Wow, I've had my first case of writers block! That and MS word won't display word files right. Now it's two days later, I'm over it! It feels so damn weird to suddenly be inspired, lol there I was listening to music and all of a sudden, hallelujah I'm smacked square in the brain by an idea, damn it's good to be smart. MS word STILL won't read word files, but this chapter is now in the form of a rich text document, Me 1, computer 0.
Magus had lost count of how many hours he had spent waiting for Mei to recover, the number of times he had ran the ribbons that held her hair in place through his fingers, the number of times a sudden gasp of breath from the tiny girl sent his hopes up, only to dash them again when she still didn't open her eyes. But it didn't matter how long it took, he would be there when she finally woke up, he wasn't going anywhere.
Alice was woken up as a result of a gentle shaking of her shoulder, she opened her eyes blearily .
"Tatsu?" She asked "When did you get back?" She looked down and realised that her blanket was down to her waist, she grabbed it and dragged it up so it covered her from neck to toe. "And what do you think you're doing looking at me while I'm sleeping!"
"I got back at about two in the morning, and you looked like you were far too warm so I moved your blanket a bit, what's the problem? You have clothes on."
"It doesn't matter if I have clothes on!" Alice blushed "I just don't like people seeing more of me than I want them to, just call it a quirk of mine."
Tatsu raised an eyebrow "If you say so, I just came to wake you up because I'd like you to get lunch ready if that's not a problem."
"Lunch? What's the time?"
"About three in the afternoon, I would have woke you up sooner but Crimson said you were really tired."
Alice shot out of bed, completely disregarding her earlier statement about privacy "Oh my god I forgot, I'm going to be so late!"
"Late for what?" Tatsu asked puzzled.
"My qualifying match! It starts at five!" Alice was digging through a box that was full of her clothes.
Tatsu stood silent trying to work out exactly why it was going to take two hours for Alice to be ready for her fight. After a minute or so of frantic searching Alice pulled out a clean white dress with yellow embroidery. She turned round in the middle of lifting her night shirt and saw Tatsu still standing there.
"What are you still doing here!" She yelled "Get out, shoo."
Tatsu left the room rapidly hearing Alice mutter something about men. He'd only seen just a little higher than her belly button, but it was still one of the loveliest midriffs that he could remember seeing. He blushed a little deeper at the thought. He sat at the dining table and told Crimson the bad news.
"We're going to have to make lunch too, Alice is going to be in a match."
"WHAT!" Crimsons tone was one of deepest shock "I don't even know how to make lunch, you remember what happened with breakfast."
Tatsu remembered all too clearly, In fact breakfast was very close to coming back up to deliver a personal reminder, It was now burned into Tatsu's memory that kidney beans, no matter how similar they looked, were no substitute for baked beans and that "Some stuff I found growing on a tree." Does not equate to mushrooms.
"Maybe we should eat out for lunch?" Tatsu suggested
"That's a great idea!" Crimson was hugely enthusiastic "So? Where's the nearest restaurant?"
"There isn't one anywhere near here."
"WHAT!" Crimson was beginning to feel that this phrase was being used a bit too often in this conversation.
"Closest thing they have is a pretty big bar, I checked it out while I was looking around, it serves all kinds of food and the people there are quite interesting."
"Great" Crimson said with heavy sarcasm "We get to enjoy the company of alcoholics, eat badly cooked food and get cancer from smoke inhalation."
"It's a reputable establishment, they hire fully qualified chefs and there is such thing as a non-smoking area. Why do you do this every time?"
"Do what?"
"Every time I suggest a place to eat you start acting like I had proposed that we go eat out of a dumpster."
"That would be because every time I agree with you on where we are going, something bad happens, there's a big fight, something blows up, we get blamed and spend a week or two in prison waiting for somebody to bail us out."
At this moment Alice came into the room, now properly dressed.
"What are you guys arguing about now?"
"I want to go to the bar for lunch, but Crimson won't agree with me just because it's my idea." Tatsu whined
"No, I won't agree because I don't want to get thrown into a cell for disturbing the peace."
"Just go with him Crimson, it's either that or you sit here and starve."
