VI ~ Blood makes the family.

2007-01-26T22:27:36Z

2008.09.30

Tokai University Hospital, Tokyo

"So, is she going to be okay?"

Die was staring at the veins protruding from under his skin. They were tinted blue and beige, the saffron wash of his heritage gleaming over them. They were slightly more swollen than the average hand-veins of someone of his age, casually blamed on too much smoking and too much drinking, but the blood still ran through them and right around the world of his body back to his heart.

Then, he looked down at Yukina's hands.

They were tiny, beautiful and soft like bread dough, the paleness making them look like they were still dusted in flour. But those tiny, beautiful perfect hands didn't make any sense to Die.

They were sick.

The blood that ran through them, through tiny arms and rosy cheeks and round tummy... it was sick. Not that Die wasn't used to people being sick. Two of his brothers had asthma, Toshiya was a diabetic, he was lactose intolerant and Kaoru had hayfever bad enough to choke him in high summer.

Once again, this sickness. It topped everything. It topped the runny noses or the inability to drink milk. Yukina needed bone marrow to make her better. It made Die just angry thinking about it. Poor baby, his poor baby who had just uttered her first actual words last week and had discovered her nose needed bone marrow to survive.

"Well, mister Niikura, the problematic thing is.. no, she's not. Not if we don't get a blood donor that matches hers. And considering your.." He coughed, and Die's fists clenched, his veins bulging. "..The fact that Yukina has no siblings, and you are not her biological parents.."

"So that's it?!" Die said suddenly, standing up and waving his arms in some form of desperation. "That can't be it! Just because she's adopted and we're gay she's going to die?" He could feel Kaoru sniffle beside him and he wasn't sure if it was emotion or that aforementioned hay fever that had been bothering the man for the past few days. "You can fucking forget it, you.."

"Die.." Kaoru's voice was heartbreakingly soft, and he could hear Yukina murmurring, lying relaxed in her Papa's arms.

"..You've got a whole hospital filled with blood samples and shit, why don't you use some of that?!" The doctor looked cross suddenly, but Die didn't care, couldn't bring himself to care when his baby girl could die and this man was worried about being insulted. "If you're a doctor then you damn well better.."

"Die." It remained soft, Kaoru's voice. Normally it would have felt like velvet against Die's ears, but at that moment it just hurt. Kaoru was hurting and he was being an impulsive asshole again. Without saying another word, Kaoru turned to the doctor. "We can bring close friends in, right? To have them tested? My sister has anemia and my parents brought in relatives and friends to see if their blood matched." His voice strained and Die's heart stretched along with it. He knew how much Kaoru hated mentioning his parents.

"Yes, you can." The doctor seemed incredibly relieved to be talking to someone who was able to keep his sanity in check. Fuck him, Die thought, he'd be nice when that doctor told him his daughter was going to be a-okay. "Her blood type is B, so I suggest bringing in friends that have that blood type. But please, stay realistic."

Yukina whimpered when Kaoru stood, rolling her head to look at him as Kaoru adjusted her on his hip. A sudden ache filled his head, banging angry fists against the walls of his skull. He hardly even noticed the walk back to the car, or the heartachingly enduring softness of Kaoru's voice, or how Yukina just stared out of the window suckling on her pacifier contently like the good girl she was. After a very violent flash of pain, Die put a hand to his head and bit his lip to keep from cursing.

"I'm so sorry." He heard from his left and felt a smaller hand cover his own on his head. Understanding compeltely left him. What did Kaoru have to be sorry for? "Sometimes I get so caught up in being.. happy, I.." His voice trailed away, making the silence feel even more pressing. "I forget about the world outside and that life is really just shit in general." The softness escaped him and he sounded like his before-thirty self, the rockstar who believed in a judgmental, harsh world with no love and no freedom.

The words spoken in that tone made it all even worse.

"Fuck, Kaoru." Die said harshly, but in a whispered tone, so it didn't disturb Yukina. His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly they turned white, the healthy blood in his veins making his veins a healthy royal blue, pushing his temper even farther over the edge at the unfairness of it all. "I swear I love you more than I love my own life, but ever since I've met you I have nothing but shun responsiblity or being a fucking adult and for once, Kaoru, for once I have to be. We both signed our names on that contract for her. For better or worse, we both have to be responsible, you.. and especially me." For the entirety of his speech, he did not look at Kaoru, refused to be put off his piece of mind by being scared he might say something he would cower out of. "You and Yukina.. you're my life now. And if I fuck this up, Kaoru," He paused. "If I fuck this up I might as well lay down and die myself."

When Die finally managed to lock eyes with Kaoru, he suddenly felt like he had made work of what he had said. Like one look in Kaoru's eyes was the coming of age ceremony he had refused to attend as a boy.

"Good."

-

".. I think he's waking up."

"He's making noi.., isn't he? That constitutes ... sciousness, doesn't it?"

"This is Kyo .. talking about, ..member?"

"..Leave him be, guys."

"How's the maggot?"

The final words came from the horse's mouth itself, voice dry and raspy from the tubing that had been lodged in his throat for nearly two hours. After a fair bit of poking and testing, the miraculous conclusion was made that Kyo and Yukina's blood type may not have been identical but good enough to treat her with. Kyo, always shying away from Yukina whenever she was in a room with him, had agreed almost instaneously.

Far be it for them, to say anything more on the matter.

"She's still under anaesthetic, but the operation went well. You were out for almost a whole day, man, you trying to tell me something here?" Through the fuzzy haze of morphine Kyo could recognize Kaoru's voice, and next to him a curtain of cinnamon blond hair that he knew as Shinya's. A long fingered hand that he knew pushed a drinking straw to his mouth. "Kyo, I.."

"Don't." Kyo said, the drugs in his body heightening every sensation. If any got sentimental, he would certainly fall to pieces. "She needed it, I've got it, I gave it. It doesn't get any more simple than that." Bright red burned into his retinas suddenly.

It said nothing, that red blur, but put pressure on where Kyo knew from memory his hand would be. That, in itself, was worth more than any scar that would be left on his body.

As Kyo fell slowly back into a drug induced sleep, Die smiled, first at Kyo, then to the others, his eyes lingering out of habit on the last person he looked at.

"..eh, mister Niikura?" Kaoru looked up. "And mister Andou?" And as did Die. "Yukina is just waking up, and I believe she's all ready to see you two now."

Die heard Yukina's voice in his mind.

And he was reborn.

AN. I realise how short this piece is for such a heavy subject, but like it says on the userinfo these are all snippets. So nobody's thinking I'm trying to cheat you out of this. I had a great deal of chapters all ready to post, but my computer crashed big time and I lost all that. Therefor it took me some time to pull up the motivation to restart, but here I am again.

Also, if anyone knows anyone who would love to read this, promote promote! Having people reading and enjoy this really inspires me to write, so! Thank you for reading! :3

familial moments

VI ~ Blood makes the family.