pocketsfullof | (no subject)

Souji had been sort of lurking around--the apartment was small enough that he was always within earshot without having to be in the same room--but as soon as he heard Hijikata trying to move, he poked his head into the room, a look of concern on his face.

"I don't think you should try moving." Not that he thought there was any danger of Hijikata actually accomplishing much of that. "I can get more painkillers, if you want."

"Ngh." There was a certain draw to saying yes to Souji's offer and slipping back off into unconsciousness. At the same time, though, he'd already lost too many days to this. How many, he want entirely clear on - he could remember bits and pieces of what had happened - agreeing to surgery, trying to convince someone he was coherent enough to consent and nobody had to call his brother, waking up afterwards to too many tubes stuck in him and a fog of anesthetics and painkillers - but he'd lost track of time itself.

"What day is it?"

Well, that was a very helpful response, wasn't it? But he couldn't blame him. This had been an ordeal, and he knew from experience just how frustrating it could be. So he set aside the question of pain management for the moment, and answered the question, though he knew Hijikata wasn't likely to be happy with the answer. "Thursday. The twenty-third," he clarified after a brief pause. There had been a few Thursdays in there, after all.

It took Toshi a second to do the mental calculation, but when he did, he nearly bolted upright in surprise - that was at least a week later than he had guessed. The motion, as well as his cursing, was cut off by another reminder from his body that that had been a really bad idea. His hand went instinctively to his stomach, to press down on the source of the pain. It helped some, even if it made the injury hurt in different ways, and he could feel the layers of gauze underneath the thin t-shirt he couldn't quite remember putting on.

Relaxing back down onto the pillows, he sighed. "Someone's told my brothers by now, haven't they." Which meant facing a frustrating mix of concern and lecturing from the rest of his family.

Yup, definitely not happy. That was to be expected, though. He imagined Hijikata was going to be hovering in a distinctly 'grumpy' zone for awhile. Which was why he just shrugged a little in response to the next statement, instead of being truly apologetic about it.

"I don't really count as next of kin." He didn't really count as much of anything, so far as hospitals were concerned, he'd discovered. Which was just as well, since he'd also discovered he didn't care to be in them, particularly. "I think they'd like it if you stopped nearly dying."

Toshi made a vague noise of frustration at both of Souji's statements. Because he was right - legally, he and Souji had basically no ties, for all that they lived together. So of course if he'd been out, someone would have called them. He was surprised he hadn't woken up to Shuu or Nobu hovering - though he did have fuzzy recollections of their faces from the hospital.

"I'll call them... later sometime. I don't feel like being shouted at right now." Or ever, but he was going to have to get it over with eventually.

"I think getting blown up hurt less than this." Which was probably a combination of having been wearing a bulletproof vest at the time and the nerve block they'd done for the operations on his shoulder and arm, but it was still true

"I think I can hold them off for a little while longer." He understood their concern, but he'd also known Hijikata wouldn't want to deal with it while he was still relatively incapacitated. "Maybe once you can stand on your own, hm?" Until then he'd do what he had to to make sure he could recover in peace, even if it meant ruffling some feathers.

"Oh, probably. Abdominal surgery is very taxing. Can I get you anything?"

There was something about the way Souji said that that reminded Toshi of the fine scars he knew crisscrossed Souji's body under his clothing - ones that were neat and deliberate, in contrast to Toshi's own ragged ones. They had an implicit understanding that Toshi did not ask about them, didn't ask what he had condoned with his silence - but it did make him reconsider how much of a grouch he was being.

He was silent for a moment, analyzing how he felt other than the pain. "Food," he finally said. "And maybe a shower."

"I can make something... do you want soup or oatmeal?" Those seemed easy enough to eat and digest, and more importantly, were in the range of his cooking skills, which largely amounted to 'add hot water.' The shower he was a little more skeptical on, but they could work out the logistics of all that once Hijikata had eaten something.

Toshi considered the two options for a moment. "Mm. Oatmeal - with a little bit of brown sugar if we still have some." That would be more filling than soup, probably. "And... some coffee?" The request came out a little more pleadingly hopeful than he'd intended, but he was pretty sure that was on the list of things someone who'd just ruptured several internal organs wasn't supposed to have.

"Some coffee." Because while it was probably not totally advisable, he couldn't completely deny him. If he started asking for cigarettes, on the other hand... "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Thankfully 'oatmeal and coffee' was a pretty fool-proof order, and it wasn't long at all before he came back bearing both, which he set aside on the nightstand for the moment. "Do you need any help sitting up?" Knowing Hijikata, the answer to that would be 'no' even if it should be 'yes,' but at least he'd done his job in asking.

