Nurse Me

Chapter 6

What a fucking tease.

Saya closed her eyes and turned in her seat so she was facing away from Orochimaru’s calm face. Finding Kabuto’s eyes drilling into hers from the opposite couch when she opened them, however, wasn’t a welcoming sight. She stared right back at him, almost daring him to say something as the tension between them grew. Saya could feel Orochimaru’s eyes looking down at her. She knew he was smirking.

At that moment she didn’t know who she wanted to hit more. All she knew was that she was furious on the inside. She was going to have serious words with “Lord” Orochimaru later. Not that he would listen or care. He would probably just smirk at her and try to get handsy again.

He finally turned his golden eyes to Kabuto. “You’re behaving like a child.”

Kabuto’s expression softened drastically as he looked at his lord. He looked much worse up close. A thin sheet of sweat covered his face and dark circles hung under his tired eyes. “I’m quite capable of healing myself-” he softly began.

“Then tell me, Kabuto,” Orochimaru interrupted, “if you are as well enough as you say, why have you only healed yourself?”

“Well-”

“After all, weren’t my injuries and your weakened state the reason you sent for help?”

Saya stole a quick glance at Orochimaru. He looked relatively calm, but his eyes and tone were beginning to harden. She looked back at Kabuto. It could have been his physical exhaustion, but he looked wounded.

Kabuto sat back against the sofa. He looked at Orochimaru as if to apologize, but it never came. A moment of silence passed between them as they continued to stare at each other before Kabuto closed his eyes. “Head injuries, fractured and broken bones, and deep cuts. Are you educated enough to treat those?”

It took Saya a moment to realize he was speaking to her, and yet another moment to realize he was questioning her level of skill. She gave her jaw a quick clench before putting on a fake grin. “I should be able to. But then again, what does a woman know?” She smiled when he scowled at her.

Saya stood and announced she would leave long enough to get her supplies. Kabuto allowed his weakness to show as he lay down on the couch before she had cleared the room. A fever and who knows what other symptoms would be added to his list of what he questioned whether or not she was qualified to treat. By this point Saya was not looking forward to examining him. She knew he would be difficult on purpose.

Not quite knowing what or how much of what she would need, Saya threw all of her supplies into a bag when she got to her room. She decided to take a moment to sit on her bed and have a moment to herself. Kabuto had been avoiding since her arrival; he wouldn’t mind a few minutes waiting.

“Tired?” a voice asked her as she rubbed the back of her neck.

Saya stopped and closed her eyes with a sigh. “What do you want?” she asked Orochimaru as he stepped into her room.

“I wasn’t finished.”

She turned around to look up at him and jumped. He was right behind her now. “There is nothing to finish,” Saya told him as she turned back around. She gathered her bag in her hands and stood to leave the room.

Orochimaru moved in front of her and placed his hands on the sides of her shoulders. “Yes, there is,” he whispered.

Saya felt like a caged animal now that he was blocking the only exit. She kept her eyes away from his face as she tried to squirm out of his grip. He only held her tighter. “Let me go,” she told him firmly. “I see no reason in finishing “nothing”.”

Orochimaru traced her bottom lip with a finger. “Was it more than nothing, Saya?” he asked her, humor creeping into his voice. “You sound disappointed with my choice of words.”

She looked up at him then with determination. He wasn’t going to get the better of her. “No, it was nothing, but that’s not the type of person I am. I don’t go around giving out ‘nothings’. I’ve been passive with you, but you’ve pushed me too far. Now move.”

“There’s a difference between passive and proactive,” he said with a smile, “which is what you were before we were interrupted.”

Saya lowered her head. “Let me go,” she said again.

Not listening, Orochimaru bent his head to gently bush his lips against hers. “I want to see how long it takes to break that determination.” He then released her and left her room to return to his own. “Don’t take too long with Kabuto. I still need my time.”

If Saya had a blunt object in her hand, she would have bet on herself hitting the man with it. He took not taking “no” for an answer to an entirely new level. Fine then. If he wanted to play, she would play.

Stalking down the halls she returned to the den, hoping Kabuto hadn’t given her the slip. Being put in his place kept him still, though. He was still laid out on the couch when Saya returned. He had an arm draped over his eyes as if they hurt.

“What first?” she bluntly asked as she set her bag down on the empty couch.

Kabuto shakily sat up then. “My back,” he said as struggled to get his shirt above his head. Medical cloth tape wound around his entire torso, with the back being stained by brown and red patches. Saya sat down behind him as he turned sideways.

She silently began to unwrap the cloth, not bothering to pull easily whenever a spot was stuck to his skin from the dried blood. No bandages were underneath the wrappings seeing as how Kabuto couldn’t reach the wounds. Most were still bleeding while other, smaller cuts had stopped sooner.

Saya made no comment as she got up briefly to get her bag. She wanted to fuss at him for letting his wounds go without proper attention, for letting himself get sick, for being too prideful and trying to take care of himself; for pretty much everything.

