Restoration: Book 2/3

Chapter 24

-Matsuri's POV-

Ino informed me that while wearing a shirt over the stitches in my side was fine, they'd likely heal better if I didn't. Naturally, I was wearing a shirt when I finally entered the bedroom.

"Hey! How'd it go? All patched up?" I nodded at Kankuro, who was sitting on the edge of the bed and stepped closer before leaning my head to the side so he could see the stitches there.

He got to his feet and leaned in to look closer, making my face warm awkwardly, "Damn! I didn't realize it was such a long graze. That's like three inches." I nodded, taking a step back when he finally sat back down.

"I bet you have a hell of a bruise from the taser, huh?"

My teeth grit. He wasn't wrong. A deep purple, almost black bruise had spread across my lower stomach, the center of it being the point of impact from the weapon. The injury happened hours ago, but the shaky feeling from being zapped for such a long period had yet to completely fade.

Tears rose, but I blinked them back, "Yeah...."

The older Subaku brother gave me such a flirty grin that I couldn't tell if it was serious, "Let me see it." That man knew I didn't have anything under the oversized shirt I was using as a nightgown other than my underwear because he and Gaara both saw them the first morning after we slept in the same bed.

I shot him a glare as I crawled past where he was sitting to get to my spot in the middle. He snickered and pulled the blanket back to let me get under the blankets before clicking off the light and joining his silent little brother and me.

"All jokes aside, you were a complete badass today, Matsu."

I turned my head in his direction and almost jumped in surprise when I realized he was facing me and lying closer than usual. Making myself mask my discomfort to not make the situation awkward, I shook my head with a frown, "I don't consider what happened today a good thing at all."

"Why not? We were able to capture that kid! We're gonna ask Sakura to try and remove that thing on his neck so we can figure out what it is."

My chin quivered, and I turned my head back to the center so I could stare at the ceiling, "That girl," my voice wavered, and I struggled to keep my composure, "She was just a little kid."

It was silent in the room for a few moments before Kankuro spoke again, this time in a much softer voice, "I know nothing's gonna make you feel better about that, but I'm really happy we could save you before it was too late." I turned my head to look him in the eye again, and his face was earnest. He wasn't teasing me like usual.

"T-Thank you," I stuttered out before turning my back to him in an attempt to politely refuse to acknowledge the odd shift in his behavior.

Gaara stared at me in silence, his mouth in a firm line. My heartbeat quickened as I was reminded of my earlier self-realization. After glancing past my face, likely to see if his brother's eyes were open, he hesitantly reached in between us to pull my hand into his before closing his eyes and appearing to focus on sleep. In his own way, I think he was trying to comfort me. I let myself fall asleep with his hand keeping mine warm.

Only a couple hours later did I wake up feeling extreme discomfort around my side. A groan rumbled through my chest before I realized I was awake, and I repositioned my body slightly to try to ease the ache. It didn't help. I tried to move again, only for a sharp pain to shoot through my side, and a startled cry left my lips as I shot up to a sitting position on the bed.

Both Subaku brothers woke up, and I apologized multiple times as I struggled out of bed so I could go to the bathroom and make sure I hadn't torn my stitches out. The wound was throbbing. Once there, I lit a couple candles to prevent unnecessary use of electricity before carefully pulling my shirt off over my head.