"I'd rather starve" Crimson stated adamantly, his stomach emitted a loud growl "Damned traitorous vital organs." He muttered sourly
"Nothing bad will happen, I'm sure it will just be a nice meal in a nice place, unless Tatsu offends someone with unwanted staring."
"What?" Crimson was confused
"Oh just ask the lecherous one himself." Alice swept out of the room and into the bathroom.
Tatsu had the good grace to look thoroughly embarrassed "I kinda broke one of her privacy rules."
"Really?" Crimson asked
"Yes, it wasn't my fault though, she was getting changed and forgot I was there for a bit."
"Sooo?" Crimson asked
"What?" Tatsu looked at him suspiciously
"What is she like under those clothes?"
"Crimson!"
"Hey, I'm only messing around, you don't have to take everything so seriously ya know."
"You're right" Tatsu said grudgingly "And under her clothes, she's perfect."
"I can hear you you know!" Alice shouted from the bathroom "And he didn't see much Crimson, so don't go getting ideas in your head you pervert!"
"Hmm, you would have thought that the people who built this place could have made the walls just a little bit thicker." Crimson said, an amused smile on his face."
"What's taking up so much time?" Tatsu asked loudly "Nobody takes two hours to get ready for a fight, you must have enough spare time to make us all some food."
"If you must know, I'm making myself look pretty, I need to look my best for this fight, it's going to be recorded as archive footage."
"You already look pretty" Tatsu said desperately
"Thank you for the compliment" Alice called back "But you're still a pervert, I'm still getting ready for the fight and my looks still come before your stomach, so there."
"This isn't fair." Tatsu said miserably
Crimson's stomach growled again "Fine, we'll go to the stupid bar, but I'm warning you now stomach, if I get food poisoning, its all your fault."
"Crimson?" Tatsu asked
"Yes?"
"Are you talking to your stomach?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact I am, is there something wrong with that?"
"No, not at all." Tatsu sighed
Crimsons stomach rumbled once more "Yeah, what he said." Crimson grinned broadly "Anyways, are we going or not?"
"Of course." Tatsu walked out of the front door with Crimson close behind "Though I'm not too sure that it's fair to inflict you on other people" Tatsu muttered.
There was another shift in the ether of Mei's mind, this time it came from the left of her. She turned her head to look at the new arrival, she couldn't see them clearly so she wiped her tears on her sleeve and had another look, The new person was dressed very darkly and her face couldn't be seen, all Mei could make out was a single lock of silvery white hair and the outline of a slim oval face.
"Are you here to yell at me too?" Mei sniffed.
"No, I'm here to talk to you." The woman's voice was warm and reassuring, despite this, Mei didn't trust her.
"You don't look like me, everyone else I've talked to looked the same as I do." Mei's tone was half statement and half accusation.
"You mean Matherson hasn't visited?" The woman's voice showed mild surprise.
"Oh he was here, but he really wasn't very helpful, he kept talking about rules and things and the only thing he did tell me, I already knew, oh and he mentioned another side, but I don't know what he was talking about." Mei found herself relaxing in this woman's company.
"Ah yes, that's just like him, interfering when he isn't wanted and providing no information when it's needed." The woman paused "I believe you would like to know more about what's going on."
Mei nodded
"Well then, ask me a few questions and I'll see what I can do about answering them."
"Why am I inside my own mind?" Mei asked
"You had to ask the most difficult question first." Somehow the woman smiled with her voice "I'm not certain, but I think it might be because you're different to other people somehow, special I suppose."
"Really? How am I different?"
"Another difficult question, you are different... just because you aren't the same as anyone else."
"I know that" Mei wrinkled her nose "That's what being different is."
"Not exactly." Another voice smile "any other questions?"
"Umm who are you and why are you here?"
"I don't think I will be giving you my real name, at the present moment that wouldn't be wise. You may call me Kali."
"Kali..." Mei frowned "The Indian goddess of darkness?"
"Kali is also the goddess of many other things, but very few people think of her as such, and you'll probably want your other question answering, I'm here because you need to know the truth."
"The truth? The truth about what?"
