Disclaimer: Oh how I wish. Maybe in an alternate universe, but in this one, this genius belongs to Tachibana Sensei.
Gray clouds decorate the sky as a short girl with messy brown locks ran down the block splashing her feet in rain puddles in her haste. She stopped near a yellow house with a rose garden which seemed muddy due to the rainy week.
"Mikan, darling, how are you?" And old woman with wrinkles and laugh lines marring her face asks the short girl who smiles brightly at her.
"I'm good, Dad wanted me to give you these pears; they're ripe and fresh from the garden." The girl holds out a bag.
"Oh how wonderful. Why don't you come in? I'll make some scones and tea for us?" The woman says walking towards the door to the yellow house.
"I'd love to, but I'm in a hurry, I'm on my way to see mom." The girl says as she looks down at the broken watch on her wrist to indicate the time.
The old woman gives the girl a sad smile, "Alright, next time then. Thank your Dad from me and be sure to come back before dark!" The old woman yells as the girl has already started running off again.
The wide eyed girl waves her arm as indication that she heard the woman's calls but doesn't stop running. She splashes through more puddles and runs faster as the familiar white building comes to view not stopping until she's in front of the glass doors to catch her breath.
She walks through the familiar hallways and smiles at the people who greet her. She takes the elevator and stops at the highest floor just short of the roof of the building. There are only two rooms here.
She stops outside the door of the room and takes a deep breath then smiles brightly and enters the room gallantly.
"Hey Mom!" The girl chirps and settles down on the chair next to the bed where a beautiful woman with the same brown hair as the girl beside her lays.
"Guess what? I got the highest in school again! It was close this time. Remember that guy, Yuu Tobita who I told you about? Yeah he was only short of two points! He's really smart." At some point while she talked the girl reached out and took her mother's hand in hers.
"Hotaru says hi, she wanted to come but got held back because of some technical support group visiting school. She says she'll definitely come next week." The girl rants on as she puts her mother's hand on her cheek and closes her eyes while the woman laying on the bed stays still, the only indication that she's alive coming from the regular beeping of the computer she's strapped to.
As hours pass and the girl continues to talk to a woman who may or may not hear her, somewhere close by, a boy with deep red eyes and raven black hair runs from a fire that engulfs his house.
"Alright, that will be all for today. Make sure to start on the personal narrative that's half your grade this semester, its due in two weeks and avoiding it till the last minute and giving me a half-baked essay won't get you a good grade." A woman in her mid thirties wearing 3-inch heels addresses her class. As she starts packing up, the students start milling out of the room eager to get home.
"And where do you think you're rushing to?" A girl with amethyst eyes and matching purple hair grabs the back of the girl with brown locks twisted into a low bun.
The girl turns and grins at the girl with the intimidating purple eyes, accustomed to her cold personality. "I'm heading home, Hotaru. I have to get to the hospital early since they close Mom's room early on Fridays."
"Anna wanted to go to the new cake shop that opened on Main Street. You should come." The girl, Hotaru says with an expressionless face but with worried marred in her beautiful eyes.
"I can't today, maybe next time. Sorry." The short girl with brown eyes starts walking ahead.
"Mikan." Hotaru stops her with a hand on her shoulder. Reluctantly, the girl turns to her again, "Hotaru please, I really am in a hurry."
"I know. That's the problem, you don't ever relax. You're an honors student, you work six times a week and any free time you have, you spend it in a hospital room. When was the last time you ate something for lunch other than a protein bar?" The girl pins Mikan down with her eyes.
Mikan sighs, "Hotaru, you're worrying needlessly, I promise I'll eat a full meal for lunch today, ok? Now please can I go?"
Hotaru knew she hadn't answered her question and that only gave confirmation to her notion but she let the girl go with a heavy sigh knowing that she can't do anything when her best friend was set on something. She was far too stubborn.
