Mameigwess - dekubaku

Chapter 7

Chiyo sighed as she looked down at the coffee table between her, Mitsuki and Masaru. The atmosphere was thick, laying heavily over them and muddled with unspoken questions.

Mitsuki was looking between Masaru's stressed expression and Chiyo, her face showing how oblivious she was to the situation. Yet she showed respect to her husband's reluctance to be the bearer of bad news.

"Did you come to a conclusion?" Masaru asked solemnly, finally looking up from his clasped hands to make eye contact.

Writhing, whimpering and incoherent words filled the room. Chiyo stood beside his bed, gloved hands prodding and poking all over his body. His temperature had gone up a significant amount.

"You wouldn't have called me if you hadn't already thought of one yourself," Chiyo replied. The vagueness of her question made Mitsuki's brows knit and her face grow more questioning. She kept quiet, despite her usual explosive attitude. Chiyo ignored her questioning glances and focused her attention on the woman's husband. "I saw his neck."

She turned Katsuki's sedated body over, leaving the blanket behind to expose his body. There were deep, scabby bites over his chest, shoulder and behind his back. They were irritated, the skin around them red. They should have had medical treatment; they were too deep to properly heal alone without being reopened or getting infected.

"Do you know what it could've been from?"

"You're the experts in that area, I only fix the wounds those creatures create."

Masaru nodded slowly.

"What happened to him?" Mitsuki finally spoke up, her eyes darting between her husband, their guest and the stairs that led up to their son's room. Her face was morphed into concern, worry and anger. She was understandably angry; she had been left out on this information, information about her own son's current condition.

"Katsuki was bitten... I'm not sure by what exactly, but I measured the wounds. It was big, whatever it was," Chiyo answered when she realised Masaru wouldn't. The man was staring down at his feet, a serious look over his face. "Because of that, I'm uncertain how he and his body will react to the bite, judging by the fact I've never come across teeth like that before."

"But you have an idea of what's happening, don't you?" Masaru asked, keeping his gaze locked with the floor.

Her fingers came back dripping with a clear liquid. She let Katsuki roll back onto his back; his face scrunching up and body tense as he tried to curl in on himself. His face was flushed and skin covered in a heavy sheen of sweat.

"I've seen similar cases to this one, yes, but there's nothing I can confirm until what I gave him wears off a little and he wakes up," she sighed, her frown deepening. "He won't be completely lucid, if it is what I think it is, but we will be able to get some stuff out of him. Then I will be able to confirm with you both."

"You're being too vague," Mitsuki scowled, sporting the angry scowl Chiyo had seen on her and Katsuki's younger face many times before they took a break from hunting. Despite her expression, Chiyo knew the worry was eating her away on the inside. "What's wrong with my son."

Katsuki's back arched and a pained look overtook his face, quiet whimpers and groans slipping out. His knuckles turned white with the strength he put into tugging at the bedsheets. A tear slipped down his face as he tensed and tried to curl in on himself again, fighting Chiyo weakly as she held him in place.

"I..." she looked down at her hands, organising her thoughts. There was no easy way to deliver news like this. "I believe Katsuki is going through a heat."