AN: I hoped you all enjoyed the last chapter. ^^ This one's a bit longer, too. Ah well. Enjoy! -heart-
~Ami
The Next Day...
Minato hated hospital rooms.
They smelled like antiseptic and disinfectant. Loud beeping, calls for doctors over the intercom, and a general air of sickness made him hugely uncomfortable. Every muscle was fidgeting, his leg tapping a dull metronome on the linoleum floor, his hands wringing. They had arrived earlier at the hospital, just after midnight. They were doing their best to hide their injuries; Akihiko had finally been convinced that he needed to have himself examined. He came back a short while later, confirming a mild concussion, but nothing more.
They had had to leave for school earlier that morning, but immediately after they'd met as a group and returned to the hospital. Rumors were already breeding in the school; it hadn't taken long for news of the new girl getting hit by a car to spread like wildfire.
They waited outside Hamuko's room now for some indication of improvement. The ICU permitted only one visitor at a time to her room. The doctor had been bluntly honest with them. "Her chances aren't great," he had said grimly. "She's lost a lot of blood and sustained a lot of physical damage. She's stable for now, but still critical."
With nothing to do but wait, Akihiko had started dozing in his chair. He had barely managed to stay awake in school, and he was making up for it here.
Shinjiro too was exhausted, but he had rested a little at the dorm that day. His face was hard to read. A mixture of concern and anger was most prevalent among the other emotions clouding his expression. Particularly on his mind was the pill the Chairman had given Hamuko. Rage surged through him whenever he thought of it.
Hamuko could almost hear the swarm of voices that had spoken during her unconsciousness. Unfamiliar voices... sad voices of her new friends... was this all... a dream? A heavy, tight pain was felt in the girl's abdomen. Wait, felt? She could feel now. That means...
The girl's eyelids slowly rose up, feeling as though they were each weighing a thousand pounds. She squinted as the bright light irritated her sensitive eyes. Hamuko noticed that she was now in a hospital room. Bright white lights... uncomfortable atmosphere.. what had happened to her?
Suddenly recalling the events back in a flash of memory, the girl's eyelids flew completely open, and she began to sit up in shock before a hand kept her from rising. She gazed down at the hand, and followed it back up to none other than Ikutsuki.
"Don't do that, Hamuko," he murmured, giving her a sad smile. "I'm glad your awake. You had all of us worried sick. Do you...remember what happened?"
Swallowing with much difficulty, the girl muttered, "Yes," under her breath. She wished she couldn't remember. Suddenly realizing what her point was in doing the ridiculously careless actions before, she glanced at the man with pleading eyes. "C-Can I talk to Minato-kun? I-Is he here? W-What time is it?"
"Calm down," he assured her. "If you work yourself up too much, you're going to reopen your wound. Minato is here. He's in the waiting room. I'm sure he'd be happy to talk to you."
With that, the man stood up and walked out of the room. Hamuko sighed, getting upset at what she had done. She was almost regretting it now. Who knows how long it would take for her to be able to go to school and have fun with everyone? She almost felt like a test experiment, connected to all sorts of machines by wires. The only body part she could really move without yanking something out was her head. The paralyzing feeling to her was not appreciated.
"Minato-kun." Ikutsuki was now standing in the waiting room, almost smirking. "I do believe you have a pretty girl that wants to talk to you in the other room." His face grew serious. "But don't get her too upset or confused yet. Don't tell her anything that she would find uncomfortable. Especially not about last night. Just bringing it up, she got very stir-crazy." The man looked so tired that it could be assumed that he didn't get any sleep either. He collapsed into the chair next to Shinjiro, before giving him a knowing look. He was still thinking about the suppressant that he gave to Hamuko. Sighing lightly, the man sunk into his chair, not saying anything to the kid for the time being.
"She's awake? Already?" There was a loud sigh of relief from the entire party, but Minato especially. He rose, straightened his school uniform, and walked into Hamuko's room. She was rigged to ugly machines tracking every change in her body and keeping detailed records on her condition. The room felt cold and dreary, but then again, it was an ICU. Decoration was not its main priority. Minato sat into the lone chair near her bed and gave her a weak smile. "You've finally decided to join us, huh?" he asked rhetorically. "Everyone's outside on pins and needles, and you want to talk to me out of all of them? You really must not be feeling well."
The Chairman's restrictions were really making it difficult to hold a conversation. So many questions on his mind that Minato wanted to ask her that he couldn't out of fear of distressing her. They would have to wait, and the things he did say he would carefully filter. "The doctors said that you're okay enough to talk, but not for very long, and only one person at a time."
