Inks
Member
Inks as Brooke Ainsley
Vincent Valen as Alexia Felone da Firenze
Word Count - [ 3,411 ]
Word of Mouth
Alexia was making her way to the infirmary. She needed a medic. Badly. Her most recent battle in the jungles of India had lead to several injuries. Her minor wound, a stab wound through the shoulder, had clotted but still needed treatment. But her face...she felt horrible. She didn’t know many medics. She had only ever met one, Ansherina. However, she knew for a fact that Adelaide’s...partner Brooke was also in the healing division. She had never met the lady, but she hoped that she would be able to help.
The brightly-lit, sterile white halls of the Fourth Division infirmary were, as usual, bustling with activity as Alexia entered the building. Medics with clipboards and medical files in hand flit from room to room, their eyes on their charts and experience the only thing keeping them from bumping into each other as they turned corners and opened doors. Patients entered and exited intermittently in conditions ranging from ‘stuffy-nosed’ to ‘stabbed through the chest’. There was still a bloody swath on the floor from where some unlucky bastard had come in with his arm cleaved nearly in two. A young medic was scrubbing at the mess with a pursed expression, throwing glares at anyone who stepped too close to the mess or his fingers.
At the reception desk sat a sleepy-eyed shinigami. Head propped in hand, hair dark and meticulously coiffed, she had a black and violet butterfly at the end of one fingertip. She looked up and caught Alexia’s eyes, murmured something to it, and it took wing. It fluttered away over the Duelist’s head as she approached.
The receptionist gave Alexia a single once-over, her gaze lingering on the other woman’s injuries.
“Good day.” By the lazy calm in her voice as she finally spoke, her evaluation had left her unimpressed. She rifled through what looked to be a log book of some sort and asked, “Did you send a Jigokuchou ahead?”
“I’m looking for Brooke Ainsley...may I see her?” Alexia said.
She really wasn’t looking to follow the rulebook right about now.
“Ainsley?” The receptionist favored Alexia with a blank look. “Ainsley-san isn’t here.”
The woman said this as though it should’ve been obvious, and pushed the one ledger aside to pick up another. She thumbed back a few pages and then turned it around for the other woman to see. “Her shift ended a little more than four hours ago.” The receptionist returned her head to her hand and sighed. “Sorry. This is why we request that patients send one of the Hell Butterflies ahead when at all possible. If you’d like, I can...assign...”
The woman trailed off, a blank look clearing the previous lethargy from her face. Her gaze shifted, fixing on something somewhere over Alexia’s left shoulder. When the confusion faded, it was replaced with resignation.
“Well,” she said with another sigh. “That’s...convenient...”
There in the foyer, holding a door open as another shinigami left, was a shinigami with a brilliant smile on her freckled face, a bright look in her eyes, and her hair in a curly lavender sprawl down her back. She said something to the medic cleaning the floor as she stepped past, laughed at his reply, and continued on to the reception desk. Her energetic demeanor was betrayed, somewhat, by the yawn she stifled against the back of her hand before saying, “All right, Seira? Don’t let me interrupt your conversation.” She turned to flash an apologetic smile at Alexia. “I just wanted to...Oh, you’re injured!”
“Ainsley-san.” The receptionist opened her mouth, then seemed to think better of whatever she’d been about to say. She shook her head. “...Nevermind. This shinigami was just asking for you, actually.”
“She was?” Brooke angled her head at Alexia, her expression a neat mix of concern and confusion. “You were?”
It was painful to make a facial expression appear, so the Duelist remained stoic as she looked up and down the healer’s figure. Brooke looked very nice, it was apparent how easily Adelaide had fallen for her. Though it did make Alexia wonder who fell first, and she stored the question in her mind for later.
“I’m a friend of your umm...partner, Adelaide. She revered you as a healer, so when this happened.” She paused, gesturing to her facial scars. “I thought to contact you. Can you help me?”
“Of course I will,” Brooke said; she seemed surprised that Alexia thought she even needed to ask. “I’m a medic, aren’t I? And...well, any friend of Addie’s is a friend of mine.” The smile that spread across the woman’s face was toothy and charming. She started walking, nodding her head to indicate that Alexia follow. “I’m glad I didn’t miss you! I wasn’t scheduled to come in for another hour or two...or three...but, well, it’s clearly a good thing I did. Let me find us a room and then I’ll see what I can–”
“...Ainsley-san.”
