Reasonable Suspicion [Kaito/Hana]

Hana was surprised, and the rapid blinking showed that. A moment later, her expression soured. Her eyes narrowed, brow furrowed, and she clenched her fists in anger. "Firstly, a robot could not be condescending. It is a programmed machine only responding with whatever its code allowed. And have you ever even heard a robot speak? You sound like an ignorant fool trying to compare my speech to one."

Hana crossed her arms, now actually looking down her nose at him. "Hiroe is my best friend. I talk to her about everything, and I trust her to tell me if something, or someone, is bad for me. I came here to protect her, and maybe even make a friend in the process. Your attitude is uncalled for; it is clear you have made assumptions about me. I could tell from the moment we began speaking. Shame on you!"

She took that...way too literally. Now, it was his turn to look surprised, blinking multiple times. He hadn't expected her to take a metaphor so seriously, and, frankly, he didn't really know how to respond to it. How did you even respond to that? Kaito's mouth opened to try and speak, only to close, looking at her in confusion.

But, before he had a chance to respond, she started talking about her relationship with Hiroe. She was her best friend, and they talked about everything together? His expression went from confusion to one more crestfallen, but was quick to return to the neutral one from before, eye twitching as she looked down at him.

At first, it was just strange. But, the way she spoke, how she looked at him -- it suddenly made him shrink a little bit. Even if he didn't know the name, the way she spoke was pretty telltale. In all likelihood, she was a noble.

With that thought in mind, Kaito took a half-step back, suddenly looking more uncomfortable, nervous, but also irritated. Maybe it was, in part, due to how far he often pushed himself. But, nevertheless, he took a step forward.

"You-"

Before he could get the sentence out, a wave of dizziness and fatigue suddenly washed over him, and instead of taking a step, he stumbled. The world seemed to spin around him as he tripped, feeling his body ache as he fell, and even more as he crashed to the ground, unconscious.

If Hana were being more honest with herself, she was not really liking her own behavior. This man had made her feel inadequate, something that reminded her of times when she was younger and she disappointed her mother. She could recall the yelling, the eye-rolling, the clear annoyance at her very existence, and that is what she felt since she began talking to Kaito. She loathed that feeling!

And then he went pale after struggling to get out any semblance of a sentence. Hana blinked. “Are you ok-…” Hana lost control over the volume of her voice as she darted forward, instinct taking over. She was able to get her hand under his head and prevented it from hitting the ground, but he was still unconscious. Hana’s eyes darted up. As expected, no one was here. She didn’t expect anyone.

The next five minutes were embarrassing and she prayed he did not wake up. Luckily for her, he didn’t. She struggled to get him over her shoulder in a way that she could carry and then had to slowly haul him out of the Academy and to somewhere she trusted to take care of him. By the time he woke up, Kaito was in his own room in one of the clinics around the Seireitei. Hana was sound asleep, her head drooping to the side and hands laying gracefully in her lap.

Kaito bolted upright the moment he regained consciousness. He couldn't remember what happened, much less why he was there, but being in an unfamiliar place made him panic, initially. He felt around for his Zanpakuto, wanting to feel some level of security with having a weapon at his side, but he couldn't find it. He looked around the room, seeing it propped against the wall across the room.

He looked around some more, noticing the sleeping Hana. A hand went to his head as he tried to remember what happened before blacking out. The girl looked familiar...oh, right, she was the noblewoman that was friends with Hiroe. He didn't particularly like nobility all that much, even with all the time he had since spent with Byakuya at this point, but...he was still glad that she had friends like her.

Moving his legs over the side of the cot, he slowly, silently began to set his feet down so he could walk over to the other side and get his sword back. But, as he went to stand and put weight on them, his legs suddenly felt like jelly, and after briefly crying out, his legs suddenly buckled and collapsed under him. He tried to break his fall with his hands, but a searing pain quickly flared up in his shoulder, and his priorities shifted as he hit the floor, cradling his arm.