Hamuko almost strained her head to stare at him, relief flooding through her body. So...she did save his life, after all. "I saved you.." she repeated again, smirking. Her expression changed however, checking to make sure the door was closed. "Get closer, I need to tell you something."
The young girl carefully reached out and grabbed the boy's hand, making sure not to pull any of the wires attached to her wrist. "Minato..." she whispered, obviously uncomfortable with what she was saying. "I somehow...knew you were in danger. I woke up in my room with Shinjiro and Yukari. They seemed panicked, but I was the worst out of all of them. I felt like I was going insane.. Your legs, Minato. You hurt them, didn't you? As soon as I could sense that you were all in danger, I collapsed to the floor. I could hardly stand." She almost looked terrified. One of the machines beeped angrily at her, and she took a deep breath, calming her self down somewhat. "I haven't told anyone about this yet. But, the fact that we're the only two that could see that boy... I feel a very strange connection with you. And..well... voices confirmed it."
Hamuko groaned, feeling her stomach tightening up. "You probably think I am insane. But I could hear him, I really could! That boy...was telling me... that I had to save you..." she murmured. "So I did." She widened her eyes for a moment, looking around frantically. "Is everyone else alright? Did they make it out okay?"
"They're all just fine," Minato assured her. "None of them were hurt badly, but mentally we're all exhausted. Shinjiro's been taking it pretty hard, he thinks it's his fault because he didn't stop you. But you're alive, we all are. My legs are okay. They got zapped and I couldn't move them, but they had healed by this morning."
He cleared his throat, ready to tackle the darker issue at hand. "As for the kid...yes, I know him. When you said you saw him the other night, I had hoped it was just a hallucination. People new to the Dark Hour tend to be unpredictable. Until your other Persona was summoned in the meeting room yesterday, I told myself that that was the case. The Death Arcana is heavily associated with the Dark Hour. When I first summoned Orpheus, a similar thing happened. A much stronger Persona took over momentarily. The fact that there's only two of us that that happened to can't be a coincidence. You're not crazy at all, unless we both are, which honestly wouldn't surprise me given everything that's happened."
The girl sighed for a moment, sinking further into the bed. When Shinjiro's name came up, the girl's eyes narrowed. "Tch," she muttered, her mood suddenly changing. "Knowing his volatile personality, he's going to end up getting mad at me for what I did. I don't even care anymore." Her eyes looked dull and exhausted. "I hardly even understood half of what was going on last night. Persona.. Dark Hour... Death Arcana... This better make more sense to me if I stay with you guys." She glanced over at the blinking machines that seemed to be carrying her life. How did this happen to her? At her age, everyone seemed invincible. But one false move and she was put into the ICU. However, she was not like other kids. She had some kind of amazing power that she never knew she possessed.
"Minato-kun," she started, glancing at him, "Can you bring Shinjiro in here? I know the whole 'one-at-a-time' bit, and I'm not trying to push you off, but... if he's been taking it so badly, I feel like I need to talk to him." She didn't seem sympathetic. She merely wanted to find out more about him. She could actually see the expression on his face as Ikutsuki had given her that medicine. It was...scared? Terrified? Angry?
"He might have just doomed her."
She could hear the boy's voice ringing in her memory, singling out that foggy sentence from the millions of others that ran through her semi-conscious mind. What did he even mean by that?
Minato frowned, unsure of what to make of her request. "Sure, I'll bring him in."
He stood from the chair and left her bedside. Pausing momentarily before the door, he turned to face Hamuko. "Don't think he's a bad person. He's not at all. He's rough around the edges, but he's got a strong sense of right and wrong. So don't grill him too bad, okay?"
Minato met the group outside the room. "She's alert, but tired. She's asking about all of you, but she wants to see you, Shinjiro-senpai."
Visibly taken aback by the request, Shinjiro answered, "Why me?"
"I'm not sure," Minato lied, not wanting the older teen to know how openly Hamuko had admitted to wanting to see him.
Feeling the others' eyes on him, Shinjiro shuffled past Minato into Hamuko's room. "You're awfully bright-eyed for someone who nearly died," he commented. He sat in the chair, his hands shoved deeply into the pockets of his coat. The machines hooked up to Hamuko looked like instruments of torture to him, even though he knew they were practically keeping her alive.
