Authoress here.
I should be asleep or something like that, but for some reason, I'm not.
Whoo, huge time gap between updates!
START CHAPTER
Miyo was vaguely surprised that the emergency room staff was making such a big deal out of her ankle being injured. Joey had picked her up and brought her inside, and she had immediately been placed on a rolling stretcher and had a doctor holding her leg down, and a nurse trying to take her temperature with a plastic thermometer.
She twisted her head away from the persistent woman. "I don't have a fever, I have a hurt ankle! Get that damn thing out of my face!" she added, sitting up and knocking the nurse's hand away.
"Proper procedure," the woman insisted firmly, and promptly stuffed the thermometer into Miyo's moth when she opened it to protest.
Miyo was the pressed down onto the stretcher and wheeled off to a room. Joey watched her go for just a moment before following after her.
Finally, an hour and a half later, a doctor was in Miyo's room to explain the situation.
"Well, Miss Yutaka, it would seem that you have only strained your ankle." The doctor was in his mid thirties, a scruffy blonde fellow with a warm smile. "You'll need to keep it wrapped and ice it whenever you can, but you'll be up and walking normally in about two weeks. Until then, you're going to have to be careful. Avoid putting too much stress on the muscles, or you'll re-injure yourself. High heeled shoes are an absolute no-go."
Miyo's jaw dropped, and as though she had ignored the second half of his speech, repeated in disbelief, "Two weeks?"
"Ya should be glad it's not broken, Miyo," Joey remarked, causing Miyo's attention to shift from the apologetic doctor to the teen.
She sighed in reply. "I...guess you're right, Joey. It's just going to be hard, that's all."
"Why's that?"
Fidgeting with the bed sheets, Miyo's eyes were on her hands as she replied. "Some...most...of the people at Kaiba Corp. already look down on me. I can't show any weakness."
"Bein' hurt's not the same as bein' weak. What don't kill ya makes ya stronger."
Even with the brutal mutilation of the phrase due to Joey's accent, Miyo got the point he was trying to make.
"All the same, I'm the youngest person who works there. Everyone knows who I am. Everyone who works below me tries their best to make my job hell. Having a bad ankle is just going to make it easier for them."
Somewhere in the midst of their conversation, the doctor had ambled out to leave them alone. Miyo was grateful. This was getting a little more private that she had thought. She had never spilled her feelings to anyone before, so the entire ordeal felt strange to her.
"Eh, they're just jealous that someone as young as you can be so high up in da company," Joey reasoned.
Miyo forced a chuckle.
Joey frowned and perched on the edge of the bed. Miyo turned her head away, overwhelmed. She had only meant to use Yugi's friends in order to put herself ahead in life. She had not counted on something like this. Something this real. She had never predicted, in her previous calculations, that any of Yugi's friends, or even the duel master himself, would ever really care about her.
As Joey reached over to place a hand comfortingly on her shoulder, not truly understanding what thoughts had caused her expression to become so pained, Miyo pulled away. Her relationships with people in her life had never been very physical. The hugs and kisses of her happy childhood had ceased at the same time the arguments began, and she had grown up to be rather used to the coldness. Being touched was altogether foreign to her, and coupled with her present thoughts, caused the feelings of guilt in her heart to rise painfully.
Oddly enough, however, the very last thing she wanted was for Joey to misinterpret her actions and feel that he was unwanted in her room. Right now, she wanted terribly for someone to be there with her. Her own fear of being alone scared her.
Joey hesitated, then reached across the bed and again touched her shoulder, this time a bit more forcefully, so she could not break away from him. "I might not have da best intuition, but even I can tell that there's somethin' other than a bum ankle screwin' wit' your job buggin' you right now."
Miyo was startled. Guilt made her honest, and she nodded mutely.
"Whateva it is, ya can tell me."
Miyo blanched noticeably, her hands tightening on the coarse bed sheets.
"S'alright," Joey said reassuringly, having no way of knowing what he was asking her to confess. "That's what friends are for, right?"
His words pierced through her like a hot knife through butter. For the first time in a long time, multiple hot tears welled up in her eyes.
"I'm a bad person, Joey," she choked, dashing the drops from her eyes with stubborn fists.
"Miyo-"
"No," she interrupted. "I am a bad person, Joey. Seto Kaiba asked me to get close to Yugi so he could get that last Blue Eyes card. He found a way to fix it, and he wants to beat Yugi once and for all. I didn't mean for it to go this far. I didn't think that it would."
