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the_zone2022-10-16 10:14 am
chitose_senri) wrote in the_zone2022-10-16 10:14 am
LOG: Niou & Chitose
Who: Niou & Chitose
When: a couple days before Niou gets discharged from medbay
Where: medbay
What: Dr. Chitose checks on one of his most stubborn patients
Niou was well and truly sick of being in medbay, particularly in the main ward and being awake and aware of everything going on. Lying in bed was just… boring and he was almost, almost wishing for sedation again to sleep and not care. He had a collection of pipe cleaner animals scattered on the table next to him and was currently flicking through things on his tablet to keep his mind busy.
He looked up at the sight of Chitose approaching - was he holding yet another bag of mystery things to be injected into him? Niou warily lowered his tablet and glanced down to Chitose's hands to check.
Chitose wasn't carrying anything to be injected, but he did have a couple of tubes to draw blood from Niou's IV. They'd left it in just to be able to avoid sticking him more than necessary, even though they were no longer giving him fluids or meds through it. "How are you feeling today, Niou?" he smiled, pulling up a seat and settling on it beside Niou's bed. "How's your coughing?"
Niou stared at Chitose's hands suspiciously and then his pockets - any bulges of hidden things there? And then settled back against the pillow propping him up, trying to not look too tense. "Significantly better." Even if the shadows under his eyes were back from lack of sleep, his voice was almost back to normal. He demonstratively coughed for Chitose - more of a crackly cough - and raised his eyebrows. "It'll linger for a while. It always does."
Chitose nodded. "You do definitely sound better. And unfortunately, you're right. The cough is always the last part to go, typically up to three weeks total, when everything else clears up in one." He could tell Niou wasn't sleeping as well, but he also knew that seemed to be par for the course with him. "I'd like to listen to your lungs, check your oxygen level, and take a little blood for testing. May I?"
Oh well, maybe he could sadly cough at Tachibana and Akutsu or something when he wanted something and take advantage of it. Niou's fingers clenched in the blankets at the request but no, he was meant to be cooperating. "Yeah, fine." He sighed and sat up a bit more. "God you're lucky I've had multiple people tell me I have to behave myself."
Chitose chuckled a little. Kippei and Akutsu, he assumed. "I thank them for their efforts. And you, for your cooperation. With any luck, this will be the last exam I have to do on you." He started with the tubes for blood, getting that part over with. Then, he clipped a small device on Niou's index finger for a moment, letting it read his oxygen level and making note of the number in Niou's chart. "Alright, now to listen to your breathing. …I will have to have you lift your shirt a bit, for this part."
"I hope so." Because that meant he could actually leave the medbay soon and go back to work. Niou watched Chitose intensely through the entire thing, but overall was quietly compliant. Something to send a message to Tachibana about, so get compliments and praise for. "You're banned from counting ribs and reporting to Kippei about it," he said with a frown, pushing the blanket down to his lap. And then reluctantly lifted up his shirt, still frowning at Chitose.
Chitose grinned. "He does that? Counts your ribs? What a goober." Even if he planned to count Niou's ribs, patient privacy meant he couldn't tell Tachibana about it anyway. "Don't worry. I have no plans to count them." He put the stethoscope in his ears, then held the other end to Niou's chest and guided him through the slow, deep breaths that would let him hear best. Then he moved to the back and repeated it, making sure he listened carefully with each breath.
"No, he's also been banned from it. I think he really wants to though." Niou flinched away from the first touch of the stethoscope and Chitose could probably hear the rapid beating of his heart as he sat and tensely went through the breathing. And the moment he could, Niou pulled down his shirt again and tucked the blankets safely around his waist.
"He's such a worrier, that guy. It's cute, until it's annoying. He's always been like that, though, at least for people he cares about." Chitose draped the stethoscope back around his neck and settled back on the seat. "Your lungs actually sound better than I expected. But your oxygen level…it's not as high as I'd like, although not low enough to need to put you on oxygen. We'll have to wait for the bloodwork, though, before I can make any decisions about how soon we get you out of here."
