Kiku met his next patient and bowed. She was a new patient, today. “Konnichiwa.” He said softly, “My name is Honda Kiku and I will be your doctor. Now, you presented with frequent, violent nosebleeds, headaches, and blood from the tear ducts, corr -” He paused and trailed off. Oh god, she was giving him that look, wasn't she? The 'isn't it past your bedtime?' look. He swallowed and drew himself up, “Correct?” He didn't wait for an answer, he had the chart, after all.

“All if your symptoms are congruent with rare side effects of the common cold, a few days of rest and monitoring and you should be fine. However, I would like to run a few tests. I would like to monitor your blood pressure, particularly in your brain. This involves inserting a sensor in to the back of your neck buy a Lumbar puncture. It's completely painless. Any questions?” He looked up. She still had that look on her face oh kami…

“Where's your supervisor?” She asked.

He bit his lip., not wanting to fight, “I don't have one,” He answered.

“Oh,” She said in that way that people did, eyes slightly wider than normal, blank expression on her face, mouth in a little ‘O’ even after she had spoke.

He twitched and sighed, “I don’t need a supervisor. I’m fully qualified.”

“Oh. Ok, how old are you?”

He paused. He was twenty two, but she would never let him treat her if she knew that, even if he was just as qualified – even more so maybe, than the other Doctors here. It would be much better to lie, surely? For the patient’s sake. “Thirty.” He said.

“Oh,” She smiled this time with her ‘oh’, “I’m sorry, you have a very young face,” from then on, he didn’t’ have any problems with her.

Twenty minutes later, he walked out of the room and checked the rounds. He had a new patient now, oh goodie. He sighed and walked in to the room, checking the patient chart. “Hello, I’m Honda Kiku,” Be bowed and looked back at his chart. “I’ll be your Doctor for now, Mr Kii…” He paused and chocked on his words, “Kaaak…” Why did he have such a weakness for names? “Kaarrr… Kakulando…” He blushed slightly in embarrassment, he didn’t usually have such problems with names. He wondered which look he would get now, the ‘Aren’t you a little young?’ look, or the ‘You’re foreign, aren’t you?’ look. Maybe he wouldn’t have to find out, he could just look down at the chart throughout there session.

No, that was silly and unprofessional. Eventually, he had to look up.

Arthur was reading a book. A very interesting one. It was a detective one and a murder was just about to be commited. He was lost in his book. He had to distract himself with something right? 'And the man entered the door, raised his arm with a knife...his potentional victim was caught offguard and-'

The Brit almost jumped up when someone suddenly entered and greeted. He dropped his book in suprise. "A-ah sorry, I was just reading something scary, s-so." he tried to hide his blush of embarassment and quickly picked up his book and put it away.

He faced his doctor properly now. He had noticed he'd struggeld with pronouncing his name so Arthur gave him a kind smile. "You can call me just Arthur, everyone does here anyway." he studied his doctor. He looked like a nice person.

Arthur… well, that wasn't much easier than Kirkland. But, well, at least Arthur-San was trying to be nice. Looking at him, actually, they looked about the same age and with a quick check of the chart, he noticed that they were the same age. Generally, people his age didn't mind that he was young, they didn't notice.

 He gave a small smile and walked over to check the vitals. “How is your arm feeling?” He asked, checking his heart rate with his stethoscope, nothing above normal. “You have a very nasty concussion. I would like to do an MRI and check the intracranial pressure, make sure there's no damage.” He explained, leaning in close to check his eyes, make sure there was no signs of kidney damage.

He paused, suddenly staring straight in to Arthur's eyes, “Asa-San…” he said softly, “May I sketch you?”

He stuttered and pulled away, blushing bright red up to his ears, “Well, what I mean to say is — you have a very nice face — I mean — Ah!” He stuttered and mumbled, rambling on, “You remind me of a character I want to draw in my manga — just a sketch for a model  — just your cheek bones…” He walked back and fidgeted. How professional, Kiku Honda. Get ready for your patient to request a new doctor. He'd never asked that before. Usually he just observed and drew from a corner.

