Instinct (written for sasorikatana; pairing is Kaku/Lucci; prompt is "instinct"; possible spoilers for Enies Lobby)

The room was sanitary and severe. A passing breeze barely lifted the white starched curtains. There were just two beds in the room, spaced well apart from each other along one wall. Kaku lay in one and Rob Lucci in the other. Wrapped in bandages, anchored into place by stiff bedsheets, the only things that distinguished them from the whitewashed space was an elongated nose here, thick black curls there. Kaku passed the time by pressing an argument five years in the making.

"'Tain't such an outlandish idea. Common as apple pie, to my mind."

"Not among CP units."

"If it's CP, they'd hardly go jawing that around, would they."

"I've told you before. It is not a matter for discussion."

"Well, now hang on a tic. Two years ago you mighta had a point; maybe even last week it mighta been a right awkward topic o' conversation. But the mission bang fell apart, didn't it? We're idle agents now. Heck, once we get out of Hospital we might not even be that anymore."

"Relationships between co-workers are not encouraged."

"Oh, I don't know. I suppose once you get to my age you don't care so much what everyone says."

"Kaku. You're twenty-three."

"Old enough to know my own mind."

"I would not be a good choice for you."

"Aye, that's what you said last year and the year before that and the year before that, yet you still look a pretty apple to me."

"I am not an apple."

"You know right-tootin' that's just your brain talking, Rob Lucci. Sometimes you gotta throw reason to the wind and trust your instincts: this I tell you true."

"You are a giraffe. I am a leopard. My instinct is to kill you. Yours is to run away."

"Don't be too darn sure. A giraffe's prime predator is the lion, whilst the leopard's off noshing on gazelles and impalas and whatnot. Seems to me like their paths don't cross too often. A creature doesn't know to run away if he doesn't know what there is to fear."

"That is an unusual perspective."

"Like it? The nice hospital gal who does our beds was kind enough to bring me a book."

"Yet your path and mine cross often enough."

"Aye, but I'm a carnivore and my hoofs are made of tough stuff. And I've naught to fear from you, Rob Lucci, no more than that pigeon fears perching on your shoulder there."

"I believe you are confusing Hattori with the phenomenon of waterbirds and the hippopotamus."

"'Tweren't my aim to read about hippopotamuses. She only brought me a book on giraffes."

"Your theory has not been tested."

"Could test it right now."

"We would break the beds."

"They've got lots.

"Now I'm reaching out my hoof like this, and you put out your paw and retract those claws while you're at it, and we'll see about instinct."

"So they will remove us from CP9."

"So says the breeze. 'Course, she often lies. There's not many who could have gotten half as far as you, Lucci."

"What does the leopard do if he is cast out of the jungle?"

"He lives on the savannah with the giraffe. It's his natural habitat."

"I have not felt this tired in many years, Kaku."

"Aye, I'm tuckered as well. Get yourself to sleep, Lucci. No need to keep one eye open. There's nobody here but me."

And that was how the nice hospital gal found them - a leopard with his head of black curls tucked into the nook of the giraffe's neck curled around his shoulders; both asleep; a hoof resting beneath a padded paw - when she came to scold them for breaking the beds.

--End--
notes: I didn't know how to make Kaku sound like an old man without him waving a cane and making him yell "Back in my day...!" Old-man English is hard, yo ;; This fic is...so-so. I wish I could have written something more interesting for sasorikatana, but to be honest Rob Lucci doesn't interest me at all as a character. He was more engaging in Water 7 serving as a foil for Paulie's antics, but once he became a Serious Business guy in a Serious Business situation, I just went "...eh." Kaku's half of the conversation was more fun to write; I hope it's enough to carry the whole fic but again, this one doesn't really stand out for me :/