Muhyo and Roji: EBISU X GORYO : My Daruma

My Daruma (One Shot)

Ebisu gave Goryo a reassuring smile.

"I know we can...start over..."

Goryo gasped softly, and looked away.

"That's so presumptuous..."

He shut his eyes tightly, a hot tear ran down his face and fell; the warmth spreading all across the surface of the back of his clenched hands.

But it wasn't the tears spreading the warmth, but the bandaged and scratched hand of his assistant placed on his.

Goryo held back the tears as much as he could.

"You really are an idiot, aren't you...?"

Ebisu grinned at him.

"Yes..."

After a few minutes, the nurses burst into the room and dragged Goryo out into the dark hallway near the waiting room. With a huff, he sat down in one of the chairs and called Sakon back to give the good news to the rest.
    Despite everything that had happened to them, he couldn't help but smile to himself. Even after all the things Goryo had done up to this point; all the scams, the lies, the fraud......Ebisu really wanted to start over. Goryo rubbed his thumb gently across the place where Ebisu had put his hand. Could they really be able to go back to the way things were? The executor chuckled weakly to himself at the thought. He doubted it very deeply. The dream he had cultivated since childhood was quite literally burning to the ground.
    With their Bureau up in flames, Goryo wouldn't have been very surprised to hear the clan be disbanded, since they had already lost many of the most loyal members to the wretched inferno. Fiddling around with the leftover origami paper, he let his thoughts fold into one another with the paper. About three paper cranes later, a nurse with a clipboard came from Ebisu's room and shut it gently behind her.
    "Daranimaru Goryo?" She looked at the clipboard and then around the room, then finally at him.
    Being the only people in the room, Goryo rolled his eyes only slightly, flicked open his fan, and nodded at her.
    The nurse smiled. " Mr. Daranimaru, Mr. Hanao seems to be doing well, and he will be discharged in about a week."
Goryo sighed, relieved. "That Daruma always finds a way to bounce back, doesn't he?"
            "D-Daruma...?" If the nurse was put off by the enforcers bizarre comment, she certainly didn't show it. She kept her polite smile as she handed Goryo the clipboard.
Goryo cleared his throat behind his fan and took the clipboard. It's as if his mouth was speaking for itself lately.
    The nurse handed him a pen. "There's some documents from the police in there too, just to let you know." She instructed him to sign the rest of the papers then took the clipboard, smiled a last time, and left down the hall.
It was a good thing most of the Goryo Family fortune was back at the association, or they wouldn't have been able to even afford to get Ebisu a box of bandaids from the convenience store. If the money had gone up in flames, he wasn't too sure insurance would cover "spiritual damages".
Goryo snapped his fan back; it was getting too cold in the waiting room. Ebisu's room was a lot warmer. He wondered if the nurses were done checking his vitals or whatnot.
    The sounds of voices inside Ebisu's room were getting louder and louder until the door opened to let the rest of the nurses out. He waited until they turned the corner down the hall to stand up and enter the room. 

    Slow breathing and the steady beep of the heart monitor. He must have fallen back asleep. Goryo seated himself in one of the chairs against the wall and looked at his assistants face. He remembers that look, so long ago submerged in the water of a sewer pipe. Back then and now, Ebisu lay beaten up. The only difference was that Goryo saved him that time, and now he supposed that daruma just returned the favor. Goryo wanted to do it again. To give Ebisu a bit of his strength back, and honestly he would've done it already. But his own ren was sucked dry by Tomas's antics, so that left them both helpless until they both got better.
    Goryo put down his fan in the empty seat beside him. A pen rolled from under the handle of the fan, and down to the floor. He bent down to pick it up. Hmmm....I must have forgotten to give that nurse her pen back. He was sure she wouldn't be missing it dearly, but he decided to put it on the magazine table next to the monitor in case she did come looking for it.
That nurse. Something about her reaction to his comment earlier made him a bit curious. Why was she so put off when he called Ebisu Daruma? Surely it wasn't that strange of a nickname, and honestly he was sure she noticed that the resemblance was quite and clearly noticeable. But he had a nagging feeling there was something more behind the name besides physiognomy.
    Thinking back, he had always called Ebisu names like that. Pig, wench, filth, muck....he had sat here earlier regretting everything....but all those names were pretty insulting, weren't they? Where had a name like Daruma come from? It sounded endearing, but he had been saying it so long the origin was long lost and Goryo had convinced himself it was just another way to poke fun at his #1 aid's appearance.  In all the 10 years they had known each other, Ebisu rarely ever got upset with the names, or even got so much as angry with him either. Of course that was perhaps partly due to the fact that if he ever did they would have thrown him back down the ditch they found him in.
    He remembered that day at least. And the day they both started training as partners. The day they had successfully completed their first maneuver together. Oh right! The time we went to his first temple visit. He looked at the paper cranes, as if they could transport him to that memory. He had a feeling that's where one of the nicknames originated from, but couldn't quite place his finger on it.
    Then he remembered.