Ch.2 ! Pg. 1 Zuko spends his first full day at Astrea! Also, enter my new characters, 'the triplets', Chiako, Keimi, and Aki Leiko. All girls, all identical twins!

Shizuma's POV:

Shizuma woke with a start. She was not used to sleeping at this angle. She looked up, already fully awake, and saw the sleeping boy she now shared a dorm with. She smiled. My, she had never known that boys could be so cute! ' He's mine now. My little Zuko-chan, I wonder if you will prove to be more interesting than the girls I meet at this dreadfully tiresome school?' She sighed again, upon seeing his scar. ' My beautiful flower was scorched in the sun - I hope I will be the one to provide his shade...' She thought. Delicately, she reached out a hand, and traced it with her finger. ' Who would want to do such a thing? I wonder if he will ever tell me...' Zuko moaned in his sleep, startling her. She pulled her hand away quickly, and started to get up, when she saw that all was not well in his dream-land.

Zuko's face turned from his cute sleeping face into a mask of fear, eyebrows turned up, and he began to squirm and writhe. He began to make little fearful squeaking sounds, flipping about in his bed. Shizuma quickly leaned down and wrapped her arms around him, holding him tightly, rocking him gently as he began to quietly weep. Even Shizuma was moved by the quality of his crying. After a bit of her holding him, he began to settle down, and much to Shizuma's amusement, his thumb went to his mouth, and his face was utterly serene once again. She reached down and lightly lay her lips on his cheek, then rose to get dressed. She had a lot to get done that morning, and she was feeling to complacent to try to dodge Miyuki....

Zuko stirred finally at about 8:30, disoriented and groggy. The alarm clock was nothing like the blaring, angry, emo, death-metal tune his own clock played at home. This one reminded him of Shizuma herself - it was a mellow song that slowly gained volume, a band singing that Zuko vaguely recognized as The Beatles', " Don't Let Me Down." He got up tiredly, looking around, trying to figure out where he was. As his memory slowly returned, he saw that he was in a dorm, and the second thing he saw, or rather, didn't see, was Shizuma. She had already left a couple hours ago. He stretched lethargically, and glanced at the clock. He had thirty minutes to get dressed. He cursed, and jumped out of bed. Will I ever get up on time? He wondered miserably.

Zuko hurried along the hall, trying to remember the directions Shizuma had given him before they had gone to the dorm. Collect your uniform at Nakamura-san's station, change and then report to Kaiyuru-san's class - That's your first period class, you'll remember, geometry. Don't be late, the head mistress does not make more than one exception for each student. Curfew is at 6:00 sharp.

He was so lost in trying to remember, he didn't notice Chiyo-chan walking in front of him until he ran right into her, sending them both toppling onto the floor, him on top of her.

" G-gomen, gomenasai, that was my fault, gomen, gomen..." She looked up at him now, for the first time, and her eyes widened. Zuko thought at first it was in fear, or disgust, and his cheeks turned red with embarrassment. He didn't usually get angry anymore, or even embarrassed, but this time, it was such a shock to the girl who he had practically fallen on, he knew he must be ten times uglier with the fact that she had expected to look up and see a pretty, porcelain girl's face. He quickly jumped up, and reached a hand down hesitantly, not sure if she would accept it, to help her up. He didn't meet her eyes. She took his hand and stood up slowly, her eyes never leaving his face. Or specifically, his eyes.

In a state of amazement, she whispered, " You have really pretty eyes!" Zuko looked up in shock, and then turned to her, almost frantic.

"Y-you aren't disgusted with the way I look?" He practically cried at her, in absolute amazement.

She took a wary step back at his vehemence, but replied cheerily,"Of course not! I think you're...."

Suddenly, Chiyo realized she was saying to much, and went red. " G-gomenasi, I have to get to class.." She murmured, hurrying away. Zuko stared after her, unable to believe what just happened. She was... Oh my God, she was reacting to me the way I react to Shizuma! She has a crush on me! Realizing that this was the first girl he had ever known to have a crush on him, he burst out laughing in the middle of the hallway. The girls around him stopped talking, and stared as he walked by.

Zuko had, by now, gotten his uniform, and was changing hurridly in the bathroom in his dorm. He finally got his tie on, and was finished.(*) He looked in the mirror and sighed. I swear, they're all going to be making fun of me...

He stepped outside his dorm, and there was Chiyo-chan! Startled, he asked, " O-oh, it's you again! Um, I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name..."

She smiled, embarrassed, and looked down, murmuring, " I'm Chiyo-chan. I'm Zuko-san and Etoile-Sama's room temp." She looked up at a nearby clock, and pointed out, " Oh, it seems like it's nearly nine - shouldn't Zuko-san be heading to class?" She asked curiously. Zuko looked up, and realized she was right, crying out, and rushed down the hall, without bothering to say goodbye to Chiyo-chan.