BEEP BEEP BEEP. An ambulance wailed loudly as Mikan turned the familiar corner towards the hospital. Too tired to run this time, Mikan walked slowly towards the hospital not wanting to run out of breath and be panting in her mother's room. As she walked inside, she was struck by the tense and stressful atmosphere as she watched a gurney zip pass her and nurses discuss the situation and report to the doctors. It wasn't her first time coming across this view but each time she experienced it, her heart lurches and speeds up as a foreboding sense of Déjà vu comes over her of another time in this exact same place where she was doing the same exact thing. Watching. Watching the spectacle play in front of her eyes as she stood powerless on the sidelines and the doctors moved her mother's damaged body through the double doors that led to surgery.
Just like now.
As she watched, she caught a flash of raven hair and a masculine body on the gurney which brought her back to her senses. It was a boy. A stranger, not her mom. Her mother was fine. She will be fine. Mikan watched as the body along with the doctors and a dozen nurses disappeared then she numbly made her way to the elevator that would take her to her mother's room.
"So I told Sumire to-" Mikan was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Come in." She said tersely not happy at being cut off.
"Sorry to disrupt you Ms. Sakura, but we need to take a few of your mom's blood samples for the lab test." It was an old doctor with friendly blue eyes. Sighing Mikan got up and started packing her things knowing that this was the hospital's nice way of saying to get lost already. She kissed her mother's forehead and said goodbye, promising to come back again tomorrow.
As she made her way towards the elevator to go back down, she was stopped by a nurse with familiar red hair and hazel eyes. "Hey Misaki!" Mikan greeted with a cheery grin.
"Hey Hon, how have you been?" Misaki gave her a beatific smile.
"I'm good, how are you? And how's Tsubasa Senpei? I'm going to kill him for not coming over as much anymore." Misaki laughed good naturedly, "Oh he really wants to but he's stressed with the baby and everything." She says and unconsciously puts a hand to her gigantic belly.
"Right, I almost forgot. How is the baby? You're starting your eight month soon right?"
"Yeah, in three days." Misaki exhaled nervously and then looked back to Mikan with a worried expression, "I actually came to check up on you, the hospital record shows you're two months late on the fee?"
Mikan flinched before she could stop herself. "Yeah, Dad's been working really hard and he'll get his paycheck by the end of next week and I should be getting mine by the end of this month," Mikan looks away as tears start springing in her eyes, "God, this is embarrassing."
Misaki's face softens and she says tenderly, "Sweetheart, you don't have to be embarrassed about this. Tsubasa is so against you working and to be honest I'm not too happy about it either. You know we don't mind helping out, right? We're practically family with how long we've known each other."
Mikan blinks away the tears and smiles, "I know and I'm grateful for that but I can't possibly ask that of you with the baby. Besides, I think we'll manage well for now."
Misaki smiles and puts a hand on the younger girl's shoulder feeling the burden she carries alone. Knowing she can't do anything for this girl who grew up too early she simply gives her arm a squeeze and silently sends a prayer her way that things start looking up.
And just as she wishes it, down the hall where a beautiful woman with long brown hair strapped to machines lying on a bed, twitches. Just the smallest of movement comes as her hand twitches upward and falls to her side. This goes unbeknownst to the doctor and nurses extracting blood and strapping the woman on IVs but the woman moved and even if no one notices the first movement that has happened after two years, the movement is a sign. A sign that holds much promise for the future.
"Please wait outside." The nurse with dark locks and cold blue eyes demands. She pushes Mikan out of the hospital room and shuts the door in her face. Feeling like a bad kid being reprimanded, Mikan has the strong urge to stick her tongue out at the closed door. But she holds herself back and sighs while moving down the hall.
It's Saturday afternoon and Mikan was quite content with doing her homework in her mother's room while occasionally ranting to her about her nonsensical math homework which was most likely invented by aliens as no on earth talks in 2n^5x. What were the alphabets doing in math anyway? It made no sense. But apparently the doctors didn't finish their lab report on her mother yesterday so they would be doing it today as well.
With nothing to do as her homework was also with her mother right now and she wasn't allowed inside, Mikan decided to get some lunch. But as she looked at the limited food menu in the Cafeteria she couldn't help but loose her appetite. Hospital food sucked. Nonetheless she had to get something in her stomach so she ordered a turkey sandwich and orange juice. It tasted like mud.
