. "I had been unavoidably detained at my office today, so this dose is late. Next time, speak up, man!" The doctor mock-glared at Yugi before returning the bottle to the cabinet, locking it behind him, and disposing of the syringe. By the time the doctor had finished donning a new pair of gloves, examining Yugi's right hand, and bandaging it again, the pain had settled back to a dull, endurable background ache.
"Dr. Karasu -- what is going on?" Yugi finally asked.
"Well, Mr. Mutou..."
"Please, call me Yugi."
"Very well, then you must call me Dr. K -- like Seto and Mokuba do," Dr. Karasu smoothly responded. "Yugi, three days ago you stopped a knife attack on Mokuba, who couldn't have defended himself from harm if you had not acted. You took the edge of the blade across both palms, the right more than the left. Surgery was required on both hands, but there was minimal, if any, nerve damage. There is no reason to suspect you will not regain full use of both your hands -- as long as you follow your doctor's orders." Dr. Karasu cocked a thumb back at himself.
"What happened to bring me here? And, uhm, where is here?" Yugi asked.
The corners of Dr. Karasu's eyes crinkled as he grinned. "You are in the infirmary, a 'hospital' room designed to my specifications in the guest quarters of the Kaiba Mansion."
Yugi gasped. "That doesn't make any sense!"
The doctor reached over and placed a hand on Yugi's shoulder in a gesture meant to soothe. "It makes perfect sense. You saved Mokuba. You had an adverse reaction to one of the drugs they used for you at the hospital post-surgery. It seemed best to all concerned to relocate you here, for more individual care than what a typical hospital can provide."
Yugi turned that over in his mind. The answer seemed rather evasive under the surface, somehow...
"Was I..." He carefully started again. "If I were so inclined would they be cause for me to pursue legal action against the hospital?"
Dr. Karasu's eyes sparked appreciation for Yugi's quick mind. "People have pursued cases for the very same reason -- medicine dosing errors -- and won."
"But...?"
"Your -- discharge was -- not typical. A scrutinizing look could be -- inconvenient to the one who got you out of there and brought you here."
"Kaiba mentioned Mokuba being distressed..." Yugi began. The corners of the doctor's eyes crinkled in amusement again, as he sat on the edge of the bed.
"He would." Dr. Karasu patted Yugi's knee under the blanket. Yugi replayed a bit of that conversation in his mind. Kaiba had said, 'It seemed best to bring you here', not 'have you brought here'. So, it had been Kaiba himself -- not Mokuba -- who had been distressed at how the hospital had treated him. "On the surface the paperwork holds up. I made sure of that," the doctor continued.
"So, you'd be..." Yugi considered. He wasn't litigious by nature. He was well-cared for now, and expected to recover fully from his initial injuries and the treatment after. "Would other patients be endangered the same way if I just ignored it?"
"I had a word in the ear of a colleague in the hospital, just to alert him to the medicine dosing mishap that knocked you on your ass. I'm sure an internal review will prevent it from being a problem, at least as well as a high-profile lawsuit would."
High-profile. That settled it for Yugi. He wasn't about to put Kaiba into an uncomfortable position after all he'd done for Yugi. While he'd been thinking, the doctor had stood up from his bed, leaned over, retrieved a bag nearly full of liquid from under the bed, and walked over to the closet again. Sounds of splashing alerted Yugi to the fact the doctor was using the sink, again. When the doctor walked back with the now-empty bag, Yugi suddenly realized why he hadn't needed to get up and relieve himself. He flushed red at that realization.
"Oh, stop that," the doctor smiled at him. "Until you have the use of at least one of your hands back, this preserves comfort and dignity for all involved. Seto objected violently to Mr. Larson -- the nurse I retained for your care -- about as violently as your stomach objected to solid food." Dr. Karasu winked at him. "And, he told me in no uncertain terms to not bother finding another nurse to replace him -- that he and Mokuba are fully capable of taking care of you when I'm not here. I don't think Seto thought that through. I doubt any of you would be comfortable with..."