"About everything" Kali's voice was low and conspiratorial "About why all these bad things are happening, why there is so much evil about."
"So why is there so much bad stuff happening recently?"
"It's because of your leaders, all those people in positions of power. They're playing with forces and energies that they just don't understand, they're doing things that are disturbing the universe itself."
"Really? That's terrible! They can't be allowed to do that!"
"Exactly, that's the other thing I needed to talk to you about. When the time comes, we will need all the right thinking people of pioneer two to help us solve all these problems, we don't need you right now, but some day it might be very important that you are on our side."
"On your side?" Mei echoed "You're the other side that Matherson mentioned! But if Matherson doesn't want you to stop the bad things, that means he is on the bad side, and Matherson doesn't feel like a bad guy would." She mentally added the 'but you do' part.
"Why must everything be divided into good and bad?" Kali asked "It is only people who decide to pigeonhole things as right or wrong. But which side is being honest with you and telling you what you need to know and which side is keeping secrets? Who is telling you the truth?"
"Would this be the real truth, or what you have decided is true?" Mei asked politely "It's only people who decide to pigeonhole things as true or false."
"I can see you're going to be a difficult one to win Mei Lung, just you keep thinking about this, I'll be back to see what path you choose." Kali began to disappear and her voice dropped to a whisper "I think it's about time for you to wake up Mei Lung." She disappeared completely.
"wake up?" Mei said bitterly "I've been trying to do that for ages."
All of a sudden she felt as if she was melting, she looked down at her hands. The edges of her fingers were becoming indistinct and the colour was fading slowly. So this is what it felt like for all those other Mei's? She smiled dreamily as she realised that they weren't disappearing, they were just fusing back into her mind.
Mei's breathing strengthened and her heart rate increased. Magus noticed these signs almost before the computers did. He gripped her hand almost tight enough to crush Mei's delicate fingers.
"Please wake up Mei, I'll do anything you want, just as long as you wake up." He implored her, and then, in Magus' eyes at least, a miracle happened. Mei opened her eyes and smiled at him.
"Good morning Magus." She said, still smiling dreamily.
Magus pulled her up and hugged her tightly to his chest, normally he would have been embarrassed by such closeness, but right now he was so happy that embarrassment was completely forgotten.
"You're alright." He breathed over and over "You're alright."
"Of course I'm alright silly, I just had a bad dream, that's all." Nonetheless Mei was hugging back almost as tightly.
Magus ended the hug and held Mei at arms length, both hands on her shoulders. "What did you dream about this time?" He asked.
Mei was a little surprised, usually Magus simply shrugged off her dreams as unimportant. "I was all alone in the dark, and people kept appearing to talk to me, the man in the dress came back again-"
"The force." Magus gently reminded her.
"The force in the dress." Mei nodded "and there was a woman in a black robe, she was really familiar, like I'd seen her before, and she told me all these things, about sides and how the leaders of pioneer were bad men and things like that, but i really didn't trust her, she didn't seem like a good person."
The woman in a black robe, Magus mused to himself, he'd seen her too, he could still remember the feeling of cold steel as it pressed against his neck, maybe it wasn't the same woman? Maybe there was a cult of revolutionaries aboard pioneer? "Was there anything else in your dream Mei?" He asked.
"There was me, lots of other me's some of them talked to me and some didn't, some were really mean." A frown marred her brow "Magus?"
"Yes?"
"Do you love me?"
Magus was shocked by the suddenness of the question, did he love her? How could he possibly know if he did or didn't? How did you tell if you loved somebody if you have never loved anyone in your whole life? He studied her face, her Ivory skin, her delicately pointed ears, was there some newman blood in her? Her silky soft white hair. It was a little out of place, but the early morning look was still flattering. She was really pretty Magus admitted, but did he love her?
His pager beeped, MEET ME IN ARENA 3 he threw it across the room, this was no time for interruptions. He looked into her eyes, a lovely shade of light blue, as Magus looked he noticed their sparkle, uh oh, he had taken too long to answer.
"You don't love me do you?" Mei burst into tears and fell into Magus who caught her and cradled her slight frame to himself, suddenly he felt really terrible for causing her to cry, as if some part of her hurt was being shared by him.
