Pants undone, Dee gently pulled them down, careful not to touch Ryo’s burnt thighs.
Dee winched, trying not to make a big deal out of what he was doing. He was doing nothing wrong! He was helping his friend.
“Does it look bad?” Ryo quietly asked.
‘No, not at…’ Dee flushed, shaking his head, “no, just a little red.” he said, cautiously touching Ryo’s thigh. “Does it hurt when I push here?”
Ryo winced, “yeah, a little.” he said, sucking in his breath.
Ryo felt very shy; never before had he been this naked in front of someone other then a doctor or a nurse. He had to remind himself that he wasn’t really naked. He was still wearing a shirt and his boxers. Dee was decent enough to push the boxers up, so he could see the burn and not pull them down.
Dee slowly ran his wet rag over Ryo’s thighs, cleaning up the coco. That done, he put some burn cream on his hands, rubbing them together to warm it up before he applied it to Ryo’s thighs.
Ryo jumped, letting out an startled ‘eep’ when he felt Dee start to rub the cream on his inner thighs. It felt strange; it hurt like heck, but… strangely enough… it felt good.
Shaking his head, Ryo looked up, closing his eyes.
“All done.” Dee said, snapping Ryo out of his thoughts.
“Huh… done?” Ryo looked at Dee, who was now standing up. Ryo looked down at his legs, seeing that he was all bandaged up. He’d been in such a daze, he hadn’t even realized what Dee was doing to him.
Holding a hand out, Dee smiled, helping Ryo to his feet.
“Thanks,” Ryo said, flushing when Dee dangled his pants in front of his face.
“You’re welcome, now where can we get you some new pants?” Dee asked. He smiled at the shy look on Ryo’s face. He was too cute!
“My room.” Ryo murmured.
---
Laying across Ryo’s bed, Dee glanced over at the teen; Ryo’s parents had begged him to stay the night, and who was Dee to refuse.
“Ryo, can I ask something?” Dee asked.
Ryo nodded, “Sure.”
“I want to know if you can tell me about your past… about finding out you had cancer?” Dee wanted to know everything about Ryo.
Ryo smiled, happy someone was actually interested in hearing about his life.
“Okay,” Ryo said, walking over to his bed and sitting down.
“I was five and I’d been having bad pains… so mom and dad took me to the hospital…”
(A/N Heh, I don’t know doctor lingo, so some stuff is off. Sorry.)
The young sandy blond haired boy lay on the hospital bed, writhing in agony. The doctor and nurses around him were perplexed about his situation. The boy of five had come in for a cheek up and the next thing everyone knew he was in throws of pain.
“Ryo.”
A white light was shown in Ryo’s face, but the toddler barely registered it.
“Ryo, can you hear me?”
“Mm,” the toddler moaned, tears streaming down his face.
‘Not again, not again,’ he thought, holding his middle.
What Ryo didn’t realize was that he had spoken out loud.
“Not again?” the doctor asked. The doctor was a young man, in his early twenties; most knew him as Hatori. Hatori Sohma. (Not a crossover: just borrowing the name)
“You’ve had pains like this before?” Hatori sighed, “why wasn’t I informed?”
“S-sorry, I-I thought they’d g-go away,” Ryo stuttered.
“Nurse!” Hatori barked, “get a IV in this boy.”
“Yes, Doctor!” the nurse, Tohru nodded, grabbing an IV line. She smiled down at Ryo, “Sorry, Ryo, this will sting a little.” she said as she stuck the needle in his vain.
Because of the pain he was already in, Ryo barely felt the little prick of the needle.
“Three ccs of morphine,” Hatori said, as Tohru put the drugs in the IV.
“Ryo, we’ll be doing numerous tests on you to try and figure out what’s causing this pain of yours.” Hatori said as Ryo’s fell into a drug induced sleep.
“The next thing I knew, I was awake in a room with my mom and dad.” Ryo told Dee. “Mom was crying and dad’s face was red.”
Ryo sighed, “it wasn’t good news… it was the worse news we ever expected to hear. It shattered our whole world.”
Dee frowned, fighting the urge to hug Ryo. It wouldn’t be right; they were alone, laying on a bed and it was known that he was gay.
Dee settled for patting Ryo on the shoulder. Ryo looked at Dee and smiled.
“Doctor Hatori told us that I had cancer…” Ryo murmured.
“He can’t have cancer!” Hana exclaimed, tears running down her cheeks. She went to Ryo, engulfing him in a tight hug.
“I don’t want him to leave me; I won’t let him die!”
Hearing that made Ryo gasp, “d-die! Mommy, I don’t want to die.” Ryo cried, snuggling into his mother’s arms.
“I member when poppy died. They put him in the ground. Mama, did you know the ground is very dark?” Ryo sniffed. “I’m scared of the dark.” Ryo sobbed.
Koji went to his son’s side, “Shh, don’t cry. Ryo, you won’t die.” he said, firmly.
The man looked at the doctor, Hatori. “Right?” he asked.
Hatori sighed. “I'm sorry, with things like this we can never know for sure what will happen; there is something we can do to help make things better for Ryo.”
“What?” Hana asked, still crying.
"Step one to his recovery and remission is chemotherapy."
Ryo stopped talking, his voice choked up, “is it okay if we save the rest of the story for later?” Ryo looked away from Dee. “Besides… I can’t remember very well anymore… it happened such a long time ago.”
‘Hell with it being wrong…’ Dee grabbed Ryo, pulling the teen to his chest.
Ryo gasped, melting into the hug. “Dee?” he murmured.
“Sorry, Ryo… I just really felt like hugging you… I told myself I shouldn’t, because it might give off the wrong signal, but… I just couldn’t help myself.” Dee hugged Ryo tighter. “I don’t want to see you sad. Don’t be sad. The past is the past and you’re here in the present… and you’re doing well.”
Ryo felt himself grinning; he didn’t mind the hug at all. It was just a hug, and it really was welcome relief.
“Thank you, Dee.” Ryo breathed, finding himself snuggling closer to the dark haired teen.
A/N Please review!
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