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Half Moon Drabble (Revised): Hika and Mura
Black eyes groggily opened to a roaring flame in the small brick fireplace. Mura moved to stand up, but an intense pain shooting from his ribcage had immobilized him in place. It felt as though chunks of his ribs were pushing their jagged edges into his organs, their ends roughly sliding over each other to produce a harsh sound that made one's skin crawl and ears cry.
Mura, at that moment, didn't want to be the owner of his body.
He shifted upright in the white feather bed and brought a hand into his shoulder-length black hair. It felt clean...smooth...straight, recently washed with the smell of lilacs imbued upon it. A sound coming from the only door in the granite-bricked room caused his eyes to narrow; his groggy complacent expression shifted into one of acute awareness.
The old spruce door slowly opened, revealing a white-haired child who was carrying a set of gauze bandages and a glass cup of something clear. The male with his brown eyes looked like a small angel, delicacy defining both his body and his face. The white apron and ceremonial robe simply bolstered that bright naivety.
Naivety...not innocence. Astra had gone too far into the darkness for any child to be innocent. It was what he and so many other young idealists were trying to correct by killing the MAIET six, the remnants of the old government. Many failed, but he had managed to succeed in killing one of them, Venister. He was lucky to arrive back in Sanctuary, lucky to be alive when his team had fallen. His thoughts were interrupted as the white-haired male slowly approached. Mura carefully masked his nervousness with a neutral stoicness. Hika was certainly no enemy to him...but he could probably be just as dangerous.
In his normally cheerful demeanor, Hika said as he kneeled down onto Mura's bedside, "I'm glad to see you're up." His hand pushed the cup of water into the slightly older male's accepting hands, Mura's lips quietly drinking the tasteless yet refreshing liquid. Eyes continued to stare at the child's countenance which shifted into an expression of apprehension and worry as he again spoke.
"I was getting a bit worried when you came in here bleeding everywhere and hadn't woken up for several days." The child paused bringing his eyes to the floor before staring at Mura again, slightly red-faced.
Mura's response was a nod, acknowledging what was said. The empty cup of water being placed on the small stool next to his bedside was the only sound that echoed through the walls of the granite rooms.
A wince appeared on Mura's face as the soft blanket was pulled away from his thin heavily-bandaged chest. Hika pursed his lips as he shifted the blanket to Mura's waist before he started to unravel the thickly-wrapped bandages.
It was fair to say that he had been bleeding for quite a while as dried flecks of red deposited themselves on the cold stone floor and the white bed. Mura glared as he continued to endure the removal of the thick gauze, feeling coagulated blood pull on scabbing wounds. Hika lifted his head with his look of concentration being replaced of one of exasperation, recognizing that he was currently the object of Mura's ire.
"Stop complaining. You're worse than Tet-san sometimes.", Hika nonchalantly remarked as he wound the gauze into a tight bloody ball. Mura responded with a look that would put the taste of potatoes to shame. He certainly wasn't like that loud-mouthed arrogant idiot. His annoyed gaze fixated itself on Hika.
"Okay...okay. Fine. You're not like Tet-san." Hika happily and apologetically replied with his hands raised in a placating motion.
Mura diverted his attention away from Hika and to his exposed and still healing chest. Bullet holes and a large gaping sword wound were carefully stitched together with black cloth string. Scarring was a given, but Mura didn't care. It would just add to the large number he had accumulated since he was born. His admiring of Hika's medical abilities and the damage that Venister's bodyguards had caused was interrupted as Hika applied a new layer of white gauze around his chest once more, the recent set of wounds still leaking crimson fluid.
Despite the fact that Mura continued to watch Hika as he wrapped the white clean bandages around, he still winced as Hika poked his unharmed abdomen. A grimace marred his countenance as Hika's face exuded shock...shock which quickly turned into aggravation.
"Mura-san! Are you not eating again?! This is the fifth time in the last two months!" Hika continued jabbing Mura's unprotected abdomen with his right hand as he slowly and methodically wrapped the bandage around Mura's chest with the other. "If you're going to continue to neglect your health, I might lock you in one of these rooms permanently!"
Frowning and admittedly scared at the thought, Mura continued to stare at Hika knowing his face was probably reddened from being berated by someone a year younger. If he averted his gaze away from Hika's face, Hika would simply get into his line of vision...and that had led to some very very awkward positions...positions Tetsuia-baka loved to joke about. His only salvation came in the fact that Hika was almost done with his work.
Hika knotted the bandage into place, glaring at Mura again. He then said deliberately, "I'm going to get you some soup," and then added, "Don't move." before walking towards the door and closing it shut.
Mura nervously looked at the door before attempting to lift his body from the feather bed. He ignored the shooting pain wracking his body and eyed the wooden door which separated him from freedom. He did not want to deal with Hika when he was this....motherly. Mura slowly moved his right foot off the bed, but the left one wouldn't budge.
Knowing what it was before he looked, Mura resigned himself to fate as he stared at the thick iron shackle connecting his leg to the bed. He was not going to have a peaceful recovery.
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