Arthur noticed his doctor was a foreighner, he'd guessed he was Japanese. And probably around the same age as him. He had nice hair, not such a mess like Arthur's. He caught himself staring at Kiku.

"Feeling better actually." he said smiling back at his doctor as he let him check his heart rate. He nodded in understanding. "A-ah okay." Arthur was a bit nervous at the MRI part. He'd never had one, so he didn't really know how'd it all go.

He titled his head to the right and blinked. His doctor wanted to what? sketch him? That was a bit strange. Besides no one ever sketched him. Maybe his eyebrows were a reason. He blushed as well when Kiku went rambling and told him he had a nice face. Arthur tried to hide his flustered face and nodded. "I-it's okay, I don't mind if you sketch me." he told him.

"You don't? Arigato." He smiled and bowed, trying to keep his relief and gratitude off his face, but he had a feeling he wasn't doing very well at it. He checked his watch, "I have a break in about half an hour, I could come back later, you wouldn't even know I was there, hai? It's only quick sketches. And I can tell you the time for your MRI at the same time." He stepped back. There wasn't much more he could do without looking at the MRI.

He gave a very small, refined smile. "I just have a few things to ask you. Have you had any blackouts? Memory loss? Made any strange decisions? To the best of your knowledge, of course." He added, taking out a pen to make a note on the clip board.

Upon getting Arthur's reply, he nodded and made a note on the clipboard. "I'll see you later, then." He bowed and stepped back towards the door, "Asa-san." And he walked out.

Arthur, he thought, was a surprisingly welcoming patient. He had done many of the things that had meant other patients had requested other doctors, but Arthur hadn't been bothered about anything. Thinking about it, he seemed to have a very empty room. Not really any flowers and cards. Well, that he noticed, at least. Perhaps he should buy him something, as a token of his gratitude? It was his culture, after all, he must be polite. Maybe he should take him some food? Kiku knew hospital food was horrible. But... he didn't know what Arthur liked. He would ask him when he went to sketch him on his break.

He walked straight in to the radiology department to see about getting Arthur an MRI as soon as possible, inexplicably unable to stop thinking about him.

"S-sure, you're welcome." Arthur told him a bit shyly. He still couldn't help to find it rather odd having his doctor wanting to sketch him. But it somehow made him feel bit special and happy about it. "Uhm...yes that's fine with me." though he didn't want his doctor to leave him that quickly already for a strange reason.

Arthur titled his head and thought about answers to the questions. "Hmn not really, only I don't quite remember much of the day it happened and few days before that." he admitted.

Arthur smiled back at Kiku. "Yes, see ya." he replied and watched his doctor walk off. He was nice, Arthur thought and opened his book again, going back to his reading.

About half an hour later, Kiku was starting to feel a little nervous. What if Arthur decided that he didn't want to be sketched while he had been in that room by himself? Did Kiku even want to sketch him? It had been a silly whim, and Kiku never followed his silly whims, especially not at work. He had to pay attention at work! Not drift off to draw his patients. But he would not back out. He stayed to his commitments, (which went part of the way to understanding why he had managed to graduate medical school in just three years) so unless Arthur wanted to back out, he would go in there and take a few sketches of him. It would be good, actually, for the main character of a manga idea he had half formed in his head. They seemed to share a lot of the same characteristics.

He knocked on Arthur's door, “Um, konnichiwa, Asa-San.” He opened the door and bowed politely, “May I come in?”

He swallowed and stepped in nervously.  “I have my art supplies…” He said, holding up a pencil and the notebook he used around town to sketch interesting scenes. He sat in the seat beside Arthur and scooted it around so he was facing him properly. “You're still alright with this, right? I understand that it's… unprofessional.” He blushed with embarrassment.

