Bedside Manner

a LegionOfMisfits / Al_Hats collabfic

Chapter 4

Sun Wukong liked to think he was a person who was hard to worry. He kept a smile on his face as often as possible, tried to look on the bright side of things and didn't indulge in anything that would bring him stress or worry. Indeed, he was one of the most carefree people you could care to find in Vale.

But today, Yang Xiao-Long scared him.

He stood by the door, arms crossed over his chest and tail twitching nervously. Beyond the locked door he could hear raised voices as the White Fang who crowded this wing of the hospital cried out to be allowed into the room where their leader lay abed. His ears picked up a raven Faunus (the vocal flanging was unmistakable) as she raised her voice at a panicked nurse.

"That woman is the one who put him here in the first place, now open this door or we'll kick it down!"

The nurse let out a little squeak of fear and Sun turned to Yang for a moment. She stood, hunched over the reclining form of the White Fang officer she had landed here after identifying the truth about his affiliation, and indeed, in his patient-issue gown Sun could clearly see the Grimm skull tattoo on the man's muscular neck. But his earlier statement to Yang remained unchanged, and now that he was nearer the man he was even more certain. This officer was not a Faunus, which begged the question: why was he leading a band of Faunus extremists notorious for their anti-human radical views?

There was something in the blonde woman's eyes as she hung her face inches from the patient. Her normally lilac eyes were clouded with a blood red so deep Sun was afraid that if he looked at it too long it would grab him and refuse to let go. She hated this man, and despite the words she had said as she cosied up to his bedside, he knew that Yang didn't regret what she had done to him in the club only a few days earlier.

That scared him more than any number of terrorists beating down the door. He heard a body strike the door with a shoulder and his hand fell to where Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang hung at his hip. He'd already had to use the weapon more than he liked to off-mission, and he wasn't enthusiastic about a fight in a hospital.

At the bedside, Yang's patience was growing thin. "You're a smart person - otherwise you wouldn't be in a position of power. But your friends who you sent to find me will gladly tell you that I am not somebody who you should mess with. I want an answer to the question I asked."

As he had, the man remained stoically silent. Hard grey eyes fixed on Yang and she was certain that if the terrorist could sneer, he would. As it was, his jaw was in a few too many pieces to accomplish such a feat.

Yang leaned in again, her face all-but touching his. "Last time I'm asking. Why are you here? Who sent you? Are the Fang organizing, and if so, why? They're simple questions, and by this point you ought to know better than to keep things from me."

"Yang," Sun said as another body hit the door, setting it rocking on its hinges. "We need to hurry it up; window is closing quickly."

She nodded and turned back to her new friend. "So?"

In response, the man spat through his partially-wired jaw. The gesture dribbled ineffectually down his chin to pool in the sheets. Yang tsked. "That wasn't very nice." She stood, every fibre of her body screaming for her to send this bastard's bed screeching out the window, or if nothing else to slam his head into the desk. It wasn't anything he didn't deserve. That any of them didn't deserve.

But she resisted. "That it?" Sun asked.

Yang shrugged. "He won't say anything, and you've already bribed me out twice. No need to go pushing our luck."

The monkey Faunus smiled. "Nice to hear you erring on the side of caution." She gave a half-smile and punched him on the shoulder.

"Let's go. We have a bunch of angry terrorists to wade through."

"Enjoy your freedom, Miss Xiao-Long," came the pain-muddled voice from behind them as they departed, the man's broken jaw lisping as he finally broke his silence. "The Fang always reach their goal, and nobody escapes justice forever." Yang's hands curled into fists as he continued. "One of these days, you'll slip up and then you and everyone you hold dear will end up just like your old part-"

She slammed the door so hard that the hinges rattled, leaving a cold silence as she faced down the man's enraged entourage. A doctor was on the phone with the police as Yang stormed past, Sun hanging behind her slightly and watching for any sign of treachery from the Fang in the lobby. Only when they were half a block away from the hospital did Yang pull off to the side, fall to her knees at the mouth of an alley and retch. She dry-heaved for a long moment before standing. Try as she might, Sun could see the moisture at the edges of her eyes.

