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CR's pediatrics room was too bright, too colorful, and Emu was too enthusiastic.
"Okay, Haru-kun!" Emu crouched down so he was eye-level with the chair, which was still a foot too tall. He held up the little medicine cup like it was a rare Gashat. "This one is strawberry flavor! Super delicious! If you drink it all in one go, you get — ta-da! — a dinosaur sticker! A super rare one!"
Haru-kun, five years old, feverish, and already deeply offended by the existence of doctors, stared at the cup. Then at Emu. Then at Emu's shin.
Emu did not have time to process what his Gamer intuition was telling him.
Thwack!
"— itai —!" Emu hopped back on one foot, medicine sloshing dangerously, still smiling with tears in his eyes. "Whoa! Amazing kick, Haru-kun! You have very strong legs! That's very healthy!"
Haru-kun, unimpressed, crossed his arms. Not interested.
From the doorway:
"Statistically common," Hiiro said, without looking up from his chart. He took a sip of coffee. "2015. Boy, seven. Bit me. Required tetanus update."
Taiga leaned against the wall, arms crossed.
"2014. Girl, pigtails. Kicked me so hard I couldn't walk for two days. She drew me a sorry picture after. Still have it."
Emu turned, betrayed, still holding his shin.
"Eh!? You guys got kicked too!? Why didn't anyone tell me!?"
Hiiro blinked. "We assumed you knew."
"I have a spreadsheet," Taiga added helpfully. "Want me to send it? Title is 'Small Humans Who Have Attempted Murder'."
Twenty minutes and one very tense sticker negotiation later, Haru-kun was gone, medicated, clutching three dinosaur stickers and his mother's sanity.
Emu sat on the tiny blue chair made for five-year-olds, his knees up by his ears, pressing a cold anpan from the break room fridge to his shin.
Hiiro walked over without a word and held out a pre-filled syringe. Correct dose. Correct flavor. Already checked.
"...you had it ready," Emu said.
"I anticipated failure," Hiiro said.
"Thanks, Hiiro!"
"You are welcome."
Taiga walked past and peeled the extra T-Rex sticker off Emu's sleeve and stuck it directly onto Emu's white coat, right over his heart.
"There. For bravery."
Emu stared down at it. "Taiga... this is the most honoured I've ever felt."
Taiga snorted. "Been there."
---
Taiga left to go yell at someone in radiology, about blurry scans which meant it was just Emu and Hiiro in peds.
Hiiro stood by the sink, washing his hands for the third time. Emu could feel the stare.
"You should elevate it," Hiiro said.
Emu looked down at his shin. It was slightly pink. "It's okay! It doesn't hurt anymore!"
"You are holding frozen bread to it," Hiiro observed. "That suggests it does hurt."
"It's anpan! It's multi-purpose!"
Hiiro dried his hands, walked over, and gently took Emu's ankle.
Emu went completely still. Like, Gamer Driver mid-transformation still.
"H-Hiiro? What are you—"
"Let me see."
Hiiro pushed the hem of Emu's trousers up half an inch. There was a faint red mark. That's it.
Hiiro frowned like it was a critical wound.
"...Does this hurt when I press?" He pressed, feather-light.
"N-No!"
"This?"
"Nn — okay, a little!"
Hiiro's frown deepened. He stood up abruptly. "You should have iced it properly. Not with bread. With actual ice. And you should not have hopped. You could have strained the other leg."
Emu blinked up at him from the tiny blue chair. "Hiiro... are you fussing over me?"
"I am not fussing. I am conducting a medical assessment. You are a valuable asset to this hospital. Your legs are necessary for house calls."
"You ARE fussing!"
"I am not."
Hiiro opened the freezer again, took out a proper ice pack, wrapped it in gauze with hospital corners, and handed it to Emu like he was handing him a scalpel.
"Five minutes. Then you will walk normally. And you will tell me if it swells."
Emu took it, grinning so wide it hurt more than the kick.
"Yes, Doctor Kagami!"
Hiiro's ears went pink. "Do not call me that when you are being like this."
"Like what?"
"Like... that." He gestured vaguely at Emu's entire existence. At the dinosaur sticker on his chest. At the anpan on the counter like a patient.
Emu kicked his legs out. The tiny chair squeaked.
"Does this mean I get a sticker too? For being brave?"
Hiiro stared at him for a long, long second. Then, with the same serious face he used to diagnose fatal illnesses, he peeled the little star chart off the wall and stuck a gold star right next to Taiga's T-Rex on Emu's coat.
"Do not tell anyone," Hiiro said quietly.
"I won't!"
"If Poppy sees this—"
"I WON'T! Our secret! The gold star of being kicked!"
Hiiro sighed, but he was fighting a smile. He always lost that fight when Emu was involved.
"Idiot M."
"Your idiot M!"
And from the hallway, Taiga yelled: "If you two are flirting in peds again, I'm telling Asuna!"
---