In which I continue the theme of angsty fic for characters' birthdays…Happy Birthday, Katori…
There's something pressing down on her, something dark and heavy pinning her limbs down. Katori gasps, but air isn't getting through to her chest. She's being crushed, she's going to die, she's-
A shaft of light peaks through, dazzling her eyes. She wakes up.
Katori lurches up from the makeshift bed; deep, jagged breaths tearing through her lungs. She looks down. She's okay, she's alive. Somei saved her. Katori fists her hands in the bedcovers over her lap; she doesn't want to see them shaking.
There's a light stir on her left, her mother's gentle hand patting her arm. "A bad dream?"
Katori nods, slightly ashamed of the tears gathering in her eyes. She blinks hard. She's not going to cry. Not here.
On the other side of the room, someone else is already crying, a long thin wail that can go on for hours. Katori knows for a fact that the wailer is an old man who has been crying the whole day, since before Katori joined her family in this temporary shelter after being discharged from the hospital.
To her left, a baby starts fussing as well, big racking gasps warning that she too is going to start crying any minute now. The man lying beside the baby takes her into his arms awkwardly, crooning softly in an attempt to make her stop. There is nothing else he can do. There will be no more milk rations for her until morning, when the next load of supplies arrive.
Sounds of shuffling start breaking out throughout the room, more people being woken up and making the repurposed hospital room feel even more claustrophobic than before. Someone starts screaming, possibly still caught up in bad dream. "Daddy, mummy no, daddy don't die, mummy please…"
Katori stands up in a rush. She can't stay here.
"Youko?" Her brother mumbles from her right. "If you're going to the bathroom, I'll go too."
"The men's bathroom is in the opposite direction from the women's," Katori whispers acidically. She's already had her fill of her brother's weird hovering ever since they were reunited. "Anyway, I'm going to see Hana."
"I'll walk you to her room," her brother replies in a much calmer whisper, not dissuaded in the least.
"Hmph." Katori tosses her head. "Suit yourself."
"Come straight back," her father says, in the same low whisper to not disturb the other people in the room.
Katori ignores him; she knows he isn't saying it to her. They all know she will be spending the rest of the night with Somei.
Her brother does not let her leave without a hug when they reach the corridor that separates the temporary shelter from the actual working part of the hospital. Katori allows it without a fuss, mind too full of Hana, Hana, Hana.
Somei gets her own room, a luxury only made possible because the worst-off patients had been sent off to the next town over already. Katori doesn't believe, but even she prayed, a little, that they won't get caught by the... monsters . The news said everything is alright now. But she's not stupid; the news can't know for sure. Her mind shies away from that thought.
Soft gasps as Katori enters the room tell her that Somei is also having a nightmare. She makes sure to close the door quietly behind her, so that she doesn't disturb Somei. She knows by now Somei must not be jolted awake from her nightmares.
Katori sits gingerly on the edge of the bed, watching Somei twitch. Very gently, very slowly, she touches Somei's arm with the tips of her fingers. "Hana," Katori whispers, "I need you."
Somei's hand swings up suddenly, clutching Katori's in a death grip. "Youko," she says breathlessly, eyes opening with a start.
"I'm here," Katori says in a normal tone of voice. She swings herself onto the bed, squirming around until she's comfortable tucked against Somei's side.
Somei allows it with a long-suffering air, pulling the blanket up so it covers both of them properly.
"Good night, Hana," Katori chirps, in a much better mood than when she had first woken up.
Somei smiles, a light curve of the lips. "Good night, Youko."