It was lunch, and when Kiku looked over, he saw there was a tray of food on the table beside him. Kiku wrinkled his nose in disgust. He hated hospital food and wished he could have brought Arthur something to eat that didn't look like it was derived from plastic.

Arthur had just aten his lunch. It was anything but delicious, thought the Brit hadn't much choise. He managed to swallow his food down with some tea. He was currently doing nothing. Reading had given him a headache so right now he was just dozing off for a bit.

He sat up straight when he heard knocking. His lips curled up into a smile. He didn't know why, but he was happy Kiku had come. Perhaps he enjoyed some company. He nodded. "Sure, come in." he watched Kiku step into his room nervously.

He nodded back at Kiku when he asked if he was still okay with this. "Yes it's fine, as long as I don't need to do any weird poses." He said chuckling.

Kiku shook his head. “Iie, you don't have to do anything. I don't like stiff models, I prefer it natural. Just do whatever you would normally do.” he explained, opening his book to the first empty page, after a sketch of a seven year old in a baseball cap eating an ice cream. He glanced up at Arthur before looking back down and blemishing the paper with pencil lines to start to get the structure of Arthur's face.

There was a few moments of silence before Kiku bit his lip. He wasn't used to his subjects being focussed on him, and the silence was deafening. “If you don't mind me asking, Asa-san, where are you from? You don't sound American.” he strengthened the lines around the eyes to draw prominence to the eyelashes that were usually lost because they were very blond and tended to get distracted from by the eyebrows above them. Arthur really did have the most fascinating green eyes… hadn't it been said that green was the colour of magic.

He looked up to study Arthur for a minute, as he did with all his subjects if he got the chance. He leant in close to look at Arthur's face, really look. He saw the crease lines from frowning, even on such a young face. He was very pale, he looked like he hadn't been sleeping properly, probably because of being in hospital. He realised he was suddenly nearly nose to nose with the other young man and pulled away, blushing red with embarrassment. This was so unprofessional!

He sharply looked down and started on another quick sketch, focusing on Arthur's profile this time.

Arthur smiled. "Ah I see, okay." he decided to do some embroidery in the meantime. Though it was a bit hard when Kiku was so focussed on him. It made him feel a bit uncomfortable. A slight hint of a blush was on his face.

He looked up from his work at Kiku. "I'm from England, actually. I came here a few years ago to study. And you?" he asked him wondering. He seemed Asian but that didn't mean he hadn't been living in the USA all his life. Arthur liked to get to know him a bit more, for some strange reason.

Suddenly Kiku was really close to him. Their noses almost touched. Arthur held his breath as he felt his heart beating faster and his cheeks reddened. He felt some dissapointment when Kiku quickly backed away and went back to sketching. He wanted to ask him what that was just yet, but instead he went back to his embroidery. It was probably nothing, he told himself.

Kiku smiled, “Ah, I thought your accent was English. I'm Japanese. I like England, I studied for two year at Caimbridge before coming here to work.” He explained, “It was very nice there, the arcitecture was lovely and very different to Japan.” He added a little tone to the drawing. “What do you study?” He asked.

Kiku tucked some hair behind his ear and started on his third sketch, this one was slower and more detailed, so it would take a little longer. “You embroider? What are you embroidering?” He looked up a brief moment to see what he was doing. He found it interesting that in these modern times a young man such as Arthur new how to embroider, it was considered a female talent. Not that Kiku thought it was a bad thing that he could embroider, his mother had taught him many things that were considered feminine, like sewing and the tea ceremony.

He turned back to the picture and realised he had drawn in bunny ears by accident while not paying attention. Arthur… with bunny ears was so… so… moe! He squeaked and clamped his hands over his nose as droplets of blood sprayed over the paper. Eep!     

Arthur smiled back. "That's great. I've never been to Japan before though." he said as he wondered what it would be like to live there. "I study english literature. I've been thinking of becoming an english teacher actually." he admitted to his doctor and focussed back on his embroidery.

