My Lover's Keeper

29. Malpractice

He sat on his bed. His mind was blank for the first time in forever. The possibility of losing Sasuke was high, it would be dumb to deny it at all. But he still wanted to remain positive. He still wanted Sasuke to want life even if it hadn't been fair to him.

That's when he made a promise to himself, as long as Sasuke was sick; he won't tell him.

He heard the door open, his bed shift. "You're awake..." Kurama sighed relieved to know he wasn't about to sleepwalk somewhere.

"Mhm" Naruto laid back down "how is he?"

"He surprisingly agreed to my proposal. How did your doctor appointment go?"

Naruto looked away. How was he going to keep it a secret from Sasuke?
"I'm...possibly in early stages of cachexia. She thinks that's what caused my weight loss since I still get nutritions in the IV. But she told me to keep taking my appetite stimulants. She advised me to keep my exercising lite and short in attempts to build up muscle mass"

"Did she do any testing?" Kurama knew what all of this meant but he remained strong for the sake of his brother.

"I asked her to redo all the tests, I'm hoping something would show up. It'll be a couple of weeks before they're all done but she'll give me a call if anything turned out early with results of what the possible cause is"

"You asked to redo the tests?" Kurama raised an eyebrow, but then it took a second to understand why Naruto would do such a thing "she gave you...an estimate...hasn't she?"

He saw his brother look away from him. Naruto's body language spoke of the fears he denied having.

"Two to three months." He informed "But..." Naruto held his brother's hand "last time...last time I was literally skin on bones before I made a recovery. She could be wrong. This could be just my own illness again." He spoke with conviction but he was well aware how delusional his own words sounded. "I'm sorry, Aniki"

"We dealt with everything that was ever thrown our way together. We'll deal with this the same way too. One step at a time. If this is your illness and you get over it again then it's a cause to celebrate." He kissed Naruto's forehead not giving a single moment to the thought of Naruto dying before he even turned eighteen.

The blond rested his head on Kurama's shoulder and cried silently. He didn't know what he would do if his own brother wasn't as crazy optimistic as him.
Kurama wrapped his arms around Naruto in a brotherly hug.

He told himself that his blond idiot of a brother would make it...he would definitely make it, any other option was not viable.

🍜🍙🍜🍙🍜

"Hey handsome!" Naruto walked in with his usual happy demeanor.

"Usuratonkachi?" Sasuke sat up quickly wiping his tears. "I didn't know you were coming"

"Wanted to surprise you." He held Sasuke's pale hand intertwining their fingers. "I'm sorry, ttebayo?"

"What for? You didn't do anything wrong" Sasuke held on to him, he didn't want Naruto to also walk away on him.

"I haven't been the best boyfriend lately. We need to talk-..."

"You've been amazing...." He held on tighter as he started hyperventilating. Those four words, 'we need to talk', were never followed by something good. "please don't- leave me...please...I can't do it...without you"