Work Text:
Hinao had just locked up the cafe a few minutes before someone started drumming on the door so desperately as if he was fleeing persecution and the girl's place was his last chance to escape. If the knocking had been quieter, the girl would have ignored it and gone to rest, but she wouldn't forgive herself if she'd left someone in trouble. The more surprised she was by the identity of her unexpected guest.
"Shiba? What the hell?"
The man smiled, seemingly trying to impress the girl with his charm.
"Is this how you greet your best customer? Not exactly friendly."
"Did you even look at your watch? I'm closed."
"Yes, it's good to see you, too, Hinao."
Actually, Hinao didn't expect to see Shiba at all. The last time he came to see her looking for a job was three months ago. When the rumors of Rokuhira Kushinige's death spread, he disappeared from the radar. Hinao even thought for a while that maybe Shiba had been killed along with his friend, or maybe he was the killer and was now hiding somewhere. Then, however, the girl heard about him: he was alive, but he was taking care of Rokuhira's kid. The poor child was left all alone.
So Shiba had definitely been busy with everything else but work all this time — Hinao could understand that. But what was he doing here now? And... he didn't look good either. Deadly pale and with dark circles under his eyes.
Before the girl let the man inside, he leaned one hand on the door frame, as if he had trouble standing. The jacket he was wearing was from someone else — a couple sizes too big for him. Sliding her eyes downward, Hinao couldn't hold back an exclamation of horror.
"Shiba, is that blood?" A red stain was spreading across the white fabric of his shirt beneath his stomach.
"Nah, it's ketchup," Shiba lied. Hinao, whose mind was already replaying scenarios of what had happened, gave an indignant snort. "Yeah, I admit it was a dumb joke. But forget it, it's fine."
Upon closer inspection, Hinao saw that the shirt, though covered in blood, was still intact, the stain was too peculiar to think blood was was someone else's.
"He's fine, but of course!" The girl looked expressively at Shiba. Do all men look like that, or is she just lucky to have such a type? "And what should I do with you?"
"Let me in, warm me up, offer me a cup of coffee, or maybe..." He stopped, hissed, and grimaced in pain, "... something stronger."
He's fine. Yeah, yeah. Of course, he is.
But she is going to kick him out.
Hinao pretended to be a doorman while letting Shiba into the cafe.
"Why, are you on the hospital's blacklist?" She asked as he slowly and winced as he made himself comfortable at a table.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, why didn't you go there? My services don't include medical treatment, you know."
"I've been there. Forget it, I'm telling you."
Hinao shook her head and began to make coffee. She was already forming a theory in her head, which could very well be true, given Shiba's character. He'd gotten stabbed somewhere, and been to the hospital, but had forgotten or ignored the standard advice to take it easy and get plenty of rest. He was running around somewhere, overstretched himself, so he bled again. Go to the hospital again — why, everything is fine! The hospital might not let him out this time, they might leave him for a couple of days so that he wouldn't act too cocky, but he has so many things to do, so many things!
He's such a moron! Even though he's older.
If he quits, what will happen to little Rokuhira?
It's a necessity to see what's wrong with him, maybe his stitches split. But okay, let him drink his damn coffee first.
With those thoughts, Hinao handed Shiba a cup. It was black coffee with sugar — she didn't ask, just thought he could use some.
"I was hoping for something stronger," Shiba said with disappointment.
"We'll see if you deserve it," Hinao snorted. "So far, I don't see you earned even a coffee."
"And you're not very nice to the wounded," Shiba grumbled and sipped his coffee. His contented humming made the girl smile — yes, she made a good coffee. "Thank you, Hinao."
Instead of responding to the praise, Hinao went ahead:
"You're getting old, Shiba, aren't you?"
"What's your point?" Did he not understand or was he playing dumb?
"Well, it would take a lot of effort to get injured like that with the teleportation ability. You accidentally teleported onto someone's knife?"
"No."
"Then maybe a weapons storage?"
"How do you imagine a weapons storage?"
"Then tell me what happened!" The girl sat across from the man and propped her chin up with her palms, showing her full attention.
Shiba frowned and thought for a moment, then, as if ashamed, stretched out:
"Well... I fucked up. I hit some sharp torn or prick... bush prick or something. Before you ask, it was a very big bush. With very big thorns" It didn't sound very convincing.
"Sure," Hinao's lips stretched into a smirk as she realized everything. "Were you drunk?"
Shiba didn't even try to deny it, instead appealing to the girl's conscience:
"My friend died, Hinao! The closest one!"
"Three months ago! And as far as I know, he left behind a kid who..."
"... now depends on me," Shiba wasn't surprised that Hinao already knew everything. After all, she collected all rumors like a true gossip queen. "I know."
"And you came to me. Without warning. Did you think I wouldn't care about you or what? Screw the blood, all that, huh? You thought I would ignore that you look like a walking dead man?" Hinao was getting more and more angry without knowing why. She wanted to grab Shiba by the shoulders and shake her. Take his hand and drag him to the hospital. To pull him there by force if he didn't go himself.
"This is going to sound like a really dumb excuse, but I didn't notice the blood, and I didn't think you would. I wasn't trying to make you feel bad."
He didn't notice!
Maybe he was drunk even now? But no, he smelled of blood, bandages, and the remnants of bad cologne, but not of booze. Maybe he was a little weak from blood loss, but he wasn't drunk.
"Tell you what, why don't you show me what you got, and maybe — maybe! — I'll get you something better. "Yes, it was a bribe, but Hinao realized it was the easiest way to convince the man.
"And ruin such a good bandage?" For god's sake, he's like a child!