"It's fine. Both of them are kind of worriers, it's probably good for me." Terribly. But it had at least made some fraction of a difference in Niou's health. He frowned as Chitose spoke and coughed again. "... How long will the bloodwork take to get back?" Niou fidgeted a bit with the blanket and oh hell, he was meant to be cooperating and this was Tachibana's closest friend, he deserved at least a nugget of trust. "I'm not sleeping now that you're not actively sedating me. I need to get out of here soon."
Chitose smiled. "Everyone deserves to have someone that worries about them." He handed off the tubes of blood to one of the nurses so processing could start, without him having to wander off in the middle of a conversation. "For these particular tests, we should have results in a couple of hours. Depending on how everything looks, I'll probably run them again around this time tomorrow and compare." If everything was improving, then hopefully they could let Niou roam free soon. If not…they'd have to prolong his stay. "At this point, I don't want to give you the same kinds of sedatives we were before. You shouldn't need anything that strong. But there are others we could use, or chamomile tea should help you sleep."
Niou sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah okay. So hopefully not much longer." He mulled over the thought of just agreeing to be sedated… but the idea of being out of it in the main medbay ward was uncomfortable. The small benefits of iso at least. "... I'll just ask Kippei to come keep me company while I nap, it's fine." He fidgeted again and then glanced at Chitose. "... Can I have your hand, Chitose?"
"Hopefully," Chitose nodded. "Being able to discharge a patient is a highlight of my day." The thought of Tachibana sitting beside Niou on the medbay bed while Niou slept was kind of cute, and he wondered if he could find an excuse to hang around long enough to see it. "I'm sure he'll be glad to feel helpful," he chuckled, grinning at the thought.
But Niou's request caught him off-guard, and he didn't hide his surprise even as he held his hand out for Niou. "Sure you can. May I ask why?"
Niou snorted in laughter. "Because it's one less person to have to worry about and you can slack off a bit?" Or at least go down to just doing basic care instead of worrying about the collection of people dying from the cold.
He glanced down at Chitose's offered hand. "To touch it." Niou paused for a moment before visibly steeling himself and gripping Chitose's hand. And then grimaced and pulled away. "Nope, still gross. Oh my god, my hand is now sweating." He wiped it on the blankets.
"Actually," Chitose chuckled, "it's because medicine is one field where you don't want to have to see your patients often. The more you see them the more something is wrong. As nice as it is to do whatever I can to fix things, I'd rather there not be something to fix in the first place. Discharging a patient means they're doing better than when they came in, so it's a happy thing."
Niou's reaction was amusing, but Chitose kept the laughter to himself, and instead handed Niou some wipes to better wipe any germs off with. "Gross specifically because I'm a doctor? Or just in general?"
"Well, considering that Kippei had to carry me in when I arrived and I think I might actually be able to walk out on my own two legs, I would say I'm significantly better than when I came in." Niou looked almost expectantly at Chitose because… just let him leave already.
Niou did take the wipe to clean his hand, dropping it onto his side table. "Both. Don't like doctors or people in general." He paused and stared at the collection of pipe cleaner chickens. "... Oh my god I just remembered Kippei is a doctor. Fuck. And fuck so is Hiroshi."
Chitose nodded enthusiastically. "You are doing drastically better than when you arrived, yes. But the last set of tests I ran give me some reasons for concern, and rather have you leave and end up having to be carried back in again, I prefer to make sure you're well enough when you leave that the chance of you having to come back soon is as small as possible." Especially since Niou disliked doctors so much, he figured it was better to keep him while he was already here than to have to re-admit him in the near future.
"Ah, yep. Dr. Tachibana and Dr. Yagyuu. At least Kippei doesn't seem fond of being called 'doctor', and is probably less likely to have to poke you with needles."
Niou's expression just soured at that because goddamnit Chitose. "I mean, I'm a fairly resilient person. And after a week of rest, I'll probably just bounce back quite easily from anything else." And he would just ignore the cough that followed that, and Niou turned away from Chitose for a moment to sound like he was hacking up a lung briefly.
