#zippy writes

           Keith stuck his head out of the bathroom to glare at Lance. “I am not!”

             “Hate to break it to you babe,” Shiro said, walking past Lance and into the bathroom, kissing Keith’s forehead. “But you are. I’m pretty sure the majority of our clothes are in your dresser.”

             “That’s why yours is always the messiest,” Lance giggled.

             The shorter boy rolled his eyes, returning to the front of the mirror. “Lance,” Allura pushed her door open, wearing a shirt with a design for the band Squirrel Nut Zipper. “It ended up in my laundry, I’ll take it off-”

             “No!” Lance interrupted, staring at her. “No, it’s okay princess, you pull it off much better.”

             She smirked, crossing her arms. “What’s this? The great Lance admits someone else looks better in his clothes?”

             “Of course I do,” He hummed, taking a few steps forward to hold her hands. “You’re gorgeous baby.”

             “Yes, and you need to get another shirt if you’re letting her wear that one,” Keith cut in, now finished in the restroom, as he wrapped an arm around Allura’s shoulders.

             “Aw, what’s the rush, Kogane? I can’t compliment our girlfriend?”

             “Not when the show’s in thirty minutes. We gotta leave soon.”

             “You know, even though you were kicked out of the garrison, you’re still uptight about timing and schedules,” Lance sighed, laughing when Keith kicked him back into his room.

 ---

             Shiro’s hand reached out, grabbing Keith’s arm out of habit to stop him from walking into the road. “So?” Lance asked Allura, “What did you think?”

             “The movie was fascinating!” She beamed. “I’ve never seen such ancient technology, and the story was thrilling. You said that is was based off real Earth myths?”

             “Yeah, Thor is a Norse god,” Shiro said. “I used to love reading about him.”

             “I would love to learn more about these myths. How many are there?”

             “Butt loads, we can go to the library or a bookstore tomorrow, and you can read some!” Lance suggested, the group starting to walk once the light changed.

             “Yeah, that’ll work out great, it’s not like we have jobs or anything,” Keith sighed, looking up from writing something on his phone.

             Lance pouted. “Don’t ruin the moment.”

             “I’m just being realistic.”

             “It’s alright,” Allura said, squeezing Lance’s hand. “We can go at another time.”

             “A bookstore date does sound fun,” Shiro commented.

             “More like friggin adorable! We’d be the cutest ones there,” Lance boasted, puffing out his chest.

             “I thought bookstores were supposed to be quiet? You might not be welcome there,” Allura pointed out, grinning at Lance’s look of shock and betrayal.

             “I can be quiet when I want to!”

             There was a moment of silence before the other three burst out laughing. Allura leaned closer to Lance’s ear, “It didn’t seem like that last night,” She purred.

             Lance’s face flushed with red. “She’s right, I couldn’t get any sleep. I feel bad for the neighbors,” Keith groaned.

             “That’s not my fault! Shiro kept pulling my hands from my face, I couldn’t help myself!”

             Shiro smirked with absolutely no regret or guilt. “Plus, when have you ever cared about the neighbors? You’re louder than any of us combined,” Lance continued, crossing his arms defensively.

             Shiro glanced at a couple staring at the group as they walked by and cleared his throat. “Maybe we shouldn’t be discussing our uh, bedroom activities on the street like this.”

             Allura nodded while Lance snapped his mouth shut. Keith just snickered.

             The group fell silent as they walked. Streetlights passed overhead and cars rumbled by. Every now and then, they’d pass a house with fairy lights lining the windows or stair railings.

             Allura sighed, lifting her face to the stars above. No matter how many times she walked through the city, at night or day, she couldn’t stop comparing these streets to Altea. She knew to do so was silly, in the best sense of the word. Earth was completely different from her birth planet, but when she looked around, she could picture Alteans walking by or sitting under a tree. Alive and well.

             No, she reminded herself. Earth is unique and beautiful, and even if there were no Alteans, there were still people she loved. People she met through a miracle. These stars may not be the ones she grew up with, but they were the ones she could look at with her lovers, the ones she felt safe under, and the ones she had chosen to live beneath.

             “Allura?” Shiro called gently.

             She lowered her gaze, meeting the looks of concern from the other three. She hadn’t realized she had stopped walking.

“We know it’s serious, Shizune-san, but her mental health is important too, isn’t it? She can’t have just an hour a day or something?”

“Bedrest.” Shizune repeats, though with a little more gentleness this time. “I don't put active shinobi on these kinds of restrictions lightly, I know this will be hard on her, but the activities she has to get up for like bathing and the bathroom will be enough stress as is. Her blood and chakra flows are in an extremely delicate state right now. I know I don’t need to tell you how important it is that she have a complete and uninterrupted recovery from her injuries.”

Shizune gives a pointed look to the arm-crutch that Tayuya is bearing half her weight into and the red-head rolls her eyes at the ceiling.

“I fucking KNOW, Shi, but… but you…”

“You don’t have to find a way to entertain her for 506 hours.” Shikamaru grumbles, pinching the bridge of his nose to stave off his instant headache.

Tayuya draws herself up straighter, adjusting the collar of her interrogator’s uniform with her free hand.

“Three whole weeks? You're SURE?"

“You can count today, since she was on the table so early.” Shizune concedes and Shikamaru and Tayuya heave a united sigh.