She would sit and eat it but after awhile her legs got tired of it so she threw away her half eaten sandwich and walked down the different corridors that looked identical to her. They all consisted of the same ivory walls, wooden floors and oil paintings. After a while of walking, it was official. She was lost. She made her way to the help desk nearby and caught snippets of the conversation that the young nurses there were having.
"…Did you see his eyes? To die for…"
"I know right…I felt his skin and it was smoother than mine…"
"God he was beautiful…Do you think he's single?..."
Mikan cleared her throat to catch their attention, "Excuse Me?"
They both looked up at her in irritation, no doubt unhappy about being interrupted in their fascinating conversation.
"How may I help you?" The taller of the two asked in a professional tone.
"Umm, I lost my way; can you direct me to the 22nd floor, Yuka Yukihira's room?" They both exchanged a look and then the other one spoke, "No one but the staff is allowed there."
"No, you see, my mother is a comatose patient so she's getting intensive care over their." She reasons, mentally kicking herself for not just asking them where the closest elevator is.
"Ok, we are going to have to check with authorities," the nurse looks nervously at her friend who says, "just a minute now, don't move or we will call security since you may have breached and found classified information." What? Everyone on that floor knew that Mikan was allowed, being the daughter of that comatose patient. This is absurd; these nurses were clearly novices and knew nothing. Mikan starts inching away as the nurse starts dialing and the other one goes inside the staff room in the back to get some file. When there is a click on the other side of the phone line, she makes a run for it. The nurse on the phone yells for security and she looks behind her to see two men in uniform start running after her.
Mikan runs through different hallways and makes a sharp right, not knowing that this hall leads to a dead end. Crap.
She hears the two security guards behind her stop to catch their breath. "Which way did she go?" The taller of the two asks his friend, "I don't know, check that hallway, it's a dead end, and I'll go straight."
She hears footsteps come near as she scrambles and presses against the wall trying to melt against it in hopes of remaining undiscovered. Realizing that the wall is actually a door behind her she twists the knob and steps inside just as a figure emerges from the hallway that leads to her. She stands next to the door and listens for footsteps. They come closer and closer and just when she's sure that they will find her the footsteps start fading away.
She sighs in relief and slumps against the door. It isn't until she hears a soft gasp does she realize she's not the only one in the room. She tenses her shoulders and turns around slowly only to get her breath knocked out of her. There sitting on a white bed with covers thrown back is the most beautiful boy Mikan has ever seen in her life. He sits still like a statue basking in the golden day light looking in her direction. His perfect features pulled in concentration as he moves his head around, looking lost.
"Whose there?" He says loudly looking towards the general direction of the door.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, I was just leaving actually." She says still gawking at the beautiful boy unable to look away. He looks to her but something about his gaze seems off, it seems almost as though he's not looking at her, but trying to find her even as he stares at her across the room.
He sits straight and pulls his chin up, something about that gesture makes Mikan smile, for even if he was sick in a hospital bed the boy seemed to be emitting an arrogance that came with beautiful boys who knew of their charm.
"Hand me the fruit plate." He says in a voice that could melt glaciers. Mikan blinks in surprise and stands still for a moment, then mechanically walks up to the counter by the bed and picks up the fruit plate staring at it like it's a foreign invader. She walks up to the boy and hands him the fruit plate. The boy reaches for it and frowns "Put it in my hands." He says softly. She obliges and puts it in his hands with confusion in her eyes. He looks up at her and conveys his gratitude but at this point Mikan can't even breathe because his eyes are so beautiful and his features so immaculate that it makes her knees weak. His eyes were the color of blood but when he looks up, he doesn't look at her, but looks beside her as though he can't see where she is.
Mikan shifts on her feet awkwardly and then decides that her lunch break should come to an end now. "Well, it was nice to meet you. I'll be heading out now." She takes a step back as the boy brings up a strawberry from the fruit bowl to his mouth and drops it on the bed. Instead of picking it up, he starts patting his bed trying to find the strawberry as he looks ahead at the door.
