Please review!

Thanks for the review, Hikiri! I was having so much trouble with that chapter x.x

I seem to have fallen behind again T.T

Exotic Flower

Chapter 14: Broken in more ways than one.

Maria's POV

Do you believe me now when I say 'I'm immortal.'?

Ren left right after I said that. The subtle downwards tilt of his lips looked so much more strained than usual. It hurt to know that he was fighting back a grimace.

Ayame seemed to want to say something to him but I shook my head. He was right to be angry at me. He had kept secrets as well but he had at least felt guilty for it. I just pretended not to notice his slip ups and my own as well.

At the very moment I was fighting with my body, willing my collarbone to stay at its odd angle. It drew tighter and tighter, like a taut bow waiting to be released. I didn't want Ayame to witness it snap back into place so I help my breath and lectured my body on its behavior.

Ayame was quiet, though she occasionally tried her voice. She wasn't sure how to proceed. She wasn't even sure if she should start by asking me about myself or explaining about herself and her family.

As the seconds ticked on I could feel my skin stretching and repairing itself, bones trying to slip back into place.

"Ayame-san, I'm fine, really. Why don't you put the kettle on and have some tea?" she could really use it too. She wasn't exactly relaxed at the moment.

She fidgeted, reluctantly standing. "I'll be right back. Should I put some on for you?"

"Sure,"

She pulled the door behind her, not quite shutting it. I let out a relieved breath and my body freed itself of the tension. I nearly blacked out as bones sank back into their sockets and rejoined broken pieces.

It didn't hurt; not really. I couldn't remember ever feeling pain the same way as others did. The feeling in my toes was beginning to come back. It was all together dizzying.

By the time Ayame returned with the tea I felt in control of my body again and sat up without her help.

She handed me my tea and cleared her throat. She was ready to sort out the situation now, after collecting her thoughts.

"Say, Maria-chan, I've kind of thought for a while that you were a little different."

I took a gulp of the tea, not even pretending to find it hot. My mouth was still dry and there was nothing I could think to reassure myself. "I haven't really been hiding anything. It's just more comfortable to stick with what's familiar,"

"And being human is familiar to you?"

"Yes." Of course it was. Everyone else around me was human, except for Ren and his family. I had only properly noticed that I wasn't human a few years ago.

"I understand why you would hide it from people that you aren't completely familiar with . . . but what about your parents? Are they different, like you?"

I couldn't say that they weren't different. My mother was a pretty strange person and so was my father but I was sure that was just their lifestyle. "They're normal,"

Ayame took a contemplative sip of tea. "So you have no idea what you are? That can certainly be frightening,"

She didn't know the half of it.

"What about you guys? Judging by your reactions to my injuries it isn't something you're used to seeing." A few weeks ago I had almost worked up the courage to reveal my condition to Ren. He'd cut himself while chopping up vegetables for dinner and it had healed almost too soon for a drop of blood to even bead to the surface. Ren hadn't thought I noticed, obviously.

"We're called Oni," Ayame pronounced slowly. "Telling you is a bit of a daring move. There's quite a few of us in Japan right now and some pretty strict rules about revealing ourselves to outsiders,"

I let that run through my head. "So, you're demons?"

She shrugged. "That's what the legends say. Maybe now's a good time to correct our family tree as well. I'm actually Ren's mother,"

"I thought so," Ren looked an awful lot like Chikage, his father, but he definitely had his mother's nose. Her ears too.

"Will you forgive Ren for reacting like that?" Ayame's motherly concern suited her.

I was hurt, but I also understood his concern. Ren didn't like to lie or be lied to. I sighed. "There's nothing to forgive."

"Ren is just a bit confused. He struggled with accepting his feelings and it's like the rug has been pulled out from under his feet. We live very long and having relationships with humans can be difficult,"

"That's still a problem then. I know I'm next to impossible to kill but I have no idea how long I might live. For all I know I might just be some human anomaly,"

Ayame touched her fingers to her lower lip, something she did when she was thinking. "Is there anything else you noticed about yourself? Maybe you are a demon. I've heard of cases where the entire family has been human except for one generation. Demon genetics work like that sometimes,"

It sounded better than speculating that I was adopted. "I don't know. I know I can't drown or suffocate, bleed to death, or even die from extreme trauma; like today."