The girl groaned in frustration, glancing at Shinjiro. "Funny," she murmured sarcastically. "So, you gonna get mad at me yet?" Hamuko's condition seemed to take a toll on her usually nice, submissive personality. She stared at him in the face. "Sorry. I guess I just figured you were going to explode or something. I already realize I am incredibly stupid, so that doesn't need to be said." Out of anger, the girl let out a puff of air, closing her eyes tightly. "You wouldn't even understand if I told you why I did that. It's a lost cause. But, uh..." Her somewhat fearless speech suddenly grew awkward as she paused. "Sorry for worrying you. I wasn't intending to do that, either." Her eyes opened and she glared at the monitor as it began to beep faster again. She really needed to calm down.
Neither of them spoke for a good fifteen seconds as Shinjiro collected his thoughts. "I ain't angry," he finally said, breaking the silence between them. "Just relieved to see you in a fighting spirit. Your tongue's sharper than I remember." He sat back further in his chair with a small grin on his face. "I gotta admit, you surprised us all. I gave up trying to figure out why you did that about hours ago. It happened, it's done, no point trying to change it. But to tell you the truth..." Shinjiro got quiet all of a sudden, knowing that some of the nosier members of SEES would be huddled against the door trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. "What you did wasn't stupid. It was brave, braver than what most of us are capable of."
He chuckled, taking the solemn tone of conversation through a neck-snapping tailspin. "Aw, hell. Listen to me, I sound like an idiot. I've been going all sorts of soft since I got back with SEES."
Hamuko took in what Shinjiro was saying. Her expression slowly softened, now glancing at the teen in a new light. She bit her lip nervously, unable to retort now. "You know... when I first met you back at the dorm, you kind of.. scared me," she chuckled, stopping herself as the pain ran though her body. "You don't seem so bad. You're actually sort of...nice." Her eyes suddenly averted, her cheeks tinged with blush. Her face grew pale again, however, as he heard those same words that he said before ringing in her head. She looked visibly uncomfortable at this point, trying to shift her body slightly in order to make herself feel better. "I heard you all talking about me... even though I was out cold... Shinji- Uhm, Shinjiro-senpai... What did Ikutsuki do that was bad for me? I don't... remember..." Hamuko squinted her eyes, trying to remember every detail from that night, but it was foggy and unclear to her. "You said...something to him... and I..." Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest as she thought of the possibility that the adult in the group could have been hurting her in some way. That wasn't possible...right?
"Oh, you heard that?" Wondering why he wasn't surprised, Shinjiro decided that the best thing to do was to answer her truthfully, although a sliver of sarcasm did manage to find its way into his words. "Well, being the common street punk that I am, I know that those pills are a notoriously addictive drug. One hit and you're hooked. But some Persona users found an alternative use for them. They are extremely good at repressing the power of a Persona."
"That thing probably saved your life. I reacted the way I did because I didn't wanted to see you get addicted, because the habit eventually kills them. It's an ugly way to die."
The beautiful irony behind his words was not lost on Shinjiro Aragaki.
Hamuko grew deathly silent, not exactly the one to be joking over drug addictions and death. "Oh... um..." She paused for a moment, unsure of what to say. "Well, thanks," she finally murmured, watching him with sincerity in her eyes. "I'm glad that you care. I'm glad that everyone cares... I mean, I just met you all. What difference would it make-" she looked down bitterly, averting her eyes again, "-if some girl that you hardly even knew just happened to die?" It was a truly honest question; the girl didn't have a clue what the answer would be.
"I can't believe... I almost died... But for some reason, I really didn't mind. It was strange." Her eyes squinted up in pain again; she really just wanted to sleep some more, but her mind was fully awake.
"Why wouldn't it make a difference?"
The answer was plain and to the point, blunt, and honest all at the same time. "When you have someone you care for taken away from you, it really puts a different spin on the way you look at things. You start to hold onto anything new because you're afraid it's going to be gone the next second." Shinjiro felt pathetic talking sappy like this, but he couldn't seem to stop himself. The words just kept coming. "All of us know what that's like and we hate that feeling, so we try to avoid it."
"...I see." Hamuko closed her eyes in knowing, accepting his explanation with no further questions. "So, Minato tells me that everyone made it out alright." She smiled slightly, relieved at saying it once again. "A-Akihiko-senpai... he looked pretty rough. Was he alright?" She had somehow noticed a connection between the two, and smirked. "You guys seem a lot alike, you know. Same kind of outlook on life, it seems."
