Disclaimer: All images used for my stories are clearly not mine; as well as KnB. :)
Sleep With Your Eyes Open And Talk With Your Mouth Closed
She sipped a draught of tea from her cup, then crumpling it with a withdrawn sigh; tired from her night shift duty and countless fleeting patients coming in and out of the Hospital. Momoi knew how intolerant she was of all the noises and beeping buttons once she walked around blusteringly.
It was almost incomprehensive for her why she was always unfortunately assigned during the nighttime. Infernal it may be; she had a family to support –and being just as contempt as the others was a sign of being melodramatic, opposing and melding to say that she had the worst job any person could ever have.
Momoi pinned a strand of hair back to her ear, and decided to walk towards the counter holding a clipboard, with the names she was supposed to assist some time a while ago. She had an enviable hope that her shift would end, but it wouldn't unless she does something radical and auspicious.
"Hey," she leaned forward on the counter, looking back and forth on her clipboard to see a patient's name, "What room is Mr. Akashi's?" she scorned, and furrowed her brows; then the nurse smiled bitterly at her –
"It's in room 102, I've told you to check up on the patient just a while ago, where were you?" The nurse asked, and in advance, gave her a disappointed glare.
"I was busy." Momoi butted in, never leaving her gaze on the clipboard, noting the room number with a churned feeling at the pit of her stomach.
~*o0o*~
"If you say so," she heard a response from the nurse, and nodded as gratitude. Walking slowly, and meticulously stopping at the entrance of the room;
'Fancy.' Momoi examined the door, elegantly added with the well-designed borders, along with the gold-like structure of the numbers that were clearly glued to the top of the door like some kind of an epitaph on a tombstone. Momoi sighed, in annoyance –like how she would every time she goes home with a nosy house, all messed up; filled with mixtures of burnt food and cheap perfume.
Still the thought of debts her father didn't compensate before dying was on her mind. And it was highly a debatable issue within her relatives. The infliction of his father's doing forced the meretricious woman to indulgently pick a job after graduating. Her efficacy to screw up was at the highest peak, almost like she couldn't do anything right.
Momoi; sighing and knocking gently on the door, carefully opening when no one responded at her request to intervene. She walked further in the obscured room; she heard a click –making her gasp in surprise.
The room lit up, with the fluorescent lights at the top of the boring ceiling; some flowers clearly drying from dehydration settled on the right side table of the hospital bed, although they looked like they were well-picked from a fancy flower shop. At the sight of the pale arm slowly going back to its (supposed to be) position, Momoi followed the hand, towards the shoulder, and the sharp collarbones highly visible, then finally –to the patient's face.
Momoi stared in awe, enticed by the porcelain-like skin of the patient, along with the red strands of hair covering his eyes. The patient's lips that was embarrassingly better than hers, and the eyes that gleamed in the illumination of the light. She noticed that the man was chromatic, red and yellow orbs staring directly at her sudden appearance –
"Good evening, Mr. Akashi," Momoi cleared her throat, going back to reality, a talent she was good at, "Are you feeling well –"
While she looked up from her clipboard, she saw the man picking up a notepad, with a grotesque fountain pen scribbling out some notes Momoi can't comprehend –yet.
'I can't speak.' the note said, and Momoi formed an 'O' shape on her mouth. A mere depiction of her realization, then she smiled sincerely, and sweetly (If she could).
"Right, I apologize for that –Okay, so uh, are you feeling alright?" Momoi took a seat, and then inched forward; now facing the red head and noticing the graceful structure of his face –along with the lean figure she could trace out.
'Yes' another note was raised up to her eye level. His hands were injected with some wires, gauze pads covering up the needles settled under the heels of his palms. The bony fingers tightly gripped the edges of the notepad, and lips closed from any noises.
The fixed curtains on the window were shielding them from the traffic lights, but it wasn't until then that the patient requested for some view of the night. Momoi sat back after pulling the curtain to the sides, then shifting comfortably on the leathered seat.
"Do you have any other requests?" Momoi asked, deciding to view the patient's data from her clipboard. Reading with her lips, inaudibly muttering some time, after knowing the man was from a noble family. Momoi heard the scribbling noises stop, so she looked up again to see another note;
'The food tastes bad.' the man made a slight movement on his eyes, squinting slightly towards the nurse as if she had something on her face he wanted to point out.
Momoi couldn't help but chuckle, happily; she indulgently let the man continue before she comments;
'The flowers Shintarou brought gave out an awful smell.'
At the mention of the flower; Momoi looked at the flower vase, noticing some leaves falling off, and brown stems curling downward, she smiled slightly and took the flowers from the table.
