How To Walk Again

By: AtomicKokoro

Storyline

Masaomi is severely injured when he gets caught between one of Izaya and Shizou's legendary fights. It's up to Shinra, Celty, and Saki to teach the boy to walk again.

Before You Read

Last chapter, Kida got crushed by a vending machine. Yeah...What fun. Ha ha!

On with the story.

Chapter 2

How To Postpone Adventures

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Someone kill me, he groaned in his head. That damn beeping just wouldn't shut up! He could tear it in two, but he wasn't anything like Shizuo. He couldn't pick up a vending machine and throw it. God, he wish he could, though, cause then he'd give Shizuo a taste of his own medicine. See how he likes getting crushed between a wall and a vending machine!

"You have a visitor," the nurse said, looking a little frightened.

Masaomi blinked out of his thoughts and looked up at her. His facial expression might have reflected his thoughts. That, or the visitor was Shizuo Heiwajima himself. "Okay..." he said, sounding unsure. Why was the nurse telling him this instead of bringing the visitor in?

A girl walked through the door. Saki. She was looking a bit worried, perhaps confused. Her head was bandaged in a wrap, like his, but hers was a bit more heavier. She had really hit her head on the cement. He didn't mean to push her that hard. He was stronger than he thought.

He smiled and, suddenly, he didn't care about getting a vending machine thrown at him anymore. "Hey," he said. "What's up?"

Saki smiled. "Nothing," she replied, sighing and sitting down on the bed. "Just being bored. It's so lonely. You usually come up with all the fun stuff to do."

"Oh, no! Saki can't go shoe shopping without me! What ever will she do?" The tone was dramatic and sarcastic, but hilarious. Saki burst into laughter, falling back on his legs. Masaomi giggled, too. "What about that movie you wanted to see but I didn't?"

Saki sighed and rolled onto her side, staring up at his face from her weird position. "I don't want to use our money. We've been planning this for months!"

"Honey, I don't think we're going anywhere anytime soon," he said.

Saki laughed. "Are you kidding me? In a few weeks, you'll be out! We'll just have a bit more pocket change than we planned."

Before Masaomi could say anything, another voice interrupted their moment. "Actually," They turned to the voice.

"Shinra-san?" they question in unison. Indeed, the young doctor..scientist...they weren't sure. He had too many titles, but he was standing at the door, nevertheless.

"Yup!" he chirped, fixing his glasses. His expression instantly turned cold or, at least, serious. "Uh, I think you'll be here for more than a few weeks." Saki and Masaomi shifted uneasily at the same time, waiting for the doctor to continue. He inhaled deeply, took two steps nowhere, looked down at his clip board, then said, "Well, Kida-kun can't walk." Needless to say, Shinra had a strange way of breaking such news. "So, you'll be staying with Celty and I."

He tried to get out of the room as fast as possible, as if he didn't want to see them upset, but he was stopped when Masaomi said, "Hey! What do you mean I can't walk?"

Shinra sighed and turned. "Well, in kid terms-" That wasn't helping the situation. "-you're spinal cord was, I guess, twisted in a weird way, and the messages sent from your brain to your legs is...broken, I guess." He was guessing an awful lot.

"You mean I'm...paralyzed?"

Shinra scratched the back of his head and sighed. "Yeah," he confirmed, sadly and slowly.

There was a long silence before Masaomi sighed. "Damn. There goes Hawaii."

Saki gaped. "Hawaii? We can't even speak English!"

"We'll figure it out eventually. I study it a lot."

"You can't even remember Mikado's birthday."

"I do!"

"Yeah? When is it?"

A brief pause. "Sometime in...March."

Saki rolled her eyes.

Shinra cleared his throat. "Don't worry, though," he said, as if he was expecting a different reaction (in this case, he was). "but Celty and I can teach you to walk again, so you can go to...Hawaii. Or...wherever."

"Oh, I'm not totally paralyzed for life. That's good. How long will this take?"

Shinra blinked for a moment. "Uh, I guess it depends on your healing process."

"Fifty bucks on six months!" Saki gasped.

"A hundred on three!"

"Deal!"

Shinra smiled a bit. Well, things were going better than expected. Young love. How cute.

Click. Click. Click.

He took it nicely? It was a question in need of a confirmation.

Shinra nodded at the question. The headless fairy, Celty Sturluson, was confused (Shinra had gotten to know her emotions over the course of the twenty years he had known her). He was expecting a different reaction, too. A painful silence, perhaps some depression, but the presence of his girlfriend just seemed to have made him...happier, like it was just another small obstacle they could overcome.

Oh, how magnificent the power of love could be!

It took a good smack on the head to bring Shinra out of his thoughts (Celty couldn't yell; she had been waving wildly at him for the passed three minutes) and bring his attention back to her. When are they coming?

"After the operation," Shinra explained. "It's next week. Maybe we should get ready for when they come."

Is Saki-san coming, too?

Shinra thought about it for a moment. Separating them would be stupid. He couldn't imagine how depressed and bored Masaomi would be without her in the apartment. Besides, she could help around, taking care of him. He shrugged. "I don't see why not."

The operation was smooth and successful. Mikado, Anri, and Saki all remained in the waiting room for as long as they could. Mikado and Anri had school to attend to, but since Saki dropped out, she could stay all day. Often times, she got lonely when Mikado and Anri weren't there. She had to admit; they were pretty cool people.

It was a Tuesday night, a week after the operation, when they released him. He wheeled himself out of his room on a pale blue wheelchair. He made his way down to the waiting room where his three friends were waiting for him. It took him a moment but he managed to open the self-closing door and walked- ...pushed himself in.

When Saki saw him, she was happy and heartbroken at the same time. He was out, but...he was in a wheelchair, defenseless as he was, and it was weird to see him so. One wouldn't believe them if they said he was a powerful gang leader who almost threatened all of Ikebukuro, but it was true.

But to see him in a wheelchair...

"Masaomi-kun!" Mikado yelped, happy to see his friend. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired," Masaomi replied. "and hungry as hell. Can you believe the stuff they feed here? It's like airplane food, but worse!"

Mikado laughed.

"I'm glad you're okay." It was Anri speaking. "I was worried."

Masaomi smiled at her and thanked her before turning his attention to Saki and beaming. "Hey!" he sang, opening his arms for a hug. "I missed you, Saki-chan!"

Saki smiled and jumped into his lap, holding him close. The wheelchair wheeled back into a wall. Each teen gave a huff of surprise but did nothing more. He held her close and, honestly, she didn't want to let him go.

At that moment, Shinra and Celty walked into the room. Shinra smiled, and Celty would have, too, had she a head. "Well?" Shinra began, taking in a breath. "I guess we better get going."

After Notes

Is it just me, or is Shinra really out-of-character? I'm going to have to look him up so I can put him in character more.

Loved it? Hate it? Wanna read it again? Let me know! The review button is right there.