café au lait

[Sandy]

Botan stood up when she saw Haran beginning to approach. Being both inquisitive and dramatic by nature, she leaned in close as he spoke, expecting him to divulge some amazing secret meant for her ears alone. When he didn’t, she made something up to alleviate her disappointment, but that didn’t stop her from projecting this fantasy onto Haran.

“Shhh!” She hissed, drawing a finger to her lips.

Taking a moment to look around and seeing no one paying attention to them, she nodded. “O.K. You can talk.”

After a moment of silence, she blinked in confusion then frowned. “Oh. You’re done. Poo…”

“Well, yeah. Uh…” Scratching her head, she tried to recall what it was she wanted to see him about. After a moment, she snapped her fingers. “Oh yeah! Rehab. Um… truthfully, it’s up to you. Normally it would be mandatory for post-traumatic amputees but you seem…”

She wanted to use the word “normal”, but from what she had gathered about Haran thus far, he was far from normal.

“…Fine. We actually have techniques here that could be used to regrow your arm, but it wouldn’t be fast or fun, and you’d be sidelined from active duty until we were finished.”

It was a big decision and Botan wasn’t about to rush him. He seemed quite fond of his prosthetic construct and though she personally found it quite unsettling, it wasn’t her body to interfere with. Some of the other, older iryōnin would likely have disagreed and forced this treatment upon Haran, but for the moment he was under Botan’s care, and she had the final say.

“While you’re thinkin’ it over,” she reached into her pocket and produced a paper card denoting her name (in parenthesis’ “Gozen-chan”), telephone number, and place of business. “Hold onto this. I’ll be here every day, so drop by anytime!” Botan offered her hand with a big smile and slitted eyes.

[Haran]

"Uh... I'll pass on regrowing my arm for now," he said, visibly cringing at the thought of just how much pain that would entail. Not to mention that it'd take him off of active duty again, which he definitely did not want to do. And last but not least, it'd waste all the time he had spent on building his puppet prosthetic! With one hand, to boot!

Especially given that his prosthetic limb could be "upgraded" at any time he wanted, basically.

"Huh? O-oh, thanks!" He reached out to grab the card and put it away, but then pulled an unexpected move; he grasped Botan by the hand and made to drag her out of the hospital.

"C'mon, I'm treating you to some food for putting up with me for the day! Uh, unless you don't want to of course! Not forcing you or anything!"

Social awkwardness was always a good distractor; he'd only realize later that the creakiness and sluggishness was gone.

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[Sandy]

Botan laughed and allowed Haran to drag her just out of the door, but became like an immovable slab of concrete before they reached the stairs. “I can’t right now. I’m still working. But I appreciate the thought, and if you come back around lunch, I’d love to go out.”

Botan wasn’t reading into this any further than what was written on the surface. She assumed that Haran was just genuinely thankful for her help and wanted to treat her to a meal. Never one to pass up free food, Botan wasn’t about to say no, but duty called and work was, regrettably, more important.

She freed herself from his grip and waved a polite goodbye. “I’ll see you soon, ‘kay?” Turning around, Botan skipped back into the hospital while whistling and adding her own percussion with periodic snaps of her fingers. So far, today had been a good day. She hoped all of her scheduled patients were that much fun.

[Haran]

What happens when the person you're dragging with you suddenly plants themselves to the ground and refuses to budge, and right before the stairs too?

Well, what happened to Haran was probably not normal. He lost his grip on her and tripped down a couple of the stairs, probably performing a rather comedic pratfall if he did say so himself. Although in all honesty, he'd rather not have just done so.

"Aww... I'll see you soon, then! Have fun! While I get loopy on painkillers, bleh! I hate taking this kinda stuff! ;["

With that, he picked himself up from his pratfall, waved goodbye to his new friend and headed off for a bit. He did have to admit that what was left of his flesh-and-blood arm was... very, very sore. Maybe those painkillers'd do some good?