The Game of Life (Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy)

Chapter One

Respiratory Rate: 17 b/m

Not very good, but could be worse, you thought to yourself as you looked at his vitals.

"...How did this happen?" You asked, trying to control your breathing as you brought out your sutures, scalpel, clamps, hooks, scissors, bandages, and forceps.

"Impact grenade," Roxas muttered. He seemed angry, stressed, heartbroken, and frustrated all at the same time.

"Wh-what?" You asked, almost dropping your tools. You regained your grip on them and focused on getting the pieces of shrapnel out of his cuts. "Who launched it?"

"No one," Ven hissed, rubbing a bit too hard on the place where he was cleaning up Zack's blood.

"Cloud, be a dear and hold the wound open with the hooks, will you?" You nodded in the direction of your tools and waited for him to position the hooks before you started to go into the cut and examine the damage. "And what do you mean?" You asked while carefully placing the extracted piece of shrapnel on the tray that Yuffie was holding for you.

"It was a little kid," Roxas muttered. "And if you think Zack looks bad, I don't think you want to see Riku. We dropped him off to Aerith before coming here."

"...I don't get it," you said while suturing his wound. "What did the little kid do?" You dismissed the part about Riku, because you felt like you would throw up if you talked about him.

"Please, [Name]," Cloud said. "I'll help Ven and Roxas explain everything later. Just please focus on Zack."

"But I want to know!" You snapped, actually making one of Zack's wounds worse by partially jerking a shard out of it on accident. "I..." Your voice broke. "I need to know. Please."

Yuffie placed a hand on your shoulder comfortingly, and slowly took the forceps from your hand. "Should I get Demyx?"

"No," you said a bit too harshly. "I've got it."

She sighed and reluctantly gave your forceps back to you, and you finished removing the stubborn piece. "I know this must be hard for you, [Name]," she said softly.

"I'm used to it." You fed her the usual bullshit you told everyone else while you motioned for Roxas to hand you a clean damp cloth so that you could clean the wound before you closed it. It was larger and deeper than the previous one, so you made sure to pay it extra attention.

"Bullshit," Ven muttered under his breath. "Anything you need me to do right now, [Name]?"

You paused, your eyes falling on the large gash on Zack's thigh. "Get me the vial with the yellow solution in it from my cabinet in the next room. I need to do a split-level thickness graft over that... cut on his thigh. Grab the one with the green liquid in it as well. His vitals may drop even more while I conduct the procedure. Also, grab one of my dermatomes, which are on the third shelf down in the cabinet underneath the sink. Then get the meshing device, which looks like a small cream-colored printer. It should be right behind the dermatomes."

"Got it." He left the room just as you dropped the last piece of shrapnel on the tray. You moved to focusing on suturing the wounds and dressing them, and were surprised when Cloud started to wipe your forehead.

"Wha-" You started, but were cut off by Cloud.

"It's my job to take care of the surgeon, too," he said, giving you a weak smile.

"God," Roxas groaned. "Get a room!"

"Now's not the time for that," Yuffie chided, whacking Roxas on the back of his head.