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The Wolf sighed as she walked up the stairs to her apartment. Everything hurt; her muscles screamed at her for rest, her head throbbed from dehydration and lack of food, even her eyes felt dry and painful, stinging each time she closed them to blink. But she was so close to home. To a hot shower and a soft bed. Technically she was breaking ANBU protocol by not returning to Base to report on her mission and change out of her armor before returning home; no one was supposed to know who was ANBU, but at this moment she didn’t care. She had spent six long weeks away from home on what had been the most trying solo mission of her life. She had slept very little, and what sleep she did manage to catch had been broken, leaving her feeling more exhausted than when she bedded down for the night. What was worse, the intel they had received had been faulty which had ended with her beating a very hasty retreat to lick her wounds. The Hokage was not going to be happy to hear about her failure.
With a deep sigh, Wolf shifted her bag of equipment to her other shoulder, the weapons clinking together softly inside, as she pushed open the door to her flat and dropped her things to the floor. Her report to ANBU HQ could wait until morning.
With a grateful sigh she kicked the door shut and inhaled deeply. She set about carefully removing her ANBU wolf mask, her armor and her shoes, neatly piling everything by the door to be dealt with in the morning. She winced as the motion pulled on her wounds. 'I should probably report to the hospital' she though as she moved mechanically around the apartment, turning on lights and opening windows to air out the musty smell, 'get these wounds looked at. Make sure they're not infected'.
As she opened one of her cupboards in the search for something edible, a noise in the bedroom caught her attention. The sound of something falling, a soft thump, and cursing. Wolf froze, her eyes trained on the bedroom door all senses suddenly alert. Fatigue was forgotten, replaced by adrenaline as she reached for the tanto still sheathed at her back and slid it out of its case with a quiet 'shing' before she padded over towards the bedroom door. She paused momentarily, ear pressed to the hardwood as she strained to hear any movement inside. She could hear the sound of shuffling feet through the door; it sounded far away as if the person was on the other side of the room, near the window. A thief maybe? Either way, Wolf took a deep inhale before she wrenched the door open and entered the room.
She launched herself forward towards the sound, a snarl twisting her lips as she tackled the shadow to the floor. The shadow yelped in surprise nd pain as the two of them fell, squirming and fighting until it felt the cold steel of the Wolf's blade against its throat.
The Wolf froze when the shadow croaked her name. She closed her eyes to focus on the chakra signature before her.
"Tenzo?" She asked, stunned, and withdrew her blade as she sat up so that she was straddling him. "What- what are you doing here breaking into my apartment?!" Her tone swung from surprised to angry as she rose to her feet and padded across the room, pressing her palm against a golden disk in the wall and turned on the light. She glared down at the man still lying on her bedroom floor. He was still dressed in his ANBU uniform, his cat mask still on his face. Above him, her curtains fluttered in the breeze.
Tenzo sat up slowly and hunched his shoulders, making himself appear smaller. "I'm sorry" he said woodenly as he removed his mask and carefully set it aside and out of the way; his eyes remained glued on the ANBU mask for a few more moments before raising them to meet the Wolf's irate gaze. "I didn't know you were home".
"I just got in" she said, with a little more bite and hostility than she intended. "What are you doing here, Tenzo?"
Tenzo flinched and looked away from the ANBU captain. He chose to stare at his knees instead of meeting the irritated gaze of the other.
Wolf stared at him, annoyance running across her face as she waited impatiently for an answer. Tenzo whimpered and curled up into a tight ball, knees drawn tightly to his chest. "I'm sorry" he said again, "I didn't know where else to go".
Wolf frowned as she finally took in the state of the other shinobi. He was disheveled and bruised, twigs, leaves and other detritus were caught in his brown hair; dirt caked his exposed skin and he was bleeding sluggishly from several wounds. She tisked. "You're getting blood all over my floor".
"I'm Sorry". he replied, shame filling his voice.
Wolf sighed and ran a hand across her tired face as she wrestled her irritation and frustration into submission. This wasn't how she had envisioned her night going once she had returned home. With another heavy sigh she crouched down next to Tenzo who recoiled away from her slightly and she huffed a sigh again. How many times had she returned from a rough mission, needing a safe place to break and had gone to his room in the barracks? He really needed her to not be a bitch right now.
"Tenzo." she tried, but he just coiled away from her, whimpering softly. Tenzo had begun to shake violently and he held himself tighter, as if he could hold all his broken pieces together if he just squeezed tight enough.
"Tenzo" she called again, her voice gentler this time. "Tenzo, I'm sorry for snapping. I've just gotten back from a very stressful mission and you startled me is all. I'm not angry with you. Come, we need to get you cleaned up". She gently placed a hand on his shoulder and felt her heart give a little squeeze when he flinched away from her touch.
"'m sorry" he murmured.
Wolf patted his arm. "C'mon. Let me take a look. You really might bleed out on my bedroom floor".
"'m sorry".
Wolf gently tugged on his arm. "Is that all you know how to say?" she teased lightly.
"'m sorry".
"Please don’t make me carry you to the bathroom. You're heavy and I'm tired".
"'m sorry".
Wolf inhaled deeply through her nose and stood to her feet. "Okay. You stay there then. I'm going to go get a med-kit and some warm water. We really do need to clean you up".
Tenzo just sat there on the floor of her room, shoulder shaking with silent sobs. Wolf gave him one last look before she turned and walked down the short hallway to the bathroom on the other end of her apartment. Grabbing a dark washcloth, her med-kit and a large bowl of warm water, she padded her way back into her room. Tenzo was still sitting in the same position that she had left him in.
