[D10 LM] Please Help... (Taira's) [Closed]

[Ide Amaya]

After the Spirit Walk event, she had slept late, but poorly. Waking, her stomach had given her so much pain that it was all she could do not to curl up in a ball and sob, but Hideo was still sleeping peacefully beside her and she didn't want to wake him. Carefully, with difficulty, she had dressed and slipped from the yurt into the morning air. It was a beautiful day.

She managed to get a few yards before her stomach clenched sharply, and she was forced to duck between the yurts for some modicum of privacy before she started retching. The spasms tore through her tiny body, but brought up no more than a little bile. Standing straight was agony, as if a red-hot knife had been plunged into her body, just below the ribs.

Stiffly, she sought out the only person she trusted to help, eyes watering as she scratched at Taira's yurt, oh, Fortunes, please let him be here.

[Soshi Taira]

And here he was.

Waking from his own boring and unpleasant night, spent watching himself sleep, Taira opened the flap to his yurt groggily, still dressed in just a simple maroon yukata.

Seeing an Amaya, he blinked a few times, and then stuttered, "Id... Ide-san? I wasn't expecting..."

[Ide Amaya]

Her normally pale complexion was wan and utterly white, and her eyes were unusually flat, "I'm most terribly sorry, Taira-sama, it was incredibly rude of me to come here unannounced, at such an hour." Her sweet voice is slightly strained, "I didn't know where else to go."

[Soshi Taira]

Sensing distress, a little adrenaline woke Taira faster than tea and breakfast.

Coming into focus he pushed the yurt flap open and gestured inside.

"What's wrong, Ide-san? Are you in danger?"

Perhaps his life experience was leading him to wrong conclusions.

[Ide Amaya]

She cannot suppress a pained grimace as she pulls herself straighter, "no, no, nothing like that. I've woken you, I can return," her words are interrupted by a pained breath, oh, grow up! she scolds internally, it's just a little stomach cramp! "I can return once you've had a chance to wake properly."

Her eyes seem to plead not to be turned away.

[Soshi Taira]

"No, I don't think you should."

Taira was all business now.

"Come. Sit. Tell me what is wrong."

Though he could guess, given the circumstances.

Walking to his satchel, leaning by the bedroll he had just inhabited, he untied the straps, flipping it open and rummaging for supplies.

[Ide Amaya]

She enters, letting the door flap fall closed behind her. Despite her distress, she looks about curiously, finding a place to sit, feet tucked in neatly, though her shoulders were curled forward in an effort to ease the stomach pains. She is not so unwell to not eventually notice Taira's attire, nor can she keep herself from giving him a cursory study while his back is turned.

"It seems that the herbs the Iuchi selected for the Spirit Walk last night did not agree with me." Though she is perfectly dressed, her hair combed until it shone, a thin sheen of sweat adorns her brow and has the hairs at the nape of her neck sticking to her skin.

[Soshi Taira]

He was tall with broad shoulders, but a rather subdued musculature. He wasn't nearly so well built as a Crab or Lion samurai, and he lacked the androgynous charms of a Crane. Indeed, from his stubble and the hair on his bare arms, it was clear he was a man, average in many ways, save his strange hair and slightly abnormal size.

"Ah. I'm amazed I didn't have a line down the path... it was a dangerous thing they asked us to do. Easy to make serious mistakes."

With a shrug, he rose, one hand holding a small handful of pouches, with his other hand he snagged the outer layer of one of his kimono from the rack, to have something to provide a little more modesty. Wrapping himself in it, he rested the pouches on the table.

"Do you remember anything about your symptoms? What mixture you were recommended? Anything at all?"

[Ide Amaya]

If she was well, should would have mourned at Taira's modesty. She was, after all, appreciative of all things beautiful.

She wraps her arms around herself protectively. "I imagine the most of the others who failed to mix the concoction correctly simply did not react as badly as I did." Because you're weak and they are not, a harsh voice inside her hisses, and tears are welling up in her large eyes.

"I don't know what I did wrong with the herbs, but I quite acutely," she exhales sharply as her stomach clutches painfully again, "recall the effects." Embarrassed, but determined, "I was violently ill, immediately after consuming the mixture. I voided the contents of my stomach, and then some, from the feel of it. The spasms did not slow or cease for a long time after I was empty. Even this morning, on my way here, I shamed myself by leaving what little was in my stomach along the way."

She is blushing a little, but her tone darkens, "I have a pain," she indicates to her left side, at the bottom of her rib cage, "like a red-hot needle is buried in my flesh."

[Soshi Taira]

"Ah."

That wasn't ideal, but he could think of a few things to do.

"I'll mix up some things. They will taste horrible. They should help, however."

With a deft hand he poured tiny dashes of powders into a small cup of water, pushing it across to her. "First... what is mostly salt water. Don't ask why." Nutritional replacement handled, he moved on.

Then he began the more complicated mixture, which would handle the actual lingering poison.

Offering that as well, he said, simply, "It will take a little while, but it should ease the pain.

_____
7 healed.

[Ide Amaya]

Sipping the salted drink he had given her, she grimaced, but dutifully continued to to take little mouthfuls until it was done. The taste in her mouth certainly hadn't improved. She swallowed the concoction Taira had prepared for her, though her throat threatened to close or rebel, after the previous night's experience. Almost immediately, some of the tension relaxed, the pain eased back by a degree, it didn't hurt so much just to breathe.

She murmured in relief. "Thank you, Taira-sama. I am in your debt twice over for your assistance and for disturbing your sleep. Will you name your price?"

[Soshi Taira]

My what?

Taira looked a bit confused.

After a moment he shrugged.

"Coffee."

There that seemed fair.

"I quite liked it."

[Ide Amaya]

Smiling warmly, some of her spark beginning to return, "I shall make arrangements, but I cannot promise that I can have such done before tomorrow. But you have been good to me, perhaps moreso than I deserve. You have my word that I will settle this debt."

[Soshi Taira]

"Oh don't... you don't owe me like that..."

Taira looked sheepish.

"I'm a healer... I heal. It's in the name, and in my nature. I don't ask for... great rewards or anything."

[Ide Amaya]

Her smile grew, warm and affectionate, even as she winced at a small stab of pain, "to source a little coffee is hardly any great reward, nor do I expect to benefit from your talents for free." They were alone, if she embarrassed the handsome Scorpion, only she would know.

"Need I remind you how kind you have been? You offered your advice, and you held no grudge when it was rejected. You took tea with me, and you taught me things I was too ignorant to know, and you did so gently and with kindness. And now, I have roused you from your bed to beg your help," she studied his face, the first time she had seen him without his 'mask', and she took in the angles of his jaw, the unshaven stubble, the shape of his mouth.