✔️Heal My Heart {Kakashi Hatake}

22 | hospital rooms

Picture is Miyoshi, very irritated that she's in hospital.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

This felt familiar. The air was almost too clean. Was there something on my face? I couldn't tell. All my senses seemed to be numb. The beeping sound, although I could tell it was right by me, was muffled and quiet. If I strained my ears, I could hear the low murmur of people conversing. Was I in the hospital?

I tried to remember getting here, but there was nothing. I could only recall fighting Hajimaru, then collapsing. There was something else there, a memory, but it was so fuzzy I couldn't make it out. All I could get from it was silver. That could mean anything.

I couldn't move at all. My arms and legs wouldn't respond, and even my head seemed too heavy to lift. My whole body just felt like one massive weight.

I opened my eyes a crack. Everything was blurry, but I could just about make out the ceiling lit with soft yellow hues, a blonde-haired white blur and a silvery grey blur. It wasn't too bright; I wondered if that was purposeful or if it was dark outside. I didn't have a clue how long I'd been here. Hours? Days? Even weeks? How was Naruto doing? Was he missing me? Was he worried? I knew we'd only spent three days away from home as opposed to a week. Maybe we were back early and he hadn't noticed yet? Or maybe I had been here so long he was worrying about where I was? He'd already lost his parents, and the other villagers hated him... the kid didn't need someone else dying.

And what about Kakashi? I didn't have any dictation over his life, I knew that, but he didn't need any more death either. Was he bothered by my fight with Hajimaru? He always seemed so passive, but was that only a façade?

I was worrying too much. I knew that, but I worried anyway. It was just one of those things that I did.

... Hold on a second. I blinked a few times, and my surroundings slowly came into focus. Kakashi was standing there at the foot of my bed with a young doctor I vaguely recognised. What was her name again? Kai... Kaira, that's the one! The nurse-stroke-scientist who was in charge of me last time I was here. The two of them were talking to each other in what sounded to me like an undertone, but to them it was probably a very normal volume. Kakashi looked like he'd rather not have the company. He always looked like that, though.

I glanced down at myself. My right arm and leg seemed to be in casts that were so huge I wondered briefly if I was ever going to get out of them. In my other arm were three needles all connected to different drips. One of them I recognised as an IV. That was bad news; it meant I had been unconscious for multiple days.

I shifted uncomfortably. I'd never been too fond of needles, despite being trained extensively in their uses. The movement alerted Kakashi and Kaira, who directed their attention straight to me.

"Ah, you're awake!" Kaira smiled. "Can you breathe okay?"

I nodded awkwardly; it seemed I was also wearing an oxygen mask, but Kaira crossed the length of the bed and very carefully removed it. I took a few deep, experimental breaths of the air that, after the time on pure oxygen, seemed unclean.

"Well, I'm not dead," I commented hoarsely. "That's more than I was expecting. Not a fan of the needles, but judging by those labels, they're literally keeping me alive, so I won't rip them out. Yet."

"How do you feel?" Kakashi asked, and I noticed that his usual monotone had returned.

"Honestly?" I wanted to laugh, but that would have used up more energy than I had. "Like crap. Also, since when do you visit people in hospital to check they're okay? Me, specifically?"