"Oh, yeah, Aki's fine. A few scratches, a bit of a concussion, but that's it. The doctor told him to not do any major physical activity for about a week, so he'll be pacing around the dorm, going stir-crazy. Mitsuru will yell at him, he'll quit for a while but go right back to it. It happens every time he gets hurt." Shinjiro sighed slightly, shaking his head, but he talked about it like one would when reliving a fond memory. "He talks about his training nonstop, so don't feel hesitant to tell him to shut it. And if you see the two of us fighting, leave us alone. We do it all the time. We've been friends since we were kids, so we grew up having each other's back. More like brothers than anything."
"Heehee. Aki. That's cute," Hamuko chirped, hanging on that name in particular and thinking that the pet names they had for one another were pretty adorable. She glanced at the nearby machine again, pouting. "When are they going to let more than one person in at a time? I'm fine, geez." She tapped her fingers on the bed, staring at Shinjiro again. "Shinji- ...Mm, ahem. Shinjiro-senpai," she teased, "Do you think maybe they'd let Akihiko-senpai in to say hi to me too? I don't want to have to talk to all of you separate. It's weird. I'm totally fine, I swear. Mentally, anyway. Haha." She smiled, finally able to speak in a comfortable way with him. She almost felt bad for being so harsh on him earlier. "I really do want to talk to all of you guys at some point. After all, I owe you all for helping me."
"The doctors don't have to know. I'll bring him in. We'd probably get kicked out if I tried to get everyone in here, though. So just one or two at a time. We'll be in and out before they even know." Shinjiro poked his head outside the door. "Aki!" he called.
Breaking from his dozed stupor, Akihiko looked up blearily. "What?"
"C'mere."
Akihiko obeyed, though his sore body protested every movement. "What?" he asked as he met friend at the door.
"Get in here, she wants to talk to you for a bit."
With a nod, Akihiko slipped past Shinjiro into Hamuko's room. "Hey," he said, glad to see her looking in good shape. "Must be getting pretty annoying having to see everyone one at a time. How are you holding up?"
"Fine," the girl lied, rolling her eyes. She paused for a moment, looking at the boy. "I just wish I could've gotten there earlier. You...Minato-kun...Mitsuru-senpai... You all got hurt. B-But it's not like I was supposed to leave in the first place.. That was my fault," she admitted. "Don't blame Shinjiro-senpai. He was just trying to help me, but I was stubborn enough to run off without his permission." She sighed, glancing at the monitors tiredly, staring at a series of numbers that made no sense to her whatsoever. "So you're alright, then? From what I could see in there, you looked really hurt. But maybe I was just scared and over-analyzed everything."
"Huh, I hadn't thought about it that way. Come to think of it, he was the one in charge." None of them had really thought about the fact that she had been allowed to leave the dorm in the first place; they'd all been too concerned with her making it out alive to consider whose fault it was. "I'll have to smack him one when I get the chance. Kidding, kidding!" he quickly said when he saw the look on Hamuko's face. "I wouldn't do that." Akihiko fidgeted with the large bandage that had been taped to his forehead. The stitches underneath it itched like fire as the cut started the healing process and it was irritating him to no end. "My brain got knocked around a bit, so I have to rest for about a week, but that's nothing."
Hamuko's face turned a little pale at Akihiko's description of his condition. "N-Nothing?" she questioned. She watched him playing with the bandages, and her eyes grew concerned. "W-Well, don't touch it or anything." Realizing that her caring instincts were arising once again, the girl shut her mouth, looking embarrassed. "Sorry, I shouldn't be telling you what to do, senpai." She was lying in a bed practically strapped down, so she really couldn't force him into being careful anyway. She groaned as she could feel the anesthetic steadily wearing off. Her eyes squinted for a moment as she felt another stabbing pain in her stomach. Gotta let the next nurse that comes in here know, she reminded herself. Great. How long am I gonna be in here, anyway?
Her impatience came across aloud as the girl tapped on her bed again, seeming rather fidgety. Her condition was restricting all of her body movements; her nonverbal communication for the moment was completely lost.
"Hm? Oh, right." Akihiko dropped his hand from his forehead. It was something he had started doing out of habit without even really thinking about it. Noticing her anxiety, Akihiko friendly smiled at her, trying to get her to calm down a little. "You're going stir-crazy already. I hate to tell you, but you're going to be here for a while. If you can hold out until your condition improves and the doctors move you to a regular room, we'll bring some of your stuff here to make it more bearable. And we'll be in a lot to see you, too."
