Heaven wait (Hashirama x Madara)

12. Bloody nectar (Hashirama)

It was the worst thing I had ever had to experience.

His nightly screams that he wouldn't remember in the morning, the way he sweated half of his body weight every day. I would sit next to his bed, drying him with towels I had chilled in the fridge.

Sometimes, I wondered if I had done the right thing, taking him home. Wouldn't he be better off in a hospital ward? Probably, from a medical standpoint, but when I remembered Madara's face of disdain when he had believed he would be forced into confinement for detoxification, I knew I had done what was best for him, at least mentally, which weighed the heaviest right now.

It took him days to come round. And when he did, we came into a soft companionship together, although it was somewhat distant. I was happy Madara didn't seem to want to move out of my apartment, but the distance I felt between us was killing me. My body was aching to hold him, to breathe him in, to kiss him, to sneak into bed after him and press my chest against his back, nuzzle his neck until he fell asleep.

It was all out there now, in the open. Who we were. Me not covering my neck underneath a scarf, or hiding my lightning bolts. 

I went back to work when he was up on his feet, but my heart wasn't in it. Not only because I missed Madara like crazy and my heart was still with him, but also because of how I had seen my colleagues treat Catherine. My little outburst seemed to have worked though, and the staff were very careful with what they said to me, but their previous behaviour had created something within me that made it impossible for me to love my job the way I had done. I spoke to Catherine, who had become a great friend to me, about it, and she confessed she felt the same.

"I know I have just begun my specialist training here, but... But I consider switching hospitals."

It saddened me that the one good thing left in my job wanted to leave, but I couldn't blame her. 

One day when I came home, I would learn that Madara was fighting his own demons in his mind.

When I opened the door, a lovely scent hit me in the face like a train, and I realised how hungry I was.

"Oh my God, are you making chocolate pancakes?"

Madara showed up in the doorway to the kitchen holding a spatula, with flour in his long hair that he'd put up in a ponytail, and an apron covered in a chocolate batter. In that moment, when I saw him like that, I loved him so much I was certain I would die of it.

"Might be", he said with a smirk.

"God, these are lovely", I said as I took the first bite of chocolatey loveliness with cherry jam and vanilla ice cream. "You're a God. Now, what do you want?"

Madara looked taken aback.

"What do you mean?"

"You always make pancakes when you want to ask something of me, like that time you needed a new razor at midnight and didn't feel like facing the paparazzi. Now, spill it out."

Madara looked to the side and blushed.

"I didn't know you knew me quite that well."

God, I wish you were my boyfriend.

"It's an honour, knowing you. And seeing the paparazzi have gotten quite bored of us, my guess is you don't need me to run an errand for you."

Madara stabbed at a cherry on his plate.