"We'll get them," Sun said, trying to sound sure of himself. "We will. You and me. For Her sake."

"Sun..." She shook her golden head and sighed again. Dusk was falling rapidly on the city and she was tired. Her temporary stay at team CFVY's abode had been nice, but her body needed true rest on something other than a floor or a couch. "We did what we could, but there's nothing else to be done about it. Hopefully the Fang will get the message that coming after me was a mistake and they'll scurry back to whatever hole they're hiding in."

Sun was incredulous. "Yang, I don't believe this. There's no way you can just give up. You heard what he said - the Fang isn't going to rest until they see you face whatever sick 'justice' they've concocted for you."

"I'm not giving up, Sun! But we need to slow down. I… I've been away for a long time. Sure, I saw everybody last year but I've been gone a lot longer than that. It's fucked up, I know, but it's the truth. In the last four days, I've kicked in the teeth of a White Fang lieutenant, been arrested, almost got killed at the gym and reconnected with a lot of people who I've been doing my damndest to avoid for a while." She ran a hand through her hair, the waist-length locks twisting delicately around her fingers.

"I need to rest for a bit, Sun. Give this all a chance to set in. Come by my apartment tomorrow - around noon. I promise you, we'll get these sons of bitches and make them pay. But we need to be careful."

Sun was quiet for a long time, his tail twitching slightly as the pre-dusk gloom descended over the city. Finally, he nodded. "I'll talk to some folks - see what kinds of leads I can pick up that might give us a starting place. I'll stop by tomorrow."

Yang nodded and started to go before he stopped her. "Yang," he said. "Nobody ever gave up on you. When things were bad, we'd always say to each other 'Don't worry, any minute now, Yang will appear out of nowhere to save the day.' For a lot of them it was just a joke - an excuse to ease the pain of your absence.

"Not to me though. I believed it. I knew you were still out there kicking somewhere, and I knew that sooner or later you'd come back. Ruby and Weiss, they believed it too. And Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren… we all believed you'd come back. I'm sorry that it had to be under these circumstances, but for what it's worth, I'm glad we were right."

And then he was gone, and Yang was left wondering how glad she was that her past had finally caught up to her.

The walk back to her apartment was a long one, but Yang didn't mind. The weather was good and the streets weren't as busy as they could be, so she took her time and enjoyed the sunshine. The promise of food in her stomach and a clean change of clothes were tempting, but she had nowhere to be and there was no need to rush.

For the second time, her aura flared unexpectedly. She stopped and looked around, hands instinctively rising to a defensive position. The street was empty save for a single car which puttered past and paid Yang no mind. Her eyes roved the rooftops and the alleys that pockmarked the rows of buildings, but there was no sign of life in the bustling city.

Why didn't that thought sit well with her?

Resolving to double her pace, she hurried the last few blocks back to her apartment. The shades were drawn, but her eyes narrowed as she noted a gap between the edge of the door and the painted frame.

Swearing quietly, she set the switch in motion that expanded Ember Celica into their full form on her wrists. The sound of a shell chambering seemed to echo eerily in the uneasy quiet, and Yang too cautious steps forward to the doorway. Raising her arms and letting them lead the rest of her body, she placed a single hand on the door and pushed slightly. The blaring klaxon in her head came a split second too late and her eyes widened as she heard the click and saw the flash of silver.

The wire snapped and the world was engulfed by fire.

Sun stopped on the sidewalk when he felt the pressure in his ears. He cringed, the pain striking him like a hammer blow scant moments before the ground shook. He wheeled, eyes watering from the intense feeling in his skull and looked off into the distance, where already a column of black smoke was rising high into the evening sky. Sun swore loudly and took off in the direction of the explosion, praying that his assumption of the cause was wrong.