“–do for...huh?” Long, curly hair whipping over her shoulder, Brooke turned on heel. Past Alexia, still seated at her desk, the receptionist was managing to give Brooke a dirty look without actually changing her expression. The two women stared at each. Then Brooke smacked a hand to her forehead. “Oh! Blimey, Seira, I’m sorry. I totally forgot to sign in! Don’t know what I was thinking.” The medic made to return to the desk, but Seira raised a hand to stop her.
“It’s fine.” Seira’s expression was as close to an eye-roll as one could get without actually rolling one’s eyes. “If you’d like to go ahead and take care of her, Ainsley-san, I’ll sign you in. Again.”
“Oh, alright. Thank you, Seira.” Brooke smiled sheepishly, and glanced over to Alexia. “Alright, now if you’d follow me–”
“Ainsley-san.”
“...Yes, Seira?” Exasperation threatened at the edges of Brooke’s light-and-peppy voice as she turned again.
There may or may not have been a smirk hidden behind the dark-haired receptionist’s hand as she said, “Room 107 is open.”
“Ta again, Seira.” Brooke waited a moment, watching Seira thoughtfully. “Alright,” she said. “Let’s–”
“Ainsley–”
“Seira!”
Seira’s head was lowered, eyes focused on something she was writing down in her ledger. “...Have a good day.”
“...Ta. You too,” Brooke said. She gave Alexia a look that said, ‘Do you see this harassment?’ but she seemed more amused than bothered by the whole exchange. “Sorry about that; now if you’d follow me, I’ll see what I can do about those injuries.” The concern returned as Brooke studied the other shinigami’s face. “That can’t feel good.”
Listening to the exchange made Alexia feel a little more comfortable. Hospitals, doctors...it wasn’t something she was familiar with. In her human life, her family had a private doctor, so the white halls and outfits were a little different than what she was used to. So the professional humor, albeit a bit stingy, helped her to relax. A few walls were let down, so to speak.
“Well I can hardly move my jaw without feeling some sort of pain, so I’ll leave it to your imagination,” she responded to Brooke.
The pair reached the room with the number the receptionist had mentioned. Alexia stepped into the room, that chilling feeling returning again.
“So how does this work...I’ve never actually seen a healer work before. There’s not any needles, are there?” she asked.
“You wouldn’t believe how many times a day someone asks me that,” Brooke laughed, entering the room behind Alexia and easing the door shut behind her. She turned and ushered Alexia onto the examination table with a small gesture. “Honestly, it depends. We have the supplies here to treat injuries by conventional methods, and I think most medics prefer to save chiyudo for emergency situations or healing out in the field, but I try to tailor my treatment method to suit the patient.”
She smiled brightly at Alexia. “So, basically, what I’m saying is that if you don’t want any needles, then there won’t be any. Mostly, I just want to get you taken care of. Now,” she said, stepping close enough to get a good look at the Duelist’s face, “it looks like you have a few puncture wounds here...some burning here...and some corrosion, probably from an acid or poison. Bloody hell, I’m sorry. I bet it’s been killing you to talk and here I am yammering on and on...Hang on, are these your only injuries? Ah, don’t say anything! Here: you can hold up one finger for yes, two for no.” Brooke held up her own fingers in a goofy little demonstration.
It seemed as though Brooke had finally deciphered how much it was hurting for the Duelist to move her face, let alone talk. She moved the pain aside for a brief moment just to make one more smirk. When she listened to Brooke’s alternative to speaking, she gingerly moved one finger and pointed towards her wounded shoulder. While the wound had clotted, the blood loss was taking its toll, the Italian’s vision starting to blur. Alexia blinked rapidly, trying to clear it up.
“Alright, okay,” Brooke said, almost to herself, as she leaned in to inspect the now-exposed puncture in Alexia’s shoulder. “This is...a stab wound?” She waited for the other woman to raise a single finger in confirmation before moving away. The woman bustled about the examination room for a moment, her curly lavender hair flying after her as she dug through a few cabinets and drawers, talking the whole while. “Well, not to worry! I wouldn’t say it’s all good – no injury is good, right? – but I’m pretty sure you’ll be just fine. Try not to move too much, though; blood loss can cause pretty severe lightheadedness and disorientation. It looks like you got yourself into a bit of a scrap, eh, miss...eh...? No...”