"Ow, ow, ow...damn it."

The combination of pained sounds and Kaito’s fall caused Hana’s eyes to flutter open. She looked to the empty bed and then stood up in a momentary panic herself, until her eyes caught sight of him on the floor.

“Oh, you fool. You' are injured! You must be careful!” she said in frustration, rolling her eyes. She hurried over to his side and placed a hand gently on his shoulder. “Come on… We should get you back into bed, and I prefer no arguing.”

Hana's intention was to help Kaito get back into bed. She heard very little about his condition, as she was not family or an emergency contact, but she could tell by what little she over heard that he was working himself half-to-death... again. If he allowed her, she would help get him back to his feet and into bed to cover him up.

At waking Hana up and alerting her of what was happening, when she came to try and help him up, he just looked away from her, a mixture of shame and pain on his face. But, as he tried to get up, he knew that he wasn't going to get far with his shoulder like this, and he'd prefer to spare additional humiliation in trying to crawl across the floor.

So, without argument, Kaito let Hana help him back up and into bed, covering him with the blanket on the cot. Slowly trying to ease himself into a sitting position, Kaito remained careful of his shoulder, keeping a hand on it and preventing it from moving as he sat up. His eyes continued to drift over to his sword in the corner, even as he spoke.

"Why did you take me here?"

Hana expected him to struggle, especially after watching him look away in shame. His pain must have been what made him decide not to, so she silently thanked him for not being stubborn about that. Once he was safely in bed, she noticed his second glance to his sword. Did he assume she was going to hurt him or something? How foolish. Why hurt him after lugging him all the way here?

Hana stood at the side of his bed, staring at him with a tinge of confusion furrowing her brow. “Did you expect I leave you on the floor while injured? You think that little of me?" Hana said, rolling her eyes as she went and picked up his sword. "The nurses mentioned you do this a lot; do you realize that if you keep breaking your body, one day even kaido may not be able to restore you? You behave like a fool.”

This was humiliating, and part of why he didn't want to come back here. He knew that he was risking a lot by overworking himself, something that the nurses, as well as his teachers -- including Byakuya -- constantly scolded him for. So, as Hana chided him for it as well, all Kaito could do was look to his lap, a look of embarrassment and shame mixing together.

As he heard her get up and walking across the room, his head snapped back to her. As she picked up the sword, his eyes widened in concern. It was almost childish, in a way, the concern and fear of the weapon being kept from him. But, as she spoke up again, his attention was quick to turn back to his lap, shame rising to replace the concern.

"...I don't have much of a choice. It's the only way I make any kind of progress."

Hana saw his expression and realized her theory about him was correct. His sword was much like a safety blanket, something he held onto that made him feel safe, whole even. She understood the feeling, but she had let go of such childish notions years ago. Her mother would never let her latch onto a ‘meaningless’ possession.

“Of course you have a choice,” Hana said, stepping over to his side and laying his zanpakuto on the bed next to him. “Do not delude yourself into believing you only have a single path in front of you. There are safer ways of advancing your strength that would not include destroying your body. Why are you doing this to yourself?”

Of course a noblewoman would say something like that. Most of them didn't have to worry about working so hard, their power came naturally. As she set his sword on the bed, he was quick to pick it up, keeping it close in his lap, fingers grasped tight around it. He didn't have much of a choice. Studying and training within the bounds of what was instructed wasn't enough.

As she asked why he was doing this, at first, he hesitated. But, with her knowing Hiroe, and keeping his mouth shut likely would only make her more upset, he sighed softly, then spoke.

"To get stronger. To keep up with Hiroe. To be good enough. She's got so much more potential, she's shining so bright, so fast...and I don't want her to leave me behind."

His hands had loosened the grip he had on his sword, but as he spoke, it quickly returned, Kaito lowering his head. He wasn't like them -- all he could do was work as hard as he could, try to match them, and keep up as best he could.