"I do love you Mei, but I don't know in what way, you're like the little sister I never had, but I don't think of you as family exactly."
Mei sat up and sniffed, wiping away her tears on the white hospital pyjamas. "So you so love me?"
"Of course, nobody could spend time with you and not love you in some way or another." Magus felt this to be true, annoying though she was at times, her childish innocence and carefree affections made it impossible to dislike her.
Suddenly Mei was grinning at him maliciously.
"What?" Magus asked, the grin was making him feel uncomfortable, whatever happened next would not be good.
"You owe me something." Mei's grin turned into a sweet smile, Magus found the smile to be even more disconcerting.
"Why?"
"You said that you would do whatever I wanted you to, If I woke up, and I'm awake."
Uh oh, he had said that hadn't he? "What do you want?" He braced himself.
"I want you and me, to..." Mei paused for a brief moment, even the slight pause tortured Magus as he thought about all the possible things she could demand. "Go on a date!" Mei finished.
"Umm are you sure that's what you want?" Magus tried desperately to find a way out of it, he wasn't all that experienced at the whole dating thing.
"It's not to much is it? Or are you not that grateful that I'm okay?"
Damn, she'd got him there, there was no possible way to back out of this one. His pager beeped again from across the room.
"I'd love to go out with you Mei, but you have to give me some time to decide where we are going okay?"
"Kay"
Phew, he'd won himself some breathing room
"You can tell me where we're going tomorrow"
Magus sighed, defeated. He was constantly being out smarted by Mei and was used to it by now. "Hey, we should go back to our hotel room, we can't stay in the hospital all the time."
Mei looked around as if she had only just noticed where they were "You're right" She smiled cheerfully and slipped out of bed. "Do you think we get to keep the pyjamas? They look really good and me and I like they way they feel against my skin.
Mei did look lovely in her hospital pyjamas, but Magus wished she wouldn't talk about her skin. The embarrassment from the close hugging was catching up with him. Even after two days in a hospital bed Mei still smelled nice. Okay, he really had to stop thinking things like that.
"I'll go ask the doctor while I get our clothes back, and I'll get you a mirror too."
"Why would I need a mirror?"
"Your hair is a little messed up from being in bed and all the hugging." Magus explained.
"Oh my god! Why didn't you tell me my hair was out of place! How could you say you love me when I don't have my make up on! I need a brush!"
"Calm down Mei, it's not the end of the world."
"It's the end of MY world!"
Why had he wanted her to wake up so much? Oh well, as usual Mei had taken all of ten minutes to cheer him up and also make life twice as complicated. He heard a crunching sound as he walked out of the room, damn, he'd trod on his pager. Oh well.
He returned with clothes and a mirror, unfortunately Mei was not allowed to keep the pyjamas, apparently the hospital was losing enough money without giving away clothes. Did they really expect to make a profit offering their services for free?
"Could you buy me some pyjamas pwease Magus?" Mei begged
"No, sorry, you used up your wish asking me for a date."
"Could you just do it as a favour? Because I'm so pretty and you want me to be happy?"
Magus sighed "I'll see what I can do Mei, I was going to anyway, I was only joking with you."
"YAY!" Mei attached herself to Magus with speed that would have startled a striking snake. Magus' pager beeped again. He walked slowly over to it. He couldn't move too fast as Mei was firmly fastened to his left leg. He pick the pager up, it was shattered into a fair number of pieces, the battery was missing and the screen was cracked and hanging by a couple of wires. Still the message flashed across it, MEET ME IN ARENA 3.
-.-.-.-.-
Yeah I know that I took forever to write this chapter, but I was in London for a few days with a couple of nice girls (my sister was there too unfortunately) We went and saw a play, when Harry met sally. I know! Culture! OMG! Anyways, we did that, met some celebrities, Luke Perry, kinda snobbed his way past tori, but Laura got a picture taken with him, and Laura also got Alyson Hannigan's (this one time, at band camp) autograph, probably the happiest day of Laura's life. All in all it was a really cool couple of days. Then I got dragged off to Mery's house with Erith, I definitely prefer spending my time with nice girls than spending it with Mery and Erith. Ah well. Next chapter is already in progress, should be up a lot quicker than this one, till then later days!