"I think I called him Dr Kippei once and he cringed. … And I'll never call Hiroshi 'Dr Yagyuu'." Niou cringed at just saying it now and had to dramatically shake his arms to try and get rid of the gross tingly feeling from the title.
"You might well be right. But when it comes to someone's well-being, I prefer to err on the side of caution. But seriously. An extra day or two now could spare you from another week or more. Isn't that the better option?" Chitose knew Niou didn't want to be there. And technically, he couldn't keep him. Niou could leave at any time (after signing a document stating he was leaving against medical advice and therefore could not hold the medbay staff responsible for whatever happened after he walked out). Chitose would much rather have him stay a little bit more, but…well, Niou was an adult.
"I find it interesting you react to even saying 'Dr. Yagyuu' the same way you did after touching me. It's really that bad, huh?"
Niou just sighed and he wondered vaguely at the option of just sticking his head under the pillow and ignoring Chitose. "I promised to co-operate, so I'll stay in here." And just grumble when Tachibana came to visit (and probably get sad eyes from him and have to make more promises to co-operate…) "Just as long as I'm healthy by the time the expeditions get back."
He glanced down the medbay in the rough direction of Yagyuu's office. "A little exaggerated. Did you know his father is a 'Dr Yagyuu'?" Niou asked suddenly. "Very smart man. Highly optimistic. Hate him."
"I expect you should be." Barring anything unusual or concerning in the lab results, at least. "I'm sure you're looking forward to having Akutsu back safe and sound."
Chitose glanced at his watch, checking how much time had passed since the blood had been sent for processing. Still a bit too soon for results. "I did not! I haven't had as many opportunities to get to know him as I'd like." But he was curious. "Do you hate him strictly for being a doctor? Or is there something else?"
Niou glanced away and fidgeted with the blankets again. "Something like that, I suppose." He'd accidentally told Chitose about the whole thing but … hadn't really spoken after that point. "I can stop worrying about my equipment failing while teams are out depending on it."
He smiled a bit tightly at the prying questions - was Chitose trying to get information or just being polite and making conversation? "That's a bit of a secret. But I so enjoyed crushing his optimism." Niou reached behind himself to fuss over the pillow at his back briefly before settling more comfortably. "But you probably find it hard to call Kippei 'doctor'. Same thing, with Hiroshi."
"Mm, yeah. I can see that, too. You and Sanada worked quite hard on it, after all. But if the quality of work is even half of what you all put into repairing the medbay after Kin-chan's…incident… I'm sure it's all working perfectly." Chitose stretched a little, just to loosen up his muscles. He really should make sure to get some rest himself, at some point.
"Ah, I like to tease him. Call him Tachibana-sensei~, just for fun. But…yeah, seriously referring to him as 'doctor' is kind of weird. Mostly I think just because I've known him for so long."
Niou looked around the medbay and … god, it had taken so much work to put the stupid place back together. “Well, at least Jin can fix things if they break. And I haven’t heard of Renji trying to call us to fix things.” He was still going to worry in the back of his mind until they were back though.
He studied Chitose’s face for a long moment before he looked away. “You are a curious person, Chitose.”
Chitose shifted in his seat a little, bringing one leg up so the heel of his shoe rested on the edge of the chair. "It's definitely good to have a well-balanced team, I imagine. And as much as I want to say to have faith in your skills and your work, I do understand being concerned no matter what."
He tried to read Niou's expression, while the other was looking at him, and rested his chin on his knee when Niou looked away. "Am I? I don't try to be. You can ask me things, if you want."
“I don’t think either of the teams are particularly well balanced.” And actually, neither were the ones from the previous set either. “You might be next, you know. And Kippei can fret about you having to fit into places.” Actually, on that thought… Chitose’s height would definitely be something to take into consideration if they had to build things…
Niou shook his head at the offer for questions. “I’m too tired to try and think of questions for other people. It’s hard to remember answers.” He coughed again. “Even with Jin and Kippei, it’s hard. I feel like I’ve got like a week and a half block of memories just gone.”