"Hell, no!" Yugi exclaimed before his mind could fully envision the thought. Dr. Karasu chuckled as he walked over to the out-of-sight sink and thoroughly washed his hands.
"So, I will stop by a few times each day for the next few days to check on you, assess your pain management, healing, as well as tend to," he nodded down toward the now discreetly out-of-sight catheter bag as he dried his hands. "I think before I leave tonight we can dispense with this for you." He tapped the IV bag. "That will help keep that," again the nod toward the floor, "from becoming an obvious, or troublesome, problem."
-- -- -- --
That wasn't the first time I've been thrown up on, Kaiba thought to himself as he towel-dried his hair. Probably not the last, he added, recalling a few of Mokuba's bouts with childhood illnesses. Mokuba didn't get sick often, but when he did it always seemed to attack his stomach. There was a reason Kaiba was practiced at spoon-feeding soup.
Helping Yugi through his recovery is the least I can do for his 'finding' Mokuba for me, Kaiba told himself, regarding his image seriously in the mirror as he combed his hair into its usual, meticulous shape. Even if I do get vomited on again. He grimaced at his reflection at that thought.
"Where's Mokuba?" Kaiba asked Roland as he closed the door of his personal suite behind him. Roland fell into step with a practiced ease as the younger man walked toward the common areas of the mansion.
"I suspect he is in Mr. Mutou's room. I took the liberty of stopping by Mr. Mutou's house today to retrieve some clothes, per Dr. Karasu's suggestion."
Kaiba stopped short, dismay momentarily clouding his face. "Mutou -- he has to have a job, too. I hadn't thought of that."
Roland cleared his throat to draw Kaiba's attention. "I also stopped by Cynucron Power's accounting department to explain Mr. Mutou's current absence."
Kaiba permitted his relief to lighten his expression to just short of a smile. Roland proved his value as an aide in quiet and unexpected ways -- as well as fulfilling his primary duty as Seto's personal bodyguard. "How did that go?"
"Given Mr. Mutou's previous reliability and his value to the company, they -- reinstated his employ."
"I see." This was why Kaiba found Roland to be so invaluable. Not only had the man proven his loyalty as a bodyguard, to both himself and Mokuba, but he had a brain to back up his brawn, too. He hadn't even thought about how Yugi's actions on Mokuba's behalf, and his prolonged absence, would affect his life. For all he knew Yugi was so focused on recovering that he hadn't considered it. So, Yugi had become an accountant after high school. Kaiba dimly recalled that Yugi had quietly excelled in math.
Roland paced his last two steps a shade quicker than Kaiba's to reach for the door to Yugi's room and open it. "Thank you, Roland," Kaiba said with quiet emphasis. Roland's lips turned up in the merest hint of a smile, recognizing that his employer was thanking him for more than holding the door for him. Kaiba indicated with a distinctively blank stare that Roland's continued presence was not required at this time. The bodyguard bowed slightly, held the door while Kaiba entered the room, then closed it behind him.
-- -- -- --
Great. Just great. What can I say to really apologize for what happened? Yugi's mind unhelpfully commenced gibbering in a corner of his brain. It didn't help at all that Kaiba loomed over him long before he neared the bed. The blank expression on Kaiba's face didn't help Yugi's composure at all either. Did the man even know how to smile? Or would his face split into pieces if he tried? As before, Kaiba sat in the chair nearest the bed, crossed his ankles, then his arms and more or less glared at Yugi.
"So, uhm... Nice weather we're having." Yugi fished for a topic. A safe topic. Something to talk about, something non-threatening -- anything to make Kaiba stop staring at him with that disconcertingly neutral intensity. Yugi felt like a bug -- like a specimen in a jar under that gaze.
"You've stayed in this room for the past day, and unconscious the two days prior. So, what are you commenting on, Mutou? The climate control in my mansion?" Kaiba's reply almost sneered.
They'd been classmates in high school -- not that Kaiba interacted with him, or with anyone for that matter. Kaiba never seemed to pay any sort of attention to anyone around him, barely acknowledging the existence of even the teachers. Sometimes he'd be absent for weeks on end. He took every single quiz, test, and exam, excelling in his marks with what appeared to be nonchalant, effortless ease. He didn't attend the graduation. A man in a black suit gathered Kaiba's diploma when his name had been called.