Sirens were blaring in the distance, but Sun broke full-tilt towards the source of the blast. He rounded a corner and swore again, noting several figures moving far-too-brazenly amidst the ruins of the boulevard.

The situation was bad. Smoldering debris littered the street, clouds of choking dust and ash flurried about and fires were catching in the buildings that had not been instantly vaporized in the explosion. He heard one of the figures call out and ducked low when he realized what they were saying.

"Fan out. Find her. Make sure nobody knows we were here."

The figures were dressed plainly, but Sun could tell from a distance that they were all Faunus. Two dogs, a cat, a bear, a fox, two goats and a raven. He moved swiftly into an alley and followed it to the back before scaling the wall nimbly and perching himself atop one of the buildings out of the immediate blast zone.

He had to think fast. He had no doubt that the Faunus in the street below were more Fang, looking for their intended target. What would they find, Sun wondered. Nothing, if he could help it. But what would he find?

"Didn't I tell you to be careful?" came a voice from behind. Sun wheeled, hand flying to his weapon before he let out a sigh at the sight of Yang standing there, grinning like a fool.

She looked as though she had just lost an argument with an Ursa. Her sleeveless shirt was torn across the midriff, and holes peppered the soot-stained fabric. Her other clothes weren't in much better shape, and a hundred miniscule cuts and scrapes shone redly in the faint light cast by the evening sun and the crackling fires.

"As I recall," Sun said, "You said we both need to be careful. I'm not sure this qualifies." She told him he was number one before stepping forward, right hand clutching her left shoulder. He aided her as she slumped against a stoically silent air conditioning box and muttered as he gave her a once-over.

"Where were you when the bomb went off?" he asked.

She chuckled and winced at the shock of pain that the simple action sent running down her body. "Right on top of it," she said with a smile. She flexed her left hand a little and Sun noticed the trickle of blood that ran tenuously down her arm following the movement. He reached out and slowly - gingerly - moved her hand away from her shoulder. He sucked in air through his teeth and Yang was momentarily thankful that she couldn't see the wound herself.

"Sun? How bad is it?"

The Faunus shrugged. "Could be worse, considering you just played hopscotch on a bomb. Your aura took the brunt of the blast, but you're cut up pretty bad, and in all likelihood you've broken a couple ribs. Maybe a concussion, but I don't think so-"

"Sun," she interrupted. "How bad is my shoulder?"

He blinked a couple times, dark-grey eyes flashing. Finally, "It's… bad. Like, immediate medical treatment bad." She gave him a look to carry on and he sighed. "A piece of something - maybe debris or shrapnel - cut right through. Near as I can tell, it's still in there, sitting pretty right next to an artery."

Yang breathed out a heavy sigh and Sun clucked his tongue. "Might want to control your breathing; if that debris shifts into your artery, there's not much I can do."

"Well, I suppose a hospital is out of the question?"

Sun scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Yeah. The White Fang will think to look there. Any of our homes that they know about are probably being watched too."

"They were watching me - staking me out ever since I beat that fathead leader of theirs to a pulp," she said bitterly. "I even felt them - my aura told me I was being watched, but I ignored it. Suppose this is my punishment."

"Beacon is too far out of the way," Sun said absentmindedly, not seeming to have heard her. "We'd never get you there before… well, best not to think about it."

Yang shot him a half-assed smile. "You're not much good at this whole comforting thing, are you?"

"Would you prefer I let those Fang down in the street take care of you? I'm sure their bedside manner is just excellent."

"Help me up."

The two stood shakily, Yang leaning on Sun. He looked over at her with concern. She seemed paler than usual, and her arm was bleeding profusely. He moved as carefully as he could to the edge of the roof, eyes dropping to the alley several dozen feet down.