Chitose thought about the composition of the teams. Team 1 was Inui, Yanagi, and Akutagawa… Science, command, and IT. Team 2… Tezuka, Akutsu, Shishido, and Ryuuzaki. Pilot, engineer, doctor, and logistics. "Oh, I think they're potentially good teams…just not necessarily for the missions assigned to them. And I realize there's limited staff to work with, so it can't always be completely ideal without risking overworking certain people… I'm just glad I'm not in charge of choosing the teams!" he chuckled.
"Well. The offer stands, so when you're feeling particularly inquisitive, I don't mind." He smiled a little sadly. "Unfortunately, it's normal, when you're not feeling well, for your mind to not quite work as well as it usually does. Feeling sick isn't just distracting. Your body as a whole reallocates its resources to where they're needed most, which is to doing things that will make it better. Remembering conversations isn't as high a priority for those busy synapses."
“Good thing the algorithm chooses them and supposedly knows what it’s doing,” Niou said, just sounding unimpressed. Sure, well balanced but not for what they were actually being asked to do. Renji climbing through caves was not the greatest of thoughts and Niou took a moment to worry about his tech down in the mud.
He sighed in frustration and dragged his hand down his face. God his brain was actually still fried. And the fact that he was just sitting there having a weird conversation with Chitose was… extra proof of the fact. “So what was this about you making Marui food?” Niou asked suddenly. “And you brushed him off because of me being sick?”
Ah yes, the algorithm. "Ahaha, right. Yeah. Miiight be better if a human made the calls…but hey I just work here, right?" Chitose shrugged.
"Oh, you heard about that? It was just pancakes, that one time. I guess he got his tongue pierced? And has to be eating soft foods for a while because of it, so sure. But it wasn't really a brush-off, and not because of you specifically. I offered to make a big batch and freeze them, so he could microwave them and eat them whenever he wanted, because things here had picked up with all the people catching that cold needing to be cared for." It wasn't a big deal, so Chitose was curious why Niou was asking…but his need to understand this time wasn't strong enough for him to ask about it.
Niou just shrugged because he was pretty sure everyone on the base agreed with the idea that a human would make significantly better decisions than the ‘algorithm’.
Okay, well at least that was that mystery solved, since Marui had refused to tell him the details when he’d asked. And it wasn’t quite as interesting as he’d thought… just Marui being needy. “I see.” Chitose also talked a lot, Niou thought, staring at his face curiously. “Do you feel weirdly obligated to try and be nice to me or something?” he asked, raising his eyebrow a little. “Or is this just you implementing good doctorly bedside manner for a reluctant patient?”
Chitose tipped his head, curious about what brought on these new questions. "It's just me being me. I do like to try and keep patients as at ease as possible, and since you're dating Kippei, I would prefer it if we were able to get along… But neither of those is the motivation here. I just like talking to people."
Niou kept studying Chitose’s face curiously, keeping his expression carefully neutral. “So this is actually just you being you,” he said… he didn’t believe it. “Do you usually use your patients as sources of conversation? Like Marui? He seemed quite attached to the flowery roll on thing you gave him.”
"Mhm!" Chitose smiled. "As for sources of conversation, it's either patients or staff, when I'm working. Outside of work, it's a bit different. Technically everyone in base could be considered a patient, since I could end up treating every one of them, over the course of my stay here. But that doesn't mean I can't befriend them. It just means I try to keep doctor stuff to doctor time, and personal stuff to personal time." He couldn't say a lot about Marui, since he didn't know much about him outside what he'd learned from their therapy sessions.
Ah, and he just remembered why Chitose was dangerous. Niou narrowed his eyes slightly. “I see. Well, I hope you’re good at keeping the two things separated." Something which Niou doubted very much. He did notice the lack of comment about Marui though which was interesting. He looked at Chitose’s face for a bit longer in silence. “I’m finished asking you questions for now.”
"I try very hard to be good at it," Chitose smiled, stretching a little as he stood. He wouldn't overstay his welcome, since the business part was done (for now). "Well. You know where to find me if you have more questions," he chuckled. "But for now, I think I'll go see how your results are coming along." He gave Niou a polite little bow before turning to head towards the lab part of medbay. With any luck, maybe Niou's results were already done.
