Day Three – First Kiss

My mom had decided that day that I wasn't going to school, which was weird because usually she would be against me not going to school and want me to get the best out of my education. The reasons were because I woke up at eight, which was a lot later than usual, and when I got downstairs for breakfast, I was ready to fall back asleep again and almost face-planted my breakfast, plus I was feeling uncomfortable in my school uniform seeing that it didn't feel like it was on properly. When I sat down at the table and tried to reach out for a knife and fork and for some reason picking up two spoons and frowned at them, my mom turned around and gave me a stern look.

"What do you think you're doing young man?" My mom asked me, looking crossed at me. I frowned at her and pointed at my plate with a spoon.

"I'm… eating breakfast? I'm gonna be late for school so I have to-" I started, standing up to leave the kitchen. My mom looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"You're not going to school today." Mom said to me in a matter of fact tone. I looked at her in shock. I blinked at her in surprise. I was frozen to the spot in awe. This was definitely unexpected. This wasn't my mom acting normal at all whatsoever. Maybe she was kidnapped and replaced by an evil version of her like in that one movie.

"I'm sorry, what?" I asked. My mom rolled her eyes at me.

"You heard me young man, you are not going anywhere today at all with that nasty flu of yours." My mom added in a matter of fact tone. I groaned loudly, because it wasn't the right moment to have her nag me about my health. I was dying anyway.

"M-Mom, I'm a hundred per cent OK. I can go to school just fine today." I said calmly. My mom placed an unconvinced hand on her hip and looked at me up and down with a look of disbelief and a look as if to say 'are you really that stupid child?'

"Sweetheart, you're wearing your school tie as your belt." She said, nodding towards my belt, which was most definitely my school tie that was loosely wrapped around my hips instead of my belt. That would explain why I couldn't actually find my tie.

"Huh. I was wondering why it wasn't holding up my trousers properly." I said tiredly, pulling my trousers up so that they wouldn't slide off my hips. My mom sighed at me with a slight chuckled as she started pushing me out of the kitchen and up the stairs back to my bedroom. She quickly changed me out of my uniform and into my pyjamas.

"It's time for bed, now." My mom said sternly, casually putting me to bed and pulling the bedcover over me and tucking me in securely.

"Ok then…" I mumbled, eyelids heavy. Mom smiled at me sympathetically and kissed me on the forehead gently and ruffled my hair fondly. I found myself sinking too deep into my bed, and as I let out a yawn, I found myself falling asleep. I slept peacefully for a while, until I dreamt of Rei drowning again, except I was the one that dived in for him. And yet no matter how hard I swam, I couldn't reach him at all, and I was too late and everyone was saying that it was my fault that he was dead. I woke up with a jolt, covered in sweat and subconsciously crying. I wiped my tears away and reached out for my phone. I had one text from Rei, of all people.

From: Rei-chan

XX/XX/2013; 8:55 AM

Are you at school yet? You should be here by now.

Rei

I found myself happy that he was worrying over me for not being in school right now. I started typing a reply to him, trying to not take too long so that he wouldn't start worrying even more than he clearly was.

To: Rei-chan

XX/XX/2013; 8:57 AM

Ah, sorry, my mom told me to stay in bed today because I'm not that well (=_=) hopefully I should be well by tomorrow

Nagisa

I pressed the send button and set my phone down on the side to rub my aching head and sighed heavily because I really hated having these sudden nightmares attacking me when I was ill. I had a reply from Rei almost immediately. I grabbed my phone again and read his latest text.

From: Rei-chan

XX/XX/2013; 9:00 AM

What do you mean you're not well? It's not serious, is it? Do you want me to drop off the work from today to your house? You're failing enough at it is!

Rei

I chuckled at his reply. It was sweet of him to ask how severe it was and to worry about me failing slightly. But the fact that these were just symptoms of me dying slowly and not actual flu symptoms lingered in the back of my mind, and for a split second I was considering telling him everything. But I knew what his reply could have been.

Stop messing around, honestly.