Magus had lost count of how many hours he had spent waiting for Mei to recover, the number of times he had ran the ribbons that held her hair in place through his fingers, the number of times a sudden gasp of breath from the tiny girl sent his hopes up, only to dash them again when she still didn't open her eyes. But it didn't matter how long it took, he would be there when she finally woke up, he wasn't going anywhere.
Alice was woken up as a result of a gentle shaking of her shoulder, she opened her eyes blearily .
"Tatsu?" She asked "When did you get back?" She looked down and realised that her blanket was down to her waist, she grabbed it and dragged it up so it covered her from neck to toe. "And what do you think you're doing looking at me while I'm sleeping!"
"I got back at about two in the morning, and you looked like you were far too warm so I moved your blanket a bit, what's the problem? You have clothes on."
"It doesn't matter if I have clothes on!" Alice blushed "I just don't like people seeing more of me than I want them to, just call it a quirk of mine."
Tatsu raised an eyebrow "If you say so, I just came to wake you up because I'd like you to get lunch ready if that's not a problem."
"Lunch? What's the time?"
"About three in the afternoon, I would have woke you up sooner but Crimson said you were really tired."
Alice shot out of bed, completely disregarding her earlier statement about privacy "Oh my god I forgot, I'm going to be so late!"
"Late for what?" Tatsu asked puzzled.
"My qualifying match! It starts at five!" Alice was digging through a box that was full of her clothes.
Tatsu stood silent trying to work out exactly why it was going to take two hours for Alice to be ready for her fight. After a minute or so of frantic searching Alice pulled out a clean white dress with yellow embroidery. She turned round in the middle of lifting her night shirt and saw Tatsu still standing there.
"What are you still doing here!" She yelled "Get out, shoo."
Tatsu left the room rapidly hearing Alice mutter something about men. He'd only seen just a little higher than her belly button, but it was still one of the loveliest midriffs that he could remember seeing. He blushed a little deeper at the thought. He sat at the dining table and told Crimson the bad news.
"We're going to have to make lunch too, Alice is going to be in a match."
"WHAT!" Crimsons tone was one of deepest shock "I don't even know how to make lunch, you remember what happened with breakfast."
Tatsu remembered all too clearly, In fact breakfast was very close to coming back up to deliver a personal reminder, It was now burned into Tatsu's memory that kidney beans, no matter how similar they looked, were no substitute for baked beans and that "Some stuff I found growing on a tree." Does not equate to mushrooms.
"Maybe we should eat out for lunch?" Tatsu suggested
"That's a great idea!" Crimson was hugely enthusiastic "So? Where's the nearest restaurant?"
"There isn't one anywhere near here."
"WHAT!" Crimson was beginning to feel that this phrase was being used a bit too often in this conversation.
"Closest thing they have is a pretty big bar, I checked it out while I was looking around, it serves all kinds of food and the people there are quite interesting."
"Great" Crimson said with heavy sarcasm "We get to enjoy the company of alcoholics, eat badly cooked food and get cancer from smoke inhalation."
"It's a reputable establishment, they hire fully qualified chefs and there is such thing as a non-smoking area. Why do you do this every time?"
"Do what?"
"Every time I suggest a place to eat you start acting like I had proposed that we go eat out of a dumpster."
"That would be because every time I agree with you on where we are going, something bad happens, there's a big fight, something blows up, we get blamed and spend a week or two in prison waiting for somebody to bail us out."
At this moment Alice came into the room, now properly dressed.
"What are you guys arguing about now?"
"I want to go to the bar for lunch, but Crimson won't agree with me just because it's my idea." Tatsu whined
"No, I won't agree because I don't want to get thrown into a cell for disturbing the peace."
"Just go with him Crimson, it's either that or you sit here and starve."
"I'd rather starve" Crimson stated adamantly, his stomach emitted a loud growl "Damned traitorous vital organs." He muttered sourly
"Nothing bad will happen, I'm sure it will just be a nice meal in a nice place, unless Tatsu offends someone with unwanted staring."
