(Bleach) Awake and Alive - Chapter 28: Sick Day
"Hurry up Matsumoto!"
"I'm coming! I'm coming!"
Matsumoto made her way to the impatient Mikari by the doorway, and they began to leave Orihime's apartment. Since the boys decided to have a training day, the girls decided to have their own girls hangout at Urahara's. It was only gonna be the two, Rukia, and Yoruichi, since Orihime already had plans to go to the next city for an event with Tatsuki.
The two smiling girls finally made it to Urahara's and entered through the store and made their way back to the living room.
"Onee-chan!" Mikari ran over to Yoruichi and glomped her to the floor with a laugh. She was welcomed with Yoruichi petting her head, messing up her hair in the process.
"Nice to see you too sis! Looks like the special gigai's holding up."
"Yup! Its hidden my ears well."
The sisters shared a laugh before being glomped by both Matsumoto and Rukia, who both felt left out of the moment.
They all then decided to play some games, with some music in the background. The first game they played was twister. It wasn't very fair though with Matsumoto's breast getting in Mikari and Rukia's way, though it didn't matter since Yoruichi won easily with her flexibility. Next they chose to play Dance Revolution instead of Rockband. They had a laugh as they posed to the camera while dancing badly.
After a couple hours of gaming, the girls decided to relax and watch the Harry Potter movies. Mikari also saw this as the chance to begin cooking dinner for everyone. She recently saw a delicious steak on the t.v. and she had to make it.
"Hey Rukia, you wanna help me cook dinner?"
"Sure. Just need to go to the bathroom for a sec."
As Rukia made her way to the bathroom, Mikari headed for the kitchen while Matsumoto and Yoruichi set up the movies. Mikari got the pan and ingredients all set up as she waited for Rukia. She just couldn't wait to cook the steak and eat it.
All of a sudden, she began to couch roughly into her hands. Her legs then lost strength, and she continued to couch while on her knees. Her stomach then began to throb and her head felt heavy. Just as she collapsed to her side, Rukia walked in and gasped.
"Mikari!"
She ran over to her fallen friend and picked her up slightly. Her hand lightly brushed her forehead and she gasped at the hot temperature rising off and looked down at Mikari confused.
"What's going on?"
Yoruichi placed a wet cloth on Mikari, who was lying down in a bed, breathing unevenly and sweating all over her body. The group of girls looked down at her with sad eyes. Standing beside them was also Urahara, who came in at all the commotion.
"Kisuke, what's wrong with her?" Yoruichi lightly wept out. Nothing was wrong with Mikari earlier, she seemed so healthy with no signs of anything. But why was she now acting like she has the flu.
"Well its hard to explain..." Kisuke tried explaining. "From what I got from diagnosing her is that the flu-like symptoms aren't from the gigai, but herself. It seems that her body isn't used to the reiatsu levels of the human world since she's been in the other dimension for too long. And she didn't get sick in the Sereitei since it had almost the same reiatsu levels as the other dimension."
"What do we do then to make her feel better?" Rukia questioned.
"Just take care of her like any other flu...and that means time for my famous loopy soup!" Urahara happily skipped to the kitchen, humming a made up song. The girls looked at him blankly before turning back down to Mikari.
Their saddened faces then slowly brightened when Mikari opened her eyes.
"...m-minna..." She groaned weakly in pain.
"Just relax Mikari. You'll get better soon." Yoruichi reassuringly said to her sister.
"I ruined our girls day out."
"Nooo, nooooo! This is the perfect chance to ask you some stuff. And I've heard that talking to the sick makes them feel better much faster!" Matsumoto happily said, not noticing the looks of the others. 'Where did she hear that from?' They thought.
"Alright. What do you wanna ask about?"
" I actually have a good question?" Matsumoto raised her hand up in the air and Mikari nodded to her. "Have you gotten serious with taicho?"
Mikari's pale face went red and she couldn't mutter a word. Matsumoto smiled big at Mikari's red face, but soon she got a pained face when Rukia punched her head.
"That's a personal question Matsumoto-san!"
"But I wanna knowwww!"
"Like hell I'll tell you anything!" Mikari finally spoke out after her shock.
Yoruichi pushed Matsumoto and Rukia to their butts and leaned into Matsumoto's ear. "Don't worry. We'll get an answer from her one day." She whispered and Matsumoto giggled in agreement.
"Anything else to talk about please?"
"Oh! How did you meet my Onii-san?"
A laugh came form Mikari at Rukia's question. Oh how it brought back memories. "Now that's a better question. You see, I didn't meet Bya-kun till I became a taicho. I was looking for Yoruichi and ur grandpa Ginrei brought me to the Kuchiki compound where I found Yoruichi and saw Byakuya for the first time. And the first thing he calls me after seeing I'm a taicho is a 'werewolf'...and that began our hateful relationship. Every time we saw each other, we yelled nicknames at one another and I stole his stuff to see him annoyed."
This brought a laugh to all the girls and more conversations started, even when urahara came in with his special soup. Another story Mikari told was when she first saw Yoruichi in her cat form as a child. She didn't know that it was her sister and she chased the cat around as her wolf instincts kicked in.
All the conversations and soup made Mikari feel a lot better than before and her temperature slowly dropped. But she still felt light headed and her stomach was still hurting.
As the sun began to set, it was time for the girls to leave. Matsumoto put Mikari on her back to carry her to Orihime's, though Yoruichi argued back but Mikari protested that its fine, though she said that she could walk but was too tired to admit it.
"Make sure she gets her sleep Matsumoto." Yoruichi scolded.
"Hai. It's best if we get home before taicho or he'll keep her up."
"Haha funny."
And so Matsumoto, Mikari, and Rukia left Urahara's shop and began walking through the streets. The two then went their own ways from Rukia and continued on home. Finally the two arrived at orihime's and quietly walked in.
"Good. Looks like nobodies home yet." Matsumoto let out a relieved sigh and tiptoed her way to the bedrooms. Mikari, still on her back, nodded at her statement and closed her sleepy eyes. She still felt really weak from this messed up flu and her energy was completely drained.
"...Mikari...Matsumoto..."
Matsumoto froze on the spot and Mikari shrunk into her back at the voice. Slowly looking to the living room, they saw the one person that they both didn't want to see at the moment.
There with his arms crossed and an unreadable expression was of course Toshiro. Behind him was also Orihime, who came back early too. Then Toshiro gasped when his eyes saw Mikari's pale, white face, and his angry voice boomed in the apartment.
"What the hell did you do to her!"
"Why do you assume that its always my fault first!"
"Hey...would you both please...SHUT UP! I'm sick here!"
Mikari lightly groaned as she laid down under the blankets of her bed. Even though she felt tired, she just couldn't sleep easily this time. Stupid flu.
The door to her room then opened and she looked over to see Toshiro's head pop in.
"Still not asleep yet?" he whispered.
"No. I'm just not tired yet."
He walked completely into the room and took a seat on the edge of her bed. He pushed a bang out of her eye and looked down with soft eyes.
"If you guys didn't tell me why you got sick, then I would of blamed myself."
"Why?"
"You know...with the whole ice thing. And not to long ago I did carry you with my bankai."
"Oh please. It's not your fault and nothing will ever be your fault." She tried glaring at him seriously, but it faded away as he continued to stare at her with soft eyes.
"I love you Toshiro."
"I love you too Mikari." he kissed her forehead and tucked her in. "Now sleep my little okami."
She giggled at his comment, but a yawn finished her giggle. As her eyes closed sleepily, Toshiro left her to sleep with a smile.
