Smile On Me

Army hated hospitals. He absolutely fucking loathed them.

He'd stayed in them three times back home, after some tough matches. Broken ribs, stuff like that. Every time, it was the same. A lot of sitting. A lot of waiting. Watching the cheap TV, going through a few movies, having awkward conversations when his family popped in. The nurses looked after him, made him stay,  gave him meds, put him on a schedule. And, oh God, did he hate wearing the hospital gowns.

It was all just so clean and sterile and boring. And he was learning that Japanese hospitals weren't any different. Aside from the obvious. And more lesbians.

Army laid in the hospital bed, watching some anime with giant naked people and trying to make sense out of it with his sucky Japanese. That was pretty much the sum total of the past two days for him, watching TV and dealing with Carmen, who was still fairly pissed at him for telling her to leave ringside. They'd had it out about three times so far since he was brought in, and now they were in one of their lulls. She was just sitting there in her blue jeans and white tube top, reading some book on Japanese culture she'd picked up from the library, and trying to pretend he wasn't there. She was eternally reading books on Japan crap theese days, and Army had to give her credit for that much, she was trying her best to integrate and feel at home, here. He was having a harder time of it. His fucked-up face was showing that.

Jackie had really done a number on him with the brass knuckles. The swelling had died down, but his face was still at least three different colors. Bone damage all over his chest, his ribs, side, and he'd nearly taken a concussion on the skull. If what the doctor's said was true, he'd need a month before he was match-ready, and he believed them. Everything hurt. Physically.

Mentally, it was worse. He wouldn't admit it to Carmen, but she was right about every piece of crap she threw his way. Jackie'd baited him, and he'd stepped out like a dumbass. He hadn't been ready, he knew that, but he wondered if he ever could be. If he fought Jackie again, what could he do different? She was fast as hell, and he wasn't going to bridge that gap anytime soon. Something needed to change, he just wasn't sure what.

Army sighed and fell back in his bed as the anime went into a commercial break, staring up at the ceiling and counting the tiles. Nothing much else to do.

1...2...3...4...5...

If only he had said that to Ro. Maybe he wont ever be ready? Waffle! WAFFLE! Ro had fought him, and she was every bit her equal. Ro was naturally better than most of AFW…in Ro’s mind…so Army had to be just as good.

Waffle.

But Ro didn’t hear that, so she couldn’t shout waffle in his face.

All Ro knew was that she had saw an AWESOME match, but her good friend had been bloddied up something FIERCE in it. Her good friend was a FUCKING MORON, but he put it on the line in the ring and he had a good showing, even if the weapon sealed the deal against him.

Besides, Ro HATED boring hospitals. She was certain Army did too. This had to be rectified.

Wearing just a bright orange tee shirt and short white shorts, Ro came out of the elevator door. After wondering around a little, she finally saw the room he was supposed to be in.

“Brother AND the sister. If you weren’t so fucked up, this could be the lead up to a kinky threesome porn movie.” Ro didn’t even say hello before the off color joke started. She walked right in, bag in hand, and made the joke. Then, she went right over to Army and looked him over.

“Leme see….Head is fucked, face is fucked, abs…” She leaned over Army carefully pull the sheets off of him, then quickly yank the hospital gown up, exposing his ENTIRE body. “…fucked. NICE. Chest, fucked. Kidneys and side…looks pretty fucked.” Ro laughed, then looked down towards his exposed manhood. “Looks like you kept the important bits safe.” She winked, putting the gown down.

At least she had stood between Army and Carmen, blocking Carmen’s view. It was a good thing Ro had briefly met Carmen and sparred with her, knew her enough to know that Carmen wouldn’t be super offended by her….unique sense of humor.

“Dam, you’ve got some bad ass battle scars there. Gonna look great, gives you a seasoned tough guy look. How ya holding up?” She finally got around to asking.

Army would have thanked God, but somehow he doubted the Lord would send someone like Ro to him, especially considering what the two of them did in their free time. Whatever the case, though, he was happy to see her. She might have even be able to tell exactly how happy if she'd paid close attention when the gown lifted up.

"Now that you're here?" He sat up with a groan - hurt a bit to move and  reach up to pull her in for a kiss, but it was worth the effort. Screw the medication, the treatments, the pills, all of it. Ro Laren was all the healing any man could ask for. "Much better."

Carmen, who had barely looked up from her book since Ro came in, rolled her eyes at the embrace and sat up. She gave Ro a little wave as she stood, smiling along with it. Just a little smirk. Not much, but she treated Ro  better than any other girl he'd ever been with, so it was cool. "I'll leave you two alone so I don't have to see anything I'll want to forget later. She fixed a hard stare at Army. "Don't do anything to make it worse, idiota. Seriously."

She tucked the book under arm, gave Ro a playful punch in the shoulder, then made her way out, closing the door behind her to give them some privacy. As soon as she was out of earshot, Army turned back to Ro and looked her dead in the eyes. "Please, get me the fuck out of here."

Ro chuckled and waved to Carmen as she left. “I promise not to hurt him….too much.”

Ro and Army were….unusual. GOOD, close friends. She really wanted to introduce Army to her boyfriend, Ronan. Of course, Ro was also constantly fucking Army.

Normal people didn’t desperately want to have their boyfriend and side lover meet. Of course, Ro made her sexual conquests NO SECRET to Ronan…as far as she was concerned, sex was sex. Luckily, Ronan (for now), seemed to agree. This was fortunate, because not only could Ro continue to play around, she was more than happy for Ronan to play around. Plus, every so often if Ro played around with a sexy girl, or if Ronan found a sexy girl, they could actually find partners for each other, or even partners for some sort of three-way.