"Great," she spat, obviously miffed. "It's only so much fun having your arms strapped to machines like Pinocchio. Or a science experiment." She sighed. "Not taking it out on you, I swear. I was just hoping to start off my new life here on the right foot. Do I...need to work on homework or something yet?" Even the prospect of school work was exciting to her; anything to keep her mind off of her condition. She felt yet another twinge of main in her body and grimaced. Hamuko glanced to her right and saw a small, red button. That must be the "call" button, she thought in relief. Without reluctance, the girl banged her fist on it, sighing. "Sorry, Akihiko," she murmured. "I still want to talk to you guys, but I think whatever medicine stuff they gave me is wearing off."
Within a few moments, a frightened-looking man came into the room, glancing at the girl in bed. He was relieved to find out that she appeared perfectly fine. "Y-Yes, Miss Arasawa?" The girl sighed, and smiled apologetically. "I'm feeling a little bit of pain. At least I'm awake, though. I was sick of sleeping for so long."
"It hasn't been that long since you've arrived, you know."
"Yeah, I know."
The man chuckled at her spunk, before walking over to one of the various cabinets. "I figured that anesthetic we gave you would wear off sooner or later. Guess it caused you to wake up, too." Within a few moments, the man turned around, holding a syringe in his hand that contained some kind of liquid. Hamuko suddenly grew visibly uncomfortable. The doctor eyed her carefully as she fidgeted. "This is a similar sedative. It won't knock you out, but it will get rid of all your pain."
"N-No, that's alright, never mind," the girl managed to choke out, her eyes positively huge with fright. The doctor looked at her in concern. "I promise, you'll only feel a small pinch. It won't be more than a second." Hamuko scooted as far away from him as the wires permitted. Her eyes were locked on the needle. "I c-can't," she stammered, looking positively terrified.
"Just don't look over here, Miss Arasawa. It'll be over before you know it. Just hand me your arm-"
"No!" she shrieked, violently pulling away from him. The movement of the wires and cords attached to her arms had cleanly knocked items off of the table beside her, the girl jumping and jerking away from the male. One final jerk had caused the girl to double over in pain. She cringed, but her eyes still were locked on the man like a scared animal trying to protect its own life. The man cursed quietly, noticing her visible pain, and his eyes grew wide as he saw red beginning to stain the bandages on her stomach. "Miss Arasawa, please don't-"
The girl would not give up without a fight. She struggled like she was trying to fight off something that would kill her. Her phobia of needles was the least of their worries now, as the girl flailed on the hospital bed, trying to avoid the doctor's grasp, and, more importantly, the needle that he held. The man reached over and slammed the red "call" button, panting as he tried to compose himself to address the girl's problems, and quickly, while still trying to restrain her. "You, get over here!" he called to Akihiko, sweat breaking out onto his face as he saw her getting much worse, struggling with a new-found passion against him.
Akihiko instinctively lunged forward, practically falling on Hamuko's bed next to her. His first option was to grab her arms to hold her still, but that would seem like he was trying to get the needle in her arm faster and therefore the bad guy. Instead he went a different direction. He motioned at the nurse to wait while he calmed her down. Akihiko took one of Hamuko's hands in his. The plastic tubes crisscrossing her wrists and palms felt alien under his hands. He looked her straight in the eye very seriously, but with a soothingly level tone to his voice. "Hamuko, you have to calm yourself down. You're going to hurt yourself more than you already are and you might hurt the nurse. The medicine is going to help you so much, I promise. Talk to me and ignore the needle and it'll be over before you know it."
Hamuko bit her lip until her teeth started to draw blood. She shook her head furiously, tears in her eyes. "I can't!" she shrieked, nearly squeezing his own hand to death. She tried to stare at Akihiko and only him, but her eyes kept flicking to the nurse. Her eyes were still quite large, and her face was now as white as the sheet that she was laying under. She looked down and held her breath as she noticed that her stomach was bleeding. Terror was beginning to take over her body.
As if on cue, a few female nurses and the head surgeon rushed into the room. They all approached opposite sides of her bed. One of the nurses instructed Akihiko to step back and allow them to work. Hamuko, however, screamed in protest. "No! Stop it! I can't-"
Her eyes dilated suddenly as she felt a small prick in her arm. Shaking with absolute shock, the girl turned her head from the commotion to see the male nurse grabbing her wrist and injecting the medicine. He quickly pulled the apparatus from her arm, backing up and collapsing in the chair behind him, breathing heavily. Quickly recoiling, the girl grasped her own arm and fell back onto the bed, sobbing. Her body shook furiously. Even though it was over, something about it still seemed to terrify her. Her eyes were dead set on the wall beside her as she shook.
