Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 38th cycle. Now cycle 39!

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"Hole in a Cloud"
15yo Mike/Tina
Chang Squared #16 (following 'Elf')

She loved game days. Maybe back in the day she knew nothing of football, didn't really care for any part of it, but this was before she had started dating Mike, before she became a Cheerio and stood on the sidelines with the rest of the squad. She'd learned most of it from her father, and she loved that… they had gotten so much closer since then. She wouldn't have believed herself a fan, and yet…

"Didn't you say something about having to run laps with stinky gym jocks if you were late to the game?" her father called from down the stairs and she came running a moment later.

"I'm here, I'm here, let's go!"

When they got to the field, she ran off to join the other Cheerios. She wouldn't get to see Mike until the game started, and even then it would be from far away. He would say that this was what had her cheering so hard when he got on to the field, and then she'd smack him… It was absolutely true.

The game started off like any other game… they were losing. Tina didn't care though, she just cheered and cheered, especially when Mike had the ball. As much as she tried to pay attention to all of them, most of the time her eyes were on him and they watched him… they watched him run, watched him jump… watched him get tackled so hard he crashed into the side of the stands and fell back like a limp doll.

Everyone had just sort of taken a collective gasp, but no one had felt their breath leave their lungs quicker than Tina. Everything was so quiet, which only made her cry ring out as clear as a bell. "Mike!" her pom poms hit the ground as she tore off running across the field. The other players had already started moving, the coaches as well and she could feel her line of sight to him just shutting all around… "Let me through!" she cried, which only got her noticed by the assistant coach who stopped her in her tracks, held her back. "No!" she wriggled out of his grip and wedged herself through. Finally she got to him.

They hadn't moved him, wouldn't yet, but either way he wasn't moving himself, he was unconscious. Vaguely she could hear the others talking, which spared her having to vocalize the biggest fear in the pit of her stomach, that he could be dead. Still it didn't change the fact that he was clearly injured, and that he had yet to regain consciousness.

The next little while came and went like a blur. There were paramedics, and then they were going to take him to the hospital. His family wasn't there, and if that wasn't enough reason to plead with the coach to let her ride along with them she just couldn't bear the thought of him being there and her having to stay behind, wondering if he was alright. But bless the man, he lied and said they were related. If she ever had issues with them sharing a last name on that day it was gone.

Before she knew it they were in the ambulance riding to the hospital. She'd never been in one and really she didn't feel too excited about the experience of it now. She wanted to hold his hand, but they wouldn't let her. All she could do was sit there, rocked by the motion of the vehicle while she stared at him lying there. He'd never looked so small to her… Feeling at least the coach holding her hand in support was probably the only way she kept from bursting into tears.

Then they got to the hospital and no amount of pretending they were related would help to keep her from being separated from him as they wheeled him off and she was forced to go sit and wait. She was doing so much better at keeping it together than she thought she would. And then she'd looked at her skirt and noticed some red that wasn't her skirt's fabric but some blood, some of his blood. There hadn't been that much of it, so it had to have transferred from… from… She looked to her hand and only then saw that there was some on it as well. That did it, and she lost it.

Her breathing calmed again once she'd been able to go ahead and wash up, but then the wait just went on, soon tensed further by the arrival of Mike's parents. They saw her there and no words needed to be said. Mike's mother came and sat with her while his father went to find a doctor to tell him what was happening. When Mr. Chang had come back and said they could see him soon Tina was almost beside herself with relief. She knew it would have to be by his parents' decision for when she'd get to see him, but from what they had heard he would be alright, so after that she didn't need more… she could wait.

She could feel her heart ramming against her ribcage when they let her go and see him though. What if he wasn't okay? What if… what if there was something wrong with his brain? Or what if he couldn't walk anymore? There was that guy Artie from class, he was in a wheelchair and he seemed okay, right? Even then, it wasn't so much the walking as it was the dancing part that she knew would have hurt so much, and… What if it was really bad? What if he could never recover, not like… not like he used to be? What if they never recovered… as a couple… He could pull away from her, or she might feel different, or… Everything had been going so well, in their own little haven, and all this time she'd figured this was how it would stay, even if part of her did worry from time to time, that was mostly in the beginning, not… not now… Now they were one year strong and not…

Okay, she had to breathe…

But then she got to the room and… Mike was sitting up in bed, awake. "Mike…" she hurried up to his side, reaching for the hand he already held out to her. "Are you okay?"

"Aside from the part where everything hurts, most of all my head, yeah," he promised. She could feel the tears coming again, now that he'd said it, and he gave her hand a squeeze. "No, hey, please don't cry," he begged. She shook her head.

"I-I'm not crying," she insisted.

"Liar," he teased, and he managed to get a laugh out of her, even if it was tinted with tears.

"It's just… I saw you, going down and… not getting up. I just started thinking that…" she bowed her head. He gave her hand a tug and she looked up, stepping closer.

"I don't even remember it," he looked to his hands like he'd remember the motions of it and with it the event itself. One second I was on the field, running, and the next I was here. You came with me, didn't you?" he asked, and she nodded. "Thanks," he smiled.

"They couldn't keep me away if they tried," she shook her head and now it was him who laughed.

"Good, I'll hold you to that." She breathed out, looking to him, seeing… Mike, as he should be. No, there was no chance that she'd leave him, not now, not ever…

THE END

COUNTDOWN TO 801: 2 DAYS!

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!