She LOVED Ronan. Army was….well, Army was Army. Good buddy. And sexy. Ro also had sex with Amanda, and with John. She didn’t feel ROMANTIC love for either of them, but they were closer than close. She loved Ronan.

Now…if only she could convince Ronan and Army to have sex at the same time…

Ro also loved kissing and loved anything physical. Plus Ro kissed her friends. She grinned as she gave Ronan a hug, trying hard not to hurt him too badly, and pressed her lips into Army’s for a deep, long kiss. He deserved, at least, some conciliation.

When Army said that, Ro just smirked. “No shit, why the fuck do you think I’m here?” Ro laughed. She knew full well that Army had to get out of here. “Can you walk? They’re idiots here, we can be out of here in no time.”

Army had only been half-joking about the idea of escaping, but now that he saw Ro  was serious, that other half was quickly erased. Stuff like this was what earned her the title 'Most Awesome Woman Army Knew'. This, and the sex. The awesome, awesome sex. The only hitch was that she had a boyfriend...who didn't seem to care about the two of them being friends with extremely good benefits. Which meant that Army got to hang with Ro and do all sorts of stuff, plus he got the advantage of being able to sleep with other women. Not that he really wanted to all that much when Ro was available, but it was nice to have options.

So, screw the hitch. It was everything he liked about relationships and nothing he didn't like. Awesome, all around.

"Yeah, I can stand, walk, do a jig, you name it." He slid out of bed and started to make his way to the closet, hoping along the cold floor on his bare feet. "Where we escaping to, though? 'Cause I could use a drink. A lot of drinks. Like, a barrel." He reached in the closet, took out his jeans and his Taylor Parker Is Overrated t-shirt, and started to change. "Turn around, no peeking."

That was it, exactly. Now, Ro just needed to figure out a way to mix Army and Ronan together. The mischief they’d create….AND FIND A SEXY GIRLFRIEND FOR ARMY! OH MY GOD! Ro now had to find a girlfriend for Army, who was as sexually open-minded as they were, and the two couples could conquer the universe.

Ro chuckled as Army got up, getting a nice view of his ass as he turned around. “We think a like…nice ass, I forgot how cute it was.” Ro chuckled. She folded her arm and sat down on the bed, facing Army. “No.” She simply said, refusing to turn around.

"Thanks." Army gave his ass a slap and treated her to a show, as he started sliding out of his gown. Sort of like the world's shortest striptease, but he did what he could with it. Some shaking, some bobbing. "I like my ass. Firm. Solid. Good for sitting. Attracts sexy redheads."

He shuffled into his underwear and plopped back down on the bed beside her as he pulled  his pants on. Army reached over and gave her butt a squeeze, making sure it was just as amazing to the touch as he remembered. It was.  "Yours is okay, too." He brushed shoulder with her, knocking her a little to the side. "So, what's your master plan, baby?"

Ro had to laugh at the strip tease, clapping a bit as he got dressed. She let out a surprised yelp, then nudged his leg—somewhere that didn’t seem as bruised as the rest of his body—with a smirk on her lips as she fell to the side slightly.

“Ohhh, very simple. Just head to the elevator when you hear the baka gaijin getting into an argument.”

With that, Ro stepped out. Talking in public on the cell phone is annoying in American. In Japan, everyone and their mother will come around to tell you off. God forbid you do it on a bus. In a hospital, where they say to turn cell phones off for the machinery, it would cause the apocalypse.

Ro took a few steps down the hall, away from Army’s room. In the background, Army could here what happened.

“What? Oh HAAAAAAAAAAI AMANDA! What? YES! Yeah I’m visiting Army now! YEAH, he’s SOOOOO BLOODIED up! YOU SHOULD COME SEE…” Soon, there was a flurry of angry Japanese from multiple people telling her to turn her phone off and go outside to talk. “What? I don’t speak Japanese! What…hey, fuck you! Yeah, yeah, blab la bla! More Doctors and nurses came by. ”Don’t touch my phone! No, YOU’RE a fucking baka!” Ro continued to argue, until it seemed like the whole ward was surrounding her, or at least looking at her. ”Fuck you and your dad, go to hell. Your FACE is a gaijin!”

It was like an anthill with a chunk of beef dropped on top of it. Army peeked out of the room while Ro made her distraction, just in time to see every nurse in the hallways converging on her, like they were about to tear her limb from limb for daring to speak on a cell phone in the middle of a hospital. Army had encountered a enough annoying Americans in Puerto Rico to know her impression was dead on. Best not to waste it.

He slipped out of the room and sneaked past the nurses, moving as stealthily as a six foot tall Hispanic in Japan could ever hope to do. By some miracle he made it to the elevator without being seen, then stood to the side and held it open, waiting for Ro to join him. Serious Solid Snake shit. He even hummed the Metal Gear theme to go along with it.

“Well FINE, now I’m LEAVING! See if I ever shop here again! You just lost a valuable customer!” Ro shut her phone off…which was never on, she had just put the phone to her ear with the screen off, and went to the elevator. Considering how often Ro got messed up in matches, they really DID loose a good customer.

She slipped in and JAMMED the door close button as hard as she could, no one seeming to notice who else was in there. “Fucking A. See, we escaped! Yay!” Ro laughed as the elevator traveled to the lobby.