Mikan's eyes burrow in confusion and she picks up the strawberry from the bed and puts it in his plate. The boy, though, continues to pat the area, unaware that the strawberry is back in the bowl. Mikan clears her throat and the boy freezes. "You're still here?" he asks her looking to his side. Mikan looks at him with worry, "Yeah, but are you alright? Do you want me to call the nurse for you?"
He shakes his head and mutters something that sounds like, "It's not like she can do anything." Mikan stands awkwardly not sure of what to do. The boy seems to sense this and asks of her, "Do you think you can feed me?" The question makes Mikan gape, what? But the boy was looking towards her with sincerity. She blanches but is unable to refuse the boy who looked helpless, "Sure, but are you okay?" She moves beside him and reaches for the fruit bowl.
He gives it to her and smirks, "Perfectly fine, unless you count the fact that I'm blind."
Mikan almost drops the fruit bowl, but she steadies herself, "Oh, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Pry? Worry?"
"…agonize"
He smirks at her, "its fine, I'm still getting used to it, I haven't been blind for a whole 24 hours yet."
She stares at him, "You just turned blind? How?"
His lips twitch and she realizes that she's prying but he answers, "Aliens."
Mikan raises her eyebrows, "What?"
"No one is allowed to see aliens, they exist and if they know you know of them, they take away your sight. No one would believe what a blind man says about seeing anyway."
"I believe what blind people say."
The answer surprises the boy, "You do?"
Mikan picks up a grape with the silver fork and puts it by the boy's lips; he opens his mouth and eats the fruit. For some reason the gesture makes her blush furiously.
"Of course I believe them, being blind doesn't make you a liar, and there are other ways to see than through your eyes." She says and pokes a strawberry with the fork.
The boy regards her humorously again, "So you believe I saw aliens?"
Mikan shoves the strawberry in his mouth with unneeded force, "I didn't say I believe everything they say, but I would give them the same conviction as a seeing person."
A few moments of silence pass where the only noise is of the boy chewing softly on the fruit the girl besides him feeds to him.
Then suddenly Mikan asks, "Does it hurt?"
The boy looked like he was caught off guard, "Being blind? No. It's uncomfortable but no, there is no pain."
Mikan was quiet for a moment before, "Did it hurt…when you became blind."
She didn't ask about the way he became blind, but he understood, "Yeah, at first, but I could bear it, it was just pain, besides there was a fire and I just remember everything burning. I was never really afraid of fire."
Mikan looked at the boy's eyes. He was brave. And unconsciously she was starting to admire this boy.
They were both quiet for a while and then suddenly he broke the silence like he couldn't keep the question inside anymore.
"What other ways?" The boy says softly after a long pause.
Mikan blinks in surprise and confusion, pausing on her way to bring a strawberry to the boy. "What?"
"What other ways can you see without your eyes?" The boy looks at her with an expressionless face but she could see something deep buried in his eyes that started breaking away, scraping from the sides, the way one would scrap dry mud from old boots. She recognized the look; it was the same one she wore two years ago when the doctors said there was still a chance for her mother despite being in a coma.
It was hope.
She smiles tenderly and regards the boy softly and despite not being able to see this, the boy felt the air around him change and become gentle. Mikan put the fruit bowl on the counter and leaned closely and without thinking about it took the boys hands and brought it to her face. She had done this a hundred times with her mother; she put his palm to her cheek and leaned against. It was a silent gesture, and relayed a single thought, even if you can't see me, I'm here.
The girl smiled against the boy's hand and as the boy felt this, his heart sped up. On impulse, he started tracing her features, tenderly touching her eyes, the shape of her cheekbones, her button nose and her chin. When he came to her lips he stopped suddenly and then in boyish manner turned his head away and brought back his hands shyly. Mikan blushed a hundred different shades of red and looked away to collect her thoughts.
She looked to her right as the sun started dipping, "You may not be able to see the day, but you can still feel the sun's warmth." She paused, "We're blind to the sun as much as you are."
