DSOAS9

This is the first of three chapters that all take place on the same day. They're pretty much just various visits that Ayame gets whilst in the hospital. They were originally one chapter, but I've separated them in order to give me some time to get ahead of the mountains of work waiting to collapse upon me. I hope you all understand this, yes? Plus the chapter was about six pages long, with was way more than any of the others thus far.

Anyways, with love, as always, Jiia

"Can I ask just what you thought you were doing, cutting yourself like that?"

Hatori folded his arms across his chest, beaming a death-glare at the slender man lost in a sea of white sheets, white robes, white bandages stained with red. Ayame shot him a look that might have been intimidating if he hadn't looked like three shades of death warmed over. His pale skin was bleached with blood loss, and the heavy black circles beneath his eyelids spoke of many sleepless nights, far more than Hatori would have expected.

Very little was as he expected these days. He had known that Ayame had issues. He'd known for years, in fact. Long enough to get used to it, to become complacent. To accept Aya's broken laughter as normal, as good, in fact. He had fallen into the eternal trap. He'd begun to believe his best friend's beautiful lies.

He couldn't very well believe them now, not with the man's pain written cross his body in stitches and blood. He wouldn't be fooled by false smiles and hidden tears. Not anymore.

"I told you, Ha-san, it was an accident." Ayame flexed his slender fingers, obviously wanting to cross his arms over his chest but unable to do so because of the padded restraints the dragon had asked the nurse to put on.

He wasn't taking any chances.

"Like hell it was." He leant back in his chair, somehow managing to convey his rage in even the crossing of his long legs. "You've been cutting yourself for a long time, Aya. Don't bother lying; I've seen the marks."

"So what if I have?" The snake snapped, venom dripping from every word. "It's not like you care!"

The doctor's singular eye went wide. He recoiled from the seething man as if struck, normally pale skin blanching even further till he was almost as pale as Ayame.

"Of course I care! How could you say something like that? I'm your friend!"

"Oh, really?" Ayame spat, his beautiful golden eyes vivid with unrepressed rage. "My friend, huh? Isn't that kind of against the rules, Mr. Therapist? Aren't you compromising your precious objectivity?"

Hatori forced himself to be still. His fingers gripped the arms of the chair so tightly they left marks. He shoved himself to his feet, arms shaking uncontrollably as he restrained himself from doing something unspeakably foolish. His long hair fell down over both his eyes, leaving them in shadow, carefully neutral expression more telling than any furious snarl.

"You're a fool, Ayame. If you keep pushing away the people who love you, eventually they're not going to come back."

He turned on his heel and stormed over to the door, wrenching it open violently. Just as he was about to leave, he heard his lover's familiar voice call out from the empty anaesthesia of the hospital room.

"Hatori."

The man paused. He didn't turn around, didn't look back. If he turned around, he'd just break. He'd just fall to pieces, and the others needed him to be strong. He needed himself to be strong.

"Don't tell Shigure."

Hatori said nothing. He closed the door quietly behind him. He couldn't slam it, not knowing exactly what expression would cross Aya's face at the explosive sound. He couldn't bear to think of hurting Ayame so, not even if he already had. Not even if he'd already done so much worse.

He walked down the hall, passing nurses, doctors, people like him, people so different it was like they were a different species. He slid out into the bright noon day sun, a perfect day, cloudless and clear. It didn't matter.

It was still dark.