"What?" Crimson was confused
"Oh just ask the lecherous one himself." Alice swept out of the room and into the bathroom.
Tatsu had the good grace to look thoroughly embarrassed "I kinda broke one of her privacy rules."
"Really?" Crimson asked
"Yes, it wasn't my fault though, she was getting changed and forgot I was there for a bit."
"Sooo?" Crimson asked
"What?" Tatsu looked at him suspiciously
"What is she like under those clothes?"
"Crimson!"
"Hey, I'm only messing around, you don't have to take everything so seriously ya know."
"You're right" Tatsu said grudgingly "And under her clothes, she's perfect."
"I can hear you you know!" Alice shouted from the bathroom "And he didn't see much Crimson, so don't go getting ideas in your head you pervert!"
"Hmm, you would have thought that the people who built this place could have made the walls just a little bit thicker." Crimson said, an amused smile on his face."
"What's taking up so much time?" Tatsu asked loudly "Nobody takes two hours to get ready for a fight, you must have enough spare time to make us all some food."
"If you must know, I'm making myself look pretty, I need to look my best for this fight, it's going to be recorded as archive footage."
"You already look pretty" Tatsu said desperately
"Thank you for the compliment" Alice called back "But you're still a pervert, I'm still getting ready for the fight and my looks still come before your stomach, so there."
"This isn't fair." Tatsu said miserably
Crimson's stomach growled again "Fine, we'll go to the stupid bar, but I'm warning you now stomach, if I get food poisoning, its all your fault."
"Crimson?" Tatsu asked
"Yes?"
"Are you talking to your stomach?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact I am, is there something wrong with that?"
"No, not at all." Tatsu sighed
Crimsons stomach rumbled once more "Yeah, what he said." Crimson grinned broadly "Anyways, are we going or not?"
"Of course." Tatsu walked out of the front door with Crimson close behind "Though I'm not too sure that it's fair to inflict you on other people" Tatsu muttered.
There was another shift in the ether of Mei's mind, this time it came from the left of her. She turned her head to look at the new arrival, she couldn't see them clearly so she wiped her tears on her sleeve and had another look, The new person was dressed very darkly and her face couldn't be seen, all Mei could make out was a single lock of silvery white hair and the outline of a slim oval face.
"Are you here to yell at me too?" Mei sniffed.
"No, I'm here to talk to you." The woman's voice was warm and reassuring, despite this, Mei didn't trust her.
"You don't look like me, everyone else I've talked to looked the same as I do." Mei's tone was half statement and half accusation.
"You mean Matherson hasn't visited?" The woman's voice showed mild surprise.
"Oh he was here, but he really wasn't very helpful, he kept talking about rules and things and the only thing he did tell me, I already knew, oh and he mentioned another side, but I don't know what he was talking about." Mei found herself relaxing in this woman's company.
"Ah yes, that's just like him, interfering when he isn't wanted and providing no information when it's needed." The woman paused "I believe you would like to know more about what's going on."
Mei nodded
"Well then, ask me a few questions and I'll see what I can do about answering them."
"Why am I inside my own mind?" Mei asked
"You had to ask the most difficult question first." Somehow the woman smiled with her voice "I'm not certain, but I think it might be because you're different to other people somehow, special I suppose."
"Really? How am I different?"
"Another difficult question, you are different... just because you aren't the same as anyone else."
"I know that" Mei wrinkled her nose "That's what being different is."
"Not exactly." Another voice smile "any other questions?"
"Umm who are you and why are you here?"
"I don't think I will be giving you my real name, at the present moment that wouldn't be wise. You may call me Kali."
"Kali..." Mei frowned "The Indian goddess of darkness?"
"Kali is also the goddess of many other things, but very few people think of her as such, and you'll probably want your other question answering, I'm here because you need to know the truth."
"The truth? The truth about what?"
"About everything" Kali's voice was low and conspiratorial "About why all these bad things are happening, why there is so much evil about."
"So why is there so much bad stuff happening recently?"
