"Zeniiba!"
"Chihiro, darling!"
"Sup, granny-"
BANG!
Chihiro had thrown her arms around the good witch and she did so as well. The two smiled as they smothered each other with long awaited affection and giggles. Uma on the other hand had a binder imprint on his forehead as he lay on the ground. Where the heck did that book come from?
"I've missed you so much, Zeniiba!" Chihiro cheered happily. Zeniiba pulled her back lightly before placing her big hands on the adolescent's soft cheeks.
"My, you've grown into a pretty young woman, and your hair has gotten longer! Tell me, dear, how old are you now?"
"Fifteen."
"My, has it been that long?" She traced her sparkling pupils down to Chihiro's slender wrist and the sight made her grin stretch even larger. "Oh, you kept hair tie I made you? Well don't I feel honored."
Kaonashi took a side-step behind Zeniiba so he would be in Chihiro's line of vision and gave a slight smile before pointing to himself. "Ah~?"
Chihiro giggled. "Yes, Kaonashi, I remember you too." That is when her excitement and adrenaline from the whole situation she just went through finally began to settle down once again and her knees caved in from the pain of her broken bones. Uma immediately ran up behind her and caught Chihiro with his arm around her waist.
"Careful, bonehead! You can't afford to be reckless right now."
Zeniiba blinked at Uma and then squinted her eyes at Chihiro. "My my… You're covered in bruises! Tell me, my sister didn't do this, did she?"
Uma raised a brow. "Zeniiba, you knew we were there. Which means you knew what the heck that entire place was. How?"
She placed a finger over her lips. "I'll explain that in a minute, but first we have to get you fixed up Chihiro. Uma dear, can you set her down on the chair over there?" The nice old lady pointed and he nodded. Carefully lifting Chihiro from the ground, she floated over and placed her in the rocking chair.
Zeniiba had just finished jotting down some ingredients on a piece of paper with a feather pen. "Kaonashi, could you get me these things? I need them to create an elixir for Chihiro's pain." She handed it to him. He nodded with a small moan before turning and exiting the door. Zeniiba rose from her seat and walked into another room.
"Now - where did I put that healing cream…"
Uma and Chihiro listened to her footsteps fade away into a farther part of the house before looking at each other. They stayed in silence for a bit until…
"Sorry… Uma…"
He looked up at her in confusion. "For what?"
"... For all of this… It's my fault. If I had gone home when Haku told me…" Tears began welling up in her eyes again. She was so tired of crying, and she was exhausted over everything. But, the poor girl couldn't help it.
Until she felt Uma flick in her in the forehead.
"-Ow!" She placed her hand on it. "What? What was that for?"
"Are you stupid?" He simply asked with a deadpanned expression.
"... W-what?"
He sighed in frustration. "Look - the truth is, none of this would have happened if I hadn't kidnapped you." He reluctantly admitted to his mistake and looked away. "And none of this would have happened if that wind spirit hadn't took you away. For whatever reason… I don't see the appeal as to why it would want YO-"
She kicked him in the shoulder. He winced and furrowed his eyebrows. "HEY!"
Chihiro simply glared at him and puffed her cheeks. Uma's face relaxed at her goofy expression. He looked down once more, letting his snow white bangs cover his eyes. With a mumbling voice, he said, "I'm sorry too."
The browned eyed girl blinked in surprise. Actually breath taken at his apology. And that he was willing to do so. Uma was pretty stubborn - or so she gathered. But she had learned the past few minutes that he wasn't... Well, completely what he made himself out to be.
She went to open her mouth to say something but was interrupted by the smiling Zeniiba.
"Here it is~! Try and hold still darling while I apply this. Where does it hurt?"
"All on my shoulder and rib cage..." Chihiro sighed.
"Oh, then you might want to take your top off so I can apply this..."
Chihiro and Uma exchanged looks. He blushed and went around the corner, leaning his back against the wall in the dark so he wasn't facing them. He folded his arms and let out a small sigh. Chihiro stripped her blazer and uniform shirt, slightly embarrassed of her small frame. Zeniiba smiled at her and lifted her chin with two fingers.
"You're cute, Chihiro." The brown haired girl blinked and avoided eye contact. That was actually really nice to hear...
"Now, this might hurt, but first I'm going to apply it to the shoulder, then I'm going to need you to lift your arm as carefully as possible." Zeniiba swabbed some of the white cream on her fingers and slowly began to apply it to the shoulder. Chihiro bit her lip in pain.
"Alright, almost finished... There, take a breath."
She exhaled with relief and concentrated on waiting for pain to die down a bit. Uma tapped his foot impatiently behind the wall.
"Okay, I'm going to try and do the ribs now... Bare with me." Chihiro Reluctantly nodded, then closed her eyes. Zeniiba grabbed her arm lightly and attempted to lift it up. The poor injured girl drew in a sharp breath and squealed. She lowered her arm on instinct and subconsciously fought Zeniiba's grip.
"Dear, you need to lift your arm for me."
"No!" She cried out in pain. "It hurts too much! I want it to stop..."
Uma bit his lip. He could be in there and help, but the girl was topless, hopefully wearing a bra. He didn't want to embarrass her... Wait, what? What did he care if she was topless or not? There was np appeal to him, right?
"Chihiro, please work with me, okay?"
"Please no... I can't do it." Tears streamed down her cheeks. Chihiro held her arms around her waist, body slightly convulsing in pain.
Screw it. Uma turned around the corner and stepped into the room. He looked away when he saw she was in her underwear - but thank God she was at least wearing something. Zeniiba looked at him with wide eyes. Before she could question, he walked to Chihiro's side. She looked up at him with rounded eyes.