He looked back up when Kiku asked him what he was embroidering. "Ah uhm." a blush came across his face. "It's a pillow case, I'm embroidering a fairy on it." his cheeks reddened. Arthur liked fairy tales but was always too embarassed to admit it to others. But why had he told him his doctor it then?

He suddenly caught Kiku clapsing his hands around his nose and blood was dripping down "O-oh, Are you okay?" he quickly looked for a handkerchief where he had embroid roses on it himself handing it over to his doctor. He didn't question the sudden bloodnose, he had them too due the weather change.

"Arigaou..." Kiku mumbled, clutching the handkerchief to his nose and leaning forward, "The pillow case is nice, I hope I didn't get any blood on it." He said, bright red with embarassment. At least Arthur didn't seem to know the reason for his sudden nosebleed, "I like fairies and myths... but central Eurpoean mythology is very different to Japanese mythology, it's quite interesting, especially when you see the oldest versions. They are surpisingly violent. Disney doesn't really capture them properly."

He took the handkerchief away from his nose. "Ah... he stared at the blood against the white handkerchief with the lovely design (He wondered if Arthur had hand-stitched it) "I'll give this back to you later, when I can wash it in the doctors longue. There's a washing machine in there for coats and scrubs, you see." he explained, folding the handkerchief up and setting it on his lap. "it's a nice design." He complimented, "Roses seem to suit you for some reason." He looked back down at the picture. Bloodspatter had ruined it of course, but he could just start again.

He turned the page and started drawing again. "Ah, Asa-san, what do you like to eat?" he asked suddenly, thinking that perhaps he could bring something to show his appreciation of Arthur being so cooprative with his strange demands. He liked cooking too, he found it relaxing, and he paticularily liked cooking for other people, becuase he didn't have to eat it. How paradoxical, an on-off anorexic who loved to cook.

Arthur smiled. "Thanks." He raised the pillow to check if there wasn't any blood. He shook his head. "No it's still clean." he assured him. He looked down at the the pillow case. "Thanks, I'm glad you don't find it silly." He mumbled shyly as his cheeks reddened.

"Ah okay, good." He said nodding. He had enough handkerchiefs anyway, so he didn't mind. He smiled shyly at his doctor. "Thanks, I like roses, I made them myself on it." why was he acting so shy around him? He was acting like a highschool girl! He mentally slapped himself to stop it.

He blinked twice. "What-?" He looked over at his plate and then back to his doctor. "Oh no no, I'm fine really, I-I wouldn't want to bother you." He told him, his blush rising.

He flushed, “I don't mind.” He insisted, “You let me sketch you, it's the least I can do to repay you and besides, I enjoy cooking.” He smiled a little, “Besides, I know hospital food is awful,” He pulled a face, not even looking up because he was trying to finish the new drawing (sans bunny ears). “Oh yes,” He suddenly remembered, “Your MRI is tommorow. If there's nothing wrong you can be discharged.” He smiled a little, even though a little bit of him felt sad that he would be loosing good company. How silly, he had never really had friends before, why would he want to start now?

“Hmm,” He hummed and shaded around Arthur's cheeks and the lower part of his hair, trying to distract himself from such thoughts, “You're a literature student? That sounds interesting.” He said, genuinely wanting to hear, he liked reading, not just manga books, he liked proper literature as well, though he didn't read the sheer volumes of it that he read of manga, and he tended to get his normal books from the library. “What sort of books do you read?” That was a dangerous question for him… he must not start talking about manga or he would definitely scare Arthur away. 

“I'm done.” He finally said, after a few more sketches, and paused, unsure if he wanted to show Arthur the drawings or not… it wasn't as if they were very good drawings… “Um, do you want to have a look?” He asked, fluttering the pages nervously before holding out his sketch book. What if he thought they weren't good and he had just wasted time on the whim of a strange doctor who was much too young to be a doctor anyway?