When: a couple days before Niou gets discharged from medbay
Where: medbay
What: Dr. Chitose checks on one of his most stubborn patients
Niou was well and truly sick of being in medbay, particularly in the main ward and being awake and aware of everything going on. Lying in bed was just… boring and he was almost, almost wishing for sedation again to sleep and not care. He had a collection of pipe cleaner animals scattered on the table next to him and was currently flicking through things on his tablet to keep his mind busy.
He looked up at the sight of Chitose approaching - was he holding yet another bag of mystery things to be injected into him? Niou warily lowered his tablet and glanced down to Chitose's hands to check.
Chitose wasn't carrying anything to be injected, but he did have a couple of tubes to draw blood from Niou's IV. They'd left it in just to be able to avoid sticking him more than necessary, even though they were no longer giving him fluids or meds through it. "How are you feeling today, Niou?" he smiled, pulling up a seat and settling on it beside Niou's bed. "How's your coughing?"
Niou stared at Chitose's hands suspiciously and then his pockets - any bulges of hidden things there? And then settled back against the pillow propping him up, trying to not look too tense. "Significantly better." Even if the shadows under his eyes were back from lack of sleep, his voice was almost back to normal. He demonstratively coughed for Chitose - more of a crackly cough - and raised his eyebrows. "It'll linger for a while. It always does."
Chitose nodded. "You do definitely sound better. And unfortunately, you're right. The cough is always the last part to go, typically up to three weeks total, when everything else clears up in one." He could tell Niou wasn't sleeping as well, but he also knew that seemed to be par for the course with him. "I'd like to listen to your lungs, check your oxygen level, and take a little blood for testing. May I?"
Oh well, maybe he could sadly cough at Tachibana and Akutsu or something when he wanted something and take advantage of it. Niou's fingers clenched in the blankets at the request but no, he was meant to be cooperating. "Yeah, fine." He sighed and sat up a bit more. "God you're lucky I've had multiple people tell me I have to behave myself."
Chitose chuckled a little. Kippei and Akutsu, he assumed. "I thank them for their efforts. And you, for your cooperation. With any luck, this will be the last exam I have to do on you." He started with the tubes for blood, getting that part over with. Then, he clipped a small device on Niou's index finger for a moment, letting it read his oxygen level and making note of the number in Niou's chart. "Alright, now to listen to your breathing. …I will have to have you lift your shirt a bit, for this part."
"I hope so." Because that meant he could actually leave the medbay soon and go back to work. Niou watched Chitose intensely through the entire thing, but overall was quietly compliant. Something to send a message to Tachibana about, so get compliments and praise for. "You're banned from counting ribs and reporting to Kippei about it," he said with a frown, pushing the blanket down to his lap. And then reluctantly lifted up his shirt, still frowning at Chitose.
Chitose grinned. "He does that? Counts your ribs? What a goober." Even if he planned to count Niou's ribs, patient privacy meant he couldn't tell Tachibana about it anyway. "Don't worry. I have no plans to count them." He put the stethoscope in his ears, then held the other end to Niou's chest and guided him through the slow, deep breaths that would let him hear best. Then he moved to the back and repeated it, making sure he listened carefully with each breath.
"No, he's also been banned from it. I think he really wants to though." Niou flinched away from the first touch of the stethoscope and Chitose could probably hear the rapid beating of his heart as he sat and tensely went through the breathing. And the moment he could, Niou pulled down his shirt again and tucked the blankets safely around his waist.
"He's such a worrier, that guy. It's cute, until it's annoying. He's always been like that, though, at least for people he cares about." Chitose draped the stethoscope back around his neck and settled back on the seat. "Your lungs actually sound better than I expected. But your oxygen level…it's not as high as I'd like, although not low enough to need to put you on oxygen. We'll have to wait for the bloodwork, though, before I can make any decisions about how soon we get you out of here."