No one can just sell their life away.

Are you alright? Did you hit your head?

I was stupid to think that he would be calm and fine with what I had done. Even if he did believe me, what if he hated himself for dying and for me to give up my life for him that he went and did something stupid and then it would have been my fault again. I shook my head as it was beginning to hurt and quickly texted him a reply.

XX/XX/2013; 9:03 AM

I only have the flu, don't worry about me! But if you don't mind doing that for me, thank you, Rei-chan~! (^.^)

Nagisa

I hit the send button weakly, and I could hear my phone hitting the floor. I didn't really remember much after that, because I found myself drifting off into the unknown darkness that was called sleep again. But I was still plagued by nightmares regardless.

I basically stayed asleep for the rest of the day. My mom had woke me up at lunch time and made me soup and fed it to me like I was a baby, which was a little bit annoying because I didn't think that I was that badly ill. At times I could feel something ice cold on my forehead, and I would wake up to see my mom dabbing my head with a cold cloth to cool down my temperature. She was really worried about me. She even found my old stuffed penguin from my closet.

"Flippers came out to say hello!" Mom said in a soft voice, passing Flippers the Penguin to me. I smiled as I sat upright and took him off of her and hugged him as tight as I could. I've had Flippers ever since I was a kid. My mom had brought him for me when I was ill as a kid during the winter, and it's always been a kind of tradition for me to have him when I was ill or when I was feeling sad. He was a big as my hand and soft and easy to sleep with if I had to honest.

"I haven't seen him in a long time!" I said in surprise, cuddling him fondly. Mom ruffled my hair again and chuckled at me softly.

"I just thought that you needed cheering up is all." She said kindly, giving me a one-armed hug. I gave her a tight hug back. She really was a wonderful person.

"Thanks, mom. For everything." I added softly, trying my best not to cry. Mom kissed me on the cheek and ruffled my hair. There was a sudden knock on the door. Mom frowned.

"Hmm? Who's that?" She asked. I checked my phone and saw that it was half-past three.

"Oh, Rei-chan said he'd drop off my school work for me." I replied. Mom looked at me with a raised eyebrow and a devilish smirk on her face as she folded her arms at me.

"Oh? So you're little boyfriend is here?" Mom asked me in a teasing tone. I felt my cheek go pink as I gave her a glare to tell her that she was embarrassing me too much for me to handle.

"Mom, he's not my boyfriend!" I said in a low tone. My mom giggled at me peevishly.

"But you want him to be, though, don't you~?" She asked. I threw one of my pillows at her to which she dodged whilst laughing her head off. I felt my face go bright red.

"Mom!" I exclaimed. I watched my mom gradually calm down and take deep breaths and wipe the tears of laughter away from her eyes.

"At least you're getting better. You wouldn't throw a pillow at me if you didn't have the strength." She said in a matter of fact tone, as she stood up and walked out of my room. I laid my head on my pillow and sighed heavily. Why was it my mom was so damn embarrassing?

"Here he is, just resting now." I heard my mom say from behind the door as she opened it slowly. Rei was standing there, holding a set of notes in one hand and his other gripping his backpack strap. I smiled at him as I pulled the bed cover off of me and moved myself so that I was still sitting on the bed.

"Hello, Rei-chan!" I said cheerily. Rei looked at me as if somewhat dazed. My mom looked at him with an understanding smile on her face for some reason.

"I'll leave the two of you alone. I'm going out Nagisa, so I won't be back until late. Don't get up to mischief while I'm gone~." Mom added. I gave her a look to tell her to get out of my room, to which she simply giggled at me slyly and slinked out of my room and closed the door behind me. Rei looked a little bit embarrassed with slightly pink cheeks and handed my notes.

"This was all we learnt today. We have a test next week, so it would be best to prepare yourself." Rei said in a stern tone, avoiding my lower body seeing that I was wearing pyjama shorts. I smiled at him and took the large wad of notes from him.

