Chapter 6: Codependency
"saw
an angel in blue jeans today
I felt that she melted all my
bitterness away
You always tried so hard to hide your wings behind
your coat
So let it be and let them free
So you can't hoover
low above the ground.
You
look so tired you've got moonbeams in your eyes I'll find sunshine
sometime soon."
And if I believed
I know you'd be the first to fly
You always tried so hard to hide
your wings behind your coat
So let it be and let them free
So
you can't hoover low above the ground
Minako wondered why she had thought this would be
easy. She had just arrived at the most renowned hospital
in Japan to question the symptoms of her "problem", and
right off the bat the nurse had screamed out, "OH MY GOD,
it's AINO MINAKO!" so that almost everyone in the hospital
who wasn't deaf could hear.
As soon as the hype was over the nurse had bustled
Minako into a private room, and told her to wait for the doctor
and that no doctor could ever refuse to see her, and that if they
couldn't find a cure that she would donate her organs if that meant
Minako would live. Minako found it to be amusing that the nurse didn't even
know what the problem was and she was already promising her a
healthy kidney.
Soon the doctor did come in his trademark lab coat with his tools
of trade in his hand, one look at Minako though he did a double take but at
least managed to not make a commotion. Briefly his eyes flitted across her
form but he did nothing more than just check her tonsils and heartbeat.
"You seem to be in good health Ms. Aino, I don't understand
why you would come here," The doctor mused.
"Well, I have an....eating problem that I need to get fixed," Minako
replied simply as she could resisting the urge to mutter out a, dear god.
The doctor coughed at this...
"Anorexia? Well, Ms. Aino it's very common upon stars like you today.
You have to know that you are not alone in this crisis many others feel the
same way you do," the doctor dictated sounding a lot like her agent.
"What, they feel hopeless and depressed and goddamn dirty?" Minako murmured
to herself a small smirk forming its way onto her lips.
"We have a 12-step program we provide in such cases if you feel you can't just simply
quit, and of course we also believe in confidentiality, we'll do anything in our power Ms. Aino
to assure that your reputation goes untarnished."
12-step program? To Minako that sounded like another sleazy way to cop her for money, so
she politely said yes but when the doctor left she slowly slid through the doors and out into the
parch white hallways. Being back in a hospital again for whatever reason gave Minako a sense of
deja vu. She didn't like hospitals from the way they smelled, the creepy nurses who always smiled
while they took your blood, and mainly disturbing fact that in a hospital, all was quiet. Shivering slightly,
Minako tried to walk calmly to the exit to not disturb anyone else but stopped when she heard a protest
from the room left of her.
"OW!"
"Ms. Hino please remain still. You should've known what would happen if you jumped off a
two-story building with no pads or equipment whatsoever," the monotonous voice of the doctor
interlapped with the grunts and protests from said patient.
Worried just a little and curious in all Minako peeked through the doorway to see Rei with her
left arm in a sling while the doctor she had just talked to prodded her overtly with a shiny blunt object.
Without a word Minako entered, much to the disbelief of Rei who upon seeing Minako jumped up
as if she had been shocked, and seemed to want nothing than to actually run through the window
and out into the streets than face Minako.
"M-M.s Aino?" the doctor stuttered stiffening up quickly.
Minako then plastered on her best smile and wickedly grinned at Rei the whole situation
promising to be fun.
"Oh don't worry about me, but I just so happened to know to Ms. Hino by accquaintence,"
Minako replied sweetly.
"What!?" Rei exclaimed flustered beyond words.
"Really? And really Ms. Hino, don't interrupt when someone is talking especially
the Aino Minako," the doctor reprimanded Rei.
Rei's skin then colored a little as she knew that it would be best to keep her mouth shut
than to protest any further since it would get her nowhere, this doctor was too starstruck.
"Yes, I know because of my accquantince with her late grandfather," Minako lied enjoying
the look on Rei's face.
"Oh and what business do you have here?"
"Well I'm the only other person here that Rei has who can take care of her because goodness knows
her grandfather certainly had a hard time, so I was thinking maybe you could let her off in my care?" Minako
asked getting straight to the point without garnishing anymore white lies then needed.
the doctor though still in the right state of mind couldn't comprehend why not, since Ms. Hino clearly
did not have anyone else. It was Aino Minako for a good measure who wouldn't want to be taken care of
by her? And thus, he signed the release forms and Minako walked away with a more than agitated Rei.
Minako couldn't help but let a self-indulgent smirk grace her figures as she neared her van with
Rei-in-tow. Opening the door casually she allowed Rei to go through since Rei was the one with the
injury.
"I want to go home," Rei muttered sullenly when she had her seatbelt buckled.
Minako just nodded and rested against the car window singing softly to herself
a few moments of silence passed as none of them said a word.
"What were you in the hospital for?" Rei asked quietly as Minako seemed
to have almost dozed off in the silence.
Shaking her head to wakefulness Minako looked at Rei unguardedly smiling softly.
"What do you think I was in there for?"
Without a reply Rei just lowered her head so that Minako wouldn't see the smile
that she wore now, embarassed to let Minako see her smile, but Minako knew, and that
was all that was needed, complete understanding. Where not even words would be
enough.
"When did you get all Wonderwoman and break your arm?" Minako asked her mood
lightened now.
"Some rapist was holding down a little girl I had to help," Rei muttered indignantly.
"Were there other people there?" Minako asked softly.