"It's fine. Both of them are kind of worriers, it's probably good for me." Terribly. But it had at least made some fraction of a difference in Niou's health. He frowned as Chitose spoke and coughed again. "... How long will the bloodwork take to get back?" Niou fidgeted a bit with the blanket and oh hell, he was meant to be cooperating and this was Tachibana's closest friend, he deserved at least a nugget of trust. "I'm not sleeping now that you're not actively sedating me. I need to get out of here soon."
Chitose smiled. "Everyone deserves to have someone that worries about them." He handed off the tubes of blood to one of the nurses so processing could start, without him having to wander off in the middle of a conversation. "For these particular tests, we should have results in a couple of hours. Depending on how everything looks, I'll probably run them again around this time tomorrow and compare." If everything was improving, then hopefully they could let Niou roam free soon. If not…they'd have to prolong his stay. "At this point, I don't want to give you the same kinds of sedatives we were before. You shouldn't need anything that strong. But there are others we could use, or chamomile tea should help you sleep."
Niou sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah okay. So hopefully not much longer." He mulled over the thought of just agreeing to be sedated… but the idea of being out of it in the main medbay ward was uncomfortable. The small benefits of iso at least. "... I'll just ask Kippei to come keep me company while I nap, it's fine." He fidgeted again and then glanced at Chitose. "... Can I have your hand, Chitose?"
"Hopefully," Chitose nodded. "Being able to discharge a patient is a highlight of my day." The thought of Tachibana sitting beside Niou on the medbay bed while Niou slept was kind of cute, and he wondered if he could find an excuse to hang around long enough to see it. "I'm sure he'll be glad to feel helpful," he chuckled, grinning at the thought.
But Niou's request caught him off-guard, and he didn't hide his surprise even as he held his hand out for Niou. "Sure you can. May I ask why?"
Niou snorted in laughter. "Because it's one less person to have to worry about and you can slack off a bit?" Or at least go down to just doing basic care instead of worrying about the collection of people dying from the cold.
He glanced down at Chitose's offered hand. "To touch it." Niou paused for a moment before visibly steeling himself and gripping Chitose's hand. And then grimaced and pulled away. "Nope, still gross. Oh my god, my hand is now sweating." He wiped it on the blankets.
"Actually," Chitose chuckled, "it's because medicine is one field where you don't want to have to see your patients often. The more you see them the more something is wrong. As nice as it is to do whatever I can to fix things, I'd rather there not be something to fix in the first place. Discharging a patient means they're doing better than when they came in, so it's a happy thing."
Niou's reaction was amusing, but Chitose kept the laughter to himself, and instead handed Niou some wipes to better wipe any germs off with. "Gross specifically because I'm a doctor? Or just in general?"
"Well, considering that Kippei had to carry me in when I arrived and I think I might actually be able to walk out on my own two legs, I would say I'm significantly better than when I came in." Niou looked almost expectantly at Chitose because… just let him leave already.
Niou did take the wipe to clean his hand, dropping it onto his side table. "Both. Don't like doctors or people in general." He paused and stared at the collection of pipe cleaner chickens. "... Oh my god I just remembered Kippei is a doctor. Fuck. And fuck so is Hiroshi."
Chitose nodded enthusiastically. "You are doing drastically better than when you arrived, yes. But the last set of tests I ran give me some reasons for concern, and rather have you leave and end up having to be carried back in again, I prefer to make sure you're well enough when you leave that the chance of you having to come back soon is as small as possible." Especially since Niou disliked doctors so much, he figured it was better to keep him while he was already here than to have to re-admit him in the near future.
"Ah, yep. Dr. Tachibana and Dr. Yagyuu. At least Kippei doesn't seem fond of being called 'doctor', and is probably less likely to have to poke you with needles."
Niou's expression just soured at that because goddamnit Chitose. "I mean, I'm a fairly resilient person. And after a week of rest, I'll probably just bounce back quite easily from anything else." And he would just ignore the cough that followed that, and Niou turned away from Chitose for a moment to sound like he was hacking up a lung briefly.
"I think I called him Dr Kippei once and he cringed. … And I'll never call Hiroshi 'Dr Yagyuu'." Niou cringed at just saying it now and had to dramatically shake his arms to try and get rid of the gross tingly feeling from the title.
