―oo1.

Genre: Romance, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort

Rating: T

Words: 1167

Summary: The aftermath of a tragic incident that Rima hoped wouldn't repeat. And this time it left a physical scar. (poemish prose)

Notes: And here I am again, attempting to create an oddly-formatted story...I don't make sense -.-'. Thanks for clicking on this and I hope you read it through till the end. :D

Title: Of Eyes, Glass and Snow

「 The shards of broken glass rained from above her. She could barely move; she was beaten and tired. Only the aching pain she felt kept her awake. She didn't bother trying to dodge the jagged pieces of glass, she had no energy to. In a way, she was lucky. The majority of glass pieces gave her only light cuts. It stayed that way until the very last shard. When the last shard fellㅡ

ㅡit pierced her right eye.」

~O~

(3) "H-hey, Yaya heard Rima-tan was in the hospital."

(1) "Yeah, I heard too. Her parents said she didn't want any visitors"

(3) "But Amu-chi is Rima-tan's best friend!"

(1) "She's like that. I won't go. She'd hate it."

She still wanted to visit Rima.

That was Amu. /(1)\

~O~

(1) "She's being discharged today!"

(2) "So she's fully recovered?"

(1) "Well enough to leave the hospital."

(2) "Tell her I'm glad for her"

He wanted to tell her himself.

That was Nagihiko. /(2)\

~O~

(2) "Are you going to visit her?"

(3) "Amu-chi said it's best not to go"

(2) "Apparently, she's recovered."

(3) "Really?!"

She couldn't wait to see her.

That was Yaya. /(3)\

〈The nurse checked on her the morning of the day she would be discharged. She was fully healed except for a single wound. When the nurse found her, she was wide awake. She was sitting at the edge of the white hospital bed casually, her feet hanging towards the ground, head tilted to the right, facing the window.

That way, the only remaining physical scar of that night was concealed.

Her right eye was out of sight, covered by her golden, curly locks of hair.〉

~O~

(0) "Ow!"

"You shouldn't touch it, darling."

(0) "It bothers me."

"You'll get used to it, I promise."

Her only priority was to tell them she was okay.

That was Rima. /(0)\

「She wasn't okay.」

~O~

『She would never see the world through her right eye ever again.』

/(1)\

When Amu dropped in, the only thing she heard was the sound of a dropped pin.

~O~

Her efforts were worthless.

Rima was stubbornly wordless.

In pain.

In shock.

Their stares pierced through her brain.

She used her sole eye to glare at them like a hawk.

~O~

〔Everyone else sitting in the hospital waiting area looked at her as she exited the hospital, glad that they, nor their love ones, were permanently damaged, like her right eye.〕

「Sometimes she forgot the pain and what was hidden under her eyepatch.」

~O~

『Sometimes she would put her hand over the cotton patch covering her right eye and pressed it. Only then did she realize again that her right eye was now an empty socket.』

〈The world was strangely flattering without her right eye, everything seemed the same, visible, but as if she was looking at a picture, she couldn't grasp how close or far away an item was.

Her coordination took a turn for the worse.〉

The doctor was deft, catching her before she left.

~O~

Peppermint breath spoke her fate of no improvement possible for her eye.

To normal life, she had to say goodbye.

(1) "Christmas is coming, three more days."

(2) "What do you want to do?"

(1) "Visit Rima's home."

(2) "Okay then, what about you, Yaya?"

(3) "Skiing! Yaya wants to go tomorrow!"

(2) "Sounds fun."

(3) "Can we go with Rima-tan?"

(2) "I don't think she's ready for exercise yet."

(3) "But Yaya wants to go with Rima-tan!"

「When she got home, she felt like the house was more rigid.」

~O~

『When she got home, she would binge on chocolate.』

~O~

〈It was peppermint chocolate. It was the flavor that confirmed her of her bitter fate.〉

〈The park was the first place she went when she was outside for the first time. The children's laughter made her as happy as it made her annoyed. The air was cold. When she breathed, she could see her breath. When she breathed, she saw her stress slowly fade away as little misty particles. The park was the perfect place to calm down during a cold, cloudy, dim lit late afternoon.〉

~O~

〔No one stared at her then, not even the children. They were having too much fun and the adults were too much in a hurry.〕

~O~

Without a sound, Nagihiko looked at what he found.

~O~

/(2)\

He found her staring up at the sky. He walked over, said hi, and watched birds go by.

〈She ended up going skiing with them, but only after what seemed like a million pleas the day before Christmas Eve.〉

The moment she started to ski was the moment she wanted to flee.

~O~

No one stared, because no one saw.

Her tinted ski goggles hid her flaw.

/(3)\

Every few seconds, Yaya would steal glances, hoping that she was alright.

But if she, at any moment, gave up, Yaya would not give up without a fight.

~O~

They were about the same size.

Having her there was a prize.

[ they really cared for her ]

~O~

[ they really wanted to make her happy again ]

Friend: (1) Amu

Friend: (2) Nagihiko

Friend: (3) Yaya

(1) "Oh! Rima doesn't know how to ski."

(2) "What?"

(1) "Hey, Nagi, please, please, can you teach her?"

(2) "Um."

(3) "Yeah! Give it a try, Amu-chi and Yaya suck at teaching."

(2) "Well, okay."

(3) "Hey, does Nagi think Rima-tan'll be alright skiing?"

(2) "She'll be fine."

(3) "But..."

〈Watching children play, smiles on their faces, made her feel happy as she stood there, frozen on the spot, skis attached to her feet. She refused to move, scared she would fall.〉

~O~

(1) "Let's go!"

(0) "Hold on."

(1) "Calm down and just move your legs."

(2) "Ow, your fall must have hurt."

(0) "Shut up."

(2) "I'm joking! Just joking!"

(3) "Rima-tan!"

(0) "Stop going so fast."

(3) "Isn't Rima-tan having fun?"

~O~

She would have if she didn't, every few seconds, fall.

She would have, if every few seconds didn't make her want to bawl.

That was what was holding her back from it all.

Nagihiko guided her every step.

Every instruction filled with pep.

~O~

〔People noticed her then. People saw them. People thought of what a cute couple they were. People thought there was everything normal about her.〕

~O~

If they discovered what was under her covers, there was no guarantee they still view them as lovers.

Afraid, her friends, around her, with caution, hovers.

〈And then she falls. Not really. She glides down the hill and slips around little kids, although shakily. And when she reaches the bottom, she falls. She falls into Nagihiko's arms and the warmth is what gets to her.〉

〔It's then she cries.〕

Notes: Feedback and comments would make me really really happy. I hope you liked this. It may or may not be a rewrite of my old one-shot only act, but I do know I loved writing this, even though its not longer Christmas season.

And if you haven't noticed, I started a Rimahiko one-shot collection XD ...even if this didn't have much romance in it...ahaha.

Once again, please review! :3

~KiMi

Edit: fixed Yaya's dialogue from 'you' to 'Nagi' and capitalized the title. On a side note, the collection, 'carried away daze' isn't capitalized since this is a collection, not a story. Those are simply words used to associate all the little one-shots together; there's no need for it to be in caps.