"You've completely healed in less than a half our as well,"

"More or less. I don't really feel pain either, though panicking is probably just as bad. I'll feel weak for a few days afterwards as well,"

"I see . . . nothing else? Not even above average senses?"

I had to think about that for a moment. My eyes had been checked on one or two occasions and at the time the optometrist just reported that they were in working order. I wouldn't really know if I had a superior sense of hearing or smell; no one had ever remarked that I perceived things before they did.

"No." Ren had once complimented my light-footedness. "I suppose I'm more physically able than regular people though,"

"Do you mean that you are stronger than humans?"

"No. I'm definitely not like Ren. I just have way more endurance," I thought to say grace but Ren also brought that to a whole different level.

Restlessly, I pushed the blanket back. It was stained but most of my blood had turned dark and dried up, flaking off. Ayame looked at it curiously as well.

"I've never had blood work done before. It'd be interesting to see what the results would be," not like there was anyone certified that I could trust. "The blood on the road has probably already turned to dust and blown away,"

Ayame tested the chips between two fingers, grinding it into a fine powder. "When did you notice? I can't imagine you could keep it a secret from your parents at a young age,"

"Up until I was fourteen I just pushed all the little signs to the back of my mind." I had never needed a Band-Aid as a kid. All of my cuts and bruises disappeared before anyone could notice them in the first place. I scarcely noticed it was even happening. "I went on a skiing trip at my father's resort a few years ago and had an accident. I've known for sure since then. At the same time I realized I could also hold off
the process,"

Ayame looked up from her teacup. "What do you mean?"

At the time I thought I was dead for sure. My head had been literally split open and there were bits and pieces of what I could only assume was my brain mixed with the snow and blood.

"I can make a conscious decision whether I want to begin healing or not." For a while I had played dead on the road, just to make sure no one came back to check on me right away. "Anything that separates from my body decays extremely quickly as well."

I could probably get away with any crime that way. Finger prints and strands of hair would just disappear.

Ren's POV

I returned later that evening to give Maria a ride back to the apartment. I had almost expected that I would have to trundle her back there but she was already up and about, moving as though nothing had happened.

She wasn't completely unaffected on closer inspection though. Dark circles had appeared under her eyes and her normally true green eyes had become dull disks riddled with hazel cracks. It relieved me.

My emotions seemed to take more turns than I did on the way through the city.

One moment I was just relieved that she was okay and resolved myself to apologize to her for running off in a tantrum. Her being an 'other' like my family and me brought another kind of relief, one that was short lived.

The anger just kept returning, coupled with a sharp embarrassment. I chastised myself for guilelessly trusting her and the twenty-first century standards of courtship. The betrayal was like tacks in my shoes; it stuck in no matter how lightly I stepped.

I believed in the kind of selfless love that meant laying everything bare for the other to see. The only thing that contradicted that was my own secret. I felt her knowing would box her in. It was a burden and I wouldn't put it past the Agano to use it to twist her under their weight.

As my concern mounted my anger melted and I felt like pulling over and hugging her tight. Words were beyond me and a methodical numbness kept me from stomping on the brakes.

I contemplated where to sleep and by the time I made up my mind I was already in the doorway of our apartment. Maria's shoes were off and she was gazing up at me with the kind of eyes that reminded me of mistreated animals and children scolded for something they hadn't thought was wrong.

I backed out of doorway and nodded curtly. "I'll be at Suzumu's," not that you'll need me.

Suzumu wasn't exactly happy to see me. He was planning on staying up all night correcting papers for his students and saw me as some sort of distraction. An unlit cigarette hung from his mouth. It didn't make his mood any better.

I wanted to ask him his advice but instead reassured him I would go straight to bed. I did, though I didn't sleep for a long time.

Over and over again I asked myself how I had managed to live with someone as innocent as Maria without noticing that something was off. Maybe it was because she was so innocent. I just assumed that what I saw was exactly what she was without looking deeper.

I thought it might not have even been that difficult to have asked her about it had I noticed sooner. It seemed now, at three o'clock in the morning, that she really hadn't buried it. She might have been waiting, hoping, all along that I would notice and bring it up. I had been waiting for the same thing.