"Yeah....but they ignored it, I couldn't believe it. Someone young and innocent was being hurt
and all they could do was talk amongst each other and try to ignore it. I hate people like that, the
ones that think that ignoring it will make it go away," Rei confessed.
"Sometimes, ignoring it is the only way to make it go away. So you can forget the bad things."
"I know! Nobody ever chooses to have bad memories...."
-------------------------
It had taken about an hour long ride for them to reach Minako's abode,
due to the fact that the press had been swarming around Minako's house for
days waiting for a glimpse of the star. Minako had managed to dodge them once
who said she couldn't do so twice? So that's how Rei wound up in the backyard
of an outrented house clambering over a fence over into Minako's backyard.
"I'm injured for kami's sake couldn't you spare me and just put up with the
press?" Rei asked as Minako helped her manuever her injured arm over.
Minako smiled but she didn't say anything as she stepped gingerly over the kingfish
pond and into the living room of the house. Rei thought it was strange that Minako would
rent a house that looked like a shrine, that looked exactly like Hikawa shrine, smiling
a little at the irony she followed Minako into the house and watched quietly as Minako
poured out tea.
Upon entering Rei was swarmed by two burly looking men all dressed in black suits
and sunglasses. Rei would've beaten them upside the head for obscuring her path but Minako's
voice halted her progress.
"Yasou, Kyou it's all right she's a friend. Help her please she's injured."
the more lean and taller one Rei thought was Yasou and the shorter and more
compact one must be Kyou as they helped her up the steps to sit down across from
Minako. Gracefully Rei picked up the tea cup and grimaced as she found the tea
to be ice cold. It must have been out here for a long time untouched because she
could see sediments of leaves floating on the bottom. Coughing a bit, she set the
teacup back down, vowing to never drink anything Minako offered her without
checking on it first, but Rei was not the one to beat around the bush so she
tried to be as straightforward as she could be, without hurting Minako's feelings of course,
yeah right....
"I thought I told you to take me home. I don't recall this being home no matter how much
you try to substitute it for one, I recall you never having a home."
Minako stared wide-eyed for a moment at Rei's nonchalant act of giving her the cold shoulder.
Her eyes took on this steely look like she often did when faced with adversity and she grounded
her lips together softly, and then spoke.
"I remember you saying Hikawa shrine was being turned into a bar. Getting lonely aren't you, Rei?"
"Okay, I deserved that," Rei thought to herself but still refused to back down.
It was always their bull-headed stubborness keeping them from saying the things
they meant to say, and usually it just led to turned heads and smarting egos, so what
was the point? Mindless fun. They liked it on a certain extent because it helped them work
out the tension and it helped them steer clear of the funky feelings they had been having, and
Rei would do anything to not think for a day or two.
Low blows were traded as the two friends bantered good naturedly across at each other,
as they let their words cross the distance that had been made by time, and found themselves
getting along better than they ever could when they were younger. Soon talking jovially they started
talking about the baby which eventually led to a dead stop at Makoto....
Silence could kill, that's what Rei had learned as she watched Minako's hands idly fiddling with
her teacup, and in turn Minako watched Rei's hair sway back and forth with the cool breeze
that was flowing throughout the entire house.
"You think....Makoto will be okay?" Minako inqueried softly.
Rei couldn't handle questions about Makoto's welfare any longer, she'd rather prefer
they'd talk about something she could take and handle, and solve right on the spot. Pinching
her forehead she closed her eyes and exhaled a shallow breath.
"What about you? Are you....really going to stop? Or is this just another lie?"
Minako considered this fact for a moment wondering really how resilient her will was anymore
after 3 long years. Seeing the pause, Rei scoffed and turned her head away boring holes through
a rock she was looking at angrily, as if pulverizing it would make things better. She jumped slightly
as she felt a warmth envelop her hand and it was only until then did she look into Minako's eyes.
"It's not a lie....but I don't think I can do it, Rei. I can't do this alone...that's why I brought you
here instead of to your shrine," Minako whispered softly so that her bodyguards couldn't hear.
Rei felt her muscles tense up, and every nerve in her body seem to pinpoint their directions
toward her hand, which currently was being nursed by Minako's palm. She found it hard to
get her throat and her voice to work again, as she transfixed herself on the steady circles, that
Minako's thumb was working into the tender flesh of her knuckle.
"What are you implying I do?" Rei asked hoarsely resisting the urge to pull her hand away.
Minako sucked in a heavy breath, because she never liked to ask for help, especially from someone
she had sought so hard to mentor years ago.
"I'm asking for you to stay with me Hino Rei just for the time being until Motoki....no, until the end. Until
Makoto no longer needs us for support, until I can finally do this on my own."
Rei almost fell backwards as she heard those words coming from Minako, it was just simply alien, to hear
that Minako needed her. Rei's heart seemed to skip a beat considering that she take the offer. Minako would
never be the same after this, contradicting everything Rei sought so hard to do, to try to get Minako back to
the way she was, but was it so bad? Also, since the Hikawa shrine was getting renovated she had nowhere
else to go, and Minako had a homely enough abode to get her by, but did she really want all the press homing in
on her. Especially after that hospital fiasco, soon enough word would get out about Minako being in the hospital,
and plus Makoto needed them all right now, she couldn't just forsake her. Pursing her lips Rei made up a quick
solution....
"I'll help you Minako....but it'll come with a price...."