While Souji had been gone, Toshi had made another attempt to pull himself upright. He'd gained a few inches of altitude on his pillow, messed up his hair even more than it had been already, and felt like he'd just run up two flights of stairs, possibly while being punched repeatedly in the kidneys. So Souji's question was met with a long suffering sigh before he finally answered. "...Yeah, probably."

He was a little surprised at how easily Hijikata admitted it, but he was grateful as well. It let them skip through the petty little arguments he usually enjoyed, but wouldn't be terribly helpful at the moment, and meant Hijikata wouldn't hurt himself trying to prove he was fine when that clearly wasn't the case.

"All right." He reached across and snagged extra pillows from the other side of the bed, depositing them on Hijikata's knees for the moment, before he moved around to Hijikata's side. "Just lift your shoulders." He was plenty strong enough to do this, even without Hijikata's help, but he didn't want him to feel completely useless.

That much Toshi could do, along with with pushing himself up on his left arm - it could support his full weight easily, he just couldn't use it to shift himself much. He knew Souji could probably lift him by himself - he could vaguely recall being half-carried into the apartment, one arm around Souji's shoulders - but that would have been a little embarassing, particularly now that he was mostly lucid. And weight aside, the difference in size made it a little awkward

"Okay." He slid one arm behind Hijikata's upper back and rested the other on the shoulder nearest him to help steady. "Don't worry about trying to lift yourself." That would involve abdominal muscles, which was a bad plan when someone had gone and violently punched a hole through them. "And let me know if I should stop." All things considered, he wasn't that heavy, though, and it wasn't that hard to start getting him upright. Whether he'd really want to stay that way remained to be seen. This was, he supposed, the whole reason hospital beds could move.

It was one thing to know Souji was strong, and another to actually feel that strength pulling him up without any real effort or struggle. Once Souji had him up, he made an attempt at holding himself there, but he could feel the sharp stab of pain in both his stomach and his back, this time. As best as he could, he pushed himself backwards towards the head of the bed, where he could lean against the wall.

"Here." He reached over and grabbed the pillows he'd stolen from the other side of the bed, sliding them between Hijikata and the wall to help cushion his back. It might not be very comfortable in the long run, but it was better than nothing. "How's that?"

Toshi let himself fall back against the the pillows - there was a sort of sore ache in the muscles of his back, around where he presumed the exit wound was, but now that he wasn't trying to hold himself upright, the sharper pain had stopped.

"Much better." Being able to to see something other than his ceiling and Souji definitely counted.

"Good." It was nice to see Hijikata both up and coherent, as the two of those things hadn't happened much in tandem, of late. He reached over and retrieved the bowl of oatmeal, handing it to him so he wouldn't have to twist at all to reach it. "Here you go."

Tohi took the bowl from Souji, and stirred it a little to make sure all the sugar was mixed in. It frankly smelled amazing - as did the coffee - which was probably testament to a lack of solid food in the last two weeks than anything else. Particularly given that hospital food was nutritious, but decidedly lacking in the taste department.

"Thanks." He ate it carefully, mindful both of how hot it was and the fact that he couldn't stuff himself when parts of his guts were being held together by surgical staples. And that he'd probably make himself sick if he ate too fast after not having much at all.

"Not a problem." It was almost nice, having something to do. Not that he was glad Hijikata had gotten injured, but in a way, it was letting him feel useful, instead of just reliant on the other man to take care of everything.

Toshi finished the oatmeal and pointedly ignored his stomach's sudden insistence that it wanted more, because he knew he'd probably regret it. He reached over to set it on the nightstand again, doing his best to only shift his shoulders and not the muscles that were still healing, though it was impossible to avoid entirely. Now that he actually had something in his stomach, he could have his coffee without having to worry too much that he'd end up regretting it in short order. The smell already made him feel more human.

Souji took a seat on the bottom corner of the bed in the meantime, since there wasn't a better place to settle down, and he didn't want to feel like he was hovering. Hijikata was fine now, even if it'd take awhile for him to recover completely, and Souji knew he didn't really need to worry anymore, although it was hard not to, given he'd been doing it for weeks now.

Toshi wrapped his right hand around the mug, savouring the warmth as well as the smell. He took a careful sip - hot, but thankfully not scalding - and then a bigger one. Thankfully, it didn't seem to make anything else worse.

He gave Souji a quick smile. "Thanks for the coffee." Which was more or less an unspoken admission that he knew he shouldn't be having it.

"You looked like you needed it." Which was... sort of an understatement, but it wouldn't have been nice to point out just how bad Hijikata really looked at the moment.