He ran down the hall, and until he got to the stairs, he was moving silently, and lithely, on sure feet. But then came the stairs, which he did not expect. He had to make a split second decision, but he waited a moment too long, and when he decided to stop, rather than run down the stairs, he only ended up getting tangled in his feet, his right foot hooking his left ankle, and went crashing down the steps, in huge circles. The steps went down quite far, as it was the main hallway, and the loud crashes his body made every time it hit a stair attracted a lot of attention. Shizuma happened to be nearby, and wondered what all the ruckus was. Miyuki's head popped out of a class nearby, and she cried out in surprise when she saw Zuko flying down stair by stair. All the girls were gasping in horror.

Just when he was about to hit the concrete floor and deliver an almost lethal blow to his head, to top off the damage done by the carpeted stairs, Shizuma leapt in between him and the floor and caught him in her arms, carrying him like a child. ( Which was actually rather hard to do, seeing as how he was a couple inches taller than her.) He moaned, trickles of blood flowing from his head and his mouth.

She looked up, all business, and cried to Miyuki, " Quickly! Call the sister!" While Miyuki scurried off, Shizuma glanced over at Tamao-chan, Chiako-chan and Aki-chan, and cried, " Give me your neckties!" The girls looked surprised, but quickly pulled them off. All the girls around Shizuma had immediately, without even realizing it, relaxed when Shizuma took charge. They all felt safe around her - She had the kind of personality that made it easy to give up power. " Good, now Chiako-san, get me some peroxide, Tamao-san, Aki-san, get me ice cubes!"

She looked around for someone else to enlist as the previously mentioned girls bustled off, and spotted Keimii-chan. " Keimii-san! Come here, quickly!" Keimii hurried over, awaiting instruction. " Hold the back of his head, carefully! Carefully keep him steady while I wrap his jaw - Ii may be broken." Keimii quickly took Zuko's head in her hands, oh-so-carefully, while Shizuma pulled the girl's neckties around his head, wrapping his jaw and head carefully. She saw that his nose was bleeding as well.

She pulled out the tissues she kept in her dress-pocket, carefully plugging up his nose, and pinched, gently, of course, the hard part of his nose. Zuko moaned, his mouth, which was now bleeding a bit more, opened, and Shizuma saw that one of his teeth had been chipped. Silently, she chided him for running. What would I have done if my cute little Zuko-chan had gotten himself killed? The word brought back a biting memory, and she bit her own lip hard to keep in control.

Zuko suddenly tried to lean up, his eyelids fluttering, trying to open. Shizuma gently pressed her hand on his chest, pushing him back down.

" Shhh... Just lay still and quiet, and focus on staying awake!" She instructed in a quiet, but insistent whisper. Chiako-chan came rushing over with some peroxide, and Shizuma took it silently. She took another tissue and poured a bit of the clear liquid onto it. Carefully, knowing it would sting, she began to dab the stuff on his various wounds. Zuko hissed with pain as the bacteria was burned away. She leaned in, and pulled out his bottom lip a bit, dabbling the split lip with peroxide. This time, Zuko cried out with pain.

Tamao-chan and Aki-chan ran over with the ice, just as Miyuki and the head mistress, Nishito-iemoto, was arriving with the nurse. Shizuma ignored the women all together, and wrapped the ice more carefully in the paper towels it was in, and placed a small bag on his head, on his eye and nose ( Which were beginning to swell) And his arm, which he was now claiming he couldn't feel.

" Ohh, it hurts! My arm.. I can't feel my arm... My head hurts... It just.. hurts.." Zuko mewled pitifully. Shizuma took the arm in question and lifted it very slightly. Zuko gasped in renewed pain, and tears formed at his eyes, which he tried nobley to blink back. She nodded her head. "Just as I thought." She remarked in the general direction of the nurse and headmistress. " I think his arm is broken." Everyone gasped. What a terrible first day! There was no judgement in Headmistress Nishito-iemoto's eyes, but Shizuma knew bitterly that it would come later, when the woman chewed him out for causing such a big fuss.

Shizuma yelled for scissors, which a nearby first grader had a pair of in her sewing kit. Shizuma cut the surrounding cloth away from the break, and then applied ice to his arm. She ripped her two big puffy sleeves off her dress, leaving all the nearby girls gasping again, and used the material to create a makeshift splint.

Miyuki watched Shizuma go, ninety miles an hour, in pure amazement. Of all the things she had ever thought Shizuma to be, a novice doctor was not among them. And the care with which she treated him! It was as if she treated her own son! Everything she did was with loving, precise care. Miykui had grown used to Shizuma's lethargic, bored selfishness she had aquired in the past year, since... The Incident. She had forgotten the reason why Shizuma was Etoile in the first place, the reson why she had dozens of adoring fans, and why Miyuki herself had been taken with her.

Shizuma leaned into Zuko's face, and saw that he was starting to drift away. I can't have that. She thought grimly. He might have a concussion. He has to stay awake. So, with a sigh, she reached forward and slapped him twice. He gaped at her in surprise, and she could see that still, his eyes were having trouble staying open. Poor boy, he must be going through hell. She thought pityingly, and thne turned toward the also-gaping Nishita-Iemoto and the nurse, who straightened up immediately. "Nishita-san. Call an ambulance. I can keep him alive for the time being but I can't actually do surgery on him!" The woman nodded tightly and brought out her cell phone, dialing frantically. Shizuma turned toward the nurse. "Do you have a stretcher?" She asked levelly. The woman shook her head nervously.