"You might well be right. But when it comes to someone's well-being, I prefer to err on the side of caution. But seriously. An extra day or two now could spare you from another week or more. Isn't that the better option?" Chitose knew Niou didn't want to be there. And technically, he couldn't keep him. Niou could leave at any time (after signing a document stating he was leaving against medical advice and therefore could not hold the medbay staff responsible for whatever happened after he walked out). Chitose would much rather have him stay a little bit more, but…well, Niou was an adult.
"I find it interesting you react to even saying 'Dr. Yagyuu' the same way you did after touching me. It's really that bad, huh?"
Niou just sighed and he wondered vaguely at the option of just sticking his head under the pillow and ignoring Chitose. "I promised to co-operate, so I'll stay in here." And just grumble when Tachibana came to visit (and probably get sad eyes from him and have to make more promises to co-operate…) "Just as long as I'm healthy by the time the expeditions get back."
He glanced down the medbay in the rough direction of Yagyuu's office. "A little exaggerated. Did you know his father is a 'Dr Yagyuu'?" Niou asked suddenly. "Very smart man. Highly optimistic. Hate him."
"I expect you should be." Barring anything unusual or concerning in the lab results, at least. "I'm sure you're looking forward to having Akutsu back safe and sound."
Chitose glanced at his watch, checking how much time had passed since the blood had been sent for processing. Still a bit too soon for results. "I did not! I haven't had as many opportunities to get to know him as I'd like." But he was curious. "Do you hate him strictly for being a doctor? Or is there something else?"
Niou glanced away and fidgeted with the blankets again. "Something like that, I suppose." He'd accidentally told Chitose about the whole thing but … hadn't really spoken after that point. "I can stop worrying about my equipment failing while teams are out depending on it."
He smiled a bit tightly at the prying questions - was Chitose trying to get information or just being polite and making conversation? "That's a bit of a secret. But I so enjoyed crushing his optimism." Niou reached behind himself to fuss over the pillow at his back briefly before settling more comfortably. "But you probably find it hard to call Kippei 'doctor'. Same thing, with Hiroshi."
"Mm, yeah. I can see that, too. You and Sanada worked quite hard on it, after all. But if the quality of work is even half of what you all put into repairing the medbay after Kin-chan's…incident… I'm sure it's all working perfectly." Chitose stretched a little, just to loosen up his muscles. He really should make sure to get some rest himself, at some point.
"Ah, I like to tease him. Call him Tachibana-sensei~, just for fun. But…yeah, seriously referring to him as 'doctor' is kind of weird. Mostly I think just because I've known him for so long."
Niou looked around the medbay and … god, it had taken so much work to put the stupid place back together. “Well, at least Jin can fix things if they break. And I haven’t heard of Renji trying to call us to fix things.” He was still going to worry in the back of his mind until they were back though.
He studied Chitose’s face for a long moment before he looked away. “You are a curious person, Chitose.”
Chitose shifted in his seat a little, bringing one leg up so the heel of his shoe rested on the edge of the chair. "It's definitely good to have a well-balanced team, I imagine. And as much as I want to say to have faith in your skills and your work, I do understand being concerned no matter what."
He tried to read Niou's expression, while the other was looking at him, and rested his chin on his knee when Niou looked away. "Am I? I don't try to be. You can ask me things, if you want."
“I don’t think either of the teams are particularly well balanced.” And actually, neither were the ones from the previous set either. “You might be next, you know. And Kippei can fret about you having to fit into places.” Actually, on that thought… Chitose’s height would definitely be something to take into consideration if they had to build things…
Niou shook his head at the offer for questions. “I’m too tired to try and think of questions for other people. It’s hard to remember answers.” He coughed again. “Even with Jin and Kippei, it’s hard. I feel like I’ve got like a week and a half block of memories just gone.”