She poured alcohol onto a rag and rubbed it over his back. Kabuto arched his back with a hiss. “Watch it,” he growled at her. Saya applied more pressure to his back, causing him to hiss again.

She ignored him and continued to clean away the dried blood. He didn’t need stitches, but that didn’t mean the cuts needed less care. Saya applied a generous layer of antibiotic cream over the cuts before properly bandaging them. One particularly long one that ran along most of his back worried her.

“What else?”

Kabuto was already putting his shirt back on. “That’s all. I can take care of the rest myself.”

Saya sighed and rolled her eyes. “You know what? Fine, get worse and take forever to get better. Both of you can for all I care.” She stood and grabbed her bag. Just as she was about to leave, Kabuto smirked and shot a comment at her.

“That’s just as well. You’re just something for him to look at in the meantime.”

Saya stopped in her tracks in the doorway and turned around. She glared at his tired but smiling face. Time to push his buttons right back. “Play with me, actually,” she commented with a fake smile. “But you know that, don’t you? He’s upset about you ruining the mood, by the way.”

Kabuto’s eyes looked like they could shoot flames. They suddenly weren’t as tired, and he certainly wasn’t smiling anymore.

“Oh, did I hit a nerve?”

“Shut the hell up,” he spat as he turned his face away from her.

Saya smiled again. She had indeed hit a nerve. “Are you jealous, Kabuto? Are you upset that your beloved lord would rather have his hands all over a woman than a man? More so, a woman he barely knows over the man that’s closest to him?”

There was no vocal reply, but the tension in the room was reply enough.

“No, then? What a shame. He has really soft lips.”

Saya’s smile dropped as soon as the words left her mouth. She hadn’t meant to say that. Continue to jab at him, yes, but she realized there was truth behind her words. Not that she had long to ponder it; Kabuto stood and quickly shot a throwing star at her head. Saya barely had time to duck.

“I said,” he spoke through clenched teeth, “shut the hell up.”

She stood and looked behind her to a spot on the wall in the hallway. The star was lodged into the wall just as the one he had thrown at Akira was. Saya turned back around to find Kabuto standing tense in the middle of the room. “Do you have an idea what you could have done!?” she shouted. “What is your damn problem?”

“You are!” Kabuto spat as he reached into his pocket for another star. He launched it at her with just as much agility as the first.

Saya ducked but ran forward after the flying metal had cleared her head. “I haven’t done anything!” she retaliated as she ran into Kabuto with her shoulder curled in. She felt her bones hit against his as he fell to the ground. He cried out horribly as he hit the floor. He struggled to sit up, slapping and shoving at Saya as he did so.

“I’m always there for him,” he told her as she scooted away from him. “Always at his side for everything. I fight alongside him and even for him when we are attacked. I heal and take care of him when he is hurt. I do anything he asks of me. Not because it’s just my job or that I fear him; I do it to please him.” He paused to look over at Saya on the opposite side of the floor.

“And then I got hurt, which brought you to come along. You took what I love to do away from me. And what’s worse,” he now hardened his tone, “he prefers you. Someone he doesn’t even know over someone who would cut open their veins for him.”

He stopped again to watch her observing him. Saya stared blankly at him, not really knowing what to do or think.

“I saw how he reacted this morning when you burst in. His eyes lightened. You even made him laugh before he allowed you to throw me out. And just earlier-” Kabuto’s voice cracked as he dropped his head. “Do you have any idea how it feels? All it took was some female who caught his eye for him to just push me away like child with a worn out toy.”

Saya watched as Kabuto put his head between his knees. He sounded as if he was actually in love with the man. She tried to find empathy for him, but just couldn’t.

“That’s not my fault,” she softly told him. “You needed someone to come and help you both. That’s what I’m doing. Since you are the medic, I was going to treat you first and spend most of my time on you so you could be well enough to heal him. But no, you pushed me towards him and him alone. I’ve done nothing but what I was brought here to do.”

“That means nothing to me,” Kabuto told her as he raised his head. “You could be a one-night whore he sent for, but I’d still be angry.”

What a lovely comparison.

“I can’t help what he does or feels, Kabuto. If he doesn’t see you in that way, me being here or not will not change that.” She stood and looked down at him on the floor. “Neither will my responses to him. I’m not doing anything deliberate to get this attention from him.”

Saya grabbed her bag and again made to leave.

“What do you think of him?” Kabuto flatly asked her.

Saya almost laughed. She knew their feelings about him were completely different. “You know him better than I do, but if you must know, I think he’s rude, arrogant, and infuriating.”

What Kabuto didn’t hear were the adjectives Saya’s subconscious forced into her mind. He looked and sounded completely broken when he told her, “He’s beautiful.”

“I know,” Saya agreed. She walked away before Kabuto turned around to find her gone.


AN: And so Saya and Kabuto develop that much more tension between them.
Reviews are nice.
:)