"I guess Dr. Midorima's too busy to water them for you," Momoi slowly poured the muddled water and replaced it with fresh ones from the sink of the bathroom. She went back after a while, with the vase cleanly wiped and organized; "These flowers look quite lovely, don't they?"
Akashi only looked at her, nodding seconds later, compromising to her idea and slowly gazing on the moving figure of the nurse walking towards her seat;
"The food is really tasteless, trust me, I've suffered longer than you did." Momoi admittedly joked. She saw a small smile coming from Akashi, admiringly looking at the red head. It was sincere –the smile, awfully better than her forced and real ones. His lips were curled up into a smile that even she couldn't copy whether with practice or not.
"You have a nice smile," she commented, resting her chin at the heels of her palm. The red head was taut –from the compliment, but appeased some time later while he scribbled something on his notepad again.
'Might you have the initiative to tell Shintarou about the food for me? He does not allow me to eat anything else but that awfully cooked food.'
"Well, I can't do anything about that," Momoi straightened up, smiling sympathetically, "I guess you just have to tolerate the taste, it's for your sake Mr. Akashi."
'I supposed you're right.'
Akashi smiled again, scribbled some notes and bid farewell, with the dismissive aura that came implicit.
~*o0o*~
Momoi wasn't sure what led her to come back, but even if she wasn't assigned to the room –she agreed to help her colleague in assisting the patient in room 102. Indulgently accepting the offer of taking the night shift, to which she herself never expected to do.
She reasoned out a logical explanation for it, saying she was neither enticed nor personally interested on Mr. Akashi, but she knew herself better than anyone could.
Comprehending this state like some kind of confusion, or vile tiredness, but the reason wasn't actually essential to her. She is incessant towards seeking answers to (somewhat) unexplainable phenomenon or feeling.
Momoi stood up in front of the door again, glancing on the glass door to see if she was looking decent –to which she was oddly worried about every time she passed through the hallways of room 102. She had visible bags under her eyes, still she looked alright. There were strands of hair untied, dangling on her ears and her paled complexion getting paler than usual.
Still unsatisfied on how she looked; she knocked gently, shrugging off her vile appearance, and smiling sweetly to compensate the shabby look on her face.
"Hello again, Mr. Akashi." Momoi sighed, took the leathered seat, and faced the man with a determined dint glued on her eyes.
'You look tired.' The note commented, Momoi noticed on how fast Akashi had wrote his reply –even when she was not yet there to actually show how ugly she was to the beautiful man.
The patient was embarrassingly way better than her, even if injected with countless of medicine, Akashi was still properly positioned and decently looking. Something which Momoi found envious of, still her admiration towards the patient was shrugging off her jealousy.
"Yeah, my shift has been directly assigned to nighttime." Her; 'I actually volunteered to be on night shifts to see you.' was absolutely left unsaid.
'Have some rest; would you like me to request you on day shifts?' Akashi responded seconds later.
"No!" Momoi almost screeched, inflicting the man to wince at her sudden response; Momoi took notice of it, then she cleared her throat with withdrawal, "That wouldn't be necessary; I endure my job for the sake of my patients."
Admittedly, Momoi had never cared about any patient but Akashi.
'Have you eaten yet?' The note almost made Momoi cry. Heck, even her family never asked her that –being asked such question was rare for someone who does so much work for inconsiderate people having enough insensitivity to forget about her health –or better yet – her existence.
Momoi could only sigh and she inched her seat closer this time, the backboard of the hospital bed separating her from Akashi, "I'll eat later, how was your food?"
She could see Akashi eyeing her skeptically, but he had proceeded to scribble again on his notepad;
'It was awful, are you alright?'
"Yeah, I'm alright." Momoi lied. And she forced a smile Akashi knew was fake and deceptive.
She felt her eyes drowsing off to tiredness, wanting to sleep with the warmth of her own fluffy blankets.
Momoi was unaware until a hand gently shrugged her shoulder. She opened her eyes to the sight of the red head's face, holding up a notepad she supposed was written just before she almost dozed off.
'If you wish, you can sleep next to me.'
Momoi wasn't even sure if it was allowed, but she accepted it nonetheless –feeling the tiredness engulf her to sleep and force her to slumber along with the touch of Akashi's warm bony fingers, and the soft silky hospital blanket enclosing her figure.
"That would be nice," yawning and feeling comfortable at the caresses of the red head's warm touches.
Akashi had slightly moved backwards to give her space. Then he held up the blanket over her shoulders causing Momoi to stir on her sleep; satisfied with what he had done, he faced back to see the view of his window, deciding to sleep as well after some time.
~*o0o*~