"Thank you again, Rei-chan. I really appreciate what you did." I said gratefully. Rei smiled at me kindly. My heart stopped for a moment.

"Oh, it's fine, don't worry about it. Everyone's worried about you. Even Haru got worried when he didn't see you at practise." Rei said, sitting down next to me and placing his bag on the floor. I was surprised that Haru still wanted to know me after my outburst.

"So he doesn't hate me?" I asked. Rei shook his head.

"Why should he? We all thought that you were just tired, so he wasn't really surprised about you yelling at him. He said he expected worse." Rei added with a slight chuckle.

"Oh." I said in surprise, shocked and very relieved by the fact that Haru didn't actually hold some feelings for resentment.

"You said that you'd be in tomorrow, right?" Rei asked. I nodded at him with a smile on my face.

"Yeah, it's only a little flu, nothing serious. I feel better now, I promise." I replied. Rei nodded at me, a look of relief on his face as he sighed.

"Good. I was worried if it was more severe than what you were saying." Rei said in a nervous tone, looking at me kindly. I found myself blushing again and looked down onto the floor in embarrassment. Silence fell between us.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? Life." Rei added. I looked at him as he was staring out of the window with a distant gaze in his eyes.

"What makes you say that?" I asked. Rei shrugged his shoulders, his eyes still on the window.

"Well, with my condition, I realised that I need to appreciate life's beauty rather than certain parts." Rei said in a distant voice.

"Oh, I see what you mean." I said thoughtfully, because I could understand the need to embrace life whilst you had it in your reach and to make the most of it. But I wasn't able to live my life anymore. I kept my head down and stared at Flippers in silence. It was a while until one of us broke the silence.

"Nagisa?" Rei said softly.

"Hmm?" I answered.

"I'm sorry." Rei whispered. I frowned at him.

"Sorry for what?" I asked. Rei looked at me for a second before he looked down onto his knees.

"I'm sorry for putting you through what you went through after my incident. I mean, if it was the other way around and that was you... I don't know what I'd do." Rei said, his words choking near the end. I looked at him, as in I really looked at him. He looked as if he was scared of the thought of me dying, or at least to have suffered his fate. It broke my heart.

"Rei?" I asked. Rei kept his head down for a while, and for a moment I was worried that he was upset. But then he threw me off guard.

He quickly turned his body and kissed me on my lips both tenderly and heavily. His eyes were screwed shut in contrast with my eyes being wide open in shock. We stayed still for a while, lips pressed together in an awkward silence. It was a while until Rei pulled away, red in the face and his glasses steamed up and with me pink in the cheeks.

"D-Did you just…?" I asked. Rei looked slightly horrified at what just happened and looked as if he was going to have a breakdown and started waving his arms around as my heart fluttered.

"I-I-I am so sorry I didn't know what came over me I swear on my life I never meant to-" Rei stammered, looking at me apologetically. I didn't want to hear him talking anymore; at that time I just wanted to kiss him and hold him and savour the moment whilst I still had it and that I wanted him to devour me and make my body scream whilst we had this golden opportunity. So I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled his lips to mine and kissed him heavily. He seemed surprised at first, but then I found him kissing me back long and hard, setting his glasses to the side.

I suppose you could say we lost ourselves in each other. I ran my hands through his hair whilst his hands played with my lower back. I could feel myself becoming aroused, but at the time, I just embraced it. We were too busy melting into each to care about anything anymore. I forgot everything in that moment. As we stripped our clothes off of each other heatedly and hastily, I forgot about how tired and ill I felt. As Rei entered me and I felt everything flare up inside and clawed at his back, I forgot about how I was already three days in on my last week. And as Rei brought me to my peak and whilst I cried out at the top of my lungs for him to do so much more to me as my body ached from lust, I forgot that I was actually dying. And when we reached our limit and climaxed, and when Rei collapsed beside and kissed my sweaty forehead and held my body close to him, and as I could feel myself drifting off to sleep again, I realised that he loved me just as much as I loved him.

And I hadn't felt so alive in my entire life.