"Ten?"
Tenzo just sniffled and squeezed himself tighter. Wolf knelt next to him and ran a hand up and down his back; She hoped it was comforting. "Tenzo, I need you to sit up properly for me, alright? We need to look at these wounds and get them cleaned up before they get infected".
Slowly, painfully slowly, the brunet unfolded himself from the ball he had rolled into and stretched out his long legs in front of him. He risked a glance up at the Wolf who stared down at him with a look he couldn't decipher. Her eyes roamed over his battered body, taking stock of every cut, scrape and gash. As she worked, the Wolf narrated everything she was going to do, her hands gentle and soothing.
"I'm going to remove your happuri so I can look at this gash on your cheek...tilt your head a little to the left...I'm going to apply some antiseptic to this, this might sting a little bit..." Bit by bit, Tenzo felt himself relax as the Wolf carefully tended to him.
"I'm going to try cleaning away the blood on your arm now." Gently, she dabbed the washcloth against the crusted blood on his upper bicep, cleaning away blood and dirt to get a better look at the wound beneath. The wound was deep, slashing across his upper arm, nearly bisecting his ANBU tattoo. "Hmmm...this one looks pretty bad, Ten. You might need to go to the hospital for this one. You need stitches".
Hospital. The word echoed in his head, over and over, as fear and anxiety formed an ice ball in his gut. An invisible fist closed around his throat, squeezing the breath out of him. Panic bloomed in his chest. I can't! I can't go back there! Images from his last mission flashed across his mind. A dark and dank lab filled with twisted creatures floating in giant tanks; Lab equipment; the smell of antiseptic in the air mixed with a damp moldy smell; a stainless steel table with thick leather straps; the face of Oorochimaru hovering in front of him just outside his experiment tank.... Tenzo gasped for air, he couldn't breathe. It felt like he was suffocating, being smothered. Past and present memories blurred together in a cascading avalanche and he squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to block the images out.
"Oh, Tenzo..." It was soft and tender, barely audible, as was the sound of fabric whispering across the wood floor. He didn't realize how close she came until her knees bumped his. Wolf gently gathered his hands in hers, warm and calloused, her thumbs rubbing soothingly against his battered knuckles. She pressed one of his hands against her chest and his other against his as her forehead came down to press against his. "Breath with me" she whispered, her breath fanning across his cheeks.
She exaggerated a deep inhale and held it for a few moments before slowly exhaling through her nose. Tenzo followed suit, focusing on the warmth of her touch on his skin, the rise and fall of her chest, her heartbeat strong and steady underneath his palm, the sound of their collective breathing in sync. "You're going to be okay Tenzo" she murmured softly, "you are safe now. You can stay here for the night. No hospitals, I promise". He had never heard the Wolf talk so tenderly to him...to anyone really. Tenzo pressed his forehead a little firmer against hers and took another deep, shaky inhale. They sat like that for a bit, until the sound of his blood from the wound on his bicep dripped onto the hardwood again with a soft 'tick'.
"I'm going to continue patching you up, alright?" She whispered, almost afraid to break the silence, as if he would bolt out the window and into the night if she spoke too loudly. He nodded his head and continued to focus on evening his breathing; on the feel of the washcloth as it stroked across his skin, the sting of antiseptic in the wound. Tenzo breathed deeply through his mouth as the smell of antiseptic turned his stomach, bringing up old memories that he would rather not have.
Wolf glanced up at him through her eyelashes. "I'm going to need to stitch this up and I don't have anything to numb it. You let me know if it becomes too much, alright?"
Tenzo nodded again and braced himself for the feeling of the needle in his skin and tried to stamp down the nausea at the thought of the needle in his skin. He hissed in pain as Wolf made the first pass of the needle. He felt her hesitate for a moment, waiting for him to signal whether to continue or stop. When he made no move to pull away, she continued her work.
"You're surprisingly good at this" Tenzo said, choosing to focus on the neatness of her stitches as he watched her sew his wound closed.
Wolf huffed a little laugh. "I've done this a lot".
They sat in silence together for a long time, as Wolf bandaged the rest of his wounds and tidied up her things.
"There. That'll do for now".
She helped him to his feet and sat him on the bed as she helped remove his armor and shinobi sandals, carefully piling them on the floor by the bed. She then went over and closed the window, drawing the blackout curtains closed and turned to Tenzo.
"You can stay here tonight", she said as she moved towards the door and turning off the overhead light. "You can take my bed, I'll sleep on the couch".
"Wait!" he cried. It sounded weak and desperate and Tenzo flushed.
She stopped and turned to look at him.
His eyes darted around her room, looking everywhere but at her. "I- I don't want to be alone...right now", he murmured softly, almost embarrassed. "Please- stay?" He twisted his fingers anxiously together as the Wolf regarded him for a few heartbeats. She sighed again and began moving towards the bed.
"Fine. The bed is more comfortable than the couch anyway".
Tenzo shifted over to give Wolf some space and she climbed in and settled next to him. He turned onto his side and hesitantly laid a hand on her bicep, seeking the warmth and comfort of human contact. Wolf snorted.
"C'mere" she grumbled, tugging him closer. She guided him to lay his head on her shoulder and wrapped an arm around him. She gently pressed her cheek against the top of his head and huffed a content sigh. Tenzo snuggled into her warm embrace and inhaled deeply. For the first time in what felt like forever, he finally felt safe.
"Thank you" he whispered. The arm that was wrapped around him squeezed him a little tighter in acknowledgement.
"Good night Tenzo" she whispered back.
Together they drifted off to sleep.