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Anran jerks forward, reaching for the handle of her fan; just a brief loss of consciousness but enough to be completely disorienting. Desperate to leap back into the match she starts clawing at the soft ground until she grasps the cold edges of the fan. Shit. cold. How long was she out for? It’s hard to focus through the shooting pain in her shoulder. Whatever, just light it again. A good role model would work harder. Pushing herself back to standing, it’s difficult to balance but manageable. Her vision is blurry, but it looks like she was knocked back pretty far.
“Uh,” A deep voice comes from behind. How did he slip behind her?! “Kiriko? she’s on the bed.” The footsteps from his direction are incredibly slow, like he’s approaching a scared cat.
How dare he assume that!? I’d never go down with just one hit!
A second voice approaches with a huff, “Duh, of course she is, Mizuki. We literally just put her-” Anran’s eyes finally start to focus and she finds herself standing in her fight stance.. On a bed… wielding a spoon. Such a role model, Anran. Such a role model.
The feminine voice, she guesses Kiriko, runs straight to the bedside nearly spilling the tray of food she was bringing while shouting “Holy shit you’re going to pull your stitches! Lay back down!”
Kiriko slams the tray of food down and uses both hands to coax Anran back to sitting on the small cot. Her hands quickly start to rearrange her injured coworker, taking extra care when checking the stitches on Anran’s shoulder before finally exhaling a sigh of relief.
“Mizuki, could you go tell Wuyang she’s ok?” Kiriko asks. Mizuki tips his hat before vanishing, so that's how he got behind me. “Ok, Anran, could you lay back for me? I have some Congee here for you, it’s nice and warm so y’know, open wide.~” Anran’s blurry vision barely allowed her to see the dark haired girl sitting next to her, pushing a spoon of warm food in her direction.
“I can feed myself.” Anran huffs before reaching to take the spoon, only for Kiriko to pull it back.
“Really? Immediately trying to use the injured arm? C’mon, girl.” Kiriko covered her mouth with her empty hand while giggling out her tease. Anran’s face was burning up from embarrassment as she lowered her arm, noting how easily the pain stopped once she had. Soft brown eyes looked the injured woman up and down, before offering the spoon back out. This time, Anran accepts it, albeit turning red with every bite.
Once the food was down, Kiriko started answering the questions Anran forgot to ask. “So, you were sparring with Wuyang out at the practice range, normal stuff. And uh,” the girl paused, her hands raising up in a faux surrender before she finished, “he may have pushed you off the cliff. The big one.”
“I’m so sorry sis!” The cracked door exploded with the damp, sniveling mess of her younger brother flying at her. He was easily intercepted by an uppercut to his gut, from the previously passive healer next to her. Good form. Kiriko quickly began reprimanding Wuyang on the proper way to interact with someone who nearly needed their entire arm reattached like 4 hours ago, and very notably why you should not immediately tackle them.
Anran’s head was swimming. A severe injury from sparring? What would her parents say? You should have been more careful. How can you protect him if you’re this weak? You failed. The tears streaming down her precious brother’s cheeks were no comfort. How could you worry him like this? His sister is supposed to be his guardian, not his ward. Her skull was reverberating with the crushing weight of her own failures, only to feel the gentle embrace of her brother’s arms trying to pry her from the echo chamber of her mind.
“Anran,” he choked out, “I’m so glad you’re ok! I’m so sorry-” the memories of their spar slowly resurface as he apologizes repeatedly for the comedy of errors that nearly killed her. A normal spar with a fun new technique: placing a puddle behind your opponent, so that when you push them back they’ll slip and fall. A stupid prank Wuyang hadn’t tried since he was a first-year, but he didn’t really factor in how his sister’s high speeds and a railing with no lower guard would end. Snot and tears ran down her arm while he cried about slip-n-sliding his sister into a cliffside grave. It was sweet, but Kiriko’s disappointed face looming behind his back was really the cherry on top. Anran quickly found herself in near tears trying not to laugh at the sad soggy boy. Kiriko making eye contact was when all hell broke lose, both girls trying to cover their mouths as they broke into a cackling fit.
“Don’t laugh! I was really worried!” his voice cracked out.
“Wuyang,” Anran said, “did you really think that’d be enough to take me out? Sounds like someone needs more training!” She punctuated the statement with a swift punch to his arm, trying not to wince from moving her own.
The siblings chatted and bickered back and forth for a few minutes while Kiriko began prepping some materials in the nearby medical closet, before exiting and placing a hand onto Wuyang’s shoulder. “Alright, how about you go catch a remedial practice, hm? Mizuki’s waiting outside, and the fox spirit has business with your sister’s shoulder.” She spoke calmly but was already pushing Wuyang out of the room, before quickly shutting the door behind him. She waited until their footsteps vanished down the hallway outside to rush Anran, moving her patient to lay on her stomach with remarkable speed.
“Ugh, seriously! What did I say about using that arm? Anran, your stitches are a mess!” She spoke furiously but her hands were gentle as she held Anran to the bed, disinfecting the skin and fixing the stitches that Anran’s ‘tough love’ so beautifully wrecked. The fiery girl almost felt like she could get used to this… let’s bury that deep, yeah? Kiriko continued talking to her while she worked, “If you keep moving like that, you’ll deepen the wound. No training for a while, Doctor’s Orders. Ok?”
It was hard to speak face-first in the pillow but Anran still muttered out, “I want a second opinion.”
Kiriko laughed, “The fox spirit agrees, too. There’s your second opinion, Sparky.”
“Is Sparky the best you can do?”
“Nah, but the other options aren’t great for doctor-patient relationships.” Kiriko smirks, finally letting Anran roll back over and giving her some pain relievers.
Anran can’t even hide her interest at that.“Oh?” She bites out, egging Kiriko on. What names could the foxy medic come up with? Hot-headed? Pyro-maniac? Fire-farter was a pretty popular choice at Wuxing. Even a star-student has her fair share of jealous rivals.
Kiriko laughed it off, and began adjusting Anran for a comfortable sleep, as well as setting up a futon in the corner. The room fell into a comfortable silence, Kiriko cracking a joke every time Anran’s esteem started eating at her heart as if she knew. That pattern continued until Anran’s eyelids felt heavy and the room was dim and cozy. It’s been too long since she felt this ok while drifting to bed.
Kiriko settles onto her bed on the floor, mumbling to herself about the silly girl whose side she can’t bear to leave at the risk of the girl pulling her stitches or waking up in another panicked frenzy. Looking over at Anran’s face, her eyes closed but not yet asleep, Kiriko called out, "Goodnight, hottie”
Yeah, that’ll make it hard to sleep.