Shizuma sighed, frustrated. " Alright, then we'll need to get some kind of a block to keep the girls from prodding and poking and gawping at him." She said angrily, pointing at the nearby group of girls, who obviously had had just that in mind. They guiltily looked at the floor. Miyuki, following Shizuma's lead, stalked over to the crowd of girls threateningly.

" Why aren't you in class?" She demanded. All the girls were back in their classes and gone before Miyuki had even finished her sentence. Satisfied, Miykui walked over to Shizuma. " Do you need anyth-"

"No." Shizuma said sharply. " Or rather, I need a stretcher and an ambulance, but I don't think you can provide that. Go back to class, Miyuki." Shizuma said, not looking up.

MIyuki was deeply hurt that Shizuma would act this way with her. " But, Shizum-"

"Go!" Shizuma barked.

Miykui took a step away, looking in surprise at her best friend. Then, with a bitter frown, she turned and stalked away to her room.

15 minutes later, the ambulance's blaring sirens could be heard, and three women ( Men still generally were not allowed on campus) rushed over with a stretcher.

Shizuma quickly explained to one of the women, " His head is bleeding, he may have a concussion. I wrapped it because his jaw appeared to be broken, and I put peroxide on his split lip and the cut on his head. I think he may have dislocated or even broken his arm, so I wrapped it in my sleeves."

The woman stopped for a moment and stared at Shizuma, as the other two began to load Zuko on a stretchre, and then she smiled. " You should be an emergency medical technician!" She said cheerfully. Shizuma did not smile. " I want to ride with him." She said quietly. The woman went to say no, I'm sorry, but then she looked at Shizuma a little more closely and wondered how well that would really go over. At first, she had appeared to the woman as just another little rich girl. But then she saw how Shizuma had without remorse teared her own clothes up, gotten her hands dirty ( Or bloody as the case may be) and basically taken control of the whole situation until the ambulance got there. The woman wondered if Shizuma might just jump on the back and ride anyway.

"... Alright, but don't let that head mistress of yours try to sue me for this!" She replied, and Shizuma smiled. The woman realized how unbelievably beautiful this girl was. She was stunning. That boy in there doesn't know how lucky he is... Except for the 'falling down the stairs' part...

Shizuma rode with them all the way to the hospital, explaining everything that had happened, what she had used, what she had done, whether she should have used this or that, them checking Zuko's vitals. They got to the hospital. Everything that had to do with what surgeries Zuko might need, what was broken and what wasn't, they told Shizuma without even thinking about it. Regardless of the situation, Shizuma was always at least a little bit in control. Zuko had indeed broken his jaw and his arm, but fortunately, did not have a concussion. He had also snapped his nose, which was why it was bleeding, anda rib was snapped, but they said not to worry about not being able to do anything for that - There's no way she could have known and not much she could do for it anyway. The doctors were all comending Shizuma on what she had done. " You did everything right." They said. " Except slapping him to keep him awake wasn't necessary. But it will make for a funny story once he's healed again!"

They told her that he should be back home in a week or two. Shizuma looked at them hard for a moment, and then nodded her head. " I guess it can't be helped, then." They glanced at her in surprise. " What do you mean?"

" I'll just have to stay here with him." She replied coolly. They all stopped to look at her. Here was this seventeen year old, moon-light-haired, georgious girl, wearing a black lolita dress spattered in blood, sleeves ripped off, standing just as if she were the queen of England, saying that she would stay with the new student at her school in the hospital for two weeks. They were absolutely speechless. Then one doctor, quite unaffected by Shizuma, said, "You're welcome to stay during visiting hours, but you can't just stay in his room all night and day. And certainly not during his surgeries! And I can't allow you to skip school. That's truancy, and I won't have someone breakingthe law in my hospital." She said stolidly.

"It's a family emergency." Replied Shizuma coldly. She turned back, and looked at Zuko, who was in a bed, being prepared for surgery. " I'll use the time he's in surgery to eat. The rest of the time, I will stay wiith him. I want to stay with him overnight. I would greatly appreciate it if you could arrange another bed, or mattress. At least, if nothing else, a pillow will suffice. I can sleep on the floor." All the doctors stared in amazement. The sharp woman who had spoken looked angry, her lip turning back, and she started to speak, when the head nurse walked in.

" That will be fine, Shizuma-san, but please don't bother him when he sleeps. I'm sure you understand, he must rest whenever he can, and it will be much less easy to do so nnow that he is in constant pain." The woman explained. Shizuma's face softened and she smiled, nodding. " Thank you, Mastushura-sempai. I greatly appreciate it." She smiled, looking again at her wilted flower. He will bloom again, I am sure of it.

(*) Here is a picture of the basic uniform Zuko is wearing :D .com/art/HVI-Male-Uniform-81233141

Ha, nice chapter half, right? Man, what is it with me and loving to have Zuko get hurt really bad? Hm.. I don't know.. Anyway, tune in to part two of chapter two, and see how Shizuma and Zuko interact while Zuko is in the hospital! :D