"What are you doing you perv-?!"
"Lift your arm."
Zeniiba blinked at his demanding tone. Chihiro drew back a bit, tone becoming timid.
"B-But, the pain..."
"You can't buckle now. I know you're stronger than this. The cream will help you, so left em'."
Chihiro clenched her teeth, and finally, when Uma saw she was relaxed, without saying, he lifted her arm up. She yelped in pain and her body tried to force it back down. But Uma's strength was too much. Her arm didn't move an inch.
Zeniiba carefully placed the cream all along her rib cage and side. Uma whispered small comforting words into her ear while it was being applied like, 'it'll be over soon', 'this will help you', and 'Just a little longer, hang in there.'
Finally, the good witch finished up and closed the cap. Uma slowly lowered her arm back down. "The ingredients should be here soon. We'll fix you up in no time. For now, you can just hang tight right there. I'll be right back." With that, Zeniiba exited the room.
Uma rubbed his hand over the top of her head, not saying a word. When he realized she was still only wearing her pink bra as a top, he blushed and took his haori off, placing it around her shoulders and tying it.
Chihiro sniffed. "Th-Thank you..." she blushed. "But my shirt... it's right next to you."
Uma dead-panned and looked to his side. Cheeks still red, he avoided eye contact. "Wait until the pain dies down... For now, you can keep that."
Chihiro nodded, embarrassed that he saw her body. She wanted to hit him for walking in. Her husband was supposed to be the first one to see it! Chihiro pouted. Then noticed something else... Uma's chest and upper arms were laced with scars. Long lines dragged across his skin in many different angles, almost uncountable.
"What... happened to your body?"
He froze and looked down at himself, then back at the ground. "I... I don't know. I can't remember most of my past."
"Oh..."
Silence hung between them in a very awkward manner. Uma sat criss-crossed in front of the rocking chair and kept his head low.
"Well... What do you remember?"
Uma sigher. "It's none of your business..."
"Well sorry for being curious."
"And nosy. Don't forget that."
"Jerk..."
Uma's black orbs slowly traced up to her puffy eyes. She blinked and locked eyes with him, jumping qt his gaze. "W-what?" She furrowed her brows. Uma turned himself to completely face her.
"Kohaku-sama found me when I was younger. I don't know how, or where I was. Not even why I was there by myself. He told me I won't have to suffer anymore. He snuck me into the bathhouse. Even got me a place there. He also told me a lot of stories about you..."
Chihiro blinked as she listened to him closely
"I owe everything to him. He seemed very fond of you... And he seemed to miss you greatly. So I thought bringing you here would be the perfect present for him. Looks like I just ended up... Y'know, hurting you." Uma cleared his throat. "Anyway, he told me my name was Uma, and that I was the spirit of destructive wind. I had no choice but to believe him. He gave me clothes and shelter. And I'm forever in his debt for, whatever it was he saved me from..."
Chihiro smiled and looked up at the ceiling. "Haku is very kind. He helped me a lot when I was first stuck here. He helped me turn my parents back to normal and let us be able to go home."
As Uma watched her speak with a smile on her face, he felt a slight sting of jealousy rise in his chest. Not knowing why, he suppressed it and looked away. Chihiro smiled.
"Ah - but I guess you would already know that."
"... Yeah."
Stillness in the air once more. Kaonashi finally came in through the front door and met Zeniiba in the kitchen with a basket. She greeted him cheerily. Noise was heard, like kitchen utensils, mixing, breaking, and blending.
"How bad does it hurt right now?"
"Terribly..."
Uma nodded and stood when Zeniiba entered the room with Kaonashi. "Alright, the elixir is finished! Just sip this slowly dear and you'll be fixed in no time." The nice old lady handed her the cup with a colorful substance in it. Chihiro sniffed the gooey liquid, it had no smell.
"I'll write a letter to Kohaku and let him know you're here with me. When you're done with that, you can just place it in the sink. Make sure you take care of her tonight, Uma dear. Your room is upstairs. Kaonashi, please go prepare it for them."
The figure nodded, they dispersed.
Uma placed his hands in his hakama pockets and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?"
"For a walk. I'll be back in time to take your cup from you."
"Okay..."
Uma stopped on his heel and turned his head towards her slightly. "By the way, she was right. You're cute."
He exited the house.
Chihiro was left bewildered.
Hey guys, MK here. Sorry this is taking so long... I'm going to explain right now why, and it's actually pretty serious. I know you're probably thinking, oh another excuse blah blah blah... And it may seem like that, but these things have really been happening to me.
If you can't handle sadness and things of the sort, then you can go ahead and turn back now and just wait for the next chapter.
You see, I've literally been packed with so much work and responsibilities that it brought back my depression worse than it's ever been. I can't say other than my schedule is constantly filled up, I've been going to the hospital, and I feel like a complete and utter failure in life.
In fact I've been so stressed out and constantly in pain because of health issues to the point where... Yeah, I tried to commit suicide... It might sound pathetic, but theres a lot more to it than I'm letting on. Luckily my guy friend caught onto me and stopped me. He talked me through it and now I'm doing better.
I don't want you to think I'm full of empty promises and trust me, I feel like absolute garbage that I'm updating so slowly. But I do promise that I will try to update as often as my schedule permits. And i promise to try and fight against writers block, which seems to be hitting me hard lately.
I hope you can all forgive me.
Please review and go check out some of my other fics while you're at it. I love hearing from all of you.
Peace~.
