Taking Care of You
By the Alternative Source
Disclaimer: I don't own anything when it comes to Samurai Champloo. Except my story of course. Lol.
Summary: Fuu gets seriously injured when she saves Mugen during an attack.
Chapter 3
Fingers twitched. Eyelids fluttered. Lips parted as her breathing increased. Finally her eyes opened. For a couple of seconds Fuu couldn't see anything. Everything was a blur as she tried to focus her eyes. She winced at the how bright it was in the room.
'Damn sun.' Fuu was about to cover her face with her left arm when shocking pain racked her body.
"Ahhh, my arm…." She groaned as she felt pain shoot down her arm. As soon as she stopped moving the pain receded.
'Where am I?' Fuu blinked and finally was able to focus her eyes. Looking around herself her eyes widened in surprise. She was in a room. Not in on the bank of a river or a dirty cave. She was in an actual room with a shoji door, futon, and everything.
"What the hell happened?" Fuu painfully tried to lift herself up when she felt someone push her shoulder back down.
"You know we went through much trouble to get you this room. It would not be wise to move."
Fuu looked to her right and saw that Jin was leaning against the wall beside her. Fuu let out a sigh and relaxed back down on the bed. There was no use fighting with Jin on this one. He was right. She was injured and the more she moved the longer they would keep her in bed.
"I guess so."
Jin kept silent as he watched over Fuu. No words were spoken as Fuu tried to move her limbs. After five minutes of trying to move her limbs with little to no success and Jin just watching her as she struggled she huffed in anger. With a frown on her face she looked over at Jin.
"So what happened? How did I get here?"
Jin pushed his glasses back up his nose and looked at her for a couple seconds before replying.
"What was the last thing you remember?"
Fuu turned her head and looked and the ceiling. A small crease formed on her head as she thought. 'Ok. Let's see. I remember traveling a couple of days from the last village. I remember arguing with Mugen and huffing out of the cave in anger. And then I remember the guy that was watching me.' As soon as she thought about the man that appeared out of nowhere in the forest all the events of that night came flooding back.
'Mugen.'
"Mugen? Where is he? Is he okay?" Fuu looked at him with pleading eyes. She had to know if he was okay. Jin lifted his hand and pointed behind her. Fuu turned her head quickly she came face to face with the mop of brown that was known as Mugen's hair.
He was lying next to her with his face facing her way. His hair was covering half of his face but the half that she could see looked terrible. Mugen had bags under his eyes and his skin wasn't sporting the dark tan he always had. He actually looked a little pale. He was quietly snoring next to her. Upon further inspection she noticed that his futon was right next to her futon and that his legs were slightly on her futon.
In the back ground she could hear Jin's voice answering the questions that were swirling around in her head.
"When you were injured we were both concerned. You were bleeding profusely and your breathing was slowly getting worse. But no one was more concerned than him. He ripped his shirt into strips and did the best he could to stop the bleeding. He wouldn't even let me help him. When he got the bleeding to stop he carried you two days to the next village. Once here he gave up all his money to get you the medicine and rooming you needed. It's been two weeks since we arrived in this village and that idiot looks like that because instead of sleeping he has stayed up watching you. He finally fell asleep yesterday from exhaustion."
As Jin told her this she stared at Mugen's face. Mugen looked like crap. And he looked like crap because he was worried about her.
Fuu looked down and blushed as she realized that he had no shirt on.
"Damn."
Jin chuckled beside her, "You have no idea." Jin got up as Fuu kept on looking at Mugen with concern in her eyes. Fuu didn't even look up as Jin walked over to the door, "I will be back in a little while. You are in need of new bandages and more medicine."
As soon as Jin finished saying this he walked out of the room in search of more bandages and medicine for Fuu.
Jin's words didn't register until she heard the shoji door close and Jin was long gone. She couldn't believe that the scruffy man that had picked on her for years had actually stayed up and watched over her for two weeks.
"Just when I thought you didn't care."