Through that logic I agreed I was cowardly scum.

The night was long the short amount of sleep that I found did nothing to shorten it. The moment the sun began glaring through the windows I was up and out without even caring to thank Suzumu for his hospitality or even call out a stiff greeting.

I made my way up to mine and Maria's apartment and tested the door, finding it unlocked. Maria probably knew there was no point in trying to lock me out.

Quietly, I got a glass of water in the kitchen and drank it slowly. I pushed off from the counter, wandering from the kitchen to the living room and finally to our room. At first I thought she would have been stubbornly rolled up on the couch.

Instead she lay curled in a ball on her side of the bed. She hadn't crawled under the covers and had barely done more than change her clothes and shower, removing the last traces of being run over.

Lightly, I sat on the edge of the bed, guiding a wild curl away from her face. She looked exhausted and the bags under her eyes had darkened. It was strange, that this was my first time seeing her physically exhausted. She'd pulled all nighters and worked constantly during the time I knew her.

I should have noticed.

After that I got ready for school quickly. I figured I could get out without her being any wiser of my visit. I didn't yet know if our relationship could be reconciled but decided I would at least calm down before I spoke to her next.

I had watched for her during school but she always managed to be turning a corner away from me by the time I looked up from my feet. She was probably just as uncertain as I was and I allowed myself to escape to Toshio's after class ended.

For once Toshio didn't bombard me with questions or even I-told-you-so's. He was content with my vague explanation of Maria's unusualness and didn't berate me for running away. The only dig he got in was the obvious "you're a hypocrite, and an idiot."

I stayed with him on Friday and Saturday before picking myself up to idle somewhere else. The mall seemed like the best place. Malls were one of the things I liked the most about the present era.

It was somehow relaxing to drift from store to store, judging items and prices, watching both the workers and the customers and the various interactions. People watching had become quite a habit of mine some years ago. It was what had brought my eyes on Maria in the first place and then all the times afterwards until she wasn't just another person.

She'd gone from a 'nobody' to a 'somebody' in record time. I was normally quite picky over who I let near me. It didn't help that she had pervaded my thoughts even as the foreign student who no one really knew anything about.

So preoccupied with my thoughts was I that I didn't even notice Shiranui had spotted me, let alone been in the vicinity. I didn't have time to conveniently disappear. Strangely, he had Ookawa Yuuya with him.

"I haven't seen you in ages. How's Maria?"

Shiranui wasn't exactly someone to trust with your personal problems. He was sometimes both idyllic and shockingly romantic and I wasn't about to try his advice. He might have looked and acted like a loose cannon but he was an old badger under all of that.

"She's fine,"

He didn't believe it for one second, not after my thoughtful pause. I had considered plainly saying we weren't seeing each other anymore.

"You don't sound fine," he scoffed. "You guys have a lover's quarrel?"

Yuuya openly looped her arm around Shiranui's, leaning against his side. He didn't pull away but cautiously threw his eyes about the mall. He wouldn't put it past her old man to have someone tail them.

"Shiranui-san," she teased. "Stop bothering Ren-dono. Let's go watch a movie,"

I couldn't be sure if she was just taking advantage of Shiranui or if she actually liked him. She was the kind of spoiled kid that just twisted everyone around her. She did look quite pleased.

It annoyed me that Shiranui was having better luck than I was. He was deserving of it, or maybe he just hadn't been searching hard enough until now.

I stood on the second level of the mall, looking out through the huge glass wall. The temporary open-air flower shop set up in front of the mall was teeming with customers. On the edge of the crowd was a familiar pair.

Maria and her partner gulped water from their canteens, admiring the flowers with pointed fingers and appreciative nods. What did Maria think of humans? Was she afraid to hurt them or did she even distinguish between them and herself?

She and her partner put away their refreshments and kicked off. I turned away, planning on heading back to the apartment for a bit.

A cloud passed over the sun and everything dimmed. Even the hum of people chatting and music mixing from the different stores situated down the mall faded away. It felt like a marble slid down my throat.

The red haired man from the soba-ya stood not even ten feet away, looking down at the same scene. The intentness of his stare sent goose bumps down my spine.

I pivoted on my heel and set off in the opposite direction.

So yeah. Please review x.x I'm trying to get back on track.