The boy reflexively turned towards the light and felt it's warmth on its face; he let out a deep sigh which sounded like it had been held for years. "I can see." He said as he closed his eyes and brought his hands up to feel the sun ray kiss them softly. Mikan smiled.
"You can see the world with your hands, you can see people through your heart and you can see time with your ears." She says looking at the boy's hands still basking in the sunlight; they were beautiful hands, long fingers and flawless nails. They were the hands of an artist.
The boy turned to her and smiled, it was a genuine smiled and it was beautiful, it took Mikan's breath away. Just as Mikan was about to ask for his name, the door behind her opened and they both turned as a nurse with red hair came inside. Recognition sparked in her eyes as she regarded Mikan with surprise and stopped in front of the bed.
"What are you doing here? Do you have any idea of the ruckus that you caused?" Misaki pierces her gaze at Mikan and talks in her chilling voice that always made Mikan feel like she was a bad kid who was caught ditching classes or causing class disruptions.
Mikan gulped, "Misaki, it wasn't my fault; I just asked them where mom's room was."
Misaki turned sharply, "You know that information is classified, you are damn lucky that I was there to fix the mess before they contacted the main hospital."
Mikan looked at the ground with guilt, "I-I'm sorry Misaki."
Misaki blew out a long breath and her gaze softened when she looked at Mikan's guilty form, "its fine kiddo, you have my number, if you get lost, tell me ok? Don't go asking other people. Goodness I'm going to have gray hair before I turn 30 because of you."
Mikan looked up and smiled softly, she was accustomed to Misaki's protectiveness and it made her heart fill with happiness to know someone cared so much for her.
"And just what were you doing in Natsume's room?" Misaki crosses her arms and looks at them both suspiciously.
Mikan stammered but it was the boy who came through, "She was outside my room and I needed help with the fruit bowl so I called her in." He said in an even voice. Mikan turned to him, surprised.
Misaki's eyes narrowed but she let it pass, she already had her fair share of yelling at Mikan, "Alright, well off with you, they finished your mom's test a million years ago, so you can go back to her room and Natsume dear, we have to take you for the MRI now." Mikan looked towards the boy, Natsume as Misaki said this; the boy's face held obvious annoyance and exasperation, it made Mikan wonder just how many tests the boy went through since he came here.
"There…there aren't any needles are there?" Natsume looked at Misaki with ill concealed fear. It made Mikan laugh out loud despite being in trouble with Misaki. Natsume jerked his head towards her and grimaced, Mikan couldn't stop giggling, "You're okay with a house of burning fire but you're afraid of needles."
"I don't like being touched. And needles make me feel like I've been violated." Natsume's face looked so grave that it made Mikan burst into a new fit of giggles. Natsume turned to her with annoyance but it quickly melted when he felt his bed shake with her laugh. His lips started twitching and he looked at her with amusement.
Misaki regarded them both with a wry smile, they both looked so happy despite their harsh circumstances and it was the first time she had seen Mikan so carefree since her mother's accident. Natsume, too, regarded everyone so coldly but with Mikan there seemed to be tenderness in his eyes.
And then all too soon the door opened and a nurse walked in with a wheel chair asking Misaki if she was done with the check up and if Natsume was ready for his scan. Natsume pressed his lips together and started getting up and reflexively Mikan reached for him. He twitched when they made contact but didn't pull away and walked towards the wheelchair.
When he was ready to go, he turned back towards Mikan and smirked, "See you tomorrow, Mikan." And then he was out the door and gone.
Mikan grinned after him, her heart speeding up at his use of her name. Never had her name sounded as good as they did coming from his lips. Her grin grew wider as she walked through the door and remembered his words. She never made any promise about tomorrow and nor did he but she knew that she would come tomorrow and the day after, and even the day afterwards. And that he would be there, waiting.
A/N: Hi guys, this was really random and it came to me when I stayed over night at the hospital. I'm thinking about making it a two-shot but for now I'll leave it as a one shot.