Joey was mute, listening to her words and watching the tears streak down her cheeks. She scrubbed them away as if they burned her flesh.
"I never thought that I would like any of you. I'm...not good with people. But more and more, I can't keep up the act. I can't pretend anymore, Joey," she said miserably. "I...don't want this to end. This friendliness, I mean. I..."
The grip Joey had on her shoulder had loosened, and he still held his silence.
The white noise in the room was suddenly deafening. A machine beeped quietly where it stood in the corner. A patient on the opposite side of the room, previously unnoticed, coughed softly and shifted in his bed. The slapping noise of soft white nurse's shoes echoed down the hallway.
"Ya used us?" Joey asked, his voice deadly quiet. "Ya just wanted to get that card for Kaiba?"
"Initially, yes," Miyo admitted, her voice muffled by the bed sheets she had pulled over her face to wipe her eyes. "But I –"
"Miyo, I'm sorry, I can't hear any more of dis. You betrayed our trust. All of us."
The accusation shot through her like a bullet, and Miyo unconsciously pulled her arms around herself in a desperate attempt to shield herself from the pain.
"G'bye, Miyo. Get well soon." His words were probably sincere, but the kind intention was not in his eyes. Cold and hard, he gazed at her with a mix of sorrow and horror.
Miyo opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water. Joey shook his head sadly, turned his back to her, and exited her room without another word.
The next day in school, everything was back to what Miyo had dubbed 'normal' before the entire episode.
Silence.
Yugi had spoken to her a few times in a careful, polite voice, thanking her for coming and for the gift. Téa frowned at her a few times like a disappointed mother. Tristan and Bakura avoided conversation.
Joey avoided her in general.
Miyo sighed inwardly as class began, and forced herself to look as though this lesson was the single most interesting thing in the world. Due to a recent stomach flu epidemic at work, Miyo had been called in today the moment she was off school. It has been some time since Seto Kaiba had checked in with her about her progress. She wondered absently how he would react when she told him that everything had fallen through. Her mind was so wrapped in worry that she scarcely heard the teacher ask her a question.
"I'm sorry, could you repeat that please?"
"I said," the teacher began, clearly irritated, "Can you tell me who this picture is of?"
Miyo's eyes followed the teacher's pointed finger to the overhead projector. "Yes, that's Peter the Great."
"And which country was he so 'great' in?"
"Russia," Miyo replied, trying to veil her irritation. This particular teacher was notorious for trying to catch her students when they hadn't been paying attention. Thankfully, Miyo had read that particular chapter the night before and was well versed in its contents.
"Good," she replied unconvincingly, and plowed on with her lesson.
Miyo, without pausing to think about the repercussions of her action, turned her head ever so slightly to look at Joey.
The stony silence from him had hurt far worse than anything else that had happened to her thus far. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. His gaze lingered on her a moment before her turned his attention back to the board.
Miyo turned her stinging eyes down to her notebook, and blinked rapidly. Crying would be one thing, but crying in school was another entirely...especially if it was in front of Yugi or his friends.
The instant class was over, Miyo practically ran for the door. As she passed Yugi, his eyes followed her face. Feeling his gaze, Miyo turned her head a fraction towards him. She instantly wished she hadn't. His eyes, large and brimming with childlike innocence, burned into Miyo's heart.
With a visible wince, Miyo tore her eyes from his and darted from the room.
Watching until she was gone, Yugi turned to Joey. "Did she apologize to you?"
Uncomfortably, Joey replied, "Not really...but I was so mad I think I cut her off before she had a chance to." Turning to his friend, he added, "I could tell she was sorry, though... I've neva seen that girl cry before. I remember back when we were kids, she was in our class. They told her that her grandpa had died during math, and she was so calm. She just picked up her things and followed the guy outta the room."
Tristan nodded, his mind too flashing back on the memory. "And when she broke her arm during gym, she just got up and walked herself to the nurse's office."
"She's had the perfect poker face until now," Bakura remarked, copying Tristan's nod. "I would wager that she regrets everything she's done if this event triggered such a strong reaction. The only way to be sure, though, is to hear what she says when none of us are around."
"What she says ta Kaiba."
"Precisely," Bakura affirmed.
END CHAPTER
It should really be my bedtime right about now. Unfortunately, my older sister is showering in the bathroom my contact stuff is in. Woe is me.
See ya next chapter!