Chitose thought about the composition of the teams. Team 1 was Inui, Yanagi, and Akutagawa… Science, command, and IT. Team 2… Tezuka, Akutsu, Shishido, and Ryuuzaki. Pilot, engineer, doctor, and logistics. "Oh, I think they're potentially good teams…just not necessarily for the missions assigned to them. And I realize there's limited staff to work with, so it can't always be completely ideal without risking overworking certain people… I'm just glad I'm not in charge of choosing the teams!" he chuckled.
"Well. The offer stands, so when you're feeling particularly inquisitive, I don't mind." He smiled a little sadly. "Unfortunately, it's normal, when you're not feeling well, for your mind to not quite work as well as it usually does. Feeling sick isn't just distracting. Your body as a whole reallocates its resources to where they're needed most, which is to doing things that will make it better. Remembering conversations isn't as high a priority for those busy synapses."
“Good thing the algorithm chooses them and supposedly knows what it’s doing,” Niou said, just sounding unimpressed. Sure, well balanced but not for what they were actually being asked to do. Renji climbing through caves was not the greatest of thoughts and Niou took a moment to worry about his tech down in the mud.
He sighed in frustration and dragged his hand down his face. God his brain was actually still fried. And the fact that he was just sitting there having a weird conversation with Chitose was… extra proof of the fact. “So what was this about you making Marui food?” Niou asked suddenly. “And you brushed him off because of me being sick?”
Ah yes, the algorithm. "Ahaha, right. Yeah. Miiight be better if a human made the calls…but hey I just work here, right?" Chitose shrugged.
"Oh, you heard about that? It was just pancakes, that one time. I guess he got his tongue pierced? And has to be eating soft foods for a while because of it, so sure. But it wasn't really a brush-off, and not because of you specifically. I offered to make a big batch and freeze them, so he could microwave them and eat them whenever he wanted, because things here had picked up with all the people catching that cold needing to be cared for." It wasn't a big deal, so Chitose was curious why Niou was asking…but his need to understand this time wasn't strong enough for him to ask about it.
Niou just shrugged because he was pretty sure everyone on the base agreed with the idea that a human would make significantly better decisions than the ‘algorithm’.
Okay, well at least that was that mystery solved, since Marui had refused to tell him the details when he’d asked. And it wasn’t quite as interesting as he’d thought… just Marui being needy. “I see.” Chitose also talked a lot, Niou thought, staring at his face curiously. “Do you feel weirdly obligated to try and be nice to me or something?” he asked, raising his eyebrow a little. “Or is this just you implementing good doctorly bedside manner for a reluctant patient?”
Chitose tipped his head, curious about what brought on these new questions. "It's just me being me. I do like to try and keep patients as at ease as possible, and since you're dating Kippei, I would prefer it if we were able to get along… But neither of those is the motivation here. I just like talking to people."
Niou kept studying Chitose’s face curiously, keeping his expression carefully neutral. “So this is actually just you being you,” he said… he didn’t believe it. “Do you usually use your patients as sources of conversation? Like Marui? He seemed quite attached to the flowery roll on thing you gave him.”
"Mhm!" Chitose smiled. "As for sources of conversation, it's either patients or staff, when I'm working. Outside of work, it's a bit different. Technically everyone in base could be considered a patient, since I could end up treating every one of them, over the course of my stay here. But that doesn't mean I can't befriend them. It just means I try to keep doctor stuff to doctor time, and personal stuff to personal time." He couldn't say a lot about Marui, since he didn't know much about him outside what he'd learned from their therapy sessions.
Ah, and he just remembered why Chitose was dangerous. Niou narrowed his eyes slightly. “I see. Well, I hope you’re good at keeping the two things separated." Something which Niou doubted very much. He did notice the lack of comment about Marui though which was interesting. He looked at Chitose’s face for a bit longer in silence. “I’m finished asking you questions for now.”
"I try very hard to be good at it," Chitose smiled, stretching a little as he stood. He wouldn't overstay his welcome, since the business part was done (for now). "Well. You know where to find me if you have more questions," he chuckled. "But for now, I think I'll go see how your results are coming along." He gave Niou a polite little bow before turning to head towards the lab part of medbay. With any luck, maybe Niou's results were already done.