"I-I'm..." Yugi stammered.
"The 'soup incident' is behind us. Bringing it up would be unwise in the circumstances," Kaiba warned with a rather dramatic flash of his eyes. It was really too bad that his unfortunate choice in words triggered Yugi's sense of the absurd.
"Understood. I'll do my best to not bring it up again," Yugi couldn't help but grin as he echoed Kaiba's words.
Kaiba glared at him, but his lips twitched.
"How's Mokuba doing?" Yugi suddenly asked. Concern for Mokuba had gotten him into this situation, after all. The accord that had grown between him and Kaiba while they had been trying to get to Mokuba was a direct result of that concern.
"He was just here. You know as well as I do," Kaiba replied.
"No, not really. Mokuba would..." Mentioning that Mokuba would dissemble might not be a wise thing to note to Mokuba's protective older brother. "He wouldn't want me to feel bad, so I'm sure he'd not want to hurt my feelings, by... That is..."
"Talked yourself into a corner, huh?" Kaiba relented. "Mokuba would hide his true condition to keep you from being upset by it. I would hide his true condition if I thought it was necessary. It's not. He's fine. Dr. K -- that is, Dr. Karasu has given him a clean bill of health."
"Yeah, but..." How to suggest it wasn't physical damage Yugi was worried about? Mokuba was a tough kid, close to not being a 'kid' anymore, but there was damage that was obvious, and damage that wasn't. Not that Kaiba would really understand that.
"Not that it's any of your business..." Kaiba began. His gaze flicked to where Yugi's bandaged hands rested on his lap. "Though I suppose you've paid a high enough price to make it your business. He's sleeping through the night with no nightmares, his attitude is the same as it was before he was kidnapped, he's eating well. Mokuba is fine. He's more concerned about you than he is for himself, but that's my little brother for you." Kaiba shrugged in a 'what are you going to do?' sort of way.
Yugi smiled. Mokuba was a good kid. Before he could think of some way to frame the sentiment and articulate it, a single knock turned their attention to the door as Roland entered bearing a tray.
"Broth for Mr. Mutou," Roland stated, bringing it to the hospital bed. Yugi shifted uncomfortably on the bed. "Sir, if you would allow..."
Kaiba stood abruptly, but didn't step away from the chair as Roland obviously expected. He swiveled the table attached to the bed into place again. "Leave the tray, Roland." The aide shot a carefully neutral expression Kaiba's way before nodding, placing the tray on the table, and closing the door behind himself as he left the room.
"Kaiba..." Yugi began in protest when Kaiba lifted the cover from the tray.
"I know I've decided you'd have only the best, for what you did for Mokuba, but don't you think throwing up on me was taking it a bit far, Mutou?" Kaiba interrupted as he placed a napkin around Yugi's neck and opened another one across his injured, still-bandaged hands where they rested in his lap. "Don't be tedious and repeat that."
"I'm so sorr--..." Yugi tried to apologize, again. Kaiba stopped him, again.
"It's my own fault, Dr. K., that is Dr. Karasu, tells me, for giving you solid food after you hadn't eaten for several days. You are on clear liquids to accustom your stomach to this whole concept of 'eating' again." Kaiba told him, matter of factly picking up the spoon like before. "Oh, kindly use this if you should feel the urge to hurl again," Kaiba placed a plastic kidney pan on the table edge nearest to Yugi. "That is, unless I should have it gold-plated to measure up to your high standards?" Kaiba raised a questioning eyebrow at him.
Realizing that Kaiba was trying to joke with him, Yugi grinned. "No, I think silver-plate would suffice." Kaiba's blue eyes stared blankly into his for a long stunned moment. One groan and an elaborate eye-roll later, Kaiba was rather expertly feeding the clear broth to Yugi.
He's a prickly sort of jerk, Yugi thought to himself. But, a nice sort of prickly jerk, he added.