"It's because of your leaders, all those people in positions of power. They're playing with forces and energies that they just don't understand, they're doing things that are disturbing the universe itself."
"Really? That's terrible! They can't be allowed to do that!"
"Exactly, that's the other thing I needed to talk to you about. When the time comes, we will need all the right thinking people of pioneer two to help us solve all these problems, we don't need you right now, but some day it might be very important that you are on our side."
"On your side?" Mei echoed "You're the other side that Matherson mentioned! But if Matherson doesn't want you to stop the bad things, that means he is on the bad side, and Matherson doesn't feel like a bad guy would." She mentally added the 'but you do' part.
"Why must everything be divided into good and bad?" Kali asked "It is only people who decide to pigeonhole things as right or wrong. But which side is being honest with you and telling you what you need to know and which side is keeping secrets? Who is telling you the truth?"
"Would this be the real truth, or what you have decided is true?" Mei asked politely "It's only people who decide to pigeonhole things as true or false."
"I can see you're going to be a difficult one to win Mei Lung, just you keep thinking about this, I'll be back to see what path you choose." Kali began to disappear and her voice dropped to a whisper "I think it's about time for you to wake up Mei Lung." She disappeared completely.
"wake up?" Mei said bitterly "I've been trying to do that for ages."
All of a sudden she felt as if she was melting, she looked down at her hands. The edges of her fingers were becoming indistinct and the colour was fading slowly. So this is what it felt like for all those other Mei's? She smiled dreamily as she realised that they weren't disappearing, they were just fusing back into her mind.
Mei's breathing strengthened and her heart rate increased. Magus noticed these signs almost before the computers did. He gripped her hand almost tight enough to crush Mei's delicate fingers.
"Please wake up Mei, I'll do anything you want, just as long as you wake up." He implored her, and then, in Magus' eyes at least, a miracle happened. Mei opened her eyes and smiled at him.
"Good morning Magus." She said, still smiling dreamily.
Magus pulled her up and hugged her tightly to his chest, normally he would have been embarrassed by such closeness, but right now he was so happy that embarrassment was completely forgotten.
"You're alright." He breathed over and over "You're alright."
"Of course I'm alright silly, I just had a bad dream, that's all." Nonetheless Mei was hugging back almost as tightly.
Magus ended the hug and held Mei at arms length, both hands on her shoulders. "What did you dream about this time?" He asked.
Mei was a little surprised, usually Magus simply shrugged off her dreams as unimportant. "I was all alone in the dark, and people kept appearing to talk to me, the man in the dress came back again-"
"The force." Magus gently reminded her.
"The force in the dress." Mei nodded "and there was a woman in a black robe, she was really familiar, like I'd seen her before, and she told me all these things, about sides and how the leaders of pioneer were bad men and things like that, but i really didn't trust her, she didn't seem like a good person."
The woman in a black robe, Magus mused to himself, he'd seen her too, he could still remember the feeling of cold steel as it pressed against his neck, maybe it wasn't the same woman? Maybe there was a cult of revolutionaries aboard pioneer? "Was there anything else in your dream Mei?" He asked.
"There was me, lots of other me's some of them talked to me and some didn't, some were really mean." A frown marred her brow "Magus?"
"Yes?"
"Do you love me?"
Magus was shocked by the suddenness of the question, did he love her? How could he possibly know if he did or didn't? How did you tell if you loved somebody if you have never loved anyone in your whole life? He studied her face, her Ivory skin, her delicately pointed ears, was there some newman blood in her? Her silky soft white hair. It was a little out of place, but the early morning look was still flattering. She was really pretty Magus admitted, but did he love her?
His pager beeped, MEET ME IN ARENA 3 he threw it across the room, this was no time for interruptions. He looked into her eyes, a lovely shade of light blue, as Magus looked he noticed their sparkle, uh oh, he had taken too long to answer.
"You don't love me do you?" Mei burst into tears and fell into Magus who caught her and cradled her slight frame to himself, suddenly he felt really terrible for causing her to cry, as if some part of her hurt was being shared by him.
"I do love you Mei, but I don't know in what way, you're like the little sister I never had, but I don't think of you as family exactly."