The medic paused, her hands full of medical supplies. She whipped her head around and fixed the other woman with a wide-eyed look of disbelief. “No way!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t! I can’t believe...”
Brooke shook her head and moved back towards Alexia. She deposited her armful of clean bandages and medical supplies onto the examination table next to her and said, “I’m so sorry, I can’t believe I forgot to ask you for your name! Oh – don’t tell me now – let me take care of your injuries first.” The shinigami got to work to hide her embarrassment over the slip-up.
She cast three spells, murmuring the incantations in a soft and steady voice. Soft Breath to leach away the pain of the burns across Alexia’s cheek; Pressure Seal to stop any trace bleeding from both her face and her shoulder wounds; Numbing Touch to numb the remaining injuries.
“Those chiyudou should help with the worst of the pain,” Brooke explained as she moved, briefly, to the sink on the other side of the room. She wet a few medical wipes with warm water and returned to Alexia’s side. “But the injuries are just under anesthesia – you’re still in pretty bad condition. I’m going to clean off your injuries so I know where to focus my kidou when I’m mending the wounds. The actual mending will take a bit, too.
“Ah! You could talk now, if you’d like. It shouldn’t hurt, as long as I cast all my spells right.” Brooke stopped dabbing at Alexia’s face just long enough to offer her a light-hearted smile. “Which I did,” she assured.
The healer was right, Alexia didn’t feel anything in her face anymore. It was a pleasant, but at the same time unnerving feeling. It was great that she couldn’t feel the pain anymore, but was chilled by how simple it had been for Brooke to have done it.
“Alexia Felone da Firenze, Eleventh Division. Its a pleasure to meet you Brooke Ainsley,” she managed to say, finally able to introduce herself.
Alexia then used her good arm to offer her hand to shake.
Brooke transferred the now-bloodied medical wipe to her other hand, then took Alexia’s in her own. “Alexia Felone da Firenze?” she said with an amused little smile. “And I felt bad for my name being hard to pronounce in Japanese. No offense meant,” she hastily added, releasing the other woman’s hand to get back to wiping blood from her shoulder. “I think it’s a wonderful name.”
The wounds cleaned and the used medical wipes carefully disposed of, Brooke dragged a stool over from one corner of the room, perched on it, and raised one hand to Alexia’s face. “This last chiyudou will seal your wounds,” she explained. “I’m not sure it’ll fix your shoulder entirely, not in one go – but it’ll definitely help. It’s a bit slow, though, so bear with me.” Her smile faded, only a little, as she concentrated on the next incantation.
“Break apart and return,” she chanted. “turn and overcome.” A soft white glow came to life in her palms, lighting Alexia’s face. “Unity from division before the sickle moon. Chiyudou number one, Mend.”
The cleansing light bathed the Duelist’s injuries, and they began to heal. It was a slow but steady process. “...So you know Addie – er, Adelaide?” Brooke said; although she seemed a little distracted by her work, she still managed to catch Alexia’s gaze just long enough to smile. “I’m glad to hear she’s, ah, talking about me. Although, to be honest, as a healer I’m not all that special.”
“You’re probably the first person to actually complement my name, instead of stuttering to pronounce or wonder where it came from,” the Duelist said in response to her name being given.
Brooke was certainly underestimating her own skills, Alexia didn’t think the healing process would go this smoothly.
“I would think your work says otherwise. I hear you’re kept quite busy, so you must be good. Adelaide always joked that she had to blast herself with kidou just to come in here and see you. All those hours have to apply to your skills at some point,” Alexia said.
“I hope its not too direct but...would you mind enlightening me as to how you two ended up together?” she inquired.
Brooke blinked, a little surprised by the question. “Oh... No, not at all,” she replied, and her smile quickly returned in full force. “How we ended up together...”
The healing glow of her kidou seemed to strengthen as the medic thought on the question, and, after a moment, Brooke chuckled – almost to herself – and shrugged.
“Honestly?” she said. “I don’t even know. We met each other entirely by coincidence one day. She asked if I wanted to go out to eat with her, and...haha, honestly, I thought she’d mistaken me for someone else. A friend of hers or something. Our first date was at a little ramen stand, of all places. ...Not that I’m complaining! Not at all. Meeting Adelaide was like...it was like...”
Brooke shook her head, struggling for the right words. She kept her eyes on her work, though, and her chiyudo didn’t waver. She moved from injury to injury, careful and precise in her healing technique.