She was startled when he grunted and moved closer to her when she spoke. Fuu could now feel his hair in her face. An itch began to form on her nose as his hair tickle her nose. She tried to blow it away but all that ended up doing was making more of his hair fall on her face.
'Figures. I can't move my arms, the man that I care for is sleeping next to me with no shirt, and his hair is bothering the hell out of my nose.'
Frowning she looked over at Mugen and softly whispered his name, "Mugen." He didn't move at all and she spoke his name a little louder this time, "Mugen." This time he grunted and mumbled something that she couldn't understand.
Her eyebrow started twitching as she tried to hold back a sneeze. If she kept on whispering his name he wasn't going to wake up. She realized that she would have to bring out the big guns. Opening her mouth she shouted directly into his hair.
"FREE FOOD MUGEN!!"
And just like she predicted Mugen was on his feet in a matter of seconds and was looking around the room wildly in search of the food. The seconds went by as she waited for Mugen to finally realize where he was at and that there was no food. Finally he looked over at her as he realized that the one that woke him up from his slumber was Fuu.
'Here it comes.'
"What the hell Fuu? What's all this damn shouting about food?"
Instead of getting the usual angry comeback from Fuu she just smiled up at him. His eyebrow raised and he gave her a weird look.
"What are you smiling at?"
"Nothing," Mugen narrowed his eyes at her before approaching her and sitting down beside her on his futon. With his legs crossed he just sat next to Fuu. When she looked up at Mugen she could tell that he wanted to talk. His eyes kept on flickering between her wounds and the wall.
'He's worried about me.'
"Mugen," his eyes flickered up to hers, "I'm okay."
He hesitated before speaking, "I know."
She decided that she wanted to investigate a little into what he had done for her when she was injured, "What happened?"
Fuu watched as his eyes showed an emotion that she had never seen, worry. His right hand moved from his lap and his fingers lightly grazed her injured shoulder. He kept his eyes on her shoulder as he spoke.
"After you passed out I tried to wake you up but you wouldn't move. When you wouldn't move we took you back to the cave and tried to stop the bleeding. But it just wouldn't stop," his eyes flickered to hers for a second as she watched him, "After a while we were finally able to stop the bleeding but we knew that we had to get you to a village. You needed medicine. It took about a day to get here. When we got here we arranged for this room and got you all the medicine that you needed. That was two weeks ago."
Fuu felt her heart clench as she watched Mugen. He looked so tired as he kept on slightly grazing her bandaged shoulder.
"Mugen," he immediately looked up as Fuu called his name, "Have you been sleeping?"
His face hardened as he realized that he was letting his emotions show. Fuu smirked. He could harden his face but his eyes were not cooperating like usual. His eyes were still full of worry.
Mugen pulled his hand away from her shoulder and placed it back in his lap, "Of course I've been sleeping. What do you think? I stayed up and watched over your scrawny ass for two weeks. You've got to be kidding me."
Mugen watched her and waited for Fuu's comeback. When he looked at her face he realized that her eyes were drooping and a smile was on her face. The smile surprised him. He had just insulted her and she was smiling.
" Ohh, Mugen. You know I can always tell when you're lying," she whispered slowly as sleep took over her body.
Mugen sat next to Fuu and watched as sleep over took her. Even injured she managed to surprise him. She had never smiled at him like that before and he was surprised that he liked it. Mugen the tough cocky wanderer liked that a scrawny little girl smiled at him.
'Well…not a girl anymore is she.' He looked over her covered body and he bit his lip as he raised his hand towards her face, 'Not a girl at all.' He pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear and placed his hand on her cheek.
After a couple of seconds he pulled his hand away and stood up to stretch his limbs, "Lying? There's no way that she could tell when I'm lying."
End of Chapter 3
Author's Note: Ohhhh, I hope you liked this chapter. I'm going to try to make the characters a little more open to their feelings for each other. And if you guys are wondering why Fuu is acting a little out of character it is because she appreciates what Mugen did for her and she just can't be mad at him. I'll definitely explain it more in the next chapter.
Ciao.