Author's note: Mai HiME belongs to Sunrise.
This is my first fiction which will contain several chapters^^ I don't know how often I'll post the following chapters.
As usual, a big thank you to my dear friend Leebot for beta reading it.
"Kuga Natsuki, class 1-D, please report to the infirmary," the school's public-address system announced.
Natsuki raised her head and gave a questioning look to her teacher, who agreed with a nod.
The girl silently stood up and got out of the classroom. On her way to the infirmary she wondered and started to worry. Why would the infirmary need to summon her? Maybe Shizuru had had an accident. Or Mai. Or someone else in the group of people she had just started to get used to calling "friends".
She quickened her pace.
The infirmary looked quiet. Natsuki called out, "Sagisawa-sensei? You wanted to see me?"
Youko stood up from her desk and greeted her.
"Kuga-san, thank you for coming. I'm sorry to disturb you during your lessons. It's about Fujino-san..."
Natsuki grew pale, but followed the doctor silently behind a white curtain. Shizuru was lying in the bed, with a peaceful expression as if she was simply asleep, although she was a bit pale.
"She collapsed for no apparent reason, so her classmates carried her here."
Natsuki took Shizuru's hand between her own. Her hand was a bit cold, as if life was slowly leaving her. This thought horrified the raven-haired girl.
"Is she... in a coma?" Natsuki hesitantly asked.
"It's hard to say. Sometimes the line between sleep and coma can be very subtle. She has been sleeping for three hours. At first I thought she was simply tired, maybe because of the approaching exams, but I cannot wake her up. My tests showed nothing. So since you are her... closest friend, I would like to know if in the past few days she showed some sign of weakness, or if she was stressed or something."
"I'm sorry Sensei, we haven't had much opportunity to see each other recently. From what I know she never fainted like this before. She's strong; she's never sick."
How could Natsuki tell anyone who wasn't a HiME that after the end of the Carnival things have been a little tense? Shizuru did not know how to behave with Natsuki; she still thought that her feelings were inappropriate. And Natsuki needed time to sort out her own feelings. That didn't mean the girls didn't see each other anymore. In particular Natsuki didn't want to let Shizuru go since she realized how important Shizuru was to her. But sometimes they seemed to play cat and mouse.
"I see. Sorry for having disturbed your class."
"Sensei, can a... heartache cause someone to faint like this?" Natsuki chose to ignore this subtle prompting to go back to her classroom.
"When it comes to love, anything is possible. But what kind of fool could turn down such a beautiful girl? Besides, it can also simply be tiredness. The University entrance exams are tough, you can never know how the students will endure them."
They stood there silently for a bit, just listening to Shizuru's regular breathing.
"Can I stay here with her?"
"I need to make her undergo other exams. But you can come back later."
"Thank you Sensei, I will."
Natsuki kept her promise to Shizuru to not skip classes again, but she couldn't focus on what her teachers said during the rest of the day. Shizuru's state of health filled all of her thoughts, as well as Sagisawa-sensei's words.
Natsuki wondered what the doctor knew and understood of their relationship (but what kind of relationship was it anyway?). Natsuki admitted that she probably knew more than what she told to the nurse. Sagisawa-sensei was a close friend of a former HiME, Sugiura Midori. Even Sakomizu-sensei knew that Shizuru was in love with Natsuki so maybe other people knew it too. Teachers can gossip too after all.
A particular sentence stuck in her head.
What kind of fool could turn down such a beautiful girl?
Natsuki was "this kind of fool".
She knew that a lot of people, boys and girls, would kill their father and mother to have her luck. But just because a lot of people wanted to date Shizuru, it didn't mean that Natsuki had to actually do it if she didn't want to, did it? But what did she truly want?
Natsuki also wondered if Sagisawa-sensei was craftily giving them her blessing, notifying her that love between two girls is fine.
After her school day was over, Natsuki headed straight toward the infirmary. This time when she entered the room she didn't bother with manners.
"Sensei, how is Shizuru?"
But Youko didn't seem to care about manners. The woman must have seen Natsuki's distress and care for her friend. She shook her head.
"She still hasn't awakened. I didn't find anything to explain her state or help her get better. I couldn't keep her here for the night so I called an ambulance, and they took her to the nearby hospital."
Silently cursing, Natsuki went straight to the hospital where she was told she couldn't see Shizuru, since she was being examined just then.
After enquiring about the visiting hours, Natsuki promised herself to come back the following day.
Author's note: Here we are with the first chapter. I hope you liked it.
For anyone curious about the title, it is inspired by an old french love song from Michel Sardou. You can easily find the song and the lyrics on the Web.