Authoress Notes: Hee hee, thanks to Lady Imbri for reviewing and telling me that the machine is just a heart monitor, not a pacemaker. Thanks! :D
Claim: I own Izumi, whom I've modeled after my sister~
Disclaim: If I owned Gundam 00, a lot of couples would be together and happy~
Strings
002
Lockon blinked as she tipped her head to the side before wheeling forward slowly, the creak of rubber tires upon smooth wooden floor filling the air as she reached him and extended her bandaged hand towards him.
"Hi," she said, her voice carrying a distinct friendly, open air about it as she watched him, and she laughed upon his hesitation to take her hand. "It doesn't hurt, I promise."
He shook her hand slowly, and she retracted the appendage so that it rested upon the other in her lap as she leaned back in her chair and observed him with bright, vibrant light brown eyes that seemed to be a paler image of her hair that fell in semi-neat strands that became curled at the ends.
Without really noticing, his gaze slipped from her arms to her legs, which seemed almost alienated from the rest of her body. Her face sombered a little as she observed him, but before he could apologize for his actions, she waved the unsaid words away with a flick of her wrist.
"It's fine," she said, and there was an easy-going smile on her face, neither upset or angry. "I'm used to it."
She was used to it? Did she mean that she was used to the staring and the whispers that must have followed her around, if she had been outside these antiseptic steeped walls? As if sensing his thoughts, the grin never faded from her pale, carnation colored lips.
"It was an accident," she said, her tone softer, as if she were being transported back to the day that had changed her life forever by her words as she retold her story. "There was an explosion or something at the place where I worked, and the next thing I knew, I was here."
She touched her arms, which were hidden from view by layers and layers of clean white gauze. "A fire burnt my arms pretty bad, and a piece of rubble hit my lower back, knocking some of the disks out of place." Her smile faded a little. "The doctors say I'll be lucky if I can walk again."
How could this girl say all of this with nothing more than just a subtle smile? Wasn't she angry? Her expression said it all, that she had already come to terms with her disability, and that it wasn't something that would block her pathway.
"Oh!" She blinked, as if surprised by something until a sheepish smile worked across her countenance. "I forgot to tell you my name. It's Izumi. What's yours?"
To tell her his real name, or his codename, he wondered as he debated, and whatever part of him that was still watching the outside world noted as she cocked her head to the side, waiting.
"It's Neil," he said at last, figuring that if he were to get out of here, there was no way that she'd ever make the association with Celestial Being and him being a Gundam Meister. And so, there was no harm in giving her the name that he had been given at his birth.
"Neil..." Izumi murmured, as if trying to weigh the name and she nodded, trying to act wise. "It's a good name."
She rolled past him carefully, the soft creak of those tires treading against the floor making him turn as she paused just outside the door and lifted a hand, waving her fingers at him before disappearing through the door and leaving him to his own thoughts.
Well, he thought, smile stretching over his lips, she's certainly odd, that one.