"You still.. haven't said… where we're going," Yang said in a far-away tone. Sun swore inwardly. She was losing blood too quickly, but he couldn't risk going any faster for fear of causing further injury.

Think, Sun. If you stay, she'll bleed out before too long. If you go, she might bleed out faster, or she might not. Silencing the voice inside his head, he took the rest of Yang's weight upon himself and leapt nimbly across the gap between buildings, landing as gently as he could on the other side and heading off at the fastest pace he dared.

Yang, lucid as she was, found the strength to shoot a glance over her right shoulder at the column of smoke rising high into the evening sky. Home, she thought before the world went dark again.

Sun felt Yang's weight slacken and picked up his pace, trying not to panic. The only place close enough was his own apartment, but there was too great a risk that the White Fang would simply follow him there and finish the job. But hadn't Yang said her aura had warned her that the Fang were watching her home? Sun hadn't felt any such disturbances… could it be safe?

"Fuck it," he said aloud under his breath. "No better option."

The rooftops blurred into a single grey mat as Sun and his passenger skated through the dusk. When he finally reached his home, Sun waited for a good minute while spreading his aura across the immediate area, searching for any sign of danger. Confident that he was safe, he dropped nimbly to the street with Yang still unconscious and headed inside.

Propping her up in his favorite armchair and leaving a mental note to buy bleach, Sun hurried to the kitchen and grabbed the emergency kit he kept under the sink, promising that he would thank his teacher back at Haven who had lectured them for weeks on end about the importance of knowing how to provide proper medical care. He was out of rubbing alcohol, and instead grabbed a bottle of tequila from the cabinet above his stove. Unstoppering the bottle, he splashed the clear liquid onto the wound and used a clean pad to mop away the excess blood before taking a hearty swig of the liquor for himself and leaning in to examine the wound more closely.

The skin around the wound was a mess, and in the dying light his night-vision kicked in. He could vaguely make out the shape of whatever was lodged in Yang's shoulder, and he bit his lip for several moments before grabbing a pair of oversized tweezers and steeling himself for what would come next.

Pinching the end of the object, he pressed a fresh gauze pad to the wound and apologized silently. Tugging gently at first but gradually gaining strength, Sun pulled until the object came loose. Hastily dropping the detritus in a bowl of water he had set aside, he leaned in with another splash of alcohol and gauze pad, pressing the latter tight to the wound and wrapping it several times in elastic bandage to hold it in place. Tearing the end of the bandage, he tied off the knot and sat back, checking to make sure he had done everything right.

Yang was still out like a light but her breathing was rhythmic, if shallow. Sun pressed the back of his hand to her forehead and noted how cold she felt before laying her down on her side, stretched across the couch, with her injured shoulder facing upward.

Grabbing a blanket, he laid the quilted cover over the sleeping brawler and sat back, breathing out a sigh of relief and, after a moment, taking another deep draft of the remaining tequila. His eyes drifted over to the bowl where the piece of shrapnel sat, barely floating. Upon closer examination, he realized that it was a piece of hardened plastic, used to build housings for containers and electronics, like older-style TV's and radios.

He returned his gaze to Yang and realized that the only clothes she had now were the ones on her back, and those were about as useful as nipples on a Boarbatusk. He shuttered all the blinds, switched off the lights and scribbled a quick note to leave on the coffee table in case Yang woke. Hurrying out the door and locking it behind him, Sun headed off to fulfill his errand. The latest of many in the last few days, it seemed.

Yang's dreams were haunted with black and violet shadows, amber fires and long streaks of dark, deep crimson. She was running, but her legs were not her own. They carried her body - lithe and deadly, but weary from toil and strife - across a landscape that shifted and stretched ever into the distance. Buildings and mountains rose and fell, trees scattering leaves like drops of blood on the wind burst into flame, columns of scarlet hellfire that sent her reeling. She kept running though.

The wind tore at her face and hair and whipped at her ankles, chasing her down. Was it truly the wind, or only the cruel embrace of a steely end that kept her moving?