Mei sat up and sniffed, wiping away her tears on the white hospital pyjamas. "So you so love me?"
"Of course, nobody could spend time with you and not love you in some way or another." Magus felt this to be true, annoying though she was at times, her childish innocence and carefree affections made it impossible to dislike her.
Suddenly Mei was grinning at him maliciously.
"What?" Magus asked, the grin was making him feel uncomfortable, whatever happened next would not be good.
"You owe me something." Mei's grin turned into a sweet smile, Magus found the smile to be even more disconcerting.
"Why?"
"You said that you would do whatever I wanted you to, If I woke up, and I'm awake."
Uh oh, he had said that hadn't he? "What do you want?" He braced himself.
"I want you and me, to..." Mei paused for a brief moment, even the slight pause tortured Magus as he thought about all the possible things she could demand. "Go on a date!" Mei finished.
"Umm are you sure that's what you want?" Magus tried desperately to find a way out of it, he wasn't all that experienced at the whole dating thing.
"It's not to much is it? Or are you not that grateful that I'm okay?"
Damn, she'd got him there, there was no possible way to back out of this one. His pager beeped again from across the room.
"I'd love to go out with you Mei, but you have to give me some time to decide where we are going okay?"
"Kay"
Phew, he'd won himself some breathing room
"You can tell me where we're going tomorrow"
Magus sighed, defeated. He was constantly being out smarted by Mei and was used to it by now. "Hey, we should go back to our hotel room, we can't stay in the hospital all the time."
Mei looked around as if she had only just noticed where they were "You're right" She smiled cheerfully and slipped out of bed. "Do you think we get to keep the pyjamas? They look really good and me and I like they way they feel against my skin.
Mei did look lovely in her hospital pyjamas, but Magus wished she wouldn't talk about her skin. The embarrassment from the close hugging was catching up with him. Even after two days in a hospital bed Mei still smelled nice. Okay, he really had to stop thinking things like that.
"I'll go ask the doctor while I get our clothes back, and I'll get you a mirror too."
"Why would I need a mirror?"
"Your hair is a little messed up from being in bed and all the hugging." Magus explained.
"Oh my god! Why didn't you tell me my hair was out of place! How could you say you love me when I don't have my make up on! I need a brush!"
"Calm down Mei, it's not the end of the world."
"It's the end of MY world!"
Why had he wanted her to wake up so much? Oh well, as usual Mei had taken all of ten minutes to cheer him up and also make life twice as complicated. He heard a crunching sound as he walked out of the room, damn, he'd trod on his pager. Oh well.
He returned with clothes and a mirror, unfortunately Mei was not allowed to keep the pyjamas, apparently the hospital was losing enough money without giving away clothes. Did they really expect to make a profit offering their services for free?
"Could you buy me some pyjamas pwease Magus?" Mei begged
"No, sorry, you used up your wish asking me for a date."
"Could you just do it as a favour? Because I'm so pretty and you want me to be happy?"
Magus sighed "I'll see what I can do Mei, I was going to anyway, I was only joking with you."
"YAY!" Mei attached herself to Magus with speed that would have startled a striking snake. Magus' pager beeped again. He walked slowly over to it. He couldn't move too fast as Mei was firmly fastened to his left leg. He pick the pager up, it was shattered into a fair number of pieces, the battery was missing and the screen was cracked and hanging by a couple of wires. Still the message flashed across it, MEET ME IN ARENA 3.
-.-.-.-.-
Yeah I know that I took forever to write this chapter, but I was in London for a few days with a couple of nice girls (my sister was there too unfortunately) We went and saw a play, when Harry met sally. I know! Culture! OMG! Anyways, we did that, met some celebrities, Luke Perry, kinda snobbed his way past tori, but Laura got a picture taken with him, and Laura also got Alyson Hannigan's (this one time, at band camp) autograph, probably the happiest day of Laura's life. All in all it was a really cool couple of days. Then I got dragged off to Mery's house with Erith, I definitely prefer spending my time with nice girls than spending it with Mery and Erith. Ah well. Next chapter is already in progress, should be up a lot quicker than this one, till then later days!