Weather

to withstand, to wear away

There were certain absolute truths in everyone's life you couldn't help but be aware of. For some, those were fundamental facts like the sky is blue or water is wet.

For Shiemi, those truths consisted of "I'm afraid" and "My garden is safe."

From an early age on she had had problems interacting with other people, which eventually drove her away from the world beyond the walls of her home. Strangers were mean, children even more so with their painful honesty and improvident words.

Her garden though was always welcoming and kind to her, nobody could hurt her while she was tending to her plants. No mean words were able to reach her and no stranger could enter.

Lately, though Shiemi entertained the thought of going outside, maybe just to the supermarket, more and more often.

The reason behind that was her coworker, though she'd prefer calling Rin a friend.

And they were friends, the boy had said so himself multiple times already.

In certain moments Shiemi couldn't tell if he did it to reassure her or to make it all a bit more real for himself, but the fact was that now Shiemi had her first friend.

One who spent every Monday till Friday from eight to two with her, cracking jokes while carrying huge pots from one end of the garden to the other and sometimes sharing lunch with her. And all while keeping his distance, be it physically or while speaking. He never stepped too close to her and he didn't ask questions she wouldn't want to answer. He was mindful of the invisible boundaries Shiemi had drawn.

Rin was kind and the stories he told of the places he'd been to never failed to make her wish she could go there too. In moments like these Shiemi even dared to think about searching for Amahara again. A dream she had given up long ago when she realized it would mean leaving all of this behind.

But it was no use, Shiemi would simply have to make the best of every day.

If only the pain in her legs would lessen – even standing had become torture! – then she could really enjoy this day too.

"Shiemi, where should I put the aloe?" Rin asked and so tore her out of her musings.

He was standing near the herb bed, the pot with the still mostly small sancho already in hand, awaiting her instructions.

She looked around, searching for a sunny place that wasn't already occupied by another plant and found one close to her grandmother's shed.

"Please give it to me, Rin-kun. I'll take the sancho to its new home!"

Rin frowned for a second in confusion, just like he always did when she used the names she and her grandmother had invented for the plants, then shrugged and held the pot out for her.

Carefully she rose to her feet, paying especially close attention to not jerking her legs up and making it seem like she was in no pain at all. Just yesterday she had heard her mother muse about whether she should take longer breaks between working so that her legs wouldn't be taxed too much.

But working less wasn't an option for Shiemi.

She loved her garden, the place where she could feel her grandmother's ghost the strongest.

If she couldn't continue making this garden as close to Amahara as she could, it was all over before it had even really begun.

Confidently she took the first step, only to cry out in pain, stumble and fall to the ground again while a thousand needles were pressed into her legs simultaneously.

Tears rolled over her cheeks as the roots keeping her on the ground tightened, legs cramping uncontrollably.

"Shiemi!" Rin shouted, dropping the sancho and running over to her. "Are you alright? Are it your legs again!?"

"They hurt, they hurt so much. Make it stop," she cried.

She didn't want this, had never wanted this to happen.

Shiemi just wanted to go back to how it all was before! When she still could run, she and mother weren't fighting all the time and grandmother was still alive!

"Stop it, please," she repeated.

"I- I'll fix it," Rin stammered, bright blue eyes full with horror. "I promise, I'll fix it!"

Then she lost consciousness and the pain faded away like every other sensory input.

When she woke again, it was to an unfamiliar beeping tone, too loud to ignore. The sound, as well as the smell of disinfectant and sick people, neither pleasant to her nose, only worsened the throbbing of her head.

Her body was numb and her eyes felt heavy. Opening them had never been such a hard task. She squinted, attempting to gain some clarity to the blurry pictures in front of her, wanting to know where she was, even if the bright light hurt.

"She's waking up!" Someone said

But the sight she was rewarded with in the end made the effort worth it.

Her mother was sitting on her right side with puffy red eyes.

"Shiemi!" She called and took her hand. "Shiemi, how do you feel? Are you alright?"

"We'll get a doctor," a man said. She recognized the voice but couldn't place it. Who did it belong to? "Come along, Rin."

"But-"

She saw Rin scurrying past her bed, following the man - Fujimoto-san – before her mother began to speak to her again and Shiemi attempted to answer with a hoarse throat.

Writer's ramblings:

This chapter did not want to be written But oh well, the show must go on and all that. Now, I refuse to believe that long term lowkey possession of a teen girl doesn't end with a trip to the hospital.

McN'Cheese707: I'm sure a duet would be lovely. And actually you can use -kun for girls too! It's kind of a more polite way of address, so I thought it would fit more in that situation!

Menagra: Heyyy, du hast's - glaub ich - als einziger gemerkt. Rin ist wirklich momentan etwas sher mit sich selbst beschäftigt, während Yukio versucht sich in die Situation bzw die Personen um ihn herum hineinzuversetzen!

Aren serathy: My attention span is longer than Rin's, so reading your little "lecture" is something I gladly do! And yes! Changing one small event and seeing how it changes everything makes the best kind of fanfics out there!

Iheartlife888: Uuuh. Sorry. This wasn't fluff. I uhm. Eh. Promise there will be some. In the future. But there won't be death! Yet! I think!

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter too, even if it's honestly not one of my best works. Probably gonna rewrite it when I have figured out what I can do with this situation.