In the distance there was a light. Faint, shimmering, indistinct. It didn't seem real at first; it was too good to be true. She was wary of it, but the fire was warm and bright and golden, and she knew that it would keep her safe. She rushed to its side and let it envelop her, keep her, protect her.

In the end though, the darkness caught up and washed over them both. It always did. She felt herself being torn from the fire's side, and though she screamed until her lungs were raw there was nothing to be done. Her valiant, brilliant spark flickered and died in an ocean of fear and regret.

Yang woke in a cold sweat. She bolted upright and immediately cried out at the searing pain in her shoulder, as though somebody had nailed her to the couch on which she lay. She heard a voice through the ringing in her ears, urging her to lay down - she was too weak. Fuck you! She thought. I'm not too weak... never too weak... strongest...strong... for her...

She blacked out again and though the dream of the light in the darkness did not return, she could still feel the cold steel chatter of teeth by her ear - fingers down her spine from the impenetrable void.

Her second waking was less violent. Her vision was blurry with tears and pain, and her shoulder burned and writhed where it connected to her arm, but she was alive. Her vision finally cleared and she saw Sun gazing back at her, perched on the far armrest of the couch, cross-legged. "Welcome back to the land of the living," he said in a cheery voice, ringed around the edges with genuine concern.

She went to speak and found herself trying to articulate through sandpaper. A crackling noise emanated from her throat and Sun flicked a cup of water her way and held it in place while she took slow, small sips at first. Then gulps. "Slow down," the other blond advised. "You'll-"

Yang broke into a fit of coughing and sputtering which caused her to lurch backwards. She felt her head strike something solid and swore violently as a crash echoed through the interior of the apartment. In the ensuing silence, Sun merely watched her. Finally, she managed "Not much of a welcome, seeing as you're still here."

She had meant it as a joke, and she was relieved when he interpreted it as such. The smile on the fair young man's features suited him far more than the grim expression he had been wearing the last couple of days. "Yeah well, I wasn't about to leave you when you're in a state like this."

He didn't mention that he had returned from his little foray to buy her some new clothes only to find her comatose on his couch. He didn't mention how he'd frozen in the doorway, fearing that all his work had been for naught, before realizing that standing around and staring wouldn't do her any good if she could still be helped. He didn't mention the frantic compressions or the panicked rescue breaths, or the tears of relief that he'd wept when her chest began to rise and fall of its own admonition once again.

No. She didn't need to know about how he'd felt when he realized that once again he'd lost someone he cared about. Not now. There was far too much to be done. Yang looked at the window and saw that it was dark outside. Made sense. She vaguely remembered that it had been evening when she and Sun were fleeing across the rooftops. "What time is it?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

Sun grew visibly sheepish. "It's uh, three in the morning."

Yang raised her eyebrow again - a gesture she'd picked up from an old friend a long time ago. "You've stayed up with me all night?"

Another stupid smile played across Sun's face. "Yep. All night. And... the next day. And then two more."

Her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "I've been unconscious for three days?" She shook her head in awe as the monkey Faunus nodded. "Shit," she muttered under her breath before, "Give me a hand up."

"Yang, I'm not sure that's a good idea, you..." What? he asked himself. Died? Thought you were avoiding that little tidbit. "You took some hard knocks. You lost a lot of blood and..." He sighed when he saw she was already halfway on her feet. "Just take it slow, ok?" he said as he gave her a hand up.

She stood shakily but regained her composure and stretched mightily, a series of cracks and pops echoing throughout the apartment. She looked down and grimaced at the sight of her clothes - burned, riddled with holes and immodest even by Yang's standards. "Do you have a shower?" she asked. Sun nodded and gestured down a small hallway with doors on either side. She picked out the one on the left as a bathroom and stepped inside before stripping down.