She suddenly grew very dizzy as the doctors all began conversing together in hushed tones next to her bed. "Will we have to restitch the wound together? We will have to completely sedate her if we do."
"It's a little risky, she's still quite unstable. Is someone monitoring her vitals?"
"She seems alright... but her pulse has increased dramatically. I think you shocked her, Takeshi."
"We need to get her to calm down. Hopefully the sedative will do its job."
"It would be helpful if someone close to her had told us of her Trypanophobia."
"That's not important right now!"
"All of you, get out now," Akihiko suddenly snarled.
One of the nurses, an elderly woman, looked to him with shock and apprehension in her eyes. "Young man, you and your friends are already treading on your authority to visit Miss Arasawa. Watch your tongue or I will be forced to call security on you."
"Do it, I don't care." Akihiko's face was monstrous, his eyes glinting like a predator's and his nerves almost as raw. His clenched fists just dared any of them to come near him or Hamuko again. Shaking with angry energy, he undoubtedly would've started swinging if one of the nurses pushed him any further. "Get the hell out of this room!"
The nurses scattered quickly, except for the one who had injected Hamuko and the elderly woman who had threatened Akihiko. The glare she gave him was poisonous. "Her wound has reopened, so I'm going to get supplies to clean and re-wrap it. You're on thin ice, boy."
The women turned on her heel and left with a huff and Akihiko immediately went to Hamuko and sat on the edge of her bed. She was shaking and crying, fear and pain radiating off of her like a heater in December. "Hey, don't cry. I about came that close to knocking that idiot nurse out, if it makes you feel any better. Your wound is bleeding again...here, bring the blankets to soak it up." He reached for the thin, papery sheets and balled them up. She had her back to him, so he held them out to her, hoping she would take them.
Hamuko gently lifted her head, her lip quivering along with the rest of her body. She lightly twisted her body around, taking the sheets with a cold, terrified look in her eye. She placed them around her body almost automatically, looking very distant. Her eyes were pouring tears, though she was making no noise. She was so scared that she couldn't even cry in a normal way. Suddenly, in a fit of terror, Hamuko reached out and grabbed the boy around his chest, burying her face into his sweater. She shook fiercely, but her arms were locked and she didn't want to let go. "I...c-can't... take this anymore.." she whispered, her voice sounding eerily steady while her body portrayed the completely opposite emotion.
The male nurse stood up quietly, his eyes widened at everything that was going on. "I... am so sorry..." he admitted. "I couldn't just let her endure that pain. It is incredible that she survived such a large and disastrous wound... Her body didn't seem like it was going to take the strain.."
Hamuko grabbed on tighter to the boy, burying her face deeper into his clothing. "Don't talk about me as if I'm dead!" came her muffled cry of anger.
Akihiko looked at him piteously. He had just been trying to do the best thing for his patient. Maybe not the smartest option to take, but he'd only been doing his job. Akihiko didn't embrace her back out of fear of aggravating her injury further, but he did pat her shoulders and head to know that he understood her. Looking over his shoulder, he gave the nurse an apologetic nod. "Stay strong," he whispered to Hamuko. "You're through the worst. It's all going to go up from here." He could feel her tears soaking through his shirt, leaving a huge wet stain that he'd probably have to explain later. "You survived when the doctors didn't think you would. You've already proven yourself as a survivor. I think you're deserving of a good cry."
His words were beginning to finally take an effect on the girl. Hamuko took a deep breath as the monitors stopped beeping so furiously. The nurse smiled back at Akihiko, shrugging his shoulders. "Next time she needs something like that... You can do it," he joked, before stepping out to tell the others that her vitals returned to normal.
Hamuko sniffled slightly, her arms still tied around him. She lifted her face from his sweater, her eyes sparkling with tears. "I'm sorry," she murmured, realizing what she just had him go through. "I'm so sorry..." Her face dropped again, and her body shook lightly from the loss of blood. "I... can't take needles. I've always been terrified of them..." Just trying to think of a reason why made her pulse spike, but returned to normal when she realized she was hurting herself again. "I can't imagine if I would have had to endure that alone," she stuttered, looking up at him again.
"I'm glad you were here." It sounded quite sappy, but the girl was so miserable that she really didn't care. Here was a guy that hardly knew her, and yet was taking care of her as though they were close for quite some time.
To Be Continued...
Hope you all enjoyed. "Sanitatem" simply means "health" or "healing."
