Chapter Text
Oneirology
“Jade?”
Yvonne and I look up in surprise at the sudden interruption, a white-clad figure in the entrance of the break room. His right hand is in the pocket of his lab coat, his left clamped on the doorframe like he’d thrown it out to stop himself mid-stride.
I meet his eyes just in time to catch a spark of something unreadable within them before the stoic mask resettles.
”Yes, Dr Li?”
He pauses at the confusion in my voice.
“No, I —“ He realises his mistake. “Did you just say something about a God on a mountain playing a guqin made out of jade?” There’s a smoldering curiosity in his gaze that I’ve never seen before.
“Yes, Dr Eavesdropper.” Strands of black hair fall over his eyes as Zayne tilts his chin down and looks away. I fan my hand dismissively. “What, are you an oneirologist now?”
Even watching his focus while he restarted the heart of a 7-year-old patient couldn’t have prepared me for the furiously burning intensity of his gaze as Zayne’s eyes snap back to mine.
“Wanna read my palm next and tell me all about the person I’m destined to be with? I’d offer to return the favour, Dr Li, but latex isn’t particularly transparent.”
I raise an eyebrow, silently observing him standing in the doorway over the frame of my glasses. As expected, he quickly composes himself, though the ghost of a crease remains on his brow.
"Unfortunately not, Dr Saku,” Dr Li says coolly, ignoring my second question and pinching the bridge of his nose, then he once again regards us with his usual impassivity. “My apologies, but my knowledge on the subject of divination is severely limited at this time. Perhaps Skyhaven’s Department of Clinical Medicine neglected to add dream interpretation and palmistry to the syllabus for teaching its students the knowledge required to provide medical advice and perform cardiothoracic surgery. Or perhaps I slept through that class.”
I adjust my voice to match his chilly tone. “It appears that the only possibility is the former, Dr Li.”
Beside me, Yvonne shivers slightly as I continue, “and you are well renowned for subjecting your patients to such sound and benevolent instruction — particularly in regards to proper nutrition and adequate rest. Therefore one can only assume, as one that dedicates their entire life to practicing medicine, that you yourself also follow such health principles to the letter. As to the accuracy of such an inference, however, given my limited understanding on the subject of your life outside of these walls, I, Genki Sensei, can only speculate at this time.”
I lean back in my chair and cock my head to one side, toying with the apple pendant on the necklace Yvonne had given me yesterday as a welcome gift. Out of the corner of my eye I see her horrified expression as her eyes dart between his scowl and my innocent rhetorical inquisition.
Before Akso hired me, no one had ever been able to speak to Dr Li this way, the way everyone else had grown accustomed to him speaking to them. It didn’t take long for the faculty — including Dr Li — to realise that audacity was one of my electives; and it didn’t take much longer for everyone — excluding Dr Hypocrite — to start noticing the bitterness that seeps from him whenever he unwittingly comes to me for a prescription — though I’d recently noticed that he appeared to be avoiding me as much as possible.
I benevolently suppress the urge to comment on SDCM’s decision to implant a cylindrical device into a particular cavity of his body. I even graciously sidestep the option wherein I offer to replace said implant with my shakuhachi, if he’s so interested in musical instruments.
I should proceed with at least some caution.
I lean forward with my elbow on the table, resting my chin on my palm and looking up at him with mock concern and unsubtle accusation.
“Tell me, Dr Li, when was the last time you got 8 solid hours of sleep?” His slightly narrowed eyes are all the answer I need.
I hit him with an antagonistic smirk and push the bridge of my greenstone-framed glasses up with the tip of my middle finger, mimicking one of his most obnoxious gestures. Zayne pierces me with an icy glare.
I pull my shoulders back, shooting him a dispassionate glance that would rival one of his own and ask, “ignoring medical advice like it’s nothing? I suppose you’re just here to go through the motions?”
His voice could almost be considered a threat. ”No, Saku, I’m here to —“ a temporary hesitation as he recovers, or searches for a reason to have interjected himself into our conversation, or perhaps both.
Dr Li returns to a more moderate tone, “— to confirm that you received the recreational attire request from the Pediatric Department?”
“I sure did, Dr Zayne — perhaps that’s why I responded to the email yesterday. ”
”Thank you, Dr Saku. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
I flash him a grin. ”With wings on. Otsukaresama."
Dr Li nods curtly, then turns to resume his rounds. Yvonne clears her throat awkwardly, then prompts me, “so he was playing a guqin…?”
I return to my previous musing, “yeah, but it’s the Bai Ze showing up in the forest that I can’t figure out, and that its leg was injured. I hardly need to ask Tara to know that the rest means I need to find a nice guy that wants to finger a jade instrument on a snowy mountain.”
Over Yvonne’s giggle, I could swear that I hear Zayne’s footsteps falter, just for a moment, before he blends back into the chaos of the ward.