She shut the door but heard Sun call from outside, "Be careful with your shoulder; I'll change the binding when you get out. I mean, I won't. You can do it and I can show you... no, I mean you can do it yourself. You don't need my help."

Yeesh, Yang thought. Who knew he was so sensitive? She chuckled under her breath and responded through the door as she switched on the shower. "Thanks Sun, but I trust your doctoring skills. I never paid much attention in the classes that taught us first-aid anyway."

"I trust your doctoring skills." I let you die, he thought bitterly before nodding, realizing she couldn't see the gesture and wandering off to the kitchen to prepare a fresh treatment for Yang's wounds.

Ten minutes later she emerged from the bathroom, a billowing wave of steam announcing her exeunt. She had found the clean clothes that Sun had left sitting on the counter and she was wringing out her hair into a towel when he beckoned her over to the counter. She sat on a simple wooden stool and rotated to face him as Sun gathered up his tools before reaching for her shoulder and stopping short. Yang laughed.

"Jesus dude, with a reputation like yours I would've thought you'd be a little less hesitant. Pull down the fucking shirt already." He swallowed and did as he was bade, wondering himself why he was so modest today. The fabric shifted down, revealing the mess of damaged flesh around the wound in her shoulder.

Aura was a strange and wonderful thing he reflected as he gingerly removed the bindings around her shoulder. The skin around the wound had healed remarkably quickly, and no evidence remained of the cuts and scrapes that had all-but covered Yang's arms and legs. The wound itself was a different story. It had been a mistake to go so long without replacing the bandage; there was no infection but the wound hadn't healed as quickly as the rest of the flesh, leaving an angry red crevasse where the piece of hardened plastic had cut its bloody swath.

Yang winced and Sun apologized before preemptively doing so again. He had purchased medical-grade alcohol, and dabbed several splashes of the strong-smelling liquid onto a rag before beginning to clean out the wound yet again. Yang's eyes squinted tightly and her fingernails dug into the wooden countertop, but she bit her tongue and carried on.

When Sun was finished, he applied a much looser layer of dressing smeared with antibiotics and tapped on a carton sitting on the counter. "Try to avoid straining that arm too much. That is to say, not at all. If you really need it, these painkillers should help."

Yang nodded and stood, stretching her good arm and tenderly massaging the injured one. "Sun, I… I still haven't thanked you for helping me. First at the police station, then at the gym, and now this… keep it up and I'm going to owe you something."

"You don't owe me, Yang," he said distractedly as he packed away the medical supplies. "You needed help. I didn't do you a favor; I did what anybody would do in my place. Besides," he said cheerfully as he turned, smiling that same confident smile she had first seen on his face five years ago, when he leapt off the deck of a ship and took off into the city. "We're friends. Friends look out for eachother."

He patted her on the shoulder and went about his business, but Yang stood for a long time in the center of the room, her world spinning. Friends, she thought distantly. How long has it been since I've had friends?

AN - Jeeeeeeeesus, sorry this took so damn long but this was a heavy chapter to put out - not just in terms of the content, but the fact that such an important (if mostly filler) chapter decided to fall right around the worst time of year for Al and I. Between Al wrapping up her testing and me getting ready to send my students home for the last time, it's been difficult to find the time to write. Still, hope you enjoyed.

As for the chapter itself, this was a difficult one to write because of all the complex emotions that went into it. It's really the first chapter where we begin to see the threads of Solar Flare binding this piece together, and I promise that all the little things that seemingly went unexplained in this chapter will come into play later on. I sometimes wonder if I'm a little too much like Roosterteeth themselves - making absolutely every little idea a Chekhov's Gun that doesn't pay off until the last minute. Al says I'm too worried about what people think. Whatever.

Now that life is calming down, we should be able to get chapters out a bit more frequently, and don't worry: for those of you waiting on a new chapter of "The Binding Force," it's on the way as well. Until then, be sure to drop by with a review on FF or Reddit and thanks for reading!