"Shiba, I'll kick you out!"
"All right, all right!"
He took off the jacket and shirt, which was also a bit too big for him. As expected, Hinao saw the bandage on his stomach, neatly and professionally done — she couldn't do it like that — but, of course, badly marred by blood. Hinao couldn't help but run her eyes over the man's trim torso — while she reflected on his childishness! She saw several old scars, to which another would now be added. Hinao couldn't help but wonder if these scars were all from battles, or if there were other results of drunken adventures among them.
Oh, Shiba!
With her first aid kit, Hinao got rid of the bloody bandage. She breathed out a sigh of relief: the stitches hadn't come apart, just a lot of blood had protruded, and it didn't seem to be coming out anymore. Did he overstretch himself when he teleported? Maybe. Didn't he say teleportation didn't affect him?
Washing off the blood with disinfectant, Hinao said:
"Tell me that prick who did that got it worse."
"You mean the bush prick? Forget about it."
Hinao looked at Shiba with a frown.
"If the bush pricks now have knives instead of thorns, then yeah, the bush prick of course."
"Oh man, is it that obvious?" Hinao was even grateful that Shiba wasn't making stupid excuses. She didn't want to have to drag the truth out of him.
"It is."
She'd never actually seen wounds left by very big sticks or sharp thorns, only her intuition told her that such wounds were unlikely to be so clean. There would probably be more scratches or other wounds. She'd seen stab wounds and scars before, her regular customers were not the innocent angels who'd never even skinned their knees.
"Well, I kind of memorized that prick's face... The guy, to be exact..."
"Shit, Shiba, you should drink less! Hold the tissue, please," Shiba obediently obeyed the girl's request while she wrapped a bandage around his torso. "Thank you. What did he want from you?"
Shiba hesitated.
"Don't tell me you don't remember!"
"Yeah, I remember, I just... It was all me. He was talking shit. About Rokuhira. But I didn't know he had a knife!"
"Geez, you should've left him alone... Reacting to this... Although, if you were drunk, what am I talking about?
Hinao fixed the bandage and looked at her own doing with pride. It came out no worse than a professional's.
"Still, why aren't you in the hospital?"
"I woke up there, then heard they wanted to keep me there for a couple of days. So I left. I took someone else's jacket, though. And a shirt. Didn't thought about my own, although it would be good only for rags now."
Hinao chuckled, imagining the surprise of the real owner of the clothes when he didn't find them when he was discharged.
"Aren't you supposed to be sober? Or was it from blood loss?"
Shiba shrugged.
"Did you teleport?"
"Yep."
"I thought you said it didn't put any strain on your body."
"Well, to be fair, I usually jump without a hole in my stomach."
For some reason, that was the last straw. The outraged girl just snapped:
"Tell me, Shiba, you're a grown man, so pull yourself together! You will not honor your friend's memory and avenge him if you die while being drunk!" Shiba, ashamed, said nothing, but averted his eyes. "Imagine if that guy had killed you, and Kushinige had met you in the afterlife, what would he have said to you?"
"That I'm a fucking idiot," Shiba said honestly.
"That you're a fucking idiot. The best thing you can do for him now is to take care of his son, you know?"
"Yeah, you're right."
Hinao exhaled as she spoke, feeling a little better. But a little ashamed at the same time. Yes, in essence, she was quite right, but on the other hand, hadn't he gotten enough? And the knife wasn't in his hand, so it was silly to pretend it was Shiba's fault. That prick, as Shiba put it, didn't have to use the knife.
"To hell with you, I'm going to get a drink," the girl said waving her hand."
"Really?" Shiba smirked. "I thought you were going to start yelling about being sober and such."
"Well, I promised you. Besides, call me a hypocrite, but after your story, I'd drink myself. Only alcoholics drink alone, you know?"
"That's true."
Hinao disappeared into the kitchen and returned a minute later with two cans of beer. She handed one to Shiba and sat down across from him again. He had managed to slip the jacket over his shoulders, the hopelessly ruined shirt headed straight for the trash.
"Beer? Really?" Shiba couldn't contain his disappointment.
"I'm not that hypocritical, so don't count on anything stronger."
"All right."
"By the way, I'm sorry I got so angry at you. It's just that I'm afraid you might die, and I don't want that."
"Would you miss me?" Hinao snorted loudly instead of answering. "It's okay, you're not wrong. And... Thank you for caring or something."
"You're welcome. And another thing, why did you come to see me in the first place? I haven't seen you in a while, and now you're here bleeding."
"I don't know. Didn't know where to go and you popped into my head, I can't explain it. You wouldn't believe it, but the kiddo would swear more. No, he wouldn't swear, but he'd give me such a look that I'd be ashamed of myself."
"Really? You're not ready to face him?"
"Call me a coward, but I'm not."
Hinao chuckled.
"How is he by the way? Although you don't have to tell me, it's clear enough that he's doing badly."
"Yep."
The man and the girl sat in silence for a moment, each absorbed in their own thoughts.
"You should bring him here sometime. I'll give him my condolences in person. And I'd like to meet him. I didn't even know Kushinige had a son until the rumors started spreading through our channels."
"Yes, of course."
"What's his name, by the way?"
"Chihiro."
"Chihiro. That's a nice name."
Their conversation slowly turned to more mundane topics. Hinao had a lot of gossip and news to share, and they hadn't seen each other in a while.
Still, it was good that Shiba came, Hinao thought. Even though she had to rescue him (a little) and set his mind right, she was glad he was back. It was even boring without him.
As their now casual conversation continued, Hinao could only wonder how this man and his new mentee would change her life.