“It was like a miracle,” she finally admitted. She laughed again. “That sounds cheesy, I know, but... well... I’d sort of given up on the notion of relationships altogether; I’d convinced myself that all I needed was this: healing people. Helping people. Meeting a beautiful woman in the middle of the street who just so happened to be interested in me, of all people? I couldn’t believe it. Hell, sometimes I still can’t believe it. When I’m around Addie, it’s like I’m in a dream. I keep waiting to wake up.”
Brooke blinked again, and her gaze jumped back over to Alexia’s. For the first time, her reiatsu fluctuated.
“Oh,” she said, dumbly. The aura in her hands righted itself in an instant, but her embarrassment was still bright in her cheeks. “Err, I’m sorry,” she laughed. “You ask me one question and there I go, waxing poetic on you.”
“It’s quite alright, I was just curious. Adelaide is always mentioning that she doesn’t get to see you much anymore unless she’s being wheeled in on a stretcher. That much time apart can take its toll on a couple. So it’s nice to know that your feelings for each other are as strong as they ever were,” Alexia said.
“We met on a mission, a holiday one to be exact. The mission was just fine, but it was something else that got me looking at her. Not in a romantic way, I assure you. Adelaide is a good person, and my first real friend. I wasn’t a social lady, but she got me to come out of my shell, and her friendship is something that I will never be able to repay. To quote you...it’s like I’m in a dream. I keep waiting to wake up,” she said, managing a smile.
‘That much time apart can take its toll on a couple.’
Brooke nodded, hiding concern behind a brighter version of Alexia’s own smile. “I’m glad to hear that she was able to help you out. I know that the Gotei can take its toll on people; it’s a hard life, even if the work is important.” She tilted her head, indicating the area of Alexia’s shoulder that Brooke was currently working on. “Physically and mentally. It’s important for us to have social lives outside of Gotei business.” The advice didn’t seem aimed entirely at Alexia, and Brooke seemed to realize that. “Honestly, I’m still working on that one myself,” she admitted.
“Addie is absolutely a good person; more than she gives herself credit for, I think. She’s good at getting people to do things they didn’t think they could. ...But don’t think you owe Adelaide for her friendship, Alexia.” Brooke glanced up at Alexia’s face. Her smile this time was softer, more genuine. “I’m sure she values your friendship just as much.”
When her eyes returned to her mark, the lavender-haired woman made a light, thoughtful sound in the back of her throat. “Looks like we’re juuust about finished up here,” she decided. “...Give or take a minute. You’ll want to go easy on this shoulder for a while; kidou-based healing can only do so much, after all. Natural healing will have to take care of the rest, and that will take time.”
When the healer proclaimed that she was done, Alexia moved a hand up to her face, still somehow expecting the worst. But when she felt her smooth skin again, it almost brought her to tears.
“I...I...” she tried to speak, but her voice broke repeatedly. She couldn’t move her repaired shoulder well, so the Duelist used her other arm to embrace Brooke in a one-armed hug.
“Thank you,” Alexia finally managed to say.
“Of course,” Brooke said, her voice soft with surprise. “Any time, Alexia.” She released her reiatsu, let the glow fade from her hands, and reached up to return the hug. The disquiet in her mind faded -- she could think about Adelaide later. Right now... “You put your life on the line on a regular basis to protect the world. Healing your wounds is the very least I can do.”
She held the other shinigami tight, just foroment. This, more than anything, was why she worked so hard, and so much. This made it worth it. “Just be careful, all right? You’re not invincible, super-powered spirit or not,” she pulled back to meet Alexia’s gaze, “and you’re not replaceable. But if you do get banged up again, I’ll be here.”
A pause. “And if I’m not, I’m sure someone can come get me.”
“I take it I’m not going to get a lollipop or something,” Alexia joked as the hug ended.
She moved over to the door, opening it before adding one more thing.
“Should you happen to see Adelaide soon, give her a little something...extra from me. Whatever it is, I’m sure you’ll think of something,” she said, smiling once more before the Duelist departed.
Brooke remained seated on her stool, eyebrows raised at the empty space Alexia had just departed, for a full minute after the Duelist had departed.
Then she started laughing, unable to help herself. She shook her head in incredulous amusement as she worked on setting the room to rights. “I’m sure I will,” she hummed to herself.
.