Work Text:
“Can you stop almost dying for like 10 minutes.” Taigen groaned as he trekked through the forest with Mizu once again barely clinging to life slumped over his back.
“Now where would the fun in that be?” Mizu snarked back, his voice barely above a whisper, even as his head rested on Taigens shoulder.
“There is no fun in it, there’s honor, my honor specifically. Because no one gets to kill you but me.”
“You’ve had plenty of chances, yet you’ve taken none.”
“Honorably.” As the silence fell Taigen searched for another topic to keep Mizu talking, long enough to reach Ringo back at camp. “Hey Mizu,” He paused, waiting for some form of acknowledgement. He began to panic slightly when he didn’t respond.
“Mizu, wake up!” he shouted jostuling him where he rested on his back. “Fuck!” Taigen carefully rested Mizu against the ground, he began patting him down and found the problem almost immediately. There was a deep gash running up his side. It had split both layers of his clothing revealing a bloodstained loosely hanging around his chest. Had the idiot been hiding another injury? He began to tear through the rest of the fabric and froze, it wasn’t an injury. Mizu was a woman. He had to be sure, he reached for the scarf around her neck and sighed. There was no adams apple. He would deal with this later. For now he had to make sure Mizu wouldn’t die. Male or not he needed him alive to restore his honor. Rolling her onto her side, he grabbed a needle and thread and began the arduous task of stitching her skin back together.
It felt indecent to be seeing her in such a vulnerable state of undress. Especially with the way his mind began to drift back to their wrestle in the forge. If he’d known then would he have made a move, if he was honest with himself he knew that Mizu’s gender truly hadn’t mattered. He’d found a rhythm to his stitches when he felt the body under him stiffen and he barely dodged the vicious punch Mizu had sent his way.
“What the hell! You're gonna tear your stitches.” Taigen gestured to the needle and snapped the thread.
“Don’t touch me!” Mizu groaned, clutching the remains of her haori to her body. She’d pushed herself up on one shaking arm and glared daggers at him. “If you touch me again I’ll kill.” “Before we commit murder consider I could’ve left you to bleed out and die here. Or killed you while you were passed out, instead I was,” he emphasized the word, and pointed out the needle again “trying to save your life!” “Beside this,” he gestured at her chest, “nothing changes between us. I’m still the only one who gets to kill you. Now lay back down before you bleed out.” Mizu held his eyes for a moment more before nodding briefly and laying down. Taigen knelt next to her again and inspected his previous work, luckily for them both only a few of the stitches had come undone.
"We can have Ringo take a closer look when we get back to camp, but I think you'll live."
"thank you Taigen."