“Alright, just… better to let us tell her.”

-

“I could just put her in a genjutsu.” Tayuya says idly as they ride the elevator down to the inpatient floors.

“She won’t fall for that.” Shikamaru scoffs immediately, arms crossed as he leans on the opposite wall. “She’s done way too much training with you.”

“Where are all those Uchiha motherfuckers when you need them...?”

“Tayuya…”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding, fucking hell...” she sighs, feeling drained before the real conversation has even begun. Her shoulders sag and a moment later, Shikamaru has pushed off the far wall and come to put an arm around her, rubbing her back in small soothing circles.

“She’s gonna hate this.” Tayuya says miserably, pressing her forehead to his shoulder, guilt swamping her the more and more she thinks about it. "I shouldn’t have pushed her so much in training…"

“Don't do that to yourself." He says firmly, kissing her temple. "You couldn't know what was going to happen once she got in the field. It was supposed to be a B rank mission for godsakes."

Tayuya sighs, knowing he’s right but hardly feeling less guilty for it. Still she tips her head up to kiss his cheek in return, leans on him until the elevator doors open and they emerge onto the recovery floor.

"So, do you wanna break it to Tema or you gonna make me do it?" Tayuya asks as they turn down the hall.

"Break what to me?" Temari's voice cuts in from behind them. They both swing around to find their wife peering at them with concern, hands full of coffee for herself and a bottle of soda for their shared patient.

Shikamaru and Tayuya trade a look and Temari groans, knowing already what it means.

"Shit. For how long?"

Tayuya takes a deep breath.

"Three weeks."

"WEEKS?!" Temari's voice pitches up into a squeak of shock, blue-green eyes welling up as she takes in the gravity of it.

"It was really that bad? But, her exams…"

Shikamaru winces, nodding as he reaches out to rub Temari’s shoulder. Tayuya takes the coffee from her so she can put an arm around him in return.

"Asuna's gonna be so upset." The blonde sniffs as Shikamaru kisses her head, and Tayuya sighs, feeling helpless all over again.

"I know, sunshine..."

"We'll get her a really good present, see if we can't make it suck a bit less." Shikamaru suggests, squeezing Temari reassuringly.

Tayuya makes a thoughtful little sound that makes both her partners look at her.

"What?" Temari asks, one elegant brow raising.

"You better not be thinking what I think you are..." Shikamaru says, pinning her with his most suspicious of looks.

The redhead shrugs. "I'm just thinking. Now might be the perfect time to cave and get her that saxophone she’s been begging for. Let her get the first few weeks of screeching out while she's, you know, hospitalized? Instead of in our house?"

Temari can’t help the laugh that bursts out of her at the sly suggestion.

"Well, she's still gonna be mad but that will take the edge off for sure. The nurses might all hate us by the time she leaves though."

".....It's so hot when you're sneaky like that." Shikamaru adds with a dreamy sigh and Tayuya just grins, sipping a bit off the top of Temari's coffee.

Kabuto almost snaps at her (He’s eleven! He can bandage himself! He certainly doesn’t need help from a little kid with an attitude problem…) but then Tayuya straightens her back, pins him with her most annoyed look, and parrots his own often-said words back to him.

“So, you want to tell me what you did this time?” she asks, with such a spot on accusing inflection and total seriousness that Kabuto suddenly finds himself struggling not to burst into laughter.

“W-what?” he sputters, trying not to snicker, and his failure to fully smother his amusement is noted by Tayuya, who huffs in irritation that he is not playing along.

“What did you do, Glasses?” she demands again, shaking his arms insistently, and he relents.

“I just overdid it in practice.” he says, elaborating with a smirk when she seems unsatisfied. Although she likes to call his interests creepy he sees the way she leans in with fascination while simultaneously yelling about how gross it all is. "I’m learning how to form chakra blades from Orochimaru-sensei.”

“For surgery stuff you mean?” she asks, like she's  chatting to a schoolmate about a project, picking up his right hand and starting to undo his haphazard wrapping job to be replaced.

"That's right." He says, and Tayuya nods as if she understands on a personal experience level, lining up the bandage with his wrist the way she was taught and beginning to wind it evenly around his arm.

Kabuto can't knock her technique, after all it's his…

"Well, you've done enough for today I think." She scolds - a favourite Orochimaru phrase this time - as she weaves the bandages neatly between his fingers. "You should probably just sit for a while. Read or something."

Kabuto raises a brow, suddenly catching on to why she is here, why she is being so nice...

"Reading huh?"

"Yeah." She nods as she knots the wrap and picks up his other hand. "I have a good book if you don't have one to read."

"What’s it about?" He asks, even though he knows, and she looks at him very seriously as she explains.

"It's about a snake and a frog and a slug that are friends and they sing a friend song."

"Oh that book."

"Yeah." Tayuya glances up at him through her bangs, working very hard at appearing not to care how he responds. "I was gonna read it by myself but you can share with me, if you need a book."

"Would you?"

"Sure!" She ties a neat knot on the back of his hand, then claps hers together like she is dusting them off. And then there it is, the imploring look from those big brown eyes.

"Since I'm sharing and helping you and stuff maybe you'll read it out loud to me?"

Kabuto sighs, looking over his hands one more time.